Andrew Schulz Should Only Make Jokes About Being an Italian-American Pervert

There has never been an Andrew Schulz-related headline that’s particularly funny. Normally the podcast host, actor and comedian is making news for the sort of reactionary comedy (or commentary) that often feels like it’s masking a lack of cleverness by being incendiary. He’s a comedian whose audience is generally described as “bros.” He tried to pick a fight with Kendrick Lamar. He kind of sucks.  

But on Tires, from creators and writers Steve Gerben, Shane Gillis and John McKeever, Schulz does manage to find a stride: as an Italian-American used cars salesman named Andy Andiamo. He appears in nine episodes across the first two seasons’ 18 episodes, usually alongside Tommy Pope, portraying Tommy, his fellow used cars salesman at Andiamo Auto Sales. In this role, Schulz isn’t tasked with discussing current events or offering up analysis on internet discourse. He’s just a pervy, overly-animated dude who loves talking about women. 

Like just about anything concerning Schulz, his portrayal of Andy Andiamo has garnered criticism. The show heavily deploys a slur against Italian-Americans in the fourth episode of Season One, in regards to Schulz and Pope’s characters. On the blog Hardcore Italians (written, in all sincerity, by the author “Stop Anti-Italianism”) this point is lamented, especially in the context of Schulz not actually being Italian. “Perhaps the most obvious stereotype they play into is the one that dictates that Italians are obnoxiously loud,” the post states. 

And it’s true — Schulz is projecting and gesticulating quite a bit, while speaking in a distinctly Italian-American accent. The rather stereotypical portrayal fits in on a show filled with toe-the-line and sometimes over-the-line rips on HR violations, bringing a gun to work, sexism and human trafficking. The show is rife with jokes like Gillis saying, “I can’t think of any jobs women should have… but slut women jobs.” Then a few seconds later, he turns and accuses another character of being sexist. 

Andy is in a lane where Schulz brushes right up against that incendiary line and lands the delivery. Plus, Schulz’s caricature isn’t of Italian Americans in general, it’s a very specific type of gross dude. I’d argue it’s clearly a version of one gross dude in particular: Andrew Cuomo. Schulz’s Andy is bringing other characters celebration cakes for getting laid, insisting there’s “nothing gay” about hooking up with a girl and your best buddy and showing ass pics of his cousin to his friends.

On his podcast, Schulz took a very critical aim at Cuomo’s excuse that he’s “just Italian” in response to allegations that he sexually harassed 13 women while he was the Governor of New York. “I’d be curious to see if someone treated his daughter like that,” Schulz said about Cuomo all the way back in 2021, in reference to the allegations. “Oh, you’re Italian, it’s okay! No big deal!”

If Schulz is fated to piss people off with his comedy, self-proclaimed Italian-American pervert Andrew Cuomo is at least fun to laugh at.