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Who really said it

Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed regularly, and for the same reason

Not Robin Williams — an anonymous joke he made famous Anonymous Earliest close match located by Quote Investigator: Dick Nolan’s column, The San Francisco Examiner, 10 November 1966
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Robin Williams spoke a version of this line on screen in Man of the Year (2006), but he did not write it — the film was written and directed by Barry Levinson, and Williams’s character introduces the gag as an old, anonymous phrase. Quote Investigator ↗ traces the diaper form back to a Dick Nolan column in The San Francisco Examiner of 10 November 1966, and finds the joke evolved from an older simile about changing socks; no single originator is documented.

Last verified 7 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed regularly, and for the same reason” Anonymous. Earliest close match located by Quote Investigator: Dick Nolan's column, The San Francisco Examiner, November 10, 1966. Popularized by Robin Williams in Man of the Year (2006), screenplay by Barry Levinson — Williams did not write it. Not Mark Twain. Via Quotle.info.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Robin Williams. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

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In context

Evoking the themes of power, change and doubt. Theme: "Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed regularly, and for the same reason". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed regularly, and for the same reason". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The paper trail

Earliest close match
Dick Nolan’s column, The San Francisco Examiner, 10 November 1966, p. 41, col. 4
Ancestor form
“Office holders, like socks…” — letter, Boston Traveler, 10 September 1952
Popularised in
Man of the Year
Screen credit
Written and directed by Barry Levinson (2006); spoken by Robin Williams as Tom Dobbs

our rulers ought to be changed routinely, like diapers for the same reason Anonymous folk joke

Dick Nolan, The San Francisco Examiner, 10 November 1966 — described by Quote Investigator ↗ as the earliest close match it located. Nolan writes it into his own commentary on political turnover; he credits no one, and QI credits no single originator for the diaper version.

How the joke got here

  • 10 September 1952 — the sock ancestor. A letter in the Boston Traveler runs “Office holders, like socks, should be changed often and for very much the same reason,” per Quote Investigator’s chronology ↗. A politicians-and-socks version follows in The Indianapolis Star in 1958.
  • 10 November 1966 — diapers, in print. Dick Nolan’s San Francisco Examiner column carries the earliest close match QI could locate ↗. The joke then recurs unattached: a Fort Thomas council candidate in October 1987, a bumper sticker reported by The Wall Street Journal in 1991.
  • 1 May 1992 — the campaign-trail version. Tom Blair’s San Diego Union-Tribune column prints congressional candidate John Wallner’s wording, the closest ancestor of today’s phrasing; the Center for Mark Twain Studies ↗ follows it from there into Reader’s Digest and Paul Harvey’s syndicated commentary.
  • 13 October 2006 — the movie. Robin Williams delivers it in Barry Levinson’s Man of the Year, prefacing it as an old anonymous phrase. The Twain credit appears only afterwards, which is why every fact check — Gigafact’s included ↗ — answers “no.”

No rights status can be asserted for this wording, because no author or first publication has been identified: Quote Investigator ↗ traces it as an evolving folk joke and credits no originator. The documented forms that do have owners are all modern and in copyright — the 1966 Nolan column, the 1992 Tom Blair column, and Barry Levinson’s 2006 Man of the Year screenplay — so nothing here supports treating the line as public domain.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Who it gets pinned on

This is a joke with no author and four famous claimants. The two that dominate search results are Robin Williams, who said a version out loud in a movie, and Mark Twain, who was dead for more than half a century before the diaper form is documented in print.

Robin Williams Said it, didn’t write it

Williams delivers the line as Tom Dobbs in Man of the Year (2006), a film written and directed by Barry Levinson ↗ and released on 13 October 2006. The character explicitly frames the gag as “an old phrase, basically anonymous” before telling it — the movie is disclaiming authorship inside the scene that made it famous. The Center for Mark Twain Studies calls Williams “the man most responsible for the popularity the aphorism now enjoys” ↗, which is a claim about spread, not about origin.

Mark Twain No evidence

Quote Investigator states flatly that “There is no substantive evidence that Mark Twain who died in 1910 said or wrote this joke” ↗, and the Center for Mark Twain Studies could find no instance of the line being attributed to Twain until roughly two years after the 2006 film. The Twain label is younger than the movie it came from.

John Wallner (1992 congressional candidate) Repeater, not author

Columnist Tom Blair printed Wallner’s version in the San Diego Union-Tribune on 1 May 1992: “Politicians are like diapers. They both should be changed often. And for the same reason.” It is the closest match to today’s wording, but Quote Investigator ↗ documents the diaper joke in print in 1966, 1987 and 1991, so Wallner was passing along a joke already in circulation.

George Bernard Shaw, Benjamin Franklin, Eça de Queirós Unsupported

Lead Stories notes the same line has been incorrectly attributed to Shaw, Franklin and the Portuguese writer Eça de Queirós ↗ as well — the classic signature of an ownerless joke looking for a name.

No one owns it. The earliest close match located by Quote Investigator ↗ is a Dick Nolan column in The San Francisco Examiner of 10 November 1966, and QI concludes the jest “evolved over time from a humorous simile about changing socks” — crediting no single originator and noting that earlier instances may yet turn up.

Context

How a sock joke became a diaper joke

The gag is older than its punchline. Quote Investigator’s chronology starts with a family of similes about socks: a letter printed in the Boston Traveler on 10 September 1952 ran “Office holders, like socks, should be changed often and for very much the same reason,” and The Indianapolis Star carried a politicians-and-socks version in 1958. Swapping socks for diapers made the unstated reason cruder and funnier, and the joke stopped needing to explain itself.

The diaper form shows up in a Dick Nolan column in The San Francisco Examiner on 10 November 1966, then circulates the way jokes do — a 1987 city-council candidate in Fort Thomas, Kentucky; a 1991 bumper sticker noted in The Wall Street Journal; a 1992 congressional candidate quoted in a San Diego newspaper column. It had been public property for decades before any famous name was attached to it.

The film that made it famous introduces it as “an old phrase, basically anonymous.”

Read the full story

The 1992 instance is the one most often mistaken for the origin. Columnist Tom Blair printed it in the San Diego Union-Tribune on 1 May 1992 as “Politicians are like diapers. They both should be changed often. And for the same reason,” from Libertarian congressional candidate John Wallner — whose repeated use of it during a losing 1992 campaign got it into several major papers, including the Los Angeles Times, which called it “the best line in a losing cause.” Quote Investigator’s earlier citations show Wallner was reusing an existing joke, not minting one.

The Mark Twain credit is the newest layer, not the oldest. The Center for Mark Twain Studies could find no instance of the line being attributed to Twain until roughly two years after Man of the Year opened — which means the “19th-century wisdom” framing arrived after the 21st-century movie.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Power Change Doubt

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Origin: Politicians Are Like Diapersquoteinvestigator.com

The anchor investigation: a dated chronology from the 1930s sock similes to the 1966 Dick Nolan column and the 2006 film, with QI’s conclusion that the Twain ascription is unsupported.
The Apocryphal Twain: “Politicians are like diapers”marktwainstudies.com

Matt Seybold for the Center for Mark Twain Studies traces the modern spread through John Wallner’s 1992 campaign and Man of the Year, and transcribes the line as Williams delivers it.
Fact Check: Quote About Politicians And Diapers Is NOT From Mark Twainleadstories.com

2021 fact check rating the viral Twain version “Misattributed,” and noting the line has also been pinned on George Bernard Shaw, Benjamin Franklin and Eça de Queirós.
Did Mark Twain originate the politicians-and-diapers quote?gigafact.org

A short fact brief answering “no,” built on the Quote Investigator and Mark Twain Studies findings.
Man of the Year (2006 film)en.wikipedia.org

Confirms the film was written and directed by Barry Levinson, released 13 October 2006, with Robin Williams as talk-show host Tom Dobbs.
Robin Williamsen.wikipedia.org

Biography and filmography for the actor the quote is popularly pinned on — born 21 July 1951, died 11 August 2014, Man of the Year among his 2006 releases.

Popularly credited

The man who made it famous — but didn’t write it

Robin Williams

1951–2014 · American actor and stand-up comedian

Robin Williams was born in Chicago on 21 July 1951 and began performing stand-up in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976, starting out at the Holy City Zoo. He became famous for improvisational speed — in Good Morning, Vietnam he was allowed to play the role without a script — which is part of why lines he merely delivered are so often mistaken for lines he invented. The diapers joke is one of those: he said it as Tom Dobbs in Barry Levinson’s Man of the Year (2006), and the Center for Mark Twain Studies calls him “the man most responsible for the popularity the aphorism now enjoys” — a very different claim from authorship. Williams died on 11 August 2014.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented form

Dick Nolan, column, The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA), November 10, 1966, quote page 41, column 4 — cited as the earliest close match in “Quote Origin: Politicians Are Like Diapers. They Should Be Changed Regularly,” Quote Investigator, October 17, 2018 (updated April 9, 2025). Popularized by Barry Levinson’s screenplay for Man of the Year (Universal Pictures, 2006), spoken by Robin Williams.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed regularly, and for the same reason’?” Last verified 7 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/politicians-are-like-diapers-they-need-to-be-changed/

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