Artworks
Episode 9008: The Art of Comedy
Season 9 Episode 8 | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Artworks pulls back the curtain on the art of comedy to reveal how comedians craft jokes.
Artworks pulls back the curtain on the art of comedy and reveals how comedians write and craft their jokes, test material on new audiences, and adapt to ever-changing social mores.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
Artworks is a local public television program presented by MPT
Major Funding for Artworks is provided by the Citizens of Baltimore County. And by: Ruth R. Marder Arts Endowment Fund, Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker Endowment for the Arts,...
Artworks
Episode 9008: The Art of Comedy
Season 9 Episode 8 | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Artworks pulls back the curtain on the art of comedy and reveals how comedians write and craft their jokes, test material on new audiences, and adapt to ever-changing social mores.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship♪ ♪ Artworks is made possible in part by... And by... WINSTON: Well, I always wanted to be a comedian, I always liked stand-up.
SEAN: I'm a story teller, so... ALEX: I walked down to this basement and I was like, "Dude, this rocks."
TIM: Uh, a lot of it is real-life stuff that I talk about that's happened to me.
MATTHEW: Our job is to be funny and it is our job to also push the boundaries.
MADDY: I think Hotbed, we try to have as many different kinds of voices as possible.
DOM: Um, before I get on stage I want to understand what the audience might like and then try to pull them in the direction I want them to go so I can talk about what I want to talk about.
TIM: So you're seeing... You're just from here up?
MATTHEW: Is this mic good?
You want me to look at camera or look at you, bro?
How we doing it?
RAHMEIN: Where do you want me?
That's that age range, you're like 20 or 40.
TIM: Oh!
Oh, I was gonna get a drink, okay?
I mean, this is... Yeah, I'm, I'm being cool but this is...
I'm, I'm freaking out, man.
SHELLEY: It's hard for me even to think of comedy as a art.
I'm just so like jaded at this point... All right, let me start that again, uh... (laughs).
SEAN: Well, no.
I, I, I could...
I don't consider myself welcoming at all, uh.
I would say that, uh, I'm just trying to, um... (phone vibrating).
(laughs).
I just silenced my phone so that it would stop and then they're just calling through it.
This... DAVID: I'm a, I'm a professional, so it's fine.
Yep.
(laughs).
I'm a comedian, TikToker, Door Dasher.
MADDY: David's so young and then David was like making fun of 30 year old's and then I went up there and I was making fun of 20 year old's.
And Dom Rivera, after he was just like, "You gotta be, you gotta chill with the making fun of young people.
They do not like that."
DOM: I'm sorry, I was uptight in the beginning.
Can we just like talk, talk for real now?
All right, cool.
TIM: Uh, there's no cursing I'm assuming?
Sometimes the bleep is funny.
(bleep).
MATTHEW: Oh, did I cuss too much?
LAFAYETTE: Stop me if I go, if I get like OD.
BENNY: At you or the camera?
PRODUCER: Um, me.
BENNY: Okay, copy.
WINSTON: All right, cool.
I, I just don't know, I don't want to be like out of frame or whatever...
But also not trying to just sit like... (laughs).
ALEX: Oh, dude, what if I showed up, I didn't know you'd be there, and I'm wearing a tuxedo.
(laughter).
ALEX: "Oh, I, I, I didn't know you were gonna...
I, I have something after this actually."
(laughs).
TIM: For me, I grew up in the church and I was always interested in being on stage and I thought I was funny.
And then I just, you know, I think what gave me the, I guess the balls to do it was I got out of the Army and then I was like, "What am I going to do with my life?"
And then I went to a comedy show and the dude up there was terrible and I was like... (claps).
"I remember now."
It's like, "I can do this now, I forgot."
RAHMEIN: Um, yeah, I mean, my family's boisterous.
Most of the house was like dominated by a Middle Eastern culture and whatever the stereotypes are, we're loud and we try, we talk over each other at dinner and...
So, most of my family is not, uh, not shy about like trying to be the one heard.
So, maybe that's some semblance of roots and like being part of a group wanting to, wanting to like be a, a part of a larger conversation.
SHELLEY: Yeah, I was, I was a shy kid.
I would just spend like Friday, Saturday nights in high school like watching "Comedy Central Presents" because I was really cool until I just really started to like stand-up.
My family is, I don't know if they're...
They're funny to me, but they're not particularly talkative which I, which I appreciate.
My brother was kind of good at everything and I'm like, "Well, he's not gonna have comedy."
So, I just took that.
MATTHEW: You know, just always been talking (bleep) my whole life, you know.
Getting in trouble in class, all that stuff.
ROSS: I think my introduction to humor was my way...
I wasn't very good in school, so to hide me not knowing what's going on, I always just tried to be funny.
BENNY: My older brother downloaded, uh, Dave Chappelle's first special that he did in D.C. at the, uh, Lincoln Theater and, uh, it was right from there.
After I saw that I was like, "Man, people can do this?"
And I was like, that's it.
LAFAYETTE: I didn't really grow up around a lot of like, we weren't really like comedians.
Like you know how they always ask comedians, they're like, "Oh, I bet your family was so funny."
No, we was like a bunch of edgelords.
So, I think you had like, you had to earn it.
And that's where, I think that might be where I got it from.
Or to the other people in the Uber Pool tell me to shut up, right?
(laughter).
LAFAYETTE: You got to do things like this, it's good for your brain.
Like I be in the basement, right?
I live in the basement.
I be like... (laughter).
Don't laugh you (bleep).
I be like... (laughter).
I be listening to Adele and, like, do y'all like Adele?
Do you?
Okay, here's your redemption, okay.
Of course, you're a White girl, you have to, um.
Adele is the best, you can't just like, I don't know, I haven't got through the whole new album yet 'cause you can't just listen to Adele at the gym, you know what I'm saying?
Adele is like, it's like a thing.
I got to make some salmon, you know what I'm saying?
Like... (laughter).
The crunchy green beans, tie my hair back.
It's a whole thing with her, but like you got to do things like this, it's good for your brain.
Like are y'all doing the therapy at all?
Is anybody going to the therapist?
(cheering).
LAFAYETTE: A couple of y'all, okay.
Hey, is it working out, sir?
MAN: Yeah!
LAFAYETTE: Okay, yeah, okay, "Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know.
Okay."
I quit, I stopped, okay?
'Cause she got mad at me, she got a attitude 'cause I didn't know this.
Okay, apparently when you go to the therapist you're not supposed to refer to them as, "Therapist."
They don't like that word, they prefer the term, "Exotic Dancer," and like... (laughter).
LAFAYETTE: It's like, "Whatever, Cinnamon, okay."
Like, "Take these ones and listen to my life, all right?"
RAHMEIN: You know, my Mt.
Rushmore?
Don Rickles, uh, Rodney Dangerfield, Dick Gregory.
TIM: I have the, before I started doing stand-up list and after I started doing stand-up list.
ALEX: Yeah, well it changed.
'Cause I had a list before I started and then once after you start you get into like the deeper stuff.
My Mt.
Rushmore now is probably; Dave Attell, Louis C.K., Norm Macdonald... How many people are on Rushmore?
I, uh...
It's four people!
Oh, wow, I thought...
They added a couple, I guess.
TIM: Before it was; Murphy, Pryor, Carlin, Jamie Foxx.
Now it's, you know; Chappelle, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Patrice O'Neal is probably one of my biggest like one of my favorite comedians.
ALEX: Uh, wait.
Dave Attell, Louis, Norm Macdonald, uh... (sighs).
Got to think of some diversity here.
Let's... (laughter).
ALEX: This is gonna get me canceled.
Hold on, let me think, um... Tom Myers and Patrice O'Neal.
(buzzes).
RAHMEIN: Well, Don Rickles, let's start there.
I've... (laughs).
On my best days people will say to me, "Oh, you're, you're the Iranian Don Rickles."
'Cause I love, I love a roast.
I try to stay endearing.
I think the best roast comics really have big hearts and I do.
I've cried on stage more than once, uh.
But, you know, I do, I love it.
I love finding a crowd and just tease, tease, tease, tease myself, tease everybody.
We just, you know, I mean, Don Rickles did a lot of that and there's a lot of compassion and empathy that can come through making fun of things that maybe the rest of the world take seriously and then we make light of it and hopefully that makes people relax on whatever it is they're being hurt by or that they're using to hurt people with.
And once we make it a joke, maybe, hopefully, it can take some of that pain away.
(laughter).
TIM: "Oh, no."
Shut up!
I didn't know.
So I had to learn how to date online in my 40s, which was tough.
I wouldn't suggest dating online for anybody but especially in your 40s.
I just felt a crazy... As a straight dude dating online, that's what you, you just feel like a creep most of the time.
Here's a subtle way that women were calling me creepy when I was dating online, right?
I would match with somebody, right, match and then we would talk for a little bit and I would go, "We... Do you wanna get together some time?"
"Oh, my God, let's get together!"
A hour before the date she would hit me with, "Hey, do you mind if I bring a friend with me on the date?"
Basically saying, "Hey, I think you might kill me."
(laughter).
"Do you mind if I bring my 100 pound friend to stop you from ending my life?"
That's the dumbest logic I have ever heard of, man.
You think I'm killing people online, you don't think I'll be able to dodge a little curve-ball of a friend?
(laughter).
TIM: I'll just kill you both.
What kind of friend are you to bring a friend on a date you think you might get killed on?
Like that... "Hey, girl, I think he might be dangerous, do you want to go?
'Cause..." That's what I learned dating online, women love adventure.
That's their favorite.
Adventure and, uh, traveling.
Traveling is... "I love to travel."
(laughter).
TIM: We also travel.
As Americans we also travel though, that's, that's, you know, 'cause... Just so we can hear what all these other countries are saying about us, 'cause... One big thing is we're all fat, that's a big thing.
"Oh, all, the Americans are so overweight, they are so fat."
I hate that one.
It's not our only problem.
(laughter).
TIM: We got a opioid epidemic.
WOMAN: Yes.
TIM: We do a lot of prescription drugs.
MAN: Yeah.
TIM: We can't take (bleep) on an empty stomach.
(laughter).
TIM: Sometimes I don't even laugh when I watch stand-up.
I just watch and go, "That was funny.
That was pretty good, right there.
I like how you did that and that."
And my, my girl will be like, "But you didn't... Like you, are you enjoying the show, you're not laughing?"
And I'm like, "Yeah, I love this.
This is..." Well, she, she doesn't see it that way.
If she don't laugh, she don't like the show.
If I don't laugh, I'm like, "No, but you don't see what they doing though."
RAHMEIN: It's not like any other art form, right?
Like, we draw from everything, uh, and once you're in that consciousness and you're trying to create, you are obsessed with it, everywhere you go; "Is that funny?
Could that be funny?
Is that billboard funny?
Is that fly funny?
Is this camera funny?
Is that hat funny?
Is anything funny?"
Um, we, we get a little bit obsessed over it, um.
And at the end of the day, it just matters what they laugh at on stage.
We'll throw anything up there during an open mic and if there's even a titter, we'll take a note and I'm like, "Okay, maybe there's something in there."
MADDY: Basically I'll just be thinking about something and I'll start laughing, and then I'll get like obsessed with that saying that I thought, and then I'll write it down, and then eventually I'll try it on stage, and sometimes it won't go well, uh.
Sometimes it goes great and, uh, then you kind of, I kind of build it up from there.
ALEX: Structural things that I think about, especially when writing is; so you have a premise, that's the foundation of the house, you need that, you can't just say a punch line.
So, you need the, the foundation, and then the punch line comes, and then there are tags afterwards, which kind of just wrap up the joke.
That way it doesn't just come to like an abrupt halt.
It's like, the tags kind of like slow down the car, just adds a couple more little punches.
But yeah, setup, punch line, tags, are kind of the way to go.
TIM: You're supposed to write and all that.
I don't write anything.
LAFAYETTE: I'm Jay-Z, I don't write anything down.
RAHMEIN: A lot of people call me the Jay-Z of comedy after they call me the Iranian Don Rickles.
I process a lot in my mind and on the stage.
LAFAYETTE: I actually am like that but it's not 'cause I'm Jay-Z, it's 'cause I'm Lay-Z.
That's what it is, I don't like write (bleep).
But I need to 'cause I lose a lot.
TIM: I, I started, when I first started doing stand-up I would write everything out like, word for word.
And then I would go on stage and then recite it, right?
That's not a performance, that's not a stand-up performance, I'm just reciting something.
So, what I started doing was just kind of thinking of something funny, and if it made me laugh to, like to myself, then I'm like, "I know that's funny."
But what I try to do is like craft it.
So, I'll come up with something funny, I'll say it and then I'll like say it to the audience, and then if they laugh, then I can take it back and go, "Okay, now I can work on it and, and, you know, make it into like a, a specific bit," is what they call a longer group of jokes about a particular thing.
RAHMEIN: A lot of this deal is delivery.
I liken it quite a bit to music when I, uh...
I coach stand-up and I always tell people it's gotta be a rhythm, you gotta watch the rhythm, it's, you know, whether it's Jazz or it's a orchestra that you like to play, whatever it is the, the, the rhythm of the words have to be just so that the human mind's reaction is laughter.
And if you miss a beat or you, uh, put in a, a, a strange beat, if you don't somehow correct it with the things you do next, it'll flop.
So much is about rhythm, so much.
I mean, we have this thing called, Rule of three, it's not really a rule but it does speak to the fact that, uh, a lot of comedy is music.
It's such a common sort of baseline, uh, suggestion that, um, that people will have or it's a, it's a rhythm that people lean on to sort of take what might've been an okay joke and turned it into a funnier punch line.
You know, it's just a one, a two, and a three!
And most of the time the funniest thing is the third or, you know, the only funny thing is the third.
But I don't like to act like it's the key to being funny.
It's not like you can take somebody who was never funny in the first place and be like, "Apply the rule of three."
And all of the sudden they're Dave Chappelle, like, it's not like that.
It's a, it's a trick, it's a basic foundational trick to make humans think that you're saying something funny in the end, based on delivery.
No matter, kind of no matter what the three words are, I could be like, "Carrots, celery, and broccoli!"
And you guys are like, "I get it, broccoli!"
But you don't it's just the rhythm that I said it in.
It's like, comics love crowds like you, thank you for being here, uh.
Give it up for my buddies you've already heard tonight.
Some very good comedians.
(cheering).
RAHMEIN: Yeah, uh, let's see.
Let's start...
I'll, I'll come off with what Tim... By the way, I've known Tim, he said he was 40?
I think, Tim.
What?
(overlapping chatter).
RAHMEIN: No, he said 40, Tim?
TIM: 44, 44.
RAHMEIN: You're 44?
... Christ.
I, I've known Tim 12 years, which means I've known you since you were 32?
TIM: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
RAHMEIN: And he's always looked like that, by the way.
Not, not one, one change, not one gray hair, that piece of (bleep).
(laughter).
RAHMEIN: Comedy baby.
This is what we get to do, this is what we get to do.
Timmy was talking about online dating, I did the same thing.
I, I agree with him, it's difficult in your 40s and my, my bio ended up being one word 'cause young folks, you guys like to write long essays about yourself, bunch of emojis splattered all over the place.
The older you get the shorter your bio becomes.
My bio, one word, all caps, just says, "VASECTOMY."
That's what I want you to know.
And then I throw emojis in there too, right, but it's like a eggplant, and a water splat, and a pair of scissors.
Just so you understand that it's done.
I got... Emojis though, they attract younger women and I can't date... Not that you...
I can't date younger women, not that they'd date me, I'm not saying that.
I'm saying I can't date them 'cause they still have, uh, uh, hopes and dreams, and I don't want to act like you're gonna make it in whatever it is you're focused on, you know.
You guys are always like, "I'm gonna be a marine biologist."
And I'm like, "Okay!"
Like you're not... You're not, you're not.
You're not.
No-one's ever been a marine biologist, that was a trick and you got that dolphin tattoo for nothing.
So, maybe give up.
We gotta pay the rent!
You know what I mean?
How about assistant manager to Petco, does that sound good maybe?
All this dream chasing is exhausting.
SEAN: I think when I started out booking these shows, basically I was a comic and then I was kind of, you know, I was used to going to the shows and I was friends with a lot of comics and, uh, we performed together all the time.
And so, it was kind of like that same group of people, they just started performing on my shows.
They were already kind of existed and then, uh, cultivating it over a time.
I mean, I definitely put an emphasis on diversity, um, just because I think that that makes for the best shows, personally, uh.
It's my preference for the kind of show that I like to watch.
Not that I want to necessarily hear about, like I'm not necessarily like eager to hear about social issues specifically, but I do like to hear from different types of people and I think it's a more interesting show.
D.C. is a very unique place for comedy and I think it's a excellent place for comedy because it's a mixture of a lot of things.
I mean, it obviously has like a very historic and large like Black population, and then there's a transfer population that has come in, and people that are like come to like work in government, or work in these non-profits, and then you have all, a huge international community also.
They're very distinct groups, um, and so it's cool when they can, uh, all come to a comedy show and then everyone can, uh, enjoy the show, the same show, um.
So, that's like kind of my goal.
DAVID: I'ma, I'ma start off with this though.
Anybody a child of immigrant, make some noise if you're a child of immigrant, make some noise if you're a child... (cheering).
DAVID: There we go, okay cool.
So, we have trauma on this section, okay cool.
(laughter).
DAVID: Dude, I have a African father, right, which means I'm a survivor, honestly.
Yeah, bro 'cause, bro 'cause African fathers are stubborn as (bleep), really stubborn.
Like if my father was White, he would be a Trump supporter.
You know how I know this?
He's a Trump supporter right now, that's... (laughter).
That's, that's how I know.
Yeah, my father was like, "David, we need to make America great again."
(laughter).
DAVID: And I was like, "Dad, we don't have plates in our house," like... (laughter).
DAVID: "We need to make our house great first, Dad."
I'm not saying my father's at the capitol riots but he did drop somebody off, he did.
(laughter).
DAVID: He does Uber, he's an Uber driver, you know.
Hell yeah.
PRINCE: Also like, when I'm drunk, I get really emotional, uh.
Like I was on a date once and I got really drunk and I started unloading all of my childhood trauma on this woman.
I was like, "Oh, my family lives in India and I really miss them."
And she goes, "Oh, I live in Washington, D.C., and my family lives in Baltimore.
So, I understand what you are talking about."
(laughter).
PRINCE: I was like, "What?
What did you say?
That must be so hard on you."
I'm in therapy and I've learned a lot of fancy terms through therapy like; trauma, attachment, gratitude, uh...
Gratitude is so (bleep), uh... (laughter).
PRINCE: Now I wake up sad every day and, "Oh, I'm grateful for not flying Spirit on my last vacation."
(laughter).
PRINCE: "I'm grateful for having Netflix, Prime, Hulu, and Apple TV.
Crushing it, dude."
SHELLEY: My, my first therapist wasn't very good at like, in college I had her, and I was tell, talking to her about how I was doing and she was like, "You know, that kind of reminds me of the book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.
"Which the clinical term for saying something like that is, racist, and like I... (laughter).
Deep down I hope she's not like racially profiling me, she's a dork making random references like, even to like her White female patients she's like, "Colleen, that sounds really hard, you know what that reminds me of, Goku from Dragon Ball Z!
Yeah, woo!"
Like, "Oh, no I wouldn't be depressed forever!"
You know, like I... DOM: My son loves animated (bleep).
Man, we got into an argument one time, I was like, "You gonna sit on my couch and watch anime cartoons all damn day long?"
And he was like, "Don't get mad 'cause you don't understand the meaning of anime, dad."
(laughter).
DOM: And I was like, "Yes I do.
Anime means, "I have no friends," in Japanese."
(laughter).
(laughs).
TIM: Yeah.
Oh, man.
Bombing is the best worst part of stand-up.
(laughter).
RAHMEIN: I'm 12 years in now and I have for sure bombed.
SHELLEY: I've never bombed.
No, I'm kidding.
(laughs).
DAVID: That's a good question, uh.
When do you realize you're bombing?
I mean, you realize you're bombing when they just like not laughing.
SHELLEY: You know you're bombing when the stuff that's usually hits, just isn't.
DOM: Bombing, you know immediately because you get warm inside.
Like you know... (laughs).
Can we cuss?
TIM: When you bomb you learn.
It's like getting punched in boxing, boxers aren't afraid to get punched, they just go, "Dang, I got hit.
I did something wrong."
DOM: Bombing a lot of times too, is over confidence, like you swore this (bleep) was gonna work, and then you get up there, and you look in that persons eyes right in front of you, and you know you died on stage, and you can't run from it.
Like it, it's just once you lock in, it's a terrible feeling, it, it, it really...
But, it will fuel you to come back and try it again and that's what it did for me.
And it happens all the time.
WINSTON: Yeah, it's all of those things.
It's inevitable, I bomb a lot.
(laughs).
It just happens, you got to like, you have to like deal with it 'cause if you're never bombing, I, like I'd believe you're not getting better.
It means you're not trying stuff out.
And then sometimes, man, people say you can't say crowds are bad but like, man, sometimes crowds are bad, so you just got to bomb.
LAFAYETTE: At this point, old veteran ass, I don't care about, I don't, I don't care.
I guess that's how my powers work, I'm better when I'm like indifferent.
ALEX: She's a teacher, my girlfriends a... Any other teacher's in here?
WOMAN: Woo!
ALEX: Okay, nice.
I was... WOMAN: Oh, my God.
ALEX: Who you?
WOMAN: Yeah, me.
ALEX: You're a teacher?
Oh, I expected you to raise your hand not, "Woo."
Uh, no, just kidding.
They do that, I don't know if you guys have been to school, they're a big hand raise community.
What do you teach?
WOMAN: English.
ALEX: English, very nice.
WINSTON: You a big serial killer documentary fan, anybody?
Am I the only guy on Earth, why do you think Netflix keeps making them?
They're unbelievable.
I only started watching them 'cause I got tired of all my Black friends telling me White people don't have culture and, um... (laughter).
WINSTON: And we do, it's serial killing, that's what it is.
STEVEN: You ever buy eggs?
Like a lot, like too many eggs, like the most eggs you can carry?
And you're walking around, you can't even see but you come out the store and you go, "That's a four-way stop, everyone obeys the law."
You step out on the street, you get hit by a car, you're flying through the air.
(laughter).
Eggs going everywhere, people laughing at you.
You ever?
Okay.
(laughter).
You ever drive car, you're driving... Drive car and, and you're driving your car, maybe get distracted and you drop your phone, so by the time you look up you see a guy and you're like, "That's a lot of eggs."
(laughter).
And you hit him and he goes flying.
And you... (laughter).
Well, I don't know.
I want to, I want to connect.
I have to go, you guys...
Anyone drink coffee?
(laughter).
STEVEN: Yeah, okay.
You ever go to a cafe to have a coffee, you're sitting, beautiful day, looking out on the street and you go, "It's such a beautiful day, I love coffee, you know."
And then you see this guy and you go, "That's a lot of eggs."
(laughter).
STEVEN: And you see a car and you're like, "I don't think that car is slowing down."
And it hits him, you know that.
(laughter).
STEVEN: Do you ever used Google Maps?
You ever Google, Google Maps, you go 18th and Corcoran and you want to see where you're going and so you go street-view and you see a guy in the middle of the air and little things around him.
And you go, "What's that, eggs?"
(laughter).
(applause).
TIM: It's nonsense.
Nobody, nobody really cares that much.
Everybody, they're all trying to be self-righteous, you know.
I don't think, I don't think it's real.
I think it's, I just think people just going through something and they try to put it on you because you're there talking on stage.
DOM: Oh, no, that's (bleep).
I mean, you just have consequences for saying some real (bleep).
And you just have to know that.
I don't believe in like the cancel culture and all that because if that was the case, then why are all these people who are getting canceled much more famous than I am right now?
ALEX: So, all right.
So, I think cancel culture, it can make comics have to try harder and then the, that process be better.
But I don't think any comic is getting worse because of cancel culture and it's like, this is not real.
Dave Chappelle now, you're on the largest platform in the entire world, you're worth hundreds of millions of dollars, you're not canceled.
STEVEN: I've never been too concerned with cancel culture 'cause lots of my, I mainly focus on making myself the butt of the jokes or absurdities of larger things, um, and I don't really attack or address things that are controversial.
But also, I don't punch down and rarely punch up.
WINSTON: I wouldn't necessarily say that like I'm anti-cancel culture.
But it's like, I am pro-consequences if you do something really messed up.
I just don't necessarily know if we're punishing people the right way.
RAHMEIN: There are comics that can stay clean and let's say they offend nobody, that's cool.
But a lot of comics, uh, like to push it at least a little bit in one direction or another.
And if you're in a room of just White people, or just Black people, or just Hispanic, it's like then you kind of feel like you're making fun of people behind their back.
And that's not, that's bullying.
You want to be in a crowd where everybody gets it, there's a tremendous, uh, a diverse mixture of people out in that crowd who are all laughing together.
It's kind of the perfect world, it's like it's kind of the key to world peace, is making everybody laugh together, you know what I'm saying?
Could you imagine be, being at war with people that you think are funny?
Being at war with people that you've laughed with in a room?
Not without feeling horrible about it, not without feeling, you know, just like, "Man, maybe not.
Like I've seen these people be human beings."
Laughter is so human, it's so bonding, you know, uh.
So, when we're in a room being able to mix it up, it's fantastic.
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