Cody Dahler Says Politics Gives Him a “Silver Platter” of Comedy Material

Political comedian and podcaster Cody Dahler says the steady stream of political news often provides more material than he could invent himself. In an interview, he pointed to remarks by Robert Jenrick about Nigel Farage as one example of the kind of story that makes his work feel as though it arrives on a silver platter each morning. Dahler said comedy was not his first childhood plan. His mother was a professional dancer and encouraged him to perform, but he jokes that a lack of rhythm pushed him toward comedy instead. For a school talent show, she wrote him a poem about a frequently soggy cat. At six, he took the laughter as proof that he had found his calling. His “thicky thicky dumb dumb” videos took off after Donald Trump captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, Dahler recalled. Before that moment, he said, he would cover several stories in each clip. The Maduro story became the focus, and Dahler joked that his online career seemed to rise alongside the image of the blindfolded president aboard a US military helicopter. Dahler’s new book aims to make political issues easier to understand without making readers feel talked down to, he said. It draws in part on questions from his followers. While researching it, he was struck by how inaccessible many books on British politics seemed, with titles and subjects that could make the field feel closed off to ordinary readers. The comedian argues that political language is often made unnecessarily complicated, discouraging people from taking part and sometimes shielding politicians from scrutiny. His goal, he said, is to explain big issues plainly. With more than two million followers online, Dahler has built an audience for that approach through his videos and podcast, The Truth (In My Opinion).