The Megyn Kelly Show - Tim Dillon on Comedy in the Trump Era, Out of Touch Celebrities, and Alex Jones

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00:00:31.120 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest and provocative conversations.

00:00:42.440 Hey everyone, it's Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:45.720 Today, Tim Dillon. You're going to love this.

00:00:50.440 You want to laugh? Stay tuned.

00:00:53.740 This guy is hilarious.

00:00:55.440 He has been called the funniest philosopher of his generation.

00:00:59.200 A genius.

00:01:00.780 He was named one of the top 10 comics you need to know by Rolling Stone in 17,

00:01:04.340 New York's funniest at Caroline's in 16.

00:01:07.680 And he's been putting out hilarious videos on social media that caught my attention

00:01:13.740 and made me fall for this guy.

00:01:15.160 He's just, he's spectacular.

00:01:17.080 Did a thing on The Viking, on the Capitol Hill Riot, which I had to say,

00:01:21.140 you know, like that day we all needed a laugh.

00:01:22.880 And he put it out like the day after and sort of broke the frost in a way,

00:01:27.600 which I really appreciated.

00:01:28.500 He took a great bit on Hilaria Baldwin, who he's got some thoughts on.

00:01:32.540 I'll ask him.

00:01:33.660 And he's just sort of a, he is a social philosopher.

00:01:35.920 He was big on Joe Rogan.

00:01:37.260 He went on there not long ago with Alex Jones.

00:01:39.180 Perhaps you heard news of that.

00:01:41.020 Um, but I think you're going to like him a lot.

00:01:43.440 So we'll get to Tim in just one second.

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00:03:04.900 Tim Dillon, how are you?

00:03:06.920 Good morning, Megan.

00:03:08.380 Thanks for having me.

00:03:09.240 I really appreciate it.

00:03:10.580 Oh, the pleasure is all mine.

00:03:12.840 I've been following you on Twitter, and you're so funny.

00:03:16.460 And just the chance to talk to you was obviously what I was going to jump at.

00:03:19.780 But then I started to read up on you and learn more about you.

00:03:23.120 And I love this description.

00:03:24.420 I love this.

00:03:25.640 Conservative-leaning gay man from Long Island who says the average citizen might describe

00:03:30.040 his aesthetic as retired detective.

00:03:33.420 Yeah.

00:03:34.620 I think that might cover all the bases.

00:03:38.180 What does that mean, retired detective?

00:03:40.500 Like Lenny Briscoe, kind of?

00:03:41.960 I look like a guy who has left the force, but he's always been tortured by one case, and

00:03:49.160 he sits at a bar, and he just wants to get back in to solve that one cold case from 10

00:03:55.580 years ago that haunted him.

00:03:56.720 I feel like that's the way I sound.

00:03:58.900 That's the way my voice sounds.

00:04:00.360 That's the aesthetic I have.

00:04:01.700 Just kind of that tortured Irish guy.

00:04:05.400 I'm thinking of like Sipowicz, remember?

00:04:08.060 And Y.P.D.

00:04:08.500 Yeah.

00:04:09.340 Of course I do.

00:04:10.320 I used to watch that show every day.

00:04:12.020 I love that show.

00:04:13.040 But I think we're being too unkind to you because you're actually a handsome guy.

00:04:16.460 You do not see-

00:04:16.960 Well, that's very sweet.

00:04:18.420 I see a retired detective, I guess, like maybe a little slovenly.

00:04:22.340 I do the best I can for the Irish.

00:04:24.640 You know, the Irish are a race of people.

00:04:26.640 We will never compete, I think, with the other races in just pure looks.

00:04:31.880 That's why we're funny, and we tell stories, and we're fun to be around.

00:04:36.380 And I think everybody's got-

00:04:37.460 So I think I try to do the best I can with what I have, with fair skin that's prone to

00:04:42.100 get red.

00:04:43.040 And, you know, I mean, this is just-

00:04:44.220 Yes.

00:04:44.700 You got to do the best you can with the Irish aesthetic.

00:04:47.700 I can relate to all of that.

00:04:49.360 All of that.

00:04:49.720 I mean, thankfully, I'm a gal, so, you know, I wear makeup, and I can make myself look

00:04:53.340 better.

00:04:53.840 But there is sort of a curse that comes with the Irish heritage.

00:04:56.960 But there's balance in life.

00:04:59.120 You're right.

00:04:59.400 Like, you tend to be funny, you tend to be a good storyteller.

00:05:02.620 And if you can't laugh at yourself, you get kicked out of your family as an Irish kid.

00:05:06.580 That's exactly right.

00:05:07.820 You have to be able to roll with the punches.

00:05:11.480 And you have to be able to throw a lot of punches, too.

00:05:14.380 That's exactly right.

00:05:16.840 And that's fine.

00:05:17.560 You know, I was joking the other day that there's-

00:05:19.300 Bridget Phetasy was on, and we were talking about how no Irish person has ever gotten offended

00:05:23.240 at anything.

00:05:23.800 You'll never hear the Irish complaining about a joke at their expense, because we're built

00:05:28.780 to laugh at ourselves and to think stuff like that is funny.

00:05:31.980 And I just, I have yet to meet the Irish person who could be offended by anything.

00:05:35.760 Yes, that's true.

00:05:37.020 I hope that stays true.

00:05:38.520 I mean, my family, I remember that this was a tough family that loved each other but would

00:05:46.500 fight and would argue and they would debate.

00:05:51.180 And there were people that were right-wing people and left-wing people and people that

00:05:56.300 didn't believe at all in politics and people that were conspiracy theorists.

00:06:01.100 And it never mattered.

00:06:02.800 So it's always strange to me in this new climate where if you disagree with someone, you're supposed

00:06:09.800 to exile them from your life or your community.

00:06:13.240 That doesn't hold water with me at all because I just remember growing up in these crazy environments

00:06:19.920 with these large families where no one agreed on anything and everything was still okay.

00:06:25.940 So I think this idea that words are going to bruise you or they're going to do serious

00:06:34.060 damage that you can't recover from, I don't understand that at all.

00:06:38.280 I'm 36.

00:06:39.280 That's probably generational.

00:06:40.640 But a lot of it is my upbringing where it's like, you know, a lot of people said a lot of

00:06:46.220 things and then everybody kind of made up and put it past them.

00:06:51.120 Exactly right.

00:06:51.900 And it's part of sort of, it's linked to, I think, being on the Radical Honesty program

00:06:56.120 where I wouldn't say no feeling is spared growing up, but it's pretty close.

00:07:02.240 I mean, we definitely, my family and most of the Irish families I know lean towards just

00:07:06.860 saying it how it was.

00:07:07.960 And I'll give you one example.

00:07:09.080 Tell me if you can relate to this in your own upbringing.

00:07:11.440 But my family wound up becoming a blended family as I lost my dad to a heart attack when

00:07:16.880 I was in high school.

00:07:17.600 And my mom got remarried four years later to a guy who had three kids and he had lost

00:07:22.640 his wife to cancer.

00:07:24.300 So the three kids on his side and the three kids on our side wind up together.

00:07:29.780 And he had two sons and a daughter.

00:07:33.500 And the daughter at the time was around 15 when she first came into our family.

00:07:37.580 And she was a big talker.

00:07:39.440 She liked to talk.

00:07:40.060 They're Irish too.

00:07:41.080 She talked a lot.

00:07:42.400 A lot.

00:07:43.080 And my brother, my older brother, sat next to her at dinner one night and he interrupts

00:07:49.200 her and he says, why are you telling me this story?

00:07:54.060 Then he says, look, if we're going to be in the same family, you're going to have to learn

00:07:58.160 how to cut to the chase.

00:07:59.720 And small girls are looking like, what the hell?

00:08:02.500 But you know what?

00:08:03.060 He did her a favor because everyone's got to have that skill in life.

00:08:06.320 Yeah.

00:08:06.500 I mean, there's something beautiful about the Irish experience where it's like, we

00:08:11.660 feel like we're always underdogs.

00:08:13.780 And I think that's part of it, right?

00:08:15.680 So I think part of the Irish experience and my family's really, you know, my grandfather

00:08:19.100 came over from Cork and my nanny was from Galway and they, I mean, he came over at four years

00:08:25.840 old and they were tough and he grew up poor.

00:08:28.880 And I mean, really poor.

00:08:30.100 Like it would move every time the rent was due.

00:08:32.780 And I mean, he, he had a large family and, uh, you know, he built a business.

00:08:37.180 He ended up being a general contractor.

00:08:38.800 It took him a long time, but he built a big, you know, beautiful house that he lived in

00:08:42.060 in Long Island.

00:08:42.880 He was a devoutly religious guy.

00:08:44.800 He was very tough.

00:08:46.280 He, uh, you know, I remember my father got in a bar fight.

00:08:49.380 I think this was in my father's note.

00:08:51.160 My father's nose is still a little crooked.

00:08:53.380 He called my grandfather and he goes, you know, if you, if you gave me $5,000, I could fix

00:08:58.180 my nose.

00:08:58.740 I think my grandfather was like, well, it's just a good thing.

00:09:00.600 You're not a model and hung up.

00:09:01.820 So it was kind of like to figure it out.

00:09:04.020 You know, my grandfather had that attitude of like, he was a loving guy and he was generous,

00:09:07.540 but he was also like, you gotta figure your life out.

00:09:10.760 Like, I think he had six, seven children.

00:09:12.980 One of them died of cancer, sadly, but he was, it was old school.

00:09:17.240 Like it wasn't, you, you weren't going to get your hand held.

00:09:20.520 Uh, you were loved and you were supported, but you were also expected to kind of go out

00:09:25.480 and fight the way that they fought for whatever you wanted.

00:09:28.780 And I think that that is, you know, kind of that enduring quality of like that underdog,

00:09:36.840 you know, mentality that Irish people have, you know, and obviously we're not nearly, we

00:09:41.880 weren't nearly as disadvantaged as African Americans or, or, or other groups of people.

00:09:45.620 But I mean, the Irish kind of had a little bit of a time of it when they came to this country.

00:09:49.620 So I think that that is, um, part of, uh, what makes us into these, uh, storytellers.

00:09:58.540 We talk a little too much.

00:09:59.580 We, we make a lot of jokes where we're trying to get a seat at the table.

00:10:02.840 And I think that the way we try to do that is by wrestling the attention away from who's

00:10:08.120 ever speaking.

00:10:08.800 And I mean, whatever we have to do, I mean, I have aunts that will stand up in the middle

00:10:12.860 of a family party and start singing a song, forcing everyone to just stare at them.

00:10:17.220 I mean, my aunt would sing memories from cats and I mean, she's a horrible singer, but we

00:10:22.160 would all just, every year we knew memories was coming when she had had a few drinks and

00:10:25.920 we all just had to sit and listen to that.

00:10:28.480 And she would just out of nowhere, start belting out, you know, midnight.

00:10:32.160 And we'd all, okay, here we go.

00:10:33.480 So it really was just a fight for attention.

00:10:37.040 I think part of that, I guess, is that we all kind of feel like we're underdogs in a way.

00:10:41.820 So do you have that?

00:10:43.040 Do you, do you love attention?

00:10:45.160 I do.

00:10:46.160 I mean, I do.

00:10:46.800 And, you know, when you look back at my kid video, it's embarrassing.

00:10:50.160 When I was two or three years old, I would be hamming it up in front of the camera and

00:10:55.220 doing everything I can.

00:10:56.240 I'd dump ice cream on my head.

00:10:57.500 I'd do anything I could to get attention.

00:10:59.500 You know, most comedians have that in them where they just wanted to be the center of

00:11:03.600 attention.

00:11:04.080 And no matter, you know what, I mean, it's hard to watch because it's, they're just insufferable

00:11:09.080 when you watch them because it's a kid who's just demanding everyone looks at them when

00:11:13.460 he was two, three, just going, I want all the eyeballs on me.

00:11:17.920 So, but how does that parlay from, oh, Tim's so funny, you know, he's a class clown.

00:11:22.680 God, that guy's hilarious into, oh my God, he's trying to make a career out of it.

00:11:27.240 Yeah, well, you fail at a lot of other things.

00:11:31.460 So that's important.

00:11:32.600 I think failure is important and we don't ever talk about failure.

00:11:35.700 Every motivational speaker goes out and tells you how to succeed.

00:11:38.620 And that's kind of maybe puts people at a disadvantage.

00:11:41.880 I think you have to try the things that you're not suited for before you find the thing that

00:11:46.080 you are suited for.

00:11:47.540 And I tried a lot of things.

00:11:49.000 I mean, I was in sales.

00:11:50.620 I tried to, you know, be in finance.

00:11:52.220 I was, I was trying to live this life that wasn't for me.

00:11:56.420 I love sales.

00:11:57.600 Like I still like salespeople.

00:11:59.840 I read about business and, you know, but it wasn't for me.

00:12:03.580 I wasn't as good at it as I could be because I didn't work hard at it.

00:12:07.200 And the reason I didn't work hard at it is I didn't really love it.

00:12:10.520 And then when I found comedy when I was 25, I started pretty late.

00:12:14.100 I found the thing that I loved enough to work so hard at that I would kind of sacrifice

00:12:20.980 the rest of my life to just get good at this and to be good at it.

00:12:25.460 Because when I was on stage, I felt like this is where I belonged.

00:12:28.780 But it took a while to get there.

00:12:31.400 It took, you know, community college and it took debate club and it took majoring in political

00:12:36.180 science than dropping out because, and no offense, but all the people that were in politics

00:12:40.780 and journalism were insufferable.

00:12:42.580 None of them were fun.

00:12:44.500 It would, none of them were fun.

00:12:45.620 I remember we would go to these debate tournaments and I beat these two girls that were on their

00:12:49.800 way to Harvard.

00:12:50.300 And I was, I was at a community college, you know, and they were crying afterwards.

00:12:53.760 And I was like, you know, and all these guys just wanted to talk about politics endlessly

00:12:58.760 all night.

00:12:59.600 And I was like, and I, you know, me, I'm trying to make jokes.

00:13:02.620 I'm trying to have fun.

00:13:03.560 And everybody took themselves so seriously.

00:13:06.760 And I was just turned off by it.

00:13:08.340 I'm like, I don't want to spend my life with these people.

00:13:11.080 And God, listen, we know that they exist and there's a reason for them.

00:13:14.360 But I was just totally like turned off by that.

00:13:17.200 So I'm like, well, I don't want to be in, and I thought I was going to be in that.

00:13:19.740 I thought I was a debate guy and I was good at debate.

00:13:22.100 I was really good at being in debate.

00:13:23.720 And I was like, I want to, I'm going to be in politics.

00:13:25.360 I'm going to run a presidential campaign.

00:13:26.980 I'm going to be, you know, whatever the case may be.

00:13:31.560 And, you know, I was running around.

00:13:33.380 I was like, you know, 19 years old, you know, talking about how we have to honor our commitment

00:13:37.940 to the people of Iraq.

00:13:39.040 I had no idea what I was talking about, but I'm like, this seems, I'm like, this seems,

00:13:44.120 I was like hardcore evangelist of George W. Bush, thought, you know, thought he was great,

00:13:51.060 thought everything we were doing was phenomenal.

00:13:52.700 Now I look back on it and I'm like, yes, some of that probably wasn't the move, but I really

00:13:57.260 was going hardcore into politics.

00:13:58.800 And then I took a step, took a step back and I was like, all right, I'm going to do finance.

00:14:02.540 I'm going to be a business guy because I just want to make money.

00:14:05.000 And then I realized like, I don't love money enough.

00:14:07.240 Sadly, like I love making a good living, but like, I don't love money enough to make my

00:14:11.120 life just about money.

00:14:12.500 So then at 25 years old, after the, you know, 2008, when the market had collapsed, I was like,

00:14:20.940 let me just see if I'm funny and see if I can be funny professionally, which I didn't even know

00:14:26.260 what the route to it was.

00:14:27.740 I had no, there was no blueprint.

00:14:29.220 So I got into it at 25 when I kind of had nothing else going on.

00:14:32.840 And I spent the last 10 years just getting as funny as I could on every platform that I could.

00:14:39.040 That sounds terrifying.

00:14:40.820 I mean, first of all, I can relate to the first part so much, your experience of politics and

00:14:45.120 debate and media.

00:14:47.880 And actually just listening to you explain it, just, I was like, oh my God, this is my life too.

00:14:53.760 I just wasn't as smart as you were to get out.

00:14:56.240 You know, I just, I spent so many years in it thinking like, why is everyone looking at me

00:14:59.980 like I'm being inappropriate again?

00:15:01.440 You know, I just, I used to say like, I'm a bull in a china shop, right?

00:15:05.440 That's how you feel.

00:15:06.560 I think you did well.

00:15:07.660 I think in fact, I wasn't as smart as you were to keep going maybe.

00:15:12.180 But feeling like a fish out of water is what I'm saying.

00:15:14.080 Like you feel like, yes, I don't know why, but I don't, these people are looking at me

00:15:17.640 like I'm inappropriate and I think I'm hilarious.

00:15:20.280 Right, right, right.

00:15:21.760 I just remembered like going out after debate tournaments and we would like, you know, sit

00:15:27.360 down at these restaurants.

00:15:28.360 And I was like, okay, so the debates are over, right?

00:15:31.240 And then they never would end.

00:15:32.500 I mean, it would never end.

00:15:33.540 It would never end.

00:15:34.080 But so I was like, does this ever, can we ever just goof around?

00:15:37.480 Can we ever talk about anything else?

00:15:38.820 Life is about more than politics.

00:15:40.380 And this is something I tell people now.

00:15:42.140 Life is about more.

00:15:42.800 I mean, you know, my aunt called me the other day.

00:15:44.420 She goes, now that, you know, cause she was like hardcore.

00:15:47.040 Like she would call me every day.

00:15:48.900 Trump is the worst thing that's ever happened to us.

00:15:52.420 Blah, blah, blah.

00:15:53.080 And coronavirus is killing every human being that's ever lived.

00:15:55.720 And I'm like, okay, thank you.

00:15:56.780 I don't need this, you know, negativity.

00:15:58.760 But I mean, every day she would call.

00:16:00.160 And then finally Biden got inaugurated and she called me and she goes, you know, me and

00:16:03.540 your uncle, we went birdwatching today and there were hawks in the trees.

00:16:06.560 It was beautiful.

00:16:07.360 And I'm like, you could have been doing that for the last four years.

00:16:10.260 Like there were hawks in the trees.

00:16:12.420 You chose to be miserable for four years.

00:16:16.760 You chose that.

00:16:18.580 And so to me, I'm like, there's just more to life than this endless.

00:16:22.860 Cause most people, you're never going to meet Nancy Pelosi.

00:16:25.920 See, most of us, you know, I have uncles that, you know, Nancy Pelosi is the center of everything

00:16:30.500 that bothers them.

00:16:31.240 And I'm like, this is, you'll never meet this woman.

00:16:33.260 You're letting someone affect you who you'll never meet and who has some degree of control

00:16:40.380 over you, but not nearly as much as you think.

00:16:42.760 I mean, truly not you.

00:16:44.740 There's a lot you can do completely that doesn't involve what Nancy Pelosi does or doesn't do

00:16:51.260 or says or doesn't say.

00:16:52.580 So to me, I've always been like, there's more to life than politics.

00:16:55.340 And the people that were deeply into politics never felt like that to me.

00:17:00.060 They were always like, no, this is the be all end all.

00:17:02.900 And I'm like, this is so weird.

00:17:04.300 You get a certain amount of time on this planet and you choose one team and somebody else chooses

00:17:09.660 another team and you just fight forever.

00:17:12.600 And that's it.

00:17:14.120 That's the only experience you want to have.

00:17:15.860 And that, that felt very empty to me and not fun.

00:17:18.540 And I love having fun.

00:17:19.700 And that just wasn't fun.

00:17:20.660 So it reminds me of when I, I lived in DC for a little while and I used to go out to

00:17:25.580 the happy hours there.

00:17:27.220 And this is, you know, I was much younger.

00:17:29.000 I was whatever, 30 around there.

00:17:30.740 And, um, you'd get these guys coming over to you in the, in the bar.

00:17:34.420 First of all, all the women would be wearing sweater sets with pearls.

00:17:37.180 And I was like, what, what, right.

00:17:40.140 And then all the guys, uh, would come over and like in their suits, these are like young

00:17:44.220 aides to congressmen on Capitol Hill.

00:17:46.360 And everyone would assume you knew who their congressman was.

00:17:48.640 It's like, I never, I never even heard of him.

00:17:50.380 I certainly never heard of you and I never even heard of your congressman.

00:17:53.040 So I'm not impressed.

00:17:54.020 And they would put their hand out and they, to, to meet you and they would shake your hand

00:17:58.060 or they, they would shake it hard.

00:17:59.620 You know, like they were trying to impress you with their muscle and say things like,

00:18:02.800 and how are you enjoying Washington?

00:18:05.080 I'm like, oh my God, I am never letting this guy get on top of me ever.

00:18:09.000 DC is too much.

00:18:13.180 It's a great city to perform comedy in because it's like everyone there is just morally compromised

00:18:17.880 and it's great to just point out everybody in the audience and imagine, you know, what

00:18:22.780 they do for a living.

00:18:23.640 It's a lot of fun to perform in that city.

00:18:25.740 But to me, it was never a city that I could live in.

00:18:28.120 I was just like, I love New York because people in New York talk about real estate and food.

00:18:32.480 I mean, that's really what everyone in New York talks about.

00:18:34.420 They go, who got what apartment, where, and how much, and why, and how many roommates or

00:18:38.960 no roommates, and who's buying a condo, and who's got the, and it's all about real estate

00:18:42.880 and it's all about where you live.

00:18:43.940 And they took about neighborhoods and they took about food.

00:18:46.060 They took, you know, brutal debates about restaurants and, you know, you got to go to

00:18:50.640 this place.

00:18:51.380 No, this Pizza Supreme is better.

00:18:53.000 No, they were good six months ago.

00:18:54.400 They changed the dough.

00:18:55.280 It's all over now.

00:18:56.480 The whole thing.

00:18:57.020 And we just had these brutal fights about food and about neighborhoods.

00:19:00.040 And that to me was very fun and very local and it affected you.

00:19:02.700 So, and, and that's what people talked about in New York.

00:19:06.020 They talk about money and, and DC is all about power and politics and everybody wants to have

00:19:11.080 a prestige position.

00:19:12.460 And to me, it was all like, I don't know.

00:19:14.640 It was just, it wasn't funny.

00:19:16.080 I don't like political comedy.

00:19:17.580 Like I do a lot of social comedy, right?

00:19:19.500 So like I took a lot of, about a lot of cultural things and I, I certainly touch on politics

00:19:23.840 and stuff, but like that blatantly political comedy never really was my thing.

00:19:29.220 Like I, I respect the people who do it.

00:19:31.280 It's very hard to do it right.

00:19:32.360 But to me, it just divides the audiences immediately.

00:19:35.720 And I always look at like the larger truth that's buried under this kind of horse race

00:19:40.860 political, you know, angle that, that, that a lot of people are going for now.

00:19:45.560 So I, I always was like, not so much into DC, but I love, it's probably my fate.

00:19:51.540 And ironically, it's my favorite city to perform standup comedy in.

00:19:55.660 And because there's a lot of tension there and tension, releasing tension is what comedians

00:20:01.820 should strive to do.

00:20:03.460 And that city is always tense.

00:20:05.660 And when you can break that tension, it, people are really grateful.

00:20:08.820 Oh, those poor people are desperate to laugh.

00:20:11.460 They're not allowed to laugh at all anymore.

00:20:13.240 Everything's so deadly serious.

00:20:14.680 And most of all themselves to your point about New York, I can tell you it's, it's the only

00:20:19.080 city I've ever lived in or, or visited where it's like before somebody comes, like somebody

00:20:23.580 comes over to your house for the first time.

00:20:24.960 And before they leave, it's understood by all involved that they will be getting a full

00:20:28.780 tour of your apartment.

00:20:29.840 They will, they will be looking at the master bedroom, the master bathroom.

00:20:32.400 Yes.

00:20:32.680 It's just understood.

00:20:33.160 Of course, I want to see your real estate.

00:20:35.160 Yes.

00:20:35.400 You become a realtor.

00:20:36.560 You talk about how much it costs.

00:20:38.040 People have no problem in New York going, let me ask you what you pay.

00:20:40.540 I mean, there's really no problem asking you what you paid.

00:20:45.040 There's something fun about that to me.

00:20:46.840 It's kind of fun.

00:20:47.440 Real estate's hilarious to me.

00:20:49.400 I always say, I think it's very funny.

00:20:51.580 I think it's silly.

00:20:52.940 I think a lot of my videos that I do online are silly.

00:20:56.240 They're goofy.

00:20:56.820 Right.

00:20:57.020 And I mean, like, so to me, it's like, you know, the discussion of bedrooms and bathrooms

00:21:01.360 and finishes and marble and granite and windows are very funny and kind of, they make me laugh.

00:21:09.340 It's ultimately meaningless, right?

00:21:10.980 It's utterly me.

00:21:11.660 I've lived in big houses and small houses I've lived in.

00:21:14.760 I've had really nice cars and I've driven beater cars and, you know, obviously it's better

00:21:19.260 to have more money, but my actual day to day happiness doesn't really,

00:21:22.920 really change.

00:21:23.980 If I have good friends and I'm laughing and I feel like my career is going well, where

00:21:28.920 you live doesn't, it's not as meaningful as people make it out to be.

00:21:33.980 But I just love, you know, the way people make it into the most important thing in the

00:21:39.140 world is, you know, your view.

00:21:41.500 Somehow you've arrived.

00:21:43.260 So just hearing you talk and actually having seen you before, something that's standing

00:21:49.020 out to me is you sound happy.

00:21:52.780 Yes.

00:21:53.240 I don't think of happy when I think of comedians.

00:21:56.580 I think of more of the sad clown and like they're wrestling and they're tortured and

00:22:00.420 they sort of, they're dark, but they're awesome and they're funny and they're clever and they're

00:22:04.320 really witty about society and observers of it.

00:22:06.620 But happy is not a word that comes to mind, I guess, maybe ironically, given what they

00:22:10.460 do for a living.

00:22:11.440 Do you think you're an anomaly in the comedy circuit?

00:22:14.900 No, I think, well, I'm happy now things are going well.

00:22:18.680 Like I think I'm happy now that I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm in a good place creatively.

00:22:22.900 The things I'm proud of what I make, I'm proud of the show I do every week, the podcast.

00:22:28.160 I'm, I've gotten great opportunities to, to do some of the biggest podcasts in the world

00:22:33.220 and guys like Joe Rogan have helped me out tremendously.

00:22:35.780 And so the happiness I think just comes from the idea that I worked really hard at something

00:22:39.500 for a long time, but now it's starting to like come together and I have the freedom

00:22:42.980 to do the things that I want to do.

00:22:44.240 But like, I think comedians, I don't think it's that we're miserable, but I do think it's

00:22:47.920 that we're all sensitive and we all are noticing things, we all feel things, uh, and we all

00:22:52.940 have to convert that to funny.

00:22:54.720 So if I am upset, I convert it, try to convert it immediately to humor, which can be healthy,

00:23:00.700 but it also cannot be because it's a great way to, it's a great way to just, you know,

00:23:05.360 not acknowledge your problems and not fix them is by making them funny.

00:23:10.680 And this is the real problem with a lot of comedians.

00:23:13.220 It doesn't matter what the problem happens to be.

00:23:15.440 You can easily make fun of it and not really address it.

00:23:20.060 So there is that problem with comedians and that's just been forever, right?

00:23:24.080 That could be your love life, uh, your relationship to drugs, alcohol, food, depression, anything,

00:23:30.480 your family, your past traumas.

00:23:32.620 Like we make a living by making those things funny.

00:23:36.440 And a lot of times that's just putting a bandaid over them and not really addressing them.

00:23:40.020 So I think that's where the like sad clown comes from is the idea that we make things

00:23:46.460 that bother us funny.

00:23:47.980 So, but they're still there.

00:23:49.460 They still bother us, but that's kind of what we do.

00:23:51.780 That's how we come to be funny.

00:23:54.220 So I think I'm happy because I think I'm, I'm grateful.

00:23:57.680 I'm lucky.

00:23:58.780 I think a lot of us are, are, are lucky to do what we do.

00:24:01.780 I think I'm lucky.

00:24:02.400 I worked very hard to have the job.

00:24:03.880 I also feel lucky to have the job, right?

00:24:06.340 So I feel like I'm lucky.

00:24:08.360 I have all the qualifications to do what I want to do.

00:24:12.180 And, you know, so that, that makes me, you know, when you, when you see what people go

00:24:16.280 through all the time, um, and this is what's really been lost in this new, you know, uh,

00:24:22.220 climate that we're in where, you know, when you, when you, when you look at who's a real

00:24:26.880 victim, who's truly in trouble, who deals with things with their own health or with their

00:24:33.000 own family and these really tough situations, uh, the majority of people out there are

00:24:39.380 very lucky.

00:24:40.220 The majority of us, I don't care where you come from or what you're dealing with.

00:24:44.040 The majority of us are just lucky to be here, to live here, to be in this time, to have our

00:24:52.280 health, to have functioning brains, to be able to work and pursue things that we want to do.

00:25:00.100 So we can't ever lose sight of that.

00:25:02.140 Now, a lot of times we do lose sight of that because we're human beings, but I think I try

00:25:05.780 to remind myself that, that at baseline here, I'm pretty lucky to be a comedian for a living

00:25:13.520 in the year 2021 and to be able to earn money while many people are, are in trouble and suffering

00:25:20.980 because we have this horrible situation right now with, with a shutdown.

00:25:24.960 And so I think that's where I try to derive the happiness from just perspective.

00:25:30.600 Back to Tim in one second.

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00:26:51.600 That's code radio at hometitlelock.com, hometitlelock.com.

00:26:56.940 So what do you make of the, you know, all these late night comedians going exactly the

00:27:06.360 opposite way, right?

00:27:07.320 They turn themselves from people who make you laugh into people who make you upset and

00:27:11.280 sad, angry.

00:27:12.540 You know, I haven't watched Colbert during the entire Trump presidency, but I see the

00:27:16.040 clips and Kimmel.

00:27:17.580 God, they're so dark now.

00:27:19.200 Something happened.

00:27:20.440 And I've talked to a lot of smart people out here in L.A., which I'm getting out of soon,

00:27:24.800 going right to Texas, but I've talked to a lot of smart people here because I've always

00:27:31.540 been interested in where this started.

00:27:33.940 And I think that it might have started with when Tina Fey did that really brilliant and

00:27:39.560 funny impression of Sarah Palin on SNL.

00:27:42.800 And it may have also started with Jon Stewart, an equally brilliant guy who did a very funny

00:27:47.360 show called The Daily Show.

00:27:48.660 But what started to happen eventually, you know, was that people started to believe that

00:27:56.240 their job was to be a teacher, was to be somebody who would affect culture with political

00:28:09.240 humor and that it would not be for the sake of being funny.

00:28:14.260 I mean, there's been political humor forever.

00:28:15.980 And I'm sure some of it was written with the intent that it would, you know, affect people.

00:28:21.520 But there became this idea and it became rather explicit that the job of a comedian was to

00:28:28.220 move the needle in a meaningful way in the political world.

00:28:32.800 And I don't know where that happened, but those are two good examples of where it may

00:28:36.740 have began, where it was that Sarah Palin, because that nailed Sarah Palin, that impression

00:28:43.100 was viral and people talked about it and people were saying that, you know, I don't know if

00:28:47.460 she could recover from that.

00:28:49.060 It was so good and it was kind of right on.

00:28:52.320 And then, of course, Jon Stewart did kind of a great job at being this political comedian

00:28:58.520 that did provide real information, but what has happened, like everything else, is that

00:29:04.220 it has grown into a cottage industry of people who are putting their opinion in front of their

00:29:13.400 comedy.

00:29:14.260 And this is a big problem because it's not always funny.

00:29:18.880 And in fact, it rarely is funny.

00:29:20.640 And that's why you just use the word dark, which is a great word for it, because when you're

00:29:26.140 putting your opinion out first and you're not worrying about the content, the humor,

00:29:32.820 you're not recognizing the humanity of your opponents.

00:29:35.760 You're not seeing the other side, which is what comics should always do.

00:29:39.520 It's how you can really be funny, especially about meaningful topics, is looking at someone

00:29:44.660 else's.

00:29:45.080 I mean, there's not a great lawyer out there who can't argue the other side of their case.

00:29:50.160 I mean, it's essential, right?

00:29:51.420 It's the whole point of a great attorney, a great litigator, is that they know what the

00:29:56.400 other side is going to do and they understand the strengths of the other side.

00:29:59.860 And I think he's a great comedian whose job is to make, you know, large numbers of strangers

00:30:04.920 laugh.

00:30:05.920 You have to kind of have some baseline respect for them as human beings.

00:30:12.580 And when we turn everything into this endless, you know, festival of politics and politicized

00:30:24.480 identities, we forget that the people that disagree with us are human beings and that

00:30:31.080 those people, you know, are not enemies.

00:30:36.560 They're people that, for whatever reason, have a different experience than you.

00:30:40.000 So when I watch those late night hosts, I go, the best way to say it is they're not really

00:30:45.740 doing their job and they've carved out this, you know, group of people that want to hear

00:30:52.600 them say things they agree with, similar to somebody on maybe Fox or MSNBC.

00:30:59.120 And to me, it's not interesting and it does get dark and it gets sad because they don't

00:31:03.620 want to do it.

00:31:04.260 You know, when you look at Jimmy Kimmel, he doesn't really want to do it.

00:31:06.620 You're just making so much money and you become a cog in this Hollywood machine and you're

00:31:11.700 getting $20 million, $30 million.

00:31:14.680 You, you're expected to do it, but they don't want to do it.

00:31:17.100 You could see it in their faces that nobody got into comedy to lecture people about what,

00:31:22.960 who to vote for.

00:31:24.000 Nobody.

00:31:24.900 However.

00:31:25.280 Are you surprised to see like that these guys being treated as these sage advisors in

00:31:30.420 this serious suit?

00:31:31.740 I mean, to me, it's just, it's antithetical to what a comedian generally looks like and

00:31:37.560 projects like and wants to be perceived as.

00:31:40.580 Yeah.

00:31:41.160 Well, what it is, is also, you know, people have Google, people can remember that Chelsea

00:31:46.860 Handler made a living doing race material.

00:31:50.220 And now Chelsea Handler does documentaries about white privilege.

00:31:53.700 Jimmy Kimmel had a show called The Man Show where they like, you know, did wet t-shirt

00:31:57.660 contests.

00:31:58.180 And now he's talking about health insurance.

00:32:00.020 Stephen Colbert did a show where he was a very funny, you know, kind of guy that was

00:32:04.020 impersonating Bill O'Reilly.

00:32:05.380 And then now everything, you know, and he got away with a lot of saying a lot of crazy

00:32:09.100 things because it was satire and it was very funny.

00:32:11.940 And now a lot of these same people exist.

00:32:14.560 They act like satire doesn't exist.

00:32:16.120 And if you say something, you're dead serious about it.

00:32:18.520 And if you make a racial joke, you're a racist.

00:32:20.740 Or if it's a homophobic joke, you're a homophobe.

00:32:22.640 Or if you make a joke about trans people, you're diminishing your trans identity.

00:32:26.140 And all of these people are very Google-able.

00:32:29.100 They've all had long careers.

00:32:30.620 None of them felt this way years ago.

00:32:32.700 And I mean, I don't mean you don't have to go back 10 years.

00:32:35.200 You can go back right before Trump got into the primaries.

00:32:38.900 Like this is a new, relatively new phenomenon in mass where all of these people are every

00:32:45.080 day tweeting.

00:32:45.760 I mean, I have comedian friends of mine that are tweeting about trade agreements all day.

00:32:49.660 And it's like, what are you doing?

00:32:51.000 They're tweeting at Mayor Garcetti.

00:32:52.780 They're like, you better, these people have roommates.

00:32:55.500 They're on drugs.

00:32:56.400 It's like, and they're going, what's the budget of LA?

00:32:58.960 The cops better be not getting more than this percentage of the budget.

00:33:01.960 I'm like, the budget?

00:33:03.700 You can't afford a car.

00:33:05.900 So it's a mind virus.

00:33:09.500 Truly, it's a mind virus.

00:33:10.780 And people like me have been, I think, pretty well-received kind of pointing it out because

00:33:16.900 a lot of people are going like, oh yeah, man, that's kind of the way I feel.

00:33:19.940 But like, they grew up watching these comics.

00:33:22.000 These guys were very funny.

00:33:23.020 Colbert, Kimmel.

00:33:23.860 These guys were really, really funny people.

00:33:25.720 But now I think they feel that for whatever reason that that isn't their job.

00:33:30.640 They have to do what they're doing.

00:33:32.420 And I read something, it was you, it was a bit you were doing about him saying something

00:33:37.560 like, the comedians are the ones who get on stage and basically say, we're fucked up.

00:33:41.980 We're fat.

00:33:42.800 We can't stop doing horrible things.

00:33:44.960 Sometimes it like only a psychopath would look at us and say, yes, show me the way.

00:33:49.960 I mean, it's crazy.

00:33:51.220 I mean, could you imagine going out to a nightclub and then asking the guy on stage for tax advice?

00:33:55.460 We've lost our minds here.

00:33:56.980 I mean, this is completely insane.

00:33:59.500 I don't go to my dentist laying the chair and go, let's be funny now.

00:34:02.840 You know, people got to specialize in things.

00:34:05.100 You can't be everything.

00:34:06.240 And this, this flies in the face of a lot of the ethos of young people today who want to

00:34:10.460 be everything, you know, they're like, I want to be a YouTuber and a rapper and a stock

00:34:15.360 mogul.

00:34:15.840 And I want to start an app and I want to be a venture capitalist and I want to be an

00:34:19.540 artist and write three books.

00:34:20.800 And I want to be a chef and have a line of, I mean, it's like, guys, we need to get good

00:34:24.840 at a thing here and then we need to start there and then maybe move on.

00:34:28.800 But like this idea that you would ever look at the comedian, hopefully we say things that

00:34:35.540 are smart.

00:34:36.220 Hopefully we say things that are funny.

00:34:37.520 Hopefully we make you think.

00:34:38.600 I didn't tell anyone to vote.

00:34:39.840 I'm just with, I got flack for this.

00:34:41.460 People like, people go like this to get a voting plan.

00:34:45.180 I had comedians were going on Twitter going, get a vote, get a voting plan.

00:34:49.540 What are we doing?

00:34:51.020 What is, what is a voting plan?

00:34:53.260 Get to the poll and vote.

00:34:54.940 I mean, you all got a Popeye's chicken sandwich.

00:34:57.580 You can vote.

00:34:58.240 Like this idea that no one knows how to vote.

00:35:00.800 We got to come up with a plan.

00:35:02.480 We got to, the idea that I, who put on wigs and say crazy things and I'm funny in a goofball,

00:35:09.400 and admit all these embarrassing things about my life.

00:35:12.700 I'm going to tell you who to vote for.

00:35:14.020 It's just not my job.

00:35:15.320 It's not my job.

00:35:16.580 If you want me to do that, then go somewhere else.

00:35:19.740 Go find another person who's going to tell you to vote.

00:35:23.020 And then it's so important to vote.

00:35:24.340 It's just, to me, it's patronizing.

00:35:25.680 I'm not patronizing you.

00:35:26.780 If you're going to vote, you're going to vote.

00:35:27.760 If you're not going to vote, you're not going to vote.

00:35:28.940 It's absolutely none of my business.

00:35:31.060 You know, it would be insane.

00:35:32.100 It'd be like me being on stage and like, you know, you know, looking at my audience and pointing

00:35:36.280 at a guy in the audience going, hey, why don't you call your brother?

00:35:39.720 Have you spoken to your brother recently?

00:35:42.120 Why don't you call him?

00:35:43.520 What about your wife?

00:35:44.880 Have you gone, have you taken her out?

00:35:46.240 It's like, dude, what am I, a life coach?

00:35:49.160 I'm trying to be goofy.

00:35:51.100 Yeah.

00:35:51.780 You know, it reminds me of, I was talking to my decorator the other day and he's amazing

00:35:56.800 and he's awesome.

00:35:57.380 And he was, he submitted this plan and I'm like, yeah, approved.

00:36:01.560 And he and his team are looking at me like, really?

00:36:04.240 I'm like, look, I'm going to be honest with you.

00:36:06.380 When it comes to decorating a house, I don't have very good taste.

00:36:09.560 I don't know what I'm doing.

00:36:10.740 You want to talk about Syria?

00:36:11.820 We can talk about Syria, but that I know how to do.

00:36:14.020 But I don't know how to decorate a house.

00:36:15.580 And they said, no one has ever said this to us in 30 years of doing this.

00:36:20.780 Right.

00:36:21.000 You're right.

00:36:21.180 Because everyone's an interior designer.

00:36:23.220 Yeah.

00:36:24.160 I mean, if you leave it to us, I mean, we'll have lace curtains, everything will look like

00:36:27.440 a funeral.

00:36:28.400 You know, I'm very bad at it too, because as an Irish person, I think everything

00:36:31.380 should look like a wake.

00:36:32.720 So I'm like, we should just have big curtains and big couches where everyone can sit down

00:36:36.640 and cry.

00:36:38.100 But yeah, everyone's a specialist in everything.

00:36:40.240 So the problem is, you said it and I said it, dude, I do it too.

00:36:44.200 I go to, I'm one of the only dudes who goes to a restaurant and I will go, you pick, to

00:36:51.500 the waiter or waitress.

00:36:52.420 And they're like, floored.

00:36:53.980 I do this.

00:36:54.800 Because you know why?

00:36:55.520 I go, whatever you bring to the table, I'm going to eat it.

00:36:58.460 Okay.

00:36:58.940 And I'm going to say it's not good.

00:37:01.380 So you just choose.

00:37:02.940 I'm going to complain about it probably on my show.

00:37:06.100 Not to you.

00:37:06.760 I never do it to them.

00:37:07.740 But I'm going to go, I'm going to trash it on my show.

00:37:10.160 I'm going to tweet about it.

00:37:11.540 I'm going to say I was very disappointed.

00:37:13.240 And then I'm going to come back next week and probably have the same thing.

00:37:15.920 So it doesn't really matter.

00:37:17.260 But I go to restaurants and I go, I love the chef tasting menu.

00:37:21.480 In New York City, we just went out to dinner all the time, spent absorbent amounts of money,

00:37:24.620 sat there for three hours, just drank martinis and ate food.

00:37:26.600 But I just have friends that we never went near clubs.

00:37:29.440 We just sat in restaurants for three hours and they would just bring us food and we would

00:37:32.820 just talk and drink.

00:37:34.100 And I love the chef's tasting menu because I go, I don't know what he should make or she.

00:37:39.560 You make it.

00:37:40.700 Bring it to me.

00:37:41.380 I'll eat it.

00:37:42.000 And the idea of that is crazy now.

00:37:45.100 Everybody now is a specialist in everything.

00:37:48.700 And they're ready to tell you how you should do it.

00:37:51.600 I mean, it'll be like me telling you how to be a journalist.

00:37:53.780 I don't know the first thing about interviewing anybody, about doing research.

00:37:59.380 Like to me, it would be like for me to tell you how to do it, it would be completely absurd.

00:38:03.560 I did red eye.

00:38:04.740 I did red eye.

00:38:05.360 It was fun.

00:38:05.800 And red eye at Fox, like comedians would come on and we'd sit next to John Bolton and they'd

00:38:11.500 go, well, Tim, what do you think about Syria?

00:38:15.240 Syria?

00:38:16.300 I don't, I don't have shows there.

00:38:18.040 Like, I mean, it's just, I mean, it's like I can make fun of it and I will.

00:38:22.400 And maybe I have an intelligent take on it.

00:38:24.800 But I mean, it's like, I haven't done the research and neither is anyone else.

00:38:28.660 Neither is Chelsea Handler.

00:38:30.020 They have also not done the research.

00:38:32.760 She's another one.

00:38:33.540 I don't want to hear from any more.

00:38:34.720 I'm so over Chelsea.

00:38:35.560 I mean, I was never under Chelsea Handler, but I really would like her to be quiet.

00:38:39.720 I can't stand her brand of quote humor, which as you point out, is really just lecturing

00:38:44.040 all the rest of us on how we're pieces of shit.

00:38:46.240 And she's amazing.

00:38:47.700 Well, she was also mean for a decade and now we're supposed, she was like mean.

00:38:51.420 And she was like, her funniest was just being mean.

00:38:53.540 Like, so I get it.

00:38:54.360 Like she was just like, I'm mean, I'm drunk.

00:38:57.020 Every guy I've met's penis is too small and no one has money like I do.

00:39:02.040 And it's like, okay, we can get into this.

00:39:03.980 And I thought that was bad.

00:39:06.160 Now she's like talking about the Gaza Strip.

00:39:08.020 I'm like, oh, can you go back to that, please?

00:39:11.980 That's exactly right.

00:39:13.260 Well, that's, you know, there was an article over the over the weekend.

00:39:16.340 I guess it came out on Monday talking about the bomb premiere of SNL this week and how

00:39:21.420 it's just not funny.

00:39:22.540 Right.

00:39:22.840 Because they, their king left Trump.

00:39:25.560 They don't know what to do without him.

00:39:27.400 They, it was in the LA Times saying something like, um, it was uninspired.

00:39:31.940 They said it was unfunny, lazy, crude gags scattered about and forgettable sketches.

00:39:36.720 They don't know what to do without him.

00:39:38.300 And they don't want to touch, you know, the, the, you know, the, the, the, the king and queen

00:39:43.260 Biden and Kamala Harris.

00:39:45.420 Kamala.

00:39:45.860 Right.

00:39:46.660 Yeah.

00:39:47.180 Well, it's interesting about SNL is like every guy that I knew and gal that, that had

00:39:52.660 like a working class background never got hired for that show.

00:39:56.060 That show's staffed with collegiate, usually Ivy league, Northeastern liberal art school

00:40:02.940 kids who aren't that, or their sense of humor is very specific.

00:40:08.360 And, you know, I had really funny friends that like were garbage men that submitted packets

00:40:13.040 to that show.

00:40:13.580 I mean, great standups make people laugh all over the country.

00:40:16.480 And they never got into that show.

00:40:19.160 Uh, and there's just this weird kind of the closed ranks around a specific type of person,

00:40:24.500 uh, that can't have an opinion that, I mean, I remember I knew somebody that was on the

00:40:28.420 show that wrote there for a year and he, he brought up, you know, I, I forget, I think

00:40:34.020 it was a Kennedy assassination.

00:40:35.020 He brought up his, yeah, he's a lot of people think there was some shady there.

00:40:38.520 And the whole room kind of looked at him and just kind of dismissed him.

00:40:41.760 And he was bringing it up in the context of like, there's something funny, but a joke.

00:40:45.180 It wasn't, he wasn't launching into a like who killed Kennedy thing, but it was just the

00:40:49.240 idea that you would have any opinion outside of a very mainstream kind of establishment

00:40:56.000 take of, of, of liberal politics was so, was so alien to them that they're like, they looked

00:41:02.360 at him like he was a QAnon lunatic.

00:41:04.300 They're like, what are you talking about?

00:41:05.540 So that show suffers from that problem of like, they want a very specific group of people

00:41:11.600 and that's why they're getting the type of comedy they get.

00:41:14.780 Well, that's interesting because remember they had Trump, he, he was the guest host and back

00:41:21.160 in 2015 and then they, they felt responsible for him winning and Jimmy Kimmel.

00:41:24.880 I mean, Jimmy Fallon gave him, you know, a normal late night, what used to be a normal

00:41:29.360 late night interview and he messed up his hair and then spent the next four years self-flagellating

00:41:35.220 over it because, you know, he got flack for the mainstream press, like, oh my God, you gave

00:41:39.660 him a pass.

00:41:40.300 He's the devil incarnate and you just sat there next to him laughing and then Jimmy

00:41:44.260 Fallon tried to play this role of a Stephen Colbert type, which was false and not believable

00:41:49.300 and he wasn't very good at it and they're all like SNL and some of these guys, they seem

00:41:55.060 to bear this sort of guilt when it comes to Trump and I don't know, his rise to the top

00:42:00.600 and now their responsibility to sort of give Biden, I guess, a pass, which so far is what

00:42:05.280 SNL has done.

00:42:07.000 Well, it's also this weird delusion.

00:42:08.160 It's like Trump's victory had nothing to do with SNL.

00:42:11.360 It had nothing to do with Jimmy Fallon.

00:42:12.820 This is like, again, they continue to center themselves as the most important things in

00:42:17.980 the universe.

00:42:19.820 Trump's rise had to do with a lot of people who were very frustrated with business as

00:42:23.500 usual politics and Trump, in my estimation, is kind of a little bit of a huckster, had some

00:42:28.040 good ideas, didn't do much, but, you know, loved himself, loved Twitter, loved the rallies,

00:42:32.400 but, like, his rise is kind of very easily explainable.

00:42:35.980 It has nothing to do with, like, Jimmy Fallon tussling his hair.

00:42:39.460 It was the idea that we had Jeb Bush going against Hillary Clinton, people like, is this

00:42:42.560 an oligarchy?

00:42:43.400 We're sick of Bush's and Clinton's.

00:42:45.300 And here is a bomb that we can kind of throw at this hopelessly corrupt system.

00:42:50.540 And that bomb was Donald Trump, who was incredibly funny and would say things that nobody had

00:42:55.060 ever heard a politician say.

00:42:56.320 But this idea that no one really cares about SNL, I think that's what terrifies these people,

00:43:01.240 is that no one really cares.

00:43:02.640 No one really cares about The Tonight Show.

00:43:04.520 I mean, I can go on YouTube and find, you know, videos that have more views than SNL gets,

00:43:13.800 and I could find them very, very quickly.

00:43:15.540 Um, I don't think that those places are near, uh, the, the bastions of influence, um, that

00:43:23.200 they used to be.

00:43:24.040 And I don't think they're shaping culture in any way, really.

00:43:27.180 No, you're right.

00:43:27.980 This is, we're seeing a sea change right now when it comes to comedy.

00:43:31.580 And I've seen it in my business too, news, where it's like the audience is moving from

00:43:36.060 what used to be their only option, linear television, cable TV, and so on, to digital,

00:43:41.720 to online, where they're, whatever your heart desires, it's there.

00:43:44.500 You know, uh, that's how I got to know you.

00:43:46.280 I didn't see you on, on television.

00:43:48.040 I saw you online and then started watching your sketches.

00:43:50.920 They were hilarious.

00:43:52.200 So there's just this whole alternate universe that makes SNL less relevant.

00:43:56.020 You'd think they'd be bending over backwards right now to reach out to your greater audience.

00:44:00.460 They're like cruise ships, right?

00:44:01.860 So when you steer a cruise ship, you can only move it a few degrees one way or another.

00:44:05.280 And then you have people that are coming into the game that are like speedboats.

00:44:07.980 So it's like when the guy does a crazy Capitol riot, I have my producer, me and that producer

00:44:12.560 can make a video, uh, lampooning that we could do within 24 hours, put it out and it's seen

00:44:17.460 by a million people.

00:44:18.420 It was literally the funniest thing I've ever seen.

00:44:20.440 I appreciate that.

00:44:21.720 I appreciate you retweeting it, but SNL then that same idea has to go to a writer's room

00:44:26.660 in a meeting.

00:44:27.120 It has to get approved.

00:44:28.220 It has to go through sales and legal and marketing.

00:44:30.860 Every bud network, people have to, okay, and it has to go through all of these channels

00:44:34.140 and then it gets made at the end of the week, seven days afterwards, the news cycles kind

00:44:39.020 of, you know, it doesn't hit as hard as if you can get.

00:44:41.440 So especially when it comes to comedy, speed is important.

00:44:45.520 Brevity is important.

00:44:46.620 Putting out something that's quick and doing something in a few minutes that's just as funny

00:44:51.320 and as shareable as something that people take a week to do.

00:44:54.680 So I think that is really where things are heading.

00:44:58.240 They're heading to these very, you know, kind of independent and obviously people always

00:45:02.760 consolidate and it's human nature to kind of collaborate and consolidate.

00:45:05.960 So I'm not saying that these shows will die per se, or maybe they'll emerge in other forms,

00:45:11.080 but like, you know, you don't have a chance in hell to compete with people that are utilizing

00:45:17.360 the internet in a smart way to build a fan base.

00:45:20.200 You just don't.

00:45:21.120 I mean, you know, I think that's the real thing that they're reckoning with right now

00:45:25.720 on TV, on Comedy Central, all of these networks, they don't know what to do because they are

00:45:31.040 completely being outflanked by digital creators every day.

00:45:35.920 And speaking of SNL and your online sketches, one of the funniest things, I made my husband

00:45:42.240 Doug watch it.

00:45:42.880 It was so funny.

00:45:44.240 I've watched it twice.

00:45:45.280 This is probably such pleasure.

00:45:46.940 What is your bit on Hilaria Baldwin?

00:45:50.040 Who you say we're being far too tough on.

00:45:52.800 We really need to go easier on Hilaria.

00:45:55.540 Yeah.

00:45:55.800 Yeah.

00:45:56.000 She wants to be fun.

00:45:56.980 Let her have a little fun.

00:45:57.940 Let her make up an accent.

00:45:58.980 Nothing, and maybe this is the Irish thing, I can't for the life of me, I don't understand

00:46:04.660 why certain things bother people.

00:46:06.900 So if this woman wants to pretend to be, again, a high-end Hispanic woman, like she's

00:46:13.760 not saying like, I've had a rough life.

00:46:16.420 And in fact, it's quite the opposite.

00:46:18.420 She's going, yes, I'm rich.

00:46:19.880 And she just wants to tell these fake stories from Spain that never happened, where she went

00:46:23.860 to the market with her grandmother, and they got the jamon, we got the jamon, and then

00:46:29.300 we make the tapas, you know.

00:46:32.300 Let her do it.

00:46:33.240 I mean, to me, I'm like, let her do it.

00:46:35.220 I look at everyone on TV, and I'm like, they've invented a version of themselves.

00:46:38.040 Kamala Harris used to be Indian.

00:46:39.940 Now she's black.

00:46:41.140 She used to be a prosecutor.

00:46:42.400 Now she's gone with the police.

00:46:44.800 I don't know what the hell's going on.

00:46:46.860 So everybody's inventing versions of themselves in this country constantly.

00:46:49.920 Why do I have to care about Hilaria Baldwin?

00:46:51.820 She's not making laws, you know.

00:46:53.880 Like, I'm more worried about Elizabeth Warren, because I used to be a Native American.

00:46:57.380 This is a problem.

00:46:58.760 So, like, if everyone can just, these people all just inventing.

00:47:03.240 Hillary Clinton's got hot sauce in her purse.

00:47:05.180 She's getting shot at in Syria.

00:47:06.340 I mean, it's like, everybody's making stuff up all the time.

00:47:09.080 I think Hilaria Baldwin is like the least of our problems.

00:47:11.560 Oh, it's so true.

00:47:13.220 It's an alternate viewpoint.

00:47:14.660 And that's another person that SNL can't make fun of, because their other problem is

00:47:18.280 they're beholden to celebrities.

00:47:20.000 Oh, yeah.

00:47:20.620 They love celebrities.

00:47:21.740 They want to go to the Hamptons, and, you know, everybody in SNL just wants to hang out

00:47:25.620 with the people that they make fun of.

00:47:27.100 And, like, I always make fun.

00:47:28.580 Listen, my stuff's good-hearted.

00:47:31.420 I think that most people that we lampoon are fine with it.

00:47:35.180 I do think that I'm a ridiculous character, so I think, I mean, there are people, you know,

00:47:39.400 Meghan McCain probably doesn't love me.

00:47:40.960 I know that there's people that aren't necessarily thrilled with, I don't think any woman loves

00:47:46.340 seeing me put on a wig and be them.

00:47:48.400 I mean, so, I mean, I get it, but it's also, like, we are literally just having fun, and

00:47:54.380 we're making, we're doing funny things.

00:47:58.180 And so whenever, but we also are not courting, like, our goal, my goal is to be a really funny

00:48:03.620 person.

00:48:04.020 It's not to get invited to a party in the Hollywood Hills and have everyone like me.

00:48:08.220 I think if that became my goal, my comedy suffers tremendously.

00:48:12.540 And I think SNL, a lot of the problem is they have celebrity hosts.

00:48:16.800 They want celebrities to feel comfortable.

00:48:18.540 They want big musicians to come in.

00:48:20.800 And so they're playing that game now of, like, we want to make fun of celebrities, but

00:48:25.240 also we want to do it in a way that still makes them really love us and feel comfortable

00:48:29.960 with us.

00:48:30.360 And I just think that that's the route to something that's not really funny.

00:48:35.320 Well, and now they're, you know, SNL, you mentioned how they have a preference for these

00:48:39.000 Northeastern, well-educated, advanced degree people.

00:48:42.480 And, you know, that's true of NBC on a larger basis, too.

00:48:45.840 And NBC News, they don't hire the people from the B-tier schools.

00:48:49.900 And I would suggest to you the news product shows that in a way that's not so great for

00:48:53.340 getting numbers.

00:48:54.900 But now SNL and other comedians have to worry about the woke craziness going on right now,

00:49:00.820 because you know how it is.

00:49:02.400 You can't touch anything or you're a NIST.

00:49:04.460 You're some sort of a NIST, racist, sexist, you know, take your pick.

00:49:09.020 And I remember just as like a small, I remember something, like, I remember the stuff starting

00:49:14.000 to creep into our language, I don't know, let's say 15 years ago, where like, you can't

00:49:18.340 say that or you can't do this.

00:49:19.440 And I wasn't even trying to be funny.

00:49:21.560 I didn't know this was considered a derogatory term, but I got in trouble at one point on

00:49:26.060 the air at Fox because I referred to, I said, you know, the guy committed the crime and

00:49:31.120 they took him away in the paddy wagon.

00:49:32.740 And they were like, oh, you can't say that.

00:49:34.520 I'm like, after I got off the air, I'm like, why not?

00:49:37.000 Like, it's racist against Irish people.

00:49:40.400 I'm like, back to our original point, like, no, it isn't.

00:49:42.760 We're fine.

00:49:43.340 You know, people get one email from an Irish person.

00:49:45.860 But also, how?

00:49:47.460 How is it?

00:49:47.940 And I learned at that time, the paddy wagon is like a reference to all the paddies who

00:49:53.700 are out there boozing it up, you know, having their too many beers and causing trouble getting

00:49:57.640 arrested.

00:49:58.080 OK, so you can't say.

00:49:59.080 But now, of course, our world has lost its ever love in mind.

00:50:03.500 And it's it's crossed over.

00:50:04.760 The latest story that was in the news this week was I don't know if you saw this, but

00:50:07.920 how how Bernie Sanders is getting attacked as it was his privilege.

00:50:13.140 That photo of him with the big mittens that went viral.

00:50:15.780 Yes.

00:50:16.260 There's some San Francisco high school teacher who wrote a piece.

00:50:19.280 Yes.

00:50:19.600 I pulled it.

00:50:20.220 I pulled a quote.

00:50:21.020 Here it is.

00:50:23.300 What she saw was a wealthy, incredibly well-educated and privileged white man showing up for perhaps

00:50:29.200 the most important ritual of the decade in a puffy jacket and huge mittens.

00:50:32.700 It manifests privilege, white privilege, male privilege and class privilege in ways her

00:50:37.000 students could see and feel.

00:50:39.540 Tim.

00:50:39.680 Yeah, I mean, it's it's a you know, the term is mind virus, you know, the term is it's

00:50:44.860 a disease.

00:50:45.280 It's gone to the brain.

00:50:46.520 It is spread.

00:50:47.660 It is invasion of the body snatchers.

00:50:49.840 It is a zombie movie.

00:50:51.660 It is.

00:50:52.300 I mean, it really, truly is all of these things.

00:50:55.780 The way I feel about when you look at the entertainment, I go, people got to opt out.

00:50:59.960 Right.

00:51:00.200 So if you're an entertainer and you're a funny person, you need to build your own fan base.

00:51:04.060 You need to do it online until you're not able to do that.

00:51:06.900 But, you know, you have to just opt out.

00:51:10.540 You can't play the game.

00:51:11.640 You can't try to get on SNL.

00:51:13.580 You can't try to get involved in mainstream comedy right now because it isn't funny.

00:51:17.980 That's why a lot of people that have great thriving careers in mainstream comedy right

00:51:20.860 now are not by their nature funny.

00:51:22.720 They are, you know, careerists.

00:51:25.500 They are people who know what to say, how to say it.

00:51:28.160 They love office politics.

00:51:29.900 They love virtue signaling.

00:51:31.020 They love having the right positions in the right package.

00:51:33.400 And those people do very well in writers rooms at NBC and CBS.

00:51:37.860 And those are the people who are, you know, running HBO and running Netflix.

00:51:44.220 And those are the people that are, you know, for the most part, the dominant cultural mode

00:51:49.900 is, you know, go along, get along.

00:51:53.360 Don't ruffle feathers.

00:51:54.380 Don't rock the boat.

00:51:55.260 And wherever the prevailing winds of the day are, you just got to have no opinions and

00:51:59.480 not really, you got to be liquid.

00:52:02.080 You got to take the shape of your container.

00:52:03.860 So, and that's what Hollywood is.

00:52:05.480 People don't realize that.

00:52:07.300 Hollywood is people, for the most part, that don't have strong opinions.

00:52:12.280 They are really able to, they're very malleable and they're able to, you know, whichever way

00:52:17.900 the wind is blowing.

00:52:18.820 Okay.

00:52:19.080 Are we unwoke this year?

00:52:20.800 Are we woke this year?

00:52:22.000 Is this year the year of elevating Asian people?

00:52:25.040 Is it the year of elevating Middle Eastern people?

00:52:27.740 Is it the gay year?

00:52:28.900 Is it the trans year?

00:52:29.840 They don't care.

00:52:31.200 Their job is to buy a $10 million house in Beverly Hills and pay the mortgage.

00:52:36.760 So whatever does that.

00:52:39.200 But if you're a comedian, you're a digital creator, you're a podcaster, you're an independent

00:52:43.840 person, you have a voice, a perspective, you're funny, you need to just build your own

00:52:47.680 fan base outside of that system because that system's collapsing.

00:52:50.980 I can barely ask about this.

00:52:52.140 And we were talking about rebuilding society or at least building a new thread in society

00:52:56.900 so that normal people who don't want to live like this, as Douglas Murray put it, having

00:53:01.240 to worry about secret trap doors opening up underneath you, no matter what you say and

00:53:05.340 do.

00:53:05.560 And the digital world is going to have to be a major part of that, right?

00:53:09.800 Because I do think linear television has been overtaken by people like that.

00:53:14.000 And most of us don't want to live like that or have to consume information or entertainment

00:53:18.100 like that.

00:53:19.360 So but you know as well as I do that the digital world is not secure either.

00:53:23.480 And we saw that after the whole Capitol Hill riot with Parler being taken down and Trump

00:53:28.200 being booted off Twitter.

00:53:29.400 And now all these YouTube videos get censored.

00:53:31.300 And I worry.

00:53:32.940 I mean, I'm sure you do too about what about this lane?

00:53:36.000 This lane is not secure either.

00:53:38.040 I mean, it's a lane where I'm trying to make money in three to five years and I'm trying

00:53:42.680 to make enough money.

00:53:43.440 That's part of the move to Texas because, you know, if I live in Cali.

00:53:46.380 Listen, I love Cali.

00:53:47.400 I think it's a great city.

00:53:48.700 But like, you know, Cali is like, OK, so then you get a house in Malibu and then you

00:53:53.360 got to get a house in Bel Air.

00:53:55.280 It's like it's a no end to up, right?

00:53:57.220 It's like you got to constantly make more money every year and be bigger and bigger and you

00:54:02.220 make more and more compromises and more and more sacrifices.

00:54:05.000 And so the part of the move to Austin, Texas for me, other than the fact that I think Joe

00:54:09.440 Rogan, who's a good friend of mine, is going to try to really build a thriving community

00:54:11.980 down there, is that I want to really make my money now because I am and I want to save

00:54:20.160 it.

00:54:20.540 I don't want to give it all to Gavin Newsom.

00:54:22.040 I want to save my money for the exact reason you said.

00:54:24.800 I don't know what's coming down the pike.

00:54:27.640 I'm a cynical guy by nature.

00:54:29.900 It terrifies me that a joke I make can be taken the wrong way and I can lose.

00:54:34.060 Yeah.

00:54:34.560 So what I'm trying to do is build a digital infrastructure where I can have fans.

00:54:40.000 I have an email list.

00:54:40.920 I have a group of people that like what I do and I'm living in a state where I don't

00:54:44.640 have to give all of my money away and the cost of living is less.

00:54:47.640 And all of that is really because I don't know what's coming down the pike and it is

00:54:52.380 terrifying for anybody whose career primarily exists online.

00:54:57.920 That's why I try to just be funny.

00:55:01.140 But again, is that going to be a defense, right?

00:55:03.960 I mean, if you tweet, a man could not get pregnant today in 2021, you could lose your Twitter

00:55:09.960 account, okay?

00:55:11.360 I don't know what statement that's going to be in three years.

00:55:14.680 So if you say, which was biological in the textbook and still is, if you tweet something

00:55:21.840 like that, you could lose your entire Twitter.

00:55:23.740 So I don't know what that statement's going to be in 24 months, 36 months, but I'm not,

00:55:31.380 my outlook isn't positive.

00:55:33.880 Yeah, I know.

00:55:35.040 And now they're trying to crack down on podcasts too.

00:55:37.600 So soon they're going to be going through the podcast with a fine tooth comb, trying to

00:55:42.020 find offensive stuff, which will be no problem whatsoever.

00:55:45.280 Um, but you know, the, the reach of big tech is getting wider and I think we got to get

00:55:51.340 into tech, you know, so I'm in this, I'm on this app clubhouse all the time and I'm talking

00:55:54.500 to people that are in the tech space.

00:55:55.840 There is a group of people that do not want this in tech.

00:55:58.580 They are by no means the majority, but there is a group of people that love comedy, like

00:56:03.220 comedians understand freedom, know that people need freedom of expression.

00:56:06.500 And I think for whatever reason, like they, they're, I hope they gain more power and I

00:56:11.600 hope they get, uh, you know, more of a foothold on what's going on.

00:56:15.580 I talked to some of these people, I know some of these people, I know billionaire founders

00:56:18.400 of apps that text me, I love your video, this, that, the other thing.

00:56:20.900 So there are people in that space that are very successful that love you, that love, you

00:56:25.720 know, people that we know and respect.

00:56:28.160 And like, so I'm hoping that there's a fight.

00:56:31.980 Like I'm, I'm hoping that there is some type of, you know, pushback against this.

00:56:38.700 I just don't know how successful it'll be.

00:56:40.640 Oh no, no.

00:56:41.480 I mean, there is a fight it's on, it's on on many fronts, not just on the digital world.

00:56:45.520 I don't like that, um, app you just mentioned.

00:56:47.980 What's it called again?

00:56:49.080 Clubhouse clubhouse.

00:56:50.180 I don't like that because it makes me feel like I felt in high school when I didn't get

00:56:53.700 invited to the cool party.

00:56:54.820 And you're like, I know, but I feel, but I, I did get invited.

00:56:58.420 I know.

00:56:58.820 Screw you.

00:57:01.980 You know, my friends tell me, they're like, I don't like the way it says about our society

00:57:06.740 that you need an invite to get on because I didn't get the invite.

00:57:08.940 And I go, okay, but it's, it's very, it's very childish.

00:57:14.120 And sometimes we have to indulge our base, carnal, childish, ridiculous id, you know, and

00:57:21.680 that's, but it's hilarious.

00:57:22.660 They'll let everyone on eventually.

00:57:23.840 And you can, you can get on.

00:57:25.120 Meggie Kelly could clearly get on a clubhouse.

00:57:26.740 It's just a funny, it's a, it's a funny thing.

00:57:30.300 And what's funny is that you go on this and you are talking to these really, and they invite

00:57:35.380 me in the rooms cause I'm funny.

00:57:36.540 So they talk about Bitcoin or venture capitalism for eight minutes and then I throw in a joke.

00:57:40.440 So you need, you need somebody to keep it light a little bit, but it is very interesting

00:57:44.280 because like, you know, you know, the founder of Bumble was on the other night and she goes,

00:57:47.380 we got to put up guardrails online.

00:57:48.860 And as soon as I hear that, I get a little nervous cause I'm like, well, what, what is her

00:57:52.480 idea of a guardrail?

00:57:53.860 Yeah.

00:57:54.040 She means me.

00:57:55.260 Right.

00:57:55.700 She means me every now and then when I hear like a white billionaire female talk, I get

00:58:00.740 a little nervous because they talk like this and they go, we're really just trying to ensure

00:58:05.820 that we're living in an era of respect.

00:58:07.780 And I'm like, Oh, she wants me in jail.

00:58:09.860 Like immediately I go, this woman wants me in jail.

00:58:13.020 I was hearing her talk going, she wants me in jail, but it's good to hear.

00:58:17.800 I don't think they're monsters.

00:58:19.460 I just think that like, they want everyone to be nice.

00:58:23.480 That's their whole thing.

00:58:24.760 Cause they all have hundreds of millions of dollars.

00:58:26.280 They don't want to give you any of that, but they go, well, I want to be the good guys.

00:58:29.560 I want you to be nice.

00:58:30.800 Everyone's got to be nice.

00:58:32.480 And that's terrifying.

00:58:33.720 So, I mean, I hope that there's a pushback and that it's, you know, it's successful.

00:58:38.860 I don't know.

00:58:39.820 I mean, I think we are starting to get, they've overplayed their hand and I do think there's

00:58:43.280 going to be a massive blowback.

00:58:45.160 And I think Trump being gone is, that's one good thing about him being gone is that they don't

00:58:48.720 have him to blame anymore.

00:58:49.680 Now we just got to fight.

00:58:50.480 Now the gloves are off.

00:58:51.560 It's bare knuckle.

00:58:52.520 Let's go.

00:58:53.160 You don't have anybody to blame this on.

00:58:54.680 Just you punch me in the face and I'll punch you in the face and we'll see who's stronger,

00:58:58.040 who has more people on their side, who has a better argument, who wants to, you know,

00:59:01.340 who's going to control the direction of America basically.

00:59:03.940 Yes.

00:59:04.000 But I, you know, this big versus little thing and what you're saying about the tech people

00:59:10.100 who are on there.

00:59:10.760 So some people who are secretly on our side is encouraging, but it, it, it made me think

00:59:15.400 of what's going on this week with GameStop and AMC and what do you, what's your take

00:59:20.160 on that?

00:59:20.460 Because I know you've been tweeting about it.

00:59:22.080 I confess, I don't totally understand it, but I guess I get that these are companies.

00:59:26.960 There's a Reddit called Wall Street Bets, our Wall Street Bets, which has got millions and

00:59:30.840 millions of people in it and all they do is discuss stocks.

00:59:34.440 Okay.

00:59:35.220 And basically they wanted to, they were looking at all these hedge funds that were shorting

00:59:40.180 companies like GameStop, which means that they're essentially betting that the stock

00:59:44.200 will fail and betting that, you know, the fundamentals of the business aren't good and

00:59:48.320 they're aggressively shorting GameStop and they're aggressively shorting AMC theaters.

00:59:52.680 And a lot of these guys on Wall Street Bets said, we could do a short squeeze here.

00:59:55.920 Meaning that like we can pump the stock's price up by buying it, forcing a lot of

01:00:00.800 these big institutional players to have to cover their shorts and they're going to be

01:00:05.180 out a lot of money and we're going to make a lot of money.

01:00:07.580 And again, absolutely legal, not insider trading, absolutely 100% legal.

01:00:13.380 It is collusion, my favorite new word of the last three years, but they're doing it absolutely

01:00:18.400 legally.

01:00:18.980 This is what people do all the time.

01:00:20.280 They go, here's a bet, here's a play, here's what we want to do.

01:00:23.200 So they started to do that and they pushed the shares of GameStop 400%.

01:00:28.060 Yeah, it was at 347 bucks last Wednesday.

01:00:31.520 Amazing.

01:00:32.320 So then what happened was Robinhood, which is the app that was a day trader app.

01:00:37.000 A lot of the people were buying these shares of GameStop on this app called Robinhood.

01:00:40.640 Robinhood then stopped trading on GameStop and AMC.

01:00:45.380 Stopped trading on those two stocks, which is illegal.

01:00:50.100 It's those companies are not being investigated by the FCC.

01:00:52.860 There was no reason to limit trading, limit buying of those stocks.

01:00:56.400 But when you look deeper into it, Robinhood sells all their user data to Citadel, which

01:01:02.140 is a massive hedge fund.

01:01:04.100 Citadel owns a lot of Robinhood's data.

01:01:06.960 So when you are using Robinhood, you think you're the customer, but you're actually the

01:01:10.700 product.

01:01:11.440 You know, somebody explained it like that.

01:01:12.940 You're the product.

01:01:13.640 Your data, what you're buying, your information is being marketed to other hedge funds who are

01:01:18.700 paying for the privilege of knowing what you do online in the market because they want

01:01:23.180 to know what retail investors are doing.

01:01:25.760 So it was very shady because Citadel also owned, I mean, coincidentally, they were doing a lot

01:01:34.660 of the short squeezes on these companies.

01:01:36.120 So they're losing billions of dollars.

01:01:38.060 And then Robinhood, which again is, you know, one of Citadel's biggest clients in terms of,

01:01:44.600 you know, selling data, they stopped trading on these stocks.

01:01:49.040 So it looks very bad.

01:01:50.480 And then the CEO of Robinhood said, well, it has to do with capital requirements and this,

01:01:54.280 that, and the other thing.

01:01:54.940 But a lot of people, myself included, goes, this just looks very shady.

01:01:58.700 It looks like you're protecting your guys who are losing a lot of money by stopping people

01:02:04.920 from trading.

01:02:05.360 So it became a big guy versus little guy thing.

01:02:07.140 And of course, nothing is that simple because there was a lot of big guys like Mark Cuban or

01:02:11.960 Elon Musk or Dave Portnoy, the head of Barstool Sports, who were very much in favor of this.

01:02:17.720 And there were, um, and there were a lot of, you know, organizations, uh, that purportedly

01:02:23.480 are for, you know, the little guy, quote unquote, that we're saying that this was a, you know,

01:02:29.280 chaotic and this was fueled by Trump or whatever it's white supremacy.

01:02:33.960 I don't know.

01:02:34.820 But I mean, so there was a lot of people that you would expect.

01:02:36.960 What it really was is people saw an opportunity to make a little money.

01:02:39.680 And what then happened was, um, nobody's really satisfied with the explanation of the

01:02:46.260 Robinhood app CEO who basically changed the story a few times.

01:02:50.780 And when you look at, uh, so a lot of people felt like, Hey, it's another thing.

01:02:55.360 It's like, Hey, you don't like Twitter?

01:02:57.140 Go on parlor.

01:02:57.740 Okay.

01:02:58.020 We're going to forget parlor.

01:02:59.660 Okay.

01:03:00.120 Hey, how about we figure out a way to make money in the stock market and, you know, you

01:03:04.160 know, wrestle a little control back from these hedge fund guys.

01:03:06.240 And then all of a sudden they shut off your ability to purchase stocks.

01:03:09.280 So I, it resonated with me on a level of like, number one, I thought it was funny because

01:03:14.560 hedge fund billionaires are crying on CNBC.

01:03:16.620 That's hilarious.

01:03:17.940 Uh, number two, um, it wasn't the whole stock market was in trouble.

01:03:22.320 It was hedge, big hedge funds that are in trouble.

01:03:24.360 They'll be fine.

01:03:25.620 Um, and this was to me, an example of the little guy causing a little bit of trouble.

01:03:32.960 And I think that's good.

01:03:34.480 I think that's okay to cause a little bit of trouble and to say, Hey, we're alive.

01:03:38.760 We're here.

01:03:39.620 I, by the way, the election of Donald Trump is causing a little bit of trouble.

01:03:43.160 It's people that are saying we still exist and we're going to do something that's a little

01:03:46.900 crazy to get your attention.

01:03:49.340 That to me is kind of what this, uh, GameStop AMC stock thing was.

01:03:55.500 It was people going, we are alive.

01:03:58.060 We exist and we want you to notice us.

01:04:00.640 And, and they were very successful at that.

01:04:02.280 You know, it's interesting that you mentioned somebody like Mark Cuban or Dave Portnoy, because

01:04:06.120 those are self-made guys.

01:04:07.340 They didn't come from a bunch of dough where they had life made easy for them.

01:04:10.780 They're scrappy.

01:04:11.920 And, um, it's probably no accident that they were like, yeah, this isn't bad.

01:04:15.240 Let these guys, amateur investors, let them do what they want to do.

01:04:18.180 This is pretty cool.

01:04:19.040 And, uh, score one for the little guys.

01:04:21.080 But then you have people like Jimmy Kimmel, who also was a self-made guy, but you know,

01:04:26.200 we talked about him before saying maybe this was Russian disruptors.

01:04:29.880 I mean, like you get these curve balls.

01:04:32.740 It's sad, man.

01:04:34.040 It's sad to watch that.

01:04:35.600 It's just the word, the term is like tragic when you watch him do that.

01:04:40.180 Why?

01:04:41.960 Because he doesn't want to say that.

01:04:44.860 You could see it in his face that he doesn't want to say that.

01:04:48.620 You know, he doesn't want to say that.

01:04:50.300 This is, he is in such a compromised position.

01:04:53.940 I guess you just make so much money.

01:04:56.360 You know, you start buying the things that money buys you.

01:05:00.560 You're living a life now where you have to, you know, constantly, you know, please the,

01:05:05.760 the, the overlords.

01:05:07.200 But it's just sad to watch a comedian dismiss people making money on the stock market as

01:05:14.640 Russian disruptors with absolutely no evidence.

01:05:19.360 Like that is just sad to me.

01:05:21.440 I go, man, that's rough.

01:05:22.760 Cause that guy was really funny and he just doesn't look like he has any life in his face

01:05:26.520 anymore.

01:05:26.800 When he talks, he doesn't look alive.

01:05:28.560 And I think I tweeted like, he doesn't look like he has a soul, which was, that's a little

01:05:31.520 extreme, but it really does.

01:05:33.220 Because he looks like just somebody who's his, his sense of, of, of, of, of, of, of not

01:05:39.520 only comedy, but just being alive seems to have been robbed from him.

01:05:43.660 So that's what, that's what's sad to me.

01:05:44.960 He just feels like his reactions aren't his own reactions.

01:05:47.880 His words aren't his own words.

01:05:49.400 He seems like a vessel.

01:05:50.380 And I don't know where he's getting this information from, but I imagine it's from

01:05:53.820 people that have an interest in putting it out there.

01:05:56.520 So, well, but to me, to me, it was scary because you, you picked up it.

01:06:00.520 I heard you on Joe Rogan, you were talking a little bit about Ellen and, and I, I think

01:06:05.680 they're suffering from the same thing.

01:06:07.180 Like you can get to the point where you've been so successful.

01:06:09.840 You've made so much money and you travel in these circles that are so elite that you

01:06:14.180 forget your humanity.

01:06:15.880 You forget who you are, forget how to relate to real people.

01:06:19.840 And what matters to real people.

01:06:21.840 And I agree with you.

01:06:22.900 She, she seems like she's not a nice person.

01:06:26.460 He seems like he's crossed over to this place where he just wants to preserve this empire

01:06:30.600 he's built.

01:06:31.800 Um, you know, he says he won't even do, he doesn't want people who disagree with him

01:06:35.780 on things like the second amendment or healthcare watching his show.

01:06:38.980 Okay, fine.

01:06:39.960 Right.

01:06:40.520 You know, we won't.

01:06:41.920 Um, and Ellen seems like she's in the same place.

01:06:43.740 She's got like 75 houses all over the world, perfectly decorated.

01:06:48.120 She probably spends one day every three years in each one.

01:06:51.300 And people are like, I don't know.

01:06:52.740 She's really nice.

01:06:53.620 It's like, well, guess what?

01:06:54.480 I can tell you.

01:06:55.240 She's not the people who, who know who work for her.

01:06:58.320 If you have told us, they've told us.

01:07:00.760 The real story to me is always more interesting than the facade.

01:07:04.000 And I think that's why I'm a comic versus another type of person.

01:07:07.860 Like I don't buy, when I see somebody, I don't buy it always.

01:07:11.980 And I'm like, what is, what's really going on there?

01:07:15.220 And I know how hard it is to succeed or even on the small level that I have in, in, in the

01:07:20.760 entertainment business, very tough.

01:07:22.600 Ellen's worked very, very hard to get where she has, but it's also like she hasn't spent

01:07:27.700 a ton of time thinking about other people.

01:07:30.320 This is not how you get to be Alan DeGeneres, right?

01:07:32.340 It's not how you get to be Chelsea Handler.

01:07:33.640 It's not how you get to be Matt Damon, that how you get to be that is focusing on yourself.

01:07:39.060 You focus on your career, your craft.

01:07:42.240 I mean, this is really the, like, nobody wants to talk about this, but like, then you get

01:07:46.680 to this position where you're thrust into the public spotlight and then you, you take

01:07:51.560 on this role of like, that everything you do is this altruistic pursuit and you're trying

01:07:56.840 to help people and take care of people.

01:07:58.420 But the reality is you don't really know how to do that.

01:08:01.360 A lot more goes into that than you would imagine.

01:08:03.440 A lot of your ideas aren't needed.

01:08:06.540 You're not an expert.

01:08:07.940 You've spent no real time doing research.

01:08:10.200 You haven't met the people you purport to care about.

01:08:13.160 That's the other thing.

01:08:14.080 You haven't met any of these people.

01:08:15.380 You don't know what they need.

01:08:17.000 And so it's this crazy idea.

01:08:18.420 It's very patronizing to believe that just because you have succeeded in this business,

01:08:22.020 you've made oodles of money, gobs of money that you somehow are in a better position

01:08:27.140 to tell people what they need and what's going to give them a meaningful life.

01:08:31.080 It's like, to me, I've never had an interest in that.

01:08:33.420 I've never had an interest in looking at people and going, here's what you need and here's

01:08:39.040 who should give it to you.

01:08:39.900 I don't have an interest in that.

01:08:41.100 But I guess at a certain point when you've succeeded and you just, you know, and an

01:08:47.480 interviewer asks you like, hey, how did you succeed?

01:08:49.820 You can't give the answer.

01:08:50.960 You can't be like, well, you know, I sacrificed so much for years and I really didn't speak

01:08:56.840 to my friends or family and I just networked.

01:08:59.700 I had to step on a bunch of people's heads.

01:09:01.600 You know, I barely ate.

01:09:02.920 I hollowed my soul out.

01:09:04.560 I learned to deal with rejection.

01:09:05.960 I turned off all my emotions.

01:09:07.560 The term is probably sociopath or at least I was on the spectrum.

01:09:11.100 You know, I didn't feel for many years.

01:09:13.020 I would go to Christmas and look at all these simpletons and be disgusted by them and I just

01:09:16.940 started to be, you know, you can't do that.

01:09:18.820 You have to go like, you know what's really important?

01:09:20.680 The planet and global warming and the Green New Deal.

01:09:23.360 So it's like, it's a lack of honesty.

01:09:25.160 All of this comes from just a lack of honesty and who's willing to accept it.

01:09:29.860 And a lot of people are willing to accept the version of Ellen that she puts out to them

01:09:34.720 because it's nicer and more comforting.

01:09:36.940 But to me, I'm like, it's not interesting and it's certainly not funny.

01:09:39.900 Can I ask you about who came to mind when you were saying that was Prince Harry?

01:09:46.780 Because, you know, he married Meghan Markle and then not long ago he talked about how

01:09:51.140 he'd had an awakening, an awakening on white privilege and racism that we're living in

01:09:57.360 a world created by white people for white people.

01:09:59.980 Meanwhile, this is Prince Harry.

01:10:02.360 He's talking to us from his castle or at least had recently left it.

01:10:05.500 And he's trying to lecture the rest of us on white privilege.

01:10:07.960 By the way, the guy was wearing a Nazi uniform for Halloween when he was a teenager.

01:10:12.520 So it's like, OK, fine.

01:10:13.820 He might have had a revelation.

01:10:15.000 But like maybe he's not the best person to be lecturing us on white privilege.

01:10:20.020 It's also like these people are wrong.

01:10:22.040 Like Japan's doing great.

01:10:23.560 China's like there are lots of countries that have been thriving.

01:10:26.800 Like to say it's a world created by white people, you're talking about the post-colonial

01:10:30.740 era.

01:10:31.340 You're ignoring antiquity.

01:10:33.120 You're ignoring the ancient world.

01:10:35.040 You're ignoring like these vast, amazing empires that existed with Persians and Assyrians

01:10:40.100 and all these.

01:10:40.460 But it's the insane Africa.

01:10:42.560 Go back to Africa.

01:10:43.220 Like it's just this ignorance of history.

01:10:45.540 It's like all history starts in the period of European colonialism.

01:10:49.900 They're actually dumb.

01:10:51.400 Like I think that's also the problem.

01:10:52.820 They're like not that smart.

01:10:53.940 It's like it's really this whole thing I see cancel culture and all this is like it's

01:10:58.180 the revenge of the mediocre.

01:10:59.580 These are mediocre thinkers.

01:11:00.960 They're mediocre academics.

01:11:03.200 And they're and they're just elevating themselves by, you know, they're not that smart.

01:11:08.640 I mean, if you look, listen to somebody like Camille Paglia, listen to somebody who's actually

01:11:12.500 intelligent, whether you agree with them or not.

01:11:14.760 These people are actually have a command of of history and what they're talking about.

01:11:18.560 It's like to ignore the the hundreds of years, thousands of years of history that predate

01:11:25.500 all of your, you know, cute black and white assumptions about everything.

01:11:29.820 It's it's absurd.

01:11:30.980 It's just it's again, it's an ignorance of history that's baffling.

01:11:34.840 A lot of these people have it to say that this is a world created by white people for white

01:11:39.480 people.

01:11:39.660 We all know that race is a major problem, you know, and has been forever.

01:11:46.040 And it is not exclusive to white people, even though white people certainly in this part

01:11:50.020 of the world have have practiced it and limited people's rights.

01:11:53.180 And we all know that that's bad and has to change.

01:11:55.700 But at the end of the day, it are you diminishing the accomplishments of like the Sumerians?

01:12:01.220 Like, what are you talking about?

01:12:02.360 Like, are you diminishing the accomplishments of mathematics that were, you know, that were

01:12:06.480 happening in the Fertile Crescent?

01:12:07.560 Like these people are just I don't know.

01:12:09.760 I don't know where they went to school, but I hope some of them get a refund.

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01:13:58.240 Now, before we get back to Tim Dillon, I want to bring you a feature of the show we call

01:14:03.700 Sound Up.

01:14:05.360 This is where we bring you some sound that we feel you must hear.

01:14:08.660 Today, our old friend, Governor Andrew Cuomo is the star of Sound Up.

01:14:13.700 We learned this week in the New York Times that nine top New York state health officials

01:14:18.840 have quit working for this guy in recent weeks.

01:14:21.840 Why?

01:14:22.120 Well, likely because of comments like this, which he made on Friday.

01:14:27.740 Now, take a listen.

01:14:28.980 You may have heard the very short comment at the beginning of this soundbite we're going

01:14:32.040 to play for you.

01:14:32.800 It got some media play, but very little attention was paid to the full comment, which is about

01:14:37.500 as smug and gross as, well, just about any of other of Andrew Cuomo's previous comments.

01:14:44.760 Listen.

01:14:44.920 When I say experts in air quotes, it sounds like I'm saying I don't really trust the experts

01:14:54.680 because I don't, because I don't.

01:15:00.540 You want to talk about making mistakes.

01:15:05.140 How did COVID come here for three months and nobody knew?

01:15:08.660 How did COVID leave China, go to Europe, and come here, and all these federal watchdogs,

01:15:17.000 nobody knew it?

01:15:18.640 How did you let New York sit here for three months receiving passengers from Europe who

01:15:24.880 had the virus and nobody knew?

01:15:26.600 How did you tell us that to spread the disease you had to be symptomatic, which meant the sneezing,

01:15:38.940 the coughing, that's how it spread, only to do a total 180 degrees later and say, oh, by

01:15:51.340 the way, you can be asymptomatic and spread it.

01:15:54.780 So, what?

01:15:58.340 That's all the difference in the world.

01:16:01.340 It got into nursing homes because it was here before anyone knew.

01:16:08.260 It was brought in by staff.

01:16:10.360 It was brought in by visitors.

01:16:13.540 Once it was here, they said it was spread by symptomatic people.

01:16:17.300 That was untrue.

01:16:19.340 It was also spread by asymptomatic people.

01:16:22.040 But then to play politics with it the way they did, that was mean.

01:16:31.360 That was mean.

01:16:32.840 When the Trump administration was trying to divert blame, so they said, well, the states, not

01:16:43.740 just New York, by the way, they blamed all the Democratic states for the deaths in nursing

01:16:50.720 homes.

01:16:52.100 The politics wasn't just here in New York.

01:16:54.280 It was all the Democratic governors.

01:16:56.300 It was New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania.

01:16:58.900 Blame all the Democratic governors for the deaths in nursing homes.

01:17:02.560 No, that was mean.

01:17:06.980 Because if you lost someone in a nursing home, then it put a thought in your head, well, maybe

01:17:12.580 it didn't have to be.

01:17:14.880 Maybe my father died unnecessarily.

01:17:18.700 And that was just cruel to do.

01:17:21.880 OMG.

01:17:22.480 Is this guy effing out to lunch?

01:17:26.980 Are you freaking kidding me?

01:17:29.340 He he's got the nerve to try to speak on behalf of the families who lost people in nursing

01:17:35.900 homes in New York state.

01:17:37.780 I mean, I almost want to call up Janice Dean right now and get her to participate in this.

01:17:41.160 You know what she'd be thinking, what she'd be saying.

01:17:43.620 She's coming back on soon, by the way.

01:17:45.120 It was mean to play politics with it.

01:17:49.660 It was mean to blame the nursing home deaths on, quote, Democratic governors.

01:17:56.200 No, you, you, Governor Cuomo, you are to blame.

01:18:00.220 You did sign an order requiring all the nursing homes in New York state to take COVID positive

01:18:06.040 patients in.

01:18:08.200 Even though the risks were highlighted for you and there were groups jumping up and down

01:18:12.300 saying, are you insane?

01:18:14.060 That's where the most vulnerable people are.

01:18:16.200 It's not like they have tons and tons of room here in New York City.

01:18:19.380 They're going to be stacked on top of each other, breathing all over one another.

01:18:22.360 And it's the most vulnerable population.

01:18:23.960 And he said, screw you.

01:18:25.860 Take them.

01:18:26.580 And guess what?

01:18:27.680 The early numbers were that 6,000 plus people died in the nursing homes as a result.

01:18:33.200 Janice Dean, my pal and Fox News meteorologist who lost both of her in-laws in New York nursing

01:18:38.080 homes as a result of this order, was jumping up and down for months saying it's more than

01:18:42.800 6,000.

01:18:43.820 He didn't count all the patients who got transferred out of the nursing homes and sent to hospitals

01:18:48.400 where they died.

01:18:49.500 He's eliminated those from his numbers.

01:18:51.600 And you know what his office said?

01:18:53.200 She's not an expert in anything but the weather.

01:18:56.040 She's not an expert.

01:18:56.960 Oh, my God.

01:18:58.300 It's so infuriating.

01:18:59.200 I want to punch his smug mouth.

01:19:02.080 And guess what?

01:19:03.340 She was proven correct.

01:19:05.420 There was an attorney general report just last week confirming Janice was right.

01:19:11.560 He way undercounted the deaths in the nursing homes.

01:19:14.840 Why?

01:19:15.200 To make himself look better.

01:19:17.220 And now he's got the nerve to come out and play the victim?

01:19:21.000 It's mean for anyone to say that he's responsible?

01:19:27.840 And don't try to lump yourself in with all the Democratic governors.

01:19:31.480 You did it.

01:19:32.480 You, Mr. New York Tough.

01:19:34.660 So take responsibility and stop acting like a baby.

01:19:38.980 Because I don't.

01:19:40.100 Because I don't.

01:19:41.580 You don't believe the experts.

01:19:43.060 You should have believed the people who are warning you about this one.

01:19:45.680 This one you should have paid attention to, sir.

01:19:48.100 Or there's now a push to get Janice to run for governor.

01:19:51.220 Oh, my God.

01:19:52.500 It would be so amazing.

01:19:54.240 It needs to happen.

01:19:55.920 I've been ending every tweet about this with hashtag run Janice run.

01:20:00.320 I mean, can you imagine him trying to take her on?

01:20:02.840 She's the most sympathetic, kind, smart, funny, beloved figure.

01:20:08.200 And he's exactly the opposite of all those things.

01:20:10.560 OK, I'm really in a tear now.

01:20:12.060 But this guy is who he always was.

01:20:15.440 He's a bully.

01:20:16.500 He's self-pitying and self-aggrandizing at the same time.

01:20:21.080 He's dishonest.

01:20:23.000 And he's got blood on his hands.

01:20:25.200 All it would have taken early on was a simple apology and ownership of a massive mistake he made.

01:20:31.440 But he refuses to this day.

01:20:34.280 To this day.

01:20:35.560 How would they know?

01:20:37.280 It got into the homes before anyone knew.

01:20:39.420 Oh, no, they knew.

01:20:40.220 You were the one who said, put it in the homes.

01:20:44.640 Take the people who have COVID-positive tests and put them in the nursing homes.

01:20:48.860 We have it all figured out, sir.

01:20:51.160 Don't play dumb and don't play the victim.

01:20:54.840 OK.

01:20:55.580 And that, ladies and gentlemen, is our sunny feature we call Sound Up.

01:21:01.920 Back to Tim Dillon.

01:21:07.280 I was at that royal wedding covering it, not as a guest.

01:21:10.600 Right.

01:21:10.920 And you could see the writing on the wall, right?

01:21:12.640 They had all these guests there.

01:21:13.640 They had George Clooney.

01:21:14.680 They had Oprah.

01:21:15.960 They had all these people who you knew.

01:21:17.400 They didn't know these people, right?

01:21:18.840 They didn't know them.

01:21:19.780 They got connected to them because of their celebrity.

01:21:22.180 It's also like a statement because she's like, is she like half black or something?

01:21:25.900 Is that, that's the whole game, right?

01:21:27.240 Is that she's like diversity?

01:21:28.980 Like, is that the whole thing?

01:21:30.320 Well, good.

01:21:30.640 I mean, good for her.

01:21:31.860 But it's also like, you know, she's just an attractive actress.

01:21:34.900 That's all I see.

01:21:35.620 I'm like, you're marrying an attractive actress.

01:21:38.200 Good for you.

01:21:39.300 That's, you're a prince.

01:21:40.880 You're marrying an attractive actress.

01:21:42.320 If you want to really do something, marry me.

01:21:44.420 Like, you know, like you're just marrying some hot, who cares?

01:21:48.340 Like, that's a, that's a seismic event that he married a hot actress.

01:21:53.440 What are we doing?

01:21:54.560 Like, again, it's like, it's a disease.

01:21:57.840 Like, it's people that I look at who are like intelligent in every other capacity, lose

01:22:03.640 their mind when they go like, this is a really big day because he's marrying a woman who's

01:22:10.160 not white.

01:22:10.760 And I'm like, is that a big, that doesn't, I don't, that's great.

01:22:14.300 I don't care who he marries.

01:22:15.340 I mean, it's like, I think it's great.

01:22:17.040 I don't, I think people of different races should get married.

01:22:20.860 Of course.

01:22:22.140 It's a strange.

01:22:23.520 And have been for.

01:22:24.740 Right.

01:22:25.120 And it has been forever.

01:22:26.820 Yes.

01:22:27.040 It's a weird, like, to me, it's like odd.

01:22:29.900 It's, I don't know.

01:22:31.520 It's, you know, I'm 36.

01:22:32.800 I'm like getting to the point now where I'm like, you know, in 10 years, I don't think

01:22:36.080 I'll understand anything.

01:22:37.540 That's what I'm like, make the money now.

01:22:39.040 Because in 10 years, I'm going to be like, hey man.

01:22:42.080 And someone's going to go, yeah, no good.

01:22:43.720 Don't say, hey man.

01:22:44.820 Oh, totally.

01:22:45.340 Like, yeah, it's, it's.

01:22:47.040 It's coming.

01:22:47.840 Well, that's like, you know, what we were talking about in San Francisco that like,

01:22:50.920 they've lost their ever loving minds, but they tend to be scarily a harbinger of things

01:22:55.120 to come, right?

01:22:55.700 They've just got rid of the schools with the names George Washington, Abe Lincoln, even

01:22:59.720 Dianne Feinstein had to go, right?

01:23:01.400 While their schools are closed.

01:23:02.500 This is what they're prioritizing.

01:23:03.720 How about getting the kids back in school?

01:23:05.160 No, it's about getting rid of acronyms that, that they think acronyms are now a symbol of

01:23:10.540 white supremacy.

01:23:11.080 So they have to get rid of them.

01:23:12.040 And gay people don't, over a certain age, don't understand any of this.

01:23:16.600 It's like, truly, they don't get it.

01:23:18.520 So what's very interesting about the trans movement is how political it is, because there's

01:23:21.760 clearly like people that have gender dysphoria, people that are trans, men that feel like they're

01:23:26.080 women, women that feel like they're men.

01:23:27.460 And they, they, they, they correct that.

01:23:29.540 And that's a great modern scientific thing they're able to do.

01:23:31.920 But then there's also this just large movement of people who are like, well, I'm a queer

01:23:36.340 or this or that.

01:23:37.160 And it's all about politics.

01:23:38.520 I mean, it's just like, it has nothing to do with who they love or want to be in a relationship

01:23:42.340 with or, or, or, or even sexually where they're at.

01:23:44.640 It's really just this political movement where they're like, well, gender doesn't exist.

01:23:49.560 And, and, and biology is, is a creation of the white male patriarchy and, uh, and also

01:23:54.920 communism's a good idea.

01:23:56.800 And it's like, wait a minute.

01:23:58.440 It, it, this comes with a lot.

01:24:00.660 This doesn't, this doesn't seem to be solely about your gender expression.

01:24:04.840 There's a lot in this bag here.

01:24:07.260 And so it's to me, I talked to other gay people that are like completely confused, especially

01:24:12.060 older gay men.

01:24:12.900 They have no idea.

01:24:13.740 And I grew up gay people being very funny, very mean, very acerbic said whatever they

01:24:18.260 wanted.

01:24:18.680 I mean, drag Queens were hilarious.

01:24:20.260 We now have politically correct drag Queens.

01:24:23.840 This is how insane we are.

01:24:25.720 What is that?

01:24:26.600 Drag show.

01:24:26.900 It's absurd to get out and start talking about healthcare and like, you know, like it's

01:24:32.360 absurd.

01:24:32.840 Like drag Queens used to do these shows in New York city that wall street guys used to

01:24:36.460 go to because drag Queens were hilarious.

01:24:38.100 It was a six foot, six foot three guy in dress like a woman who would be smoking a cigarette

01:24:44.240 on stage and say whatever, uh, she wanted to like whatever.

01:24:49.540 And people would like, be like, oh my God, your, your head was in your hands.

01:24:53.640 He'll point out members of the audience and destroy them.

01:24:56.600 And, and it was just very funny.

01:24:58.660 And the, and the, and the reality was, listen, you can't hurt me.

01:25:01.580 These are just words.

01:25:03.000 I'm a six foot three drag queen.

01:25:04.760 I take the subway home.

01:25:06.540 And if you, if you start a fight with me, you're going to get a fight because these were tough

01:25:11.020 people.

01:25:11.720 They're very, very tough.

01:25:12.720 And the whole idea here was that words are cheap.

01:25:15.100 They're funny.

01:25:15.960 Life is short.

01:25:17.100 It doesn't matter.

01:25:18.120 It was a generation that it just got done with AIDS.

01:25:20.760 And, and, and now it's like we're, we're injecting political correctness and sensitivity

01:25:26.720 into, into even that where it's like you have these, these crazy characters that are supposed

01:25:32.420 to be by their nature over the top.

01:25:35.100 They're not depicting women.

01:25:36.480 They're depicting this crazy idea of drag.

01:25:38.480 It's supposed to be really funny and inappropriate and, and not mainstream and, and outside of

01:25:43.900 the lines by its very nature.

01:25:45.820 And the most, the funnest and coolest thing about it is that it's that, and we're making

01:25:50.440 it this very boring mainstream, like drag queen soccer mom thing.

01:25:56.240 We're like, they're supposed to be nice and they're supposed to be understanding and sensitive.

01:26:01.820 And I'm just like, how boring do we want planet earth to be?

01:26:05.220 That's my only question.

01:26:06.200 How boring do we want it to be?

01:26:08.260 And I mean, that's, that's my whole thing.

01:26:09.860 I'm like, this is crazy.

01:26:11.440 Do you think that we were getting to the place, like I had, when Barry Weiss was on the

01:26:15.180 show, we were talking about the rise in antisemitism right now.

01:26:18.000 And she was explaining to me why Jewish people, and I quote, don't rank like in the field

01:26:24.040 of perceived victims, right.

01:26:26.160 In sort of the wokesters field of perceived victims, Jewish people don't rank, notwithstanding

01:26:31.160 that whole Holocaust thing and, and lifetime of antisemitism, but okay, fine.

01:26:35.460 That's, that's why.

01:26:36.400 And, and I kind of feel like the same thing is happening to gays and lesbians.

01:26:42.600 Like it's no longer exciting.

01:26:45.420 They no longer rank.

01:26:46.460 They have enough power now that they've been booted out of the sort of LGBTQ.

01:26:51.060 It's really just about the TQ crowd now.

01:26:53.980 Yeah.

01:26:54.520 I mean, I think it's also just about what, you know, once you have a group of people who've,

01:27:00.640 you know, gone through something and they've attained some level of respect and success,

01:27:04.380 they are no longer going to be an ally of your radical batshit crazy ideas, right?

01:27:10.400 So you have to find people that are marginalized currently that have resentment.

01:27:16.460 And those are the people you're able, you're going to be able to, uh, mold into radicals

01:27:24.320 because people kind of lose that radical.

01:27:26.880 They grow up, they get over it.

01:27:28.280 They say, yeah, you know, I, I'm, I found a stable relationship or I found acceptance

01:27:33.760 and love in a community or I found whatever.

01:27:35.800 And they're not, you know, you can't go to a gay man or woman who owns a home and has a job

01:27:41.780 and is doing well and get them to believe a lot of the insanity that you can get a 17 year

01:27:48.620 old to believe who's, you know, is just basically still figuring out who they are, what the world

01:27:56.600 is.

01:27:57.080 So a lot of these nefarious forces are, they know that.

01:28:01.160 So they are preying on people that may have issues psychologically.

01:28:06.820 They may have a trouble in their life, you know, for whatever reason.

01:28:10.740 And those are the people who they're going to convince.

01:28:12.940 Yes.

01:28:13.140 It's a great idea.

01:28:14.020 If we get rid of the police and cut everybody's mic, not let everyone talk,

01:28:18.800 deplatform everyone in mass, uh, burn the books, uh, take everyone's money.

01:28:23.320 These are all great ideas.

01:28:24.460 And when you're 17 years old and you have some issue with your sexuality or gender,

01:28:28.800 that's probably, you're like, yeah, fuck it.

01:28:31.460 Burn it all down.

01:28:32.420 I don't want any part of that.

01:28:33.580 You can't come to me and say that you can't come to me and say, we're going to destroy

01:28:39.820 every part of society and replace it with this.

01:28:45.260 I'm going to go, no, no, no, no, no, no.

01:28:47.420 I don't think that's a good idea because I'm not an idiot.

01:28:50.680 So they got to find people that are in their larval stage of being, when I was 17, I was

01:28:55.700 kind of an idiot.

01:28:56.760 So I was like, you could come to me and go, how about this?

01:28:58.900 How about we steal all your parents' money, take their, you know, and I might go, yeah,

01:29:03.100 that's a good idea.

01:29:04.280 You know, uh, when you grow up, you start going, oh yeah, we can't do that.

01:29:09.580 It's actually not going to work.

01:29:11.020 Whatever's coming down the pike is worse.

01:29:12.860 You people terrify me more than homophobes ever have.

01:29:16.720 Uh, and, uh, yeah, no good.

01:29:20.000 So, so that's what it is.

01:29:21.460 It's finding people that are really amenable to the message.

01:29:25.060 It's like, how do we get this message in the heads of people that are, most gay guys

01:29:30.180 are having fun.

01:29:31.060 They don't really care.

01:29:32.140 They go out, they drink, they, they hook up, they have fun.

01:29:36.100 This is not, they're not, they don't, they're not sitting there reading Karl Marx.

01:29:39.720 I mean, it's like, it's this weird sexless generation of asexual weirdos that just are,

01:29:47.800 you know, rehashing these genocidal ideologies and saying that these are a good idea now.

01:29:53.360 And it's like, you just need to go to Chili's and go to two for one margarita night, like

01:29:57.460 meet another human being.

01:30:00.420 Well, that's really what it is.

01:30:02.040 It's kind of the cure all.

01:30:03.620 It's everywhere.

01:30:04.920 And it's not, it's not just, you know, the trans community, as you know, sort of with

01:30:09.260 this over the top stuff.

01:30:10.360 And I know you've been critical of the hypocrisy when it comes to the riots, you know, in support

01:30:15.240 of BLM, if that's what they were, those are, those are, those are good riots, but the

01:30:19.460 riot on the Capitol, that's a bad riot.

01:30:21.600 Yeah.

01:30:21.860 And I wanted to get your reaction because I like, yeah, because I just saw, um, over the

01:30:26.540 past couple of days that maybe you saw this, but some Norwegian guy made the nomination

01:30:31.100 and Black Lives Matter, uh, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

01:30:36.560 Interesting.

01:30:37.260 Yeah.

01:30:37.640 This is a movement that burned down police stations, occupied one, tried to burn cops

01:30:43.700 alive.

01:30:44.460 Uh, some of the protesters did in, in, um, Seattle, the Antifa group that had infiltrated

01:30:49.340 them.

01:30:49.740 I mean, uh, hundreds of people injured, 700 cops, people killed, like the thought that

01:30:57.500 peace, like peace prize.

01:30:59.380 Yeah.

01:31:00.160 Well, I talked about this on Rogan and me and Rogan have discussed this a lot.

01:31:03.680 The biggest change, and I'm, again, I'm 36, I haven't been around forever, but the biggest

01:31:07.900 change in my life has been, uh, watching people from the establishment, from the media, from

01:31:15.480 academia, uh, excuse and promote violence and say that this is okay, that this is appropriate.

01:31:22.100 This is a great way to get your point across that you're allowed to riot and burn people's

01:31:25.860 businesses and destroy their property and attack innocent people that, I mean, you want to

01:31:30.120 talk about a cultural shift that was really not really like something that when I was growing

01:31:38.100 up, you know, when people were violent, for the most part, it was condemned.

01:31:42.260 It might've been, people might've said it was okay.

01:31:44.360 And some fringe part of the, you know, but, but it was pretty much roundly condemned by people that

01:31:52.200 should and did at that time, no better.

01:31:55.520 Now watching that has been absurd to me, watching people, excuse Antifa, BLM, uh, on the other side,

01:32:03.060 people that say, well, the Capitol riot was cool.

01:32:04.960 And then, uh, what the Proud Boys do is whatever.

01:32:07.400 To me, I, I'm like, we need to just establish something where it's like people beating each

01:32:12.840 other in the streets, attacking cops, using, and that's the thing, Rogan's a real fighter

01:32:18.080 and Rogan understands violence, right?

01:32:20.180 Rogan actually understands violence.

01:32:22.300 He's a fighter.

01:32:23.600 The guy's a black belt.

01:32:24.760 He, he, he's commentates on fighting.

01:32:26.880 It's what he's an expert in.

01:32:27.920 So when he sees these people that are LARPing, you know, live action role playing and they're

01:32:31.600 going out and pretending to be fighters, they can't fight.

01:32:33.940 They're all beating each other up with hockey sticks.

01:32:36.260 It's kind of embarrassing.

01:32:37.320 They're like theater kids.

01:32:38.340 We're trying to fight or whatever's going on.

01:32:40.760 You know, a guy like that looks at that and goes, you don't understand that you're opening

01:32:45.060 the gates of hell.

01:32:46.000 When you just, when you use violence, violence is, becomes the language.

01:32:49.820 And that means you're going to get violence back.

01:32:51.660 And then it just becomes an endless cycle of violence.

01:32:54.060 Why nobody in the media or people that are writing articles in, at the Atlantic and places

01:33:00.840 like that, why nobody can have that position?

01:33:03.940 That stuns me.

01:33:05.460 Like why no one can just go, should we be opening the door?

01:33:09.100 Should we be legitimizing violence like this?

01:33:11.860 Should we be saying this is an appropriate way to express a political idea?

01:33:16.400 To me, that's the biggest shift.

01:33:18.180 If you'd said to me like, what's the biggest shift?

01:33:20.280 It's like the idea that you could go burn down someone's business and then someone will

01:33:24.260 write an article defending it in the New York Times.

01:33:27.480 That's the biggest cultural shift.

01:33:29.040 And it's scary.

01:33:30.580 Yeah.

01:33:30.940 It was, oh God, the CEO of Parler came on the program and shortly before he was on, he

01:33:37.080 had interviewed with Kara Swisher, who is, you know, an established progressive and she

01:33:41.840 writes for the New York Times.

01:33:42.380 Oh, I'm aware.

01:33:43.000 And she's got to, yeah.

01:33:43.760 I mean, I like her.

01:33:44.660 I actually have a friendship with her because I can be friends with her.

01:33:46.680 She's an interesting person.

01:33:48.080 I don't know much about her.

01:33:49.200 I heard her and Sam Harris say it very good.

01:33:50.680 And she's like, she's a kick-ass person.

01:33:52.700 Like I interviewed her at NBC and this is how I first met her.

01:33:56.520 And I was saying, you know, there are a lot of women out there who are suffering from,

01:34:01.380 you know, a lecherous boss or whatever.

01:34:02.920 And they just don't feel like they can speak up because they don't want to lose their job.

01:34:05.920 I'm like, you know, and on the other side, I said, there's a lot of men out there who

01:34:09.720 still feel like they can get away with this crap with impunity.

01:34:12.100 And what's your message?

01:34:13.080 And she was like, I'm going to get you.

01:34:15.820 I'm going to get you off.

01:34:17.380 I like her.

01:34:18.560 So she's strong.

01:34:19.260 We disagree on most things political, but I like her anyway.

01:34:22.800 But she was giving the CEO of Parler a hard time because he said that there had been a

01:34:26.860 piece in the New York Times defending looting.

01:34:28.780 She said, absolutely not.

01:34:29.780 No, they didn't.

01:34:30.360 No, they, New York, no.

01:34:31.900 And there was, there 100% was a piece in the New York Times talking about defending looting.

01:34:37.400 And you're right.

01:34:37.900 It opens up a very slippery slope that then we saw people walk through.

01:34:42.380 And I don't know whether we would have had the Capitol Hill riot if we hadn't had the

01:34:45.680 summer of BLM riots.

01:34:47.220 But it's very difficult for us to take the media seriously when they express outrage.

01:34:52.440 Especially, I understand a police officer died and a civilian died and other people suffered

01:34:57.140 related deaths at the Capitol Hill riot.

01:34:59.820 But, you know, the numbers on the BLM protests were awful.

01:35:03.320 I mean, I just, I was looking at it the other day after that Peace Prize nomination.

01:35:06.960 It was the New York Post put the number at more than 700 cops injured.

01:35:10.420 Forbes said just the first two weeks of June, 19 were killed, mostly black.

01:35:15.220 Could be higher than that.

01:35:16.420 Hundreds of millions, maybe over a billion in property damage.

01:35:18.540 So it's like, I'm not comparing them.

01:35:21.360 I'm just saying, to say they have nothing to do with each other, I think is too close

01:35:25.520 minded too.

01:35:26.940 Oh, of course.

01:35:27.560 They have everything to do with each other.

01:35:29.260 And then, you know, when AOC goes, I felt like I was going to die.

01:35:31.400 It's like, okay, but you excuse and promote the activities of people that you tell them

01:35:36.920 to go into restaurants and threaten Congress people.

01:35:39.540 You tell them to threaten senators they disagree with.

01:35:42.020 You don't mind when people show up outside of Tucker Carlson's house.

01:35:44.500 You don't mind when people show up outside of the houses in Seattle and Portland.

01:35:48.460 You're not vocal about that.

01:35:49.640 You don't mind when people are harassed at their homes in front of their children.

01:35:53.660 So I don't take people like her seriously.

01:35:55.620 And again, it's, you know, it's, it's unfortunate unless this changes and I don't see it's changing.

01:36:02.600 I mean, we're, we're living in the end here.

01:36:04.560 I mean, we're living in like, this is the end of reason.

01:36:07.300 This is the end of all day.

01:36:08.720 And the next step is just violence.

01:36:11.100 The next step is like, unfortunately, a societal breakdown, which would be probably somewhat

01:36:15.640 swift.

01:36:16.760 We're like, you just have marauding groups of people that have problems with each other

01:36:22.060 that want to fight it out.

01:36:23.940 And cops are going to be like, the hell with this.

01:36:26.100 And I totally understand that.

01:36:27.300 They're going to be like, I'm not giving my life to get involved in this.

01:36:30.480 So if people keep propping up this idea that the right kind of violence is acceptable,

01:36:36.560 I can't think of a worse idea for the future of this country than, hey, the right type of

01:36:43.760 violence is good.

01:36:45.340 I couldn't think of a worse idea.

01:36:47.500 Like, yeah, the right, and we'll let you make that decision.

01:36:50.800 The right, just violence is good.

01:36:53.100 Yeah.

01:36:53.220 This is one of the problems I have with critical race theory, which is that that basically is

01:36:57.800 the right type of racism is good.

01:36:59.760 Correct.

01:37:00.500 And it leads to a similar breakdown in society.

01:37:03.420 I mean, if you think forcing all people of all races into these mandated sessions where

01:37:08.800 they're told they're awful and they're supreme, they're supremacists, or so they believe just

01:37:13.480 based on their pigmentation and that they have to lament and repent for sins of the father.

01:37:18.060 Do you think that's going to make them feel good toward people of other races or not good?

01:37:23.340 Right.

01:37:23.520 Like, let's be let's be real.

01:37:25.340 It's so divisive.

01:37:26.540 It's going to lead to exactly the opposite result of the one that they want.

01:37:29.080 But, you know, people got their blinders on.

01:37:30.760 They don't want to see that piece of the story.

01:37:32.080 Yeah, well, it's really the institutions.

01:37:34.680 Nobody wants this.

01:37:35.880 Right.

01:37:36.120 Nobody really wants this.

01:37:37.520 It is truly academia.

01:37:40.060 It's the media.

01:37:41.460 It's now invading the courts.

01:37:43.180 But people on the street, people that you talk to, people in their day to day lives have

01:37:50.140 no use for this.

01:37:51.620 They truly don't.

01:37:52.940 Their concerns are largely economic.

01:37:55.140 They want money.

01:37:56.580 They want jobs.

01:37:57.560 They want their kids to have a good life.

01:37:59.880 And they're this identity, this rabid identity politics is and people like Bernie Sanders who

01:38:06.840 were successful, you know, not using that and even though he, you know, lost eventually

01:38:12.680 because I think that started to creep into his campaign more than it should have.

01:38:15.800 But he was all about like class and working people or whatever.

01:38:19.660 And then the minute that, you know, he went on Rogan and then everyone turned on him and

01:38:24.000 they were like, he's an anti-trans guy.

01:38:26.840 It's racist.

01:38:27.840 You know, and you're like, wait, what?

01:38:30.420 So it's regular working people for the most part.

01:38:33.260 I don't think have a ton to gain from the adoption of critical race theory.

01:38:38.980 A lot of this is about, I believe, people creating a hierarchy that they can kind of

01:38:46.360 move up in, whether it's, you know, at a magazine, at a website, you know, in Hollywood,

01:38:55.700 whatever they do, they want to just be agreeable and they want to be able to kind of push the

01:39:01.660 fashionable ideas of the day and critical race theory is one of them.

01:39:05.180 But again, this is really for upper middle class or upper class professionals who are

01:39:13.420 trying to make lots of money.

01:39:16.500 So what it really doesn't benefit at all is the people they purport to care about, which

01:39:21.740 is working people that are working wage jobs.

01:39:25.820 This doesn't help them get health care.

01:39:27.360 It doesn't help them eventually, you know, be in a position to own a home or anything.

01:39:32.460 This is just this weird way for someone to guilt other people into bettering their career.

01:39:40.540 What, let me ask you about Rogan, because you went on there with Alex Jones, of all people,

01:39:46.540 with whom I have some experience.

01:39:48.180 I did.

01:39:48.360 And so you went on there with him.

01:39:51.000 And let me just start with what happened after, because there was some blowback.

01:39:55.680 I would submit to the jury that he did not receive anywhere near the blowback for having

01:40:00.600 Alex Jones on as I did for doing an interview piece with him.

01:40:03.460 No, correct.

01:40:03.920 But, okay.

01:40:05.280 So you show up there.

01:40:06.880 How did that happen?

01:40:08.540 Oh, wait.

01:40:08.880 No, let me, let me start at the end.

01:40:10.860 Well, you're a woman.

01:40:11.460 I mean, listen, you're a woman talking.

01:40:13.120 So automatically there's blow up.

01:40:14.440 You know what I mean?

01:40:15.060 And it's like, you do get more.

01:40:18.100 It is what it is, you know?

01:40:19.560 Honestly, Tim, I've said this before, but I really mean it.

01:40:21.840 All the blowback in the world is just fine by me.

01:40:23.980 Every time they do that to me, I get stronger.

01:40:26.840 That's just the truth.

01:40:28.140 If you can look at it that way and actually try to live it that way, it's fuel.

01:40:32.640 It's fuel for your muscles.

01:40:34.240 It's true.

01:40:35.200 But I saw all that blowback and I thought, okay, so what is happening with Joe Rogan at

01:40:40.820 Spotify and can this relationship possibly last, right?

01:40:45.760 How can he last at Spotify by putting on folks like Alex Jones and then thumbing the

01:40:51.700 middle finger, all of which I loved, at the people who objected.

01:40:55.440 But what do you think?

01:40:56.080 Can it last?

01:40:57.900 Well, what is it?

01:40:58.760 It's a three-year contract, I think.

01:41:00.360 I mean, I'm sure it'll last for the contract.

01:41:01.960 I mean, they paid him the money, right?

01:41:03.520 I mean, they'll have meetings there.

01:41:05.100 They'll talk about it.

01:41:06.160 People will be upset.

01:41:07.000 Employees will be upset.

01:41:08.140 They'll have tummy aches.

01:41:09.220 They'll need to have lie downs.

01:41:11.380 They'll need to take naps.

01:41:12.480 You know, in kindergarten, we took naps.

01:41:14.100 They put the mats out and we'd take a nap and then we'd go out and play kickball.

01:41:18.160 So we're going to have that.

01:41:19.460 You know, people are going to have sad days.

01:41:21.080 I'm very sad.

01:41:22.220 And they're going to have, you know, they're going to need to express themselves and be

01:41:25.440 heard.

01:41:26.560 But at the end of the day, I believe that they're going to keep their jobs because Spotify

01:41:30.440 can get new people in there.

01:41:32.460 Pretty, you know, these young kids that are upset about this that can, you know, what are

01:41:37.220 going to walk away from 150 grand a year?

01:41:38.760 I mean, Spotify will get somebody else in there in a minute.

01:41:40.960 So I think that it's going to be, you know, a lot of huffing and puffing, but they're not

01:41:47.420 going to blow the house down.

01:41:48.380 I mean, I don't think they're going to walk away from Joe and obviously Joe will honor

01:41:51.960 his commitment.

01:41:52.740 And, you know, what's going on internally is very different, I think, than what's being

01:41:57.940 reported.

01:41:58.660 I think what's being reported is like there's a lot of internal strife and there's all these

01:42:02.460 problems.

01:42:03.040 But I think at the end of the day, it's like Spotify is a company.

01:42:05.820 They have a lot of meetings about a lot of things.

01:42:08.080 I'm sure there are people with concerns, but I don't, I don't see any evidence that

01:42:11.940 they censored Joe or ever have.

01:42:16.020 No.

01:42:16.880 They stood by him.

01:42:18.200 They stood by him.

01:42:18.920 And I think that's what they're going to have to do.

01:42:20.080 I think the CEO of Spotify like lives in Sweden or something like doesn't care.

01:42:23.740 He doesn't care.

01:42:24.860 It's amazing.

01:42:25.500 It's like a mountain.

01:42:26.320 If he can make it work, honestly, if he can make it work and like stand up to the cancel

01:42:31.080 culture bullies there, it's a great model and in the same way Joe Rogan's been on a

01:42:35.220 lot of fronts, but it's a great model for other, for other people, for other employers

01:42:39.360 in particular, like you can push back against the woke bullies and you're the one paying

01:42:43.220 them.

01:42:43.540 You're the one with the beat, with the deep pocket.

01:42:45.480 If you would just take a stand, we could seize back control of reasonable conversation.

01:42:50.380 Right.

01:42:51.040 That's, and we hope that happens.

01:42:53.200 So what, what, how did you get to know Alex Jones?

01:42:56.060 How did that relationship come about?

01:42:57.340 Well, Alex is an interesting guy because I'd listened to Alex for a very long time since

01:43:00.740 I was like probably 13 or 14 years old.

01:43:02.860 I put Alex on, he was on the radio and you know, he was Alex Jones.

01:43:07.220 He was, he was very entertaining.

01:43:08.520 He was interesting.

01:43:09.520 He was crazy.

01:43:10.460 He was wild.

01:43:11.140 I mean, he was, he's everything that he is now and it's just, he's become more of a

01:43:15.100 figure now.

01:43:16.240 He wasn't really a figure then, but I mean, this was, this is this guy with the bullhorn that

01:43:20.420 was showing up at like, you know, doing nine 11 stuff.

01:43:23.540 He was, you know, he was an enemy of the Bush administration.

01:43:26.940 He, he was not loved by Republicans and then, then he was a critic of Obama and then he

01:43:32.140 infiltrated the Bohemian Grove where they, you know, they have this, you know, elite weekend

01:43:36.500 of all these big media guys or, you know, whatever government people, they all hang out and run

01:43:39.900 around.

01:43:40.640 So he had done all these things and he was always just kind of the thorn in the side

01:43:44.200 of the establishment.

01:43:44.900 And he was kind of funny, kind of this weird grassroots Austin, Texas populace that was

01:43:50.540 interesting.

01:43:50.980 Right.

01:43:51.320 I mean, he was just a guy that was interesting to kind of, I'm a guy that I stay up late,

01:43:55.540 you know, me and other comics would smoke cigarettes and, you know, two o'clock in the

01:43:59.700 morning, what are you going to watch?

01:44:01.260 You watch Alex Jones, you watch somebody who is truly, um, outside of, and then when Trump

01:44:08.420 brought him in the fold and they started to, um, he started to become more of a political

01:44:14.300 figure.

01:44:14.780 Really, there was a huge target on him.

01:44:16.260 So, um, and obviously the Sandy Hook stuff, which again, and this is not even a, I always

01:44:20.780 try, it's, I know it sounds like I'm trying to like minimize my, I didn't listen to him

01:44:24.400 during that period.

01:44:24.980 So like, I don't know how much he brought that up.

01:44:27.520 He said that he did it a few times.

01:44:29.200 He probably did it a lot more than that.

01:44:30.860 And I, I know that when you are, uh, if you, if you host a show about conspiracies and

01:44:35.220 you look in every news story and you don't believe anything, some of your crazy fans are

01:44:40.000 going to do horrible things and what they did was horrible.

01:44:41.740 And I'm, I'm not defending what he did.

01:44:43.680 I'm certainly not defending what they did.

01:44:45.700 Um, but he's an, he's a fascinating person.

01:44:49.340 It's like the only, I don't know if he could have that job anywhere else other than America

01:44:52.440 to be like a full-time conspiracy theorist.

01:44:55.760 And I mean, the first time I met him was, I was in Austin doing Cap City, which was a

01:45:01.060 comedy club there.

01:45:01.880 I was headlining that and I called Joe and I said, I was very curious.

01:45:07.540 You know, I'd never, you know, I was just curious about all these things.

01:45:10.220 And, um, I was with my producer and I said, let's go do Alex Jones's show.

01:45:16.580 So we did a show and it was, you know, again, he's a, a force of nature, very talented broadcaster,

01:45:22.500 complex dude.

01:45:24.420 There's demons there.

01:45:25.880 There's problems there.

01:45:27.300 I mean, you know, as you can tell, you get it.

01:45:30.480 Um, and then Joe was like, Hey, why don't you do his podcast with me?

01:45:34.140 And I was like, Oh boy, I remember talking to Joe.

01:45:36.540 I was like, this is going to be really something.

01:45:38.280 And he goes, yeah, you'll be great, mom.

01:45:39.780 You'll be funny, mom.

01:45:40.580 You know, he talks very quick and like, you know, he's like, Hey mom, it's going to be

01:45:43.200 good, man.

01:45:43.860 So I was like, okay.

01:45:45.240 And I, I did it.

01:45:46.500 It was this massive thing.

01:45:47.740 And I, I did, did a good job, I think being funny on it and trying to like direct Alex

01:45:51.040 or whatever.

01:45:51.400 But, you know, wherever I am in life years from now, I will be able to tell people during

01:45:57.820 2019, 2020, during one of the craziest periods in this country's history.

01:46:03.900 And by the way, I hope so.

01:46:04.900 I hope 10 years from now, it's like, this wasn't like the, the calm, but I hope I'm able

01:46:09.540 to say that like, yeah, I was very curious.

01:46:11.140 And like there was a media operation, you know, in, in the Valley of California, Joe Rogan

01:46:17.780 that I was on, you know, seven times and I was on this other thing that this guy, Alex

01:46:22.340 Jones was doing, who became like the guy and the public enemy number one.

01:46:26.440 And I saw his lair, you know, I went down there to that studio and I talked to them.

01:46:30.800 It's all endlessly fascinating watching the world change and watching it change and watching

01:46:35.580 the evolution of media is very interesting to me.

01:46:37.680 So I want to get up close and personal.

01:46:40.480 I want to see these people, understand them, try to figure out what's going on.

01:46:44.880 I think as a comedian and as somebody who does kind of dark comedy or comedy that, you

01:46:48.820 know, you know, is, is, is cognizant of what's going on.

01:46:51.520 I, I do like to get, you know, in these spaces and, and, and see these people.

01:46:56.480 It doesn't mean I agree with Alex Jones and, you know, about things, some of the things he's

01:46:59.620 been right about, some of them he hasn't been, but it's very interesting sitting in that

01:47:03.600 little, you know, industrial park in Austin and, you know, watching this little, you know,

01:47:08.920 this, this, it's not little, it's a pretty sizable operation.

01:47:11.700 You were probably down there.

01:47:12.580 I don't know where you interviewed him, but like watching, yeah, you've been there and

01:47:16.500 you're seeing how much trouble you can get in with a few cameras.

01:47:23.800 He's really wild.

01:47:25.520 I got a lot of feelings about Alex Jones.

01:47:28.560 I, he's the one person who I really get hung up on when it comes to de-platforming.

01:47:34.860 I'm really, I can, I can argue to the cows come home about the importance of free speech.

01:47:40.200 And I've said before, I'm, I'm, I'm a near absolutist when it comes to the first amendment,

01:47:43.860 free speech principles.

01:47:45.500 Um, I've defended a lot of crazies, a lot of crazies in their right to say crazy stuff

01:47:49.480 because this is America.

01:47:50.240 America, but I will say I I'm, it's, it's maybe ironic because some of the new town families

01:47:57.960 were upset with me for interviewing him.

01:48:00.340 Um, for the record, I've pointed this out because NBC wouldn't say it about me openly

01:48:04.960 at the time, but there were 26 families, 26 new town families, six objected and all the

01:48:11.940 others either openly supported me or had no objection to my interviewing him.

01:48:16.140 Okay.

01:48:16.880 So the, the six who objected to my interviewing him, even though they, you know, this had

01:48:21.540 never been a thing prior when CNN interviewed Tim or the New York times interviewed him

01:48:24.980 or many other people.

01:48:26.680 Um, I, you know, I, I knew that the right thing was to do the interview, even though these

01:48:31.840 are the most sympathetic people in the world, because he, his presence and his sort of interference

01:48:37.440 in business and lives had gone well beyond the new town families.

01:48:40.660 And he had been extremely disruptive and destructive for a lot of groups and it caused a lot of

01:48:47.620 trouble, a lot of danger.

01:48:49.560 Um, and so I really thought it was time to shine a light on the guy.

01:48:52.680 And, and now I'm actually good friends with one of the new town dads.

01:48:58.080 His name is Neil Heslin and he is a beautiful man, beautiful man.

01:49:03.040 And that guy, and he's a, he's a Republican.

01:49:07.600 He's, you know, he's not anti-speech, but Neil has said like on behalf of the other families

01:49:14.900 to like this guy, he, he needs like what he's doing is causing real harm.

01:49:20.900 All the messages put in about this being a false flag and it wasn't true.

01:49:24.860 And it, Sandy Hook didn't happen.

01:49:26.820 And, you know, he held his dead son.

01:49:28.740 And, you know, it's like, I just can't, that's where my free speech absolutism stops.

01:49:34.280 It's very sticky.

01:49:35.440 It's very sticky.

01:49:36.840 And I completely understand the rage at Alex Jones.

01:49:40.020 I understand the anger at Alex Jones.

01:49:42.120 I completely understand the danger of a guy like Alex Jones to say that he's not dangerous

01:49:47.820 is absolutely, um, it would be minimizing it, right?

01:49:52.660 That there's a danger in somebody being able to say whatever they want.

01:49:55.880 But the flip side of that is that there may be a greater danger allowing these tech platforms

01:50:06.520 to unilaterally, without any process, without giving someone the ability to defend themselves,

01:50:13.100 without any type of hearing, without any evidence presented, uh, to eliminate people's ability

01:50:19.380 to speak, to earn money, to un-person them, to act in a coordinated way where you have

01:50:25.540 six or seven of these platforms doing this essentially overnight at once.

01:50:29.700 That also, to me, is dangerous.

01:50:33.840 Now, what is the greater danger?

01:50:36.180 That's a, listen, this is a debate.

01:50:38.060 This is a question.

01:50:38.940 It's not, I'm, you know, when I read the Sandy Hook things, I feel horrible.

01:50:42.300 I got flack from some of my friends, not many of them, but there's a few of my friends

01:50:47.900 that are like, you're better than that, you shouldn't have done his show, I can't, you

01:50:53.440 know, they, they, and these are good friends of mine, they weren't like, you know, the hell

01:50:57.440 with you, but they were like, I'm disappointed, I don't know why you're choosing to sit down

01:51:03.520 with somebody like this.

01:51:04.820 Um, I'm like, listen, man, people, and this is, this is, again, this is not, nobody wants

01:51:09.040 to hear this, right?

01:51:09.740 Nobody wants to hear, um, that people should not be necessarily defined by their biggest

01:51:21.020 mistake.

01:51:21.700 Now, obviously, when someone makes a horrible mistake and it affects the lives of other

01:51:25.520 people, it does define them, whether they like it or not.

01:51:28.180 That will define Alex Jones forever.

01:51:31.760 Um, that is, Alex Jones has had a career for 30 years.

01:51:37.020 He's said a lot of things.

01:51:38.160 He said Jeffrey Epstein was bringing people to an island to have sex with them that were

01:51:41.280 underage, and he was right about that, okay?

01:51:43.360 He was saying that years before anyone else said it.

01:51:45.720 He was saying things, um, about NAFTA and the WTO and saying that, you know, a lot of

01:51:51.840 these groups are, are, are going to be, you know, operating, you know, outside of the public

01:51:57.620 view and making huge decisions, and there's going to be massive changes to the social and

01:52:02.680 global structures and economic policy.

01:52:05.900 And I mean, he was, you know, but yes, that is an indefensible part of whatever his legacy

01:52:11.580 is going to be.

01:52:12.780 And I don't think it should be defended.

01:52:14.880 I don't, I think it should just be a, he did the wrong thing.

01:52:17.800 He made the wrong call.

01:52:18.940 And then his fans, whom many of them are mentally unhinged people.

01:52:24.300 That's the other problem, right?

01:52:25.740 That is the other problem.

01:52:27.320 That is the other problem.

01:52:28.720 They're mentally unhinged people.

01:52:29.960 They did things that they should just go to jail forever for, in my opinion.

01:52:32.980 I mean, it's like lock, throw away the key.

01:52:34.380 It's like, yeah, you're harassing a family whose children died.

01:52:37.340 You have, as Bob Grant, who I used to listen to on WABC when I was a child, used to say

01:52:44.940 you've served notice on society.

01:52:46.980 Like you have basically, you have established who you are as a person, if you're willing

01:52:51.620 to do that.

01:52:52.620 I think Alex regrets that.

01:52:54.100 I think towards the end of the episode with Rogan, I think it eats him up.

01:52:56.820 I think it's why he's had issues with drinking and other substances.

01:53:00.400 I think there's a lot of problems there.

01:53:03.500 And I just think I've never, in my wildest imagination, would ever even defend anything,

01:53:11.040 nor would anyone.

01:53:12.460 My only thing is that I've always believed that if we give this power to tech, it doesn't

01:53:19.640 stop with Alex Jones.

01:53:21.600 It's not going to stop.

01:53:23.060 It will continue.

01:53:24.340 It will become a self-fulfilling prophecy and it will just spread like anything, just

01:53:32.000 like violence.

01:53:32.840 I mean, I-

01:53:33.840 But it is a tough one.

01:53:34.680 In talking to the Newtown families after that whole thing, some of them, I was in favor

01:53:41.280 of his deplatforming.

01:53:42.860 I just was.

01:53:43.480 I saw firsthand that the pain, his hitting the subject, claiming it was false, that they

01:53:48.240 made up the death of their children over and over and over.

01:53:50.780 He did it repeatedly, what it caused in their lives.

01:53:54.560 You know, some of them have to go in disguise because they get harassed nonstop.

01:53:58.920 They've had death threats.

01:53:59.720 One guy went to jail.

01:54:01.080 It's just gotten so out of hand.

01:54:02.900 And even in my interview with Alex Jones, he didn't fully own it.

01:54:07.300 He kept waffling back and forth.

01:54:09.100 And well, but there was evidence.

01:54:10.360 It was like crazy stuff.

01:54:12.540 And I did.

01:54:13.880 Even then, I was a First Amendment near absolutist.

01:54:16.560 And I still thought this guy should go.

01:54:18.760 And I noticed at the time, a lot of conservatives saying this is slippery slope because, you

01:54:23.400 know, they always make bad policy in response to like the worst one, you know, the worst

01:54:27.460 one tugs at your heartstrings and you say, OK, let's change the policy.

01:54:30.560 And then that comes back to haunt people who aren't anywhere near as controversial.

01:54:34.820 And, you know, lo and behold, that's that's been true.

01:54:38.600 So I don't have an answer.

01:54:40.640 I I think it's sad we can't establish like universal symbol or universal lines that we can

01:54:47.420 all say, yes, clearly that needs to not be there without completely bastardizing the

01:54:53.560 principle and and, you know, wind up saying like, I would have felt better tweet.

01:54:58.220 Yeah, I would have felt better if there was some way that Alice could defend himself and

01:55:02.540 then he was removed.

01:55:03.560 And then it was like, OK, he was removed.

01:55:04.760 If he had a chance to say, here's what happened.

01:55:08.940 And then they went, no, actually, here's what happened.

01:55:11.380 And there was some process.

01:55:13.960 I would just feel better about it if there was a process that it wasn't just a unilateral

01:55:17.840 decision.

01:55:18.600 You know, at that point, it would have been it would have been window dressing anyway.

01:55:22.080 They were interested in any defense.

01:55:24.040 He had his goose was.

01:55:25.820 And I think it's probably pretty defend like that.

01:55:27.740 That's where the crux of it is.

01:55:28.960 It's like it's kind of indefensible.

01:55:30.820 So I don't know what his defense is.

01:55:32.640 Right.

01:55:33.020 So at the end of the day, it's like it's as good a reason as any to to not be on social

01:55:39.780 media. Right.

01:55:40.440 So but it's just I'm a little uncomfortable with like that.

01:55:44.020 There's no process.

01:55:45.420 No, you know, you know, you know, but it's a tough, tough.

01:55:51.280 And he definitely he is suffering from some, I think, mental issues.

01:55:55.360 There's no question.

01:55:56.460 And, you know, that's a piece of this.

01:55:59.040 And I actually if you don't if you don't mind me asking, I noticed that you have some

01:56:03.300 mental illness in your own family.

01:56:04.920 Absolutely.

01:56:06.300 And I wonder if you'd be willing to talk about it, because I do think too many people

01:56:09.760 are afraid to talk about mental illness.

01:56:10.940 My mother is schizophrenic.

01:56:12.940 She was diagnosed schizophrenic probably when I was in my late teens.

01:56:17.140 She'd always been kind of an eccentric, fun person, behavior, a little bit erratic, but

01:56:22.000 nothing to collecting Beanie Babies and McDonald's toys and Hess trucks and, you know, keeping

01:56:27.680 odd hours and worked very hard.

01:56:29.340 But we got up at four or five a.m. because she was, you know, ran a swim program, started

01:56:32.820 very early in the morning and like was, you know, kind of this person that was very fun.

01:56:38.180 But, you know, there were there were real issues there.

01:56:40.920 And she, you know, was diagnosed as a schizophrenic, which means that she's got, you know, a few

01:56:46.180 mental illnesses happening.

01:56:47.500 There's there's synapses firing that are not really hitting the other side.

01:56:51.240 And again, she's, you know, she's a person where we talk a lot about physical illness

01:56:57.820 in this country.

01:56:58.340 We don't talk a lot about mental illness, especially coming from an Irish Catholic family.

01:57:02.300 Most people brush those things under the rug.

01:57:04.940 They're not spoken about.

01:57:06.540 But it's given me an appreciation for people that have struggles with mental illness.

01:57:13.160 And it's also given me kind of a contempt for what I consider the Instagram mental illness,

01:57:22.300 where it's like people that are using terms like depression and anxiety, but not actually

01:57:27.140 understanding what they mean.

01:57:28.380 And they die.

01:57:29.460 They diagnose themselves off like a meme.

01:57:31.740 And on Instagram, they don't really they don't have any clinical diagnosis and they're

01:57:36.360 not really, you know.

01:57:37.760 And it's given me a little contempt for that, because I think there's a fetishization of

01:57:42.020 that that's actually pretty political, where people are like, if you disagree with me, I'm

01:57:47.700 triggered and I have to go lock myself in a room.

01:57:49.940 And I'm like, that's not what this is.

01:57:51.960 Like my mother, my mother is real mental.

01:57:54.440 Like she wasn't afraid of like a discussion.

01:57:58.400 This is like legit mental illness.

01:58:00.800 So when everybody when anybody co-ops mental illness and tries to use it as a way to get what

01:58:07.400 they want or avoid uncomfortable conversations, I'm like, guys, that's really not what it

01:58:12.040 is or knowing what it is.

01:58:13.820 So many people today are declaring themselves right to be suffering 40 different illnesses.

01:58:17.880 And it's like, correct, you know what?

01:58:19.380 You're fine.

01:58:20.140 Like you're fine.

01:58:20.960 Yeah, they just I talked about this with Piers Morgan and he had some great examples, but

01:58:24.460 it's like that's the other craze in today's day and age is to declare yourself like suffering

01:58:30.100 from this phobia or that disease or this disorder or whatever, because I mean, I honestly

01:58:35.700 I think it's because they've been told it's not cool to be like a normal kid.

01:58:40.140 You got to find something.

01:58:42.080 Yeah.

01:58:42.420 Well, the other thing is, I mean, my friend who's not really succeeding at comedy and now

01:58:46.280 is actually doing a lot better, sat down at lunch with his father one day and he goes,

01:58:49.880 you know, I think I'm depressed.

01:58:50.940 And his father says, you don't have a job.

01:58:52.800 You don't have any money.

01:58:53.660 You don't have a woman.

01:58:54.440 You should be depressed.

01:58:55.400 So at the end of the day, there's some there's some, you know, sometimes situational depression

01:59:02.860 is situational and you you got to put yourself in another situation.

01:59:07.080 And it's like, but my mother legit does suffer.

01:59:10.280 I do visit her.

01:59:10.920 I talk to her.

01:59:11.500 She's happy.

01:59:12.040 I'm doing well in my career.

01:59:13.080 She lives in an institution.

01:59:14.380 You know, it's legit mental illness.

01:59:16.220 It's not like one man show mental illness or I get profiled in Rolling Stone mental.

01:59:20.580 So it's legit.

01:59:21.900 She has issues.

01:59:22.680 So I do have an appreciation for those struggles.

01:59:25.380 And I do think a lot of people in comedy are crazy.

01:59:29.060 I think a lot of the people I know, you know, are struggling with all kinds of things.

01:59:33.640 And I think that's what makes a lot of them talented.

01:59:35.600 And it's a double edged sword.

01:59:37.300 A lot of the greatest artists throughout history have been people that have had these struggles

01:59:40.580 and have been very sensitive people and have suffered.

01:59:43.260 And like that's, you know, part of, you know, people contain multitudes.

01:59:48.260 And a lot of the most talented people, that talent, you know, you know, and when you,

01:59:53.360 when you have people that are, you know, you know, you look at a lot of the comedy that's

01:59:57.440 coming out now or a lot of the music or whatever it is.

01:59:59.500 And you go, yeah, this is, is this what healthy people make?

02:00:02.060 Because if so, let's go back to crazies because this is no good.

02:00:06.300 Do you worry at all?

02:00:07.580 I mean, do you worry for yourself given the genetic?

02:00:09.920 Well, I've asked doctors, you know, I've asked doctors.

02:00:12.540 They said that if I, if I was going to have like a problem like that, it would have probably

02:00:16.020 made itself known in the latter part of my twenties or, you know, you know, I'm 36 now.

02:00:23.840 I don't know that I'm super worried about that, but like, you know, I don't drink.

02:00:27.520 I'm sober.

02:00:28.200 I've been sober 10 years, a little over 10 years, 11 or 12 years.

02:00:31.760 So I don't really do any drugs.

02:00:33.500 I don't smoke pot.

02:00:34.260 And I know that, you know, listen, everyone loves weed, but like weed can exacerbate those

02:00:38.780 things.

02:00:39.260 I mean, nobody wants to admit that, but that is clinical fact.

02:00:43.100 And I know that's not cool to say.

02:00:45.000 Do you have any vices?

02:00:46.640 Oh, I mean, I have tons of vices, right?

02:00:48.640 I mean, I'm a standup comedian.

02:00:51.220 You know, that's a vice.

02:00:52.380 I think, I think of wanting people to look at you and laugh at you and validate you as

02:00:56.040 a human being is probably the big vice.

02:00:58.660 But yeah, I mean, food and, you know, occasionally I'll put a cigarette in my mouth and like there's,

02:01:03.480 there are things that I, it's very, very hard to eat healthy and to exercise and to do the

02:01:09.760 right things and be honest all the time and a good person and caring and not think about

02:01:14.760 yourself.

02:01:15.180 And that, I mean, that's the thing when you, when you become a sober person, you realize

02:01:19.480 that a lot of your issues were not actually because of booze and drugs.

02:01:24.400 They were the result of, you know, just being an imperfect person.

02:01:28.520 And the booze and the drugs were the medicine that actually kept those issues at bay.

02:01:33.540 And so that when you sober up, you have all these things to deal with, your own self-concept,

02:01:37.340 how you treat yourself, what you think about yourself, what you think about other people.

02:01:41.520 And I'm in a public business where people can say whatever they want about me and I, and

02:01:44.960 I respect that right.

02:01:46.780 And I just have to deal with it.

02:01:48.340 I have to ignore it or not listen to it or use what I think is useful and move on.

02:01:52.500 And you're in that position too.

02:01:53.600 It's like you lose the right to, you know, to, to, you know, control what people think

02:01:58.640 about you.

02:01:59.180 People are going to say things that are completely untrue.

02:02:02.140 They're going to say things that are somewhat true.

02:02:04.660 They're going to say things that they don't have an understanding of.

02:02:06.860 They're going to mischaracterize things you say and do, and you just have to go with

02:02:10.560 it and go, Hey, that's cool.

02:02:12.720 I know.

02:02:13.120 I mean, Rogan is incredibly good at that.

02:02:14.420 But to do it totally sober is impressive.

02:02:16.400 Like I have to say, I've joked with my brother, I'll never become an alcoholic because it's

02:02:21.120 too important to me.

02:02:22.540 I'll never refuse it to the point where it becomes a problem.

02:02:25.100 Right.

02:02:25.660 Because, you know, after that stressful day, if you, you know, you have that glass of wine

02:02:29.440 or you have a martini, it's like, okay, I genuinely do feel better.

02:02:33.300 And it is a vice.

02:02:34.940 It's a crutch for sure.

02:02:35.960 And if, if you ever do like a dry January or, you know, in my case with my husband,

02:02:40.840 it's like the dry five days in a row, which is about how long we'll go.

02:02:44.740 You realize I'm, I'm using it for sure.

02:02:48.060 I use it to help me get through feelings of stress.

02:02:51.300 I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

02:02:52.860 I think that like people do use, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

02:02:56.460 I just think it's like, there are those people that for whatever reason are unable to have

02:03:00.560 a productive relationship with it.

02:03:02.860 And that is the problem.

02:03:05.860 You know, George Carlin said it perfectly.

02:03:07.420 When you first start using drugs and alcohol, there's a lot of fun and a little bit of pain.

02:03:12.180 There's a lot of fun, a little bit of pain.

02:03:14.000 The hangovers don't even bother you.

02:03:15.300 You know, you're 17.

02:03:16.560 I used to be able to drink all night and get up and go to work.

02:03:18.760 And I was a lifeguard.

02:03:19.480 I would go to work all day.

02:03:20.580 Not a problem.

02:03:21.280 And as you progress, it becomes more, more pain that offsets the fun.

02:03:28.700 And the people that don't get off the train, by the end of it, when people are in the depths

02:03:33.260 of an addiction, it's all pain and almost no fun.

02:03:36.240 So it actually completely reverses.

02:03:38.040 And that's the Carlin point about drugs, which is very fascinating, that it actually reverses

02:03:42.960 itself completely from when you first start, where it's all fun, no pain, to then mid-ground,

02:03:49.160 a lot of pain, a lot of fun, to the end stage, all pain, very little fun.

02:03:55.660 Yeah.

02:03:56.220 I heard a saying about alcohol, wonderful servant, terrible master.

02:04:01.680 Great, great saying.

02:04:02.560 Yeah, there's a great book called Drinking a Love Story by Carolyn Knapp, who ended up

02:04:06.820 dying, but she was a writer.

02:04:08.600 I think she was a journalist.

02:04:09.680 Maybe she wrote for the Boston Globe or something.

02:04:12.380 She wrote this book called Drinking a Love Story, and it was about that she was in love with

02:04:16.820 booze.

02:04:17.620 She's like the uncork in the wine bottle, you know, the sultry, kind of seductive way that

02:04:22.600 the wine would enter the glass.

02:04:24.600 You know, she would just sit there and, you know, drink.

02:04:27.220 And then it was this amazing way to understand it.

02:04:29.680 It was an amazing way to understand it.

02:04:31.240 And she articulated it beautifully as like that this is the great love story of her

02:04:35.080 life was booze, and she needs to get away from it.

02:04:38.720 Sad.

02:04:39.960 Well, I tip my hat to you for living in the comedy world without relying on vices, because

02:04:43.840 I know too often that becomes a thing.

02:04:45.960 I want to ask you before I let you go, who are your favorite comedians?

02:04:50.340 Who are your, who would you say are your influences?

02:04:53.720 Chelsea Handler.

02:04:54.480 No.

02:04:58.160 Patrice O'Neill, I think, was one of the greatest comedians that's ever lived.

02:05:01.220 Um, uh, Greg Giraldo was amazing.

02:05:05.900 Uh, people like Bill Hicks and George Carlin and Joan Rivers were absolutely amazing.

02:05:11.240 People like Eddie Murphy and Chris Farley, uh, Mike Myers, you know, people like, uh, Adam

02:05:18.480 Sandler, um, you know, created the comedic world in which I live, Jim Carrey.

02:05:23.400 Uh, they created the world of which that's what I thought was funny.

02:05:28.820 Will Farrell.

02:05:30.300 Um, so there were standups that were brilliant.

02:05:32.620 And then, you know, there were people that in the sketch comedy world created the things

02:05:38.220 that I found really funny.

02:05:39.440 And, you know, those people to me were brilliant.

02:05:43.240 Woody Allen's brilliant.

02:05:44.340 Woody Allen's somebody that I grew up watching.

02:05:46.860 Um, and there, there's just a lot of very, very funny people.

02:05:51.300 Even, you know, on, on SNL, you had people like Gilda Radner and people like Jane Curtin

02:05:55.700 and people, you know, that were incredibly funny and again, helped form my ideas of what

02:06:01.620 funny was.

02:06:03.040 And, and those people later on became like people like Sherry Oteri or Molly Shannon or

02:06:07.300 Anagastar.

02:06:08.100 Like it was, yeah, really, really funny people.

02:06:11.600 And then, you know, there's so many different comedic influences that are, are out there and

02:06:18.400 so many different funny people that it's hard to really pinpoint, but that's the, you know,

02:06:22.740 the world, we all grow up in a world of funny and I mean, you know, for my grandfather, it

02:06:27.200 was Jackie Gleason and Jackie Gleason's a genius.

02:06:29.260 And for me, I can appreciate Jackie Gleason and go, this guy was amazing.

02:06:32.420 But my grandfather grew up in that world of like Jackie Gleason and Ed Sullivan and Johnny

02:06:36.200 Carson.

02:06:36.560 And it's like, we go, I grew up in a world of David Letterman and Conan O'Brien and,

02:06:40.480 you know, all of these different, you know, people that have added something to what

02:06:45.720 I consider funny.

02:06:48.260 I love all the names you just said.

02:06:49.760 Most of those SNL characters, um, actors, whatever.

02:06:52.740 I watched first time around back in the seventies when I would hang out at my Nana's house and,

02:06:57.200 you know, she let me watch endless hours of television after she went to bed, there was

02:07:00.660 nothing on except for SNL, which was definitely inappropriate for me.

02:07:03.400 And I didn't get much of the humor, but those are the people who are on, you know, back then

02:07:06.960 in the seventies and totally brilliant.

02:07:08.500 And, and that, and two, two points, number one, not a single one of the ones you named are

02:07:13.260 political.

02:07:13.800 Like they all managed to poke fun at both sides, which is one of the reasons why we love them.

02:07:18.120 Why the whole country loved them.

02:07:20.380 Somebody like Johnny Carson, he, he got it.

02:07:22.420 He knew exactly how far to push it with both sides.

02:07:25.640 Um, and number two, I, I, I hope this is a compliment, but you remind me of Chris Farley.

02:07:33.100 Um, yeah, well, I always, you're as funny as he is.

02:07:35.540 You are as funny as he is.

02:07:36.680 Well, I don't know about that.

02:07:37.960 He's, you are, he's a, he's a real force.

02:07:40.520 We're very different types of com.

02:07:42.640 We do different types of comedy, but he's a, you know, one of the funniest people I think

02:07:47.360 that's ever lived, I would say.

02:07:49.220 And, uh, there's a few guys that are just really forces of nature where their talent

02:07:56.120 comes from somewhere else.

02:07:57.460 It's like from another planet, you know, and it's like, you're in awe of them, whether it,

02:08:02.000 you know, Robin Williams was probably one of those people.

02:08:04.300 Chris Farley was one of those people.

02:08:05.700 Eddie Murphy is one of those people where you look at them and you're just completely amazed

02:08:10.240 by the level of talent they have.

02:08:12.940 And it's just not something that we can, we can barely understand it.

02:08:16.560 So, I mean, listen, it's a very big compliment.

02:08:18.340 I don't think I'm worthy of it, but you know, all of those guys are, you know, tremendous

02:08:23.820 Dana Carvey, whoever, Chris Rock, I mean, you look, all these guys are tremendously funny

02:08:29.640 and you just hope to be good enough that you have some small part of that world and that

02:08:34.820 somebody growing up will, will appreciate what I've done or what I'm trying to do.

02:08:38.220 And like, that's just the hope, you know, we're just trying to make people laugh here

02:08:41.640 because life sucks, you know, life's hard.

02:08:45.720 If you're looking to feel valued and validated, I hope you feel it right now.

02:08:50.200 I'm feeling it towards you and I have a feeling my audience is too.

02:08:52.380 I appreciate it.

02:08:52.880 You're the best, Megan.

02:08:53.680 And thank you for having me.

02:08:54.620 I'm a big fan and I hope that you continue to speak because you're an important voice

02:08:59.160 out there and we really appreciate you doing what you're doing.

02:09:02.900 Oh, thanks, Tim.

02:09:03.920 And wait, before I let you go, how can people find you and support you?

02:09:06.800 Tim J. Dillon, D-I-L-L-O-N on Twitter and Instagram.

02:09:11.120 The Tim Dillon Show is a podcast that is weekly.

02:09:14.060 It's on YouTube.

02:09:15.080 You can subscribe to The Tim Dillon Show on YouTube and find me on social media, Tim J.

02:09:20.300 Dillon.

02:09:20.940 And follow me on Clubhouse if you have the invite.

02:09:24.720 Shut up, you.

02:09:26.320 You're out of here.

02:09:27.220 This hour is brought to you in part by The Zebra.

02:09:33.480 Find out how much money you can save on car or home insurance by visiting thezebra.com slash Kelly now.

02:09:41.280 And don't forget to tune into the show this Monday because we've got Casey Johnson.

02:09:46.600 Now, Casey is a college professor.

02:09:49.040 He's at Brooklyn College, tenured professor.

02:09:50.840 But the reason he's so interesting, not that that doesn't do it, but the reason he's so interesting is because he's been keeping a close eye for years now on the BS happening on college campuses when it comes to these kangaroo courts that purport to be neutral arbiters in sexual harass and assault cases.

02:10:08.240 Nobody wants to see women sexually assaulted or harassed.

02:10:11.140 Trust me.

02:10:11.820 I know.

02:10:12.240 But we've overcorrected in a way that's been really unfair, the process to men.

02:10:17.040 They don't have due process.

02:10:17.840 They don't.

02:10:18.180 They can't cross examine.

02:10:19.080 They don't have the right to a lawyer in there.

02:10:20.740 They don't have the right to discovery.

02:10:22.300 They have virtually they don't have a presumption of innocence.

02:10:25.500 To the contrary, it's a presumption of guilt.

02:10:27.320 And Casey is going to walk us through a couple of the latest cases because while Betsy DeVos under President Trump tried to restore due process and undo some of the damage that Obama Biden did, one of Joe Biden's first acts as president has been to promise he's going to restore it right back and take away the procedural improvements that were put in place to make the system fair for all.

02:10:50.500 No one's saying women shouldn't get a fair hearing.

02:10:52.960 This is about making sure the accused also gets a fair hearing.

02:10:57.680 And you need to pay attention to this because it's wrong what's happening.

02:11:00.760 It's wrong.

02:11:01.320 And it's about to change back the wrong way.

02:11:03.700 So that's Monday.

02:11:05.400 Tune in.

02:11:06.180 Subscribe in the meantime.

02:11:07.400 Download.

02:11:08.460 Rate.

02:11:08.820 Five stars.

02:11:09.500 A review would be lovely.

02:11:10.860 I love hearing from you.

02:11:11.920 I have to say I have come to the conclusion that my listeners are very smart.

02:11:16.080 When I read the reviews, they're beautiful.

02:11:18.260 Like they're well written and they're thought out.

02:11:21.180 It makes me feel really good about myself because I'm connecting with super smart listeners.

02:11:25.860 And anyway, love it.

02:11:27.420 Please do it.

02:11:28.120 And we'll chat on Monday.

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The Megyn Kelly Show - February 05, 2021

Tim Dillon on Comedy in the Trump Era, Out of Touch Celebrities, and Alex Jones ｜ Ep. 60

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