Comedian Ryan Long joins Megyn Kelly to discuss his new podcast, The Boys Cast with Ryan Long, and how he got his start in comedy. He also talks about his time as a rock singer in a band and how it all led him to become a stand-up comedian.
00:10:54.580We got to have these little quick retorts in our back pockets.
00:10:57.740I think one of the reasons why maybe my things, you know, kind of are a vessel that, you know,
00:11:05.960people find it funny is because I try pretty hard to not really have like venom in my comedy.
00:11:13.060So it's almost, I try to, you know, go through ideas pretty aggressively in my head.
00:11:18.340And by the time I try to get to stage, I try to not be angry about it.
00:11:21.920And I think there's, you know, even when you watch on the internet, a lot of people are making jokes about targets that they're really mad at.
00:11:29.540And I think that's, you know, to some people, there's some virtue in that, you know, funneling that anger into art or whatever.
00:11:35.820But I try to do the opposite where I'm, you're almost confident in the points that you're making fun of what would, you know, essentially be a friend, you know, the way that you would with a friend.
00:11:50.120And I think that's when, you know, roasts and stuff like that are at their best.
00:11:53.740That's interesting to talk about the anger because, I mean, that's what I see when I watch Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel.
00:11:59.080And it's why Jimmy Fallon was failing during the Trump years because he's not an angry guy.
00:12:03.720You know, he he may or may not like Trump.
00:12:05.500I don't know. He decided to pretend at least that he didn't like him once he once he got hammered for having a friendly interview with the guy.
00:12:52.080So you always need to sort of go back to first principles of, you know, what am I trying to do?
00:12:56.500If you set out to, you know, help this side or make these points, then I think you're going to get caught up in in losing honesty and truth.
00:13:05.120And I think a lot of people did that in the last four years.
00:13:37.340In a way that, you know, in fact, if if you continue with this tone, even if you're right, you'll be very hard to hear.
00:13:45.720Sure. And it came in the context of all these SNLers complaining that Elon Musk was guest hosting and he wound up having, I think it was the third highest rated appearance that they've had this season.
00:14:01.240That is only behind Chappelle, who was speaking about it and Chris Rock.
00:14:04.340So, you know, comedy, too, is getting woke.
00:14:06.980And Chappelle, at least, is saying that's a mistake.
00:14:09.020Yeah, I think it's it's such a complicated thing.
00:14:12.780And comedy is, you know, a super complicated nuanced art form.
00:14:18.220But at the end of the day, it's it's it's not that everyone's actually got so much more woke, although that's a product of it.
00:14:24.600It's that they're trying to control identities.
00:14:26.480I mean, this has happened in every, you know, subculture.
00:14:30.100And and right now, that's the dominant, you know, worldview that you're supposed to have.
00:14:34.820Right. You know, we look at this and it's like SNL has gone woke.
00:14:37.400It's like, well, maybe or really, the answer is like SNL is like a big corporate machine that has like the mainstream opinion that and no one cares about.
00:14:46.780So Elon Musk is a perfect example of what I was saying.
00:14:50.120You know, I think at the beginning of this episode where I'm talking about there's such a disconnect from what people, you know, want you to think and what people actually think.
00:14:58.540I mean, there's this idea that if you look on Twitter, that Elon Musk is this evil guy and everyone hates him.
00:15:15.240So it's it's almost like the idea, the reverence for these institutions that they're because they're chipping away at their credibility.
00:15:23.140You know, they're these legacy places and they think they can just kind of do whatever they want.
00:15:27.160And unfortunately, they're playing a hard game to, you know, watch when SNL puts out a sketch that's anything other than mainstream opinion.
00:15:33.920They just get yelled at nonstop the same way we do.
00:15:36.520And, you know, for them, they have all these sponsors and they're set up in a way that they they can't be the new thing.
00:15:42.720Comedy originally, you know, was sort of set up that you if you're the jester and you're this low status thing like, you know, pirates or comedians are pirates.
00:15:50.520And essentially, it's scum lowest of society.
00:15:53.340And then as but as these places got bigger, you end up with a situation where they all went to Harvard.
00:15:59.140And then there's a farm system where if you do this, then you can get to SNL.
00:16:03.120And then you're essentially like part of the bureaucracy.
00:16:04.840You know, you're you're meeting with the king.
00:16:06.980And so these places got so important that no one wants to lose these jobs.
00:16:12.500But in doing that, you lose your ability to say anything.
00:16:15.560It's like, well, no, now that you're essentially a politician, you can't just say whatever you want.
00:16:56.420And so, like, of course, that the reason people fell in love with her is because she was mocking him.
00:17:02.320If you had another comedian doing that to Biden, there is zero question about whether CBS and Netflix would be running to you, offering you a show.
00:17:10.580I never have a problem with someone that, you know, was able to build this big audience and and then they get stuff.
00:17:15.980I mean, whether you like it or not, I personally think comedy is best when you're not on any team.
00:17:20.780And that's, you know, you kind of keep the narrative from getting out of control.
00:17:25.380I think that you're when you're telling the truth, society is always going to go out of control.
00:17:29.260So I think comedy at its best, if you look at at least what I think are the best comedians in the world right now, especially the younger ones, most of them aren't out there with a politician's name in their bio and stuff like that.
00:17:42.880Essentially, you know, working for a campaign.
00:17:45.460But when you take a show like Roseanne, Roseanne wasn't political.
00:18:14.120The working class has is now a Republican voting bloc.
00:18:18.600And you would think just out of capitalism, these, you know, the people who control the airwaves would would do something for them, but they don't.
00:18:49.240He's a comedian and a social commentator.
00:18:52.780Can't even get a show on the air every other day because he's constantly offending YouTube.
00:18:56.860You get people banned from Twitter constantly and they're always rightly.
00:18:59.980It's just the frustration I understand from the conservative ecosphere is they try to create their own lanes and they're doing it.
00:19:07.200But corporate America, digital America, Silicon Valley, all the people who control the ways you get to people right now are still controlled by people with one ideology who do not want voices from the other.
00:19:19.660Even if it's not a Republican, then even if it's an anti woke thing like you are to have larger platforms.
00:19:25.180I can only really speak to comedy and there is a thriving comedy industry and a lot of people are filling out lots of seats.
00:19:33.660And so I know what you're saying and I do agree with you and it sucks.
00:19:37.840I guess I'm just always kind of going back to the idea of, you know, what can I do?
00:19:43.500And I think that I, you know, I talked to so many people that, you know, for whatever reason are disenfranchised by a lot of this stuff.
00:19:50.100And it's imagine someone that, you know, that they feel like they're the wrong identity.
00:19:55.420That's the in vogue thing at the moment at some workplace or some government job.
00:20:00.480I mean, when I was doing stuff at CBC, which is the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, I was part of, you know, traditional media and I had probably the biggest views out of any show.
00:20:09.340And my digital series, the two or three other ones would be turned into television shows and mine wouldn't.
00:20:16.260And I was in a million conversations, you know, in closed doors and on conference calls where it was like, listen, like they're not doing a show with a white male.
00:20:25.000Like that's just what the situation is.
00:20:26.560Um, if you want to, you know, potentially we could be partnering with someone that isn't white or whatever it is.
00:20:32.020Right. Like the amount of these conversations I have and I go, yeah.
00:20:35.060Okay. So option one is I can, you know, stay there and complain.
00:20:39.080Option two is I sort of moved to America and tried to build my own thing.
00:20:45.400And, you know, Tim Allen's getting his show kicked off the air because for no reason when it was a hit.
00:20:50.060And I've seen this time and time again.
00:20:51.400And, and I guess to me, it's sort of the same thing that I was talking about with music where it's like, I look at some of these things and the same way, you know, everyone's how many people were considered themselves a liberal.
00:21:03.040And then now the world goes, actually, you're conservative now.
00:21:06.480And these people are always fighting for the word liberal, where I guess I'm just like, you know, who cares about these words?
00:21:11.740Coming up after the break, we're going to get into the attack that Sarah Silverman decided to launch on Caitlyn Jenner, calling Caitlyn Jenner a transphobe.
00:21:43.120It was number one show on, on its network, A&E.
00:21:46.720It was beating every show in cable news, every single one, but that had to go away for no reason other than cops were being maligned in the news.
00:22:35.100It's, it's whole system has been racist for a very long time.
00:22:37.560And like, but they're the ones who are constantly lecturing the rest of us on how we're all racist.
00:22:41.920Because you can imagine that if you were one of these companies that poured all your money into diversity, and then you made all your movies with that.
00:22:50.100And then Golden Globes is like, yeah, we're not going to pick those movies.
00:22:55.920You put your entire investment on that.
00:22:58.740I watch these shows where I'm like, I'll watch a show, like even if it'll just be some random cop show and you go, there'll be like 10 people and like eight of the characters are gay.
00:23:06.520And you're like, yeah, that's probably the percentage that it represents reality.
00:23:10.140But I mean, to me, it's, to me, it's funny.
00:26:43.300You know, they try to I haven't I haven't seen these heard these videos in a while.
00:26:46.860But yeah, they they they've been doing this forever.
00:26:50.020And it's like, you know, that's why the Caitlyn Jenner and people like that kind of that stuff all makes me laugh so much because you just watch.
00:26:56.400It just puts them through the spin cycle when they, you know, one of their pets don't agree with them.
00:28:43.060She's a moron and is in no position to call Caitlyn Jenner a transphobe.
00:28:47.340Why don't you walk a mile in her shoes?
00:28:49.220What she doesn't like about Caitlyn Jenner is that she's a Republican and she has no business referring to her as a transphobe without considering that.
00:28:57.120But not only is she a trans woman, she's an Olympic gold medal winning athlete.
00:29:02.760She knows a thing or two about sports, not to mention the biological advantages a male athlete might have over, quote, a cis girl, a cis woman, meaning you're you've always been a woman.
00:29:13.000You're born and identified a woman at birth and remain so.
00:29:25.840I was doing a joke, though, where I was saying that everyone said that Trump's a Nazi and I didn't I was when I moved here from Canada, your presence and Nazi and then I didn't believe him.
00:29:34.260But then he started locking up every Jew.
00:30:08.380If if someone's, you know, a thinker, generally a lot of people, you're going to have at least one or two things that kind of goes against, you know, here's my list of things.
00:30:19.680So whenever someone has every single thing you think is like right in vogue opinion at the time, I go at the very least from a statistical probability, you go a little suspicious.
00:30:30.440And I think you've noticed that and I don't necessarily have a side on this one, but there is I thought it was just an interesting case study with, you know, this Israel, Palestine stuff that's going on because there's a lot of celebrities that, you know, kind of are pretty vocal, have been pretty vocally in support of Israel or whatever.
00:30:50.440And then in this, that is, you know, Palestine is the kind of the proper one to support or, you know, if you don't want your career to get taken or whatever.
00:31:02.720These people that, you know, have every every opinion on a tweet, every opinion on this, you know, the one time that they kind of don't have the correct opinion, you know, even though it's a pretty huge thing.
00:31:12.480And a lot of these people, it was, you know, they're one of their cardinal points of their, you know, identity and structure.
00:31:18.240They won't talk about that because they know it kind of is going to go against their their people.
00:31:23.600So I like I like people that that, you know, have their own opinions and they don't necessarily align in lockstep with every opinion they're supposed to have.
00:31:33.980And you're 100 percent right about that.
00:31:36.540And you're right, that that's the sort of the, quote, right opinion to have is to support Palestine.
00:31:41.640And I mean, there was a big fight a couple of years ago at the Democratic National Convention about what the whole platform of the party was going to say, whether it should whether it should say that.
00:31:51.300And people are been they've been very silent on it and things are going from bad to worse over there.
00:32:30.220And yet a lot of a lot of the people who were lecturing us about COVID restrictions and obeying them now say nothing when the science has changed.
00:33:52.900They go, no, you know, eventually at some point after, you know, being told things you saw were lies and then told that, you know, getting in trouble for anyone that's asking questions.
00:34:03.420That people start getting into some wacky theories because they, you know, they can't trust, they don't know who to listen to.
00:34:11.720I mean, if you look, it's so impossible to find, you know, the truth about anything through news.
00:34:17.540So you just have to kind of pay attention to anything and try to do your best to like put together what you think the truth might look like because it's so impossible with everyone's, you know, agenda.
00:34:26.520Up next, we're going to get into covid and the lionization of Dr. Fauci, how wrong this woman running the CDC has been and remains this.
00:35:34.820She has no business running the CDC because she continues to make hysterical statements and show how weak she is when it comes to controlling her emotions, which is not the person we want in this position.
00:35:47.420She got cross-examined by senators yesterday, including, you know, moderate senators like Susan Collins of Maine, who's never considered right enough for most of the Republican Party.
00:35:56.800So it's not like she's some hard right winger.
00:35:58.480But she's coming after her saying, look, some of your guidance at the CDC is nuts.
00:36:04.240We do not need to have double masks all summer for children when they go to camp and everybody knows it.
00:39:42.700It was like, listen, if you want to be the safest person in the world, then yeah, move to Portland.
00:39:46.000And I'm sure it's very aggressively safe.
00:39:48.320And if you don't want to, move to Miami.
00:39:50.240And I guess people have been speaking because so many people have left California, so many people have left San Francisco, so many people have left New York.
00:41:37.500And the South Carolina governor, too, just issued an executive order saying parents, parents should decide whether their kids should wear masks in school.
00:41:43.840He's prohibited mask mandates in their state, banning vaccine passports.
00:42:25.280I did appreciate you calling out the BS on like the protests and that how the virus, the skip or something like the coronavirus doesn't spread in gatherings that I support.
00:42:34.880You know, everyone kind of noticed that it was it was so obvious.
00:42:38.120Like, yes, but they don't say it as effectively as you do.
00:42:45.100Some of you might be wondering why last month I was writing articles about how leaving your house is basically bludgeoning the elderly.
00:42:51.160And this month I'm writing articles about the importance of large social gatherings.
00:42:54.700And after a ton of research, scientists have discovered that the X factor in determining whether a gathering is dangerous is whether or not I, Mark Diamond, personally support it.
00:43:03.500There's something about the dynamics of the coronavirus mixed with my personal political beliefs that made it important to snitch on your friends for gathering last week and important to snitch on them for not supporting gatherings this week.
00:44:37.440There was a story just this week about the D.C. mayor, Muriel Bowser, the same woman who was doing exactly what you said, shaming everybody to stay inside.
00:44:45.860And then she went to the Joe Biden inauguration and to parties.
00:44:49.360No, it was like to parties and celebrating out on the street.
00:44:52.240And she was like, well, I'm just advancing the the interests of the District of Columbia.
00:45:08.280And John Luthgow, it's like she said, this is the this is the guidance now, right?
00:45:12.120And if you live in Washington, D.C., from your mayor, guests at weddings and other one time events, any one time event must remain seated and socially distanced from one another or from other household groups.
00:45:25.140And I quote, standing and dancing receptions are not allowed.
00:45:35.340That's another one of those things like the Elon Musk thing where everyone that I know that's just, you know, normal, that doesn't care that much about politics is, yeah, these lockdowns are outrageous.
00:45:47.880And then but that's, you know, there's I think that's the thing a lot of times that I'm kind of making fun of is the idea of taking sort of things that just everyone kind of thinks.
00:45:59.520And but it's like the cardinal sin to like say it.
00:46:02.740What do you make of the media these days here in America?
00:46:06.120Like the how things have changed in the post Trump era?
00:46:10.440I think that a lot of people are sort of trying to figure out what it looks, what their what their identity looks like now that the cardinal part of it is, you know, has been removed.
00:46:21.500So I think there's a lot of people struggling for what what it is.
00:46:25.320And I do think that a little bit on both sides, you know, I do see, you know, you see people that are still posting how great Trump is.
00:46:32.980And you're like, I mean, that how long can you do that for?
00:46:35.280How can how long could that be your identity?
00:46:36.680And then you see people that hated Trump and they're still, you know, still still writing articles.
00:46:41.680I did a video, but I thought it was so funny when people the you know, the blogs and stuff like that were posting articles like they Joe Biden got rid of Trump's Diet Coke button.
00:46:51.960And you're like, this is what you guys are up to now, right?
00:46:55.900Yeah, that was their, you know, golden goose or whatever is.
00:46:59.360So I think a lot of people are trying to figure out like, all right, well, what do I look like now?
00:47:03.200How do you aggressively? So how do you venomously support a politician is kind of what I was saying.
00:47:50.320You know, there was a while I even watched with Canadian politicians where all they had to do is go up and be like, you know, stay in your house.
00:47:56.240And everyone's like, this guy is the man, you know, he knows what he's talking about.
00:47:59.660And then and then once that all sort of faded away, they're kind of like, you know, what am I?
00:48:05.900So I think that, you know, a lot of people are figuring out what they what they look like as a, you know, after this war that they were such a cardinal part of.
00:48:15.760That's such a good point. I never do the parallel between the media post Trump and these Democratic leaders are really just pro lockdown leaders.
00:48:22.800I mean, Trump was president when the big lockdown was put put in how how they're seeing themselves and how their reputations have changed.
00:48:29.560I mean, Fauci's probably was the man eight months ago.
00:48:32.560You know, I remember the thing people like, oh, Cuomo sexuals.
00:48:35.520People loved him. People go, oh, this guy's a man.
00:48:37.980And and then now he's now if you hate him.
00:48:41.380Oh, yeah. Now people are marching against him.
00:48:43.460One hundred percent. I know people like that.
00:48:45.700But wait, I want to give the audience a taste of what you did on the blogger Trump withdrawal because you've nailed it again.
00:49:04.600I can still feel his Twitter, even though it's not there.
00:49:06.480I tried getting my fix writing about Ted Cruz or how Jeff Bezos has too much money and he's done jack shit for me.
00:49:11.760There was that moment where we were trying to get him impeached even though he wasn't the president anymore and just felt like old times again.
00:49:16.920And I thought traffic might be up again.
00:49:18.360Then my article about someone doodling at the impeachment completely bombed.
00:49:21.520My friends are getting laid off by the dozens.
00:49:23.320How quickly they forget about my service and the resistance.
00:50:29.160This is just a day last week, Thursday, but it's representative average daytime rating about seven hundred thousand in the overall seven hundred thousand like, you know, households watching one hundred and eighty thousand in the key demo of twenty five to fifty four year olds, which is the only thing that matters.
00:50:45.700That's all that matters for advertising and cable.
00:51:44.680You know, I think that that's one of the things that was originally a lot of people started to notice when, you know, every these people that kind of, you know, comb through the Internet and spend their days trying to like take down people or whatever.
00:51:57.900You know, and that's the problem with, you know, groupthink and stuff like that is, you know, when you start seeing other people as not people.
00:52:20.080I guess I guess the difference is I think that I understand why people, you know, become part of these things.
00:52:27.000So when I see someone that spent their whole life trying to be an actor in Hollywood and they spent 15 years trying to get to Hollywood and then they get to a movie and then they go, this is what you think when you're in this movie.
00:52:36.840And then they come out and kind of say that stuff like I do understand why they're doing that.
00:52:42.760And I guess I know a lot of these people.
00:52:45.260So I don't it's like I don't see them as like this guy's the worst and they're the devil.
00:52:50.040I understand the like social pressures and how strong it is.
00:52:53.960And, you know, I deal with this and everyone does.
00:52:56.800And I'm, you know, someone that spent their whole life getting kicked out of schools and everything.
00:53:01.620You know, I've been a naturally troubled that troublesome person and whatever.
00:53:06.200I don't know, whatever you want to call it, like always kind of gone, gone against what I see as mainstream thought in a lot of ways.
00:53:13.780And then you see some like normal guy or normal person just works at some place and you're like, hey, why don't you stand up to all this stuff?
00:53:23.360So I guess I, I empath, I empathize with anyone who's, you know, in some version of a like a group think cult.
00:53:30.720And well, honestly, that's why I think you've become such an important social commentator, because you are so good at it.
00:53:37.500And I can see, you know, it's not done.
00:53:39.200It isn't done with venom, but it's done with amazing insights and humor.
00:53:43.140I mean, the, the one, the, the, the clip, we already played this without you when you, when it came out, because we all loved it so much.
00:53:50.660We played it with another guest was you, you doing the modern therapist, trying to explain to all these young people why really nothing was their fault.
00:54:06.820And I actually applaud you for recognizing that.
00:54:09.440A lot of therapists will tell you how to get your life together and what you could do differently, but they rarely ever focus on what the world could do differently.
00:55:38.660And there's also a cultural thing in America.
00:55:40.640But yeah, that to me is, I think, a lot of what I've been even talking about lately on stage and stuff like that.
00:55:46.740But there was a while where it was a bunch of people that were depressed giving you advice on how to be more depressed.
00:55:55.220And it was like, you know, there's so many people right now that they're, you know, I'm making the world a better place.
00:56:04.300And it's like, I guess this is, I'm not the, you know, the, I wouldn't credit myself for any of these ideas.
00:56:10.780They've been said by probably smarter people than me lots of other times.
00:56:15.320But, you know, you see it in your friends.
00:56:17.320You see your friends that have, you know, they have it all figured out.
00:56:19.760And you're like, what you're doing is not working at all.
00:56:23.100And you're telling other people how to live their life.
00:56:25.560So I think that anytime you kind of get into these ideologies that are their sole purpose, you know, at least their effect is that it's, you know, ruining your life.
00:56:39.280And I, and to go back to the other side, you know, I guess I see it where, you know, people get in these fights and it just rattles their brains so much.
00:56:48.680And I think that one of the things that, you know, maybe even you've been giving me pushback about, but there is a part of me that's like, you know, if, if all of this stuff takes away your ability to have fun, then you've already lost.
00:56:59.860So, you know, if you spend your entire life in this thing where you've been robbed of your ability to, you know, have fun and enjoy yourself to some extent, you've already lost, even if you win.
00:57:31.920Dedicating your entire life to something you hate, I think.
00:57:33.980Like, yeah, they, they, there's a comedy has a ton of people that, you know, their entire thing is dedicated to, you know, being a stenographer for what's happening and getting mad at it.
00:57:48.840I mean, I can't think of a worse fate, right?
00:57:50.980Choosing to spend your whole day immersed in what you consider a toxic stew and just taking it in night and day, waking up in the morning, being like, now what?
00:58:28.100I mean, it's kind of funny the way that I moved here.
00:58:31.460Cause I moved here, like, you know, not that many months before the pandemic and I left everything in Canada and I go, okay, I'm going to move to America.
00:58:39.560And then I took like a sublet and I go, okay, once I'll get a place and then figure out which comedy clubs I'm going to do.
00:58:45.200Kind of figure out where I'm going to live, get a place.
00:58:46.880And that's right when I moved into my place is when the, uh, the pandemic happened.
00:58:51.400And I was planning on next week going back to Canada to get, I have a car sitting in Canada and I had, uh, um, all my stuffs in a storage locker.
00:59:27.140And then the other thing was, if you go back, you have to, so there's this, I don't know the exact way it kind of changes and there's no way to find out you.
00:59:35.300These, these sites are almost intentionally vague, but basically you're supposed to quarantine for two weeks.
00:59:41.220So you have to quarantine for two weeks.
00:59:43.420And then there's, uh, under some circumstances, you, it's the same as Australia where you essentially have to go to a hotel and then you pay for it and you stay at this hotel.
00:59:50.780So right now my life is so busy and I'm touring like crazy and I'm doing all these videos and we're making a movie and it's, you know, I barely have a day, you know, I could probably make a three, you know, four day pack to, you know, whatever, go see my parents or something like that.
01:00:04.760And, uh, and you're honest, I guess you're, you're not willing to lie.
01:00:09.820Well, I don't think, um, you'd be able to get on like right now.
01:00:13.540It's not a matter of whether, of course I'd be willing to lie.
01:00:18.620But if you go to the plane, they look at when your last thing was, I mean, maybe you could get away with it, but again, I'm like, did they, did the border guards check?
01:00:27.080Like when you enter, I like, there's gotta be a way around this.
01:00:30.420Well, maybe, but what I'm saying is I don't think that that's the move for me right now is when they go, Hey, they were very serious about this, you know, blah, blah, blah.
01:01:08.340So my, I, I, well, but she's gone through every phases I watch, you know, she's very, uh, normal person and she, she's gone through all the phases she's gone through.
01:01:18.300And then she's gone through, well, if other people just locked down, uh, we wouldn't have to be dealing with this.
01:01:24.180And then she was, she had a while where she was like mainlining CNN and she was getting all fired up about Trump.
01:01:28.820She, she, she like, she went through all the, I watched her go through every different phase.
01:01:32.900And I think that that's what a lot of people are doing.
01:01:34.500You know, one week there, something, and sometimes it's one day or something and one time to do something else.
01:01:38.620And then she would be to me, you know, like if, if, cause I'm touring and stuff and she'd be, a lot of people would say that to me.
01:01:44.600It's, you know, if people like you that are, you know, touring and going to other places, if you weren't doing this, this lockdown wouldn't be happening.
01:01:50.520And I'm like, well, yeah, I don't believe that.
01:01:52.460You know, I don't believe that's the case, but I understand, you know, so I, I, I've watched people that I know and care about all go through all the rollercoaster of, you know, different opinions and different philosophies.
01:02:05.420And, but basically they're just trying to stay sane because, you know, the world's put people's lives on hold for two years and it sucks.
01:02:13.940And especially in an era of disinformation when it comes to, I don't know, during the Trump presidency and the media and now with COVID and the CDC and the WHO saying China, you know, it came from, it came from a bat cave.
01:02:26.460We swear it definitely wasn't the lab.
01:02:27.880And then it's like the disinformation, not to mention Russia, by the way, which does, even though they haven't done most of what they've been blamed for, they've done a lot.
01:02:36.640So it's just, there's, there's, it's hard for, especially for older people, um, to sort of stay, yeah, like in tune with what's real and people are losing touch with reality.
01:02:47.700Especially if you had faith in these organizations, you know, it's hard to convince them that no, no, no, no, trust me now they're lying to you.
01:02:54.620Or maybe they were lying to you before, but the lie, you know, it just wasn't so extreme.
01:02:57.460And then, you know, you're trying to rejig like how you interface with the world.
01:03:01.800And when people do rejig that at 55 or whatever, a lot of them end up, you know, really crazy.
01:03:08.500So yeah, it's a difficult time for people to navigate right now, especially when you're, yeah, you've, you've been in this world for a long time.
01:03:18.120That's what, that's what the, we talked about the Susan Collins cross-examination of the CDC director, but that's kind of what the Senator was saying.
01:03:25.180Senator Collins was saying, look, lady people, you know, a large portion of people still look to the CDC for guidance and your hysterics on camp, just for one example, and outdoor exposure is undermining your other messages that we still agree with.
01:03:45.820We, the Susan Collins is of the world, you know, it's like the New York times reporter I mentioned, he, he came out and he said flat on, this is true.
01:03:52.720We've seen this elsewhere, but there's, there's not a single, not a single documented COVID infection anywhere in the world for casual outdoor interactions, like walking past somebody on a street or eating at a nearby table.
01:04:05.580And yet still, this is what they tell us.
01:04:08.560And people are like, who do I believe?
01:04:10.120And I, I mean, I think most Republicans in America, at least have been like, not her, we're not listening to Rochelle, we're not listening to Fauci, like they've gotten it.
01:04:16.980But I think a lot of the Democrats who didn't trust Trump and sort of leaned into Fauci and, and sort of the infectious disease world, that sounds weird, but you know, the spokespeople for it, they're still there.
01:04:27.620But people are all getting the vaccine, you know, it's, if you want to get a vaccine, you can get one in 10 seconds.
01:04:33.320I mean, like, in my opinion, you know, this is over, you know, this is over and it's, people don't want it to be over.
01:04:41.320And I kind of did a video of making fun of that.
01:04:45.240Well, a lot of people, I think the more cynical view would be, there's a lot of power involved right now.
01:04:52.820And I mean, you know, if you're the, the government, every, everyone, there's a lot of people that are incentivized to have this continue.
01:04:58.780I mean, the government has a blank check to do whatever they want right now.
01:05:02.340Um, I mean, if you look in certain places, you know, I know people here that are getting a lot of money for free from the government and why would they go back to work?
01:05:09.880I mean, Canada, you get $2,000 a month.
01:05:11.600I mean, some people that have bad jobs and especially a lot of like comedians that I know that didn't have money.
01:05:15.860It's like, dude, they're getting $2,000 a month and, you know, maybe still doing some other stuff on the side.
01:05:22.160And a lot of people are in day trading now and stuff like that.
01:05:26.880Why exactly do I want to go back to my job at a restaurant?
01:05:30.080So I think a lot of people, a lot of people are incentivized for this to keep going.
01:05:33.680And then a lot of people, the COVID stuff, again, same with Trump is like kind of become their identity of, you know, telling people what to do one way or the other.
01:05:42.260And so I think there's a lot of institutions, you know, like Fauci.
01:05:47.180I mean, once this is over, we're never going to hear that name again.
01:06:59.480So in your personal opinion, if you kind of, you know, see what most people in places like New York think as, you know, crazy or whatever, how come you wouldn't move to, you know, somewhere else that would more suitable to you?
01:07:14.680Is it is it that you just have a life here and you like the city?
01:08:41.300And really what happened in the schools here, which is a longer story and something I've talked about previous to this, is what's leading us to go.
01:09:09.380I actually still love New York and I love New York State, but I'm not going to live like this.
01:09:14.560But I don't want to have to move to Texas or Florida to get the things that I think are reasonable.
01:09:18.020Do you think that there is some level of that those things come with a liberal metropolitan?
01:09:27.960Like the idea that that is the tradeoff that in liberal metropolitans, you know, you kind of have a more vibrant art scene and you kind of have a more vibrant, you know, culture of the sort that you're talking about, whether that be nightlife or whatever.
01:09:44.240And that is sort of the tradeoff, in your opinion, or do you think that it doesn't have to be like that?
01:09:50.620No, because I think most liberals and even progressives are on my side when it comes to being anti-woke, like rejecting critical race theory and the constant judging of people and cancel culture.
01:10:01.560I just think that that is a very loud group that's overtaken large cities, schools, you know, colleges, sports.
01:10:27.420Now, sadly, our school systems have surrendered to them because they have no spines.
01:10:31.840You know, some liberals right now, I think, are confused that being progressive, being supportive, being not non-bullying, being, quote, an ally means you have to support the Church of Woke.
01:10:41.960I know enough liberals and progressives who are saying like privately, like, what the hell that I believe they're on our side.
01:10:47.700So and New York has existed for, you know, how many years now, being a progressive city, not buying into that bullshit like this stuff was not in our schools.
01:10:55.620It was not being forced down the throats.
01:11:09.560You know, a lot of comedians, you know, whatever that I would call themselves liberals or whatever that aren't, you know, for all this stuff.
01:11:18.520That's kind of a term that a lot of people use to describe what that would be.
01:11:22.560But, yeah, I think a lot of it is still the terminology and the identity.
01:11:26.160So, yeah, you go if you you know, these people essentially elected themselves in charge of, you know, what that group thinks.
01:11:34.060And then if you don't want to be in that group, you get kicked out.
01:11:36.220And I mean, how many people have we probably all seen in the last year?
01:11:40.220People that, you know, were part of, you know, consider themselves that group.
01:11:45.940You're actually not because, you know, so they're you know, they're I always said I've been saying the rights auditioning for members and the left's kicking people out a member.
01:11:53.520The left's kicking people out. And that kind of always shows you who has the power, you know, whatever whatever group has the, you know, cultural power is the one that is kicking people out.
01:12:03.160But, you know, when you do all that stuff, you you you lose your power.
01:12:06.300And I think that's what I'm kind of saying about Hollywood and all of these industries, whether that be big tech, all of them are using their legacy power to exert influence, which is in turn diminishing their power.
01:12:19.660I mean, they're they're exchanging their power to, you know, as have policy and affected or to have radical change happen.
01:12:29.500First, Canada loses Ryan Long. Next, Hollywood loses America.
01:12:34.460I see the parallels. I see what's happening here, Ryan.
01:12:37.540Hollywood's been losing America for a long time. It's just, you know, I think that people put up they just weren't they weren't rubbing it in your face so much.
01:12:44.220You know, I think before everyone knew that they were watching, you know, these movies, they were probably made everyone in a lot of America was knew that they were watching movies made by, you know, people that, you know, kind of didn't like them.
01:12:58.140But they didn't the movies weren't the premise of the movie wasn't you're bad.
01:13:06.540You know, I think that and that's why I like comedy clubs like to me are the one of the last refuges is because in comedy clubs, it's all about at least, you know, the comedy that a lot of people do is all about, you know, kind of losing them and then getting them back.
01:13:21.680And then you kind of agree with this group and then you kind of agree with this group and pit everyone against each other and you kind of play these mind games and you're doing all that stuff.
01:13:28.760Right. Whereas on the Internet, there there isn't that part of it.
01:13:31.940It's you kind of say you're you're one thing.
01:13:33.540But there's so many comedians, I think, that are what you said that, you know, they're like, OK, I'm not going to watch something or I'm not going to watch something or normal people.
01:13:48.640I'm not going to watch something where the premise of it is, I suck.
01:13:53.860You know, or be part of a system like I don't want to, you know, work at a place and people shouldn't want to work at a place where, you know, the the agenda of the the organization is that I'm bad.
01:14:06.840Yeah. Well, it's like when a couple of years ago, Ben Affleck came out and said openly he would not act across someone who was an open Republican who's out as a Republican.
01:14:19.120So we do. It's not like a shock that Hollywood's left.
01:14:22.100But, you know, what's happened now is next level.
01:14:25.120And of course, the whole country is experiencing it.
01:14:26.960And so with that, I say, welcome to America.
01:14:29.560I appreciate the social commentaries because they've brought a lot of laughs.
01:14:33.940And, you know, I do have to play that Church of Woke before we go, because I want people to hear how you nailed it, how you how you understand this group and their weird messaging.
01:15:31.420And I think that I kind of the same way that, you know, the best comedy, you're making fun of people that you understand.
01:15:37.600Like when I was, you know, doing the bass player stuff and I was, you know, spent my life playing in bands and I did a show about Toronto and the CBC, whereas I think that was probably one of the biggest problems with everyone making fun of Trump or in the modern era, people that were making fun of even people on the right is they were picking the wrong things because they actually didn't understand those people.
01:15:58.560So I think it is I try to like understand people.
01:16:02.940It's when you play a character, you almost need to find a way to like him, even if it's like a serial killer, if it's the you almost need to, you know, understand why they're doing what they're doing if you want to do it right.
01:16:12.760And I think that's one of the things that probably is a little bit missing in mainstream comedy is people are making fun of people that they hate and don't understand a lot of times.
01:17:06.340But obviously, I know that I'm, you know, stepping my foot in these waters that you're not supposed to step in.
01:17:10.920But it's I think it's the I honestly, it does remind me of the same thing that I've been dealing with my whole life where it's like, I was the one that needed to, like, cause all this trouble.
01:17:19.860But then when I get in the office, I'm just like, I don't know, I'm just trying to be funny.
01:17:28.960Yeah, yeah, I just I don't know, for whatever reason, it's me and my friends are kind of you have this by nature to kind of stir stuff up and, and the comedy that interests me and the things that I want to say that interest me are always that if you're allowed to say it, it kind of, you know, doesn't feel interesting to me.
01:17:47.240It's, I'm trying to say things that, you know, you're not supposed to say that I believe that haven't been said right.
01:17:53.560And so you're living in the right world.
01:18:24.860And the other half is somebody holding a sign, a big man saying, um, I, I, I'm a little upset.
01:18:33.320I've, I've been saying on stage that Americans are a little bit like spoiled rich kids where everyone from every country wants to come here.
01:18:40.320And you guys are like, we're like, we want to come to your house, you know, your dad has a pool and a trampoline.