‘bro what?’: Theo Von’s viral Trump interview brings comedian’s Polish aristocratic background back to light
Stand-up comedian Theo Von interviewed former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, and the conversation produced several breakout moments. In it, Von told Trump about how cocaine turns you into “a damn owl, homie,” and said he knew the economy was good under Trump because his cousin bought a boat.
But two days later, Von, a popular Southern comedian who got his start on MTV's Road Rules, is going viral again as people discover his alleged ties … to the Polish aristocracy.
“want to point out that Theo Von is not a southerner. he is the child of a long bloodline of Polish monarchists who paid PR firms to scrub almost all public records about his father, who was not a poor welder, but a stockbroker. his name is Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III,” posted @somewheresy on X.
A look at @somewheresy’s profile shows that he's a semi-ironic shitposter, so not all of that checks out. The Daily Dot couldn’t immediately confirm Von paid any PR firms to scrub his father out of public records or find any proof of his dad’s previous employment.
But information about his past is limited online.
Von’s Wikipedia page does indeed list his name as Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III—and so does an article in the Atlantic’s May 2024 issue. The page also lists Roland von Kurnatowski Sr. as his father. An obituary from Find a Grave for a Roland Theodor Achilles von Kurnatowski Sr. mentions a Roland von Kurnatowski as a son. In turn, Roland von Kurnatowski’s obituary mentions a Theodor von Kurnatowski as a half-brother, but not as a son.
A Community Note on the tweet dragging him says that Von “has acknowledged his heritage and shared that his dad was exiled from a wealthy family that wanted nothing to do with Theo, his mom, or his siblings.”
According to Von’s stand-up and podcast appearances, Von’s dad was 70 when he was born, and he never spent much time with him.
The Atlantic piece also explores the appeal of Von’s podcast This Past Weekend but doesn’t dig into his background too much.
Von talked about his rough childhood in Covington, Louisiana, including how he was legally emancipated at the age of 14, on a 2015 episode of stand-up comedian Bert Kreischer’s podcast BERTCAST.
But @somewheresy wasn’t the only poster to make the connection.
“Comedian @TheoVon’s real name is Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III and he is from a Polish aristocratic family,” @QuantumDom posted, linking to a photo of Von’s Wikipedia page and highlighting an entry about the Kurnatowski family.
According to that page, the family has been highly active in Polish politics since the 16th Century.
Other people noted the ties, too.
“theo von is polish aristocracy bro what the hell,” wrote one.
“Today we learned that Theo Von’s real name is Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III (yes really) and he is from a Polish aristocratic family. What?” added one account.
Von didn’t immediately respond to questions about his family’s heritage. In response to the viral posts though, he got a hearty defense from far-right comedian Owen Benjamin.
“I know Theo von and I’ll tell ya exactly what I know about him … Nothing was handed to him. He ran an open mic above a bar. He hustled he worked hard and he always did well,” Benjamin said. He added that though he and Von had a falling out, he no longer held it against him. “I can fully bear witness that Theo earned it and wasn’t given shit for a bloodline. He def has demons but this claim about him sounds like bullshit.”
But others were mystified by another aspect.
“for some reason the fact that theo von is 44 is much more shocking to me than the fact that he is a polish prince,” wrote one poster.
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