REPLAY - Lonely Flowers with Roy Wood Jr.

Today, Cari Champion engages with comedian Roy Wood Jr. to explore the intersections of sports, politics, and culture. They discuss the current state of women's basketball, the significance of the Super Bowl, and the evolving landscape of political satire.

Wood shares insights from his Hulu special 'Lonely Flowers,' addressing themes of loneliness and connection in modern society. 

The conversation delves into the challenges of navigating political commentary in a divided world, emphasizing the need for a new approach to discussing power and accountability. They discuss the disconnect between politicians and the everyday realities of voters, and the need for a more relatable and honest approach to political communication.

Connect @CariChampion @RoyWoodJr

Subscribe Cari Champion's YOUTUBE Channel

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Naked Sports, the podcast where we live at
the intersection of sports, politics, and culture. Our purpose reveal
the common threads that bind them all.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
So what's happening in women's basketball right now is what
we've been trying to.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Get to for almost thirty years.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
From the stadiums where athletes break barriers and set records,
Kamen Quark broke the all time single game assists record.
This is crazy for rookies to be doing.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
To the polls where history is written, and now we
have Kamala Harrison. It feels more like women are sort
of taking what they've always deserved, as opposed to waiting
on somebody to give them what they've deserved.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Our discussions will uncover the vital connections between these realms
and the community we create. In each episode, we'll sit
down with athletes, political analysts, and culture critics, because at
the core of it all, how we see one issue
shines the light on all others. Welcome to Naked Sports.
I'm your Home Carry Champion.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
My name is Roy viod Jr. I am a father
and a comedian and a television host and soon's the author.
I guess I'm an actor now too. Love Brooklyn. I've
been an actor, but now I'm an actor. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
That's what's the different between an actor and mactur indoors.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
When you're in the scene trauma. I was looking around
with John Hanton and that was a good time. But
now I'm with Andre Holland in.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Nicole Bahari, Hi, family, how are you? Thanks for listening
to the podcast this week. Roy Wood Junior the comedian.
You may remember him from The Daily Show. He just
had an amazing special that was released on Hulu called
Lonely Flowers, which we'll talk about. If you have not

(01:53):
watched it, please do. Everybody needs something to watch. Lonely
Flowers is really great. It's up on Hulu. Funny, make
you laugh, make you think, all the things that we
need in today's society. But before we get into how
I convinced him to be on the podcast, I just
want to check in. How are we feeling, How is
our mind? How is our spirit? Are we doing okay? Here?

(02:16):
It is February. I am recording this around twelve thirty
in the morning. It is February seventh. Tomorrow I am
heading to New Orleans, so by the time you hear this,
I have already been in New Orleans at the super
Bowl or Nolins as you call it, at the super Bowl,
and I finished off my packing. I'm a horrible packer. Yeah,

(02:39):
I don't need to know that, but I am a
horrible packer. I always get to wear and forget everything
and then need to go to the store and get
essentials that I should have packed. That's just me. I
don't care. That's what I do. But I finished my
packing and I just got off of work not too
long ago, and I did CNN in the morning where
we talked about a preview for the Super Bowl over

(03:00):
under of whether or not Taylor Swift would ever interact
with Donald Trump because he is the first sitting president
to attend a Super Bowl. Taylor Swift will be there
because you know, her boyfriend plays for the Kansas City Chiefs.
His name is Travis Kelsey. I'm sure you know that
as well. He's now just Taylor Swift's boyfriend. He ain't
got a name. That's awful, Oh that's awful. But Travis Kelsey,

(03:22):
one of the great tight ends of our time, will
be playing. And he was asked, Hey, what do you
think about the president coming? And he was like, well,
I think it'll be cool that any president is coming.
It's just very uncomfortable. The conversation was just so irregular
and awkward. His exact words, I'm just happy if any
president comes.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Well, it's a great honor, I think, you know, no
matter who the president is. I know, I'm excited because
it's the biggest game of my life, you know, and
they're having a president there. You know, it's the best
country in the world.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Meanwhile, when Jalen Hursts was asked, he said, cool, ma'am,
something to that effect, can you play that for me?
Jail question.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Number institute.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
So two different responses, but both have the same theme,
which is, I don't say none about that. Man. I
don't want to get into it. We have had a
crazy January. It's been an insane three weeks. We do
not want to be bothered. We're just going to keep
it neutral. So with that being said, I'm really interested
in what his presence means at this Super Bowl. Not

(04:34):
only is it historic in the sense that he is
the first sitting president, but sports is normally one of
these environments where you are able to put away your
political beliefs and ideologies and just have a good time.
Remember y'all used to always be like, just stick to
sports whenever we tried to go political. Remember those times.

(04:55):
And as I've pointed out, and that's what we do
on this podcast every week. Sports policy, politics, culture always intersect.
And Super Bowl weekend we're gonna see all that. We're
gonna see Donald Trump, maybe interact with Taylor Swift, Doctor
Joe Biden will be there, the former First Lady, Kendrick

(05:16):
Lamar is performing culture. I'm talking culture, and Kendrick Lamar's
performance to me will be about storytelling, as he's mentioned
to all of us. But here we are in New
Orleans and one of the greatest to ever do it,
and I'm talking about Tunci, Tounci touchee. I don't know
how to do it, Touci Lil Wayne, who is a friend.

(05:37):
I think he's great. Lil Wayne is not performing in
his home city during the Super Bowl, at least not
to our knowledge. Could you imagine if Kendrick brought him
up over under on Kendrick Lamar bringing up Lil Wayne, Well,
I have a hard time believing that Little Wayne will
come out because you know, Lil Wayne is loyal to

(05:59):
dre and herein lies our culture. Rub Will Kendrick Lamar
perform not like us? I think he will. I think
the big issue is whether or not for Drake, which
I heard he was trying to stop him from performing
that particular song because he calls Drake a pedophile and
said song. I think that doesn't even matter anymore. As

(06:24):
we saw at the Grammys, Kendricks don't have to say anything.
Everyone knows this song verbatim by heart. We saw Beyonce
clapping and bouncing. She'll never move. I interviews Serena not
too long ago. She was like, that's my jam. Drake
has to be sick. So here we are at the
super Bowl, with all of these storylines. Will Kendrick Lamar

(06:46):
perform not like us? I think he will. Will he
be gracious enough to let little Wan come out? I
don't think so. Will Drake lose his mind? I think so?
Will Donald Trump interact with Taylor Swift or Travis Kelce?
And is in fact the Eagles win the Super Bowl?

(07:07):
What does that mean? Here are the main storylines. If
the Eagles win the Super Bowl, y'all, I'm gonna be happy.
I'm ruth for the Eagles I'm gonna let you know,
I'm Jalen hurts all day every day. But if the
Eagles win the Super Bowl, it is going to be special.
Will your president say something positive? Let's hope. So he's

(07:27):
already said he's rooting for Patrick Mahomes. We all know
that his wife is very vocal and proud about how
she is a Trump supporter. But if in fact, Patrick
Mahomes does not win and Jalen wins, does your president
say something positive? I hope. So, However, if Patrick Mahomes win,
more storylines three Pete never done before, he will be

(07:49):
certified goat. And I'm not hating. Both of these quarterbacks
are amazing and special. Their stories are amazing and special.
They both belong where they are this Sunday, giving us
to entertainment that we love. My my mind, there are
so many things that can happen in terms of will
it happen? And then what is the reaction?

Speaker 3 (08:11):
I do not know.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
It is juicy, but this is the perfect weekend when
sports culture and politics intersect. Sports culture and politics. Say
what you want. I do not want to hear anybody
tell me that they are separate, siloed, don't go together.
They absolutely go together like peanut butter and jelly, like
Jack and Jill like a press and comb in Greece,

(08:36):
like a banana in a split. No, I don't think
so anyway, you get what I'm saying. Now, on to
the podcast. While I told you that Roywood Junior, comedian
Roywood Junior, would be on the podcast today, the story
behind him coming on is that when I had an
opportunity to bump into him a few weeks back, actually,

(08:57):
the day in which his Hulu special released, he was
on a panel with me on CNN and we had
a good time and we kei keid and we laughed
and we caught up, and I thought to myself, one
great human. Two, easy to be around, joyful. Three he's
onto something with lonely Flowers. If you've seen it, you
know what I mean. All of us are very siloed,

(09:20):
and I think it's just the world that we live in.
I don't want to blame everything on social media, but
sometimes you're just like, ugh, everyone's so crazy. Let me
stay in the house, or it's scary to go out
and interact with people because social media has made it
hard for us to do so in a real normal
way and be present with human beings and be vulnerable
so they can see and talk to us. But there
are so many ways to talk about it. And as

(09:41):
you know, we're were Junior was on The Daily Show
and he had two for many years. Take very you know,
unfortunate stories and find the humor or the sarcasm or
the irony and make it a teachable moment or something
that we could actually digest. Palpable was stored, I was
trying to say, and so on the podcast today we

(10:02):
get into it. We pick up from where from Friday,
January seventeenth. That was the day in which we worked together,
and that was the day in which the Hulu special
was released. But that's where we pick up. The day
of January seventeenth, and as you will know, the world

(10:22):
had yet to have the inauguration of our president and
I wanted to talk to Roy about a special, but
I also wanted to talk to him about politics. I
wanted to get his opinion. And I know you guys
are going to think this is crazy. You all may
say I'm crazy for saying this, but for me, I
think comedians are some of the smartest people in the world.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy this edition of Naked Sports Friday,

(10:47):
January seventeenth. He also works at CNN, and we were
on Abby's show together and he walked in and he
had so much wonderful energy, and he's always so generous
and kind to me. So I appreciate you. I'll automatically
like you for that, because you're just always the same.
You're even I know what to get. But you were celebrating,
and I thought that was really I thought that was

(11:07):
really a good way to show how hard you work.
You're like, I'm celebrating, I'm coming, I'm doing press, but
I'm still working. But I'm gonna sell. I'm squeezing a
little bit of a celebration.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, Friday night belongs to me.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
How do it feel?

Speaker 3 (11:17):
I felt odd. I generally don't allow myself to sit
in any emotions really good are bad. I just generally
just push, push, push. But for this special I was like,
you know what, I'm gonna go have a steak.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, well that's not you know, if someone hurt that
celebration maybe Like that sounds very very simple, very very understated,
but just satisfying.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Also, the people who know me know that I generally
don't sit still. But like the general celebratory activities, I'll
play PlayStation, which is what I generally might do two
times a year, maybe three. I bought all the games
and just never just don't get to play them, so
I might do that as a kickback. Sometimes just being

(12:07):
home and doing nothing, like just literally I'm so busy
sometimes that nothing is the activity I love. It is
the only thing I don't get to do. Their original
plan because Hulu asked me, They said, well, do you
do a premiere party and somewhere in New Young Friday
night and step and repeat. I can't think of enough

(12:27):
people that I would want to be around to justify
the cost of the venue and the DJ and the food.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
But you weren't paying for it, don't matter.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
I don't want to be there.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
If I because you couldn't think of enough people. You
didn't know enough people that you wanted to have at
a party.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
That room would be filled with people that I either
have shallow relationships with, and that's not a bad thing,
but on this particular night I don't want to be around.
There would be far less deep people. Yeah space, So
I just I just declined. I mean, they were very
kind of by a wish. You had to give me
the budget for.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
You know, you give me that that you put that
in the next contract. Give me that budget. Give me
that budget for the stage and a wardrobe and all
the things that you want.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
The other option, I was going to go to my
mom's house. I was going to do a premiere party
at my mom's house and have to step and repeat,
like just really be like violate the home owners Association night.
But the logistics of getting down in my mom, my friends,

(13:36):
all my buddies from house school, that but that would
have been worth it. But the logistics on both sides
of that day just didn't lend itself to my ultimate celebration.
If I could do it, I want to do it.
I want to. I want to. I want to go
to Joe's crap shot and I want to rent out

(13:57):
the whole place, sit there and silence and eat stuffrom
mushrooms and make them turn off the music.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Most importantly, why.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
It's the best food, the worst atmosphere.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Okay, so that you want to runt it, Okay.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
I want to have so much money that I can
go in a place and go turn.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
The music off and say everybody, get out and just
feed me because the atmosphere is tired.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
I didn't even know that was the thing until I
ran in the Rod Stewart in London. I was shopping
with my mom and an associate came up and they
were like, we need everyone to leave the floor.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Oh yeah, we have a shopper, Yeah, shopping.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Just shoot me out, like like my couple dollars.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
It didn't matter. Your five dollars, don't matter. His his
one hundred million. That's what they were trying to tell.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
You, and that's what I want. But they just crap.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
Okay, okay, all right, we can do that, which leads
me every one of these celebrations sounds very you know,
very particular, a little isolated, which leads me to the
special low Flowers. Why why that title?

Speaker 3 (14:57):
I want to take the train rap by myself. Two windows,
three four days South America Joints. There's one in Canada
like where you never get.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
I know exactly about. They had one in Switzerland too.
That's the one I want to do. I know exactly Okay,
just like that. That's the other ultimate celebration.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
I tied up especially Lonely Flowers because I feel like
that's who we are as people now like everybody's alone,
everybody's isolated. It's easier to be alone, and then some
of us are with people and still alone because you're
with the wrong person. So it was just an exploration
into how we became disconnected. And then the back half
of the special it's just proposing solutions, possible solutions. You know.

(15:40):
I just as I started putting the act together last year,
well this kind of I left Daily Show end of
twenty three and I worked this set for most of
twenty four and the more I started looking at the material,
the more it just all started falling under one thing,
and just I disrespect wherever my mind is going. That's well,

(16:03):
this is clearly what I'm into. Whether I and I
didn't set out with the theme of loneliness and then
write jokes to it, it just revealed itself as I
worked through my set without the month, and I just
took out all the political material I had, Kamala campaign
jokes and all of that, but that none of that

(16:23):
fit with the larger thing. And also it was good
to not get into politics, and so I did that
for three straight.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
Specially, why was it good not to get into politics?
Why do you think, Okay, wait, time out. I have
so many questions. I'm gonna go with lonely flowers first.
I do agree with you. I do think we're all
very lonely people, Like I say to myself, I was like,
I don't feel really lonely, but there's also some peace
in that for me. And I'm around a lot of people,
I'm all like, oh no, I'm gonna go back to

(16:50):
being at my house by myself. So how do you
in your special reconcile or talk about that? Because there
is some there is some happiness solitude.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
There's happiness in solitude, but in the long term, is
it negative or not positive? And I think even if
you have people, I think a lot of people are
lonely intentionally Yeah okay, So then how long is that sustainable?
How healthy is that? And it doesn't mean that you

(17:21):
go out and have fifty friends. But you know, like
in the back of the special, I talk about how,
you know, my mom continues to make friends and that's
part of what keeps her. That's so good, Like that's
a thing where how does your mother she's seventy.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Five and she makes new friends.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
That's great because it's this is fucked up to say,
but at seventy five, some of your friends are going
to mynd have God, yeah, the friends had already been sure.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
The reality is they die in different ways, like they
literally could be dead, but then sometimes they fall.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
Off as well off. People change, and so what are
you supposed to do? Just never deal with new people.
I think the mistake we made, and I talk about
this in the special, is that we try how to
create these deeper bonds with new friends. That's not possible, possible.
You're comparing the new friendship to the old one, and
you almost in a way, you kind of got an alacrc.
People just a little bit sure, which sounds shallow. Why

(18:13):
but everything I just I don't know. I just think
that most everything in this life is transactional. And we
view that word transactional as insensitive or despondent and detached.
But you shouldn't be doing anything that's not reciprocating.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
What do you mean transactional? I meet a new friend.
I just moved to New York. I meet a new girlfriend.
I'm hanging out with her, and I like her. She's
not like my best friends in LA. She's not like
my home. The people that I've known all of my life,
but I like hanging out with her and I'm lonely.
I don't know anybody, so i'ma hanging out with her,
you know what I mean? Or is that transactional? No,
it's providing friendship. It might feel transactional.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
But the only reason you like hanging with her is
because she's not nagging you or talking down, nothing fun
of you or something like that. So there's something good
in that. And I'm gonna imagine that you'd being a
good person what reciprocate and ask them about their day
and what things that they give a damn about. And
you wouldn't always pick the place to eat, let them
pick the So those things are You're like, I say, transactional,

(19:18):
but people go to therapy, say pour into.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Then pour into you. We're pouring into each other.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yes, transaction.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Do you find well?

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Okay, and I go to therapy.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
I was about to say, I was gonna say, you're like,
and don't do this therapy because it doesn't work. Okay,
You're like, don't do that.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
I'm just saying therapy and of on.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
Seal, Yes, you have to go all the time therapy,
Like you know what I'm gonna give you this, I'm
gonna get you off for free. I know why don't
they do that because they I've never had a therapist
offer me any kind.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
Of discred Then why is that we have a therapist
and that's them?

Speaker 1 (20:04):
That's crazy. I've had a therapist on they're so rude. Okay, Anyway,
I digress. Are you do you think you're lonely? No?

Speaker 3 (20:12):
I think that I figured out ways on managing relationships
and understanding how to interact with people that give me that.
What I had to be was more intentional about connection because,
like you said, and I agree with you, it's easy
just to stay at the house. It's a million in
one tweets about people celebrating when the plans cancel and

(20:36):
you didn't really want to go. When they call right before,
you're like, oh okay, and you'd be happy. You don't
like answering the phone. That wasn't always us as a people.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
We don't like to we we to your point in
your special someone calls me mad, what is the phone for?

Speaker 3 (20:55):
So? Why how did we get to that place? So
to me, it was just about it blowing that I
don't think I'm lonely. In that sense of I don't
have connections, but I do want to make sure that
some of the connections I have they're genuine and real,
and so you know. I think that's why we value
old friends so much, is because we have roots. But

(21:16):
I think that makes us more prone to putting up
from people. Yeah, for sure, because well this is from
the old It's.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
So for sure. But I don't I don't think. I
don't think that's true. I think I think most people
are lonely if they admit it. Whether you could have
thirty forty people around you, you could have a house full
of kids, you could be married with kids, you still
feel what I when I think of lonely flowers, And
what I sense is this this lack of being present.

(21:44):
If I'm here with you and I'm not present, I'm
still I'm somewhere else, it still feel so lonely. I
still feel disconnected, I still feel separated. I could be
having a great time, but I just still feel separated,
like because I'm not present. And I think that has
everything to do with all the things that are out
of disposal. We're eighty d We're on our phone, We're
picking up our phone and giving out orders to social

(22:04):
media people. I need you to take the care ofusel
and slide three to four. Ye, and you're not even
talking to the You're just like, okay, i'll talk to
you later see the post when it happens goodbye. Not
you per se. But in general, that's what we do.
So I think that is the reason why so many
of us are lonely. Yes, we do like saying at home,

(22:24):
but I do think that we have too many things
at our disposal to occupy your time and make us
and make us numb to what's going on in.

Speaker 3 (22:32):
The world, and it can easily make you less connected.
You know. Say what you want about video gamers, but
I think they're some of the most connected people because
they're on a stream and talking to each other. Really,
I mean, they're the one lad. Yeah, like the idea
of just talking to another person. That's essentially young people's

(22:53):
talking on the phone, put on a headset, yapping with
some dude on the other side of the country. Why
you bounce around a video game doing what you do
while we're sitting around playing candy Do people still play
candy Crush?

Speaker 1 (23:05):
I don't know, I don't Yeah, no, no, no, we're
just asking gen x. No, I don't know nothing about it.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
I don't know angry birds.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
I don't know nothing about nothing. I don't know what
you're saying.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
We'll just keep naming old ass.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
What wordle? No wortle? I don't even know what that is. Okay,
So you've been on I don't know what you're saying.
You've been on a press tour and you said you're
happy not to talk about politics. Are you really truly
happy not to talk about politics after so long? Yeah?
Do you think that's the new? And I know you've
been asked this question. Do you think that is because
of this current administration in the way in which people

(23:46):
have gone after him they're afraid of what he's going
to do? Or you just like it's a new we
gotta frame the way we do comedy now.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
I think it's going to be a reset on the
approach to how we criticize people in power. So why
because it's not landed with nobody. Y'all had eight years
to call this man stupid and think that that's gonna
be the thing. Well, I wasn't going to vote for him,
but then I saw the Jimmy Kimmel and the roy

(24:15):
Wood Junior Comedy, and I was like, Okay, maybe that's
not working. So if you're talking about truth to power,
we got that challenge. Yes, then how do you figure
out a way to what's the language? Yeah, because everybody's
been rewired. The way we receive information has been rewired.
Micro Bigley has a beautiful quote for the Ages. Comedy
only works when everybody agrees on the premise. So if

(24:38):
I say the administration is bad, but you think the
administration is good, it doesn't matter what the rest of
the joke is. You don't agree with my assessment. So
I'm not saying that you can't go down that road comedically.
I'm saying I'm trying to figure out a way to rewire.
And I enjoyed the year away from the Daily Show,
and I wouldn't have been able to even think and
explore loneliness. That being a corresponding is hard. You have

(25:01):
to you spend every day watching them work, yeah, and
then figuring out how to make it funny. And ninety
percent of that doesn't even make it to the show.
So you just watched that show all day. What does
that do to you your soul? So let me do
a special that's just about us collectively as a society.

(25:22):
Don't even worry about the people, don't worry about none
of the policies. Let's just talk about what we are
dealing with right now. And then CNN becomes the place
where on Saturday nights on CNN, I can crack a
joker too. And honestly, that show is beautiful because we're
just submating the news week, We digging get it like

(25:43):
and still.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
This all happened and we're gonna make a joke about it.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
And I just gary, I just hope that people don't
viute it is me not caring or me not with
me checking out. It's just that you do that. For
eight or nine years at Comedy Central, you got to
figure out an okay, well what else?

Speaker 1 (26:00):
You had a reset, you got a rebrand, you got
to figure out other It's not not even a rebrand.
It's just like other elements of who you are and
what you're capable of doing.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
This is there has to be It's like football, there
has to be a halftime adjustment.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, we got to make some adjustments. Life is that.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
See what you can do in the second hand, This
is the second half of Trump, if you want to
think about it like that.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
So the approach is to how we Oh, that's good,
that's a good point. It's a football game, and this
is the second half of Trump, right. We had, we
had our little halftime break, and now we're back in it.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
Joe Biden came out, little marching band, little take taking me.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
And they just and they just I don't know if
you saw that with the kid take off. They just
introduced another amendment to see if a president can have
a third term. That's why I said it's not gonna
be four years. Y'all be ready for it.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Trump is gonna die in office.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
It's Roy Wood Junior on Naked Sports. We'll be right
back in just a few moments. Hey, everybody, welcome back
to Naked Sports. Appreciate y'all still being here with us
as well as Roy Wood Junior. So fresh off of
his special, his Hulu special, he has shared with us
that he's in a new season of his life, leaving

(27:05):
the Daily Show, creating and also flexing other talented muscles
that he may have, and also he's observing his career
and politics in a new way. To me that is
very interesting. So we pick up at how he plans
to approach politics as a comedian, but more specifically President
Donald Trump. A real issue for all of us that

(27:27):
I'm talking about myself in these public facing roles. What
is the premise? The premise isn't he stupid? Because he won?
So what's the premise because he's not.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
That's the part that still remains to be seen, and
people have to explore that. That requires hosts that are creative.
That requires writers and producers that are willing to risk
their jobs low key to do something different, because if
you do something different and it doesn't get ratings, then
you're so you can be screwed a number of different ways.
And I think that is where political satire eventually is

(28:02):
going to have to have a reckoning and a long
look in the mirror at how we've approached politics and
criticizing politics over the last decade.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
I feel like the same thing for journalists. I feel
like your sister, because you live in both worlds. I
feel like we have to figure out a new way
to talk about him so that it lands and that
it makes sense. But I'm also very afraid of the
fact that everyone will filter themselves and be afraid to
tell the truth, Like I see that you can't tell me.
For instance, with Elon Musk, you can't tell me that

(28:33):
wasn't a Hitler symbol that he did, salute that he did,
but you're telling me it's not. And so what do
I do as a journalist? I was like, if you
see something, say something, that's what they tell you, right,
And as a comedian, do you ignore that? Do do
you make a joke about that? Do you say it
doesn't land? So we have to not have My point
is I don't want us to be in the worlds

(28:54):
that we live in. I don't want us to be silent.
And it doesn't have to be I'm going to kill everybody.
I just don't want us to be silent about what's
off danger.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
The danger in adjusting the approach is that you run
the risk of normalizing the things.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
And that's what we're doing.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
That's a slick. That's the difficult part of it, and
I don't know how we navigate that because it's gonna
be a war. The first journalist that the first April
Ryan in that press briefing, whenever they do their first
their first first press brief and somebody jump back at
Trump they're gonna be gone.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
They won't let them back here.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
Okay, So now, if you're that news outlet and you
need access, you need a reporter in a press pool.
The next reporter who goes in, you're gonna tell them
to jump bad. No, you're gonna tell them to ask
them softball questions. So then it requires an editor and
ahead of these news organizations to keep sending in the
next soldier to go in and get their head chopped off.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
We've already and we should and everyone should be prepared
for that while they while they're cutting people, they should
be adding people. When I tell you, what did Kanye
West say about Jewish people? They own everything? You do
you remember what happened when he did that? They took
all his money right then they start freezing his accounts.
Everything was like it severely intentional with him, right because

(30:14):
of the way he was approaching Jewish people. Do you
remember that? I remember that.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
I remember Kanye having all the money and then didn't have.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
And he was trying to get and then he like
he got quiet, he was getting his money back. What
happened to Elon when he did that? Did you hear
from anyone saying that was inappropriate.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
Oh, I see what you're saying.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
We've all pretty normalized it. ADL came out and said,
don't jump to conclusions. What conclusion?

Speaker 3 (30:42):
How much?

Speaker 1 (30:44):
What I'm encouraging you to do. Even though you said
you're taking a break from political commentary in terms of
what you do, I'm still encouraging you to because you're
smart enough, You're really smart. I was just I'm encouraging
you to not give it up completely because we still
need you.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
I'm not abandoning any of that. I'm trying to figure
out what is the approach that has a level of
efficacy that makes it worth the trouble and the hurdles
of it.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Because we're all trying to figure that out and.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
The issue and so if you do something different and
it doesn't connect and there's low ratings, this media is
still a capitalistic structure organization. Sure, so you need ratings,
you need profit, you need a brand, so you need eyeballs.
And so if you get cut out, like if you
take the ADL for instance, if the ADL comes out

(31:41):
and says, and this is just extreme scenario, ad L
comes out and says, Trump's dude, is we we denounce
Elon and Elon, we hate you Elon, and then Trump
goes I bet law law, law, law, think, think things

(32:01):
that adversely affects the ADL and keeps them from doing
their overall greater mission. Right did the ADL gain or
lose by criticizing Elon when we look at what they're
trying to do in totality as an organization in terms
of helping people.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
You don't have to criticize them though.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
Okay, but you're still putting yourself in the crosshairs of
a vindictive administration for the next four years for the
sake of saying what's right. You lose the opportunity potentially
to do what it's wrong.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
It's not the next four years though, okay.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
So then then you should say something now, I mean,
you should say something else.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
I don't have the answers. What I am saying is
that the blueprint has been there. Our ancestors did far
more with far less. And what I mean by that
is that they were far more organized. They knew how
to make sure if in fact they were going to boycott,
they had the endurance for what it would take and
how long it would take, and they made extreme sacrifices,

(33:00):
extreame sacrifices. This is not just four years and we're
so comfortable and don't nobody want a sacrifice.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
I think the difference between our ancestors and US is
that there was more collective struggle, so there was more cohesion.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Correct, and there's about to be more correct correct. Say
that again. I don't mean to cut you out say that.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
No, no, no, that's right. I think that. I think
the difference between our ancestors and US is that our
ancestors had more collective oppression to deal with because they
weren't all in different tears Fiscally, not every black person
feels the same, and maybe they didn't feel that way
back then, but there was still a degree of eye
Well I don't agree. I'm more of a Malcolm guy.

(33:40):
But if this, if this Martin dude, say we're gonna know,
let's try it. Whereas now you can have anti black
black protesters, Like if you showed up to a protest,
it might be people on the other side of the
protest that are also black.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
So I agree with you. Because they were trying to
change laws. They that's exactly what they had a goal.
They had a central focus goal. But there are things
that we universally are majority in the terms of majority,
agree on that need to be changed.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
Okay, right, yeah, I agree with that.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
Like we were just in here joking around, the I
is gone. I can call you silly, I can use
the R word. Now, it's not even our word. You
could just say it straight out.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
It might not even be an office.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, here you go. Here's some watermelon
and chicken and ha ha ha and it's okay, it's okay,
now we can do that. It's not inappropriate and grabbing
by the you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (34:33):
Yeah, almost. I almost feel like if you're black, you
were in an office, you gotta start clapping back.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Yeah, you have to.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
My point is got to be crazy. It's crazy coat.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
That you cannot you cannot rationalize with crazy. So I'm saying,
we have to meet that energy and how do we
do that and what does it look like? And I
think that it's through voices like yours that are just
so smart and so important and so funny. I think
what is the premise is your point? I don't know
what the premise is, but if we can, if we could,
if we could really talk to him, in a way

(35:07):
that's funny and makes sense for everybody. So when I
don't know who's gonna figure it out, but it's coming.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
I think the other the other option is playing running
the place, running the same play book in terms of
the approach to how we inform the people, but then
waiting for the riffle effects of some of these policies,
because I don't think what's not going to happen in
the next year or so. There's not gonna be alloted
for democratsity to stop a lot of this stuff from
getting passed. He pushed it. That's just what it is.

(35:34):
So then maybe you can reason with people that are
hurt on the other side of these policies, who didn't
realize that they were chopping off their own nose when
they voted for Trump. So that might be one way.
You got to wait for it, wait for that, and
they still have to trust you as the source of
the information for the thing. And that's part of why like,

(35:54):
and I'm not even saying this on some plugy type shit.
That's part of why I like what we're doing on
Have I Got News for You? Is that we're bringing
on right when we had on Tennessee State Rep. Tim
burchet Yeah, last season, I think we have a lot
of people's not happy with us. I don't mind that
Samantha Beef was supposed to be the guest originally she

(36:14):
found out. She was like, I'm straight on that. I
don't even want to I don't want to have a
dialogue with that type of Christim Burchett is voted no
on pretty much everything that is wrong with And you know,
that was a very tense episode, but it was worthwhile,

(36:35):
in my opinion, to have that person on and just
have a conversation about your policies and just approach it
from a logical place and you can yell at that man, yeah,
crack some jokes. We took some shots, but he got
his words in too. Sure, I think that that has
the potential, that type of dialogue has the potential to

(36:56):
be a bridge versus the whole Why do you platform
these idiots correct type ideology?

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Sure, but.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
I just I don't know. I just know that a
lot of people are angry, a lot of people are hurt.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
I don't know. I'm looking for you to give me
the answers. I don't know why all.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
Ill looking I'm.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
Answer you, okay, So I've been you know, I think
of times in this country's history when things were in
peril or seemingly in peril. And I'm not an alarmist
by any means, but there are these times in history
and it was always the artist, whether it be the painter,
whether it be the the comedian, whether it be the journalist.
Everybody gave us a blueprint on how to do this,

(37:40):
whether it be Langston Hughes or James Baldwinner, I to
Be Wells or or whatever artists you can think of.
I was having a conversation with Derek Adams the other night.
He is one of our contemporaries in terms of art,
and he was like, yeah, no, it's my time and
I'll and I don't have to I don't have to
announce what I'm going to do, but I am going
to do something. I am going to protest. I am

(38:02):
going to document this time in history so that it
can be remembered and not forgotten. I'm going to use
And he didn't know what it looked like. No one
knows what it looks like, but they want to do it.
So I say all that to say, it'll come to
you because that's the gift you've been given, and can
you share it with us? Can you not just keep
it to yourself and be willing?

Speaker 3 (38:23):
I think that we have to as a society, which
is part of what I was talking about in the special.
Something is simple is not having a cashier, just not
talking to someone in the grocery store. A little bit
of chit chat might get you a little bit of
understanding from both sides, you know, Like it's like when

(38:44):
people say, guess so true, when liberals say, I don't
understand how somebody could have voted for that, man, I
understand off the top. They tell me you don't talk
to enough people. If you don't understand, I absolutely understand.
I mean, you ain't got enough friends over there? People
are singleish, you voters. Most people are selfish. Most people
are thinking about themselves.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
First, whad percent? And we were in and that is
the lonely bubble that we're in, which is why you're
a special is so special, because that is why we
are here today. We are we don't even talk to nobody.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Yeah, I'll talk to the people I know, And then how
much rhythm ensures that I don't see anybody else? Correct?

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Correct? How much is a loaf of bread.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
In the store or door dash?

Speaker 1 (39:27):
In the store? Door dash is extreme?

Speaker 3 (39:31):
I don't know full dollars for fifty Can.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
You google a loaf of bread? Can you tell me
how much it cost? I'm gonna ask him a series
of questions whole week, not the wonder bread. Yeah, how much?
How much is? How much is a gallon of milk?

Speaker 3 (39:46):
Oh? I do not know. I do not know. Okay,
I generally buy milk by the half gallon. I think
it was like three seventy five, which is shit. That's
a lot.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
We're gonna go back and look at these numbers later.
How much is a does a carton of eggs? It
doesn't cardenaggs.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
I'd be just hopeful. I'll just be brad.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
You know why we are where we are because you
don't know those things. That's quite simply, I mean, neither
we should be ashamed of ourselves. There's an entire section
of people that believe Donald Trump knows exactly how much
those things cost and will lower the prices, which is
why they voted for him. There's an entire section of
society that believes that.

Speaker 3 (40:24):
Yeah, I mean, because I'm not gonna like I haven't
been able to benefit from some level of success in
the last few years where I don't necessarily have to.
I remember being in a grocery store with my dad
as a child, and he will look at me, up
gallon and a half gallon. Do the math if he
had a coupon for the half gallon, but there was
a new coupon for the gallon. We leave him with

(40:45):
two half gallons because we saved seven. Yeah, so we're
doing math equations all down to I honest, a lot
of Americans that deal with that, you.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Know, it takes you back to your college days.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
I've had the privilege for a while to not have
to look get the gas pump while I pumped my gas,
and I don't think a lot of people understand that what.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
A blessing or auto pay your mortgage. That's a whole
nother level of just like, I'm not even thinking twice
by nothing because I.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
Remember you pump gas back in the day before they
had the auto stop.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
You.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
I meant the pump ten dollars I missed around in
pump thirteen.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
I used to I used to, well, let me tell
you something, this is so true. In college, I would
be like, I got five dollars and seventy five cents.
Five dollars of the same essence is going into my
car five dollars and seventy five cents. Whatever it was,
that's what's exactly what it was. I had a friend
who would look at people drive really nice cars and
then they would come to the gas They would pull
up at the gas station, and then they would drive away,

(41:49):
and he just it was a photographer of my in Atlanta,
and he would run around to see if they filled
up the tank and woul out fail would be like
ten dollars, fifteen dollars, because that's how most of us
were living, and that's how most of the world're being honest,
that's the way. That's the way most of the world lives.
We key keying out and most of.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
The people who are on television do not live like that.
So if you if you have to watch that gas
pump down to the decimal, how relatable do you feel
that person is on TV telling you that you don't
need to vote for this guy who told you he
cared about the eggs, even if it's a lie.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
Even if it's a lie, it's what they need to
hear it's and it sounds like truth. In his landing, Trump.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
Ran the same playbook as Obama, and that was hope.
He just never said the word he used.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
He weaponized all your frustration and hate, and he turned
that into a platform. People were like, I'm upset them.

Speaker 3 (42:43):
Yep, they messing with you. I'm gonna fix it them eggs,
I'm gonna fix it. Oh what you do, Coald Mining,
I'm gonna fix it. Had a joke. It never made TV,
but I joke, if you worked at Blockbuster Video and
if Trump said I'm bringing back DVDs.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Vote for him bringing it back?

Speaker 3 (43:05):
You would vote for sure. Netflix and streaming is clearly
the wave. But if Trump said I'm bringing back DVDs
and that's how you feed your family, you could give
about deportation. Mm hmm, you could give a damn about birthright,
lunch is, Paris Climate Treaty. I don't know what none

(43:25):
of that means. He said he was bringing back to DVD.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Yeah, yeah, I do find one thing that I the
so blatant. And I wonder how long it will take
to set in this religious aspect of this evangelical evangelical
hope that he alleges he has because we saw him
not put his hand on the Bible. And we also
know that some of these people truly believe like they

(43:50):
want Christianity. But I wonder if they really truly want
that back in our schools the way they say that
it will come back in our schools. Like in Oklahoma,
there was a the they have bibles. Now you have
to read the Bible in school. Now, nice Bibles, the
Trump Bible. Yeah, buying Trump which is which is so
blasphemous in so many ways.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
That's how you know you're not stupid, because you know
they're dumb enough to buy it.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Well, how do you ninety dollars? But how do you
battle that? Like, you don't. What's the answer if you're
buying Trump Bibles and you believe that this man believes
in God and and and he's going to change the
world and he's God's disciples sent here to help us all.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
Yeah, Now those are the extreme. I'm talking about moderate.
I'm talking about people who voted for Mitt Romney and
will now vote who now converted to Trump because.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Of I just don't know how that's going to last.
I don't know how long that's gone that's what I
think will not settle.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
Well. I just think that there also has to be
if we're talking communic and journalistically, there has to be
a degree of holding Democrats accountable.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Now, that's all we have to do.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
And I did. The Democrats are somehow bulletproof to criticism.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Your so right.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
That will also be the cattle pride preach because they
don't like. They don't like criticism. Mere don't want to
be Republicans. Low key, it roll off of them. They
don't care.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Well, they don't care because they have an agenda, doesn't
you're just talking? Okay, So here's my issue.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
John Stuart called Joe Biden old, and y'all have thought that.
He said.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
He's too old. He was too old, but you can't
even walk. He didn't even he didn't even pardon. I'm
going to get into it, but we're starting to see
everyone's true colors. He didn't pardon one person, one person
on Comma's list, which tells me he wasn't fulling with
her again after she lost, like she was the great
Black Hope and then she didn't win, and now he don't.

(45:44):
They don't know her no more. Yeah, that is some
Hollywood for your ass.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
But I don't think that was I don't think any
of that was Kamma's fault. And I think that she
took the brunt of it. Of course, I would imagine
somewhere in there, it was probably a lot of people
telling her how to run her race, and she chose
to run her race the way she wanted to. And
now they going, we should have done it, should have

(46:09):
done what they told him to do and still loss.
Then who are you because they still would cash your aside,
here's mine, Be cast aside, be cast aside on your terms,
run your place.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
I was just about to say, I think that we
all have a hard time being comfortable in our workspace,
but especially for black women. And and I'm like, they're always
going to tell you got an attitude. They're always going to
be mad at you. There always are going they will
never really in corporate America or in that kind of space,
understand you. So why not just do you? It doesn't
matter to me at the end of the day if

(46:40):
I tried you, because you try to acquiesce, you try
to do what they want. But when it comes to
real life changing issues. I believe Kamala in her heart
had some things she wanted to do, and she chose
not to do because she felt like it didn't look
good for a black woman to do that. I agree
with you. She did run her campaign her way. But
case in point, she should have immediately separated herself from

(47:01):
Joe and the border. She should have said this country
is racist. She did come back around and do that.
There are things that she thought she was doing for
the good of the team. That's to your point. Democrats
got to start criticizing one another.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
How does a Democrat reach a conservative who doesn't like
race based policy and politics and statements by calling the
country racist? How do you do both? You know, Democratic
voters want to hear you say that there is a
problem with race, Republic.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
There's absolutely a problem with race, but there's also a
problem with race within races. You got to talk about
it at all. You can't talk about one and not
talk about the other. We do have a problem at
the border. We got to shut these borders down, Joe.
We don't need all these people coming into our country.
And this country is also racist at the same time.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
Yes, and okay, now you just lost all of the
liberal Latinos. Now, how do you pick in an election
that's supposed to be neck and neck? How do you
make that statement? Can you gain enough Republics while losing
liberals off of that statement? Which is which is the
right thing to say?

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Who knows? You gotta do it? You gotta do it consistently,
so we know so case. Okay, So here's what I
was thinking. The Democratic sounds this is so blasphemous what
I'm about to say. But the Democratic Party feels like
they want to be the party for everybody. They can't,
They can't represent everybody.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
Okay, so then who are you for? And that's what
they have to disser. And once you decide that that's
a bunch of argument, then everything.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
It doesn't matter. Behind that, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
At least the Republicans all go, it doesn't dumb, but
he's our dummy. But you know they talked about Trump
behind his back and laugh heard, No you did, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
You saw them reading the lips. Did you see the
reader of.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
George but he ain't never made a statement against that man. Yeah,
well then I won't help you campaign, but I ain't gonna.
I think that's what we're learning. That's what I think
that I think that any party that will be in
opposition will we'll look at that blueprint. I may not
agree with her, but I'm not gonna throw in her
best and say I'm I'm still gonna run. I'm still
I could have won the election. Yeah, at one hundred

(49:04):
years old on my last leg, I don't. And I
think that that is going to take longer than MI
terms for Demo.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
Oh my god, it's just going to take a long time.
They said, I remember we talked about it. You need
an entire forensic analysis. Did you go and just from
head to toe figure it all out? What's in your body?
Get it out, all of the stuff that's bad.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
Do you think that Kamala runs again twenty eight?

Speaker 1 (49:27):
She too hurt? No, she's too hurt. You ever have
you ever been around a hurt black woman, like a real,
like a real genuine.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Hurt like one that I heard or one I got
hurt by somebody both I'm talking about the break up
like I'm just silly one that you hurt and I'm different.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
No, No, but it's the same. It's the same. It's
the same in the sense of you could feel the hurt.
It's like pople not like like not like raging, but
like I don't know who I am. Case in point,
I'm married, I'm with this man. I think this man
loves me, and then I'll find out he's been cheating
on me with who That kind of hurt is wild,

(50:09):
like wild, because you're like, I don't even know who
is this person. I don't even know you, who's this
person I've been with for twenty five years making him something,
not naming anybody but Mary for twenty five years. And
you find and then you find out he got a
whole other family with a whole other woman. What kind
of it's real? That's palpable. I mean, I'm talking about
just and you feel that in her. So that's what

(50:30):
I felt, not like she got broken up with her.
But the betrayal is what I'm talking about about. The betrayal.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
It's a good word. You love America too much to
flip parties.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
You, So the word betrayal is very complicated. It is
a heavy emotion, and the word feels very significant. It
has a lot of meaning for a lot of different people.
It evokes different types of emotions. But when we come back,
I use that word to try to get into Roy's
personal life. The question quite simply, has he ever betrayed

(51:05):
anyone back in a moment? That's I'm just like, I
don't know if she didn't ever get over the betrayal.
Some people can't get over. Have you ever been cheated on?

Speaker 3 (51:23):
Yeah, but it was not that I'm older, it was
it was in my twenties.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
Then have you ever cheated on somebody?

Speaker 3 (51:28):
I chop that up to the game. Yeah, I cheated,
but I.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
Like I cheated. Let's not talk about that.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
I was finishing my first cheating answer. I'll get to
the second I cheated answered, But like the idea of
the hurt, yeah, it's definitely a hurt. And what I've
learned from being on both sides of cheating is that
there's no way to reassemble that. Like when you take

(51:56):
two chemicals somebody somebody sent me a quote I can't
remember I'm gonna butcher the wording of it, but two chemicals,
once mixed, inextricably can never return back to what they
were before they were mixed. And so when you talk
about betrayal, once you have trust in a bond and

(52:16):
you break that bond, you can't go back to Like,
I don't see how comic goes back to ambitious and
all right, I fell down that time, but I'm back
America and we're gonna do it this time. And the
Democrats like, I don't know if you can ever get
back to that place, because I don't know if anyone
that is cheated or who who's been cheated on or

(52:38):
cheated that was the same person on the other side
you knew.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
No, no, you make, you make, you make concessions. If
you decide to stay in the relationship. You you decide.
If she decides to run again, she she has a
real understanding of what she's running against in the people
that she's running that she's running with, And you also
have decided if you want to be part of the
Democratic Party. I don't know. If I if I were her,
I'd be like, can we start a whole new party?

(53:01):
I would I'm right now at the point like they
need to tear this all down and start a whole
new party. That's where I feel. That's what I feel,
because to your point, we need to start criticizing them more,
which which I think you will. I think other comedians will,
I think other journalists will, because for so long we've
the liberals have owned media and have been very much
been a part of legacy media. But those days are over.

(53:21):
Because you just said something really smart. Somebody on TV
is not looking at me like I can relate to
what they're talking about. They don't think that at all.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
Then that might be the answer of where we go.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
That's where we might go. Do we just solve world problems?

Speaker 3 (53:32):
Think we did? I'm serious, I'm serious. Out of it
has to be going into the losing team's locker room
and going what are the adjustments you're going to make?
What have you learned from this? What are your changes
that you're going to And I said this on stage,
goofing around, but I do believe it in that what

(53:57):
makes sports perfect is that there is there's structures of accountability.
When the team loses, there is a press conference, they
make changes, they announced the changes, they tell you all,
this is how we're going to fix what happened this year.
Whereas Democrat like the joke was basically the day after

(54:18):
the election, I got an email asking me for money
continue to fight. I'm sorry, what is the plan?

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Yeah? Because I'm not giving you no money if I
don't know the plan.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
Have we signed free agent yet.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
Have we roach it? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (54:33):
Yeah, are you trying to sell season ticket packages?

Speaker 1 (54:35):
I'm all set on your season tickets, y'all lost. I'm
all set on your season ticket I'm all set on
your season tickets. Democrats, y'all lost. I think there has
to be that is so profound. I'm all set on
your season tickets. I'm not buying anything from you anymore,
single game ticket. I might pop in here and check
is take it out, but y'all not gonna have me
locked in.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
But let people know what the plan is. Start having
a cohesive approach. I still think they're looking wounds, and yeah,
the bigger issue becomes And this goes right back to
the ADL thing, because I think it's forty forty or
so Democrats supported Trump's immigration blah blah blah, sure that
he just signed or whatever. How much do you go?

(55:19):
How much are you risking reelection from voters who don't
see what you see in terms of needing to have
a different approach to party, Because there are a lot
of voters who believe that the playbook that Democrats have
been runing in the last eight years of you see it,
call it out compromise nothing. I'm not voting for you.
So now you're out. Now you're out of a job.

(55:39):
So do you choose yourself?

Speaker 1 (55:43):
No, you do. You choose what the world is requiring now.
And a lot of this is due to what Trump is.
He's gotten rid of the language of politics. It requires
you to be very plain and very clear.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
So on some Jasmine Crockett bluntness, on some Marjorie Taylor Green.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
Bluntness, that's what we're requiring.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
Those are the people that resonate with their basis. Okay.
So but if you're a traditional, if you're an old
establishment politician, and you know you have to be across
the aisle now, but you answer to a base that
does not with any politics.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
You have to start. But it doesn't matter. You have
to start talking to your base in ways that they
understand the same way that we're calling our Democrats. We
got to call it our base. Look, I know I
ran on this, but I'm gonna tell you what the
world is today. Okay, now you're out, that's fine. The
next person, that's fine, But we have.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
To you, Okay, go, what's your How many politicians are
willing to be that bold because the next one in
it's going to say the same thing you said.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Now I agree with that. Not many, not many.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
So then they're choosing themselves or they're choosing the country.
And that's the same as the Blockbuster Video employee, and
it's the same as the ADO I hear you.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
They're choosing themselves.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
It cuts you off.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
No, no, no, I cut you off. Your mom told
you I talked too much, so I'm sure I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (56:56):
My mom said that you were eloquent and that I
need to be more eloquent when I'm seeing it.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
Roy Wood Junior's mother said, Carrie Champion talks too much
on TV, plaining it wrong. She said, can you lesson?
Can you lessen the amount that Carrie Champion?

Speaker 3 (57:19):
My mom said, why does Carrie talk me so much?
In your arm?

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Mama shut me down like that dog boy?

Speaker 3 (57:27):
You smart too? She why she the only one showing
that she's smart. It was a complimentary volume. She was
complimentary to the volume in which you speak and wanting.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
The volume in which is Yes.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
It was a compliment. You refuse. I ain't telling you not.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
I thought it was. First of all, I love your mother.
Tell her thank you. I did receive that as a
compliment but hilarious. I was like y'all Ory's mama said,
I talked too much. I didn't even know that.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
I know you like this, just like I always don't
see Ann being quiet. That's my mom's critique of me
anytime on anything other than my show on the network.
You too quiet. Well, I'm looking for the jokes. I'm
not here to be Kerrie's smart. Those policies.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
Jont I listen, I have I know, I have passion.
I know just as much as you know. I just
I just I have common sense, which people don't show.

Speaker 3 (58:22):
You and Keith boy can. I have nothing to add
that's not true. I have nothing to zero.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
I hate that you do that to you. I hate
that that is not true. That is not here, that
is not true. My last thing before I get your
out of here. Now that you are, you're working so much,
you stay working a lot. What I've noticed about people
like you and myself, depending on how you come about
come up in this industry, your industry, my industry. We
are very private people. We never reveal who we are,

(58:47):
so sometimes it hinders people from saying I mean I'm
talking about personal things too. It stops people from really
knowing things like when people hate on me, they're like,
you're so silly. I didn't know that. I'm like, God,
I don't show that. I guess I showed them the
woman who speaks in large volume according to Roy's mother,
So I would like to So I wonder, I wonder

(59:11):
if you ever think that you should reveal more of
who you are, perhaps the softer side, not necessarily softmen
don't like that word, But just do you think you
need to reveal more of who you are personally? Because
you don't in jokes, be like I don't you don't
you don't be like I went on a date the
other day. No Jesus's sout, No.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
No, those against all protocols.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
No.

Speaker 3 (59:39):
Habitually where it started. I started standing up when I
was nineteen and I performed for primarily grown ups thirty
five plus. They didn't care about me. So my writing
style was what does the room care about? So my
style became more about what is happening to us collectively? Okay,

(59:59):
So habitually that was the writing muscle that got worked
okay for the first ten years of my career. And
you are what you do and so that was where
my curiosities. Lie, I will talk about myself or something
that I'm going through if it connects to the greater
conversation about the point I'm trying to make, Like I

(01:00:21):
had I talked about I talked about getting arrested, Like
I'll talk about that a couple times on the podcast. Sure,
But all right, credit card fraud and probation. Unless I
have something bigger to say about incarceration, I'm not just
gonna tell you a story about the time. Man, I
don't even. But then I was able to figure out
a way to tell the story about being nice to

(01:00:43):
a customer at Golden Corral. And this is how I
ended up talking about this on stage. I did even
being arrested. Was I was very nice to a customer.
I've always tried to be nice to people. And the
night I got arrested and I was in jail, a
dude wanted to fight. Does not know me, but wants

(01:01:05):
to fight because everybody elvers coming in. He knew his
mom someone that got an arrested for a domestic against
his mother, so he assumed whoever came in jail that
day was the person who got arrested for the domestic
So his objective was to beat out of anybody who
got processed that day.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Damn.

Speaker 3 (01:01:23):
So one by one he's making notes and he's going
to fight you tomorrow, Fight you tomorrow, fight you tomorrow.
As you're coming in, I don't know this man. And
I come in and a guy comes up to him
and taps my own shoulder.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
Go.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
Now, that one right there is cool. He used to
hook me up with free food at Golden Corral.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:01:41):
And it was the customer that I'd been nice to.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
So that's not a story about me getting arrested. That's
the story about hospitality and the idea of how far
stretching karma can go. Sometimes. So if I talk about
still in credit cards, I was in college. I wanted
just jeans. I wasn't no whole operation.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Get a critic card, got a fell in here, never
had a fellon on the podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
Could be president next.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
I've never had a fellow.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
It'll be nice to me.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Where you guys believe we have a felon.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
That'll be nice to me, because when I become president,
I'm gonna shut down your podcast. I'm gonna call your enemy.
You're not a patriot. You're not a patriot. This is
very unpatriotic behavior of view. I thought you was a
freedom fighter. Everybody bout my crypto, so you know, I don't.

(01:02:34):
I just think there's layers of yourself that just yeah,
you have to really be fully enveloped in that to
talk about yourself, like I talked about, Like even in
this special, I talk about being invited to a sex
party and I talk about a bad date that went on.
But both are connected to the idea of connection. So

(01:02:58):
which is you know, the next thing I'm working on.
So I sold a book it's called The Man of
Many Fathers. Even in that it's maybe like another foot
into the water of personal I.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
Like when you talk about your dad. I like when
you talk about that relationship.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
It's a weird relationship.

Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
But that to me resonates with so many people because
the parent child relationship is so complicated and it's for everyone,
for everyone, and and some of you are lucky. You
want the parent lottery, you know, or the child lottery.
But I just think it's special.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
Yeah, And so I don't know what that's going to
be on stage, but it's interesting. My father died when
I was sixteen. I learned a ton of lessons from
other men after him. These are the stories of how
I learned. I love it, okay, but that's I'm right
net in case I die, So my son has a
thing to read. I'm just being real, Like, that's so

(01:03:53):
that he's not talking to other people trying to figure
out who his father was, which I know he'll be
able to figure out because I'll talk to nobody.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
But see, that is what I think. This next level,
like this series that you have with Lonely Flowers, Like
I feel like the next series is how I unlonelyad myself,
and that is going to be you revealing yourself to
all of us. I'd like ten percent now, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
Does everyone deserve to know everything about us though?

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
Nope, But you don't have to give them everything. Everybody
can't be Beyonce you where you parse out stuff a truth.
What may Beyonce who she is today is when we
saw the elevator video, correct, we were like what and
we all had her back, but we were also very
disappointed in her response. But then we also appreciated her

(01:04:41):
music because it brought us lemonade, like it brought us
some of the best things ever.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
Yeah, because lemonade was introspective. I think most all forms
of entertainment on her best albums either is it atro
intro you know, like what I see versus what's happening
in here? Only types of entertainment that exists. So I've
been that for a long time and now only flowers

(01:05:07):
a little bit of this and then start talking about
my dad and all of that, and it'll be that,
and then I'll.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Get into you're gonna tell people that we went on
a date.

Speaker 3 (01:05:14):
Yeah, tell them that. I'll tell them all the things.
Ever now, dating life, I'll never talk about that in stage.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
No way.

Speaker 3 (01:05:28):
No, I'm trying to why.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
I think it would be fun. I think it'll be
fun anybody. And then I'll let people know that you
were undercover PEMP like that's the best part.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
That's also I don't talk about sex on stage like
I just because you people know you're a pimp. I
just don't like talking about that intimate parts.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
Interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:05:47):
Is this nothing that I can I don't have any
I don't feel like I have anything educational to offer
people on that, you know, But if I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
Talking is there an educational sex joke that we need?

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
But if I can talk about growing up in my
next door neighbor, my literal next door neighbor, being in
prison for murder, and how the guilt of that makes
me feel because I also knew the victim, the person
that he was convicted of killing. That's a far more

(01:06:21):
interesting piece of myself to offer them.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
And how that made you, what that did to you,
how it affected you.

Speaker 3 (01:06:28):
Right, and having conversations with his family about like that
I put on stage because that's that's fair, that's more
layer than I got cheated on.

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
Well, you're just so smart. You're just so smart because
that you're giving me this high level of these jokes.
You're so smart. All This is my point and okay,
I'm wrapping up with this. All comedians are so intelligent,
and that's why I feel like artists, comedians journalists, not
all journalists. Like I feel like this is going to
be a very special season. And being able to figure

(01:06:59):
out how to adjust because it's halftime, we're in a second,
we're the second half, right, we're coming out of half
and the second half. How do we adjust to this
new America, this new way that we move because it's
not new, it's old, but we will have to figure
this out. I think some fart jokes and some sex
jokes will be helpful to Okay, and.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
You know what I'll start with. I'll start with the
time I returned an engagement ring and the dude at
zails tried to talk me into taking her back.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
Now, that's a good story, and you returned the well
zales is the first part. I'm gonna judge you on
the second part. That's a two month salary. That's America.

(01:07:50):
That's America, thank you. That is what we're talking about.
That is the America.

Speaker 3 (01:07:54):
How much is bread?

Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
You know? How much bread was?

Speaker 3 (01:07:56):
How much an engagement?

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
How much was it?

Speaker 3 (01:08:00):
Ste nine dollars?

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
Seven hundred and west.

Speaker 3 (01:08:01):
Sixty nine dollars?

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
Oh? What are you owing? Like?

Speaker 3 (01:08:06):
That was a lot of money back when nights and
weekends and start to nine p almost down. It's real
money back then. That's what I had.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
I am saying. It's sweet, it's endearing, it's endearing. It's endearing.
Roy Wood Junior, Hulu watch it. He's my friend. I
like him a lot. He makes me laugh.

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
Thank you, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
Naked Sports Written and executive produced by me Kerry Champion,
Produced by Josh Pys Thomas, sound designed and mastered by
Dwayne Crawford Associate producer Ola Busayl Shabby Naked Sports is
a part of the Black Effect podcast network in iHeartMedia