Cultural sociologists have devoted considerable attention to the conditions that make intellectual interventions effective: how ideas resonate and produce social change. By contrast, the dynamics of failed performances remain under theorized. In particular, scholars have rarely considered what happens when intellectuals lose the support of their usual audiences and gain approval from groups that had previously dismissed or opposed them. This article examines one such case: Giorgio Agamben’s interventions during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on his theories of the state of exception and biopolitics, Agamben sharply criticized Italy’s pandemic measures—lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccine requirements—as an unprecedented threat to civil liberties under the guise of medical authority. After situating these interventions within his broader intellectual trajectory, the article analyzes the backlash from sympathetic audiences and the support he received from unexpected quarters, particularly right-wing nationalists. This audience shift is interpreted in relation to the strength of the repudiation by traditional readers, the complexity of Agamben’s theory, and contextual factors such as the presence of a center-left government during the crisis.