“A lot of these people feel like they’re losing out, and what Trump performs on an everyday basis is winning,” said John Murphy, an associate professor of communication at the University of Illinois. “The insults, I think, are part of winning: ‘I can say these awful things and somehow get away with it.’ ”

What Donald Trump does on Twitter, on cable news and at his rallies is not roast humor, but it serves a similar purpose: bringing the audience over to his side by taunting everyone else.

Lisa Lampanelli, the Queen of Mean herself, has roasted Mr. Trump twice, and appeared on Season 5 of “Celebrity Apprentice.” Now, she likes to say that he stole his comments about Mexican immigrants from her own act. Ms. Lampanelli said he was a “good sport” during his 2011 Comedy Central roast, but may not have fully processed the jokes being made at his expense.

“ I have the impression he didn’t even hear half the jokes we said about him. He just knew he should laugh,” she said. “If his name was on it, he was happy. It was kind of a Charlie Brown teacher all the time, like, ‘Womp, womp, womp, womp, Donald Trump.’ And then he would laugh.”

Mr. Trump’s sense of humor is about as sharp as a soup spoon. But for his fans, that’s part of the appeal.

“I think people confuse being blunt and forceful as the truth,” Mr. Kondabolu said. “People assume that if someone says something with confidence and makes you laugh and is saying something that might be in your head, that it’s the truth.”

The same politically incorrect style that has earned Mr. Trump a cadre of loyal fans has also alienated much of the nonwhite male population. A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 94 percent of African-Americans dislike the presumptive Republican nominee, along with 89 percent of Hispanics and 77 percent of women of all races.