Jeff Dye, a conservative comedian, posted snapshots on X Monday from his Tesla’s security cameras showing fellow comic Laura Kightlinger writing an insult in the fog on his windshield.
Dye wrote: “Performed on a show with a comic I’ve never met. Her name is Laura Kightlinger @KingKightlinger. She seemed nice enough. We didn’t talk and she left before I went up. I’m assuming she didn’t know it was my Tesla she wrote ‘Douche’ on my Tesla. Strange behavior for a 60-year-old adult. Look forward to working with you again.”
Kightlinger is a writer and comedian known for serving as a consulting producer on “Will & Grace” and for having several half-hour specials on Comedy Central and HBO, and appeared to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election.
Dye is an outspoken conservative who told Fox News Digital in December that he has “always been more conservative than my comedic counterparts. I’ve always been way more religious as far as like, I’m a Christian, so that’s not a huge, popular thing in stand-up comedy.”
Following Dye’s posts online, Kightlinger responded publicly.
“I was so annoyed by his taking down of a comic who had just performed I impulsively wrote douche in the fog on his car. The way you’re crying out about it should be embarrassing to tough-guy misogynists everywhere,” Kightlinger responded.
She also apologized on social media, calling the decision “impulsive” and noting she should’ve brought her concerns to Dye directly.
The messages show Dye arguing the comedian he’d spoken about “can take a joke,” and calling Kightlinger’s actions “childish behavior.”
Dye fired back at the claim he was crying out.
He responded on X: “Im not ‘Crying out’. Im simply holding you accountable for your bulls—. I’m also not a tough guy or a misogynist. I’m simply a fellow comedian that didn’t appreciate being called a name.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital from Dye’s management, the comedian said his car was not vandalized other than the writing in the fog and that his motivation in posting the video online was to hold Kightlinger accountable. He added: “Writing insults on people’s property is a totally expected behavior for fatherless teens but inappropriate for 60 year old women.”
In the viral moment at a comedy show where both performed, the two comedians crossed paths backstage.
Kightlinger took issue with a joke Dye had made about another comic on the bill. The tension led her to scrawl an insult in the moisture on his parked Tesla’s windshield before departing. Dye’s vehicle’s built-in security cameras captured the act, and he discovered it only after noticing the word written in the fog.
The incident sparked a public back-and-forth on social media, with both comedians staking out their positions about civility and professional boundaries in the comedy world.