← Great Company with Jamie Laing
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- [00:01]
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Farnoosh Torabi
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- [01:06]
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- [02:07]
Jamie Lang
I'm Jamie Lang and this is Great Moments. Hey guys, welcome back to our Great Moments. Who do we have today? We have Munya Chihuahua. Munya is the satirist and social media creator behind some of the sharpest and funniest social media content out there. He's a genius. He's the best. We also did Gogglebox together. So if you saw Gogglebox, you'd see us Doing that together. Now, in this great moment, we chat about how comedy can be one of the most powerful forms of communication. He certainly proves that. And how humor helps us tackle difficult topics, challenge politics, question the society we live in, all those kind of things. It's a great episode and we hope you like it. And if you really like this little great moment, you can click on the full episode, which is in the show description. Just click on the link. Okay, you ready? Here we go. Enjoy this great moments with Munya Chihuahua. Do you know what's so amazing about your careers? You leave Sheffield studying psychology, you decide that you want to go into this industry and. But you were told unless you had 30,000 followers, you probably wouldn't get an agent. So you went, right, I'm going to go and post a video twice a week on my social media. So you made a video twice a week. I think it was four years or something until one of them really popped off.
- [03:27]
Munya Chihuahua
Yes. So, first of all, to get in that room, I would lie to agents saying that I was Idris Alba's son. In the email. In the email. And then often times, either they would figure out it was a joke and go, okay, you got me. Like, this is quite interesting. Come in, I want to meet you. Or they'll be like, you know, they would believe I was his son. So I get in there on this one occasion and they're like, look, we really liked your email. It was very smart, what you did. Watch your show. Real. It was good. You got, you know, you've got charisma, you got what it takes. But how many followers you have. And I was like, I don't know, like 2,000? They went, no, no. If you had 30, 000 followers, maybe we would have connected you to someone in the digital team. So I mentioned this because it's a very important. It's very important within the dissection of what the term influencer means, for example. Right. I slightly have beef with the term because I think in many cases it disguises a person's actual talent or skill. Right. This is less in reference to me. It's more in terms of my peers, even.
- [04:27]
Jamie Lang
What do you mean by that?
- [04:28]
Munya Chihuahua
So what I mean by it is this in press, you know, so, okay, so thus far in, when I have been reviewed in the press or whatever, oftentimes journalists will steer away from calling me a comedian or a satirist, even though that's predominantly what I do. You know, I've been called a YouTuber despite the fact that I rarely put anything on YouTuber. On YouTube. When I went on Bake off, they described me as a podcaster. I don't even have a podcast, Jamie.
- [04:52]
Jamie Lang
You know how mad that is?
- [04:54]
Munya Chihuahua
I don't even have a podcast.
- [04:57]
Jamie Lang
Is that what they said?
- [04:58]
Munya Chihuahua
I've been called a Com. You know, I've been called a rapper even. Even though, you know, rap is sometimes what I do within my satire. And I think, okay. And of course, I've been called an influencer, which is interesting to me. Influencer, in people's minds is somebody whose only skill is being popular. Right? That's what the term is used to imply. It's like, oh, if you're just a popular person. However, to gain popularity, especially now, surely requires oftentimes some sort of skill to be amazing at cooking or music or dancing or something to actually entice an audience to go, oh, my God, that's amazing. I want to. I want to invest in that. I want to follow in that. And so, you know what, really. What we're really talking about is what does a person do beneath the label of influencer that we are not calling them? So, you know, for example, there's a. There's a girl called, I think, Poppy Cooks who, you know, her specialism is recipes involving potatoes. And she is sick. She could do a million and one things. Yeah, but people call an influencer. She's a chef. She was a chef before she was making potatoes as well. She's a chef now. Call her a chef. Ditto with a musician, ditto with a dancer, with whatever. Just because oftentimes the only reason people want followers is so that they are then afforded the opportunities to do the things they want to do. The only thing that ever made me want followers is an agent saying, you can't present until you have followers. If she said to me in that moment, you can present, I would have done it without followers. Do you see what I'm saying? The only thing that gave me a desire to be popular is being told it is a prerequisite to do the thing you want to do and love to do. So the term is slightly reductionist in that it actually buries the talent that somebody has used to acquire their audience. And also, you know, we have to say that if anyone had. If someone said to you, I'm going to do a show in a minute and there's going to be 10,000 people there, you'd be like, bloody hell. Like, who are you? That's incredible. Those are the kind of numbers that people are building every day behind, you know, Their talent. And so it's worth actually giving it its dues and saying, cool. What. What is it you do? And I want to acknowledge you for that. Does that make sense?
- [06:59]
Jamie Lang
Yeah, it makes total sense. But again, goes back to that same sort of thing that we like to put people in some sort of box because it's easier for us to articulate it then. You know, you are a community, and your videos are so smart. When I first did Radio 1, I don't think you even know this, but I can't wait to tell you in Radio 1 because it's a very live show. As you know, it's every day. People are constantly thinking on their toes of what to talk and what to do. The producer at the time would say, right, let's go and check out Munoz Social media. He'll tell us what's going on. He's like, guys. So they would go and check out what you were talking about.
- [07:28]
Munya Chihuahua
Right, right.
- [07:29]
Jamie Lang
To use that kind of vibe to help with what kind of conversations we should have in Radio 1.
- [07:34]
Munya Chihuahua
That's crazy.
- [07:34]
Jamie Lang
Without you realizing, I think you're influencing so many people on because you're spreading information in an entertaining way, which is actually what people really want to engage with. That's why podcasting is quite a good thing if you can make it entertaining and informational at the same time. You kind of got this great blend of something going on, and that's what you do so well. How long does it take you to write and create and direct those videos?
- [07:56]
Munya Chihuahua
Well, first of all, you know, I really appreciate the compliment, you know, especially it. You know, I really appreciate it. And also, when I meet people and they say, you know, they say to me, look, I know you don't want to hear this, but I think your videos. I always am so grateful for anyone who watches a video because, you know, it's just. You know, it's just my dream. So I. I take every compliment at face value, full value. So I appreciate that in terms of how long it takes me to make a video. Some days you just wake up and you just know. You know, you just know exactly. The. The idea just carries you straight to where it wants to go, and you. And you execute it, and it's just seamless. Other days, you really have to wrestle with ideas. You know, they will torment you and they will torture you. What's also really interesting to me, or what I value most about creating satire, is sometimes I go on a streak of videos where they're not really related to anything, you know, that it might Be about what happens when you skip leg day or what ever. And it's like, just fun. And I remember, oh, my God, you can make things just because they're fun and like, there's no consequence to you, there's no danger. But that doesn't really bring me satisfaction if I do it long term. I like to do something that really holds up a mirror and makes people ask about us as a society. For instance, two videos which, you know, had real discourse in the comments and to a degree, not even, well, for some people, backlash. But one I made about Andrew Tate, right, this is really early on in his conception where I just knew this is not a good man, he's not a good person. And I did a video expressing a search via the medium of the Andrew Tate Modern. I think it was like this fake museum I'd invented. And, you know, people were like, I, I loved you up until now, but Andrew's spreading a good message. This is before all the human trafficking investigations.
- [09:46]
Jamie Lang
It was that thick in the comments like that.
- [09:48]
Munya Chihuahua
That's what people were saying. They were like, you know, this is how, you know, I've sold out to the Western media or whatever. I'm thinking, bro, can't it about Western media. I can't even get into Soho House. What you want about your nutcase, Right? Then similarly with the. I made a video very recently about, you know, Russell Brandon and what felt like to me a convenient conversion in the face of some very serious allegations. And, you know, lo and behold, in the comments, it was like, you know, people were getting into it and fighting each other and stuff, talking about whether, you know, religion should be used as, like a veil and all of these kind of things. And in those situations, my job is not to go and slog it out in the comments section. I'm just providing a stimulus upon which to have a conversation. And that is very valuable to me. It's, it's, it's encouraging us to think about these kind of things, you know, it's encouraging us to discuss some of the institutions which previously we have just been told, you know, just allow them to exist and don't ask any questions. I want people to ask questions. I want people to ask questions about politics and to question their beliefs and what they stand for, because ultimately, through discourse, you'll either change them or you'll strengthen them. And I think that's to the benefit of society. So I like to provoke conversation more than I like to be popular, if that makes sense.
- [11:03]
Jamie Lang
If you were to do this kind of satire and These kind of things on. I don't know, let's SNL or you kind of separate it. Oh, SNL are going to get the sort of comments, not you as the comedian or individual. Is SNL because it's on your own personal page, it's about you. So there has to be a slight combination between, okay, I've got this big following. Am I worried now I'm going to alienate some people? Because then maybe people stop liking me. But also I want to produce content that, that sparks this conversation and I want to do stuff that I think is right. So it must be a hard kind of road to follow.
- [11:38]
Munya Chihuahua
There's a very good point about the SNL thing. You know, maybe I would, if there was an SNL here, maybe I would have never started to make my own things. But in relation to what you're saying, if I make a video and people unfollow me because they don't like what I am, you know, what I'm, the message I'm putting in the video, There's a few things to consider. First of all, as a innate psychologist and also as a satirist, what I believe my role is, is to often reflect how we are feeling together, how we are, how most of us are feeling. Same way as a political cartoonist will often do. You know, I love Ben Jennings, who, you know, if you've not seen him, you can check him out. He's like, sort similar age to me. He does really bang on the money political cartoons. And his job is even harder than mine because he needs to, in a single image, capture everything. And I just think he's, he's, he's just totally incredible. But I'm, I'm, I'm studying constantly how people feel before I load up the bow and arrow, right? So when I take the shot, I already know, by and large, I'm trying to encapsulate how many people are feeling right as opposed to just putting out something that I know is going to alienate people, if that makes sense. So that's the first thing. Number two, I check every video and I send to my manager and I send to the same group of friends to, number one, ask, is this funny? Number two, is this, you know, is this inoffensive? And when I say inoffensive, what I mean is I don't want to, I don't want to hurt anyone. I'm not a malicious person. It's not in my interest to cause any form of harm to anyone. And I care more about not harming people. Then I do being liked, if that makes sense, and that that translates as, I could have a video that I think is hilarious, and I don't care if people hurt by it, and I just put it out. I'm never going to do that. I'm always going to check first. That's the second layer of defense. Thirdly, if a video goes out and someone goes, look, I'm going to follow you because I don't like what you're saying about Rishi Sunak, and I don't like what you're saying about Russell Brand, and I really like Andrew Tate. That's fine. I don't. I'm. I'm not in a race to become the most followed person. All I want to do is leave a body of work that was challenging and that meant something and that inspired some sort of change. That's all that matters to me.
- [13:45]
Jamie Lang
Do you think human satire is a good vehicle to land a message?
- [13:50]
Munya Chihuahua
Of course. It's like the. This phrase. I think I must have invented it by now. It's like putting the medicine in the lasagna, right? If. If I said, do you want lasagna? 9 out of 10 people in this room, bar, the psychopaths would say, yes, right? So if I need you to eat lasagna, if I. If you're a kid and I need to eat a medicine or vitamins, whatever, I'm just going to put it in the lasagna. This is a Trojan horse, some people might refer to it as. But if you want people to.
- [14:17]
Jamie Lang
Very good analogy.
- [14:18]
Munya Chihuahua
If you want people to understand something. Humor is a language we all speak and enjoy speaking, right? And that's why in something as intensive as, you know, a documentary about North Korea and Kim Jong Un, which are extremely ominous topics, you're talking about people, you know, depressed, under, suppressed, under a dictatorship, somebody who could literally end the world with the press of a button. I have to put sketches and songs in there because otherwise, why was a British person scrolling their TV Guide, if they even watch tv, gonna go, let me watch a documentary about a group of people who are having a much harder life than I am. How do you get them to care? How do you get a person to care who has everything? So it's like, cool. If I can communicate through song and through satire and make you laugh, hopefully through that you will absorb some of the other messages. So in my own experience, comedy is a great communicator.
- [15:26]
Farnoosh Torabi
Hi, this is Farnoosh Tarabi from Sew Money with Farnoosh Tarabi. And today I want to talk to you about Boost Bubble Quick Money Tips Stop paying a carrier tax if your phone bill feels trapped in a pricey plan, this is your sign to unlock savings. Boost Mobile helps you reset your spending with the $25 Unlimited Forever plan. You can bring your own phone, pay $25 and get unlimited wireless forever. And that simple switch can unlock up to $600 in savings a year. That's money you could put towards paying down debt, investing or something that actually brings you joy. Those savings are based on average annual single line payment of AT and T, Verizon and T Mobile customers, compared to 12 months on the Boost Mobile Unlimited plan as of January 2026. For full offer details, visit boostmobile.com there's
- [16:17]
GNC Advertiser
one place for the newest drops in wellness and performance and the biggest sale of the year. It's the Drop by gnc, curating the best of what's new, handpicked by the pros who know what works and right now, get it all. Buy one, get one 50% off during the semi annual LiveWell Sal. From crushing workouts to leveling up your nutrition and everything in between, get the best deals on the latest innovations. All the newness is all on sale right now during the LiveWell sale on the drop by GNC.
- [16:47]
Workday AI Advertiser
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