Charlie Kirk (3:01)

Yeah. You go through your chapter in your Donald Trump part of it where you say, this is the obligatory Trump chapter, and I kinda like it. You predicted Donald Trump becoming president in 2008, and you said it again in 2014. And I do wanna walk through this. Adam, you're one of the last comedians, I think, in America, where we have someone that actually tells the truth and is unafraid to kind of challenge some of the kind of conventional orthodoxy. Adam, is do you think that Donald Trump, because of Hollywood's reaction to him, do you think that he has killed, like, comedy in America? I mean, I find that a lot of these late night hosts, they are clapping. A lot of the audience, they're clapping instead of laughing. It seems as if you're not able to tell jokes anymore. And I know you walk this, you walk through this in your book. So what is it about President Trump that bothers the community of comedians so much?

Adam Carolla (3:55)

Well, I have multiple thoughts about that. One is the Hollywood community does not like Trump for a multitude of reasons. But one of, one of the main reasons that no one ever really talks about is style. Those people are attracted to an aesthetic. It's the Hollywood community. You know what I mean? Like, that is their living the visual. Because you think about it, think about how they would wax on about John Kennedy Jr. Or the Kennedys or, you know, Camelot. You know, it was always this sort of, oh, and they do this thing, they do these things, like, look at Michelle Obama, look at her arms, look at the grace, look at the dignity. You know, they love, they love an aesthetic and they love a style. And so Trump reminds them of their husky uncle who's always talking about bowling and arena football. And they're like, ew, get away from me. We want the beautiful people. So one is, they don't like him. You know, obviously they don't agree with many of his policies, but it's really a style thing. Like, why elevate Jacqueline Onassis or Jacqueline Kennedy or even, like, you take Junior, you take the son who died in a car wreck. All that guy was, was good looking. And they loved it. They loved it. But I don't know what he did other Than that, you know, he published a sort of, you know, magazine about nothing. But he was. He was royalty. And the Kennedy's royal. They love the esthetic and they love that sort of grace, and they hate Trump on that level. The other thing that's going on with comedians, and this is interesting, which is they look at it and have always traditionally looked at it as, your job is to push back against society. Your job is to push back against the man. So, you know, Lenny Bruce or Richard Pryor or George Carlin, they were going to push back against the man. But here's what happened. You. And they. Sorry, not you. But comedians constantly attack Donald Trump as if they're pushing back against the man. Donald Trump is not the man. The man are people like Gavin Newsom who are shutting down their states and telling everyone to stay in their house and giving them protocols for Thanksgiving. That's the man. And the comedians are cowards because they won't push back against the real man. Trump is not the man. Trump's a big easy target, and you'll get nothing but kudos in Hollywood if you slam Trump. And that's why they do it constantly. The man is really your governor who shut down this state, your mayor who shut down the city. You want to push back the man. CNN is the man. Trump isn't the man. FOX isn't the man. CNN is the man. You don't think they're the man. What station is on in every single airport in the country? You don't think that's enough sets this. CNN is, as we speak, is literally on 500 monitors in any, in any airport around the country right now, times 2,000 airports. You don't think they're the man. So cowardly comedians, you're gonna push back against the man? Trump? That's easy. You push back against Gavin. Let's hear what. Let's talk about the lockdowns. Let's talk about COVID The man is Covid, the man. Are lockdowns. Okay? Cowards. Push back against them. Never do. No one will say a word about that.

Charlie Kirk (7:49)

Well, and we have seen throughout the last couple years, especially how the comedians have almost considered themselves to be part of the communication arm of the Democrat party. And Adam, you're exactly right. If comedy is supposed to be contrarian, it's supposed to be provocative, it's supposed to call out truths that we all see but we're afraid to say. And it was really easy to be a comedian when George W. Bush was president. That was when every single comic was pushing back against George Bush's accent or his, you know, his way of going about governance. And you kind of saw under Obama there were still plenty of people that, you know, challenged conservatives and Republicans. But it kind of made this transitional phase from comedy being a place where it was an equal opportunity offender to that now comedy being almost agreeable with the culture. You talk about this in your book, and I want to make sure we continue to mention it. I'm your emotional support animal. I'm working my way through it, Adam. I was just reading it about an hour before this interview. I couldn't stop laughing through parts of it. My favorite part is how we're now going to classify airplane crashes and how many support animals are on board. And the, as you put it, the white chicks will be more upset with the dogs that are lost in the crash than the human beings that are lost. And I love the pictures you included with the woman that had two emotional support animals. And you asked the question is, does she have double the anxiety? And it's just, again, you're not. The reason I love this book is you're saying things you're not allowed to say, which is exactly what comedy is supposed to be. Let's just take a bigger picture question about your book, Adam. Why did you write it and what is the bigger points you're trying to make? What I derive from it is you think we're too fragile, we're too soft, and comedy's actually the way comedy has gone is actually partly to blame for that.

Adam Carolla (9:38)

Yes. What I was saying in the book is the next time there's a major commercial airline crash, we're going to get the number of. Of passengers. You know, it's going to be 173 passenger. There's 11 crew members and 26 dogs. That's. That's basically you. You think I'm making a joke.

Charlie Kirk (9:59)

I'm not.

Adam Carolla (9:59)

There are going to have to have a category. If eight dogs are on that plane and die, we're going to have to know about it. All right, you're right. That's why it's funny. I'm just repeating my own joke. So when I wrote, first off, I wrote the book because someone paid me to write the book. I tell that to people all the time. Like someone comes up to me and goes, you want to write a book? And I go, yes. And then they pay me and I write the book, but I never mail it in. I always want to write a killer book. I go to Amazon, I look at the reviews. If it's not five star or 80% five star. I'm bummed out.

Charlie Kirk (10:34)

So

Adam Carolla (10:36)

I always have a lot of ideas in my head. And when you do a podcast or you do stand up, you don't fully sort those ideas. Many times as, you know, just kind of, you're talking, you're waxing poetic, you're going off the things are on the tip of your tongue and they're not fully. They're not necessarily fully realized, the ideas, but when it comes to stand up, they're realized. But there's a lot of jokes in there because there's an audience. You're at a nightclub, you know. You know, you can't just stand up there and pontificate for seven minutes without a joke. The book allows me to take the ideas, really drill down on them and explore them. And the book format is one. Because you're not in person, you know what I mean? When it's physically your voice, you're impeded a little bit. You can't just say every single thing you're thinking of. When you're standing on stage and there's 300 people in the room, you just don't. You just don't. It's like, it's basically like when you go to a member when you used to be able to go indoors and eat at a diner. You know that thing where it's. It's like you and your friend and you're eating at a diner and you partied pretty good the night before, and all of a sudden some elderly couple pulls up in the booth right behind yours. All of a sudden the conversation changes, right? You're not quite as freewheeling with it, because elderly couples within earshot, that's kind of what a lot of standup is and a lot of other stuff is. But the book, that's you in a diner booth in the middle of the Mojave Desert with a bullhorn. And that's the way I wrote it in my, my, my editors would say on numerous occasions, like, are you. You sure you want to say this? Or they don't think you should say this or you should take it out. And I just tell them, leave it in. It's in. As a matter of fact, if you told me to take it out, now it's really in.

Charlie Kirk (12:38)

And that's exactly what I think is so hilarious about it. And I think that comedy really is saying things that are deeply true, that people know to be true. This people are afraid to say it. And that's why it's the kind of. As Tucker endorsed your book. As the revolution hits its most humorless and radical phase, the people that are saying things that are true are all of a sudden considered to be more funny than it would have been even 20 or 30 years ago.

Adam Carolla (13:03)

Right? Yeah. Well, look, you know, I talk to people about this all the time. I did not get into comedy to parse or mince words I want to say exactly. I mean, look, I don't work at UPS and I don't work at Starbucks or the Apple Store. I do comedy. Why should I be thinking about what I'm saying? That's up to the audience. Why would you possibly be attracted to this expression with this free expression of ideas known as comedy, and then start editing yourself to try to curry favor with this group or that group.

Charlie Kirk (13:46)

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Adam Carolla (16:04)

The joke lands better if you say academia nuts.

Charlie Kirk (16:08)

Oh, I like that. That's very funny. I totally missed that.

Adam Carolla (16:11)

That's all right. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm here. Well, what I said in front of Congress was, in one's life, one needs resistance to push against. And, you know, you think of ourselves as a biological creature. Your body gets stronger. When do a bench press with some weights on it, not using a mop handle, right? So you want to build up your body. You go, all right, throw those 35 pound or 45 pound slabs on there and let's knock out a few reps, right? So resistance, like pushback, it's good. It's how you get strong. You know, it's why, you know, it's why young bucks wrestle and go at it. And, you know, all this, you see it in nature all the time. And you're also. I was kind of thinking about this. Your body needs it too. Like all the Purell and all the sanitizer. Those kids end up with all these allergies and skin conditions and stuff like that. Meanwhile, the Amish kids are fine because they're outside rolling around with animals and running around all day. And they're. Their immune system, they're like flora and fauna. Has something to fight against. So your whole body needs something to push against. It needs something to fight against. And in order to get stronger, it needs resistance. I say in the book, the reason, you know, when they take astronauts and they send them to the space station. Space station for a year, they get atrophied, they lose muscle and bone density. So why do you want to create this zero gravity environment for your kids? They hear ideas they don't like, and instead of strengthening Themselves emotionally by pushing back, they shout the guy off stage or they go into the room with their huggy boogie and listen to a nursery rhyme. How could you possibly. Why? What's so different about you emotionally than physically, than your flora and fauna in your gut? Why is that separate? Everyone needs something to push against, to strengthen themselves.

Charlie Kirk (18:25)

You put in the book here. Where campuses really get absurd is with safe spaces. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, congratulations. A so called safe space is an area for students to escape with stuffed animals, counselors, coloring books and support animals for when Jordan Peterson or some other monster comes to campus and think romper room. Except instead of four year olds, it's for 19 year olds who think like they are four year olds. And just for all the listeners, and I have to continue to tell older audiences, this is not exaggerated. This is on campuses all across the country. And you're exactly right. I just wrote down the zero gravity example. I'm going to use that and I'll reference you sometimes with that because it is phenomenal that when I remember to. Because there is no muscle mass being built with young people in higher education or in academia at all whatsoever. And when they go to these university campuses, college should be a place where they get tougher, they get more, they get stronger. To be able to encounter a difficult world when the exact opposite is happening, they're actually becoming weaker and less likely to be able to endure the inevitable suffering that is life. And so Adam, what do you attribute a lot of this to? Everyone has their own theory. Jordan Peterson has a highly intellectual theory. What warning signs do you think we ignored 10 or 20 years ago that led us to the place where we now send our kids to university campuses where they have to be around, play DOH dolls or, you know, nursery rhymes? What was it that led us to this point? Is it. Was it really us sacrificing the terrain of higher education to radicals? Was it political correctness which you touch on in this book, which you're obviously, you know, criticizing a lot of the political correct culture? How did we get here?

Adam Carolla (20:12)

Well, think about the evolution. I would look at college as a business and you have to constantly cater to your clientele. And your clientele is more and more growing up in the self esteem movement, right? Being told they're number one, the participation trophy, which everyone gets a trophy. Group and participation trophy. I never liked that as an example because I played seven years of Pop Warner football and I got a participation trophy every time. That wasn't the thing. It didn't mean Anything. To me, it's like I wanted most valuable player, best defensive lineman. But the clientele are the. I mean, think about, think about what the politicians are doing now. Promising this, promising, you know, free, free education, free health care, free this, you know, rent control. All they're doing is trying to tell their clients what they want. Right. So if you have a whole bunch of pampered kids who grew up in the self esteem movement and they're coming onto your college campus, well, that's your business. And it's. Look, have you any. I have been to a very high end casino in London. A very private, very private high end casino. And the folks that come there and play these multimillion dollar hands of blackjack or Texas hold' em or whatever, they're all Chinese. So guess what? The inside of that place, it's all catered to Chinese. Like they face things this way because it's considered good luck or they don't do that or, well, that's their clientele. So why wouldn't that casino go, who's coming through the door? And they go, well, it's the high rollers. The big whales are coming in here, are Chinese. And they go, all right, we're still going to face the slot machines that way, right? It's like, no, they don't like that direction. You got to change it. And they're in the business of attracting clients. So why wouldn't the college campuses change, just go along with this sort of directive or the way the prevailing winds were blowing.

Charlie Kirk (22:31)

Yeah. So your theory is that it's really a issue of what happens not just before college, but also just to look at it as a business. And also I think it's pandering to the loudest voices and the most radical voices. I think it's very weak college administrators, just as if you mentioned, you know, the very cowardly comedians that are afraid to, you know, push the boundary. The same could be said for these administrators that basically their negotiating position is, I'll give you everything you want, just stop yelling at me. To the 5% of the college radicals that are at a university campus where 20 or 30 years ago they would have said, no, you're nuts, we're not going to give you a trigger warning. You're not going to give you trigger warning. Safe spaces. And you even mentioned in the book at the University of Kansas there is the Angry White Man Studies. And you recommend that this book should be the textbook. I completely agree, which I find to be hilarious. And the things that are actually taught at these University campuses, outside of just the culture and the curriculum, is creating a country where young people have very little understanding of the world they're about to enter into. And also the. I think the depth and the complexity of our country and everything they learn is, our country is awful. It must be torn down. It must be disintegrated at all costs. So, Adam, you also talk about in the book a little bit about your story and where you came from. I think it's a great story because it is a story where you just decided to apply yourself and you have achieved an enormous amount of success. And I think we're losing that a lot in our country. Can you talk about how you think that with all these different contributing cultural factors, whether it be the political correctness movement or the zero gravity movement, it almost has created young people to be more fragile, less likely to take risks, and more likely to just try to look to other people? And you have a whole chapter on this where you say, I'm trying to pull it up, but it's around victimhood, where it seems as if there's a competition to try the highest level of become a victim at all costs. Almost the Oppression Olympics. Can you talk about how dangerous you think this is for our country where everyone wants to be a victim at all costs?

Adam Carolla (24:40)

Well, all you have to do if you want to sort of know what works, like, you go from the macro to the micro. So if you're just talking about diet and exercise, you know, you go, well, I have a teenage son. And you'd go, okay, well, let's see, let's get him on some low carbs and some high protein and get them working out, blah, blah, blah. Okay, well, that would be universal then. If everyone ate more vegetables and less fast food and exercise more. It's not like, well, that would work for your boy or his boy or her boy, but it wouldn't work for the culture. Of course it would work. So diet and exercise, let's say, would work for the culture. Right? Okay, universal. So anybody who has a child with a handicap, like confined to a wheelchair or dwarfism or some handicap spina bifida or something, right? Well, you would be the worst parent in the world if you were convincing that kid every day that they were handicapped and less than others in their class, you would be a horrible parent. What would a good parent do? Good parent would be, well, you're confined to a wheelchair, but that doesn't make you a victim, and that doesn't make anyone any better than you. And. And yeah, you're going to have to outwork some of these people, but let's do it. So if you had someone with a handicap, a kid with a handicap, then that's all you would tell them and you'd be a good parent to tell them that. So then why is it somehow noble when a politician explains to an entire group like the black community, you have a target on your back, you're not wanted in this society, you won't be able to get ahead as long as we have the structures in place. I mean that's got to be the worst parenting ever, right?

Charlie Kirk (26:39)

In our fast paced world, it's time to make reading a priority. At least it used to be. A new app called Thinker you guys have heard me talk about@thinker.org Charlie T H I N K R has solved that problem by summarizing the key ideas from new and noteworthy fiction, giving you access to an entire library of great books in bite sized form. Reader listen to hundreds of titles in a matter of minutes and including old classics like Dale Carnegie's how to win Friends and Influence People. If you want to challenge your preconceptions, expand your horizons and what become a better thinker, go to thinker.org Charlie that's T H I N K R.org Charlie to start an extended free trial and put your mind in motion. I completely agree. And you can see that in how many people have not many people. How the population has refused to push back against a lot of these lockdowns and they have almost willingly asked their leaders to take care of them instead of saying wait, why is it, are we still locked down after nine months and we're trying to slow the spread of the virus or stop the spread and it just seems as if there is one failed promise and almost like I want to be taken care of at all costs. Costs no matter like I want to be the victim. And it's that as you know, said before and Greg Gutfeld and Dave Rubin have said this, it's almost like it is the oppression Olympics. The book is I'm your emotional support animal. You also have a chapter here on commercial grade. Can you build out this chapter a little bit? Adam I found it to be very interesting. Kind of the examples that you use throughout the entire chapter it says made with love makes me hate. What exactly do you mean by that?

Adam Carolla (28:21)

Well, obviously Madison Avenue has to stay on top of the shifting winds of society and think about the commercials you see now. So when I was growing up, if there was a commercial for a truck, they Talked about torque and towing capacity and they would always talk about warranties and fuel mileage and best fuel mileage in its class, best warranty, 100,000 miles on the powertrain, you know, 100,000 rust through on the body with bondarized steel, you know. Now a Subaru is made with love. They, you watch a Subaru commercial, they don't even, they don't even show. They don't even talk about the car at all. They just show the nice couple drive, the mixed race couple driving into the woods. And in the book, I explain, you know what else Subaru makes? Subaru makes attack helicopters for the Japanese military. So do you think they make those with love as well? You think Subaru loves you or Subaru thinks you're soft and weak and dumb and they pander to you? Look at all the good vibe commercials that are out there. When I was growing up, there were no good vibe commercials. The commercial was the product.

Charlie Kirk (29:42)

And you've seen almost this increasing demand through, as you mentioned, commercials and communication not to actually, you know, sell the best thing, as you say, but instead want to win over the audience in some emotive argument. Chapter seven, you say, sick of MeToo. MeToo. You really go after this here, Adam, and I'm glad you do because of the double standard and almost the creation of a culture where we are telling young women to go out of their way to try to find ways that they have been offended or ways that they have been wronged by men. Can you walk us through this chapter? You use many different examples here. You talk about the perps, you talk about Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and you have a lot of nuance, by the way, when you go through all of them. You talk about Louis CK what is the bigger point you're trying to make in the chapter with me too, that you think our audience should be made aware of?

Adam Carolla (30:34)

Well, it sort of dovetails into, let's not, you know, first off, stop convincing everyone they were victims. There's plenty of women I know where somebody grabbed their bun cheek or something and they just shoo the guy's hand away and they moved on with their life. You know, that's, there's versions of that that happen, happen to men as well. Let's, you know, I probably said in there, since they started all of these seminars in the workplace about sexual harassment, I will bet you that sexual harassment lawsuits have gone up 2000 fold. So how's that possible? You bring in these experts, they tell you what to do and what not to do. And now sexual harassment lawsuits are at an all time high. Well, all you're doing is sort of giving a roadmap to people who want to be victimized. Everyone has to. Now think back, oh, wait a minute. Was I victimized? Yes, I was. We've all been victimized in one way, shape or form or another. By those standards. By those standards, you can't just say, if somebody puts their hand on your thigh, that's not sexual assault. You can't just, you can't just, you can't say you were assaulted by that. You're ruining the definition of the word.

Charlie Kirk (31:58)

And you create almost an entire population of people that they get the seminar on and they say, oh, wait, maybe I was wrong by that. It's created almost a cottage industry of lawyers and law firms that represent people exactly in that arena and sector. The book is I'm your emotional support animal. Adam, in closing, what is your message to young people? You talked about it in no safe spaces, but there's a lot of young people that come to me, they say, charlie, I just can't succeed. I can't get ahead. No matter how hard I work. I feel as if I'm just barely treading water. This book is pretty blunt where it says, apply yourself correctly. Stop. Stop blaming other people for your problems. And you know, try to have a little fun along the way because the world is not as serious as some people try to make it seem. I think your message is pretty inspiring to, you know, students and to young people, which is, you know, stop being, stop being a victim, stop pointing to the external world. And again, I love your story where you decided to apply yourself. And I don't know if you went to college or not. It doesn't matter to me. I just misremembering. I didn't. And so what is your message to students and young people out there? We have a lot of young people that listen to this podcast.

Adam Carolla (33:06)

Well, the good news is your contemporaries are so weak and soft. They're so soft they have no idea how to be employees. They have no idea what grit or hard work or intestinal fortitude. Is that all you have to do? Do? You don't have to be the best, you don't have to be the brightest. You don't have to be the top of your class. Just show up hungry and have a kick ass attitude about work and you'll stand out immediately amongst these super soft woke contemporaries.

Charlie Kirk (33:43)

That's well said. So the book is I'm youm Emotional Support Animal and also host to the Adam Carolla show podcast. Adam, thanks so much for joining us and hope to see you soon. Appreciate it.

Adam Carolla (33:53)

Thanks Charlie.

Charlie Kirk (33:54)

See you soon. What a great conversation that was with Adam Carolla. Please consider emailing us freedom charliekirk.com your questions. Support us@charliekirk.com support and if you want to win a signed copy of the MAGA doctrine, just say, hey, I listened to the Adam Carolla episode. Type in Charlie Kirk show hit, subscribe, give us a five star review screenshot and email it to us freedom charlie kirk.com thanks so much for listening everybody. God bless. Talk to you soon.

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