Chapo Trap House - 462 - Feelin’ Like Chera feat. Tim Robbins (10/12/20)

Episode Date: October 13, 2020

Will, Matt and Felix absolutely refuse to go out like Stan Chera. We discuss Trump’s ongoing battle against COVID and a bizarrely chaste sext scandal around candidate for North Carolina senate Cal Cunningham. Then, Will and Matt are joined by actor and director Tim Robbins to talk satire in the age of Trump and his new radio play podcast “Bobbo Supreme”. You can find Tim's new pod here: https://www.patreon.com/TimRobbinsPresents

It's me Matt and Felix coming at you and in a little bit Matt and I will be bringing you our first ever Oscar winner a guest on Choppo here, very excited for that. But before that I think we simply must address something, we must address a person, a person who's no longer with us. I'm talking of course about Stan Charo. Are people elected, are people of God? I have just all week long I've been feeling like Stan Charo and I've been just wracked with this like just deep-seated fear that I will go out like him.

You don't want to go out like Stan Charo. So many people in America have gone out like Stan Charo and it needs to be acknowledged. Stan Charo was an icon, Stan Charo had perfect skin, Stan Charo was unproblematic, Stan Charo always texted in the morning, Stan Charo was everything that you want a man or just a person to be and now that he's gone I feel this void in my life and I don't know what to do. I haven't showered since Stan Charo has died in May. I just love the fact that Trump now has his own personal Jacob Marley.

It's like when he got COVID and his lungs were filling with fluid and his life was flashing before his eyes he saw Stan Charo floating with a bunch of chains around him and like beads poking out of his coat. Each link I forged in life. His brother died from it. Yeah. People have probably seen me and my brother like have fun on Twitter right? Like me I have a very good relationship with my siblings.

Imagine if my brother Sam died of COVID and then I thought I was dying and I was like oh no, oh no, am I going to die exactly like John Prine? Like never met or like I used to think my first interpretation of the Stan Charo thing was like oh he likes Stan Charo more than his brother because his brother was a loser but actually like the more I deconstruct it the phrase going out like Stan Charo it's like oh no Stan Charo went out like he was a loser. He's a bitch, he's a loser because Trump believes like all Republicans believe, Trump believes that if you die of COVID you're a bitch 100 million percent and so even if he likes Stan

Charo in the kind of vague way that he can like anyone, he lost all respect for Stan Charo the minute he died. Yes. Dying means you're a loser. You've lost at the game of life. You've lost the game of life, Napoleon, great general, one of the best but he died. He's a loser. The stuff he did, imagine the activities he did with Stan Charo, like went to the world's

most room temperature buffet with him, watched like 17 year olds ice skate at the Plaza and gurgled their asses, fast forwarding to the dogfighting scenes from Iron Eagle together because they're both dry drunk. Did you see the, there's an interview with him from like May or June where it's about how he started you know taking Corona seriously and he goes I actually knew four people that died from it and he goes one in particular a great like perfect man and that's Stan Charo. It has to be Stan Charo.

I keep fantasizing about Trump like you know going out to you know on the balcony like Mussolini waving at everyone and just like looking down the National Mall and just looking to the sky and seeing Stan Charo just in the clouds just beckoning to him like easy easy and the crossroads video with both things in harmony. I'll see you at the crossroads Stan. I was laughing about Stan Charo and some right wing guy replied to me and was like oh you fucking lib. You think that happened?

It's like if one thing has happened during the Trump presidency, that's it. Yes. No one made that up on Trump's behalf because the Trump is always able to outpace your wildest realistic imaginings of what he could do or say. Be the thing with the fucking Superman t-shirt which means and that means that no one thought of Stan Charo. He thought of that. What what like one of his like Oh again, Giddly or one of these fucking fucking Dr. Sue

named assholes Kayleigh McEnany like goes through scrolls through his like his blackberry and finds a guy. Oh yeah, Stan Charo and then like reverse engineers that bit just so that they could put it into the fucking week the Hill. No, no. He said that shit. He said, am I going to go out like Stan Charo? It's like that is that's so unlike Trump.

It's so made up that he would bring up some fucking 370 pound New York real estate goblets. Does anyone remember it? What do you think he's dying? That's exactly what he would do. That's what he did. People have completely forgotten and I remember this in 2016. His candidacy is remembered as this virtuous performance of white grievance, right? He played the American electorate like a fiddle agitating all of their racial and gender and

immigration related fears to just echoing their anxieties personally in his own language. But a good 30% of every one of his some speeches was about Carl I can and how he was a killer. He's amazing. He's a shark. We're going to put him in charge of the body. It's like no one on earth knows who that is, dude. What are you talking about? He was going in front of crowds of jug hooters and talking about guys who ate scallop potatoes

with in 1987 and they were like, yes, sir, yes, yes, you're as smart as Henry Kravitz who I also love. Sir, I love I love it when you when you apply that you were an orgy with every side character from Barbarians at the gate, oh, that's a pull James Garner. Oh, that I also one of my favorite books. Oh, man. Oh, yeah, it's good stuff. Well, I mean, Liar's poker, the two best books about financialization in the 80s.

I mean, I mean, I don't want to leave him aside. God has left him aside. But, you know, you're, you're, I mean, Stan, Stan Charo lives, Stan Charo lives. Stan Charo has a posse. I'm going to start putting up street art all around New York about Stan Charo. Like what do you? Stan Charo is five foot five very short. What do you think Stan Charo's life was like?

Like he was he was the head. He was like what a like in one of these like Republican organizations in New York, which is just like, I mean, that's like one step removed from just being the mafia. It's one step removed from like a construction job. He was a real estate guy. He was 100% like a mobbed up dude, like doling out jobs to the fucking soprano family. 100%. Yeah.

Just a guy who spent his days in air conditioned rooms eating room temperature lunch meat. As you said, having just like disgusting two minute encounters with prostitutes, golfing. Yeah. And then dying like a bitch. Yeah, he was a New York developer who like just did like bullshit campaigns that are probably just money laundering activity for the Manhattan Republican party. And so, yeah, his name, not his actual name, but he's probably obliquely referenced on like every Paul Castellana wiretap as like, as like the guy, the Jew or fat man.

Yeah. Right. Well, uh, Stan Charo aside, though, I mean, it's obviously where we were all delirious last week with Trump getting COVID and being Walter Reed and then and spreading it to like half of the Republican party, but they let him out of the hospital, you know, Dunstan checks into the White House and he's he's got a highly contagious disease. I mean, I guess like I kind of sympathize with the doctors at Walter Reed because it's like he's the president.

Yeah, exactly. But like, but like, I mean, it's insane to me that they let him out of the hospital. And then like Trump just keeps saying I'm immune to it. He's immune. He's immune. He was talking to there was a really OK. So like he's he's only on two feet and speaking right now because he is just what he is doped up on like highly experimental drugs.

He is hopped up on Google. He keeps on. He keeps talking about Regeneron. Regeneron. Regeneron. Regeneron. That's not the name of the drug. It's the company.

He is just doing a fucking pitch. He's like fucking a William Devane for Gold Line. It's like, folks, I'm telling you about a wonderful new company, Regeneron. Regeneron is like is like the central item in one of those Philip K. Dick stories where you can tell he had given up. Like, I think this is the great it like I love how like just the palette is so weird now and especially the past two years, especially and this year, these two years especially been so weird that it's like the president probably eliminated 30 percent of his cognitive

power with steroids. Yep. And then he did a video looking worse than he's ever looked on the lawn of the White House and his pitch to seniors who he's just he's flagging with. He's like eating shit with seniors. Yeah. Yeah. No, he saw those polls about seniors.

Yeah. And his pitch was he was like he turned to like all the draculas that financed the Republican Party and were like, don't worry, I got this and he's like, hey, I have vaporized 30 percent of my brain with steroids. And I am going to let you do it for free. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

You see, that was awesome. He was like, cool. I am now you could be this way. You will have a free opportunity to stick your head in a microwave like James and Condenza. Felix, I was like, yeah, you said like doctors, it's wonderful. The wonderful doctors in Walter Reed. What a group. What a gang of guys.

They've deemed me, in their words, a quote, medical moron. And would you like to be like me as well? I'm giving you all these drugs for free, for free. And I was like, I feel like you showed us that text. It's an amazing news story. They're calling it Flowers for Dottled. Flowers for Dottled. He actually said it.

I think you showed us that text, Felix, you showed us that text, I think it was from like your mom or sister and she was like riffing about how Trump thinks Regeneron reanimates the dead. And he's like, we're bringing them all back. We're bringing back Stan Charo. We're going to Regeneron him. Everybody who died at COVID, they're going to be here. Don't worry about it.

That was my mom talking about using Regeneron to bring back Stan Charo. Felix's whole family is very gifted, folks. Nothing but hitters. It's maybe probably the best group chat I'm in. The other thing, the other thing, there was a two very funny interviews over the past couple of days. There's one he gave with Hannity and someone pointed out, though, that like when he first got out of the hospital, it was very telling that he was doing these sort of White House

lawn videos. They were probably all shot one right after another, but he wasn't calling in to his friends on TV. Not at all. That's how you know he was pretty fucked up. But eventually, I mean, he has recovered, I don't know which God to thank for that. But so yeah, no, he was calling it to Hannity and then he muted himself on Hannity so that he could cough up half of his fucking lung.

And then there was a, he was talking to Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business and then he just says like, he's just like talking about how good the Regeneron makes him feel. And then he goes, he says to her, it's because I'm, he's like, I don't know, I'm immune. He goes, it's because it's because I'm extremely young. He said, perfect physical specimen and a perfect physical specimen who is extremely young. Folks, I'm baby. I'm baby. The Regeneron's made me a baby.

It's Benjamin Button. I'm Benjamin Button. But just think about that. He said that, imagine what hopped up on all the goofballs that he has suited to the gills. Imagine what he sees in the mirror right now. Like, what kind of vision does he see caught by? It's like when Marge asks Homer if he has a drinking problem and he's like, do you drink to escape reality?

And he's like, nope, dude, he's flexing in the mirror. He's, yeah, I'm a perfect physical specimen and very young. That is like a caption on like an e-girl photo. And the other really good thing that he said, and you're totally right though, that, I mean, he is aware of these polls that I've seen that show a huge shift away from him from people over 60, which, let's be honest, is the election. That's all politics in America. No, you've got four.

You've got four. They're the only people who vote. Like, yeah, that's everyone who matters, at least as far as our democracy is concerned. And he had another really good line in one of the White House lawn videos where he was just like, to our seniors, our beautiful seniors, you know, everyone keeps saying that you're vulnerable. Well, you're not vulnerable. Well, except maybe do this one thing, you're pretty vulnerable, but you know, we're going

to help you out. We're going to give you that. Yeah. He's just like, he's like, they keep calling you the vulnerables and you're not, you're just like me. He also said, I'm vulnerable, which is amazing that he ever said that. Yeah. The entire group therapy session cheered when he did that.

Yeah. Yeah. That's true. He's doing CBT. And by that I mean cock and ball torture. That's a goodwill hunting shit. Yeah. It's not your fault, Donald.

I think the worst thing he could have done for his chances, I mean, it's a bad reflection on America and our politics and all of us. But the worst thing he could have done for his reelection was not oversee the deaths of 200,000 Americans. It was to give himself Corona and because it made him look fucking is stupid and weak and foolish and like a fucking mark. Like he's the all he did was talk about like not wearing masks and like don't let it dominate your life.

And it's like, it's changed your life forever. Like you, you are never going to be the same. You are fucked up forever. You are already fucked up from like being addicted to diet pills, but this is the most fucked up you've ever been and you're never getting out of this. And it just like it makes him look apparently weak and foolish. Well not only have they checked him out of the hospital as he continues to just like he's walking around like pig pen in the cloud of fucking virus particulate matter.

But no, apparently, according to according to news reports, he wants to do a live event a rally every single day from now until election day. He's got to move that paper, which I mean, I think is great. Yeah, I think it's great. But you know what though? I mean, obviously, like anything can happen. Who the fuck knows what's going to happen on election day or what's going down. But I mean, if you just compare Trump in 2016, when no one thought he was going to win and

he was just playing with house money to now we're like, I mean, he's looking at the same polls everyone else is. And when you're when you're not president, you can say the polls don't matter. But like he has been president for four years now. And it's just it's it's harder to have that to play loose. You know what I mean? And what's he doing now? He's going into full whiner mode.

And he's getting mad that like Bill Barr has an indicted Hillary. He's talking about fucking Hillary Clinton in 2020. He's just like, hey, hey, remember crooked Hillary, everybody like I've been playing all my hits. Would you like to get high like me for free? I don't have my spectacular brain for free. He is looking through the he's through the looking glass. He's looking through the prism of time because like time is bending around him because of

how high his metabolism is jacked. And he is seeing 2016 in the mirror and he's like, there, go back there and and everyone will. That was fun. That was good. Yeah. But no, no, I mean, Hillary has tried her best. But they're doing this whole Obamagate thing now.

Yeah. Obamagate is the most it's the most boring Trump scene. Like I, I consider myself an expert on these things on the Glenn Simpson and Nellie or stuff. Oh, yeah. I can't really tell you what Obamagate is. As far as I understand, it's about how Obama told like fuck what Susan Rice to like put out a memo saying to wiretap Michael Flynn to make Donald Trump look bad.

So he would lose the election because everyone would know about the wiretap. But it's like clearly not in it like clearly. I guess it wasn't any of it released. Yeah. I don't understand. Like they just collected it and then let it win. I guess it releasing it beforehand. I guess that Obamagate's kind of like it's the most realistic of these accusations against

Obama and the deep state because it's like, well, if Obama was going to use the deep state to sabotage another president, another candidate, it would be like, it would be something where it's like, all right. So a year after he's president, everyone will find out about the wiretap, it will make them look so bad. I gotta let him win. I gotta say, this makes me a limb, but it doesn't really trouble me or my civil liberties spirit to imagine that the FBI investigated a guy running for president who is just gigantically

in debt to various Russian fucking mafia figures that everyone knew about. It's like, then they say in the Comey rule, like this guy might be a security threat. It's not, that wasn't crazy to think. I'm not saying it meant that he was Putin's puppet, but from the point of view of being something like the justice department, and you see this guy running for president, and you see the people all around him, I don't understand. I don't, I'm not horrified that the bourgeois state as such reacted that way. Yeah.

I'm not even like, you don't even have to go to Russia. You would notice like this guy completed a complete 180 on his posture on Turkey and Erdogan within three months of them giving him like, yeah, $250,000. And it's like, oh, maybe this guy shouldn't have a fucking clearance. Flynn was openly doing crimes. He was like exchanging fucking money for influence as a goddamn general. It's absurd. Yeah.

And it's like, he got off pretty fucking light for what he did, for what he, like everyone like that in DC, nothing fucking happened to him. I mean, Flynn, I don't really give a shit too much about the thing that Flynn went down for, like the phone called it, kiss the liac, because it's like, okay, he should have called him what three weeks later. I mean, like Flynn as NSA, he was better than Bolton, I guess, because just out of sheer corruption, Flynn was less interventionist and posture in a lot of cases, but he was still like shitty.

He was still like a bad conservative NSA. He was barely even there. Yeah. He got the can almost immediately. Yeah. I mean, that's like a month later. That's the thing. Even if you agree with Flynn policy wise, he showed himself to be too fucking stupid.

Too fucking stupid not to get caught. And the thing is, is that, like, I know there's a lot of people who edgily like to, you know, wrap this stuff up as a, like a, a aha to liberals of like, ah, you guys were caring about, uh, Russia gate made up Russia gate, whereas this was a real, you know, violation by the government and look, they, you know, leaked this to the press and that constitutes propaganda. I'm sorry. To me, these are mirror things.

This is all 100% war in bourgeois fucking politics. This is while capitalist parties and capitalist systems operate. There's nothing to be outraged about either way. It's fair ball and like to care about it is to become care mad on behalf of what the Republican party and the personal ego of Donald fucking Trump, who just wants to get rid of the asterisk next to his victory that's really there because of his own insecurity and the fact that he lost by 3 million votes. Yeah.

That's the fucking asterisk. Exactly. But he can't get after that. He has to get after it by saying, although I would have won. I would have won if it wasn't for the dastard Obama gate people. And so caring about that from the right position or even from some sort of pro-contrary and populist position is just a mirror image of the libs clinging to fucking Russia gate as an explanatory mechanism.

I mean, it doesn't that doesn't require them to examine the deeper structural failings that led to it. Yeah. Yeah. And like, can you be on just that one one skews left in defensive Trump or one skews right in defensive Trump and one skews left in defensive Hillary? Can you really find a tonal or any big difference in between the people who cry about Lev Parnas and the guy about Glenn Simpson?

What's the difference? Same thing. There's no garbage no one cares about. And that's the thing. The only thing this matters about the only way reason we're even talking about this is because Trump is making this his like end zone pitch the last minute fucking whining to get away from what looks like from the polls of an ass kicking. And he's grabbing it at these straws around this idea.

Is it going to matter? And I say it's going to matter to normal people that going to ones who are going to decide this as much as Russia gate does, which is zero. It's a mirror thing, which means it's it mirrors its electoral irrelevancy. No one gives a shit about Nellie or or Glenn Simpson or Lev Parnas or Yakov Smirnoff or beef stroganoff. Wherever the fuck these people are either way. He's whining.

He's whining like Stan Chara did as he choked out his last breath so that's why it actually went out like a man. Well, Stan, Trump and Stan chair were driving back from a sit down and Stan chair crashed the car and then Trump put his hand over his mouth. Yeah. I was relieved when I found out not because I was happy that Stan Chara died, but because I was afraid it will be you. That was bloody a my nephew, my nephew, Stan Chara became a fucking liability.

Who knew if he was going to this is going to be the day that he sells me out for a well done hamburger. Well, I don't want to spend all the first half of the show on Trump, but I do want to get to this other thing that has been very funny. This is a sort of this is a scandal that sort of passed under the radar because they're you know, the president has coronavirus. But we talk about the the Cal Cunningham sex that may derail his hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Cab Callaway, candidate for Senate.

Before we talk about these, can I like Jack off real quick? These are like too hot. It's really super hot. I like I the first time I read these, I had to completely throw out a pair of Adidas heroes, oh, yeah, the strength of my precom soaking them burned through it like battery acid. This is this is a really funny one because this is like yet another politician sexting scandal in which there's no actual sex thing like that, like the Alex Morse thing or you

know, like it just politicians have such a weird way of being horny. They are they are freaks. They can't do anything straightforward, which means even their sexuality is baffled by this system of like silly straw-esque bends around like rules and ideas to get away from the abstract away from the actual carnality of the thing. They're all sickos. That's why they're in politics. It's axiomatic.

This is the Cal Cunningham text reminded me of one of the last great Howard Stern bits, which was, you know, looking up on YouTube, it's still there, you listener. It's him reading the transcript, the Goddammit, Mark Sanford love letters to his, same thing. And Howard said something that I thought was so funny where he's like, these guys like need a therapist to not sound like an asshole when they're horny. And it's true because like Mark Sanford, I know everyone's probably sick of this how often I've brought it up, but the two things that stood out in his letter to me or what he goes, I was, you know, hiking or rock climbing and I thought of gripping on to part of you

or two wonderful parts of you. And then, you know, in his most like Tony or Christopher S said, these past few months with you have been a whirlwind. I know, I've probably brought up whirlwind like 50 times since the show began, but it's my favorite fucking thing anyone said. It's so fucking dumb. I probably think so highly of himself. So I mean, there is, there is sort of a twist to the scandal, though, no, I'm going to get

to it. But first, like, here's some samples from, from Cal Cunningham's to texting with the woman he's having an affair with a woman named Arlene Guzman. Oh, I thought it was Minnie the moocher. So this is, yeah, a Democratic candidate for North Carolina, Cal Cunningham. So this, this first, this is Arlene, this is the woman he's texting with. She says, Hey, I've had the most amazing dreams of our time together, and I'm thinking about you too.

Happy belated birthday to Matthew cannot believe he's eight years old. He was so little when we met, he's like, dude, stop, bitch, stop talking about my kid. You're the side piece. No, he goes, thank you. And he goes, would make my day to roll over and kiss you about now. Oh yeah, baby. All right, go get a content warning for this graphic sexuality. I would, I would, it would make my day to roll over and kiss you about now.

And then Cal says, you're sweet. I would enjoy that. Cool. Sounds fun. And she, and he goes, Hey, and you are historically sexy. Kiss face emoji every day and night. When can I see you? I want to kiss you.

And then she goes, and I kiss back a lot. Oh hell yeah. Damn. Get away for a, get away for a night soon. The longer we wait, the crazier fall schedules we'll get. Yeah. No shit. I'm running for a fucking Senate.

In the spirit of, oh wait, no, the, sorry, this is, this is, this is, uh, this is Cal Callaway, uh, saying he goes, get away for a night soon. The longer we wait, the crazier fall schedules we'll get in the spirit of, I like what I like quote on your adorable video. I operate under the, I want what I want approach and I want a night with you. Sounds wonderful. I want that too. Very badly.

That's like the lyrics from a fifties band called like the groomsmen. Yeah. Oh my God. He is like. Oh, sweetie baby. Yeah. This is Gary Tasteman's. Oh, sweetie baby.

This is Gary Tasteman. Like we're like people, they're Republicans that I keep an eye on the team, Mitch guys that I keep an eye on. I knew. So you guys saw the poll that says, uh, Cal up by 10, right? Yeah. No, he's up. He's above.

He's since this revelation, he has gone up three points in the polls. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think people are just surprised to see a potential Senator is dating people over the age of 15. Honestly. Yeah. It's like, what's Tom Tillis's answer? Uh, Hey, I keep all of my, uh, trips to my Epstein playing secret.

Okay. Yeah. This is like, like the Republicans, I thought I could tell they were worried about this because they were really trying to juice this and like they were like, Oh, look at what a bad guy he is. Like, like, what do you guys, like this is the most PG guy in either party. Like they are going to bully him so much for being a fucking cornball, uh, compared to whatever Moloch ceremonies with children they're doing, like his, they, the Republicans, I

thought they were trying to do like a, like a civil style expose about this man, like giving his letterman jacket to his mistress like everyone, everyone in either party is just like flying to islands that, that the CIA wipes off of Google earth. So no one knows. Like God knows what and the, and this fucking guy is just like, yeah, he's having an affair, but he's like, yeah, he's like, um, meet me in this safe house so we can share a malt. Yeah. He's standing outside her window with a fucking straw boat or a heliotrope bouquet.

Like, like this guy probably fucking sucks. He's a Democrat. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. He's awful. He's like, he probably fucking blows, but like as a guy, I find this very adorable. It's more relatable than the reptilian blankness of most politicians. Yeah.

Yeah. Dude, could you imagine what Ben Sass trying to have an affair would sound like? What a fucking horror show that would be opening the necronomicon looking at that shit. Yeah. Imagine like, like what is Mitch McConnell's marriage? Has anyone thought you think he like, at the end, you know, it's actually, you know, it's actually probably pretty lit. You know, they're, you know, they're trafficking cocaine and fucking shipping containers from

China. Yeah. It's pretty sick. They're on some Bonnie and Clyde shit. Yeah. But it's like the Mitch McConnell thing is an arranged marriage. I'm sorry. It's just, oh yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That was a dynastic. That's a dynastic union. 100%. That's like, together revenue streams and yeah, across international borders. Yeah. But what does he do for kicks though?

Think about that. Oh, that. Jesus. That's really horrifying. Yeah. He literally has sex with turtles. I know it's hack. Yeah.

I know. It makes sense. He pencil him in for some face time at the child zoo. Yeah. Yeah. Tom, like Tom cotton, like look into that guy's eyes. What do you think? Like he gets to pervert heaven and can have anything he wants.

What do you think it is? He like, it's something like that there isn't even a name for it's like, listen, I just, I want like an Iraqi tribal boy to stomp on my ass. Yeah. Well, someone feeds me birthday cake. Yeah. No, they're all like. I think it would be sort of sealed in one of those sort of latex breathing apparatuses.

Yes. But like it's sort of like it inflates, but it inflates with diarrhea. And then, and then, and then a boy does the Mexican stomping dance on you. Yeah. I think like at a minimum to be elected senator for the most part, you have to have sex like, uh, Richie, April, yeah, absolute minimum, minimum, yeah, and it is loaded. It is. Yeah.

Yeah. The gun is loaded. The gun is loaded. No, they're like, these guys, all senators and shit. They're like Dr. Canard from Hellraiser to where in the, in the, in their office, they've got all of the box. They've got all the boxes. They've stored them.

They're waiting for a moment when they can pass over to the other side and experience all, all things regular. I want to clarify, regular congressmen aren't like this because regular congressmen are there. Dopes. They're just regular oaths. Buddy, Garrity style. Yeah.

Regular congressmen are the guys from their district who could not hold down a job doing anything else. Yeah. Like they're like, and their kinky shit is like they, they hire, you know, like a prostitute in like a fifties brazier to like spank them with a paddle or something. Like cartoon shit from like, like what Dagwood's boss would do. Yeah. Do you remember?

Do you remember Duke Cunningham? Oh God. Yes. Yeah. Duke Cunningham. He was like, he was like accepting millions and bribes. He was a real fucking piece of shit. It was so funny to see him go down and see that fucking press conference where he's like

He just blubbered. Fucking piece of shit. Military industrial complex, leech, fucking scumbag, sent millions of Americans to die and suffer in war and austerity and everything you can name. But when he got his millions from defense contractors, he bought a boat and he would put on the Duke star. Yeah. He would put on a turtle neck.

Like he'd be like, this is like my getting pussy out there. He would put on a turtle neck and a silk robe and like poor champagne for these like poor, hot 23 year olds and be like, show, show, show something more comfortable. Like, what are you fucking losing? He was like Alan parches when he does the boating promotional video. That was his, that was his, I'm going to get my fuck on a sort of a regimen. So I said that there's a twist here though in the Cal Cunningham sex though. So most of it is stuff like this.

It's Cal saying, well, we'll make it easier for you. I have flexibility this month done with school training, big RFPs, et cetera. So the only thing I want on my to-do list is you. And then she goes, sounds hot and so fun. And he goes, pick a day, a city, make up an excuse for the fam. I like he says for the fam, make up an excuse for the fam, ditch a staffer, start your white shirt and be ready to kiss a lot. Oh God, get your, get your, get your smooching cap off your starch white shirt.

That's the, oh my, this makes like fucking great expectations look like max hardcore. It is. Okay, but like, make an excuse for the fam, make an excuse for the culture. So I mean, yeah, these incredibly graphic texts about, about, about having a smooch party with your, with your, with your steady girl, sort of, but there's a, there's a rub here. Subsequently, more texts have come out and the texts are between Arlene Guzman and her friend of hers, where she's talking to her friend about this affair.

And the text she and her and Cal are like, you know, I want to kiss you a lot. Sounds wonderful. I would love to put my lips on your face. But the texts from the woman to her friend are like this. So she says, she's, she's, she's texting her friend and she goes, and this is what the politician sent me, quote, you're going to be the best therapist ever at any rate. Sorry you're having to deal with it. Be strong.

I know you are on Monday. Haven't heard from him once since. And frankly, he doesn't deserve my pussy and then, and then she goes, he's not even cute enough for me. It's the power I'm attracted to, but it's dumb. I'm like a convalescent hospital for broken men. Make them feel better to be with a hot woman and then they disappear. Lol.

I'm just going to send his opponent, his naked photos that will teach him. Ouch. Ouch. Everyone in this story is so fucked up. He's like, he's like, I love you so much. She's like, yes, you're hot and sexy. And then she's sending this shit to her friend. He says, oh, he's not even good looking.

Oh, and I attracted to the charisma of what, being a state senator or something from North Carolina. Yeah. You look, yeah, you like that. You like how fucking when I make you, when you think about the parking lot tax break that I secured in the 2019 budget. Yeah. You like that.

Yeah. You like that. You like your franking privileges. Yeah. You like that I set up a needs test and scholarship for UNC Chapel Hill. All right. So in another series of texts, her friend texts her and she says, how was your weekend? And she responds, spent avoiding Jeremy as much as possible.

That's her husband, by the way. And the friend goes, oh, that sucks. I totally get it though. Guzman responds, trying to make plans to see the politician so I can give him the fuck of his life and walk away. Her friend goes, OMG, ha, ha, ha. You're so silly. I get that.

Her friend is a bird brand. You're so silly. The friend is Shamar Moore, actually. Yeah. Yeah. He was FaceTiming her just like with his shirt off, like dancing, wearing a straw fedora. Then he goes, the friend says, the best thing you can do is ignore him and he'll want you even more.

And then Guzman says, something weird about fucking in another woman's house. Normally I would agree. He's so insanely busy. He wouldn't even notice. Friend goes, yes, he would. And then he goes, last time I heard from him was Saturday. I texted him happy birthday and got, I want to unwrap you today, only gift that comes to mind.

Zeroes of response since then, block, kill, marry. Like is he stupid or what? He knows I'm crazy in parentheses, Latina, and can tank his campaign if I wanted to be a bitch. Latina stay winning. So there we go. That is just a bit of a keyhole glimpse into the, just, I don't know, sort of heartbreaking and wrenchingly sad love lives of people in power.

There is, I have a second wrinkle to the story. For the affair revelation, he did all his fundraise, Cunningham did all his fundraisers clearly in his house, in like a home office or living room after they've all been done in his field office, all his zoom fundraisers, well, like I said, the wife's a trooper. The wife's like, fine, rightfully so going to divorce him because this is like, I felt bad for the wife because it's one thing. If your husband, your state senator husband is texting some woman like, you know, I want to put my head up your asshole and scream, let's put on Zentai suits and fucking sniff

each other's piss. That's like, I feel like you can work through that because it's like, okay, he had something weird. He had to get some itch that he needed to scratch. When it's like, you make me the happiest boy in the world, it's like he loves her. He doesn't love you. It means he does like that. I feel sad.

I feel sad for her. That was the funny thing about the Mark Sanford love letters is that I like, I almost felt, I mean, I, he's an evil piece of shit, but I almost felt bad for him because what was clear to me in the letters is like, the guy is like, what, in his fifties or something and like, he's, this is like the first time he's ever like really been in love with someone. No, yeah, all these guys, all these guys, like their first like serious adult relationship when they're like 24, they're like, all right, I need to like, I need to have like three kids by the time I'm 30, like, let's, let's get it going.

Like, these are all the same fucking robots and they're like, they never sort of evaluate a person for how much they love them. They just like look at a woman, they're like, how would you look at a podium and it's like, it sucks for them. It sucks for the woman. It sucks a lot for the kids. I feel worse for them than anyone, but yeah, they don't, they don't really know what love is as an adult until they're like 62.

And then, you know, yeah, they're like 60 and talking like a guy who's like 15. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's so fucking funny. Yeah. But yeah, he's, I mean, like, you know, it's like, by the time you're that age, though, I mean, like, you know, if you're having an affair, it should just be like, you know, stick to the basics, buddy.

Yeah. Just a date and a hotel room, like, you try to get a pipe on ahead of time. I like an affair. I feel like the guys who have the more like disconnected affairs, it's usually Republicans. Oh yeah. Well, because they're so used to compartmentalizing like whole just chasms of their personality away from like. Yeah, they're like Tony Soprano.

They're like Tony Soprano. And there's this, they have this, they don't really like a guilt. If Tony Soprano was gay. Yeah. So on. But the Democrats, I mean, I think they're attracted to the corniness of the affair. Like an affair that you care, an affair that isn't just sexual is fundamentally, I've said it before, it's fundamentally corny and you can get obsessed and lost in the

corniness because as an adult, most corniness that you engage in, they're like necessary acts, their family obligation or their social obligation or work obligation. They're having to show enthusiasm for something you don't have sometimes. They're like just they part of the endless parade of soul crushing things that you do when you're past your late twenties. But an affair, like an emotional affair is like the last corny thing you can do that's for you. And I think the Democrats like, because their life is all these fake enthusiasm and bullshit

and they go out every day, like, you know, a guy who is a fucking Marine officer for 10 years, then a management consultant goes out and goes, hey, hey, everybody, like the Jake Oshin's lost guy. The guy would train Panamide of Desquad talking about indigenous, talking about indigenous day. It's like, you don't believe like you have more bodies of indigenous people than anyone. It's just all this bullshit that they pride themselves on playing a game, on doing the act on.

They think they're they think they think everyone is dumb except them because they're the ones lying to everyone. But then they get this one thing where it's like they have unambiguous, pure personal cornyness and I think the sex is totally secondary for them. I mean, Anthony Weiner clearly had a complex, right? Oh God, yeah. He didn't want to have sex. He just wanted to have weird, boner, inducing text conversation.

But I think he liked the element of like being desired and novelty and like the hunt of finding someone and someone hunting you in a way. And yeah, it was sexual to an extent, but it wasn't like there's a reason he kept doing it without fucking anyone. And it's there's a reason all these guys do this shit. There's a reason why all the everyone kind of does it. Like most Americans, like their marriages don't last is a very popular thing to do. I don't know what it is about American life that it's like, yeah, maybe that maybe maybe

I'm right. This is the last non-corny thing you can do as an adult. I know. I think that's I think that's a very good point actually. It's a this is this has been Mr. and Mrs. erotic America. And Paul Harvey, yeah, well, there you go. Just I know I've said this on the show, like, like, like, what is it, a world, a whirlwind tour?

A whirlwind, my favorite, my favorite horny texting, though, is still by far the Mark Foley scandal when he was texting those teenage pages. And then he asked one of them, are you horny? And he says, yes. And then he just goes, cool. Are you horny? That's cool. His were amazing.

That to me is the best one. Yeah. His were amazing because it would be like, it was like, you're, if he wasn't who he was, like, you're going to prison. It's like, you can't say that to like a 17 year old. But he like, yeah, he's like risking if he's not a congressman, he's not a well connected dude, like a gas price sentence for what he's doing. And he gets his messages, like, and he's just like, rock on, like a fucking like 15 year

old. But like, this could ruin his entire life beyond measure, could wipe his name, like this important guy who strived his whole life for it. It wipes everything out. And yeah, this 17 year old who's psyching himself out over, it's like, yeah, I'm horny. I guess he's like, you'd a man. Like, what a fucking loser. I think you're totally right, though, that like, Democrat or Republican, like these

guys like have all wanted to be president since they were 12. So like every relationship that they've sort of forged in their personal lives has been sort of against that crucible. And I don't think like, I think they discover like, like late in life, like what their own actual desires and personality is like, like, you know, like, like Pete Buttigieg is a perfect example. Like they choose their spouse for like central casting reasons, not because they especially turn them on or fucking, you know, have some sort of deep relationship.

And then like, you can only defer that shit for so long. And then I think what you said is very, very true that like having this kind of corny emotional fair is like, by that age, the only thing you can do for yourself. And it comes out in very funny ways. But honestly, I do feel sympathetic with Cal Cunningham. I mean, you know, to have, you know, his embarrassing text messages read on a podcast like this one, I mean, it's, you know, it's just his political career is a billion times worse than anything he's said or done to his wife.

Yeah. I mean, and he's, he's going to win. He's probably going to get divorced, but I don't think that marriage was long for this world anyway. If he was just Cal Cunningham, the lawyer in the Salem area, that marriage is still ending within the next five years. And I guess kudos to the voters of North Carolina, if they just like, they're just like, yeah, who cares?

Yeah. This makes me like him more. This is the best part is that so he went up in the polls, but he did go down in two segments. He went down among older people who I guess still have a sense of propriety, an old timey unconstructed social propriety that they ignore in Trump's case, probably, but whatever. And women, you know, who imagine themselves being cheated on by this guy, but he is up among young people and men.

Yeah. All those people who moved to North Carolina to work for defense contractors or, you know, biotech or, yeah, research, yeah. People who pride themselves on having a, you know, human rights campaign bumper sticker and just contribute to human misery, 14 hours a day, six days a week and are just, you know, pulling down huge wads of cash for it. Still think they're good people. Of course they see themselves in this.

The old people are funny because the way, I mean, if you heard about any of your grandparents having affairs, they're pretty funny. They're always one-offs. Your grandpa, your grandpa, you know, he fucked like the cigarette girl at the dog track. And he had to like buy and she was like 15 and that was, you know, cool to do in 1951. But his wife, of course, found out and, you know, he had to buy your grandmother a necklace, a seven pound diamond necklace for $47, which is half a year's pay. But no, they were one-off.

Like whatever I hear about, like, you know, older people, heavy, it's a family shame to have them run away with the woman, right, or the brother with the man. But usually it's like one, one off, one and done, you know, like I saw, yeah, I saw the the ham and cheese girl at the fucking, you know, wherever. I don't know. I was watching Nelson Rockefeller give a speech to the pipe fitters union. And I just had to have the girl who was selling ham and cheese sandwiches and they just never see her again.

And then like on their deathbed, they're like, I was in love with her. And it's like, OK, shut up. You're dying. That's their life. That's it. That's one. That's it. That's what Stan Charo was thinking about when he shuffled off the soil.

Stan Charo probably like, I mean, I don't want to speculate too much about the type of guy Stan Charo was, but what can you say about a seventy seven year old real estate man who died? Yeah, in an obscenely rich Manhattan real estate developer who is friends with Donald Trump. I bet he had some wholesome. Oh, well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, his, his, his memory real playing as the DMT hit must have been like a fucking, must have been like hellraiser.

Yeah. All right. Well, we should, let's, let's move into the second part of the show, ladies and gentlemen, Tim Robbins. We ain't going out like that, we ain't going out like that, we ain't going out like that, we ain't going out like that, we ain't going out like that, we ain't going out like that. Oh man, I drove through Sturgis. Oh my God, I got, I stopped at it for gas.

And there were three gas stations and about 60 motorcycles at these various gas stations. No one wearing a mask, it was very, it was very Trumpy. And they had a Trump memorabilia stand set up outside the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial Museum. Ouch! Ouch! Good lord. Fuck me.

Yeah, that's bad. Classy, right? Classy. Keep it classy. So, what do you think about that, that Sturgis rally aside from being a, a, a, that Smash Mouth. Super spreader event. Super spreader event with featuring Smash Mouth.

I think the funny thing about the Sturgis thing. Basically like if Typhoid Mary went to Splash Mountain. It was like a, like the Sturgis rally by now though is just all these kind of like weekend hobbyists, like these guys, like taking their hog in a trailer to the badlands or whatever. These guys are all like the retired dentists, you know, who. 100%. And they all love, and they all love law enforcement, which is really going against the, the sort of outlaw biker thing, which, you know, I mean, it started out, I mean,

if you were a biker, it was because you were like selling crank, you were, you were killing local law enforcement, not kissing their ass. Yeah. I just like the idea of Marlon Brando from the, the wild one rolls into town and past the old Barney Fife cop standing next to the soda shop and goes, thank you for your service. Yeah. It was a, it was the moment, the, the moment in the trip that, that I made across country

that was most illuminating for me about what was going on. I guess I'll kick things off. It's Shapo coming at you. It's Will and Matt here, but we have a special guest for you. You may remember him from such films as Arlington Road and Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars. It's Tim Robbins, everybody. Thanks for having me. You're laughing, Tim, but I just rewatched Mission to Mars not too long ago and it's

a fucking masterpiece. It's amazing. It's a totally underrated movie. Brian De Palma. Yeah. Brian De, the great one. I mean, shit. Spoiler alert.

The scene where you pop off your helmet to kill yourself and save your wife, Connie Nielsen. I cried during that, dude. Did you really? I mean, I've not really, but you know, I was killing it inside as much as much as a podcaster can crop. Right. Well, if I did have that emotional connection, I would cry. Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. I was like the terminator. I was like, now I know why you thrive. I can never do. Well, Tim, I want to kick things off with a news item from this weekend that I think will very nicely segue into your current project. This is courtesy of the New York Times.

This is covering the headline here is, Trump Makes First Public Appearance Since Leaving Walter Reed. And, you know, the whole article goes through, you know, the fact that he's immune to disease now and he's very young and feels like a baby thanks to the wildly experimental steroids he's on. Yeah. They had him in a vat of spice melange for two weeks. But it had, it had this incredible paragraph.

It says here in several phone calls last weekend from the presidential suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Mr. Trump shared an idea he was considering when he left the hospital, he wanted to appear frail at first when people saw him, according to his people with knowledge of the conversations. But underneath his button-down dress shirt, he would wear a Superman T-shirt, which he would reveal as a symbol of strength when he ripped open the top layer. He ultimately did not go ahead with the stunt. So, Tim, I got to ask you here.

How infuriated are you both that he was stopped from doing that, but also that you didn't have the idea for that to happen? Well, God, I wish he would have done it, you know. I think the person who talked him out of that should be prosecuted for treason because they've robbed us of probably like the best moment since the Gettysburg address. It's not going to matter. It's not going to change a single vote or anything. You're just depriving us of entertainment just out of spite.

Awful. Just disgusting Ramore. Yeah. He's a boy. He's a showman. Right? Yeah. He knows.

Yeah. He knows what to do. Yeah. He's now apparently immortal, so, I mean, he wasn't, in my opinion, it's amazing he's alive anyway, and now that he's alive after COVID, after they filled him with radioactive ape blood, they put him on like the clean and the clear regimen that Barry Bonds had, and he was like having conversations with Roy Cohn, and now he's back better than ever. I don't think he can be killed by conventional weapons.

This is the superhero we've been waiting for. Yeah. I mean, when I was writing Bobo Supreme, you have to go to those kinds of realms to imagine what this unbridled id is, and what are in the dark, deep recesses of this twisted psyche? What is his dream life? What does he imagine himself to be in his dreams? Well, I mean, a very good man and a great president. Well, some are saying the best and the greatest, and we're hearing it more and more.

Well, in Bobo Supreme, he's always a sports hero, and he imagines himself as an incredible golfer, boxer, basketball player. He's always achieving great things on the athletic field. My favorite moment was when he had to let out the secret that he's a senior citizen. He's saying to my favorite people, the seniors, you don't know it. Nobody knows it. But I'm actually a senior citizen, and maybe you don't want to, and then most amazingly he said, maybe don't tell him.

We'll keep it a secret between us that I'm a senior citizen. Amazing. It's like, yeah. I'm just like you. I mean, how could he, I see that man, like the giant rumpled box of clothing, and I'm like, he's definitely under 70. So yeah, I mean, you do the podcast you're doing now, Bobo Supreme. I mean, thanks for entering the crowded podcast field already.

You are now our enemy. Yeah. We will destroy you after this, and now that you're trying to get that Patreon box, this is our racket, we'll be taking, we'll be, just let us wet our beak, Tim. But I just like, when I was listening to it, I thought back to another project you did, which was during the Bush years, you wrote and performed in a play called Embedded that was sort of a satire of the media in the Iraq war, but also these sort of Straussian neo-conservative wizards who dream this all up, and you talked about sort of channeling that id, trying to

get into that psyche. And I guess like just artistically or satirically or psychologically, like, what do you see is the differences or maybe similarities between the neocon crime family who did the Iraq war, and now like the MAGA right wing and their avatar and Supreme Leader Trump. Well, the neocons were a lot better at hiding their true agenda. They were, they were a lot better at image making. Trump is just naked in front of us, showing us exactly what he is, and so are the people that are enabling him.

In a way, that's maybe healthy, that it's illuminating a truth that we've all suspected and that they've been able to hide in the past, and they're both capable of great harm to the country and have done great harm to the country and to the future, particularly in the environment. And I did embedded, you know, it was a huge hit at the public theater, but we didn't get one good review from any of the outlets in New York City. In fact, one of them in the New York Times review, they accused me of making up this thing called the Office of Special Plans, and accused me of being a conspiracy theorist

and that, you know, there were all kinds of ways they tried to discredit that thing. And we would have journalists that had just returned from Iraq come and do talk backs with us at the public theater, and they were attesting to the fact that the play had more truth in it than most news outlets at the time. Pretty rich at the New York Times to accuse your play of making up something about the Iraq War. Well, particularly the Office of Special Plans, I guess that critic just wasn't aware of the fact that that actually existed.

Yeah, that's one of the problems with trying to communicate a lot of information to people is that things are so much more horrible than, you know, your baseline day-to-day understanding of the world is that it's hard to assimilate. There's famous difficulty in polling and in campaigning against Republicans that's been borne out in focus groups is that when people are read uncontroversially Republican policy positions, they don't believe they're real. They don't believe that they would actually have that as an agenda, and so they just distrust the person telling them instead of accept that that's what Republicans think.

But isn't that Trump's genius is that he knew from the start that he had to subordinate truth. So he immediately started saying that everything about him that was being written or said was just a lie. And, you know, this is right out of the playbook, Mind Comp. This is the big lie. This is the, you know, which we use in Bobo Supreme. His wife reads Mind Comp to him to get him to go to sleep.

It's kind of like a bedtime story for him. Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, I kept it next to his bed. I like to think that instead of reading it, he would just imagine that sleeping next to it would allow it to osmotically enter his mind. Well, as he says, you know, I've never had more intellectual dreams in my life than when I was reading Mind Comp, so, you know, this is where we are, right? That we have a president that is willfully embracing fascist tendencies, but the reason

why we have to do satire that is uncompromising and that dares to offend and I don't believe in polite satire. I don't believe in parody or imitation. So that's why we wanted to create a character that was not exactly Trump. We needed to go into the realms of the psyche that is unexpressed and that's fun to do as a writer. You have to imagine what it's like when all the cameras are off and there's no one around. What is that person?

Who is that person? I mean, you bring up a political satire and before you came on, Matt and I were talking about another film of yours, Bob Roberts, which is one of the most prescient political satires of recent American film. But the thing is, you watch that movie now and it's like we're living in it. So is it hard to do satire when the satire has caught up to reality? It's almost like there's nothing left to make fun of because there's no one step of removal to make it go that extra bit of absurdity or hyperbole.

Is it hard to do a satire about Trump when he is, as you said, everything he appears to be? Well, that's why you have to go further. That's why you have to go to extremes with the behavior of Bobo Supreme. For God's sake, he tasers a clarinet player for playing a B-flat. You just have to let your imagination go and say, what is the unbridled id? What is the unchecked ubu the king in this guy? The surrealist character from 1900 that redefined what theater was and what would lay the road

for surrealism and dadaism and expressionism, this kind of the courage of that particular performance that happened in Paris 120 years ago, where the audience was so offended they ripped out the seats of the theater and threw them onto the stage and had a riot. I don't know if you noticed, but we released this on Thursday. In Bobo Supreme, there is a takeover by a white supremacist militia of the Michigan State House. The day we released it, the news broke of that militia group in Michigan with that intent to take over the state house.

So far, batting a thousand on our prognostication here. By the end of Bobo Supreme, you'll see it winds up on election day. What happens on election day is what I fear is going to happen on election day. I don't want to give anything away, but it's pretty close to what the signals are that Trump has been sending out. I mean, it is the podcast, this is sort of a radio play, and it does have a sort of mercury theater feel to it, like an Orson Welles, War of the Worlds kind of thing. Were you conscious of that, this throwback medium of the radio play when you were doing

it? I was, and particularly the mercury theater because of the content. At a time when fascism was on the rise in Europe, that's why War of the Worlds was so successful, is because people had the anxiety already of fascist invasion. And so everyone was living with this anxiety, and so that's why it created this kind of panic. And also because of the way they did it, it sounded so real. Also, they did Julius Caesar, which is very reflective of that time as well.

I think the big challenge in entertainment right now is to try to reflect these times, acknowledge them, and be humble in front of that, and to know that the old paradigms won't work anymore, that particularly at this time, we have to figure out a way to tell stories that are relevant and resonate with this time period, which is why Bobo is, I feel, has to have that edge of danger to it. And aside from being funny, it also has to have a core reality that is close enough to be terrifying. I mean, it is the podcast, this is sort of a radio play, and it does have a sort of

furor and the bunker quality to it, as an election approaches and a pandemic ravages the country. But it's too perfect that the reality that you're making fun of just keeps getting funnier and funnier. And it's almost unfair to you, like Bobo slash Trump getting COVID, I mean, have you been appreciating how good his brain has gotten on experimental steroids? I don't appreciate anything about him. I recoil in horror.

That thing you read from New York Times, I want to first appear weak. At times, I felt there was some acting going on when he got out of the hospital. Who knows what the real truth is? I mean, I have long ago given up on the idea that we're going to get the real truth from news reports. You mentioned the appearing weak thing. I mean, that's the classic, the James Brown move, right, where he would sort of hobble off stage and sort of back up and would put a blanket over him and then he would just

spring up, throw it off and do another four or five songs. I mean, you mentioned that he is a showman and that he's a show biz personality. And do you think that that plays into sort of the inability of people or the journalists or sort of liberal satirists to sort of fully metabolize and sort of get over on Trump because he is such a show biz creation that he sort of has these antibodies to like traditional means of stitching up a politician or critiquing them? I think where maybe comedy is falling short right now is that it's not imagining the or projecting the worst yet.

I think the whole purpose of satire is to try to illuminate a truth that we kind of know is there, but no one's saying. And that was the ambition with Bobo. The good news about doing a fiction is that you don't have to be completely accurate. You can use your imagination to fill in the gaps and project about what it would be like to be witnessing this person behind closed doors. What is that damaged psyche? What is that unbridled child that is in there that I need everything right now?

As he says in one of his songs, my daily mantra is what is yours should be mine. The two-year-olds perspective on life without a person that has not a child that has not reached the age of reason. Yeah. I mean, he is a person and I think obviously this pandemic that we're all dealing with right now is a vivid and terrible illustration of this, but I mean, he really does seem like a guy. I mean, if you ask a question like what is there, is someone who doesn't really regard

any other person that's really alive or in so much as that they can service his needs or will, but other people just essentially don't exist and don't matter to him. That's a two-year-old. Yeah. I mean, just imagine that. So right from that perspective, what is, how would a two-year-old be the president of the United States? I mean, that sounds like it would have been a great 80s movie and I'm sad we never got

it, President Baby. I mean, you're a guy who's sort of attempted to sort of weave together your own personal political views that are often, you know, land on, let's just say, less than receptive audiences if you're, whether you're talking about, you know, the president or Hollywood studio executives, I mean, like, you've been for like decades now, like one of the more outspoken of the, you know, the Hollywood celebs and you've gotten quite a lot of stick for it. I mean, how do you deal with that?

I mean, you've been like a sort of, you and Michael Moore have been like, you know, a favorite target of sort of angry wannabe celebrities and right-wing pundits for a while now. Like, do you, I mean, are you aware of that when you try to like, you know, speak on a political issue or to create a work of art with some sort of political valence in it? I'm aware of the idea that there's not going to be a lot of support from either side, but in particular, the people that are going to attack are, long ago, I have understood what that is. It's really just a way to try to intimidate others to be quiet.

It really isn't based in any kind of real thoughtful criticism. It's based in shut the fuck up, you know, it's very easy to hate in the abstract, you know, when you're behind a keyboard in a dark room, it's awfully easy to be courageous and say awful things to people. But I really, I've always viewed it as an abstract. When I came out against the Iraq war, as you remember at the time, it was, you know, it was very intimidating that everyone was moving in lockstep on this on both sides. And so I remember thinking, wow, you know, it might be dangerous out there.

And I lived in New York City at the time and not one person said anything negative. And then I then I took a trip to San Antonio to the final four with my sons. And I figured, well, it's got to be there. I'll just buck up and deal with it. Not one person in this sporting event said a thing. I think it's an abstract thing. I think it's unfortunately gotten more and more real over the past few years. I think more and more of these people are feeling empowered to express their racism,

their bigotry, their ignorance. That's unfortunate. I hope it doesn't reach a critical mass where it becomes something that is violent. But you do see that starting to happen. And that is because of the rhetoric. And you know, listen, we haven't never had a president that has just flat out encouraged that kind of rhetoric. Usually it's it's it's coded.

Usually it's dog whistles. Now it's a full on bark. It's predictable. The the reactions of the right wing to, you know, art in general, but, you know, certainly any art with a left wing point of view. But what about what about liberals because, you know, I mean, like you've staked out some political positions and like, you know, arguing from like a left wing point of view often puts you across purposes with what is what, you know, the more comfortable sort of, you

know, artistic, you know, liberals love art and they love movies and entertainment and things like that. But if you step on their toes, they squawk too. I mean, I'm wondering like, what's the difference, if any in your mind, between sort of liberal and conservative outrage? Yeah, it's it's it's disappointing. Let's put it this way. Bobo Supreme is completely self-financed.

I went out and tried to get some help, but there was none there. And, you know, so in other words, I wasn't encouraged to do this by by people that are the gatekeepers. I think I've just accepted that, you know, that I we're living in that reality. And hopefully that will change. I haven't gotten a film finance since 1999, you know, I've been having to do things on my own and, you know, I still am hired to do to work as an actor. But I'm not sure whether it's just that they don't get it or they don't see the commercial

viability of it or if it's something that truly offends them. I don't know. No, no one is going to be flat out honest with you about that kind of thing. And I say, we're not going to do that because it offends us. They're going to say, well, we just don't, you know, we just don't think it's going to have an audience, right? And so then you're, you know, when you're self-financed, you have to kind of look and try to create that audience for yourself.

And part of the reason I'm here, part of the reason I'm trying to figure out a way to get this out there with Patreon, I'm excited by it. I'm excited by the possibilities of what's beyond this and how to use the Patreon channel as a way to put out things that I have had on the shelf for years. I've got incredible interviews with Kurt Vonnegut and Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer and Howard Zinn and Johnny Cash and Are you doing these interviews at the Ouija board, Tim? What's up?

Well, there was actually a documentary I was trying to get financing for many years. And yes, with Ouija board. I did them years ago and, you know, there's this thing called tape. And you can keep things forever with tape. Before we let you go, though, could you just talk a little bit about the cast that you have for Bobo Supreme, because you got some God level actors to join you on this little endeavor here. And I was wondering how you went about casting it and working with them, guys like Ray Wise

and Ted Levine, two favorites of ours there. So genius. Well, Ray Wise and Jack Black, who are both in Bobo Supreme, were in the original Bob Roberts. And I have kept up correspondence with them over the years and Jack's been a friend for many years. And Ted Levine is in it. I worked with him recently on a TV project, Isla Fisher plays the wife of Bobo Supreme

called Mabu. We have Haley Joel Osment, Pat Noswalt, Ricky Lindholm, Rita Brent, Saashir Zameida. He's just an incredible group of, oh, Alfred Woodard plays Alton Pure, the socialist candidate. Incredible talent, and I was humbled by the idea that they would do it. They all jumped on board with enthusiasm and I think you give it a listen. I think it's, I'd love for people to hear it. I think here's the other thing. I think it's super important right now with the amount of doom scrolling we do and an

amount of negativity coming out in the news every night, we need humor. We need to laugh. We need laughter is power. It's something that can be a band-aid or a medicine for us in times like this. For me, it's an effective and powerful tool to expose hypocrisy and laughter allows us to regain part of our humanity because the worst thing that could happen is that this guy's living in our head all the time and we become him. We become that it.

We let our own it's become unchecked and we become what we have been opposing and laughter and entertainment and music and good films can help us get through this mess. I mean, people talk about humor or political humor like it's like a sword to puncture the egos and the pomposity of these awful evil people. But I mean, it's also a shield to keep them out of your head and to keep your own sense of self and humanity and not be dragged. I mean, it's just like to just sort of to suffer without humor, it all just goes straight through you and it seeps into your pores.

So humor is a way to, like I said, deflect all of the many, many ways that we are just continue to be demoralized day in and day out. It also reminds us of what something that we're sorely missing right now is, which is the community, the sense of community, the gathering place, the place to go with others to know that we're still sane, the concert hall or the theater or the movie theater, where we can experience emotions from characters, stories that reflect our lives with other people that remind us of a shared humanity. And hopefully comedy can do that, even though we might be isolated.

We know that we're not the only ones laughing. We're not the only ones that feel this way. We're not alone in this. It does hold the possibility of reminding us of what it was like to be able to sit in a room with other people and laugh together and feel things together and have a collective anger together. One day soon, next year in Jerusalem, we will all be watching Christopher Nolan's Tenant on IMAX 3D.

Tim Robbins, I want to thank you so much for hanging out with us. The new podcast slash radio play is Bobbo Supreme available on Patreon. Tim, thanks a lot. Thank you. And thank you for sharing Patreon with me. I swear I won't get in your shit. You better not. That's how we have students.

I'll hold you to that. Yeah. All right. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Bye. Some people will work Some simply will not

But they'll complain, and complain, and complain, and complain, and complain Like this Inside is falling, I don't have a job inside is falling I am slobber, I got the pencil, no one can see Give me welfare, let me be me What's going on? Hey, but you're living in the land of the free No one's gonna hand you opportunity