“People in their twenties, their brains have been turned to mush from what they’ve been taught in college. They’re afraid to laugh, they know they’re not supposed to. So the trick is getting them to laugh despite themselves, because they know deep down you’re telling the truth.”
So how would he assess the effect of his politics on his career? DiPaolo can’t help but laugh again. “Look, the industry is made up of hard-core leftists. The idiots who run this business, if you make fun of Obama, not only don’t they think it’s funny; they think there’s something deeply wrong with you. They’re offended. I’ve never had a special on HBO, which is ridiculous. The last time I was on HBO was in ’92 or ’93—before I had anything political to say. Years later, Chris Rock hired me to write on a special he was doing over there because I could write his voice—it’s actually easy to write the voice of someone you disagree with politically—but the HBO executives were totally hostile to me.”
