In 1933, he earned the Pulitzer Prize for drama for the Broadway production Of Thee I Sing, a musical written in collaboration with composer George Gershwin.

"[5] Ryskind also rewrote the stage version of Room Service (1938), reworking the plot to make the film suitable for the Marx Brothers.

He became a friend to writers Max Eastman,[9] Ayn Rand,[10] John Dos Passos,[11] Suzanne La Follette[12] and Raymond Moley.

[14] In 1947, he appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee as a "friendly witness" at hearings that resulted in the blacklisting of the "Hollywood Ten," including Ring Lardner Jr. and Dalton Trumbo.

Ryskind briefly joined the John Birch Society but soon disassociated himself from the group after it began to claim that Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower were part of the Soviet conspiracy.