00:10:56.000So I bought tickets, uh, to the symposium and I hired three little people and they all came dressed as different types.
00:11:04.000There was a guy dressed in a top hat and like a blah, blah, blah.
00:11:07.000And there was another guy dressed as like a gangster.
00:11:09.000I can't remember what the other one, but they were, they were quote, little people journalists.
00:11:12.000And so they came into the, they came in.
00:11:14.000So while the, this thing was going on, they would raise questions and they, like, they asked the rolling stone editor, you know, why does rolling stone suck?
00:11:24.000And then they were like kind of put off.
00:11:27.000And then one of them is eating, but now I'm not there.
00:11:30.000I'm in LA interviewing Pamela Anderson.
00:12:47.000And everybody at Dennis publishing was so pissed off at me.
00:12:50.000So, uh, so then that led to, so you got fired.
00:12:55.000Yes, I got fired, but I got, I did this thing where I got fired and promoted.
00:12:59.000So they said, so Steve Colvin, who was the head of the company goes, you know, we're going to transition you out to be the department, department of brand development in Los Angeles.
00:13:11.000This was basically saying, it's like what you guys call gardening gardening.
00:13:16.000They just wanted me away from the product.
00:13:18.000And, uh, and so, um, they said, you're going to be director of brand department.
00:13:23.000You're going to be dealing with, you know, pitching pilots to like MTV.
00:13:27.000And I go, okay, I know I'm fired, but I go, okay.
00:13:30.000And I go, and I, and I said, uh, so is this a promotion?
00:14:19.000And so I, I, uh, meet with, um, and Felix, who's the owner, who's, who died a couple of years ago, crazy mother, uh, crackhead or former crackhead.
00:14:30.000Uh, just a classic legend, um, was saying, you don't want to do this.
00:14:36.000You like, I'm telling you, but they said, no, this is what we, you know, think of the story.
00:14:41.000American comes to the UK, uh, and Maxim is in third place.
00:14:55.000I get like, I think it was like a two year contract and I just start changing the magazine, doing a lot of, um, unusual things that again, got me into trouble.
00:15:04.000Uh, the Ikea sex party, which was where we took, we made instructions on how to put, uh, Ikea furniture together.
00:15:12.000But, um, with, but with Kama Sutra models, like women having like, while you're putting a table together, you're also doing doggy style.
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00:17:44.000There was a couple of other things that happened there that were like really grim, but great.
00:17:53.000You can't find any of this stuff though, because it's weird.
00:18:08.000And then, um, uh, so I ended up getting a book deal, writing a book on my life in London and did that from like 2007, 2006, 2007.
00:18:20.000While that was happening, I get a, I'm writing for the Huffington Post, which is Ariana Huffington's new thing where she tried to make it so that celebrities were cool with political stuff.
00:18:30.000And they hired me by chance because somebody dropped out and all I did was make fun of the people there, including Ariana.
00:18:37.000And that got Fox's attention and Breitbart was Andrew Breitbart was running the Huffington Post at the time.
00:19:33.000I go, I've never even done this before.
00:19:35.000So I wrote all of this, all of these things, basically from my magazine background of like pockets, segments of things, just the way I would do a magazine.
00:19:44.000And I, so I had this whole show mapped out and it, it's like the, the producer they assigned me just went like that.
00:19:50.000She goes, so the news, she goes, A block, you're going to be doing this.
00:19:54.000And B, and it's like this, it was like, no, you're going to be doing new.
00:19:58.000Like it's, this is, you're just going to come in there with these people around a table.
00:20:02.000And like the first story will be, I don't know what, was Bush still president?
00:20:23.000I hired a friend, this guy, Bill Schultz from Stuff Magazine, who was greatest fame was he ran the entire Disney marathon in costume while chain smoking.
00:20:45.000So these, none of the, none of us had any TV experience.
00:20:48.000And then I just have it started having guests, but I started getting really weird people like, uh, lead singer, a guar, a lot of people that ended Amy Schumer, a lot of people who got big later.
00:20:58.000A lot of people who are now dead from mysterious things, professional wrestlers, but, um, but that was on every night and it was terrible.
00:21:18.000Where you got to once, once you've bombed enough times, it's like all of a sudden you don't care.
00:21:24.000And then it just gets fun and then it gets good.
00:21:27.000And all of a sudden it became like this really subversive.
00:21:30.000We were doing really weird things and it got this amazing following that was beating the morning shows on other networks, not big like cable networks.
00:21:38.000And, uh, and so, I mean, there was a lot of that went on at red eye.
00:22:33.000And then we, the show airs because I thought that like lighting a fire inside the control, inside the newsroom, not inside the studio, but in the newsroom.
00:23:20.000That was supposed to be a three month summer replacement when Beck left, Glenn Beck left.
00:23:25.000But it hit it off really good because of the chemistry between us.
00:23:30.000A lot of the chemistry for the five and Gutfeld is based on teasing.
00:23:34.000I try to explain it to people, but they don't understand.
00:23:37.000You got like, it has to be, it's why we, it's why late night has a problem because it's like the late night host can make fun of people, but nobody can make fun of them.
00:23:46.000And it's just creates a weird tension, but everybody makes fun of me and I make fun of them.
00:23:51.000And the teasing is what, it's the cohesive gel, the secret sauce.
00:23:55.000And so that's been going for, I don't know, almost 15, 2011, 14 years.
00:24:01.000Launched Gutfeld as a weekly, I can't believe I've gone through my entire career.
00:27:43.000Like, it's like, you guys need to loosen up, but not in that.
00:27:46.000Uh, that sounds arrogant, but like, I, I'm hoping that if I do this, it will change the culture.
00:27:53.000That's kind of, and it was Andrew Breitbart would say it was the first person to say that like, uh, uh, politics is downstream from culture.
00:28:02.000I mean, we were the, and I always use the, the, what the Dean Wormer analogy from animal house that for so long, we were Dean Wormer, the evil, uh, head of the college and the left was animal house.
00:28:14.000And my role, I always felt was to somehow flip that.
00:28:17.000And, and, uh, and that's what I think that's kind of what you're seeing is that now the scolds, the humorless people who are the Karens of the world are on the left.
00:28:29.000And it's the people on the right that are having fun, being a bit reckless here and there, but that's, you know, that's part of free speech.
00:28:36.000But it's like, we're, we are like the, we are sharing the risk, you know, we, you know, we're not scared anymore.
00:28:43.000And I think that, I think that's kind of to your, to your question, it is unusual, but I knew it would be.
00:28:53.000And it has a lot of the people from red eye that I've had in my show have been, are now working at the network.
00:29:00.000You're seeing a much younger, uh, edgier crowd.
00:29:03.000Unfortunately, they, everybody still likes country music.
00:29:06.000I like country music, but it's like there's country music everywhere.
00:29:10.000So there's still some changes that need to be made.
00:29:12.000You know, Greg, it strikes me that you're a true comedian in the sense that you're anarchic.
00:29:17.000You like to subvert, you like to play, you like to push, provoke, tease.
00:29:22.000But yet your career traversed the period of time where it was the most censorious it's been for a long time.
00:29:31.000Like, how did you do that? How did you not get canceled?
00:29:34.000How did you not get people breaking down in tears saying that you've committed a micro macro, whatever type of aggression it is?
00:29:41.000They've tried. I mean, it, it, uh, it's, I would say, um, like in the corporate world, when I was like at Rodale, that was an issue.
00:29:50.000People were always like complaining about stuff that I had said, but it was never a media thing.
00:29:56.000Um, but when I got to Fox and I was told this the moment I got there from, uh, John Moody, that now all your friends at Gawker or wherever are going to hate you.
00:30:07.000And they were right. So, uh, and so like, uh, they did, I mean, I've been, uh, a target of being canceled so many times that I stopped caring.
00:30:16.000There were, you know, media matters, uh, daily beasts, uh, these little, they're not as, uh, influential as they used to be because people saw what they were cutting pastures and targeters and no, you know, uh, no real substance there.
00:30:32.000But they were always do what they would, there was a cycle where like, let's say something like, I don't know, media matters would clip, then send it to like six, like blogs or whatever.
00:30:42.000And then, then the New York times and somebody else would pick it up and that's how you would get canceled.
00:30:46.000But I, it, you know, I'd been probably every other week had been targeted for something, but I, I, I guess it's because part of the reason was, I think Fox kind of like stuck with me.
00:30:58.000You know, uh, I never felt, I only had, I don't even think I ever had to make an apology.
00:31:05.000Because one of the things when you're going through that particular type of cultural landscape is you are at real risk of your career ending, but also to quote Top Gun, you're in a target rich environment.
00:31:17.000Yes. But you know what we're, what's great and what we're, uh, what we've learned is that woke woke and cancellation died when they realized it was helping people.
00:31:27.000You know, it's like, uh, uh, uh, Kat was saying, if you ever got fired from a joke, it would actually make your career better.
00:31:34.000You know, it's like true. It's like, it's because it's like, it's so it's, it's almost like we were, we were living in some kind of possessed universe or something.
00:31:46.000How did we let this happen? How did we let it? And it really was, people were scared to share the risk.
00:31:51.000So like when somebody, you know, gets in trouble, you would help them. But for some reason, like people would just like, and comedians would not help out another comedian who gets, who gets shafted.
00:32:05.000And I think that now, I think that's completely flipped. And now it's like, we don't, you know, you can pretty much say whatever you want. It's back to the old days.
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00:34:28.000Do you think it's back to the old days? That's an interesting point.
00:34:32.000Even on TV, even on mainstream like MSNBC and all of these, you think that's the case?
00:34:38.000Or do you think you're the exception and the people like, you know, one of the people as well who proved to all of these people that if you are undeniable, you can make it on your own is Shane Gillis?
00:34:49.000Yes. Yeah. It's I mean, it's a great story. The guy was kicked out of SNL because other castmates didn't like his style of humor.
00:34:59.000There was a pure it was a it was the weakest form of cancellation.
00:35:04.000You know, they didn't even have anything on him.
00:35:07.000But then he comes back and he's hosted SNL twice, you know, because he's undeniably funny.
00:35:12.000But I think, you know, there are places where it hasn't where they haven't changed, where it's wherever it's like MSNOW or CNN.
00:35:22.000They're not in good shape. Meanwhile, it's so vibrant.
00:35:25.000All the pod. I mean, the podcast world is all like unapologetically anti woke.
00:35:31.000Mm hmm. You know, and I, you know, wrote, you know, Rogan and Kill Tony and Tim Dillon and you guys organometry and Theo Vaughn.
00:35:42.000They're so in Michael Malice and there's so many.
00:35:45.000And they're they're smart. They're all different levels.
00:35:48.000Like you can like I that's where I get most of my like I get up every morning.
00:35:54.000I get on a bike Peloton and I listen to podcasts.
00:35:57.000I listen to Scott Adams, which is amazing.
00:35:59.000Probably the best thing to start your morning is coffee with Scott Adams because he goes through the news.
00:36:05.000But like what's a dark horse with Brett is good.
00:36:41.000There was a story that we did on my show last night on GLAAD is reporting that like the number of gay.
00:36:49.000Well, it's a non binary characters is being cut in half either by shows being killed or characters being killed off.
00:36:57.000And I think it's because, you know, they realize that that doesn't work.
00:37:02.000You know, a the percentage on TV far outpaced whatever was in the real world.
00:37:09.000And we knew that, but we couldn't say anything.
00:37:12.000And then the characters that they created, they thought could exist on their own identity, but without any depth, any humor.
00:37:19.000And you would watch TV and or anything.
00:37:21.000And you'd be like, why is this person in this show other than to just be a virtue signal?
00:37:26.000And they also had a they also had a didn't they have a criteria in Hollywood where you had to like include a percentage of different types.
00:37:48.000But it's like there was there was like I would remember watching the diplomat and they just had one character in there the first season that was just what is this person doing there?
00:38:45.000But most of the people on here doing this that you're paying attention to, they don't give a it's not like, OK, you let's say SNL fires Shane Gillis.
00:38:57.000It's not like the people that were complaining are suddenly going to watch SNL now.
00:39:56.000So you and so what happens is if you're in the DEI section, you get promoted because you you meet the quotas that you meet have nothing to do with profit.
00:40:16.000It's just it's almost like everything that we went through was just a complete and utter delusion.
00:40:23.000I mean, it's amazing if you look in all of the areas, the Biden presidency, the trans delusion, all of these things were like, like, did we really buy this?
00:44:36.000If you could just figure that out, you will then say, OK, it's all right if I'm wrong and it's OK if they're wrong and we can still be friends.
00:44:44.000But it's there's something about among liberals that you will.
00:44:57.000It's like that's like not being in a relationship with your relatives because they root for a different team, like a different football team.
00:45:20.000And I actually on X, I asked for examples because I go like it's like I don't like I've only heard.
00:45:26.000I've only heard so and so will never talk to me again.
00:45:29.000I've lost friends like people that it's like, you know, just completely ghost me, you know, because of he went to the dark side.
00:45:39.000You know, people who follow the show tend to think for themselves and anyone paying attention can see that the same carriers keep showing up in stories about data breaches, leaks and surveillance scandals.
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00:50:05.000I learned this from being an editor at Maxim and stuff is like the ad buyers hated the magazine unless they were unless they were dudes who wanted to go to the Maxim party.
00:50:17.000But most of them are like, this is disgusting.
00:50:40.000But it it takes a while for advertisers are usually like the last to kind of like take any risk.
00:50:47.000They don't want to take any risk at all.
00:50:48.000But like, you know, if you you know, they don't want to be.
00:50:51.000It was like in men's magazines, you know, a car ad doesn't want to be near a girl in a bikini for some reason because they think it's too salacious.
00:51:24.000And that's I mean, and that was that's pretty good for advertisers because they know this nobody's going to get offended.
00:51:31.000But the problem is those people don't buy, you know.
00:51:35.000And do you think now, I mean, I guess what France is getting to is there might be almost an incorporation like they're going to try and drag the Internet back on TV
00:59:17.000But the thing is, it's like, even though it changes your perspective, it doesn't.
00:59:20.000It's always going to be the same thing.
00:59:22.000That's it's kind of why I guess Elon Musk talks about having kids so much because he sees that the perspective on the other side has become almost like an accepted assumption that having kids is bad because we've kind of allowed that's that sentiment to.
01:00:39.000The rep repetition at negativity of having children had an impact on the on these generations, I think.
01:00:48.000And it's a shame because now, at least in New York, so many women are either freezing their eggs or trying to, you know, because they they thought that it wasn't important.
01:01:00.000But and also that they were told that it, you know, that they would they were told a lie.
01:01:04.000And we have to be fair to women in that.
01:02:05.000Because that's part of the messaging to men as well.
01:02:07.000It's like, oh, it's really this and it's really that.
01:02:10.000And and I remember actually we had this crazy woman on the show called Deborah Francis White from the Guilty Feminist podcast.
01:02:16.000And I saw her in another podcast talking about the fact that all she hears from her female friends who are mothers is being being a parent is like being an Uber driver for someone who doesn't want to go to karate.
01:06:38.000I remember when the last time we were here or maybe the time before we were at the Comedy Cellar and Kevin Hart came on and he talked about sexual assault.
01:06:45.000And he was like, look, it's a big issue. It's really important.
01:06:47.000But I read this one story about a woman who was sexually assaulted over the Internet.
01:06:54.000And he was like, I'm not buying that bitch.
01:06:58.000And it's kind of like just if you are getting tired of being angry about that you see on Instagram, maybe just stop looking at Instagram.
01:07:05.000Yeah, exactly. And if you I mean, if you're tired of being angry or miserable in general, you can actually do something about it, whether it's a pharmacological thing.
01:07:16.000But I'm talking about people who are feeding their misery.
01:07:20.000It's like if you can, you know, you can like move that stuff off your shelf space and have something else to do positive.
01:07:27.000And I think, you know, that's what I'm trying to do.
01:07:31.000Chan, thank you so much for coming to talk to us before we head over to our sub stack where our audience answer ask you their questions rather.
01:07:38.000The last question we ask is, what's the one thing we're not talking about that we should be?