Patinkin was, for decades in Chicago, one of the deepest thinkers about comedy, especially its relationship with the external world and with human emotions. "As Vietnam progressed, it just got harder and harder to do stuff," Patinkin told the Tribune in 2003, looking back on the early years of Second City. "I remember right after the 1968 Democratic Convention, we did a show called 'A Plague on Both Your Houses.' We were all so angry, there was just no way to make it funny."