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Matt Walsh talks making 'Veep' in the Trump era

Matt Walsh returns as Mike McLintock in "Veep" Season 6.

"Veep," HBO's award-winning comedy about the U.S. government and the general hijinks that occur between beige walls and glossy black escalades, returned for its sixth season this spring. Matt Walsh, who plays press secretary Mike McLintock, spoke to the IDS about how the current political climate has influenced the show's writing.

“I think when the election happened, we took an extra week for the writers to figure out how it was going to change,” Walsh said. Some of the jokes that they'd originally planned had to be changed, he said, since the current political climate is "so insane right now" that it made the original gags seem tame.

The recent election and swirling political scene has pushed younger Americans to get involved and make their voices heard. Walsh said he thinks "Veep" serves a comedic purpose, as well as an informative one that affects younger generations.

“I think it influences how you perceive how politics operates,” he said. “I think comedy can be effective in humanizing what we hold sacred, so hopefully it reminds people it’s just human beings trying to push ideas through a flawed system."

While the show's characters seem to sometimes take cues from their real life political counterparts, "Veep" doesn’t usually take headlines straight from the news. The show is filmed months before it airs, and it operates in a partially fictional world. 

“I think ['Veep'] speaks to the greater truths about politicians and human beings,” Walsh said. “Hopefully our jokes apply to the last couple hundred years. We’ve created this world where the last real President we reference is Reagan, so it operates in this fiction— which I think gives us a lot more latitude to comment on the greater truths of what’s happening.”

'Veep' has gradually gotten more crass and quippy as the seasons have progressed, but it has retained its impeccable use of quick lines and perpetual jabs between characters.

“The show has always lived and died by its insults and the way we treat each other,” Walsh said. “There are real eloquent insults which Armando put in the DNA of the show.”

Armando Iannucci, creator and showrunner of 'Veep' until season five, incorporated fast and crude dialogue, which acts as a sort of unofficial political jargon. Walsh said Iannucci observed D.C. politicians while he was touring the city for the pilot episode, and drew inspiration from their off-camera language for the on-screen characters.

“Everyone he talked to— everybody had these filthy, foul mouths, especially the people who were powerful,” Walsh said about Iannucci. “I think that’s one of the things he wanted to satirize, or make sure was realistic.”

Walsh, who cofounded the famous improv comedy group the Upright Citizens Brigade in the '90s, said that comedy is an ongoing process that you have to keep up with— but it’s ultimately rewarding.

“I guess I love the power of making people laugh,” he said. “It’s very rewarding to be on stage and write something that could get this huge response from people. I also feel like it’s a great way to tell the truth about stuff, which I love, and personally it’s just a lot of fun. Comedy is so much more fun than drama.”

Walsh revealed that 'Veep' will be coming back for a seventh season, but he’s not sure exactly where the plot will go, considering the showrunners have demonstrated that they have no problem shaking things up.

“What I love about our show is that they’re willing to rip up the premise. They made her president on a show called 'Veep.'"

In that case, anything is possible. Viewers will just have to wait and see what the future of politics has in store.

'Veep' airs Sundays at 10:30 on HBO. 

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