It's pretty clear looking at how he doesn't appear on any popular podcast list, comedy or otherwise, his 5,000 or so youtube views per video, and the fact that no one outside Kiwifarms/the IBS community/The TDS community even knows who he is that there are only like 20,000-30,000 or so regular listeners. I don't think the whole thing is a money laundering scheme, but based on the calls he gets and the people he has on, he clearly just has a dedicated base of 5,-6,000 fans that are literally autistic and retarded who are willing to drop $5 a month on the show and get the ability to participate in Dick's community. To Dick's credit the most brilliant thing he does is treating those people like part of his posse in the Discord and inviting them to shows to party with him and just generally making them feel cool/defending them as intelligent online, appealing to their vanity so they keep funneling government disability and welfare money into his pocket. I think he also bases the Dick persona on what a young, semi-autistic virgin would perceive as cool. It's like a prostitute that gets paid to give someone the girlfriend experience as opposed to sex, but he's giving them the cool friend experience.