Politics & Power Quote by Tracey Ullman

There is a sly power move in Ullman admitting she is "usually put off" when performers get political: it frames the speaker as the reasonable skeptic, the audience surrogate who hates being lectured. Coming from a comedian whose career has often orbited political impersonation and satire, the line reads less like abstinence and more like quality control. She is not rejecting politics; she is rejecting the kind of politics that collapses art into a sermon.

The intent is defensive and strategic. In a culture where celebrities are expected to have opinions on demand, Ullman draws a boundary around craft. Comedy works by smuggling critique inside pleasure; the laugh is the delivery system. When a performer "gets political" in the most literal way - declarative, moralizing, applause-seeking - the trick is exposed. The audience can feel the gears. "Put off" is a polite phrase for a harsher accusation: you're using the stage to launder virtue or to shortcut the hard work of persuasion.

The subtext also protects a certain kind of audience relationship. Ullman positions herself as someone who respects the crowd's autonomy, who won't hold them hostage for a TED Talk between songs. That posture is politically savvy in itself, because it acknowledges the polarization economy: once you declare, you sort the room.

Context matters: Ullman rose with sketch and character work that skewered power by ventriloquism, not manifestos. Her sentence is a reminder that in performance, politics lands best when it arrives wearing a disguise - sharp enough to sting, human enough to feel like entertainment rather than instruction.