You ever hear a joke and you go, "How is that a joke?" and you think, "Well, that's not a joke" and then you try to riff about it? And you don't even get it? You're not riffing. You're just saying something wrong and people don't get it. You don't have to be funny. You can be funny when you're trying to be smart. And you can be smart when you know you're not funny. And that's the problem with jokes. They don't riff. They just say something wrong. And sometimes you know no one's going to get your joke, but you just say it anyway. And it's not funny because it's stupid. It's stupid because you're just trying to do something right and it's dumb and you're doing it wrong. You know, like at the hardware store, where a kid asks for a coloring book and you say, "Why don't you get this one?" and the kid says, "Uh, why not?" And you're like, "Oh, I don't know, this one's only two bucks and I'm not going to buy it." And you say "Why not?" and he's like, well, what are you doing it anyway? And the answer is, "It's a joke." and you don t riff? or something else? And he doesn't get the joke? And then you say it? and the joke is not funny, and you do it again? And you re not funny? or you re just not funny or not funny and it s funny? And it s not funny enough? You don t have a problem with that? ? you re funny, right? You re not getting the joke you need to riff, you re too much money? you just don t get it yet? Or are you just aren t funny enough to riff to riff? Or do you have to riff in a taxi or you just keep riffing to get a joke? What s your problem with my problem with the jokes you re trying to riff or do you get my jokes? Do you have a big problem with them? I ll tell me what s funny or don t you re you not funny to riffing? (I ll give me a compliment or not getting it? I ll give you a little bit of your jokes, I ll let you a compliment?
Transcript
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00:00:00.000You ever hear a joke and you go, how is that a joke?
00:00:06.000I mean, there's a lot of variances of this.
00:00:07.000Sometimes someone will have an insult and you go, that's not an insult, that is actually what I believe and that is what I said or that is what I'd like to do.
00:01:05.000You know, when I say white guy, I mean this wasn't some illegal who didn't get the culture.
00:01:09.000And he goes, hey, why don't you get this one?
00:01:14.000And I look at the coloring book she has, and it's just, it says Americana or something, and it's stars and stripes, whatever, you know, nothing special, just Susan B. Anthony.
00:01:24.000It's patriotic, old-timey, themed pictures that you color, right?
00:01:30.000And then he's laughing, and he's grabbing a Norman Rockwell coloring book.
00:02:20.000Like, today I was in that awkward time of day where you don't want to have a lunch and ruin your dinner with the kids, because I think it's very important to have dinner with your family.
00:02:52.000And uh, he's got lottery tickets and someone just filled out their lottery tickets and people are looking and they're reading like, what's the lottery this, this day?
00:03:00.000And I just, I said to the guy, uh, people in there, fucking lottery tickets, huh?
00:03:37.000I won't be paying my stupid tax today!
00:03:41.000And as I say that I look over and there's a nice middle-aged black man in a suit with a trench coat over top and that's relevant because it it shows he's like trying you know what I mean this isn't some dumb miscreant this is like a family man who has a job and is working hard as an American and he's on a little sort of a countertop and he must have seven
00:04:07.000In front of him, sort of scratching them.
00:04:09.000And we sort of met eyes right after I yelled, stupid tax.
00:04:13.000And I sort of went, not you, you're going to win!
00:06:24.000Are we stranded on a desert elevator and he somehow took off in a raft and now we have to fend for ourselves without our coconuts fire expert?
00:06:38.000But those are two comedians in their peak, that story, having fun messing with strangers.
00:06:44.000I'm alone in the burbs most of the time, and in the city.
00:06:48.000You know, going to and from work is where one would get up to some filling in the void with some riffs.
00:06:54.000And I'm realizing that maybe five, I think
00:06:59.000I think 30% of the country appreciates comedy, enjoys funny stuff.
00:10:13.000It's really confusing, and then you realize, oh, I think it's people who don't riff trying to riff.
00:10:19.000And the riff is going too long, and they're bluffing.
00:10:23.000Like, say you were an eight-year-old, and you had a leather jacket on, and your hair is slicked back, and you're talking to a hot chick, and you had no idea what you're saying, and you go, babe, I like what I see.
00:10:33.000And she goes, oh, good, let's make out.
00:10:35.000And you went, uh-oh, I have no idea what I'm doing here.
00:10:39.000I've actually written down some of these in my phone because it's happened quite a bit.
00:10:59.000They're explaining like, OK, so what we're going to be doing next week is we're going to be coming up with donations for the nuns and we're going to be doing this.
00:11:07.000And then one guy goes, all right, are you going to send this to us in an email or something?
00:11:19.000Sorry, I'm reading my own notes here, and the problem with writing notes to yourself over the course of several weeks is they make no sense.
00:11:25.000This guy said, I hope you send us an email, because what you say now is going to one end and out the other.
00:11:29.000And then the other guy goes, Ha ha ha ha ha, yes!
00:13:39.000I like my haircuts to be 15-20 minutes at the most.
00:13:43.000You go to a black barber shop, they're waiting for hours.
00:13:47.000And then the haircut, which you just had three days ago, especially Dominicans up in Washington Heights, the haircut will be like an hour and a half.
00:13:55.000And it's just like cutting hair that was already cut three days ago.
00:13:59.000The amount of haircuts that go on in Washington Heights, that should be a documentary.
00:14:06.000And you sound racist when you talk about it because most people haven't been up there and they don't know what they're doing, but I know a dude who's gonna open a barbershop up there and the competition is insane.
00:14:14.000Anyway, sorry, long time to get to this.
00:14:42.000He walked into the bar, and the guy I'm with, who's an old dude, probably like 65, he says, uh-oh, everyone's silent now, when the guy walked in.
00:14:52.000And then the guy goes, why, because I'm a dad?
00:15:30.000That day, when I'm about to tell you about this weird quote, this weird non-joke, that guy sits in the barber chair next to me.
00:15:36.000Now, I'm racist, in the sense that all white people in the suburbs look the same to me, so I'll meet the same mom, same woman, like 30 times, and have no idea who she is.
00:15:46.000I instantly forget what they look like.
00:15:47.000They all have, like I'm used to, sorry, this is gonna sound terrible, but I'm used to hipsterdom, where one guy has an eye patch and the other wears a purple top hat, and this is called
00:15:56.000Beardless Eddie, and this guy wears epaulettes.
00:15:58.000He's a 19th century, uh, what do you call him?
00:16:51.000So now that I've left Sesame Street, I don't recognize people.
00:16:55.000So he sits down next to me, and I don't notice that it's him, and he doesn't say anything.
00:17:00.000Like he could have just said, hey, dude from the bar last night.
00:17:04.000So now, and then after the first two minutes of silence, you can't go, you can't say, wait a minute, are you?
00:17:10.000In fact, I didn't realize until I think he got up, so I'd have to sort of get up with my barber, like, blanket on, and go over and go, wait a minute, are you the guy that was at that thing last, and that's, now that's gay.
00:19:28.000I mean in your notes when you're talking about riffing because when someone comes back at them, especially I was an alcoholic up until Lent, which is today.
00:19:37.000By the way, I'm pre-taping these podcasts because I'm taking a week off.
00:23:45.000This table should be made of asbestos.
00:23:48.000And he said, uh, oh, I'm playing Grand Theft Auto, and I'm at that part where you jump off the building on the helicopter, and I go, please tell me you're kidding.
00:24:32.000So I'm stuck here, in the world, wondering how to riff, and I'm pretty good at it, I have to toot my own horn, because I come from Quebec, where if you want to riff, you don't know if the person is French or English.
00:24:47.000So, you know that thing where you go to the right, and they go to the right, and you go to the left, and they go to the left?
00:25:02.000And then I had to think of that in French, and my French has faded since then, but it was something like, which they wouldn't get, because that's a Pointer Sisters song, I think from Beverly Hills Cop II.
00:25:17.000And you'd have to get right in the right epoch for a French person to understand, because they're not really into English culture.
00:25:23.000So I come from a province where all your riffs have to be done twice, and one of them has to be in a different language.
00:25:31.000But you come to a city with foreigners, and doctors, and dentists, and people who don't understand humor, and you go, I don't know how to riff.
00:25:44.000Which is weird because New Yorkers are so funny.
00:25:47.000Like there's areas, you go to say the Bronx, the north part of the Bronx where all the cops, retired cops live, they're all funny and mean.
00:28:33.000How is this coloring book different than the coloring book that she did grab?
00:28:37.000And he'll probably just he'll probably just be unable to explain it to you because it's unexplained.
00:28:41.000It's inexplicable But it would be nice to hear their explanations The next podcast I'm gonna do is about being a black man for a day I was black for a day, and I'm gonna tell you all about it