April 4, 2023 • 47 mins
Chelsea Handler’s week guest hosting the Daily Show garnered a lot of attention, and she’s back with Host Roy Wood Jr, to discuss her viral video about being childless by choice, the response it generated from conservatives like Tucker Carlson, and what she thinks they're actually mad about. She also talks about bringing her signature comedic round tables to her guest hosting week, why celebrities are using Ozempic to lose weight, and what advice she has for the upcoming guest hosts. She even gives us a moment of zen.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Beyond the Scenes, the podcast that goes deeper
into topics and segments that we've discussed on The Daily Show.
I'm Roy Wood Junior. This is what you gotta think
of this podcast, says okay, Like like the Daily Show,
that's your base layer of chips and cheese, right, this
podcast is the beans and the letters and the guacamole
(00:30):
and the salsa, all that extra shit that turn your
nachos into real damn nachos. I'm Roy Wood Junior. Today
I'm joined by comedian, best selling author, host of the
Dear Chelsea podcast, and a former guest host of The
Daily Show, Chelsea Handler, to discuss all of her time
when she was here at the show. Madame Chelsea, Welcome
(00:52):
to Beyond the Scenes. Oh hi, Roy, how are you.
I'm good. I'm good. There is a lot to discuss
and prays that I want to heap upon you for
things that you have done for the world to stand
up comedy over the decades and the careers of many
many comedians. But first, let's just start with your week
(01:14):
at the show, and I give you the same question
I asked Leslie Jones, like, what did you expect this
ship was going to be and how much were you
right and how much were you wrong? Of everybody we've had,
Like you're the most experience. Your pedigree runs the deepest
in terms if we're just counting years and seasons. You
had Chelsea on Netflix before that, Chelsea Lately, which ran
(01:36):
forever and forever, and that was a daily show the
same as this, So how much was the daily show
machine similar or different to your previous operations. It's probably
more mature than my previous operations. Chelsea Lately was more
like a fraternity in the sense that we were all
playing jokes on each other all day. It was very
(01:59):
immature comity, but fun, you know, like funny. We loved it,
but it was silly and very pop culture centric. So
it was like about Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears and
all of those girls and the Jersey Shore. Yeah well
that too, yes, but more about being a hot mess
(02:20):
in general, like you know, just kind of picking apart
anyone who acted like a moron. And we didn't really
get to talk too much about politics because we were
serving it up to an audience that was on the
E network and it didn't feel appropriate for our the
company we were keeping on that network and the programming
on that network. Of course, they were like, do whatever
you want. But I just always felt like, if I
(02:43):
want to mature and go beyond it, it wasn't the
place for it. So when I did my Netflix show,
that was more of a focus there. So I think
the Daily Show is a much more refined kind of well,
more well rounded and more politically you know based program
ram and TV show, so you can while you can
comment on pop culture, the real centrifuge is politics. And
(03:07):
I appreciate that because as a forty eight year old woman,
I'm much more interested in that than I am in
making fun of young girls anymore. You know what I mean?
What I always and this is just some conversations that
I've had with other black people. What I always appreciated
about your Netflix show is that you did it at
a time where in terms of exploring the role that
(03:31):
I play as a white person in this step in
the third and really learning about new things and taking
other people on that journey, you were doing that before
it was cool, so to speak, Like it wasn't like
you was headline chasing or some shit like I was
watching it and one of the first comments, I was like, man,
I ain't Chelsea's like, you know, she taking some shitty
and when she just talking to her normal talk because
(03:52):
I'm just so used to you as the performer, so
used to you Chelsea lately which is more upbeat, but like, hey,
what's going on? Tell me about this thing? Which really
felt like some of those pieces felt like something we
would have done for The Daily Show because I watched
some of your stuff on Netflix and I got jealous
because I was like, why the fuck didn't we get
(04:12):
to go out there and do that. Why it's Chelsea
handl getting the scoop on all of the good ship.
But in terms of the late night format as as
a genre, what is it about unscripted content that you've
always gravitated towards or have you ever wanted to do
stuff in other genres or is this the wheelhouse that
(04:35):
you've always felt most comfortable in for the things that
you've wanted to say as a person. That's a great question.
I think those things change as you get you know,
your interests change, obviously, you evolve as a person, so
you're interested in you know, after banging on for seven
years every day about celebrities, clearly you're dehydrated for some
(04:57):
more concrete topics to talk about, you know, Like I
started growing up and I was like, well this is great,
but it's boring now, like I can do this with
my eyes closed. So I needed a challenge. And Netflix,
you know, to their credit, let me do whatever the
fuck I want it. I'm like, I'm going to Tokyo.
I want to go to Columbia, you know, for personal reasons,
(05:17):
but also I could film something. I want to go to,
you know, wherever. And they I went to Russia, I
went to I filmed you know, a bunch of documentaries
with them, and they, you know, I want to do
I think the documentary you're referring to, or maybe one
of them. I did a couple on race, but one
was Hello Privilege, It's me Chelsea, which no one wanted
to direct, no one wanted anything to do with. It
was before Black Lives Matter, it was before all of
(05:40):
you know, the stuff we experienced during COVID. But but
I but Netflix said sure, you know, to their credit,
they always were like, you go do whatever you want.
If you're gonna you're the one is going to take
the beating or the criticism and I'm like, whatever, Like,
who cares about that? I'm actually being sincere in my
questioning and my understanding of the issue. To begin with,
(06:01):
I wanted to know, as a white person, how to
impart to myself and to other white person white people, like,
what is the problem? What are we talking about? What
is white privilege? I assumed it was one thing, you know,
like the Rockefellers, like those people had white privilege, not
that everybody had it. And so, you know, it wasn't
(06:22):
like a fun documentary to shoot. I hooked up with
one of my ex boyfriends that I went out with
in high school who's been in prison for ten years.
I mean, that was really difficult for me personally to
have to like show up as this famous and successful
person while this guy just got out of you know,
jail and has five children and you know, can barely
(06:43):
support himself. You know that that stuff is always uncomfortable,
But I like uncomfortable. I think it's a great way
to grow, and it's a great way to impart wisdom
to the people that are looking for you or to you. Right,
the people that respect me are my fans, and how
do I make them understand what I'm understanding so that
we're learning together. So I don't think of myself as
a teacher or as any sort of you know, esteemed
(07:07):
person in that sense. I just think of myself as
somebody who's willing to take risks and kind of put
my feet to the fire. And you know, whatever backlash
there is, I can shoulder it. I'm a big girl.
I'm tough, like I've been criticized my entire career, so
that doesn't bother me. If anything, that fucking motivates me. Yeah,
I think it really came through and the heart and
that really really came through, in my opinion, something else
(07:30):
that you do that I've always respected, and in the
modern era of stand up comedy, I would say it's
less than ten, maybe less than five comedians who I
believe consistently on a regular basis used their platform to
uplift other comedians so that they can build their careers
(07:53):
and have a solid foundation from which to build upon.
Kevin Hart's done it a great deal. Cat Williams does
it a great deal. You did it a huge deal
with Chelsea Lately, and you know, and all modesty aside.
You created a platform for stand up comedians to come
on TV on a regular basis every fucking week and
(08:15):
be able to be funny and build their audience and
create a relationship with viewers that after the show was
even done, they were still able to take the ball
and continue running with what is it about? Because you
even then did that here at the Daily Shows. My point,
you come here and guests host, and then you do
roundtable for two days, which hasn't been done before you
(08:36):
ever in the history of the show, and hasn't been
done since, and I don't think it ever will be
because roundtable is such a specific skill set in itself.
Why is it so important for you to bring that element,
you know, during your time to the Daily Show? What
is it about? Roundtables in general? And then as you
were planning the Daily Show, why did you also go, yeah,
we need to do that here too. I just I
(08:58):
think that's a great. First of all, it's entertaining for
the audience. When you have the right mix of people
and you have great comics, which there are plenty, it's
it's a great it's a great way to entertain. You know,
you've got four different perspectives rolling at you at the
same time. And I think the art of that is
very specific because being a comedian, as you well know,
as you on a stage with a microphone all by
(09:21):
yourself and no one else is allowed to talk. So
the idea of performers sharing sharing stage time with other
performers is a little bit foreign for the idea of
stand up comedy. And I just thought when I was
doing Chelsea Lately, it was such an easy way to
have tons of last It's like you're multiplying the laughter
(09:43):
times for people right the perspectives. I mean, if you're
watching that there's somebody that you're going to relate to
more than you're going to relate to one person. If
there's peet four up there, you're going to relate to somebody.
There's a higher, you know, probability that you're going to
relate to one of those people if you don't relate
to me, say, And I think that it is a
great way to show by example how easy it is
(10:06):
a to share that stage and to share that spotlight,
and that everybody succeeds with it when you have the
right mix of people, which isn't that hard to do.
And I like that format, and so I thought, oh,
we're doing stuff like let's try some stuff out, and
since I was there for the whole week, I just thought, well, yeah,
let's do it. You know, you had this quote the
(10:27):
first night you were home. You said, and correct me
if I'm but trained this. She said, this is where
I get to talk shit about all the wet jobs
and hot messes out there, which you did, you know? Oh,
Marjorie Taylor Green calls him heat. Santos called him heat.
Tucker Callson called a lot of heat. When do you
(10:51):
think it's still possible in the modern political satire era
to shame people into changing or are we approaching a
shameless era in politics where I think those people try
to take those criticisms and use it to make themselves stronger. Yeah.
I don't know where we are in society. I know
it's important to speak out, especially as a woman, and
(11:12):
especially during this time where everybody's rights are up for
sale and it's just ridiculous. And I honestly feel like
anytime there's progress in one direction, clearly there's like, you know,
a pendulum swing. It's like women step up and we
have this huge me too move in and then cancel
culture has followed that, and then we get our rights
(11:33):
taken away and then abortion is turned over. It's like
everything leads to a stronger reaction from the other side.
So this is just a product of the trans rights,
the banning of the books. The LGBT community being under
assault is a reaction to people saying we want more
we want more freedom, we want more equality, we want
equity like it doesn't, so we're always going to be
(11:55):
dealing with it. It's two steps forward and hopefully one
step back. And it's just part and part, it's part
and parcel of the culture that we live in right now.
And now. I don't think you're changing anyone's mind by
going off on them, but I think you're reminding, for instance,
straight white guys who don't who don't want to get
in on it or think they're being attacked. It's like
(12:16):
those are the people we're talking about, the Tucker Carlson's
of the world. So the guys that aren't like that
should be standing up louder and prouder and fighting for
LGBTQI rights, especially when you're not in that in that
you know you're not in that population. Fight for women's rights,
fight for all of these marginalized groups. Because as we've known,
and as studies show, it hurts men just as much
(12:39):
as it hurts the rest of us, this kind of
discrimination and this kind of marginalization. So I don't really
care what the result is. I think it's a it's
just a reminder like women are coming into their own
like we don't need to have kids, and we don't
need men to tell us that's what's going to make
us happy. If you think I'm going to ever listen
(12:59):
to a man telling me what will make me happy,
that's wrong. That's not gonna happen. And that's and I'm
not speaking just for me. There are millions of women
who feel this way. To me, I've always felt like,
you know, we're definitely past the John Stewart days of
(13:20):
I will shame Tucker Carlson or who's the money Jim
Kramer into coming on my show so we can back.
But I do think that what we do in the
modern day political satire feel can help change the minds
of constituents and voters. I think the talking heads are
(13:40):
going to be the talking heads. They are ingrained in there.
They were getting our check to say this thing. We're
gonna say the thing, but you you tackled during your week.
You tackled everything from voting rights and body positivity and
gender disparity in boxing and Broadway. Help help for the
viewers who don't know how that we is laid out,
(14:01):
Help them understand how you decided to choose the topics
that you wanted to get into in a broader sense,
and then also the day to day topics that you
decided yes to that note to that, what were the
reasons for including some things and excluding other things? Well? Also,
I just want to piggyback on one thing from the
previous exchange between us. You know, it's also not about like, okay,
(14:27):
you know, shaming Tucker Carlson, as it is to giving
a voice to all those other people. Do you know
what I'm saying, Like for the women like when I
do that, that gives voice for other people and other
women who feel like me, and other people that feel
ignored that they haven't been heard. So that's more of
mymo than shaming Tucker Carlson, because obviously you're right, he
can't be shamed. So but okay, So to answer that question,
(14:51):
I was in communication with Jen a lot before the
show because we were planning on who the guests were
going to be. We were going out to different people.
It was Super Bowl week. We were hoping to try
and get somebody, you know, from one of the teams
that was playing. So as you know, since you're at
the Daily Show all the time, you know what, how
frenetic that kind of work environment is. There's things that
fall out at the last minute, and then there's people
(15:12):
that cancel at the last minute. It's always just basically juggling.
There's an electricity in that, you know, and that freneticism
that makes it really fun. If that's the kind of
person you are who's always like, okay, wait, what let's
think outside the box. Who would be interesting, Like, for instance,
you know the box the Female Boxers that came on.
It was I had never heard of her before, and
(15:34):
then my friend set me a link and I read
it and I watched her and I watched her acceptance
speech and Jen saw it and we were like, oh,
this would be awesome, you know what I mean. So
it's kind of having the latitude to move around quickly
and to be a dexterous and what you're gonna do
and what you're gonna say. And I think the most
important things that we talked about are the biggest issues
(15:55):
we had were just the biggest stories of the day.
I mean, I definitely went into that week like let's
go after Lauren Boeberd or Marjorie Taylor Green or any
of these ridiculous Matt Gates. I don't even know how
to say his name, really, and I don't care to
find out. Um ask a young girl ship, tell you
keep going, and uh So I like that vibe. I
(16:17):
like that kind of workload, you know when I like it. Listen,
there have many plenty of times where I haven't wanted
to work for like, you know, a year straight, and
I was in the mood for it. I was like,
let's go. This is so much fun because I do
know how to do that. I mean, that's my that's
my skill set is to just kind of be dexterous.
You have to be quick, too, Like you can't be
(16:37):
sticking to a script, as you also know Roy, like
you have to be versatile and be able to go
off book and to add your own lines in and
and to know when you've made a point and to
know when to keep going. All right, So you have
Raphael Warnock on as a guest. You have the wonderful
Mottel Ashley Graham, you have Alicia bum Gardner, the boxer.
(16:58):
They were just talking about Leah Michelle as well. Was
there a guest you want it that you just couldn't get?
It just didn't work out? Like? Was there just a
scheduling thing that Like I really wanted Tiana Taylor for
my week and then I found out She's not going
to be in New York the week that I was
guest hosting, So I was like, ah, shit, okay, well,
(17:21):
well tell her to come back to New York. And
at the time, but was there anybody in your pantheon
let's go all time and daily show, who's a guest,
who's a person you would love to sit down with? Oh?
I mean I don't look, I mean, yes, I can't
remember who the people were that we were trying to
get that didn't work out, But I'm sure there were
(17:41):
there always are. That's the way. That's the nature of
this show, of any booking show where you're booking talent.
But I think the real important thing to remember is
it doesn't matter who the fuck it is. It doesn't
It matters that you're interested and that you're creating a
conversation and you're listening, because you can have an interesting
conversation with fucking anybody, it doesn't matter how boring they are.
(18:05):
You can spice up something if you have that kind
of talent, if you're able to just really engage with
somebody and listen, you'll find this something that's interesting to
talk about. So, I mean, is there a dream guest
that I have that i'd love to interview? Not really
quite frankly, like I'm good with almost you know, I
guess I recently interviewed somebody on my podcast that was
surprising to me. Like I interviewed Matthew McConaughey for he's
(18:28):
doing this live event, and like I had never thought
about interviewing Matthew McConaughey for anything. And I read his
book in a day the day before I interviewed him,
because I hadn't read Green Lights, and I always just
kind of had my own impression of Matthew McConaughey, which
was neither here nor there. And I read his book
and I was blown away, Like I could have interviewed
him for three hours. I totally changed my perception and
(18:49):
understanding of him, and my respect for him, Like I
have major respect for him and everything he put down
in that book. So I feel like there are surprises
all around. Albeit Matthew's a big star, you know, that's
a big name, and that's a big get. So it's
easy to be interested. But you can find interesting things
in anybody. And I find like regular people just as
interesting as I do. Famous people love it well. After
(19:13):
the break, we want to talk about one of those
quasi famous people in your public spat. We're talking about
old Tucker Carlson, and I want to get into the
actual issue that it was that got so many people
angry at you, but so many women saying thank you.
This is beyond the scenes with Chelsea Handler. We'll be
right back on beyond the scenes. We are back with
(19:36):
Chelsea Handler discussing her time guests hosting on The Daily
Show earlier this year. And Chelsea, there was a topic
that garnered a lot of attention, which you're talking about
being childless by choice. It was a longer death segment,
but the sketch, if I'm just going to describe it
as quickly as possible, you wake up and you just
have a great fucking day. It's as a person having
(20:00):
a good fucking day, that's all. It was not a
big deal and it got turned into a TikTok. Conservatives
got very very upset with you about this. I'm not
going to go into detail on a lot of the
things that they called you, But did you even anticipate
this type of response when you decided to put this
sketch together? And what's the real reason that's fueling people's
(20:23):
anger with you about this lack of humor? A is?
I mean, hello, I'm in the sketch or whatever it was.
I fly to Paris for lunch, and I go to
Manta Picchu to go for a quick hike in the
same day, and then I'm back at home, like obviously
it's like three continents. Yeah, now it's time for a workout,
(20:45):
so I hit Mount Everest for a quick climb. I
invent a time machine, go back in time and kill Hitler,
crazy bastard. It's amazing what you can do when you
have this much free time. And that's a day in
the life of a childless woman. It was just so ridiculous.
But obviously it really ruffled some feathers and conservatives others,
(21:06):
because you know, conservatives are all about patriarchy, and religion
is their umbrella or their sub diffuge for patriarchy, which is,
if anybody knows anything about history, that's where patriarchy began,
with religion to give men, like you know, power over
women and the idea that men are threatened. First of all,
we have a planet that's fucking melting. So having a
(21:28):
child at this point in your life, go for it.
But for me, like, that's just another reason, Like I
don't want my kid growing up with wearing, you know,
a mask for the rest of his life. There are
many reasons not to produce, and the idea that that's
our responsibility and by saying we don't want to do
that of choice is not to be believed. Like it
(21:50):
can't be possible that a woman would be happy not
being married and not having children. There's just no way
that could happen. And there are more ultiple conservative man
who've you know, gone banged on about that about that
that is a lie that I'm I'm selling women, a
lie about you know, being a girl boss. I think
(22:11):
they called it a girl boss And it's like, but
it's not a lie because I'm living it so and
you're telling me that I'm not living it, but I am.
Behold a day in the life of a childish woman.
A point is to make you feel good about being
an aging, deeply unlikable woman who never had kids. Narcissism,
it makes you happy. Feminists like Chelsea Hand they've been
(22:32):
lied to by their society forever that you could be
a girl boss and you can do anything a man
could do, which everyone who's ever seen a woman back
up a vehicle knows that's not true. Your womb resembles
a dried up tumbleweed blowing down an old western town,
and your Valentine's Day date for the tenth year in
a row is a ten year old copy of Magic
Mike and a half full bottle of Xanex, And you're
(22:53):
trying to pretend like you're happy, but you're not happy.
You know when I heard Tucker Carlson's video about me,
which I actually didn't hear for a long time, because
I was in Whistler in my bedroom smoking a joint,
reading a book. I was in Heavens, taking the day
off from skiing. I had my TV on. There was
a documentary on the TV. I'm in my bed with
(23:15):
a joint and a book like these three things are
my happiness, okay, and I'm just like, oh my god.
I was sitting there literally that morning, going, god, this
is exactly what I hoped adulthood would be, you know,
just me fucking having the time of my life, educating myself,
getting stoned. And I have, you know, the mountains right
outside anytime I'm ready to ski, And I kept getting
(23:36):
buzzes on my phone, and you know, people were just
texting me saying, have you seen this? Have you seen this?
Tucker Carlson's talking about you? But I didn't look because
who cares. He's always talking about something I've done. And
then Jen Flans your ep. She texted me and said, hey,
let's we think you should respond to the Tucker Carlson.
You know, we'll write something up for you. And I said, okay, great,
(24:00):
this is what I would want to say to, you know,
like add this in. And then I just remember thinking
I have to fucking get up and take a shower
for this fucking asshole and film something to respond to
this moron. And I'm like, all right, So I got
in the shower, I blew out my hair, and then
I called my friend over. I'm like you got to
come film something, and then at the end of it
(24:21):
filming it, he goes, who's Tucker Carlson. I'm like, I mean,
can imploy Canadians. They don't, I mean, lucky Canadians. They
don't have to be exposed to the George Santos's and
Tucker Carlson's of the world in the way that America
has to suffer. Hey, everyone, I woke up this morning,
well more like this afternoon, and noticed that there was
an emergency meeting of the Receding Hairline Society to discuss
(24:43):
a comedy video I filmed about not wanting kids. Wow,
why would I even need my own children when I
get to hear these cry babies all the time? I mean,
I can't believe that bearded version of Tucker Carlson thinks
I would take a half a bottle of xanax. I
take way more than that, you silly goose. Look, I
(25:03):
don't want to debate whether or not I'm a girl boss,
although I did just look at my bank account and
think that's pretty girl boss. And then I thought about
the ten different people, ten plus different people I've been
able to put through college, and then I remember my
six New York Times best Selling Books or was it five? Oh?
No, no no, it was six. And then I remember my
recent stand up special that was just released on Netflix
(25:26):
called Revolution, and I thought, yeah, you are a girl boss.
You guys seem so triggered by me. I mean, my goodness, Tucker,
I think it is time for you to ask yourself
a serious question. Are you really upset about how much
freedom I have? Or are you upset that you haven't
been able to take it away from me yet? Why
was this issue important to bring on the show and
(25:48):
talk to me a little bit about the construction of it?
Because I feel like you walked in the door with
this one kind of already like the framing and the
scaffolding was already there. How much how much did you
help with assembling the last couple of pieces and putting
up the walls if we want to compare it to construction. Yeah,
it's definitely something I came in wanting to do talking
(26:08):
about it because I've seen the response. I mean, I
do it a lot on my Instagram, making fun of like,
you know, kids, they're not that great. You don't have
to do it. Marriage, you don't have to You could
say no, I do psays about whatever I think is
you know, silly or stupid or funny, and children are
not that great is something that was actually carried over
from I Think my Netflix show, and we started it
there and I realized by the reaction and the volume
(26:33):
of people that would post repost it and the views
it got and the comments it got, that I was
hitting a chord with women. And I'm not the first
person to do this, but I definitely realized, Oh, there's
like a whole group of people of the population that
are just constantly shamed for not doing something that nobody
(26:57):
ever said we had to do in the first place.
It's just like this archetype that we're supposed to fulfill,
this prophecy that we're supposed to like be built into,
like molded into. And it's like, no, no, don't tell
me what to do, because I'll do the opposite. I don't.
I'm not here to be controlled or or make men happy.
That's not my purpose. If anything, My purpose is to
(27:19):
make women free, you know, Like I speak to women
my you know, a large part of my audience are women,
and I want them to know, like, I got your back,
You're not gonna you know, you're not going to deal
with this forever because you've got somebody who's not going
to be pushed around or told what to do or
you know, treated in that way, Like I won't stand
for it. And you know, there's a lot of straight
(27:41):
guys out there that think that they're on our team,
but they're not doing enough to be on our team,
you know, like we need active team members. It's the
same thing with any ally ship, Like it's great for
you to say you're on our side, but what are
you actively doing to promote that equality and that women
and shouldn't be told what they're going to do and
(28:01):
not having a child is you know, that's also a
lazy question to ask somebody, you know, when are you
going to get married? When are you going to have
a baby? Like it's personal and it's none of your business.
I mean, people have just stopped asking me that. And
I've been talking about this for my entire career. I've
never wanted to have kids and I just didn't think
I was the right type of person to be a parent.
(28:22):
I think that's a very valid way to look at something,
and more people should look at that, like, you know,
do I have what it takes am I selfless enough?
Do I have the time? Do I have the bandwidth?
Do I have the patience? Self Rogan was in an
interview a while back, I should have married him, and
(28:42):
he talked about his decision to not have children the
roll criticism. There weren't a big cavalcade of people Attech
and self Rogan team he should be out there raw
dog and everybody and making both babies. Why is there
a double Dana And that's not an attack on Seth.
Shout out to Seth and making the life choices he
(29:03):
chose to make. I'm just comparing the response from the public.
Why do you think he got the response he got?
Excuse lack of response, Well, praise even to some degree,
and you were like, how dare you a woman? You
know what that uterus is supposed to be full? Listen,
it's not a secret that men are scared of powerful
(29:23):
women and women that have a sense of agency. Men
are scared, and that's how they decide that they don't
like you, that you're too loud, you're too crass, she's
too much. I don't like her, But they can't figure
out why or what it's because I'm saying how I feel.
And it's because I I'm proud about it and I'm
fucking confident about it, and they know that they can't
go toe to toe with me, yet they don't. They
(29:44):
can't pin why they don't like it. I mean, it's
it's just sexism. I mean, it's that's as simple as
it is. Seth's great, a great guy. I like Seth
a lot. I mean, I don't know him that well,
but I do like him. But it's a perfect example
of the way that women are read it like, you're
allowed to tell me what to do, but you're not
allowed to tell him what to do or be disappointed.
(30:05):
I mean, it's just so stupid. But listen, this has
been going on since the beginning of time, so it's
nothing new to any of us. Were just like, oh
my god, it's laughable. What role, as as someone that
has been in and around entertainment, you know, I would
say for greater or three decades of your career at least,
what role do you think society and entertainment plays in
(30:28):
reinforcing the traditionalistic views the patriarchal that's not a word,
but you know what I'm saying. Patriarchy. All Oh, well,
patriarchal is a work at the first time, what role
in this entertainment play in reinforcing that upon women and
(30:49):
men For men to think you, well, you know, you're
supposed to be my wife and you're supposed to be
at home in a role. It's of course, I mean,
we reflect our society, right, Television movies reflect where That's
why the televisions in the middle of a huge transformation.
That's why there's more people of color on TV. There's
more people, there's more Asians being recognized. It's like, because
(31:10):
it's time. It's fucking time. It's not all just about
white men controlling everything. And I know that people get
sick of women banging on about it, but you have
to think about why that bothers you, you know, like,
why does it bother you? We want equal We want equality,
just like everybody deserves to be equal. And I think
all marginalized groups coming together and like supporting each other
(31:31):
is scary, very scary for patriarchy because they're going to
be outnumbered and uh and you know, and that's why
it's so important also to to you know, to have
allyship with all these groups and actually to be in
tune and understand what the LGBTQ community is fighting for,
what trans people are fighting for. You know, I can't
(31:52):
tell you even how many liberal friends I have talking about, well,
this is it right for people to be transitioning at
this age? And I heard that three else that were
a transitioned without even telling their parents, And I'm like,
oh my god, do you really think in this country
that eight year old's got what are you talking about?
Like everyone's just so misinformed that it's important to really
stay up on all of those topics, you know. I mean,
(32:15):
it's like any everyone's fighting the future in a sense,
like the people in control are fighting and resisting this
new group of people that are like, we're not it's
not a new group, but it's a louder group than
it has been. And we're saying no more, We're done
with it. We're all sick of it. And and that's
changing in television two and rightfully, so it has to
(32:38):
change even more. Obviously, it's still not enough. It won't
be enough for for many years. How are you able
to sleep at night that one? How are you able
to sleep at night without a child keeping you a
wick in the next room. Everyone knows that that's joy.
How are you able to address issue this seriously? Because
(33:02):
your stand up to me has never struck me as
anger being a key ingredient in the construction of your
thoughts performatively. I'm not saying that you aren't angry, but
how are you able to take these issues that a
lot of people are angry about and not necessarily let
that be the soul driving emotion for how you address it? Like,
(33:25):
all right, let's let's go with Tucker Carlson, Right, Tucker
Carlson claps back at you. You clapped back at Tucker.
Y'all kind of go back and forth. It's never really angry.
Then you deliver what I consider to be the cool
de grab. You are topless skiing on your birthday, which
is the tradition that I have separate questions about how
the hell that came about. But you're topless and skin
(33:46):
and then eminem without me comes on and you're just
just cruising down a mountain instead of sitting alone in
a room with a microphone going. Let me tell you,
able's Robert rousing all of these men and talk to
me a little bit about Because for the people that
are angry about this, what are the things that you're
able to do. How are you able to just ski
(34:06):
with no shirt on and choose that over plugging into
the raw emotion of the issues. Well, he doesn't deserve
my emotions. I mean, come on, you know, like you
have to be first of all telling me the truth
before we can talk about exchanging an emotional field. But no,
I'm angry. I've always been angry, and I've been angry
(34:28):
in my career and that doesn't really serve me as
well as being able to distill it into a something
with levity, Like levity attracts more attention, and you bring
more people in when you can joke about the preposterousness
of person of a person's claims. And I've just as
I've grown older and gotten into my you know, more
(34:51):
comfortable in my skin, I guess, and I've just been
able to modulate the tonality of what is going to
have an impact and what is to you know, if
you're screaming all the time, it's very one noted, and
I didn't. That doesn't work for me. I already have
a very strong personality. I already come across strong, you know.
So I need to bring people in, not push them away,
(35:13):
and I've slowly am you know, I've learned how to
do that in a much more efficacious way than I
used to when I was younger. You know, I didn't
care so much about the patriarchy then because I wasn't
as clued in as as what was to what was
happening as I am now. You know, I didn't have
struggles becoming successful. It wasn't that difficult for me. I
(35:34):
worked really hard, but doors were always opening, you know,
and for and so it took me a long time
to actually look at it in the face when I
didn't experience it myself, but other people were talking about it,
and I thought, okay, well, what's my responsibility here. It's
like when you talk about women and sexual assault. I
haven't been sexually assaulted, but that's it's my job as
(35:57):
a woman to understand what the fuck that means and
what that means when somebody goes through that, and to
talk about it. Just because I don't have personal experience
with it doesn't mean that I can ignore it. I'm
you know when I think that my responsibility is to women,
So I think all of that stuff you just you
figure out, Okay, how can I be more effective in
my delivery. It's with the same with my stand up.
(36:19):
I used to talk in this really high pitch and
scream and yell, and when I was in my twenties
and I would I couldn't hear myself, like I would
watch myself and cringe. Now it's nice to be able
to watch myself and not crunch. Well. After the break,
we'll bring it home with Chelsea Handler. We're gonna talk
a little bit about diabetic medication that's been useful weight loss,
(36:40):
and I want to talk to you a little bit
about your podcast. Dear Chelsea. This is beyond the scenes.
We'll be right back beyond the scenes. You're bringing it
at home with Chelsea Handler discussing her guest week on
The Daily Show. Now, there was a there was a
topic you tackled on the show about these celebrities losing
weight with this medicine that's for people with diabetes. Oh zempic.
(37:04):
I think it's cold. I don't know. Yeah, I didn't
know that this was a thing that was happening all
over Hollywood. Like, I know people lose weight on diabetic medication,
but I never knew that people were like, oh yeah,
let me get it and then create a shortage. How
did you first hear about this? Like, I understand that
at some point you were on it, but was it
(37:25):
because of like a legit diabetic reason or because no no,
I got it from a doctor, an anti aging doctor
in Los Angeles. It's it's the other word for it,
or the other name for it is sema glue tide.
That's the chemical. I guess the main compound in it,
don't I don't know. I consider myself a pharmacologist, but
I don't know the ins and outs of this. This
(37:46):
is so I had sema glue tide, and my doctor's like, oh,
if you're ever feeling puffy after a trip or something,
or you're traveling, you know, take this. You can always
just drop five pounds. And I was like, oh, okay, great.
So I had it in my fridge for like six months,
and then I came back from Spain. I had been
traveling for like a month, and I came back and
I was exactly that. I was like, oh, I feel bloated.
(38:06):
I'd been drinking the whole vacation. I was like, all right,
let me try this. And I went out to lunch
and so I injected myself. I went out to lunch
like a week later with a girlfriend and she was
not eating. She's like, I'm nauseated. I'm like, I'm actually
nauseated too, I said, but I feel like I'm jetlagged,
and that the nausea was step stemming from that because
I'd been gone for so long, so I was here
waking up at three in the morning in La every morning.
(38:29):
So I just felt like maybe my nausea was derived
from her head, come from that. And then she's like, oh,
I'm on azempic and I was like, oh, I'm not
on azempic. And she's like, well, are you on anything.
I'm like, well, I'm on something called sema glue tie
to drop weight. She's like, that's it zempic and I
was like, oh what. And I'm like, oh my god,
ze pick these us. Two weeks I wonder, I felt
like shit. So I was on ozempic and then I wasn't,
(38:54):
and then I started, and then I just had some
at my house that I gave away to my friends
and whoever wanted it. It was. It was oazempic party basically,
and yeah, no, I'm not an on ozempic, but yes,
there's a shortage because everyone in Hollywood is on it,
and people don't care that you get nauseated or feel nauseated.
They don't give a shit. They want to be thin
(39:15):
and people will do anything to be thin. So there
you go. So now there's a shortage because I guess
too many celebrities are taking it. What responsibility does the
medical community have too, just not prescribing or just giving
the stuff away to people who don't legitimately need it.
They don't care. Listen, look at there's a shortage on
(39:37):
adderall too in this country. They prescribe that to anybody
and everybody. I mean half the women I know in
this town are on adderall also that don't have add
So you take it and it makes you just feel like,
you know, you did two lines of coke. I mean,
people abuse and pharmaceuticals like that story is. I mean,
look at the Sackler family, Look at the Purdue pharmacy,
(39:57):
look at all that. I don't trust pharmacy. You know,
the pharmaceutical industry. One second, you've got to do your
own research. Unfortunately, and they do have a big responsibility.
We have a you know, the FDA has a big
responsibility but as we've seen so many times, a lot
of these agencies are kind of corrupt and there's a
lot of proflicacy that is going on, So there's I
(40:20):
don't know, it has to be of like a personal
value or moral system for somebody running these pharmaceutical agencies
to have, and they don't. They want to make money.
So you have a podcast called Dear Chelsea and you
give advice to people, which I think is one of
the most noble things to just create human connections with people,
(40:46):
because I always feel like advice is as much for
the people consuming it as it is the person you're
speaking directly too. Have you ever met any of the
people out there on the old I call it the
campaign trail during your comedy tours. Have you ever met
any of the people that you've touched with some of
your words. Yes, I have. I have multiple times, and
(41:08):
I get tons of dms which I try to go
through on a regular basis, you know, for people who
really are asking advice that don't get picked for Dear Chelsea,
or if they've written a letter and they haven't heard back.
And then people that have been on the show, and
you know, I started out the show in jest, because
I just didn't want to do another celebrity interviewing podcast
because obviously I've been there, done that, and I wanted
(41:29):
to do something that was actually something that was just
a little bit. I like human beings. I like people,
and I like helping people. I am that personality. I'm
a leader. I like to get in there and be like, no,
no, no no, you're in a crisis. I'm a crisis counselor.
I can't tell you how many girlfriends in my life
have gone through whether it's a divorce or a death
(41:50):
in their family, and I can come in and I
know how to do that, and so that's my good superpower,
and I wanted to spread that around and all my audience.
It turned into something a lot more meaningful and profound.
People call in and are making life changing decisions about
ending relationships that are toxic or leaving their family because
(42:11):
their families Mormon and they're gay and their family, you know,
wants to excommunicate them, and you know, stuff like That's
it got serious pretty quickly, and I was like, oh fuck,
I mean it's still fun. You know, we have a
good time and we try to have some light stuff too,
but we do get in there with some really dark
and deep personal issues, and I love that. I got
(42:32):
a lot out of going to therapy. I went for
two years. I wrote a book about it, I did
a special about it. I got so much out of
it that all I wanted to do was give it,
give it to everybody I could meet. I want everyone
to have it, just like I wanted everyone to have
ozempic Roy. I want everyone to have my you know,
like not even like I know better than you do,
(42:53):
just I want you to have my confidence and my
like get your pick yourself up out of that situation.
Like it's it's going to be. Hey, We're all going
to be okay once you get your shit together. So
I'm it's like a kind of a big sister, you know,
impact that that has okay. So then here's a dear
Chelsea on the spot. What advice do you have for
(43:13):
the rest of the guest hosts for the Daily Show?
To be agile, like be there and be in the moment,
like and listen. You know, the best performance comes from listening.
And whether that's the voice inside of you like you're
good gut, you know, the good voice not the bad voice,
or whether it's listening to someone you're interviewing. You gotta
(43:34):
be like in there. You can't be in your head,
you can't be thinking about anything else. You just have
to be in that moment. First of all, it's such
a fun moment to be in. So you know, the
nerves are good. That's a good sign. That means you
give a shit. So don't worry about your nerves. You know,
you don't worry about any of that. Just enjoy it
all and embrace it all. I mean, everyone has had
(43:55):
a great There isn't one bad guest week that has happened.
And that is a testament to the writers of the show,
to Juben and to Dan's and to Jen Flans like
that is a machine that can be successful whomever hosts.
So you're walking in there in such good hands that
no one has anything to worry about. Okay, So I
(44:17):
want to show you a clip. We're gonna end on
a clip. We rarely do this. I don't think we've
ever done this. We went back into the Daily Show vault.
There's actual and this is true. There is a building
in New Jersey that has hard copies of every episode
that has ever been shot of this show. It's not
just all living on Paramount. Plus, there's an actual fucking
(44:40):
building with DVDs behind you. So somebody made a drive
out to Jersey and found this little clip from a
twenty fourteen from a twenty fourteen episode of the Daily
Show with then hosts John Stewart throwing to a moment
of zen. Give us that clip real quick. It is
your moment is end. You're a terrible interviewer. What you
(45:03):
just won't keeping my attention. Listen, it doesn't matter how
interesting I am. You signed up for the show. Well,
maybe that's why your job is coming to an That's
Chelsea Handler going at Pierce Morgan on his then CNN show,
which was getting ready to be canceled. Uh what what
(45:24):
what happened up until that point? Like? What was it?
Just a shit interview all the way up until that point?
And he was checking, he was checking his phone while
he was asking me questions. He was looking at his
phone when and when I was answering, he was on
his phone, and I just was like, you're a fucking asshole.
And you know what, he is a fucking asshole, So
(45:45):
he deserves that. I can't wait to run into that
piece of shit again. Well, we cannot wait to see
you topless down a mountain saying this is for you,
Pierce at your next topless skied celebration. I'm a whole
fan group, Tucker Piers, then Shapiro, it goes on and
on and on. Well, give us a moment of zin
for today. Then if you have a moment of zin,
(46:07):
Oh God, a moment of zen. That's a lot of pressure.
Oh God, drop some gyms this whole podcast. Maybe we'll
just oh really, yeah, okay, I guess find the humor.
Find the humor in your day, because if it's not,
if you can't laugh at some of this stuff, this shit,
it's just becomes insurmountable, emotionally insurmountable. And I think the
(46:29):
best thing gift we can all give each other is like,
put a smile on your face, give it to other
people when you see that they're in need, and really
try to listen and take care of each other. Because
we're in ugly times and everyone said that for the
beginning of the history of the world. I'm sure it's
been like this forever. But I would just say, you know,
be sensitive to the people around you and listen, like
(46:51):
there's so many learning opportunities every single day when you
are really present and tuned into people. And so it's
not that funny, and it's not that, but it's find
it to be truer and truer as life goes on.
I like to just learn from others. Chelsea Handler, thank
you so so much for going beyond the scenes with me.
The podcast is Dear Chelsea the Stand Up Specialist Revolution.
(47:12):
We love you. You're always welcoming this building, and I
will talk to you when I am finally a trained skier.
I tried it twice. The shit ain't for me. I
will meet you at the ski lodge. Okay, well that's
fine too, I spend most of my time there anyway.
Perfect Listen to the daily Show Beyond the Scenes on
(47:39):
Apple podcast, the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to Beyond the Scenes, the podcast that goes deeper
into topics and segments that we've discussed on The Daily Show.
I'm Roy Wood Junior. This is what you gotta think
of this podcast, says okay, Like like the Daily Show,
that's your base layer of chips and cheese, right, this
podcast is the beans and the letters and the guacamole
(00:30):
and the salsa, all that extra shit that turn your
nachos into real damn nachos. I'm Roy Wood Junior. Today
I'm joined by comedian, best selling author, host of the
Dear Chelsea podcast, and a former guest host of The
Daily Show, Chelsea Handler, to discuss all of her time
when she was here at the show. Madame Chelsea, Welcome
(00:52):
to Beyond the Scenes. Oh hi, Roy, how are you.
I'm good. I'm good. There is a lot to discuss
and prays that I want to heap upon you for
things that you have done for the world to stand
up comedy over the decades and the careers of many
many comedians. But first, let's just start with your week
(01:14):
at the show, and I give you the same question
I asked Leslie Jones, like, what did you expect this
ship was going to be and how much were you
right and how much were you wrong? Of everybody we've had,
Like you're the most experience. Your pedigree runs the deepest
in terms if we're just counting years and seasons. You
had Chelsea on Netflix before that, Chelsea Lately, which ran
(01:36):
forever and forever, and that was a daily show the
same as this, So how much was the daily show
machine similar or different to your previous operations. It's probably
more mature than my previous operations. Chelsea Lately was more
like a fraternity in the sense that we were all
playing jokes on each other all day. It was very
(01:59):
immature comity, but fun, you know, like funny. We loved it,
but it was silly and very pop culture centric. So
it was like about Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears and
all of those girls and the Jersey Shore. Yeah well
that too, yes, but more about being a hot mess
(02:20):
in general, like you know, just kind of picking apart
anyone who acted like a moron. And we didn't really
get to talk too much about politics because we were
serving it up to an audience that was on the
E network and it didn't feel appropriate for our the
company we were keeping on that network and the programming
on that network. Of course, they were like, do whatever
you want. But I just always felt like, if I
(02:43):
want to mature and go beyond it, it wasn't the
place for it. So when I did my Netflix show,
that was more of a focus there. So I think
the Daily Show is a much more refined kind of well,
more well rounded and more politically you know based program
ram and TV show, so you can while you can
comment on pop culture, the real centrifuge is politics. And
(03:07):
I appreciate that because as a forty eight year old woman,
I'm much more interested in that than I am in
making fun of young girls anymore. You know what I mean?
What I always and this is just some conversations that
I've had with other black people. What I always appreciated
about your Netflix show is that you did it at
a time where in terms of exploring the role that
(03:31):
I play as a white person in this step in
the third and really learning about new things and taking
other people on that journey, you were doing that before
it was cool, so to speak, Like it wasn't like
you was headline chasing or some shit like I was
watching it and one of the first comments, I was like, man,
I ain't Chelsea's like, you know, she taking some shitty
and when she just talking to her normal talk because
(03:52):
I'm just so used to you as the performer, so
used to you Chelsea lately which is more upbeat, but like, hey,
what's going on? Tell me about this thing? Which really
felt like some of those pieces felt like something we
would have done for The Daily Show because I watched
some of your stuff on Netflix and I got jealous
because I was like, why the fuck didn't we get
(04:12):
to go out there and do that. Why it's Chelsea
handl getting the scoop on all of the good ship.
But in terms of the late night format as as
a genre, what is it about unscripted content that you've
always gravitated towards or have you ever wanted to do
stuff in other genres or is this the wheelhouse that
(04:35):
you've always felt most comfortable in for the things that
you've wanted to say as a person. That's a great question.
I think those things change as you get you know,
your interests change, obviously, you evolve as a person, so
you're interested in you know, after banging on for seven
years every day about celebrities, clearly you're dehydrated for some
(04:57):
more concrete topics to talk about, you know, Like I
started growing up and I was like, well this is great,
but it's boring now, like I can do this with
my eyes closed. So I needed a challenge. And Netflix,
you know, to their credit, let me do whatever the
fuck I want it. I'm like, I'm going to Tokyo.
I want to go to Columbia, you know, for personal reasons,
(05:17):
but also I could film something. I want to go to,
you know, wherever. And they I went to Russia, I
went to I filmed you know, a bunch of documentaries
with them, and they, you know, I want to do
I think the documentary you're referring to, or maybe one
of them. I did a couple on race, but one
was Hello Privilege, It's me Chelsea, which no one wanted
to direct, no one wanted anything to do with. It
was before Black Lives Matter, it was before all of
(05:40):
you know, the stuff we experienced during COVID. But but
I but Netflix said sure, you know, to their credit,
they always were like, you go do whatever you want.
If you're gonna you're the one is going to take
the beating or the criticism and I'm like, whatever, Like,
who cares about that? I'm actually being sincere in my
questioning and my understanding of the issue. To begin with,
(06:01):
I wanted to know, as a white person, how to
impart to myself and to other white person white people, like,
what is the problem? What are we talking about? What
is white privilege? I assumed it was one thing, you know,
like the Rockefellers, like those people had white privilege, not
that everybody had it. And so, you know, it wasn't
(06:22):
like a fun documentary to shoot. I hooked up with
one of my ex boyfriends that I went out with
in high school who's been in prison for ten years.
I mean, that was really difficult for me personally to
have to like show up as this famous and successful
person while this guy just got out of you know,
jail and has five children and you know, can barely
(06:43):
support himself. You know that that stuff is always uncomfortable,
But I like uncomfortable. I think it's a great way
to grow, and it's a great way to impart wisdom
to the people that are looking for you or to you. Right,
the people that respect me are my fans, and how
do I make them understand what I'm understanding so that
we're learning together. So I don't think of myself as
a teacher or as any sort of you know, esteemed
(07:07):
person in that sense. I just think of myself as
somebody who's willing to take risks and kind of put
my feet to the fire. And you know, whatever backlash
there is, I can shoulder it. I'm a big girl.
I'm tough, like I've been criticized my entire career, so
that doesn't bother me. If anything, that fucking motivates me. Yeah,
I think it really came through and the heart and
that really really came through, in my opinion, something else
(07:30):
that you do that I've always respected, and in the
modern era of stand up comedy, I would say it's
less than ten, maybe less than five comedians who I
believe consistently on a regular basis used their platform to
uplift other comedians so that they can build their careers
(07:53):
and have a solid foundation from which to build upon.
Kevin Hart's done it a great deal. Cat Williams does
it a great deal. You did it a huge deal
with Chelsea Lately, and you know, and all modesty aside.
You created a platform for stand up comedians to come
on TV on a regular basis every fucking week and
(08:15):
be able to be funny and build their audience and
create a relationship with viewers that after the show was
even done, they were still able to take the ball
and continue running with what is it about? Because you
even then did that here at the Daily Shows. My point,
you come here and guests host, and then you do
roundtable for two days, which hasn't been done before you
(08:36):
ever in the history of the show, and hasn't been
done since, and I don't think it ever will be
because roundtable is such a specific skill set in itself.
Why is it so important for you to bring that element,
you know, during your time to the Daily Show? What
is it about? Roundtables in general? And then as you
were planning the Daily Show, why did you also go, yeah,
we need to do that here too. I just I
(08:58):
think that's a great. First of all, it's entertaining for
the audience. When you have the right mix of people
and you have great comics, which there are plenty, it's
it's a great it's a great way to entertain. You know,
you've got four different perspectives rolling at you at the
same time. And I think the art of that is
very specific because being a comedian, as you well know,
as you on a stage with a microphone all by
(09:21):
yourself and no one else is allowed to talk. So
the idea of performers sharing sharing stage time with other
performers is a little bit foreign for the idea of
stand up comedy. And I just thought when I was
doing Chelsea Lately, it was such an easy way to
have tons of last It's like you're multiplying the laughter
(09:43):
times for people right the perspectives. I mean, if you're
watching that there's somebody that you're going to relate to
more than you're going to relate to one person. If
there's peet four up there, you're going to relate to somebody.
There's a higher, you know, probability that you're going to
relate to one of those people if you don't relate
to me, say, And I think that it is a
great way to show by example how easy it is
(10:06):
a to share that stage and to share that spotlight,
and that everybody succeeds with it when you have the
right mix of people, which isn't that hard to do.
And I like that format, and so I thought, oh,
we're doing stuff like let's try some stuff out, and
since I was there for the whole week, I just thought, well, yeah,
let's do it. You know, you had this quote the
(10:27):
first night you were home. You said, and correct me
if I'm but trained this. She said, this is where
I get to talk shit about all the wet jobs
and hot messes out there, which you did, you know? Oh,
Marjorie Taylor Green calls him heat. Santos called him heat.
Tucker Callson called a lot of heat. When do you
(10:51):
think it's still possible in the modern political satire era
to shame people into changing or are we approaching a
shameless era in politics where I think those people try
to take those criticisms and use it to make themselves stronger. Yeah.
I don't know where we are in society. I know
it's important to speak out, especially as a woman, and
(11:12):
especially during this time where everybody's rights are up for
sale and it's just ridiculous. And I honestly feel like
anytime there's progress in one direction, clearly there's like, you know,
a pendulum swing. It's like women step up and we
have this huge me too move in and then cancel
culture has followed that, and then we get our rights
(11:33):
taken away and then abortion is turned over. It's like
everything leads to a stronger reaction from the other side.
So this is just a product of the trans rights,
the banning of the books. The LGBT community being under
assault is a reaction to people saying we want more
we want more freedom, we want more equality, we want
equity like it doesn't, so we're always going to be
(11:55):
dealing with it. It's two steps forward and hopefully one
step back. And it's just part and part, it's part
and parcel of the culture that we live in right now.
And now. I don't think you're changing anyone's mind by
going off on them, but I think you're reminding, for instance,
straight white guys who don't who don't want to get
in on it or think they're being attacked. It's like
(12:16):
those are the people we're talking about, the Tucker Carlson's
of the world. So the guys that aren't like that
should be standing up louder and prouder and fighting for
LGBTQI rights, especially when you're not in that in that
you know you're not in that population. Fight for women's rights,
fight for all of these marginalized groups. Because as we've known,
and as studies show, it hurts men just as much
(12:39):
as it hurts the rest of us, this kind of
discrimination and this kind of marginalization. So I don't really
care what the result is. I think it's a it's
just a reminder like women are coming into their own
like we don't need to have kids, and we don't
need men to tell us that's what's going to make
us happy. If you think I'm going to ever listen
(12:59):
to a man telling me what will make me happy,
that's wrong. That's not gonna happen. And that's and I'm
not speaking just for me. There are millions of women
who feel this way. To me, I've always felt like,
you know, we're definitely past the John Stewart days of
(13:20):
I will shame Tucker Carlson or who's the money Jim
Kramer into coming on my show so we can back.
But I do think that what we do in the
modern day political satire feel can help change the minds
of constituents and voters. I think the talking heads are
(13:40):
going to be the talking heads. They are ingrained in there.
They were getting our check to say this thing. We're
gonna say the thing, but you you tackled during your week.
You tackled everything from voting rights and body positivity and
gender disparity in boxing and Broadway. Help help for the
viewers who don't know how that we is laid out,
(14:01):
Help them understand how you decided to choose the topics
that you wanted to get into in a broader sense,
and then also the day to day topics that you
decided yes to that note to that, what were the
reasons for including some things and excluding other things? Well? Also,
I just want to piggyback on one thing from the
previous exchange between us. You know, it's also not about like, okay,
(14:27):
you know, shaming Tucker Carlson, as it is to giving
a voice to all those other people. Do you know
what I'm saying, Like for the women like when I
do that, that gives voice for other people and other
women who feel like me, and other people that feel
ignored that they haven't been heard. So that's more of
mymo than shaming Tucker Carlson, because obviously you're right, he
can't be shamed. So but okay, So to answer that question,
(14:51):
I was in communication with Jen a lot before the
show because we were planning on who the guests were
going to be. We were going out to different people.
It was Super Bowl week. We were hoping to try
and get somebody, you know, from one of the teams
that was playing. So as you know, since you're at
the Daily Show all the time, you know what, how
frenetic that kind of work environment is. There's things that
fall out at the last minute, and then there's people
(15:12):
that cancel at the last minute. It's always just basically juggling.
There's an electricity in that, you know, and that freneticism
that makes it really fun. If that's the kind of
person you are who's always like, okay, wait, what let's
think outside the box. Who would be interesting, Like, for instance,
you know the box the Female Boxers that came on.
It was I had never heard of her before, and
(15:34):
then my friend set me a link and I read
it and I watched her and I watched her acceptance
speech and Jen saw it and we were like, oh,
this would be awesome, you know what I mean. So
it's kind of having the latitude to move around quickly
and to be a dexterous and what you're gonna do
and what you're gonna say. And I think the most
important things that we talked about are the biggest issues
(15:55):
we had were just the biggest stories of the day.
I mean, I definitely went into that week like let's
go after Lauren Boeberd or Marjorie Taylor Green or any
of these ridiculous Matt Gates. I don't even know how
to say his name, really, and I don't care to
find out. Um ask a young girl ship, tell you
keep going, and uh So I like that vibe. I
(16:17):
like that kind of workload, you know when I like it. Listen,
there have many plenty of times where I haven't wanted
to work for like, you know, a year straight, and
I was in the mood for it. I was like,
let's go. This is so much fun because I do
know how to do that. I mean, that's my that's
my skill set is to just kind of be dexterous.
You have to be quick, too, Like you can't be
(16:37):
sticking to a script, as you also know Roy, like
you have to be versatile and be able to go
off book and to add your own lines in and
and to know when you've made a point and to
know when to keep going. All right, So you have
Raphael Warnock on as a guest. You have the wonderful
Mottel Ashley Graham, you have Alicia bum Gardner, the boxer.
(16:58):
They were just talking about Leah Michelle as well. Was
there a guest you want it that you just couldn't get?
It just didn't work out? Like? Was there just a
scheduling thing that Like I really wanted Tiana Taylor for
my week and then I found out She's not going
to be in New York the week that I was
guest hosting, So I was like, ah, shit, okay, well,
(17:21):
well tell her to come back to New York. And
at the time, but was there anybody in your pantheon
let's go all time and daily show, who's a guest,
who's a person you would love to sit down with? Oh?
I mean I don't look, I mean, yes, I can't
remember who the people were that we were trying to
get that didn't work out, But I'm sure there were
(17:41):
there always are. That's the way. That's the nature of
this show, of any booking show where you're booking talent.
But I think the real important thing to remember is
it doesn't matter who the fuck it is. It doesn't
It matters that you're interested and that you're creating a
conversation and you're listening, because you can have an interesting
conversation with fucking anybody, it doesn't matter how boring they are.
(18:05):
You can spice up something if you have that kind
of talent, if you're able to just really engage with
somebody and listen, you'll find this something that's interesting to
talk about. So, I mean, is there a dream guest
that I have that i'd love to interview? Not really
quite frankly, like I'm good with almost you know, I
guess I recently interviewed somebody on my podcast that was
surprising to me. Like I interviewed Matthew McConaughey for he's
(18:28):
doing this live event, and like I had never thought
about interviewing Matthew McConaughey for anything. And I read his
book in a day the day before I interviewed him,
because I hadn't read Green Lights, and I always just
kind of had my own impression of Matthew McConaughey, which
was neither here nor there. And I read his book
and I was blown away, Like I could have interviewed
him for three hours. I totally changed my perception and
(18:49):
understanding of him, and my respect for him, Like I
have major respect for him and everything he put down
in that book. So I feel like there are surprises
all around. Albeit Matthew's a big star, you know, that's
a big name, and that's a big get. So it's
easy to be interested. But you can find interesting things
in anybody. And I find like regular people just as
interesting as I do. Famous people love it well. After
(19:13):
the break, we want to talk about one of those
quasi famous people in your public spat. We're talking about
old Tucker Carlson, and I want to get into the
actual issue that it was that got so many people
angry at you, but so many women saying thank you.
This is beyond the scenes with Chelsea Handler. We'll be
right back on beyond the scenes. We are back with
(19:36):
Chelsea Handler discussing her time guests hosting on The Daily
Show earlier this year. And Chelsea, there was a topic
that garnered a lot of attention, which you're talking about
being childless by choice. It was a longer death segment,
but the sketch, if I'm just going to describe it
as quickly as possible, you wake up and you just
have a great fucking day. It's as a person having
(20:00):
a good fucking day, that's all. It was not a
big deal and it got turned into a TikTok. Conservatives
got very very upset with you about this. I'm not
going to go into detail on a lot of the
things that they called you, But did you even anticipate
this type of response when you decided to put this
sketch together? And what's the real reason that's fueling people's
(20:23):
anger with you about this lack of humor? A is?
I mean, hello, I'm in the sketch or whatever it was.
I fly to Paris for lunch, and I go to
Manta Picchu to go for a quick hike in the
same day, and then I'm back at home, like obviously
it's like three continents. Yeah, now it's time for a workout,
(20:45):
so I hit Mount Everest for a quick climb. I
invent a time machine, go back in time and kill Hitler,
crazy bastard. It's amazing what you can do when you
have this much free time. And that's a day in
the life of a childless woman. It was just so ridiculous.
But obviously it really ruffled some feathers and conservatives others,
(21:06):
because you know, conservatives are all about patriarchy, and religion
is their umbrella or their sub diffuge for patriarchy, which is,
if anybody knows anything about history, that's where patriarchy began,
with religion to give men, like you know, power over
women and the idea that men are threatened. First of all,
we have a planet that's fucking melting. So having a
(21:28):
child at this point in your life, go for it.
But for me, like, that's just another reason, Like I
don't want my kid growing up with wearing, you know,
a mask for the rest of his life. There are
many reasons not to produce, and the idea that that's
our responsibility and by saying we don't want to do
that of choice is not to be believed. Like it
(21:50):
can't be possible that a woman would be happy not
being married and not having children. There's just no way
that could happen. And there are more ultiple conservative man
who've you know, gone banged on about that about that
that is a lie that I'm I'm selling women, a
lie about you know, being a girl boss. I think
(22:11):
they called it a girl boss And it's like, but
it's not a lie because I'm living it so and
you're telling me that I'm not living it, but I am.
Behold a day in the life of a childish woman.
A point is to make you feel good about being
an aging, deeply unlikable woman who never had kids. Narcissism,
it makes you happy. Feminists like Chelsea Hand they've been
(22:32):
lied to by their society forever that you could be
a girl boss and you can do anything a man
could do, which everyone who's ever seen a woman back
up a vehicle knows that's not true. Your womb resembles
a dried up tumbleweed blowing down an old western town,
and your Valentine's Day date for the tenth year in
a row is a ten year old copy of Magic
Mike and a half full bottle of Xanex, And you're
(22:53):
trying to pretend like you're happy, but you're not happy.
You know when I heard Tucker Carlson's video about me,
which I actually didn't hear for a long time, because
I was in Whistler in my bedroom smoking a joint,
reading a book. I was in Heavens, taking the day
off from skiing. I had my TV on. There was
a documentary on the TV. I'm in my bed with
(23:15):
a joint and a book like these three things are
my happiness, okay, and I'm just like, oh my god.
I was sitting there literally that morning, going, god, this
is exactly what I hoped adulthood would be, you know,
just me fucking having the time of my life, educating myself,
getting stoned. And I have, you know, the mountains right
outside anytime I'm ready to ski, And I kept getting
(23:36):
buzzes on my phone, and you know, people were just
texting me saying, have you seen this? Have you seen this?
Tucker Carlson's talking about you? But I didn't look because
who cares. He's always talking about something I've done. And
then Jen Flans your ep. She texted me and said, hey,
let's we think you should respond to the Tucker Carlson.
You know, we'll write something up for you. And I said, okay, great,
(24:00):
this is what I would want to say to, you know,
like add this in. And then I just remember thinking
I have to fucking get up and take a shower
for this fucking asshole and film something to respond to
this moron. And I'm like, all right, So I got
in the shower, I blew out my hair, and then
I called my friend over. I'm like you got to
come film something, and then at the end of it
(24:21):
filming it, he goes, who's Tucker Carlson. I'm like, I mean,
can imploy Canadians. They don't, I mean, lucky Canadians. They
don't have to be exposed to the George Santos's and
Tucker Carlson's of the world in the way that America
has to suffer. Hey, everyone, I woke up this morning,
well more like this afternoon, and noticed that there was
an emergency meeting of the Receding Hairline Society to discuss
(24:43):
a comedy video I filmed about not wanting kids. Wow,
why would I even need my own children when I
get to hear these cry babies all the time? I mean,
I can't believe that bearded version of Tucker Carlson thinks
I would take a half a bottle of xanax. I
take way more than that, you silly goose. Look, I
(25:03):
don't want to debate whether or not I'm a girl boss,
although I did just look at my bank account and
think that's pretty girl boss. And then I thought about
the ten different people, ten plus different people I've been
able to put through college, and then I remember my
six New York Times best Selling Books or was it five? Oh?
No, no no, it was six. And then I remember my
recent stand up special that was just released on Netflix
(25:26):
called Revolution, and I thought, yeah, you are a girl boss.
You guys seem so triggered by me. I mean, my goodness, Tucker,
I think it is time for you to ask yourself
a serious question. Are you really upset about how much
freedom I have? Or are you upset that you haven't
been able to take it away from me yet? Why
was this issue important to bring on the show and
(25:48):
talk to me a little bit about the construction of it?
Because I feel like you walked in the door with
this one kind of already like the framing and the
scaffolding was already there. How much how much did you
help with assembling the last couple of pieces and putting
up the walls if we want to compare it to construction. Yeah,
it's definitely something I came in wanting to do talking
(26:08):
about it because I've seen the response. I mean, I
do it a lot on my Instagram, making fun of like,
you know, kids, they're not that great. You don't have
to do it. Marriage, you don't have to You could
say no, I do psays about whatever I think is
you know, silly or stupid or funny, and children are
not that great is something that was actually carried over
from I Think my Netflix show, and we started it
there and I realized by the reaction and the volume
(26:33):
of people that would post repost it and the views
it got and the comments it got, that I was
hitting a chord with women. And I'm not the first
person to do this, but I definitely realized, Oh, there's
like a whole group of people of the population that
are just constantly shamed for not doing something that nobody
(26:57):
ever said we had to do in the first place.
It's just like this archetype that we're supposed to fulfill,
this prophecy that we're supposed to like be built into,
like molded into. And it's like, no, no, don't tell
me what to do, because I'll do the opposite. I don't.
I'm not here to be controlled or or make men happy.
That's not my purpose. If anything, My purpose is to
(27:19):
make women free, you know, Like I speak to women
my you know, a large part of my audience are women,
and I want them to know, like, I got your back,
You're not gonna you know, you're not going to deal
with this forever because you've got somebody who's not going
to be pushed around or told what to do or
you know, treated in that way, Like I won't stand
for it. And you know, there's a lot of straight
(27:41):
guys out there that think that they're on our team,
but they're not doing enough to be on our team,
you know, like we need active team members. It's the
same thing with any ally ship, Like it's great for
you to say you're on our side, but what are
you actively doing to promote that equality and that women
and shouldn't be told what they're going to do and
(28:01):
not having a child is you know, that's also a
lazy question to ask somebody, you know, when are you
going to get married? When are you going to have
a baby? Like it's personal and it's none of your business.
I mean, people have just stopped asking me that. And
I've been talking about this for my entire career. I've
never wanted to have kids and I just didn't think
I was the right type of person to be a parent.
(28:22):
I think that's a very valid way to look at something,
and more people should look at that, like, you know,
do I have what it takes am I selfless enough?
Do I have the time? Do I have the bandwidth?
Do I have the patience? Self Rogan was in an
interview a while back, I should have married him, and
(28:42):
he talked about his decision to not have children the
roll criticism. There weren't a big cavalcade of people Attech
and self Rogan team he should be out there raw
dog and everybody and making both babies. Why is there
a double Dana And that's not an attack on Seth.
Shout out to Seth and making the life choices he
(29:03):
chose to make. I'm just comparing the response from the public.
Why do you think he got the response he got?
Excuse lack of response, Well, praise even to some degree,
and you were like, how dare you a woman? You
know what that uterus is supposed to be full? Listen,
it's not a secret that men are scared of powerful
(29:23):
women and women that have a sense of agency. Men
are scared, and that's how they decide that they don't
like you, that you're too loud, you're too crass, she's
too much. I don't like her, But they can't figure
out why or what it's because I'm saying how I feel.
And it's because I I'm proud about it and I'm
fucking confident about it, and they know that they can't
go toe to toe with me, yet they don't. They
(29:44):
can't pin why they don't like it. I mean, it's
it's just sexism. I mean, it's that's as simple as
it is. Seth's great, a great guy. I like Seth
a lot. I mean, I don't know him that well,
but I do like him. But it's a perfect example
of the way that women are read it like, you're
allowed to tell me what to do, but you're not
allowed to tell him what to do or be disappointed.
(30:05):
I mean, it's just so stupid. But listen, this has
been going on since the beginning of time, so it's
nothing new to any of us. Were just like, oh
my god, it's laughable. What role, as as someone that
has been in and around entertainment, you know, I would
say for greater or three decades of your career at least,
what role do you think society and entertainment plays in
(30:28):
reinforcing the traditionalistic views the patriarchal that's not a word,
but you know what I'm saying. Patriarchy. All Oh, well,
patriarchal is a work at the first time, what role
in this entertainment play in reinforcing that upon women and
(30:49):
men For men to think you, well, you know, you're
supposed to be my wife and you're supposed to be
at home in a role. It's of course, I mean,
we reflect our society, right, Television movies reflect where That's
why the televisions in the middle of a huge transformation.
That's why there's more people of color on TV. There's
more people, there's more Asians being recognized. It's like, because
(31:10):
it's time. It's fucking time. It's not all just about
white men controlling everything. And I know that people get
sick of women banging on about it, but you have
to think about why that bothers you, you know, like,
why does it bother you? We want equal We want equality,
just like everybody deserves to be equal. And I think
all marginalized groups coming together and like supporting each other
(31:31):
is scary, very scary for patriarchy because they're going to
be outnumbered and uh and you know, and that's why
it's so important also to to you know, to have
allyship with all these groups and actually to be in
tune and understand what the LGBTQ community is fighting for,
what trans people are fighting for. You know, I can't
(31:52):
tell you even how many liberal friends I have talking about, well,
this is it right for people to be transitioning at
this age? And I heard that three else that were
a transitioned without even telling their parents, And I'm like,
oh my god, do you really think in this country
that eight year old's got what are you talking about?
Like everyone's just so misinformed that it's important to really
stay up on all of those topics, you know. I mean,
(32:15):
it's like any everyone's fighting the future in a sense,
like the people in control are fighting and resisting this
new group of people that are like, we're not it's
not a new group, but it's a louder group than
it has been. And we're saying no more, We're done
with it. We're all sick of it. And and that's
changing in television two and rightfully, so it has to
(32:38):
change even more. Obviously, it's still not enough. It won't
be enough for for many years. How are you able
to sleep at night that one? How are you able
to sleep at night without a child keeping you a
wick in the next room. Everyone knows that that's joy.
How are you able to address issue this seriously? Because
(33:02):
your stand up to me has never struck me as
anger being a key ingredient in the construction of your
thoughts performatively. I'm not saying that you aren't angry, but
how are you able to take these issues that a
lot of people are angry about and not necessarily let
that be the soul driving emotion for how you address it? Like,
(33:25):
all right, let's let's go with Tucker Carlson, Right, Tucker
Carlson claps back at you. You clapped back at Tucker.
Y'all kind of go back and forth. It's never really angry.
Then you deliver what I consider to be the cool
de grab. You are topless skiing on your birthday, which
is the tradition that I have separate questions about how
the hell that came about. But you're topless and skin
(33:46):
and then eminem without me comes on and you're just
just cruising down a mountain instead of sitting alone in
a room with a microphone going. Let me tell you,
able's Robert rousing all of these men and talk to
me a little bit about Because for the people that
are angry about this, what are the things that you're
able to do. How are you able to just ski
(34:06):
with no shirt on and choose that over plugging into
the raw emotion of the issues. Well, he doesn't deserve
my emotions. I mean, come on, you know, like you
have to be first of all telling me the truth
before we can talk about exchanging an emotional field. But no,
I'm angry. I've always been angry, and I've been angry
(34:28):
in my career and that doesn't really serve me as
well as being able to distill it into a something
with levity, Like levity attracts more attention, and you bring
more people in when you can joke about the preposterousness
of person of a person's claims. And I've just as
I've grown older and gotten into my you know, more
(34:51):
comfortable in my skin, I guess, and I've just been
able to modulate the tonality of what is going to
have an impact and what is to you know, if
you're screaming all the time, it's very one noted, and
I didn't. That doesn't work for me. I already have
a very strong personality. I already come across strong, you know.
So I need to bring people in, not push them away,
(35:13):
and I've slowly am you know, I've learned how to
do that in a much more efficacious way than I
used to when I was younger. You know, I didn't
care so much about the patriarchy then because I wasn't
as clued in as as what was to what was
happening as I am now. You know, I didn't have
struggles becoming successful. It wasn't that difficult for me. I
(35:34):
worked really hard, but doors were always opening, you know,
and for and so it took me a long time
to actually look at it in the face when I
didn't experience it myself, but other people were talking about it,
and I thought, okay, well, what's my responsibility here. It's
like when you talk about women and sexual assault. I
haven't been sexually assaulted, but that's it's my job as
(35:57):
a woman to understand what the fuck that means and
what that means when somebody goes through that, and to
talk about it. Just because I don't have personal experience
with it doesn't mean that I can ignore it. I'm
you know when I think that my responsibility is to women,
So I think all of that stuff you just you
figure out, Okay, how can I be more effective in
my delivery. It's with the same with my stand up.
(36:19):
I used to talk in this really high pitch and
scream and yell, and when I was in my twenties
and I would I couldn't hear myself, like I would
watch myself and cringe. Now it's nice to be able
to watch myself and not crunch. Well. After the break,
we'll bring it home with Chelsea Handler. We're gonna talk
a little bit about diabetic medication that's been useful weight loss,
(36:40):
and I want to talk to you a little bit
about your podcast. Dear Chelsea. This is beyond the scenes.
We'll be right back beyond the scenes. You're bringing it
at home with Chelsea Handler discussing her guest week on
The Daily Show. Now, there was a there was a
topic you tackled on the show about these celebrities losing
weight with this medicine that's for people with diabetes. Oh zempic.
(37:04):
I think it's cold. I don't know. Yeah, I didn't
know that this was a thing that was happening all
over Hollywood. Like, I know people lose weight on diabetic medication,
but I never knew that people were like, oh yeah,
let me get it and then create a shortage. How
did you first hear about this? Like, I understand that
at some point you were on it, but was it
(37:25):
because of like a legit diabetic reason or because no no,
I got it from a doctor, an anti aging doctor
in Los Angeles. It's it's the other word for it,
or the other name for it is sema glue tide.
That's the chemical. I guess the main compound in it,
don't I don't know. I consider myself a pharmacologist, but
I don't know the ins and outs of this. This
(37:46):
is so I had sema glue tide, and my doctor's like, oh,
if you're ever feeling puffy after a trip or something,
or you're traveling, you know, take this. You can always
just drop five pounds. And I was like, oh, okay, great.
So I had it in my fridge for like six months,
and then I came back from Spain. I had been
traveling for like a month, and I came back and
I was exactly that. I was like, oh, I feel bloated.
(38:06):
I'd been drinking the whole vacation. I was like, all right,
let me try this. And I went out to lunch
and so I injected myself. I went out to lunch
like a week later with a girlfriend and she was
not eating. She's like, I'm nauseated. I'm like, I'm actually
nauseated too, I said, but I feel like I'm jetlagged,
and that the nausea was step stemming from that because
I'd been gone for so long, so I was here
waking up at three in the morning in La every morning.
(38:29):
So I just felt like maybe my nausea was derived
from her head, come from that. And then she's like, oh,
I'm on azempic and I was like, oh, I'm not
on azempic. And she's like, well, are you on anything.
I'm like, well, I'm on something called sema glue tie
to drop weight. She's like, that's it zempic and I
was like, oh what. And I'm like, oh my god,
ze pick these us. Two weeks I wonder, I felt
like shit. So I was on ozempic and then I wasn't,
(38:54):
and then I started, and then I just had some
at my house that I gave away to my friends
and whoever wanted it. It was. It was oazempic party basically,
and yeah, no, I'm not an on ozempic, but yes,
there's a shortage because everyone in Hollywood is on it,
and people don't care that you get nauseated or feel nauseated.
They don't give a shit. They want to be thin
(39:15):
and people will do anything to be thin. So there
you go. So now there's a shortage because I guess
too many celebrities are taking it. What responsibility does the
medical community have too, just not prescribing or just giving
the stuff away to people who don't legitimately need it.
They don't care. Listen, look at there's a shortage on
(39:37):
adderall too in this country. They prescribe that to anybody
and everybody. I mean half the women I know in
this town are on adderall also that don't have add
So you take it and it makes you just feel like,
you know, you did two lines of coke. I mean,
people abuse and pharmaceuticals like that story is. I mean,
look at the Sackler family, Look at the Purdue pharmacy,
(39:57):
look at all that. I don't trust pharmacy. You know,
the pharmaceutical industry. One second, you've got to do your
own research. Unfortunately, and they do have a big responsibility.
We have a you know, the FDA has a big
responsibility but as we've seen so many times, a lot
of these agencies are kind of corrupt and there's a
lot of proflicacy that is going on, So there's I
(40:20):
don't know, it has to be of like a personal
value or moral system for somebody running these pharmaceutical agencies
to have, and they don't. They want to make money.
So you have a podcast called Dear Chelsea and you
give advice to people, which I think is one of
the most noble things to just create human connections with people,
(40:46):
because I always feel like advice is as much for
the people consuming it as it is the person you're
speaking directly too. Have you ever met any of the
people out there on the old I call it the
campaign trail during your comedy tours. Have you ever met
any of the people that you've touched with some of
your words. Yes, I have. I have multiple times, and
(41:08):
I get tons of dms which I try to go
through on a regular basis, you know, for people who
really are asking advice that don't get picked for Dear Chelsea,
or if they've written a letter and they haven't heard back.
And then people that have been on the show, and
you know, I started out the show in jest, because
I just didn't want to do another celebrity interviewing podcast
because obviously I've been there, done that, and I wanted
(41:29):
to do something that was actually something that was just
a little bit. I like human beings. I like people,
and I like helping people. I am that personality. I'm
a leader. I like to get in there and be like, no,
no, no no, you're in a crisis. I'm a crisis counselor.
I can't tell you how many girlfriends in my life
have gone through whether it's a divorce or a death
(41:50):
in their family, and I can come in and I
know how to do that, and so that's my good superpower,
and I wanted to spread that around and all my audience.
It turned into something a lot more meaningful and profound.
People call in and are making life changing decisions about
ending relationships that are toxic or leaving their family because
(42:11):
their families Mormon and they're gay and their family, you know,
wants to excommunicate them, and you know, stuff like That's
it got serious pretty quickly, and I was like, oh fuck,
I mean it's still fun. You know, we have a
good time and we try to have some light stuff too,
but we do get in there with some really dark
and deep personal issues, and I love that. I got
(42:32):
a lot out of going to therapy. I went for
two years. I wrote a book about it, I did
a special about it. I got so much out of
it that all I wanted to do was give it,
give it to everybody I could meet. I want everyone
to have it, just like I wanted everyone to have
ozempic Roy. I want everyone to have my you know,
like not even like I know better than you do,
(42:53):
just I want you to have my confidence and my
like get your pick yourself up out of that situation.
Like it's it's going to be. Hey, We're all going
to be okay once you get your shit together. So
I'm it's like a kind of a big sister, you know,
impact that that has okay. So then here's a dear
Chelsea on the spot. What advice do you have for
(43:13):
the rest of the guest hosts for the Daily Show?
To be agile, like be there and be in the moment,
like and listen. You know, the best performance comes from listening.
And whether that's the voice inside of you like you're
good gut, you know, the good voice not the bad voice,
or whether it's listening to someone you're interviewing. You gotta
(43:34):
be like in there. You can't be in your head,
you can't be thinking about anything else. You just have
to be in that moment. First of all, it's such
a fun moment to be in. So you know, the
nerves are good. That's a good sign. That means you
give a shit. So don't worry about your nerves. You know,
you don't worry about any of that. Just enjoy it
all and embrace it all. I mean, everyone has had
(43:55):
a great There isn't one bad guest week that has happened.
And that is a testament to the writers of the show,
to Juben and to Dan's and to Jen Flans like
that is a machine that can be successful whomever hosts.
So you're walking in there in such good hands that
no one has anything to worry about. Okay, So I
(44:17):
want to show you a clip. We're gonna end on
a clip. We rarely do this. I don't think we've
ever done this. We went back into the Daily Show vault.
There's actual and this is true. There is a building
in New Jersey that has hard copies of every episode
that has ever been shot of this show. It's not
just all living on Paramount. Plus, there's an actual fucking
(44:40):
building with DVDs behind you. So somebody made a drive
out to Jersey and found this little clip from a
twenty fourteen from a twenty fourteen episode of the Daily
Show with then hosts John Stewart throwing to a moment
of zen. Give us that clip real quick. It is
your moment is end. You're a terrible interviewer. What you
(45:03):
just won't keeping my attention. Listen, it doesn't matter how
interesting I am. You signed up for the show. Well,
maybe that's why your job is coming to an That's
Chelsea Handler going at Pierce Morgan on his then CNN show,
which was getting ready to be canceled. Uh what what
(45:24):
what happened up until that point? Like? What was it?
Just a shit interview all the way up until that point?
And he was checking, he was checking his phone while
he was asking me questions. He was looking at his
phone when and when I was answering, he was on
his phone, and I just was like, you're a fucking asshole.
And you know what, he is a fucking asshole, So
(45:45):
he deserves that. I can't wait to run into that
piece of shit again. Well, we cannot wait to see
you topless down a mountain saying this is for you,
Pierce at your next topless skied celebration. I'm a whole
fan group, Tucker Piers, then Shapiro, it goes on and
on and on. Well, give us a moment of zin
for today. Then if you have a moment of zin,
(46:07):
Oh God, a moment of zen. That's a lot of pressure.
Oh God, drop some gyms this whole podcast. Maybe we'll
just oh really, yeah, okay, I guess find the humor.
Find the humor in your day, because if it's not,
if you can't laugh at some of this stuff, this shit,
it's just becomes insurmountable, emotionally insurmountable. And I think the
(46:29):
best thing gift we can all give each other is like,
put a smile on your face, give it to other
people when you see that they're in need, and really
try to listen and take care of each other. Because
we're in ugly times and everyone said that for the
beginning of the history of the world. I'm sure it's
been like this forever. But I would just say, you know,
be sensitive to the people around you and listen, like
(46:51):
there's so many learning opportunities every single day when you
are really present and tuned into people. And so it's
not that funny, and it's not that, but it's find
it to be truer and truer as life goes on.
I like to just learn from others. Chelsea Handler, thank
you so so much for going beyond the scenes with me.
The podcast is Dear Chelsea the Stand Up Specialist Revolution.
(47:12):
We love you. You're always welcoming this building, and I
will talk to you when I am finally a trained skier.
I tried it twice. The shit ain't for me. I
will meet you at the ski lodge. Okay, well that's
fine too, I spend most of my time there anyway.
Perfect Listen to the daily Show Beyond the Scenes on
(47:39):
Apple podcast, the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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