Interview · moment 3 of 18
What Happened to Comedy Being Anti-Establishment
from No More Life In A Cage · #101
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minGuest
Tim and Ray riff on how comedy used to tear down everyone regardless of side, contrasting Carlin, Kinison, and Pryor with modern comics who shill for factions, and speculating that classic comedians would have opposed Trump-era policies.
- 7:00Tim argues comedy shouldn't be exclusively a vehicle for progressive opinions.
- 7:37He doesn't believe comedy is actually a force for change, but acknowledges the difficulty of ignoring real atrocities like children in cages.
- 8:26Comedy, like all art, should reflect the society you live in—comparing silence to ignoring fascism in 1939 Germany.
- 9:00Tim questions what position Hollywood elites should take, mocking the idea that Brad Pitt should advocate for border enforcement instead.
- 9:27Artists advocating for lower capital gains taxes or tariffs on steel isn't the recipe for great art or prose.
- 10:03He riffs on the absurdity of celebrities making race-based economic claims, mentioning Bruno Mars doing a Dodge commercial.
- 10:28Bob Dylan doing a car commercial angered old people who wish they'd died before seeing it.
- 10:52When Tim was growing up, comedy was where you'd hear someone call bullshit on everybody—the state, the church, without being on anyone's side.
- 11:22Comedy has become safe and neutered to everyone, but Carlin, Hicks, and Pryor would have screamed against Trump's wall.
- 11:38A hundred percent agreement that those comics would be the first guys railing against the wall.