Adam Carolla Show: Jiaoying Summers Talks Kevin Costner, Government Checks & One Night Stands

Episode Date: November 18, 2025
Guest: Jiaoying Summers
News with: Jason "Mayhem" Miller

Episode Overview

This raucous and wide-ranging episode of The Adam Carolla Show features comedian Jiaoying Summers, blending her sharp wit with Adam’s irreverent humor. The episode weaves through topics like cultural stereotypes, TV commercial oddities, pop culture history, government handouts, dating dynamics, one-night stands, and critiques on societal trends. Alongside Adam's signature rants, there’s lively banter about hash browns, commercial wardrobe fails, and the baffling legacy of Japanese pop phenom "Pink Lady." The "news" segment with Mayhem Miller brings in current events, generating even more unsparing commentary.

Key Discussion Points & Memorable Moments

1. Cultural Melting Pot & Stereotype Banter

• Jiaoying opens with her comedic bit about "What Species Are You?"

  • She jokes about trying to find out "the different species of humans so I can be racist against them." (03:49)
  • Adam riffs on "a little bit of Native American is like paprika, a spice—you can’t have too much," using culinary metaphors to satirize diversity and identity claims. (04:25)

• On leveraging identity for benefits:

  • Adam recounts a friend's son whose Native American heritage scores monthly casino checks, sparking commentary on the effects of "free money" in communities—“Sitting home waiting for a check fucks people up. Well, it fucks up bears and it fucks up people, and it fucks up all... God’s creatures.” (08:18)

• Jiaoying discusses her streaming success:

  • Claims to be "the second Chinese Disney princess after Mulan," with her special out on Hulu and Disney+, riffing on gender expectations: “I’m already a man, so very excited.” (08:49)

2. Adam’s Commercials Obsession & The Billy Bob Thornton CGI Hat Conspiracy

• Adam’s peculiar hobby:

  • “Nobody else studies TV commercials. I do... that’s where all the information about your society is right now. It’s a timestamp.” (09:03)
  • Adam and the crew discuss the inconsistencies and subtle messaging embedded in contemporary commercials.

• Deep dive into the Billy Bob Thornton T-Mobile commercials:

  • Adam notices odd changes: “First he’s got the Liz Warren hair... then the next commercial, he’s wearing a black baseball hat... but it looks like it was put on in post. It's a CGI hat, Dawson. It’s a CGI hat.” (17:03)
  • Debate about why the commercials aren’t online and the likely wardrobe mishaps.
  • Jiaoying cracks: “It’s even more embarrassing. He gets to commit to the lesbian hair. Just be like, I support a trans community.” (30:07)
  • Adam: “I blew the lid off his lid.” (30:06)

Notable Quotes:

• Adam: “When you insist that somebody put a hat on you, it’s called a behat.” (18:01)
• Jiaoying (deadpan): “It’s a hijab.” (17:17)

3. Pop Culture Deep Cuts: “Pink Lady” and Comedy Misfires

• Adam and Jiaoying dissect the baffling American launch of “Pink Lady & Jeff”:
  • Adam narrates the story of two Japanese pop stars with no English paired with an unfunny American comedian in a failed variety show. (53:03)
  • Both riff on how executives’ drug-fueled decision-making led to TV disasters: “All people did was coke.” (55:02)
  • Discussion on cultural translation, naming conventions, and how Chinese audiences create nicknames for Western celebrities:
    • “We call Taylor Swift Strawberry. We don’t know why,” says Jiaoying. (66:42)
    • Adam: “What would Michael Jackson be?”
      Jiaoying: “Keep your son away from him.” (66:59)

Notable Exchange:

• Jiaoying on K-Pop aesthetics: “A Japanese-American pedophile shaped the beauty standard of Asian men.” (57:56)
• Adam: “While that was a horrific tale—still funnier than Jeff Altman’s monologue.” (58:07)

4. Hash Browns, Tater Tots & American Breakfast Rants

• Adam launches into an epic hash brown lament:

  • He rails against high-end restaurants’ refusal to serve classic hash browns, replaced by "new potatoes," "hard shiny pucks," or tater tots:
    • “You must have hash browns first, and then you can have the other ones.” (34:43)
    • “All tater tots are a bunch of little, mini hard hash browns—made for children and poor people, and people that are 100% American Indian.” (34:52)
  • Jiaoying: “What did the hash brown do? Because the name—brown?” (37:56)
  • Extended riff about snobbery, breakfast culture, and the decline of proper diner food.

• Impulsive song creation:

  • Adam and the crew compose and read aloud an AI-generated "Hash Brown Blues," complete with classic lone drifter Americana imagery. (50:14, 51:32)

Memorable Lyric:

“I want hash browns, the real kind, flat and sizzling on the grill... just those diner style shreds that bring tears to my eyes.” (50:14)

5. Jiaoying’s One-Night Stand-Turned-Romance

• Recounting a modern romance:
  • Jiaoying details her "one night stand" at the Four Seasons in Austin, planned with clinical precision:
    • “I wasn’t going to have sex with him—not because I’m not a hoe—it’s because I cannot afford to have a one night stand… Because as a Chinese woman... we don’t have a sex talk. When I had my period, I was watching Chinese palace shows…” (42:00)
  • Her mother’s superstitions and discipline regarding sex.
  • The saga of Uber Eats-ing condoms and accidental romance—ending in a proposal and children.
  • Adam: “Good for you! ... the story is not over yet.” (45:36–45:44)

6. "The News" with Jason Mayhem Miller: Social & Political Hot Takes

Main Topics:

• Bill Maher vs. Patton Oswalt:

  • Adam lampoons the modern left’s “club” mentality, where “the rules slowly get crazier and you have to defend what’s nuts.” (75:35)
  • “They gotta deal with being wrong about everything, which has gotta be tough.” (73:58)

• Epstein Files:

  • "If there was something in that file [about Trump], and they had the file… we would know it by now.” (80:47)
  • Jiaoying: “I expect a little suicide after that.” (81:12)

• Bill Ackman’s ‘May I Meet You’ Dating Advice

  • Adam: “If you’re George Clooney, then it’s good. If you’re the creepy guy, that’s bad.” (84:16)
  • Jiaoying: “It’s a billionaire move. It's only reserved to billionaires.” (84:33)
  • Adam’s story of being shot down at a bar: “She looked up at me and she said, Why?... That’s when I realized not to try to talk to people that were good-looking in an environment like that.” (85:43)

• Amy Schumer & Body Positivity:

  • Jiaoying: “You were fat, and that made you who you are. Now she’s skinny, and she’s literally a size four, I think… Her tracks are too big to cover.” (89:34)
  • Adam: “Every woman wants to be thin and beautiful. Yes, they all do, and the ones that say they don’t are lying.” (89:42)
  • Discourse on the hypocrisy of body positivity, celebrity makeovers, and societal double standards.

Pop Culture Detours & Running Gags

• Several detours on Vietnam, music history, and cultural references (Freebird, Creedence, Hanoi Hannah), with mock dramatic radio play performed by the crew (95:42–97:35).
• Adam riffs on breakfast as social commentary throughout, culminating in multiple callbacks and original songwriting.
• Call to Jiaoying's mom to see if she remembers Pink Lady; she does not, but the translation quirks and family dynamic are richly mined (63:55–66:09).

Notable Quotes

| Time | Speaker | Quote | |----------|-----------------------|-------| | 04:25 | Adam Carolla | “Let me tell you my take on the Native Americans. Yeah, they’re like Paprika, the spice—a little bit is good, but you can’t dump the whole thing in.” | | 08:18 | Adam Carolla | “Sitting home waiting for a check fucks people up. Well, it fucks up bears and it fucks up people, and it fucks up all... God’s creatures.” | | 17:03 | Adam Carolla | “It’s a CGI hat, Dawson. It’s a CGI hat.” | | 18:01 | Adam Carolla | “When you insist that somebody put a hat on you, it’s called a behat.” | | 30:07 | Jiaoying Summers | “It’s even more embarrassing. He gets to commit to the lesbian hair. Just be like, I support a trans community.” | | 37:56 | Jiaoying Summers | “What did the hash brown do? Because the name—brown?” | | 53:03 | Adam Carolla | “Let’s take these two unfunny chicks who don’t speak English and put them with an unfunny stand-up comedian and we’ll make a variety show called Pink Lady and Jeff.” | | 58:07 | Adam Carolla | “While that was a horrific tale—still funnier than Jeff Altman’s monologue.” | | 66:59 | Jiaoying Summers | “[What would Michael Jackson be called?]—Keep your son away from him. I don’t know.” |

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:29–09:00: Cultural identity, Native American heritage, and government checks
• 09:00–23:13: Commercials, Billy Bob Thornton’s hat, and advertising oddities
• 34:43–41:02: Hash browns vs. tater tots, breakfast culture rant, and "Hash Brown Blues" song
• 42:00–45:44: Jiaoying’s one-night stand-turned-relationship story
• 53:03–66:09: Deep dive into Pink Lady/Japanese pop culture and cross-cultural translation
• 73:00–79:22: News: Bill Maher & Patton Oswalt, leftward shifts, and how clubs get weird
• 80:30–82:51: Epstein files and American scandals
• 83:11–86:17: Bill Ackman’s dating advice, unintended consequences
• 88:35–93:47: Amy Schumer, body positivity, slimming drugs, and celebrity transformations

Tone & Style

Adam Carolla’s show is raw, direct, and often caustically funny. Jiaoying Summers matches the irreverence with her razor-sharp deadpan and cross-cultural insights. Expect banter, playful tension, and boundary-pushing humor throughout.

Useful for Listeners Who Missed the Episode

• Major topics are tackled at length—from Native American casino checks to the aesthetics of hash browns, behind-the-scenes ad production, discarded pop acts, and societal double standards.
• Sharp commentary on the quirks and hypocrisies of American life, media, and politics, as filtered through Adam and Jiaoying’s contrasting (but highly compatible) perspectives.
• Quotes and song lyrics capture the comedic high points, and timestamps let listeners jump to favorite rants or stories.