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Inflammatory

Nick Di Paolo

Prime Video · 2017 · 64 min

An aggressive, anti-PC stand-up set filmed on Long Island.

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Nick Di Paolo paces the stage like an angry uncle at a Thanksgiving table, shouting through a set designed to raise the blood pressure of anyone who owns a tote bag. He spent decades honing an aggressive, confrontational style on shows like Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, and here he leans directly into the cultural backlash of the late 2010s. The core of his act is a relentless assault on modern sensitivity, targeting trigger warnings, safe spaces, and the general softening of American culture with the blunt force of a New England construction worker.

Filmed at the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead, New York, the hour initially premiered on the short-lived streaming platform Seeso in February 2017 before finding wider distribution through Comedy Dynamics. Di Paolo was firmly established as an anti-political-correctness contrarian by this point in his career, hosting a daily podcast and targeting what he saw as the emasculation of the modern male. His routines mock gender-neutral commercials, contrast the discipline of Black mothers with white mothers, and find a dark absurdity in public panics over disease outbreaks like Zika and Ebola.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Living room workouts, P90X, and Shaun T's Insanity

    Di Paolo jokes about turning 54 and having his knees and hips destroyed by home workouts, following modifier Catherine instead of keeping up with elite fitness instructors.

  2. Insomnia cures and late-night TV infomercials

    Di Paolo complains about emasculating insomnia remedies like warm milk and chamomile tea, sharing his late-night habits of memorizing Cindy Crawford infomercials and buying porcelain dolls off QVC.

  3. Transgender bathrooms and gender neutrality

    Critiques gender-neutral advertisements and transgender bathrooms in an increasingly humorless culture.

  4. Domestic violence and Ray Rice

    Tackles domestic abuse and the NFL with unapologetic, dark humor likened to a Bill Belichick press conference.

  5. Black parenting

    Skewers racial dynamics and Black mothers without sentimentality.

  6. The Kardashians

    Ridicules the celebrity family and contemporary pop-culture fixtures.

How it plays

Tone
Irreverent, politically incorrect, caustic, and off-color.
On stage
Brutally honest, unapologetic, cynical, self-described asshole who skewers sacred cows.
Pace
Aggressive, sharp, and biting comedic delivery.
About
Political correctness and safe spaces, Aging, fitness, and health, Insomnia and effeminate sleep remedies, Gender neutrality and transgender bathrooms, Race and Black parenting, Domestic violence and the NFL

What the critics said

Praised by platform distributors and promotional material as a necessary, hilariously uncompromising critique of safe spaces, political correctness, and a humorless society.

In the room: Receptive, enthusiastic Long Island theater audience.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: themoviedb.org, tv.apple.com, nickdip.com, comedydynamics.com, podscripts.co, auteurgraph.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.

Backstory

Filmed amidst heightened cultural polarization surrounding political correctness, safe spaces, and gender issues; Di Paolo also incorporates personal experiences with aging at 54 and severe insomnia.

Details

Released
Runtime
64 min
Where
Prime Video
Director
Samuel Brownfield
Topics
Before
Another Senseless Killing (2015)
After
A Breath of Fresh Air (2019)

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