rant · moment 4 of 18
Assimilation, Being Italian, and the Origin of the ADL
from "Bros" | The Tim Dillon Show #318 (ft. Greg Stone) · #318
3 min
Tim reflects on being seen as a 'pet homosexual' for having straight friends, compares the performative culture of gay identity to Italian-American cartoonishness, and claims (dubiously) that the Anti-Defamation League was founded by the mob to discredit accusations of organized crime.
- Tim on people criticizing him for assimilating and asking what else he was supposed to do.
- Early in his New York City career, he had only one or two jokes about being gay, not ten of them.
- Modern comics get applause just for saying they're queer on stage, which strikes him as weird without deeper material.
- He knows a Pakistani lesbian who is fascinated by hats and sneakers, not defined by her identity or background.
- Being Italian meant something specific in Tim's career—he made a deliberate choice to change his stage name from Greg Corluzzo.
- If he kept doing Italian material, he would have been trapped as the Italian comedian from New Jersey doing weddings and VFWs.
- Early on he was doing Jersey gigs, weddings, and VFWs where audiences loved the Italian references and Tupperware jokes.
- He buried Greg Corluzzo when he started performing in Long Island to escape being the Italian guy.