TCB Infomercial: Roy Wood Jr.

Summary

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TCB Infomercial: Roy Wood Jr.

Podcast: The Commercial Break
Date: January 14, 2025
Guest: Roy Wood Jr.

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Overview

This episode of The Commercial Break’s “Infomercial Tuesday” features celebrated comedian, writer, and former Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr. Hosts Bryan Green and Krissy Hoadley engage in their signature blend of irreverent banter, exploring everything from Roy’s unique worldview and career moves to the absurdity of conspiracy theories, America’s weird relationship with the national anthem, and the realities of creating comedy in a fraught political and media landscape.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Wildfires in Los Angeles: Real-Time Reactions & Social Media

• Hosts open by expressing concern for those affected by devastating L.A. fires, including shout-outs to relief efforts and Airbnb’s shelter initiative.
• Roy, based in New York, checks in on friends and comedians out west, highlighting the greater impact beyond affluent neighborhoods:

  “It ain’t all rich people up there.” (Roy, 11:09)

• The group laments the immediacy of conspiracy theories in crisis coverage:

  “The conspiracies are happening… in real time with the fucking information, motherfucker. Let people get through the shit.” (Roy, 12:28)

• Bryan notes how quickly disinformation spreads on X (Twitter), frustrating real recovery efforts.

Memorable moment:
Roy draws a parallel to 9/11’s conspiracy lag, suggesting we’ve lost the buffer for communal grief:

“Imagine having the discussion about the melting point of steel on September 12th…” (Roy, 13:23)

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2. Roy’s Unique Perspective: Origins & Influences

• Roy traces his journalistic curiosity to his upbringing as the son of a pioneering radio news journalist.
• Humorous anecdote about writing a fourth-grade rap to encourage voting for Dukakis vs. Bush:

  “Just vote. Vote for Dukakis, Bush and Quayle. So get out the vote. That's me.” (Roy, 17:30)

• He credits growing up with CNN, C-SPAN, and a hunger for quirky news, inspired by figures like Jenny Mose, Kenny Main, Anthony Bourdain, and Dave Attell’s Insomniac.

Quote:

“People are a little quirk, a little different. Their approach to the [news] — a little more kaleidoscopic… So that's kind of where it came from.” (Roy, 18:05)

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3. Mining Comedy from Pain: Philosophy from The Daily Show

• Roy discusses the evolution of his comedic voice at the Daily Show, shifting from “anger as the main ingredient” to a more probing, observant style:

  “Anger was the main ingredient from which I mined the humor; [now] you can change anger into ‘why is…’ or ‘have you ever noticed…’ and people are more inclined to receive that.” (Roy, 19:57)

• He emphasizes not joking at the victims’ expense, instead finding humor in causation or prevention.

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4. Political Polarization & Performative Pettyness

• The hosts and Roy riff on recent moments of political division at Jimmy Carter’s funeral, where former presidents wouldn’t greet each other:

  “You won’t even shake my hand at another dude’s fucking funeral.” (Roy, 23:45)

• Roy draws a comparison to the brutal seat-placement politics of awards shows and lampoons the dysfunction in government:

  “A lot of this presidential term will come down to how efficient of a cabinet he has… Can you motherfuckers at your private decide on what you’re gonna propose?” (Roy, 25:00)

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5. The National Anthem: Why Are We Still Singing THIS Song?

• Roy expands on a joke from his new special about America’s outdated national anthem:

  “Why at fun shit do we have to sing the anthem and remember the country? Don’t forget America is good.” (Roy, 26:28)

• He reveals the anthem is actually a remake of a British song — calling for a jam with more “streamability.”
• Debates best anthem performances, agreeing Whitney Houston’s Super Bowl version stands out, alongside Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock.

Memorable moment:

“We’ve been singing this whole time [to] a beat by the…we whooped!” (Roy, 28:35)

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6. Social Media & the Modern Comedy Hustle

• The group bemoans the randomness of social media virality — old men with “floppy titties” going viral for farts, while it’s a grind for actual comedians:

  “My penis is small. I don’t know what’s going on.” (Bryan, 31:19)

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7. Departing The Daily Show: Owning Destiny in a Volatile Industry

• Roy explains his choice to leave The Daily Show, feeling it was strategic to exit on his own terms rather than be blindsided by corporate shifts:

  “Every other time I was in those waters, I was pushed in the pool. So I can look around here and…what is bulletproof when you’re in an era where they will shoot a $100 million movie and not even release that bitch?” (Roy, 32:33–34:47)

• Leaving felt smart, with the looming election year presenting new opportunities.
• Radio roots taught him to always be ready for the rug to come out:

  “Radio is a place where you learn really quickly that…talent is not fostered, it’s not welcome, it’s not loved on.” (Bryan, 37:20)

• Roy’s confidence comes from his ability to always turn to stand-up:

  “There are 30 cities I can travel to where strangers will show me love and I will give them jokes in exchange for money.” (Roy, 41:41)

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8. CNN, Hulu Special, and Future Projects

• New special Lonely Flowers debuts Jan 17 on Hulu.
• Roy hosts CNN’s “Have I Got News for You” — a quiz-style political comedy show (streamable on Max).
• Reflects on the unique challenge and joy of hosting the 2023 White House Correspondents’ Dinner:

  “That was chaos. … You can see Caitlyn Jenner staring at you with a scowl two tables over.” (Roy, 43:37)

• Expresses respect for hosts like Anthony Anderson (NAACP Awards) who handle tough rooms with grace and humor.

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Notable Quotes

• On real-time conspiracy theories:
  “The conspiracies are happening…in real time with the fucking information, motherfucker. Let people get through the shit.”
  (Roy Wood Jr., 12:28)

• On comedy and pain:
  “There’s not pain in the actual thing. The jokes come in the causation or the prevention.”
  (Roy Wood Jr., 19:55)

• On leaving The Daily Show:
  “If you want to do more, then you’re gonna have to leave. So when you leave can either be up to you or it can be up to them. So I just chose to leave. And I'll figure it out. I always have.”
  (Roy Wood Jr., 40:29–41:14)

• On the national anthem:
  “Why at fun shit do we have to sing the anthem and remember the country? Don’t forget America is good.”
  (Roy Wood Jr., 26:28)

• On the entertainment grind:
  “Once you know that pedigree…look weird…gone, gone. That’s right.”
  (Roy Wood Jr., 37:20–37:29)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |----------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00–02:30 | Opening jokes; Roy Wood Jr's intro; new special plug | | 05:00–08:13 | LA wildfires, empathy & disaster response discussion | | 10:24–15:08 | Roy joins; social media in tragedy, conspiracy theories | | 16:11–19:55 | Roy’s upbringing, influences, shift in comedic perspective | | 22:04–25:45 | Political pettiness at Carter’s funeral, dysfunction in government | | 26:28–29:41 | Roy on anthem jokes, cultural rituals, best performances | | 31:19–32:33 | Social media virality and the struggle for comedic recognition | | 32:33–41:41 | Roy’s rationale for leaving The Daily Show, lessons from radio, forging a new path | | 42:49–46:32 | Roy’s new projects, White House Correspondents' Dinner, award show hosting | | 47:30–47:45 | Closing thanks and wrap-up |

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Tone and Chemistry

• Irreverent, freewheeling, and quick-witted.
  Bryan and Krissy’s long friendship provides a casual, self-aware (and sometimes self-deprecating) vibe.
• Roy matches energy with sharp intelligence, lightly satirizing America’s contradictions while grounding his insights in lived experience.

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Final Thoughts

A rich, candid, and often hilarious conversation that blends pop culture, personal narrative, and societal critique. Roy offers a vulnerable yet resilient take on what it means to make (and leave) your mark in modern media, punctuated by the show’s signature riffing and comedic “flop-sweat” charm.

Standouts: Roy’s breakdown of the national anthem as an “old-ass British remix,” the realities of being a working comic, and his pragmatic optimism about leaving comfort for creative growth.

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Further Info

• Roy Wood Jr.’s Special: Hulu, Jan 17, 2025 (Lonely Flowers)
• CNN “Have I Got News for You”: Season 2 streaming on Max
• Show Links & Fire Relief Resources: See podcast show notes

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Transcript

[Roy Wood Jr.]

I was at the gun range and I saw somebody get bad service at the gun range. How you gonna be rude to somebody who showed up to practice murder. On this episode of the commercial break and the rockets red hair. Don't forget America is good. That's, that's when you're at the DMV for four fucking hours. Yeah. Before you leave. Sing the shit. I'm gonna give you your license.

[Chrissy]

Yeah. That's so T.R.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Babe. The next episode of the commercial break starts now.

[Brian Green]

Oh, yeah. Guys and kittens, welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co host of this show, Chris Joy Hoadley. Best you, Chris.

[Chrissy]

Best to you, Brian.

[Brian Green]

Best to you out there in the podcast universe. Welcome to a TCB infomercial Tuesday. So happy to have you here. We are very excited because I, I think maybe we're. We. Maybe the guest gods are smiling on us this year in 2025. Not that they haven't in the past, but we're going to start off with a bang. We had Felipe Esparza, but he was recorded back before 2025. And now today, Roy Wood Jr. Who I have often said is Roy Jones Jr. But that's a different guy altogether. My old brain doesn't work so well. I told Astor this morning, I'm like, I'm so excited. We're talking to Roy Jones Jr. And she's like, It's Roy Wood Jr. And I was like, yeah. Oh yeah, that's a boxer.

[Chrissy]

Roy Jones Jr. Yeah, he tried to the other day.

[Brian Green]

That's what happens when you get old, you start mixing names up. Roy Wood Jr. Is coming in to talk to us. Daily show fame Daily show host Last comic standing has had a new number of specials out there. Roy Roywood Jr.com is where you can go to find out all the information, including on 17 January his new special on Disney's Hulu, Lonely Flowers. And I'm really excited to see the new special. I A couple of months, a couple of months ago I watched his, I guess the most recent special effect. No one here wants you or no one wants you or something like that. And it was an hour of hilarity. He is really good at what he does.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And he was in a huge room. I mean there might, it must have been 5,000, 6,000 people. Anyway, he's extremely popular. You know him from the Daily show, the correspondence, now cnn. Oh yeah, he does that thing on CNN too.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, where he does weekly quiz about the news.

[Brian Green]

I read, I Haven't seen it, but I read that he also did a BBC version of that same show also. So there you go. So he's all over.

[Chrissy]

He started off in morning radio.

[Brian Green]

He did in Birmingham, Alabama. Buck Wilde, Buck Wild. Is that Memphis or Birmingham, Alabama? I can't remember which one was the Buck Wild show?

[Chrissy]

Yeah, I think it might have been Memphis.

[Brian Green]

God, that's gotta be a really difficult job. Morning show. He was a writer on a morning show. A writer on a morning show. That'd be like being a writer on the commercial break.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

How do you do that? Where do you even start? What are you writing about?

[Chrissy]

I guess anything flies.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I guess you just like, look at things, you know, look at the news and you have. But he's much more funny than we'll ever, ever be. So there you go. But that's not. That's not extremely high bar to get there. I don't know. But I did want to mention on a. On a serious note, you know, Los Angeles is right now, as we're recording this, engulfed in flames. And they by some accounts may take weeks to kind of get all the hotspots tampered down. And let's hope that the Santa Ana winds are with. Are with the people of Los Angeles and that these fires settle down just a little bit. I'm going to put a link in the show notes to an organization that is help helping people find shelter if they don't have shelter. There's a lot of people out there that have been affected by this that probably are not going to have a hard time finding shelter. It's Pacific Palisades is a very rich, fluent, affluent ponce area and beautiful area of Los Angeles. Such a shame, because it really is very. Just out there. Months ago and man, we drove through the Pacific Palisades. It's gorgeous. We have friends that live out there, people that work with the show live out there. And everybody in Los Angeles is really scared right now. And so we're gonna put a link in the show notes to an organization that is helping people find shelter. If their homes or their apartments or whatever have been set on fire, this is the time when we all need to pull it together. I mean, imagine if you live near a major metropolitan city. Imagine that your city was just engulfed in flames with no, with zero opportunity. I mean, you can have all the firefighters in the world. When flames are out of control like that, you just need helicopters to keep dumping water and hope that, you know, your house doesn't go up in flames. So our hearts are with the people of Los Angeles right now and our friends and family that are out there. And I really hope, I really hope that these people find some relief because it's terrible, quite frankly. I thought, I thought Roy lived in Los Angeles. Yeah, he's in New York, we think. We don't know. I mean, he's coming on the show, so I'm assuming he's not in any kind of danger, though we have had guests that have canceled because they are in danger. So we know this situation is very serious. So. Oh, and one more thing I wanted to shout out. My wife sent this to me this morning. I think this will probably still be the fact when this comes out just a couple of days later is that Airbnb is now offering free shelter to anyone that has been displaced by those fires. You can contact, you can go to Airbnb website if you live in Los Angeles and fill out some forms. I think I went on there earlier and you fill out some forms and then they will get you in touch. No charge. There's no charge. I don't know how long that's going to last for. That is an amazing thing, quite frankly, Airbnb is doing. And while I've had my gripes with Airbnb in the past, I would say that if I was in that situation, I would be kissing the feet of Airbnb for allowing me and my family members to have some shelter during this situation. It's crazy. And we're here complaining about snow. We're here complaining about 1/4 inch of snow. And you know, the. It's apocalyptic in Los Angeles. I saw those flames over the Comedy.

[Chrissy]

Store before and after.

[Brian Green]

Oh, Chrissy.

[Chrissy]

Of. Some of that stuff is just awful. I mean, this. There's quite a few landmarks that are just completely gone. I know they're really like the Getty. I think museum was around.

[Brian Green]

It got burned. But they were managed to save the museum from any kind of damage.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Yeah.

[Chrissy]

Scary.

[Brian Green]

It is really scary. And, you know, I know they deal with this all the time out there, but it's, you know, you can predict a hurricane. You know what hurricane season is. You know, when a hurricane's coming, you can predict a snowstorm. You see it coming down the pike. Even tornadoes, there's favorable conditions for this or that, even though those are a little bit more random. But earthquakes and fires, two things they deal with very frequently over there. There is no rhyme or reason. And once a fire gets going. Remember Backdraft, the movie?

[Chrissy]

Of course.

[Brian Green]

Backdraft was this movie. You can go watch It Ron Harrod, Ron Howard film. And they talked about in the movie how the fire had a personality and it moved up the wall and it took on a life of its own. Go that way and it could move like a person and all this other stuff. And I thought it was kind of hanky panky, you know, hokey pokey bullshit when I first watched it, but I've come to believe over the years as I've watched some of these wildfires unfold on the news, that it's true. Like, fire just kind of takes on a personality of its own.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And then it, you know, dry conditions, wind.

[Chrissy]

I mean, it can go anywhere.

[Brian Green]

I think I talked about this when it happened, but when the Hawaii fire happened, when the Maui fire happened, we, our neighbors, their, his brother, which I won't get into too much detail, but his brother, they lived out there. Their house burned down. They were in a car with all of their young children driving through a nightmarish hellscape of fire all around them at as fast as they could to save themselves from burning and watching their home and their business go up in flames. And we had a chance just to talk to them briefly about this and those. I don't know how the kids will ever recover from seeing that. And so anyway, listen, I don't need to dwell on the negative, but if you can do some positive, because we know the TCB audience can do some positive when we put our, our minds together. Please go do that. We'll put links in the show notes. Let's get on to happier things.

[Chrissy]

Well, hold on. I have to say on that subject, though. Jeff and I were talking last night about it and we were like. It got us thinking, like, if we had to get out right now, what would we take? And it's a good exercise in what's essential and absolutely necessary that you would.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, you know, we have a location.

[Chrissy]

Stuff is just stuff.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chrissy]

In the end.

[Brian Green]

But we have a location in our house where we keep some stuff that is the stuff that I want to take if I can take it. And if I can't take it, I have a picture of it, a copy of it, and medications on standby if you need them to take them or, or like, you know, an EpiPen or whatever we have in a bag that we can. A go bag that we can. We can go. We have a little bit thought this through, but God bless, thank God we're not in that situation. We're actually going to be the opposite. Instead of running from our homes, we're going to be staying in our homes for the next couple of days as we try and get through, you know, whatever Snowpocalypse 2025 or whatever it is. Anyway, let's get on to happier things. Roy Wood Jr. Former host, rotating host of the Daily Show. You know him. You know Roy Wood Jr. Roy Wood Jr. Is very famous and he's blessed us by agreeing to come on our show. And so let's do this. Why don't we take a break and when we get back from that break through the magic of tele podcasting will be in conversation. You haven't noticed over all these interviews that that's how I say it. I have, but I'm just hitting my funny show. Just like Astrid, Chrissy is usually tuned out of everything I'm saying. She's learned to tune my voice out. But the magic of telepodcasting. Roy Wood Jr. After these words, we'll be back.

[Podcast Announcer]

I have a wild idea. Go to our Instagram and follow us hecommercial break and then go to our TikTok and follow us there and then go to our YouTube YouTube.com thecommercialbreak and follow us there and then text us at 212-4333, TCB and tell us that you followed us on all of those other places. And then go to our website, tcbpodcast.com and browse, I guess. Well, those are all the ideas I have for today. So see you tomorrow.

[Brian Green]

Thanks for coming on the show, man. This is a honor and a pleasure. We are big fans and thank you for agreeing to spend a little time with these clowns over here.

[Chrissy]

Hopefully you're not out in la, are you?

[Roy Wood Jr.]

In la?

[Brian Green]

Yeah, that's the question.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

No, I'm in New York, thankfully. But I got a lot of friends down bad out there. We're kind of still waiting for all the comedians to do a roll call. Yeah, and we'll figure it out. You know, same as. Same as Covid. You know, there's a charity called Comedy Gives Back. Yep, I remember that. Did a huge telethon and make sure that entertainers, because, you know, entertainment's the first thing to go when the world shuts down. So, yeah, you know, we'll look out for people. I know that they're, you know, there is the assumption of, oh, it's all rich houses, so they're all straight. It ain't all rich people up there.

[Chrissy]

No, no, yeah, that's true.

[Brian Green]

I was just out there a couple of months ago or maybe like six months ago, eight months ago. It's not all rich people. And even. Even in rich communities, there are people who service those communities and people who work in those communities and people who live in the.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Your job was in this place. That building burnt down, too. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And that is a terrible thing. Those images are apocalyptic.

[Chrissy]

They really are.

[Brian Green]

And to think that it's happening in a major metropolitan city. Be like if it'd be like the Great Fire of Chicago or something, Right?

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Stop looking. I stopped looking. And then the thing that got me mad about all of the fires in Los Angeles is. How can I put this? Do you remember when there would be a tragedy in this country? There would be a tragedy, and then we would all cry, and the news would cover it. And then there would be all the magazine articles that show you all the Pulitzer photographs of the tragedy. And then we would move on from that tragedy. And then about a year after that tragedy, then you would get the conspiracy theories. Then those people would come out and go, hey, man, what happened? Didn't really happen. And you go, oh, tell me more. But now the fucking.

[Chrissy]

Right away, I don't know.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

The conspiracies are happening.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

In real time with the fucking information, motherfucker. Let me. Let people get through the shit. It seems real fishy that there's a laser beam in that fire. Did you see that, bro? The fire still going.

[Brian Green]

People are still trying to get out of their houses. I was reading Disrespect. It's crazy. I was reading that fucking X, which is just a cesspool of shit right now. I'm sorry. I just got to say it out loud. I'm sure everybody's thinking it if they're not saying it out loud, but I still go to X when these events happen because you can see things in real time. And a lot of times, at least in my algorithm, you know, I've. It's been tailored to me, so I. Some of the noise is flirted out, but it's Jewish space lasers already. And it's this stuff. And I think you're right about this. Everybody is so keen to be sure that they know something that everybody else doesn't, that they're fucking special, that they understand something everybody else doesn't understand.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Moron. Yeah. Like, imagine having the discussion about the melting point of Steel on September 12th. Yeah. At least you got the loose change documentary. What was that, like, three years after the fact? Like, it was. It was way after. Now we can dissect government conspiracy, but now everything is happening at the same time. And I say all that to say that when you start trying to place blame mid tragedy, then you were taking focus away from the recovery efforts and people, even the compassion needed for people to have for those people. Yeah, I don't, I don't like that.

[Brian Green]

You are so right about this. What you in Los Angeles, this is affecting people who can, who have platforms. So I think it's like some people who have platforms, so it's kind of out loud. It's, it's a megaphone. But there's still people, they still have homes with families and you know, yeah, okay, maybe there, maybe some of those people will be able to recover and financially they'll take less of a hit than other people, but everybody gets caught up in it. It's a major metropolitan city, it's a heartbeat of this country. And we should all care about the, the exacerbation of these things because of the way that we're shitting on the earth.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

It's just, it's morons yelling. Well, the, the, the, the mayor cut the funding of the fire department, which if you dig deeper, it's not even a goddamn truth. There was a lot of money still given to the fire, but. So there's no space for truth because we don't even take time to feel anymore.

[Chrissy]

I know it's scary.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

We don't have folks.

[Brian Green]

How did you get such an. You, you know, when you were on the Daily show, which is, I think when a lot of us connected with you. Right. And I know you've been doing this for a long time.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

No, but that's fair. It's fair. It's fair to say. Yeah. Unless you watched me on Last comic standing, season 10, or heard your morning.

[Brian Green]

Show or heard your morning show, Buck Wild, Atlanta.

[Chrissy]

We're close to Alabama. Yeah. I couldn't get over to Birmingham.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Not out to Memphis.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

We actually met in the radio business, so we know a thing or two about radio. So when, when, when I connect with you in the Daily show, you have such an interesting perspective on things. It's smart, it's quick witted, it's sharp. It is, I think, gentle enough that or you're soft enough sometimes that I think it's, it can be received no matter which perspective you have. And I think that is a mix that doesn't come around a lot. Where did you get this kind of worldview? Is this just like life under your feet? Is this miles under your feet that gives you this.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

I grew up reading newspapers. I'm the child of a radio news journalist.

[Brian Green]

Your dad was very famous, right.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

So my dad was, you know, for his era, he was the first black in a lot of strange newsrooms. And he traveled the globe covering various conflicts. Got shot at pretty much everywhere, including America. Got shot at a lot of places he was covering. So I grew up in a house where Larry King Live was always on C Span. Always on. You know, granted, it was in the back room and my dad was recording it, but it was on.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

You know, that shaped a lot of just being curious about the world. And like, I remember. I remember fourth grade, man in the 80s, everybody. Everybody could write a rap song like the Teacher. I don't know. It was one of those, if y' all stop being, I'll let you rap.

[Brian Green]

The Teacher was bargaining. Yes.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Yeah, well, you know, one of those smart, one of those dangerous mind.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Michelle, who's the actress?

[Chrissy]

Michelle Pfeiffer.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Yeah, one of those. Michelle Pfeiffer. Hey, you black kids in the inner city, stop being mean. And I wrote a rap song about Michael Dukakis running against George Bush.

[Chrissy]

Oh, my God, I remember that.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Everybody else, I'm rapping. I'm the hip of the hop of the basketball. Those are my favorite sport. Just vote. Vote for Dukakis, Bush and quail. So get out the vote. That's me. That's who I've always been. And so, you know, when I look at the world now, you know, I majored in journalism. You know, I. I had an eye for more quirky, weird stuff. I always enjoyed watching pieces by Jenny Mose on cnn. Kenny Maine as well.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

People are a little quirk, a little different. Their approach to the. A little more kaleidoscopic. Yep. And how they view things. So that's kind of where it came from.

[Brian Green]

Were you a fan of Anthony Bourdain?

[Roy Wood Jr.]

No. Loved Bourdain. I, like Bourdain, is the gold standard for any shows that are pitched after him.

[Brian Green]

I couldn't agree more.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

The Bourdain for this. The Bourdain for this. The only person that I think was more ahead of the curve than Anthony Bourdain, in a way, is Dave Attell. He had a show on Comedy Central called Insomniac.

[Brian Green]

Right.

[Chrissy]

I used to watch that.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

And Insomniac, he would go around third shift, various cities, and it was kind of part Bourdain, part Dirty Jobs.

[Brian Green]

You're right about that. It was a brilliant show. Brilliant show.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

And it really was.

[Brian Green]

I was just talking to one of somebody that works here with us, like a booking agent. And I was just. She was talking about Dave Attell. And I was like, dave Attell, to me, is one of my heroes. Because as a young man growing up, that show was mind blowing. The fact that he could sit there and go with the garbage man in Manhattan for two hours, three hours on his shift, or go under the city in the sewers or whatever, make it funny, make it interesting, but then teach you something along the way was it.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Just broke the mold heckling tattoo artists mid needles. This man is psychotic. Great. So this exploration of the world and what's going on and why things are the way they are, I had that I get at the Daily Show. And what changed was the Daily Show. When you look at any world issue and you're trying to mine humor from it, right. The more painful and terrible and horrific the thing is, there's not pain in the actual thing. The jokes come in the causation or the prevention.

[Brian Green]

So interesting.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

If you're looking at, say, the LA fires, we could go back and roll back the clocks and look at Mayor Karen Bass and her policies regarding fire funding. Find truth in that. Or not. Or you can go on the angle of conspiracy theorists muddying the information pool when people are trying to evacuate. So those are two realms where you could crack jokes safely and it's not at the expense of the people that are suffering the most, the victims. Yeah. So the Daily show gave me a. I know for that because Trevor Noah, my comedy before Daily show was very angry. I was rooted in anger. Anger was the main ingredient from which I mined the humor where you can change anger into why is or have you ever noticed, and you can go to the same places and people are more inclined to receive that.

[Brian Green]

I think. Yeah, I think that's. That's a really keen observation and it's a keen way of looking at things. And maybe that is part of the ingredient that attracts me to your comedy is that it's not. You're not coming at someone hot. There are comedians who do this really well, right? There are, yeah, there are comedians who do this well. And I think. Who is the Lewis? Black was one of the guys.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Black is great.

[Brian Green]

He's great.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Ron Chang, kind of like a new Lewis Blackish, in a way.

[Brian Green]

Agreed.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

He can get ranty. I just. I can't do it. Also, I think my face is too round. You want teddy bear face.

[Brian Green]

So as we were record starting this, Jimmy Carter's getting laid to rest. And Jimmy Carter, probably the best ex president that ever lived. I think some people would argue that maybe not the best president that ever lived. But he certainly was a man who dedicated the second half of his life to amazing things. Right. We were watching and I'm interested to hear your perspective. We were watching some of the coverage of this and we see all of the ex presidents are sitting there in.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

The first two rows over there, chuckling with Obama.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, he's chuckling with Obama. And then Bush, Bush walks into the row. Obama stands up because Laura, Bush is there with George. And so he stands up, I imagine, to let them in and to be a gentleman. And Trump doesn't even look at them, nor does George Bush look at him. Roy, what is your take? I think it's so insane that even when. Petty, petty, bullshit. And there are six people on this earth, five people on this earth now that are alive, that have been the most powerful, quote, unquote, men in the world. And usually the funerals are where we can at least act like civilized fucking human beings for a minute. But this guy can't even for two seconds swallow his fucking. I don't know what it is.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Here's the bigger thing you missed as well. Michelle Obama's not.

[Chrissy]

Not there. I thought that too earlier. I was like, she doesn't even want to be in the room.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

But it, but if, you know, you got to sit by Trump, Melania, maybe you don't want to do it. You know, you're looking at the same thing the week before when Vice President Harris is swinging in all the members of Congress and the husband of one of the Nebraska.

[Chrissy]

Didn't shake her hand.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Wouldn't shake. Wouldn't shake the. Wouldn't shake her hand.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

This is your wife's first day at work. Yeah. Why are you even here when they giving out name tags?

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

It is unbelievably insane to me. What is your take?

[Roy Wood Jr.]

These are the same people that go, we need to come across the aisle.

[Chrissy]

We need to come together.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

We're together. You won't even shake my hand at another dude's fucking funeral.

[Brian Green]

Roy. They can't even get in the same aisle together. They can't even shake hands when they're on the same aisle. It's become a totally dysfunctional. I mean, the government has been dysfunctional for a lot of people for a long time. It doesn't work for many people. And I think that's part of the reason why we end up with a second Trump term. But what is your.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

It's like award shows. I went to the BET Awards and they like literally have like the seat place signs the Day before for rehearsal. Yeah. And you're like, okay, we got to make sure 50 can't be next to Ja Rule, but you can't be too close to Ashanti. But Nelly hates the Scottish. Ashanti sits here. Nelly and Ashanti over here. But Jay Z, he's not confirmed. It's that weird thing. But with old politics, with old white men, I think that. I think that we're in a bad place. And I think even within Trump's cabinet right now, you're still seeing infighting and dis. So they can't even come across the aisle on the same side of the aisle. So it's. I really think to a degree, a lot of this. A lot of this presidential term will come down to how efficient of a cabinet he has.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

This isn't even about Congress or this, you know, Senate or the House coming together. And can they. No. Can you motherfuckers at your private decide on what you gonna propose for the people to argue about in the chambers?

[Brian Green]

I couldn't agree with you more.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

You can't do it, can you? No Argue about immigration. What's the best you got so far? Motherfucker. Oh, let's buy Greenland.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Change the name of the Gulf of Mexico. Right. Imminent domain. That's what. That's what he voted for.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

I make Canada the 51st state, you idiot.

[Brian Green]

It's unbelievable. I don't even think Panama has a standing army. I mean, that's. If you're picking a fight with someone that does. I don't even think has a standing army.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

And take they little river docks machine.

[Brian Green]

I know. By the way, Mexico is building a better river dock machine, so I don't think the Panama Canal is going to be as valuable as Trump thinks it is. Correct. When you did a special, I wanted to say this to you. You did a special. I watched it a couple of months ago, and I was reminded before you came on of the very beginning of the special. You start talking about the national anthem and how uncool it is, and if you just made a cooler national anthem, maybe we could all stand for patriotism a little bit more. But don't you agree that this was done well one time? One time by Whitney Houston. The national anthem was sung in a way where we could all get the feels about the national anthem.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

I'm not going to say what I'm saying in an unpatriotic sense. I'm simply asking a question of why at fun shit do we have to sing the anthem and remember the country? Don't Forget America. Good.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Football. No. You should be singing this. I got audited. I've been audited three times by the irs. And I don't know if you've ever been in a labor dispute with an employee over, like, wages and stuff where it gets really messy and you have to go up to the department of. Of labor. And in New York State, I had to drive up to Albany to prove I did not owe this guy what he said I owed him. And. And I was very angry at how up this country is that someone can literally just on a sheet of paperwork in a rumor without me even having an opportunity for discourse, have all my frozen so I can't even do business with the other people that are honest and that I want to pay.

[Brian Green]

No way.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Now you should make me stand for the anthem because I'm not feeling very patriotic.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, exactly.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Because this country is. And the way you allow people to each other and the Rockets. Don't forget America is good. That's. That's when you're at the DMV for four hours. Yeah. Before you leave. Sing. Sing the.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Give you your license. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

I. I understand the need for the anthem, but I just wish we would write a new one that was jamming a little harder. Just because something's old doesn't mean we have to keep doing it.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. No, I don't disagree with you. Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

I don't disagree for more. And that was a funny. Like, when you get into, like the idea of research into your earlier question. To me, journalistically, the idea of doing research on a topic I find fascinating. And it wasn't until I wrote that joke and I went, well, where did the anthem. We know Francis Scott Key made the flag, but who wrote the. And then you realize the anthem is a remake of a British song.

[Brian Green]

Oh, this is right. You talked about this in a special. That's right.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Track. This we've been singing this whole time is based on a beat by the. We whooped.

[Chrissy]

I'm nominating you to come up with something new.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Maybe we should have new anthem. And that was all that was. And thankfully, the real patriots didn't get mad. They understood where I was coming from.

[Brian Green]

Well, I mean, I think we can all agree that the. The national anthem as a jam is a little bit outdated. As a jam, it's a little bit.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Outdated, but too low.

[Brian Green]

I know, but I. I still. Every time I hear that Whitney B3M. Every time I hear that version by Whitney Houston gives me chills up my spine. I think that's the Only version of the national anthem that has given me.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

It's the only one I would counter with Jimi Hendrix on the.

[Chrissy]

Oh, yeah, that's a. Oh, yeah, that's a classic.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Woodstock, where he did.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, yeah, he did it in Woodstock. And they did it the Montreal music. Montreal Jazz Fest also. And there's two versions that float around. The one where he set the guitar on fire was the Montreal one. But, man. Yeah, he.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Give me that. Yes, but otherwise, just let the game start. We know America's dope. I. I don't. You know, or. Or maybe like after you, like when the McRib comes back, you think this country's up. But then the McRib came, like, right after the election, and I was perfect timing. Yeah. The mainstream media don't want you to realize this. He didn't give us the food. Food to pacify us because we don't get angry about the election. I saw a laser beam in the fire. Fire came right after they took the McRib away. I ain't saying that the McGregor keeps us peaceful. I have 2 million followers while I'm struggling to get 3 likes on a TikTok.

[Brian Green]

This is a fucking crazy shit, Roy. We have been saying that we've been doing this for five years. No bluster in my. In these sales. I'm just going to say it like it is. We tend to be somewhere on. On the. Near the up of the charts of the podcast universe. We've been blessed in the set in our audio. We are on the struggle bus to get anybody to pay attention to us on social media. It is the worst in the algorithm has. Has put us in algorithm jail. My penis is small. I don't know what's going on. But the. At YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, it's just so difficult. But then I will see right now, yeah, I will see an old white man with his shirt off with big old man titties flopping around to some song. And he's got 6 million followers and anything that he does, he farts on the camera. And then he gets 50,000 likes. It's unbelievable.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

What? Yes.

[Brian Green]

This is what's wrong with this country.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Brand deal. And then drink. They give him 100,000. Hey, I'm fart man. When I'm farting, I drink again. Extreme murder water, whatever they call it now, right?

[Brian Green]

It's me McGillicuddy, floppy titties here for.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Murder War mouth drown.

[Brian Green]

He. You know, this is like. Tell me about the Daily show. Your take on leaving the Daily show to me. Was. I think you said it best. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I saw a number of places where you said this. And I know this is a little bit old news, but I'm interested in it. You said, hey, listen, I know that I am dispensable because that's what happens in media. Everybody. All personalities are dispensable. Everybody's dispensable. My brother works in media. We work in me. We know it in entertainment in general. So before somebody else has a chance to take control of my destiny, I'm going to take control of my own destiny. I'm going to call the shots. And I thought that was brilliantly said. Do you feel. Not vindicated, but do you feel good about leaving the Daily Show? Has that been. Does that feel like a good move?

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the. I think that. I think that when you look at people who make choices that people call brave or good or bold, you have to look at their assessment of fear and what they're jumping into. I feel like in leaving the Daily Show, I was jumping into anything that I hadn't already been in before. I've swam in these waters. What? Career uncertainty. Not sure what's next. Trying to figure it out. Yeah. I know those waters really well. I've been in this place. But every other time I was in those waters, I was pushed in the pool. Yeah. So I can look around here and I can go, okay, there is no host. Hassan Minhaj is out. You don't know when or what. But this is before John. I left before Jon Stewart was even a rumor. Yeah. So Jon Stewart returning. I mean, so. Huh. Well, if you don't know what the. I could stay for a little while, but eventually it's gonna be. What the.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

And I don't know. I should probably start thinking about what I want to do next. Yeah. Because I'm not careful. And keep. And keep in mind. But keep in mind, at that time, that show had no host correspondence. Were guest hosting, which was working fine for the ratings.

[Brian Green]

I thought so. I thought that. I thought it was good.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Yeah, Fine. But this company's in a merger. What if you merge and you don't want to do this show no more? And don't tell me that that's not a possibility or the show has been on. It's an institution. All these shits is institutions until they're not.

[Chrissy]

Anything's possible until they're not.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

12:30 on CBS was an institution.

[Brian Green]

That's right.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

And then you're like, no, we're not going to spend that kind of money anymore. We'll do something that's cool and affordable, and we'll do after midnight. All right, cool. So what is. What is. What is bulletproof when you're in an era where they will shoot a 30 million, a 50 million, a $100 million movie and not even release that bitch crazy? Because it does not make sense.

[Chrissy]

Wow.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

So that's fucking expendable. So anything is fucking possible. So now was that understanding of the landscape and you're on a show that. And then you're looking at everything that's going on with media companies imploding, we're making less shows. We're laying off people. The writers strike just ended it. We're going to pay writers more, but to offset it, we're going to make less shows. So I don't know what's going on, but I do know an election year is coming up, and I know what I do really well is talk shit about politics.

[Chrissy]

Yes.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

So if there's ever an opportunity to build a new place for myself, it is going to be now. And it is evident to me, per my conversations with Comedy Central, this ain't nothing to do with the Daily show producers. This is above them. And I know for a fact, within Comedy Central, y' all aren't trying to build any new fucking pedestals right now.

[Chrissy]

Right.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

You're not trying to put nothing on after Daily show right now. And you got a child defeat then you. You are probably smarter to. To leave now and figure it out. And you're blessed enough to be able to go and sell a special to Hulu and go sell a book and sell two TV shows, and that'll kite you. That'll kite you.

[Brian Green]

That'll get you to the next thing. Yeah.

[Chrissy]

Congratulations.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

So we're out, and we got. It's not like a full parachute, but it's like that drag shoot.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

To start slowing you down.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

And hopefully you get.

[Brian Green]

Hopefully you land somewhere. Well, I would say. I mean, I've now seen the Hulu Special promoted in a number of different places.

[Chrissy]

Comes out on the 17th, right?

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. January 17th.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I think. I think this was a. I think this was a good move because you're right. It's like, okay, you could keep on doing the spinny wheel thing and, you know, John coming back made sense, I guess, in context for Comedy Central or whoever was doing that. And, you know, kudos to John for toeing the line through the terrible election. But at the end of the day, you Writing your own check. I think that's what I like about podcasting, if I'm being honest. We all have come from radio. You come from radio. Radio is a place where you learn really quickly that you are. The personalities are treated like such shit. Talent is not fostered, it's not welcome, it's not loved on.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Once you know that. Pedigree.

[Brian Green]

Once you know that.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Once you know that.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, you know what to do.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Look weird.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Gone, gone. That's right.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

I'm leaving now because this looks weird and I don't know what the.

[Brian Green]

Yes. And I think John.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Oh, if John. If you knew Jon Stewart was going to be there, would you have left? No, I would have stayed. That's John Stewart. But I still would have been wondering what's next? Cuz it ain't going to be hosting this. Yes, it's John Stewart.

[Brian Green]

Stewart.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Yeah. So now, if anything, being with Jon Stewart or some other. I would have stayed with Hassan too. Like, it would have. I would have bought some time. But that five months of the writer strike gave me a moment to go, wait a minute, what the fuck? I need to be in control and I want to. I'm eating at other people's tables. I got to build mine. So the idea of, man, I remember in radio, man, I seen so many motherfuckers get fired.

[Chrissy]

So we did too.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Me too. But I mean, you know, you go home one night and they would change the format of the station, the whole. Yes.

[Brian Green]

At one in the morning. And then you come in and everybody'd be like, I guess we're selling Spanish now. I guess that's what's happening.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

We had the reverse. We had. Agg was 1320, and then it was like 680. La Mexicana. La Mexicana. Birmingham's number one for La Mexicana. And they was playing all the Latino shit. And then one night, I'm just in the production room, I hear like. And then. And then at midnight, on the nose. Jesus.

[Chrissy]

Oh, God.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

You're the center of my joy. They will flip a format and email you in the dead of night until you don't come in. We've already boxed your. That's it. FedEx it to you. So I'm not, I'm not waiting for that when I know that's one of the possibilities right now.

[Brian Green]

I think that's why it's so difficult to be in entertainment for someone like you right now. How many comedians we've talked to that say, well, listen, you know, the Netflix special is great, but I went to Veeps because I can kind of, you know, control my own destiny a little bit. Like, everybody has to make their own lane, and those lanes are getting smaller and smaller and harder and harder to define. And so you have nobody else to rely on except for your, yourself and possibly a team, if you're lucky enough to have one, and that's it. But the good news is, I think out of this is that the world is evolving in a way, technology is evolving in a way that we can make our own lane, and we don't always need the huge players in the game to kind of get from point A to point B and make a living doing this. But, hey, listen, having a Hulu, having a special on Hulu, or having the comfort of a daily show chat or whatever it is is still a good thing, right? It's still a thing that feels good at night when you lay your head down and you go, well, at least tomorrow I go into Comedy Central and I get a nice paycheck on the 15th and the 1st. That's it, right? And I work with great people and talented. I mean, you spent what, six years there? Was it six years? Eight years?

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Eight.

[Brian Green]

You spent eight years.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

So I, you know, and that was a great run, but it was. If whatever I'm gonna do next, this is the year to go do it. This has been a great job and a great opportunity, but I know this is not permanent. Regardless of Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Colbert, they all could have come back one by one and all had a respective day sooner or later. My time here is finite. Yeah, your time in any place is finite. So if you want to do more, then you're gonna have to leave. So when you leave can either be up to you or it can be up to them. So I just chose to leave. And I'll figure it out. I always have. Yeah, I started this shit sleeping on the fucking bus. So don't talk to me about order. The big chance. Are you scared? I know. At minimum. At minimum, I can leave my house right now, and there are 30 cities I can travel to where strangers will show me love and I will give them jokes in exchange for money. And my bills will be paid. My son will be straight, his mama too. And that's all that matters.

[Brian Green]

That's all that matters.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

As long as I got that. Yeah, all this other shit is extra gravy, bro.

[Brian Green]

So I tell my wife, I tell my wife, I say, hey, listen, babe, in times of struggle, and there have been, especially during the pandemic, right when we're starting the podcast in times of struggle, financial struggle, I told my wife, I said, babe, at the very least, I know I can pick up the phone and start shaking the tree and something will fall out of it. It may not be a brand new car or a beautiful big house, but it'll be food that we can put on the table. I know I'm smart enough to do that and I know I have the ability to do that. And in life, if I can give that to my kids, if I can give that same attitude and skill set to my kids to maneuver to make it happen, then I will have given them the biggest blessing ever. Because in this life, you need to learn a couple things. And one of them is it's all on you. Ain't no one coming to save you. Not the government, sometimes not friends and family, even though they may want to.

[Chrissy]

If you want to get something done, do it.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And I think you take the best attitude in the world about the Daily show when you say, hey, listen, I'm the dog. The tail is gonna wag the dog on this one and I'm gonna make it. So the Hulu special comes out on the 17th.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Yeah. And you're doing work with CNN Summer 17 and CNN. We're back. Season two. Have I got news for you.

[Brian Green]

Great show.

[Chrissy]

I'm excited.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

You can stream the la the last couple episodes on Max and it all we're doing is doing a fake quiz show about the week that was in politics. But a lot of these issues are timeless. So I think it makes this show still very streamable. Yeah. Wait, that's not a word, is it?

[Chrissy]

We'll make it.

[Brian Green]

We made it a word. We just made it a word. It's a streamable.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Of his product is.

[Brian Green]

Very high stream ability. Senior floppy tits on the stream of Streamability. Roy Wood Jr's brand new streaming platform.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

That comes in 2027.

[Chrissy]

How is the. How is doing the White House correspondence dinner in 2023? Yeah. That must have been a highlight.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

That was chaos. That it's wow. You can look at, you can do a political joke. Look out and you can see Caitlyn Jenner staring at you with a scowl two tables over. And it's Lester Holt.

[Podcast Announcer]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

And not like a full throated laugh because these are still his colleagues I'm joking about. But it was that. It was a black man giving me that encouraging brother.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

You've been like. Like when Mr. Miyagi at the end of the first Karate Kid when Daniel wins, Miyagi looks on at him and smiles and goes.

[Chrissy]

That'S great.

[Brian Green]

I think when you do the White House correspondence dinner, you have officially made it. When they ask you to get up there and roast them, that's. Listen, the White House correspondents dinner and Jimmy Carter's funeral are the two places where we're supposed to be at least a little bit. At least a little bit jovial and, and kind to each other. And we'll see. We'll see if they even have a correspondence dinner this upcoming year. I mean, didn't. He Can't. Didn't. Didn't it get canceled?

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Have some author or something? I, I, I'd really hope they.

[Brian Green]

Roy Wood Jr. For the White House correspondence dinner.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Slow down. I ain't say I want to do that. I said it was a good time. I just say I want to do it twice.

[Brian Green]

Would you grab an award show? Would you, if you had. If you were given the option to do the Golden Globes, would. Or one of those, would you. Would you jump up there and do that?

[Roy Wood Jr.]

I'd say yes to all those shits, man. And in fact, I would argue those are more difficult. Award shows are more difficult than a correspondence dinner because politicians and journalists don't necessarily take themselves as serious as actors.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, that's true.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Politicians aren't gonna necessarily argue. They're not gonna laugh at everything because of the politics of the room.

[Brian Green]

Right.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

But actors. How dare you make a joke about anything? And why would you make a joke about him? He is a smart Stella performer. Wow, that was a mean joke. Like, it's a lot of that. Yeah, you can make those people laugh then. That's a, That's a, That's a whole different world. Like, I'd say the only room that's probably more difficult or an actor that I think does a great job hosting I think is underrated is Anthony Anderson with the NAACP Image Awards. Oh, he's done some stuff with the Emmys, but. But when you're dealing with a room full of black folks and reverence and history and culture and how dare you. And civil rights.

[Chrissy]

Right.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

And you can get them to laugh. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Anthony is really funny, by the way. And I thought Nikki did a good job with the Golden Globes, by the way. No knock on her. I heard she got paid pretty big. Astrid asked me, and my wife asked me, how much do you think those people get paid? And I said, I don't know that they get paid much at all, because it's just like raising their profile, you know, they get. But I was wrong.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Sounds like super bowl. Hosting. I don't know what Nikki got, but I know the Emmys pays dick and I know that the correspondence dinner doesn't pay much. And I say not much in the sense of this is just enough to turn around and just pay your writers.

[Brian Green]

Right? Yeah. She said on Stern, I think she said she got paid close to half a million dollars to do that. Yeah, that's not a bad team of four.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Yeah, that's a solid day.

[Brian Green]

We have to do 200 episodes of this show to gross that. Roy wood Jr. S brand new special is out on Hulu just a couple of days from now. We're releasing this just a few days from when it comes out. We'll make it Roy Wood Jr. Week. We're going to make sure we talk about it. We'll have the links in the show notes CNN season number two. Roy, you are welcome back anytime. It is honestly, we have been so excited about this since we agreed to thanks for coming on and I have enjoyed watching you get super famous and I hope you continue to kill it. We're on your side.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

I appreciate it. And next time I'm on, I have the right map where Africa's the right side.

[Chrissy]

That's right.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Thank you.

[Brian Green]

Thank you. I've been saying this and so is the West Wing for a long time. That's where I learned about it on the West Wing. But anyway, that's for the next conversation. Thanks, Roy. We appreciate it.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Have a good one.

[Podcast Announcer]

Have you got a hankering down deep in your soul to tell us what's up? Well, I am encouraging you to do just that. Text us at 212-4333, TCB and tell us what's going on. Give us the haps. Tell us the dirty secrets of your life. That's all we've ever wanted to hear. You can also leave us a voicemail at the same number. That's 212-433-3822. And also follow us on Instagram at the commercial break and on TikTok CB podcast. And if you want to see any video episodes, you can go to YouTube.com thecommercial break and they are all right there. And if your hankering is not to tell us what's up, but it's for a new sticker, I'm sure there's probably one on the website. Go to tcbpodcast.com click contact us and find I want my free sticker. I know you can do it and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on anything and everything. Love you. Bye.

[Brian Green]

Okay, so like a little behind the scenes about Roy. In Our interview with Roy, 99. 9, 9 9% of the time, guest comes on through this little software portal that we have, the magic of telepodcasting. We have the guests come on, we do a little chitty chatty, we explain how the show goes and the structure of the show, and then we tell them, okay, we're now going to go into the interview portion. But we were so engrossed in conversation with Roy right from the beginning that we never even did that. You actually heard everything that had to do every moment of the conversation with Roy Wood Jr. Which is unusual, quite frankly, for us. But I think that's good. You know, you pointed out the new Severance podcast, which is on Odyssey, our network, and you can go download it for. Download the Odyssey app for free. And then you can listen to Severance or anywhere you listen to your podcast. And I say this because I love Severance and ours too. And I say this because I love Severance, the show. And I am so excited that on the same day Roy Wood Jr's new special comes out, the next episode of Severance will be out.

[Chrissy]

But exciting.

[Brian Green]

Chrissy pointed out to me last night, she called me and she said. Or she texted me. She said, hey, listen, did you listen to the Severance podcast where they were talking about podcast guesting? Like, who was the guest?

[Chrissy]

What, on the Severance one? On Severance, Yeah, it was the guy that plays. I think his name's Zach, but he's. He plays Dylan.

[Brian Green]

Oh, that's right. Yeah, his name is Zach. You're right. Okay, so Zach is on there with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott, and they are talking, and he is explaining that it's often a little uncomfortable with. With podcasts because they either have to be in the studio or on some phone call or video phone call for 30 or 40 minutes while the guests.

[Chrissy]

Listen to the host blabber on like they're not even there.

[Brian Green]

Exactly. So weird.

[Chrissy]

So the guy. The. The guy Zach was like, yeah, I thought I had more phone time. Sorry. Wait, you're ready to go into it?

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I thought I. I thought I had time to waste. Oh, you actually want to talk to me? Yeah, but Chrissy and I made a decision a long time ago.

[Chrissy]

I'm glad we're not doing that.

[Brian Green]

That the guests would probably leave immediately.

[Chrissy]

While we had them. We just had to go.

[Brian Green]

If they had to listen to us for 15 to 20 minutes before they actually came on. So we don't make them suffer through that Anyway, all right, so Roy Wood Jr. New special on Hulu, January 17th. Please do check it out. What a good guy I really had enjoyed my conversation.

[Chrissy]

Very pleasurable.

[Brian Green]

I, I, there's some guests you see you could go out and have coffee or a beer with and then there's other guests where they're good. It's a great conversation. But you're like, I don't know if I could sit. I don't know that we would get along had the lights and cameras not been on.

[Chrissy]

Right.

[Brian Green]

Not got along, but had such a good conversation. If it wasn't, I feel like Roy was one of those people you could go and sit and have a beer with and you would feel very comfortable that you wouldn't run out of conversation.

[Chrissy]

Interesting life he really has.

[Brian Green]

And from radio to last comic standing to daily show to now, you know.

[Chrissy]

Man of the people, cnn.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, yeah. I look forward to seeing what's next with Roy. All right, so all the links in the show notes, go check out his special and we're going to catch you tomorrow on another episode of the commercial break. Sorry. Christina and I just doing baseball conversations.

[Chrissy]

With your hands.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, baseball hand signals to each other.

[Chrissy]

You guys do need like some signals.

[Brian Green]

We do. It's this.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, this.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I just pointed over there when I want to end the show. All right, well, you know how to get a hold of us. DCB podcast.com that's where you find more information about the show, all the show notes, all the sponsors, links and codes, all of our guest information. You can get your free TCB swag. You can do that by hitting the contact us button drop down menu. I want my free sticker. Give us your physical address and we, we will send you something. Please do 212-433-3822-212-4333. TCB questions, comments, concerns, content, ideas. We do take them all there. You can also leave a voicemail if you're so inclined. But if you leave a voicemail, we may play it here on air. So just be mindful of that. Add the commercial break on Instagram, TCB podcasts on TikTok.

[Chrissy]

We're up past 5,000. Come on, let's keep the momentum.

[Brian Green]

We're getting very close to 6,000 and I will tell you this, not because of our listeners, but because of the Venezuelans.

[Chrissy]

Exactly.

[Brian Green]

That reel just doesn't know how to stop. It just keeps going and going. Every time I open up, every time I look at Instagram, it's another hundred notifications. Wow. Who knew who knew throwaway lines? Anyway, speaking of Venezuelans, a special episode with our good friend and my brother in law Gustavo will be broadcast later on this week on Saturday, special bonus episode for you. So tune in and if you want to know what's important about Venezuela and how to bed your own Venezuelan. If you want to get a Venezuelan to bed, I'm going to teach you how. So tune in this afternoon.

[Chrissy]

Nothing like talking to him about. About betting his sister.

[Brian Green]

Well, it won't be the first time or the last time I've had that conversation. Thank God he's cool. That's all I gotta say. Thank God he's cool. We have many kids. I think he knows what's going on. You know what I'm saying? YouTube.com the commercial break for every single episode on video, including this one with Roy. So go check it out. Subscribe. Like comment, comment on your favorite video. We'd appreciate it. Okay Chrissy, that's all I can do for today?

[Chrissy]

I think so.

[Brian Green]

I'll tell you that I love you.

[Chrissy]

I love you.

[Brian Green]

Best to you.

[Chrissy]

Best to you.

[Brian Green]

Best you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, Chrissy and I will say, we do say and we must say goodbye.

[Roy Wood Jr.]

Sam.