Comedian Tim Dillon on living in LA, Hollywood's latest failures, and what the Dems need to do to compete
Comedian and actor Tim Dillon recently shared why he chose to stay in Los Angeles, his thoughts on Hollywood's recent misfires and how Democrats could become more competitive, during a sit-down interview with Fox News Digital.
After a brief stint in Austin, Texas — a rising hub for stand-up comedy sparked in part by Joe Rogan's new club, "Comedy Mothership" — Dillon decided to return to L.A.
Although he thinks the politics of L.A. are "terrible" and expressed a preference for Texans over Californians, the comedian asserted that there is "no comparison" between the two cities in terms of beauty.
"L.A. has a lot of problems, but L.A. is a massive world-class city like New York. Austin is a small college town. There's no comparison. Austin's a growing city, but it doesn't have the infrastructure. It's an ugly place, it's kind of brown, and the lake is green, and it's warm and gross, and you know, my job is to be honest about things," Dillon said.
While California and L.A. are often the butt of political jokes by conservatives, the comedian made an interesting observation: "California is the most beautiful state in the country. If it wasn't, we wouldn't care that it's being ruined by psychopaths, you know?"
As fires tore through entire sections of L.A. in January, Dillon took to his podcast, "The Tim Dillon Show," to tell the world what he thought of California Gov. Gavin Newsom's handling of the disaster.
"Entire swathes of the city are gone. There was no water in the f------ hydrants. Nobody cleared any of this brush, they didn't do any controlled burns, they didn't prepare any of these areas," Dillon said, adding that "you go to bed thinking someone's in charge. No one's in charge. No one's in charge. That's the thing."
Despite his frustrations, Dillon explained during his interview with Fox News Digital that he chooses to remain in California and advocate for change rather than leave.
"I don't live in places because of the politics, per se. I'd rather live in California and argue with people and tell them they're wrong and try to save it, you know? I think they need to elect Rick Caruso," the comedian suggested.
Rick Caruso, who unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in 2022 as a Democrat, was an outspoken critic of Gov. Newsom after the Palisades fires last year.
When asked if there was anything that would make him leave L.A. for good, Dillon replied, "No, I mean, I have homes in New York and L.A. I'm rich, so I can live wherever I want. And, you know, I tend to just go. I'm not as rich as I should be, watch the f------ special."
Dillon, whose new comedy special, "Tim Dillon: I'm Your Mother," debuted on Netflix on April 15, is also an actor and provided some insight into two of Hollywood's biggest flops over the last year.
The comedian played a prison guard in the ill-fated sequel "Joker: Folie à Deux," and said on his podcast that he saw the failure coming during production.
"We would sit there, me and these other guys were all dressed in these security outfits because we're working at the Arkham Asylum, and I would turn to one of them and we'd hear this crap and I'd go, 'What the f--- is this?' And they'd go, 'This is going to bomb, man.' I go, 'This is the worst thing I've ever seen,'" Dillon explained on his podcast.
Dillon told Fox News Digital that unlike some movies over the last year that bombed due to politics, "Joker: Folie à Deux" was a failure in "concept and execution."
"I think it's just an old-school failure. It's a swing and a miss," the comedian said.
On the other hand, Disney's live-action remake of "Snow White" failed, according to Dillon, due to a mix of politics and poor creative decisions.
"I think that Snow White seemed to be a mix [politics and execution] because I think a lot of the decisions made were, like not having dwarfs in the movie called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And you have a very outspoken young actress who, if you want to sell a product to a large number of people, you probably have to curtail some of the opinions of the people in it," Dillon explained.
Rachel Zegler, the "outspoken" actress who played Snow White, was making headlines for all the wrong reasons leading up to the premiere of the film.
Shortly after President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Zegler took to social media to bash Trump and his supporters.
"May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace," the actress wrote on social media, causing a firestorm of outrage from conservatives.
Turning to politics, Dillon offered advice to the Democratic Party on how they can become more competitive after their significant loss in 2024.
"I think that the party, the Democratic Party, to be a competitive party again, has to moderate some of the positions they have on social issues and get more radical economically. I think that's probably their winning position… removing a lot of the corporate big-money players from their roster," Dillon claimed.
The comedian argued that Democrats should elevate candidates who promote "populist economic policy" and have more centrist views on divisive social issues.
"The hot button issues, like you know, biological men in women's sports, is a hot button issue. The public rendered a verdict. They didn't want it. Children transitioning, they don't want it. Moderate positions on those issues and adopt more of a populist economic message and I think they'll be very competitive again if they can do that," Dillon concluded.
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