Fitzdog Radio - Tank Sinatra on Viral Fame, Memes & Why Everyone Is So Angry | Greg Fitzsimmons

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

Subscribe to Greg Fitzsimmons: https://bit.ly/subGregFitz Greg Fitzsimmons sits down with internet legend Tank Sinatra for a hilarious conversation about memes, social media, parenting, sobriety, viral videos, and how he accidentally built one of the biggest comedy brands on the internet. They talk about Influencers in the Wild, why the internet makes people angry, raising kids, leaving corporate life, creating content that millions of people relate to, and the surprising business behind going viral. Before the interview, Greg shares stories from a weekend in the Hamptons, performing for wealthy friends, getting hooked on the World Cup, and the unexpected backlash to a recent comedy clip. Follow Tank Sinatra:• Instagram: @tank.sinatra• @influencersinthewild• @tanksgoodnewsFollow Kalshi — Use code SOCR10 This show is produced by Gotham Production Studios and part of the Gotham Network. https://www.gothamproductionstudios.com/studios/ Follow Greg Fitzsimmons: Facebook: https://facebook.com/FitzdogRadio Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregfitzsimmons Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregfitzshow Official Website: http://gregfitzsimmons.com Tour Dates: https://bit.ly/GregFitzTour Merch: https://bit.ly/GregFitzMerch “Dear Mrs. Fitzsimmons” Book: https://amzn.to/2Z2bB82 “Life on Stage” Comedy Special: https://bit.ly/GregFitzSpecial Listen to Greg Fitzsimmons: Fitzdog Radio: https://bit.ly/FitzdogRadio Sunday Papers: http://bit.ly/SundayPapersPod Childish: http://childishpod.com Watch more Greg Fitzsimmons: Latest Uploads: https://bit.ly/latestGregFitz Fitzdog Radio: https://bit.ly/radioGregFitz Sunday Papers: https://bit.ly/sundayGregFitz Stand Up Comedy: https://bit.ly/comedyGregFitz Popular Videos: https://bit.ly/popGregFitz About Greg Fitzsimmons: Mixing an incisive wit with scathing sarcasm, Greg Fitzsimmons is an accomplished stand-up, an Emmy Award winning writer, and a host on TV, radio and his own podcasts. Greg is host of the popular “FitzDog Radio” podcast (https://bit.ly/FitzdogRadio), as well as “Sunday Papers” with co-host Mike Gibbons (http://bit.ly/SundayPapersPod) and “Childish” with co-host Alison Rosen (http://childishpod.com). A regular with Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel, Greg also frequents “The Joe Rogan Experience,” “Lights Out with David Spade,” and has made more than 50 visits to “The Howard Stern Show.” Howard gave Greg his own show on Sirius/XM which lasted more than 10 years. Greg’s one-hour standup special, “Life On Stage,” was named a Top 10 Comedy Release by LA Weekly. The special premiered on Comedy Central and is now available on Amazon Prime, as a DVD, or a download (https://bit.ly/GregFitzSpecial). Greg’s 2011 book, Dear Mrs. Fitzsimmons (https://amzn.to/2Z2bB82), climbed the best-seller charts and garnered outstanding reviews from NPR and Vanity Fair. Greg appeared in the Netflix series “Santa Clarita Diet,” the Emmy-winning FX series “Louie,” spent five years as a panelist on VH1’s “Best Week Ever,” was a reoccurring panelist on “Chelsea Lately,” and starred in two half-hour stand-up specials on Comedy Central. Greg wrote and appeared on the Judd Apatow HBO series “Crashing.” Writing credits include HBO’s “Lucky Louie,” “Cedric the Entertainer Presents,” “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher,” “The Man Show” and many others. On his mantle beside the four Daytime Emmys he won as a writer and producer on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” sit “The Jury Award for Best Comedian” from The HBO Comedy Arts Festival and a Cable Ace Award for hosting the MTV game show "Idiot Savants." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Please play responsibly. Hey, welcome to Fitzdog Radio. World Cup action. My God. I grew up playing soccer as a kid. Not growing. I played it for three years in school. And then my son was a soccer fanatic. So we watched soccer games with him from when he was six until he graduated high school, club soccer, varsity soccer. And so I do love the game, but I didn't think I loved World Cup as much as, I mean, I've gotten into it the last couple times, but this time I'm getting nothing done in my life. I'm literally glued to the TV, watch two matches today, watching another one tonight. I'm betting on it all on Kalshi, which we'll talk about in a minute and having a blast. I don't, I'm not like USA USA. I'm not really that guy.

I don't understand sometimes when I'm seeing the Croatian fans. Kind of Croatia I get because their country has gone through a lot. And something like winning on the world stage gives them some relevance that maybe they felt they didn't have before. But when you're USA and you're already the most powerful nation and you're winning and you're going USA, it feels. It feels sort of like gloating or it feels unnecessary. And not that I don't love my country. Look, 250th birthday is coming up. I don't even know what I've decided to get the country yet.

I still got to decide. So anyway, I wasn't going to talk about that. I was just in New York. I want to talk about that for a minute. I did a bunch of other people's podcasts. I did. we might be drunk. I did the bonfire with Jay and Bobby Kelly. And I had a few people on my podcast. Louis C.K. canceled because he had COVID. And Mark Norman came on. Joe List came on. Today's guest, Tank Sinatra, came on. I did multiple shows every night. And then I went out and performed for my I'll let me just mention one other things before I talk about that.

I posted a video with Joe List this past week, and it was the story of me not, I was nine years old, and I told a kid I wouldn't come to his birthday party because his mom didn't invite our black friend. And so she did. She invited him. And that was the story. And then at the end, as a little joke, I said, and he stole something from the house, or he robbed them or something like that.

Just like a little tag, a little silly tag. And man, did that clip blow up hundreds of thousands of views, tons of comments that I wish had never been made about, yeah, that's what happens when you let black people in your house. Stuff that really bugged me. and I was going to take the post down, but then I felt like, no, then I looked like I meant something racist when I said it, as opposed to a harmless little, I'm with Joe List, we're saying outrageous things, we're making stupid joke, whatever. So stop commenting. Just take it for what it is. Anyway, so I went out to the Hamptons over the weekend. My buddy was having his 60th birthday party. He asked me to perform. I said yes, but here's what you got to know. My buddy, Tom, we went to high school together and just a goofball. Just a silly like the rest of us didn't take life seriously.

We all graduated at the bottom of our class. He went off to a mid-level college and then ended up on Wall Street and then started what's called a hedge fund, which if you don't know, tell, if you do know, tell me. Because I still don't understand it. But apparently you make a lot of money with a hedge fund. And so he's worth, I always say he's a billionaire and he argues that he's not. I think he is. And so the weekend at his house, which is on the sand, it's a monolithic structure.

It's very beautiful home. And it's right, like they have a private beach in the Hamptons. And it was like, you know, the home chef and, you know, massages in the morning and your smoke in Cuban cigars and, you know, they rented out an entire restaurant. Picture this, it's the Hamptons. It's a Friday night. You rent out an entire restaurant. And they had like 200. It was a whole weekend long celebration. Great bunch of people, a bunch of guys I went to high school with a lot of his friends that I got to know. And it was an argument for the one percenters because they were all very wealthy and there wasn't a douchebag among them. I'm having. I'm

happy to say and I kind of was expecting there to be there was way less plastic surgery than I anticipated there was way less divorce people were like family people and it's kind of nice and there's this one guy who's a friend of theirs who's Jewish and when he came out this guy makes more money I think than any of them he's like a crazy uh and so he he wasn't there he was on a super yacht in a Beza

but he's a Jewish guy who tried to join the country clubs in the Hamptons who didn't allow him in because he's Jewish that's not saying there's no Jews at the country clubs

it's saying there's very few and he was not to be one of them so as a fuck you this guy bought a bunch of land and he built his own golf course in the Hamptons

think about Square footage in the ham and i'm not talking about a little you know chip and putt this is a championship length golf course um manicured fairways like velvet um incredibly designed here's the best part he stole the greenskeeper from one of the big country clubs and design the club and now this guy works for him and anyway my buddy is um a short list of people that are considered members there. And they get to play. And he brought 20 of us.

And we played a great round of golf. And it was pretty special. I don't know that I always felt like I fit in. I think that's maybe a complex I had growing up with no class. You know, the dinner had like, you know, everybody had on like, sort of light-colored shirts, lightweight, light-colored shirts and white or tan pants.

I'm wearing fucking black pants, and I got a red plaid winter shirt. And I didn't really think much. I just threw some shit in my bag. I wasn't really thinking Hamptons, what you wear. I wasn't thinking P. Diddy. I wasn't thinking, um, uh, great X,

what's the, what's the novel that was set out in the Hampton? I'm such an idiot. I was a fucking English major. Anyway, this guy, my buddy Tom, it's a nicest guy. He's got a great laugh. He's kind of curious about everybody. Like, he met my mom a couple years ago at a show in Florida. And you'd think he wouldn't pay attention to somebody's mom. He sat in the corner with her for like 20 minutes. I was asking her about her romance with my dad and, you know, because she's a widow and like, got really like curious. It was, it was kind of, it was really nice. My mom was very touched by it.

He's got great kids. Anyway, but I kind of knew he bets on everything. This guy is, you kind of saw in high school who he was going to become. There was a bake sale. They were raising money for like the making. a wish foundation or something. And there was a bunch of old ladies at a table selling cakes. And we're freshmen.

We're 14 years old. And we walk up to this table. And the little old lady with the blue hair looks up and she says, would you like to buy one of the cakes? And he goes, how much? And she goes, it's $3. It's for the make a wish foundation. And then she goes, well, do you?

want it? And he went for $3? No. And that was like, okay. All right, now I see it looking back. Yep. Um, anyway, so I did a show and I was really nervous because if I bombed, I was staying in a house with 20 people and it would have been super awkward. This was Thursday and I, we're going to be there until Saturday. And I would have been going to dinner parties, playing golf, hanging out with a bunch of people that just saw me fucking bomb. So I was more nervous than I've been for a show in a long time. And I think he was nervous too. And so he put me up, he went up first, and he actually told jokes for five minutes,

and he was very funny. And then I went up, and I had a very good set. It went really well. Everybody was extremely complimentary. I felt good about it. The rest of the weekend was, you know, I was praised. people asked me lots of questions about being a comedian maybe a few too many maybe i was grilled a little too much about do i make a living kind of questions how do i do this there was there was a bewilderment

about what i did for a living and so i spent a lot of time but but it was amazing my friend alice and linda were there they drove me out and back and we had such a nice time anyway so that's it let me get to me uh performing for you now, not the Hamptons, but you, Oxnard at Levity Live on July 11th, Huntington Beach at the Mamba on July 12th, Pittsburgh, Improv, July 24th and 25th, St. Pete's Joke World Festival, August 1415, then I'll be in Cincinnati, August 26, Columbus, August 27th, then Vancouver, La Jolla, go to Fitzdog.com, pick up some tickets now, come out and say hi. So anyway, one of the reasons why I'm so excited about the World Cup is I'm using Kalshi.

And I think everybody knows what Kalshi is at this point. But it is so much fun. It has gotten me so invested in every game of the World Cup. I'm not putting a lot of money out there, you know, 10, 20, maybe 50 bucks, depending on the game. But, you know, you're not playing against the house. It's what they call peer-to-peer trading. And you can buy in.

And then at a certain point, if you want to hedge, you can take a buyout sort of thing. I forget how they describe it. I'm sure there's some wording for how they describe it. But it's like buying or selling a stock. Like the line isn't set by like an algorithm working against you. The public opinion sets the price. So you can kind of factor that in.

And right now, I'll tell you what, we got Mexico coming up tonight. And I've got Mexico. for how much have I got in $20 on Mexico and that will pay me out 32. But again, I can, if I feel like they're ahead but they might not win, I can cash out, which is fun. Then we got tomorrow, I got England. That's paying only 1.1%.

So I've got money in on. Mexico and I think 50 bucks gets me 64. That's not bad. So I don't go in too deep. There's also, I have some few, what they call futures, which means that if Mbapo, what's his name, Mbop, is it that Hanson song, Umbap? Mbap, if Mbapbe, if Mbapbe, if Mbapbe, scores more goals in the World Cup than Messi, I collect some cash. And I also have chosen France to take the whole thing and Argentina to be in the finals. There's so many different ways to spread it out. Anyway, you know, you buy in and out of your position, I feel like I'm not doing a good read because I really am excited about Kalshi. It's CFTC approved, federally regulated, available all

across the country, including California and Texas, because I know I can't do this with other apps. Download the CalShe app and use code Soccer 10, the number 10, to get $10 when you trade $10. You can also sign up at calci.com forward slash R forward slash soccer 10, which automatically applies the code at checkout. K-A-L-S-H-I-K-C-T-T-T-T-T. What's next?

What's next? What's next? I wasn't sure what the reading was on that. So I gave it a few shots. Okay. What else? All, let's get to it. My guest today, what a treat.

This guy, I've known his work on social media for a long time because I got to know him during, there was a documentary called Meme Gods that Cedric the Entertainer and Cirola produced, and Coraula invited me to it. And this guy kind of steals the show in this documentary. He makes memes, which you don't think about where they come from. But it comes from the minds of these guys. And we talk about it in the interview, how much work goes into it. And he just blew up.

And now we make short videos on Instagram that I watch. A super funny guy. Great dude. really fun hang he is if you want to follow him at influencers in the wild is one of his accounts

and at tanks good news is one of his accounts and otherwise I think the main one is just called at tank sinatra so we had a great talk this week here is my chat with the great tank sinatra here's my guest

Tank, Sinatra. Good morning. I mean, if you don't know this guy, you haven't met on the internet, or I guess your main platform is Instagram. Yeah, which is fine if you haven't been on the internet. That's, you're doing pretty good, probably. Can you imagine? No, I can, but I can't. Well, Ari Shafir goes off on these trips.

Do you know Ari? Yeah, yeah. He goes off to Asia or Central America, and he'll go for four or five months. He doesn't bring a phone at all. all. So like hotel reservations, he'll just get on a pay phone or he'll just walk up. No cell phone for anything he does. Just a big adventure for him. Yeah. I have kids. I can't do that. No, I know. I can't wing it like that. Yeah. If we're going somewhere, we better have a, we better have a situation set up. Yeah. But you know what? That to me, on Father's Day, I went to

I went to the water to eat with my family. We just got sandwiches. The water? Long Island Sound, the water. Yeah. Is that you call it, Long Island? We went to the water. The water, yeah.

I mean, that's, I don't have an accent, but that one hits pretty hard. I've never heard of call that. We went to the water. The water. Damn, now you got me in my head. So you went to the water for what? For Father's Day, just for like a lunch. And we went to, I left my phone at home.

Yeah. And it actually felt good, but like, for like a week of no phone I don't think I could handle it I think my brain would explode the chemicals would be all off all yeah that dopamine drip would just dry up and have withdrawal from it

and you'd have to start like reading a book which I like doing but with the phone as a safety net right you know I do find I'll go to bed early with a book and then I'll check my phone and then all of a sudden

my book time just got gobbled up with scrolling And I feel like a piece of shit. It does suck you. And my wife and I went to Italy two years ago. Uh-huh. And she forgot her phone in the car. Yeah.

And we were like, you get to the airport. There's no, you didn't make time for that. Yeah. So she had to be on this trip for like five days, no phone. Oh, wow. She was someone who could do it, though. Yeah. I could not.

How long have you been with your wife? 15 years. No shit. July 12th, it'll be 15 years. How old were you when you met? Well, when we met. When we went on a first date, I was 30, but we met when I was younger. She worked with my sister at the spa in Huntington.

A spa? What'd she do with the spa? She's an esthetician. Oh, she is? Yeah. So my daughter's getting into right now. It's a great business. Yeah.

Nothing's like depression proof or recession proof. Right. People will cancel tons of stuff before not feeling good about how they look. Right. Yeah, it's a good business. And plus, there's so many new things people are doing to their skin. Always. If you can get some kind of like medical practitioner to work under, you're set. You're all good. Yeah. Your skin looks good. Does she work on you? Thank you, but no. Not really. She doesn't give you wraps or heels. I've had like, we've been married 15 years. I've probably had eight facials over the course of that time. Really? Yeah. My dad looks young. I look young.

What do you, uh, you're not Irish. I am Irish. Oh, you are? Because we don't. Because this is Irish skin right here. Yeah, I'll get there. I'm also older than you. I just turned 60. Yeah, I'm 45. You know what? The Irish eye wrinkles?

Yeah. I love him, man. They're laugh wrinkles. I love him, yeah. When my friend Steve laughs in his eyes. Yeah. It's like they're smiling. Irish eyes are smiling.

That's right. Yeah, I'm way more Irish than I thought. Yeah. You got the temper? I got the, no. Um, probably. But it doesn't come out often. When's the last time you had a fist fight?

Oh, a long time ago. Like high school? But I'm ready. You're ready to go? Yeah. I mean, that's the thing about working out as much as you do. To what end? If you're not beating people up,

it's a waste of the resource you've developed. I know. It keeps me from getting into fights because people see me and they're like, that's probably pretty strong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, but I don't like fighting. I've been in like four fights my entire life. I'm not, I was not like a,

Street tough kind of guy. Did you win them? Yes. But I knocked myself out in one. I like what he just laughed at that, man. You mean like punch yourself? No, I was, it's a long story, but I was fighting with this kid and he was big. Yeah.

The kid was big, dude. He was like four or five inches taller than me, probably like 30, 40 pounds. And I was whipping his ass. Yeah. And then for some reason, I got in my head that I was going to Greco Roman toss him backwards because I got him

I was kneeing him in the head. He turned around. I grabbed him and I threw him over and I landed right on my head on the pavement. Yeah. Which I'm still not sure. This all could be a figment of my imagination. I could wake up in that parking lot any second. Right. Right. You know? And realize you had a dream that you became a

Yeah, famous meme guy. What a weird dream that would be. Because it didn't even exist when you got knocked down. You would have developed the technology in your head and then been the best at it. That's like, you ever read in your dream? No. Sometimes I'll be reading stuff in my dream and I'm like, what the hell am I reading?

Yeah. I'm just, it's not, it's like Loram I'mipsum type stuff, but I'm reading it. Yeah. But I'm making it up as I go along. Right, right. I don't know. I would say the Bible would probably come up with me. I grew up big Bible.

I mean Catholic. Yeah, me too. We went to church on Sundays. I went to Catholic. school. Oh, you did? Yeah. Whoa. That's where the fights happened, right? I got in one fight there, and it was, I still feel

bad about it to this day. Because you beat him up? Yeah, it was just like not necessary. Yeah. I was bored, and he said something about, he called the class of, like, a bunch of losers or something. I was like, well. So you represented the whole class. The whole class. Yeah.

Is it all boys? No, no. Boys and girls. Girls with those little pleated Catholic school skirts? It was small, yeah. Starched white shirts? Starched. Yeah, super starched. I had to wear a tie to school.

I was in fifth grade wearing a tie. Wow. Stupid. Yeah. Did you play sports? You were chubby? I was chubby, yeah. It was chubby kid.

Did you play football or anything? I played football. I quit my senior year because I hated the coaches. I still am not a huge fan of the high school football coach mentality. Really? Yeah. It's not. Yeah.

I'm sure to speak broadly like that is disrespectful to an entire group of people. I know there's good ones out there. Yeah. I had, I had, there was like three that I really loved and the rest of them were terrible. Yeah. Terrible people. Yeah, I had, I played hockey and I had a, I had a coach who, I wasn't good, but I played for four years. I was on the JV team as a senior, which I don't think is legal.

Oh, my God. But they loved me. Like one coach loved me. So he just was like, all right, Fitzsimmons, you could play JV. You pass. And I wasn't even the best player on JV. Wow. But you liked it.

I liked it. And I actually had a good coach, Frank Effinger, and he had a sense of humor. And, but, you know, but the main thing was like being the captain. And we'd have these morning meetings at school. Yeah. Like twice a week, everybody, the theater group would get up and promote that they had to play this month or, you know, the president would get up. And so I would get up and I would give speeches about JV hockey and I would motivate.

Remember Joe Piscopo on SNL? Yeah. I would do an impression of that. And that was like my first stand-up comedy, I think. Wow. So I kind of give him credit for letting me be a comedian for the first time. Yeah. Yeah.

And you got bit by the bug. Very much so. My senior year, I did a talent show and I did some co. drank some tequila, got on stage. Did coke in high school? Oh, like when we were 15, we were doing acid, coke, mushrooms. Yeah. My town was nuts.

Where did you grow up? Tarrytown, New York, Westchester County. Yeah. And it was just like, I don't know what it was, but we would just, we would drive to the Bronx and we get angel dust. And, you know, speed, black beauties, anything we get our hands on. And that's why I haven't done anything. I haven't drank in 32 years or something. Yeah, me too.

Not 32, but coming up on 24. Oh, there you go. Yeah. Look at us, huh? Had to. All right. It had to happen. Life's better, isn't it?

It's not even, dude, I was at Christa Stefano's wedding this past weekend. Uh-huh. And I was talking to some of his boys from Bay Ridge who are like, you know, whatever. They're great, but they're like Bay Ridge through and through. Right. And this guy was like, how much clear. do you feel as a result? And I was like, to be honest, it's not even,

it's like asking a squirrel what it's like to be a lion. It's like it's not, you can't describe it. Right. It's my life is almost comically good. Well, the choice is that like it gets to a point where here's the thing I tell to people. I still do Coke though. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I just haven't drank. Yeah. That's the only way I can do stand up. That's how he started. But it's like. You get to a point I tell people that are trying to quit You're going to get to a point

Where it's a switch that's now turned off Yeah You just when people say do you want to drink You don't weigh it anymore No The hard part is when you first quit And you have to rationalize Turning it down each time

Yeah And then eventually it becomes your identity That you just don't drink Yeah And that's the freeing part I find Yeah It's I always say It's getting sober is impossible

Until it's easy Right right Exactly. It's not. It's so difficult, man. And you grew up in Comac? Comac, Long Island, yeah. My, and I know that's a party town because my cousins grew up in East Northport.

Oh, yeah. Which is basically the same town. Yeah, yeah, very close. And I think they went to Comac West. Was that the high school? There was Comac North and Comac South back then. Oh, maybe that year. It's one of those.

There's only one Comac. Yeah. How old are they? The youngest is, 58 and the oldest is 75. Okay. The Mulligans. No, I don't know that.

But I remember there was the Comac Motor Inn. Yeah, it's still there. It was famous. Still there. It was the party in the parking lot of the Comac Motor Inn. People pull out of that parking lot in broad daylight. And I'm like, what? You don't give a shit at all about anything.

And there's a white castle right next to it that Greg. It was shut down. I said to my wife, I'm like, about time. Yeah. They shut this white castle down. Right. They're rebuilding it.

No. It's all plywood and it has the turrets made out of plywood. It's like, what are you like? On your prom night, did you get a room at the Comac motor in? No, we went out east to this hotel. Yeah. I don't remember. I was blacked out almost the entire weekend.

Right. I remember very little of it. Yeah. Sad. But the Comac motor in. Yeah. And then I know there's another famous comedian from Comac

Is it Rosio Donald? Rosie O'Donnell Right, right, right. Rosio Donald's from there. Bob Costas. No shit. Bob Costas, yeah. Whoa.

Yeah, Comac. This is more. This guy, Adam W., who is huge on social media. He's probably got 80 million followers across all platforms. What? What does he do?

Just funny sketch. So the same as you? But better. You think his quality is better or he's just done better? Um, his are very obvious, simple to grasp visual jokes. Right, right. So quicker. Everybody gets it.

You really don't even need to speak English to get it, which is why I realized that when I started my page, Influeners in the Wild, the reason that it grew so fast is like, it's visual. It's like, Mr. Bean. Right. Right, right. You know, you don't really need to speak. I love that site. If people don't know, it's basically clips of it's meta.

You're watching creators create. Yeah. And the complete inhibition that they have in being on a beach or on a cruise ship or wherever and just dancing around like maniacs. Yeah. And there's a part of you that thinks, oh, God. God, that's so embarrassing. And there's a part of you that goes, God, I wish I was that free.

That's why it works. Yeah. That's why the page works. First of all, it's all of us. We're all, like, the thing that I think of, I did, the impetus for it was one sketch that I shot in Manhattan with this guy, his name's Guy. And we were fake locked in a Chinese finger cuff.

And he was like, we were pulling on, and he put his leg up on me and tried to pull it off. And people were walking by, and I was like, this is a, absurd. But it's also as simple as being at a concert or a game and turning around and wanting the game or the concert in the back and you're facing all of these people and you're taking a picture. It's like you're facing everybody. It's just this feeling of like, I want a picture, but I don't like myself that much. And I think everyone hates me. That is rough because I look at my life and, you know, I don't put any of it on social media. I mean, very little. And then I look of my life and it's like, yeah, I just was at a Bob Dylan concert on Saturday night. And on Sunday,

I was at a pool in Palm Springs with like seven funny friends. We could have done something there. Like my life, I'm in New York now. You know, I'm doing shows at the cellar tonight, probably with Dave Attell. Yeah. Like all of this, I could just be bang, bang, bang. Yeah. And I don't. Yeah. It's got to be, I remember years ago getting asked to. help this group of guys. One of the guys's name was Lewis Howes, Steve Weatherford, who was Giants. He was like very, very integral and then winning the Super Bowl. He was a kicker. And this guy, Gerard, who started Elite Daily and sold it. And I got on the phone with them. No, I'm sorry, it was a text. It was a group text. And I sent everything that they needed to do.

I said, do you guys need to link up together? This was like 10 years ago, by that. Link up together, repost each other stuff, comment on each other stuff, like you. other stuff, share each other's stuff. Each day of the week, you each post one other person's piece of content. You guys build and build and build. And it was like maybe seven or eight things that they needed to do. And every single one of them goes, that sounds like a lot of work. Yeah.

And I was like, what did you think it was gonna be? Right, right. You built a website for $50 million and sold it for $50. I'm sorry, you built a website and sold it for $50 million. Yeah. Was it, did that not take a lot of work? All right. So some people get it and some people don't.

Yeah. I get it. I treat this like a business because I'm an adult. You wake up in the morning and you start thinking about it. Well, I saw a documentary that Adam Carolla produced called meme gods or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw you out there at the screening. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You were on the panel, right? Yes. Yeah. And it was Cedric the entertainer. Yeah. Who I used to write for. He had a sketch show on Fox I wrote for. And I honestly think he's the most talented.

person I've ever worked for. He's a beast. He's a beast. Yeah. I mean, on this sketch show, he would come out. I was a monologue writer with Louis C.K. And so he would come out and he would do a monologue. And it was literally like, we'd riff during the week like a few times. Like literally 15, 20 minutes, we would just riff on a topic, you know, like Blackberries were new when we shot this. Yeah. And so we're talking about the the music to play. Anyway, then he'd sit in his chair getting his makeup, and I'd walk through it with him for 10 minutes. And then he would come out on stage, no cue cards, nothing,

and do a 10-minute monologue that would destroy straight into the sensation dancers where he would do a fully choreographed group dance. Him? To a full song. Yes. He would do the dance also? He's a sick dancer. Yeah.

And then he would play four or five different characters in skis. sketches. He was insane. Yeah. And he was great at all of it. And he's a great guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So how did you get to know Cedric through that? This guy, Adam Olson, set that up. Yeah. So we started shooting this thing in like 2016, maybe. Yeah. And Adam Padilla, who is Adam the creator on Instagram, owns a company called Brandfire. We were all kind of hanging out there. It was like not a meme collective, but like a little bit. Yeah. And Adam Alson used to come out from L.A. and visit Adam. They grew up together in Staten Island. And he just, we started shooting this thing and Adam was like, Cedric likes the idea. He's into it. We brought him on as an executive producer. Yeah. Then we shot

everything. And then how did Cirola get involved? Adam Alson. Oh, it wasn't Adam Coraula? No, Adam Alson also brought on Adam Coraola. Oh, you said Adam also. No, Adam Alson. Adam Alson. That's his name, Adam Alson. But then Adam also came on. Yes. So, okay. Adam Olson brought on Sedgri the Entertainer.

And then Adam Olson also brought on Adam Carolla. And they got it to the finish line. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was a long, long time. And so that was interesting to me because, like, it's funny. You think about, like, like, when I write model, for Cedric, people go, oh, somebody writes those?

It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything that entertains you is produced on some level. And for me, memes always felt like something that like, yeah, there were people that just thought of stuff and they put it up. But I never thought about the idea that it is a job, that you wake up in the morning and you start spitballing ideas and you start thinking about what's on your mind, what you can riff on, because it's totally organic with you.

you. Yeah. I feel like everything you put out are things that have happened to you or you've noticed and you're sort of, they're just in your head and then you, you just put them out. That's why I think people connect to them so much. They don't feel contrived. No, no. It's not, I don't wake up and start thinking about, well, let me put it this way. I don't wake up and deliberately start thinking about stuff. I wake up and my brain starts thinking about stuff before I get a chance to even figure out what's going on for the day. And it's just always going, and I live my life. So I, if I was like, I always say if I was a 22-year-old kid when this happened,

it would have been over before it started. Right. I did stand up when I was 23. My best joke was about masturbating with shampoo and thinking I gave myself an STD because it burned. Can I use that tonight at the comedy show? Oh, of course. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And then I was. Plus your pubic hair probably. looked amazing. Oh, shiny. Yeah. Bouncy. Balancing.

A lot of volume. Yeah. Yeah. I use conditioner. So mine just lay flat. Conditioner is, it's a much better alternative. Yes, it is. It is.

It's insane. My hotel room right now, it's the first time I've been in a hotel room where they don't offer, and this is a new trend. They're not offering the body lotion like they used to. Really? Or they do a thing where, They mount it on the wall in like a big one. And so now you've got to transport it to the bed somehow.

Yeah. I don't appreciate it. No. No, you got to stop at a bodega or something. Yeah. I'm not staying in a great hotel right now. I got it on Hotels.com. It looked really good.

And it wasn't cheap. And I check in and it's a little dated. Yeah, I've had some of those. Yeah. That's why I just stay at the same place every time. Yeah. Stayed there and that's what I should stick to. Yeah.

I'm not going to say the name of your hotel because I don't want people harassing you there. Yeah. Dream Hotel. Downtown. Downtown. So I want to talk more about the process. So you think of something in the morning. No, not in the morning, just all day, every day.

Yeah. How many do you put out a week, like four? I mean, it's more videos now for me because I like doing them. more. When one of those does well, it's like way more gratifying. So when I first started, I was reposting other people's memes, just like everybody else. Yeah. I was like you. I didn't, I mean, it's funny because I made memes in like 2008, 2009 on Reddit. Yeah. I was making them back then. How many seconds were they? The memes or just images. The memes. How many seconds? Yeah. Zero. It was just an image. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. That was back when like it was just

an image. I did have a video blog back then, but that's a whole other thing. That's the other thing. This is like the ninth thing that I've tried. Yeah. And the first thing that worked. I mean, everything failed before this. Right. But I learned from everything. Yeah. So when I was doing memes with the images, I would either, it was very rare that I would have an idea and then search for an image to match it. Right. It was more often that I would scroll through images and see something in it. and it would remind me of some part of my life that was funny or aggravating or whatever. And I would put it out. And I was making, I was making like 15 memes a day for the first two years.

Whoa. It was psychotic. No shit. Full-time job. Damn. Young kids. How were you paying the bills at that point? With the memes?

No, I worked for a fence company doing sales. So you did that eight hours a day and still were putting out that many memes? So that's the other thing. Like, sales is. I don't know if you've ever had a sales job, but it's very flexible. Time is very flexible. So it's like football time. Like a football game is what, 12 minutes of game playing?

Yeah, right. Football game. So, oh no, I guess. No, yeah, something like that. It's really small compared to the length of the game. So like in an eight-hour day, I would work for maybe an hour and a half. Really? Yeah, because I was driving back and forth.

I was waiting. I was putting estimates in or whatever. And then in that time. But it was not like, I don't really. feel like I made a decision to do that. It just kind of happened. Uh-huh. Because I've always wanted to be funny publicly.

Yeah. I was funny privately. Yeah. I love being funny. Like the bit, the bug that you got bit by when you did the talent show. Yeah. I only get that in real life when there's a situation that calls for the perfect line at the right time. Right.

And you just, like, you kill in a group of three. Yeah. That's what I like. I never got the gratification of reciting jokes to a crowd of people that I didn't know. Right, right. I just didn't get it. I got laughs. I just couldn't feel it.

Right. You know? Yeah, that's what your videos feel like that you're just talking to a few friends. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't feel like you're like trying to project to a giant audience. No. It's intimate. And what I did, the video I did yesterday about the being at a diner.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's an idea that I've had forever. Like I have all these ideas. I just, it takes a long time sometimes for me to go, what does this actually look like? Let me sit down and actually figure out what this might look like, sound like. Like, I write everything. I don't make anything up. Yeah, no, I got a buddy and we go to, there's a nine-hole golf course, a munich course in Venice Beach where I live.

And we play golf there at least twice a week. And then another time we go just for lunch because they have a really nice cafe. restaurant at the golf course. And so we go in and my buddy Mikey Fitzgiven who has like OCD will open the menu. Yeah. And it's not a big menu.

And he will ask questions and then make adjustments. But it's two or three rounds and the waiters, my daughter used to wait tables there and she goes, you realize that nobody on this staff wants to go to your guy's table. Really? And and it's

and we, and I just laugh because he's the same way in the golf. course. He lines, he's like, remember Norton and the Honeymooners when he would he try to play golf? Anyway, it's just a long, drawn-out thing before he hits the ball of all the twitches. Every time. Yeah. And so I like that, I like that video of like, how do you not know what to order in a coffee shop? At a diner. So, like, at a restaurant, I worked in restaurants. If someone came in and started trying to make crazy modifications, that would not fly in the restaurants I worked at. Right.

But at a diner? Yeah. On one page is cottage cheese on the other is a rib eye. Like just do whatever you want. Nothing matters. Nothing matters. You want breakfast all day. That's all you need to know.

All day. You can get pancakes with gravy on it. Like whatever you like the limit is your imagination. And I've been doing that bit since I was like 16 in the diners. My friends would look at a menu and I'd shut it and be like just fucking make it up. It's literally like It's like being a child again It's the place where an adult gets to be a child

Yeah, I want to see what you're capable of Yes, right I miss the crayons at the table Bring me the fucking crayons Yeah The crayons, my kids get the crayons Yeah And so I get the crayons

Yes, you do Yeah It's definitely one of the perks of being an adult Yeah, you get to do art again Kids stuff Yeah You get to Well, if you're a good parent

You get to act like a child. Yeah. I fucking hate dads that, you know, like I play golf now a lot. I never played golf when my kids were free. I do it during the day when they were in school and as a comedian, I had my days free. Yeah. But I was not the guy that was like ignoring my kids or my kids are having fun and you go and you're reading the paper or you're on your phone. Yeah.

You know, you got to enjoy these. How old are your kids now? 19, 13, and 8. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. It's a weird configuration. Stepdaughter is 19. Oh, got it.

Yeah, we took big. Like, I've had young kids for the last 15 years. Yeah. Because I got together with my wife when she was four. So my son is eight now, going to be nine in a little bit. You just said you got together when your wife was four? No, when she was four. When Leanna was four.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Just wanted to clarify because it sounded weird. A little suss. She is 19 now, though, my wife. God, I had to wait a long time. It's nice to raise kids and raise a wife. Yeah.

Because then you can make her exactly the way you want her. Exactly. Yeah. She's been raising me. She's ridiculous. She from Comac? No, I slip. Directly south.

Yeah, right. Directly south of Comac. Yeah. Ice slips on the water, right? Yeah. Damn. So was she rich growing up? No.

No, no, no. She was not, no, there's parts of Ice Lip that are like super rich, and then there's parts of Ice Lip that are like... Yeah. You guys are okay? That's what's funny about Long Island. Yeah. It really is the rich and the...

It is the original middle class. Yeah. It's post-World War II. Levittown was built with housing for soldiers coming back, right? Yeah, yeah. And they gave them these GI loans that were pretty cheap. Yep. And there was tons of work.

And it was like my cousins, the Mulligans. He worked in a factory. Yeah, he worked in a factory. She worked in a factory. But they made enough money to support seven children. You couldn't even. No, you can't. Yeah.

Something's going on. I don't know what it is. I'm not an economic savant. But I do know that, like I did, you know, Kitty Genevise is? No. Kitty Genevice was a woman who was murdered in, Kitty Genevese Somewhere in Brooklyn.

Very famous murder. The whole thing of her murder was that... Was she calling out and nobody helped her? Yeah, nobody helped her. That's actually the murder that created the 911 system because people were like, we didn't, you know... They saw it, they didn't see it, they heard it, they didn't know what was going on.

So I remember reading something about her, she made like 50 bucks a week or something like that. And I went back and I did, what was the price of a candy bar in 19, whatever it was? Yeah. It was like three cents. A candy bar now is like $2. Yeah. It doesn't, the inflation does not match up at all.

No, no, no, no. All. No. There's, I don't know where they get these numbers from. The inflation since 2020 is like almost 60%. Yeah. No, and they say that back then, you should be spending 20% of your income on rent. You know, my son is living in Brooklyn now in Bushwick, and he spends probably over 50% of his paycheck on his rent.

Yeah, the rent is insane. Yeah. I don't know. I used to have a joke about how I was telling my grandfather, wait, what was it? I think I was. Q Gardens. That's where Kitty Janice was murdered. Q Gardens.

Q Gardens. Yeah. I was telling my grandfather that a piece of gum. was 50 cents. And he goes, and he goes, when I, when I was a kid, a piece of gum was a penny. And I was, no, no, no.

When I was a kid, a loaf of bread was a, was a penny. Yeah. And I was like, well, how much was a piece of gum? Yeah. Yeah. It's the smallest denomination. It probably would have been less. My grandfather grew up, he's from,

Ireland. All four my grandparents are from Ireland. They all ended up in the Bronx. And, you know, again, my grandfather raised six kids. He worked for Con Ed for the electric company. Yeah. And drove a car. Wife was a stay-at-home mom. And they had a house. They had a double-decker in Throg's neck. It's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah. My kids will never buy a home. Unless there's a major crash, they're never going to buy a home. Yeah, it's crazy. It really is. I don't know.

I don't understand. I feel bad for, I've always been very lucky in that. Like my student loans were back then $5,000 a semester. Yeah. For University of Maryland. That's where you went? For one year and one month, yes. I got expelled.

For drinking and drug use? Oh yeah. Yeah. What was your major? What's your? Communication. Well, look what you did. Yeah.

You should, they would probably have you back to speak at the school right now. We did expel him, but he's done all right. Right. Look what you can do with a quarter of an education from our school. Imagine if you got four years. So that was, I actually, I went to Nassau Community College, and then I went to University of Maryland, and then I went to Farmingdale and I finished there. Okay. Yeah.

So I got very, I mean, honestly, the Nassau was. Nassau was like nonverbal communication, small group, interpersonal, public speaking, like the bare, like the basics of it. Yeah. Then University of Maryland was more like theory. Yeah. And Farmingdale was technical, which I hated, but helped also because they, like, they're, that, that communication program exists to write manuals for airplane parts. Right, right. That's the communication they're working on.

Yeah, yeah. It's terrible. I was, I was walking over here this morning. And I was walking past a crowd of people. And I smelled this perfume that was just like, it was like roses and lemons. And it just, it made me a little like, no, no, no. Oh, it was good. Oh, it was good.

Yeah. Like I got a little turned on. Yeah. And then I turned around and it was an old lady. Yeah. And I wanted her so bad. Hey, man. It is what it is.

You know? People love who they love. But you also realize the olfactory sense is underrated. Oh, God. Everybody thinks about what they look and what they look like and what they're saying. If you got a nice perfume on, you got a big edge. Yeah, huge. Huge.

I remember my son being, my youngest son being like a year and a half old. And I was holding him, putting him to bed and I was singing to him. And I remember looking at his hair and just sticking my nose in it and being like, when I get to heaven, this is the first thing that I'm going to, that's going to happen. I know. I was like, oh my God. What is it about kids are babies? Little baby heads?

It's, I don't know. It's got to be evolutionary, I'm sure. So you don't kill them. Exactly. Because they're crying and they're needy and they give nothing to the village. They give nothing. Yeah. They provide no value.

Yeah. So God goes, how can we make these things so fucking cute that you will put up with no sleep, headaches, sticking your tit in their mouth until your nipples hurt. Being projectile shat on at 3 a.m. Pissing in your face while you're changing a diaper. Yes, insane. Yeah.

It's insane, but the joy, so I heard somebody say recently that everyone understands how annoying kids are, even non-parents. But you can't explain the joy of being a parent to a non-parent. Right. So the worst part of it is all common denominator. Everyone understands that. Yeah.

But it's impossible. Like when I, I remember holding my son and my heart fluttering like I was a Disney princess. Yeah. And I was like, man, this is wow. Yeah. And then every once in a while, it still happens. I look at them and I'm like, I can't believe you're me.

Yeah. Or I'll be with my wife and I'll be like, can you fucking believe we made these children? Yeah. And we continue to. Yeah. You know? I like wrestling with my son. Yeah.

And he's 25 now. And I still, now he can kick my, it was funny because, you know, my whole, I mean, since he was a little kid, we wrestled. Yeah. And then as he got into high school, it started to be like, it got real. Yeah. Not in a nasty way, but just like I was having to give a hundred percent. Really? And when I gave up, I finally got to 100 percent.

And then he got me into a choke hole. and I had to tap out. And it was a part of my whole body that just went limp. Like, that's it. That's it. Pass the torch. Pass the torch. You're the man of the house now.

Fuck, he's the, I'm like the lion that has to go in the outskirts of the community now. And just watch his hair fall out and lick his paw. And he's going to just bring a new woman in. And it's weird. It's good, though. you'll get to this. How old's your oldest? My oldest son? Yeah.

13. I have allergies, by the way. I want to make sure everyone, like, I'm not sick. The allergies are horrific. I don't know if you suffer. I'm literally wiping tears from my eyes right. Well, partly because you make me laugh. Okay. Good. But also because, no, Louis C.K. is supposed to be coming in today at 1 and he just canceled with COVID. Oh, really? Yeah. He's got COVID. What is it? 20-20?

I said to him, I go, that's embarrassing, man. Yeah. Yeah. You should. you shouldn't tell people that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, yeah, but my oldest is 20, he'll be 26 in October. And it's such a weird. He just got his first big boy job, you know, where he's got health insurance and 401K. And so I got to take him off my health insurance, which was just, it wasn't that much money, but just ceremoniously.

And I felt, I feel like he. he's up here now. Like I'm in town. We're going out to dinner tonight. I'm taking him to Keen's Chop House. And, you know, we, we go to bars and you know, we watch sports in bars

and whatever. And I don't feel responsible for him anymore. It's really weird. And I think that parents have to aspire to that. I think some parents take care of their kids until they're 40 years old. Yeah, I'm not trying to do that. Now.

My wife has a very funny take on the whole those overly sentimental one day you're going to pick up your kid for the last time and you're not even going to know it and I said that to her and she's like yeah thank God I'm good like my back hurts dude you're nine I'm not we're all set yeah I don't know when it was

the last time I picked you up but whatever it was not soon enough you should be finding a partner now to pick you up yeah yeah where you can walk Yeah. You can walk. So there's some things I want to ask you. Okay. I write a script. I'm not like some podcasters that just like, you know, we'll just riff.

No direction. Come on. There's some real work here. Your book is called Happy is the New Rich, but your real last name is Resch. Yeah. So you could have called it Happiness is the New Resch. It would have made no sense. What's the... Nobody knows your name, right? It's so like I was on a plane once and this guy was asking me what I did and we were talking about it and he's like, he's like, but your tank's an atch are on the internet and that's where millions of people know you from.

Yeah. He's like nobody should be addressing you by your real name. It's unnecessary. He goes, do you know what Elton John's name is? I go, no. And he goes, Reginald Dwight Johnson. Elton John would have never happened. Right, right.

If he'd be stuck with that name? Yeah. He'd be somewhere best. Bob Dylan was Robert Allen Zimmerman. You think that guy's going to become a star? Right. Not a chance. Woody Allen was Jew McJewstein.

Really? Yeah. That was a smart move. I know. Because some people are anti-Zionist. Yeah. That's funny. So what was the main message of the book?

So Happy is the New Rich came from me being at my absolute lowest, the most brokest point in California when I lived there for one year. How old were you? 30. Broke, dude. Zero.0.00 when I would look at the app. Really? Yeah.

The IRS came. They took money out of my account. And I just, I don't know. It was, so I was on the treadmill. The short story is I was on the treadmill at this gym and I was walking and I was literally also on a treadmill in my mind. I was walking, walking, walking, thinking, I need more. money. I need more money. I need to make more money. I need to make more money right now, but it's eight o'clock, but I need money. I had no money. I was like, broke. So after running that

into the ground, I said, I can't do that, but I can choose to be happy right now and make the most of where I am. I'm at the gym. I'm healthy. I'm around friends. I'm around people. So I need to enjoy my life without money because then when I get money, I know I'll be able to enjoy it. So it was kind of like a bottoming out for me. And then it became like a war cry of sorts because I just couldn't figure it out. Yeah. Couldn't figure out the finances. And then I did. What was the next source of income at that point? I was in California. At that point, I was waiting tables. I went there to sell mortgages in 2009. Oh, shit. Smart, really smart. And it all crashed in 2008. No, it already crashed.

Yeah, it was like I went after that. Yeah. So it was not a, I knew what I was getting myself into. Right. And I just like, I had literally no money to do anything. I barely survived the entire time out there. But I did, and it was one of the best years of my entire life. Where did you live in L.A.?

I was in L.A. I was in Eliso Viejo, which is right outside of the Go to Beach. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's nice. Damn. Beautiful.

And then when did you start making money, like real money? 30 38? You were selling fences at that point? No, I mean, when I was selling fences, I was making like 130 grand a year. It wasn't... It's not bad. On Long Island.

I mean, I was surviving, but I remember taking... This is a thing I love thinking about. I took a picture of a check to send my wife, commission check, because I got a base and commission. Yeah. And I remember taking a picture of this check and sending it to my wife, and it came up in my memories and in my mind I was like yeah we're good and the check was for like 2100 dollars that's where I that was more money to me than I had ever made in a single payment before all right and then it went and then it went from there but I

was good at selling fence which is again why I had time in between appointments and how how how long ago did you leave the fence and go full-time to just social media end of 2017 I quit okay So nine years you've been. Yeah. And I probably, it probably took off for you in, wait, 2017. Yeah. So it probably 2020 COVID time was probably good for you, right?

Because everybody was just glued to their phones. It's been good since, it's been good since 2017. The reason I was able to quit my job is because I got a contract from this dating app to post memes. Yeah. And it was for 144,000. thousand for the year. And I was like, well, this is replacing full-time work. Right. Let me take a break. And my friend Joe, who I owe a debt of gratitude for because he's a fat Joe. No, Joe Fisher. Okay. He's a little fat. No, I don't, I hope you

don't see this. Um, so he had a fence company and he hired me and then I left and then he brought me back and then I left again and then I came back and then I left. And that was when I left to do the meme thing. Yeah. But I knew he would take me back. Yeah, yeah. You know, so it was like, I got money for a year. And then that year I made more than that.

Yeah. Do you think it's unfair that social media doesn't pay out like YouTube does it? Like Instagram doesn't pay you out the way YouTube does? So here's how I feel about that. Adam Masseri is the CEO of Instagram. Whenever he's asked about the bonuses, and I like him, he's a very, very nice guy. And I know that he's got this gargantuan impossible task of running a platform that three billion people use. I get it.

I understand. I don't, but I get it. So when he talks about the bonuses and he's like, we haven't found a way to have them be profitable for us. In my mind, I'm like, who cares? Pay the people who keep your platform afford. Yeah, right. Like you can't look. lose five billion a year.

Right. On over a trillion dollar company, you don't have five billion to spare to make everybody so happy. Yeah. Like, I don't, it just doesn't. The thing is like, all right, take Jimmy Kim alive. All right. Yeah.

That show is getting a million, two million views. Yeah. They've got a floor of employees. Yeah. They've got a network affiliates. all around the country. He's getting paid $16 million, probably $20 million a year,

whatever it is. You're doing the same thing. You're giving content to an outlet that charges ads for the content. Yeah. Where's the disconnect here? Shareholders, I guess. I don't know.

I don't know what the disconnect is. I feel like if you, like this is obviously very self-serving, but I feel like for every year you've been on there, you should get a certain amount of... Like an employee. Like an employee, yeah. Yeah, right.

If you're over a certain threshold of views. Or years that you've been consistent. Right, right, right. Like, I'm not saying I keep the platform alive, but people like me keep the platform alive. Sure. Because a lot of people start. They do it for six months.

They disappear. They can't keep up. They can't handle it. They run out of ideas. They get nervous. They get one bad comment and they crumble and quit or whatever it is. People leave all the time for all different kinds of reasons. Do you read the comments?

Yes, but at this point I ignore anything bad. It doesn't hurt you. No, because I, so you know what bots are? Yeah. When I see a bad comment, because sometimes I'll post something and like 10 seconds later, there will be a completely unrelated hate comment. It has nothing to do with the video. The person doesn't follow me.

I'm like, what is this? Yeah. That's not a real person. But then if it is a real person, I still kind of think of them as a bot because they're not thinking for themselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they're playing a role. They're playing a role. They've been programmed.

They would never, ever speak like that in real life. Yeah. I actually just commented on my other page, Tank's Good News. I commented from Tank Sinatra. Some guy wrote a nasty comment, and I was like, I was like, is this how you want to present yourself to the world? You're on a page that's dedicated to positivity and good news and being a dickhead. Yeah, yeah. People see this stuff.

Right. You know, you see it. It came from you. So you're, that's your existence. Like I just, I get it. I understand. People are angry. They're, they're disenfranchised, they're frustrated.

And the only sense of power they get is getting a response from a big page on Instagram. Because a lot of times I'll respond and they'll be like, oh my God, I can't believe you responded. Yeah, yeah. I know. That's all they want. But, you know, that 10. Thanks, Good News thing is so great because it's such an antidote. It's like, have you seen Zach Aliphonakis' show about gardening right now?

No, I haven't. It's like another thing like yours where it just go like, all right, we need people to ingest this as well. Yeah. Because your stuff, kids could watch it and get a laugh out of it, but also like adults, it's totally relatable to adults as well. And, you know, I just mixed in with all the vitriol and, you know, for someone like me, so much of it is. news and news I don't need to hear again and again. It's the same. It's the same thing.

I don't give shit about the reflecting pool. I really don't. There's a pool with some paint, whatever. Yeah. You know, I'm concerned about Iraq. I'm concerned about health care costs rising. Show me those stories. But don't show me a story about, you know, a watch or a phone that Trump is making

that people aren't getting. I didn't buy one. I don't care. I know. I don't care about anything. Yeah. I don't care about the war. You don't care about the war?

No. Yeah. What am I going to do? Yeah. I think that, like my mom told me something that changed. First of all, I learned all the words to we didn't start the fire at eight years old. For Boy Scouts. I had to do a performance of some sort.

That's so long island. Very long island. But it shaped the way that I see the world. It's like some good, some bad. Uh-huh. Always, some good, some bad. Yeah. But my mother told me that the reason.

Can you still sing it? I know a lot of the words. Let me hear a little bit of it. No. You thought about it for such a split second. If it was going, I could do it. If it was playing, I could sing along. Then I'd get flagged and kicked off the...

Yeah. That's why I said no. Yeah. To protect you. Thank you. Yeah. The reason the Vietnam War was so heavily protested, she said, was because that was the first war where people could actually see what was going on over there.

Right. So once you see the atrocity, it's like, can I stand by and allow this to happen. But it's like, I don't know, man. People will harass me to post about this or post about that. And it's like, or Taylor Swift will get some kind of campaign going against her. It's like, do you think B.B. Netanyahu is waiting for her post to decide what to do? Right.

It's this illusion of participation that gets people feeling responsible where I just, I can't. It's not that I don't, it's not that I don't care. It's that I know my role in this world. And it's not to influence geopolitical events with my anger. Right. Or my fear. Yeah. And I think that we've been given this incredible tool of the internet to do anything with.

And humanity has chosen to create distractions and make people feel bad about themselves. Yeah. And so many ways. So when somebody comes along and they put out material that's nonpartisan, non-political, non-sexual, and just puts out something to make people feel good. It's like, thank God that's there. Yeah, it's not easy. I mean, I could be making a lot more money.

Do you ever, oh, I'm sure. Do you ever get tempted to say something like political? Yes. Actually, when I forget what it was. It was maybe Iran. something was happening on Iran, but the week before that it was Israel, and the week before that, it was something else in the week before that. And it's like people will constantly barrage you with their cause that they are only concerned

with for a week. Yeah. And because you don't post about that cause, they write you off completely. Meanwhile, I want to be like, why are you so adamantly, you know, insisting that I post about Israel? Your silence on Palestine is deafening. Right. At this point.

Right. And your silence on that. other thing is definitely. How about the Sudan where there's like genocide going on? Everybody. How about the in in China where the, uh, there's a whole section of people that are in concentration camps, a million of them. Yeah. I'm sorry. That sucks. Right. My, me ruining my own life over that is not going to, is not going to do anything. If I see something, I do something. If I'm able to help in the moment. Yeah. I'm all about that. Right. And I have. Yeah. Like if I see a super hot woman on the street who's homeless.

Yeah. I'll bring her to my house. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll give her a shower. I'll wash her clothes. I'll give her some of that perfume I was talking about. Yeah. And then you let her go?

Not right away. Yeah. There's basement time. Yeah. Food. She's got to eat. She's got to eat at a nice restaurant. Shea Greg.

Shea Greg. Many courses at Shea Greg's butthole. Little dessert. in the butthole. You want some chocolate moose? Oh, my God. All right, before we have to let you go, there's a thing we do called Fastballs with Fits. Mm-hmm.

And just answer. Okay. Briefly. Sure. All right. I like that you had to say briefly because you know that I want to say more. You will say more, which is why you're here. And hopefully you'll come back.

Yes. He ever been arrested? No. Where did you lose your virginity? The Comac motoring? It's questionable. I think in my bedroom, but there was a blackout, brownout situation that nags me. No.

Yeah. So did you see this woman again, same woman? No. No. How old were you? The blackout? 17. You were 17, and the first time you had sex with a woman you don't remember if you

completed or you don't know how far you went? I don't know if we had sex or if we were just doing something like that. Yeah. But the first time I remember, my house. Okay. Yeah. Parents were out? No.

No, I actually drove. I didn't have condoms. I left the girl there. I drove to the gas station to get condoms and come back. Yeah. She was very dedicated. Wow. Yeah.

She waited. And your parents were cool with you being up in your room with a girl? Yeah, I mean, I started feeding myself at 12. Yeah, yeah. They didn't have any, I don't want to say they didn't have any interest, but like, I was doing what, I was doing what I wanted because I had to. Long Island was like that. Long Island kids just kind of did what they want. They just roamed.

Yeah, when you grow up in the household, I grew up in Rome. Yeah. Well, that's the next podcast. We'll get into that. Mm-hmm. Who is your best Asian friend? Who is my best Asian friend? Jay, my friend Jay.

My friend Jay, he's actually one of my best friends. What's his last thing? Lombardo. That was good. He's Chinese and Italian. All right. I get it. Yeah.

I get it. Yeah. There are two types of people in the world. Go. People who talk shit about the younger generations and people who don't. Yeah. On the latter.

People who learn from them, people who are inspired by the younger generation. Yeah. And I think you have to have kids. You don't have to. It helps to have kids. Sometimes you're the worst.

Yeah. I think it's sad and ironic that by the time you're old enough that you have kids, you forget what it was like to be one and we just look down on them like their idiots or stupid. Right.

Dude, you knew nothing. Yeah. But your dad treated you that way, so now you treat your... And also, Once your kid, like I was talking about with my son, you don't allow your son to be an adult or your daughter because you knew them when they were a child. So you always treat them like a child. Yep.

They never graduate. Yeah. Who's the one that got away? Nobody. It wasn't one. No. That girl you blacked out drunk on in your. I got to write one.

Yeah. Yeah. Good answer. When's the last time you apologized? Like deeply apologized. You're a sober guy. It was probably a good one. Pretty recently.

I don't remember what it was. I have apologized multiple times over the course of years to my son. Yeah. For the way I parented. That's amazing. Yeah. That's profound for him. Yeah.

Shows you as a human being. Yeah. And I always make sure it's not after something that just happened. I'll make sure it's out of nowhere and I'll be like, oh, goodwill hunting him. I'll be like, just so you know. When I yelled at you, when you were a kid, it was not your fault. It was my inability to handle whatever was going on.

And you weren't even doing anything so bad that you needed to be yelled at. I was learning how to be a parent as well. And I'm sorry that you got the brunt of it. My younger son has been yelled at like three times. Yeah. I used to yell. Right. I got to have that.

Fear. I'm going to say that to my son. Yeah. I think that's. Last question. Did we land on the moon? Yeah. Thanks, Sinatra.

Great, Fitzh Simmons. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. I don't do podcasts in New York that often. Oh, really good. I'm glad we got it done. Yeah, this is great. And anything we can promote for you? In New York, I just opened a gym.

It's called The Pack. No shit. Yeah. Wow. It is self-defense disguised as group fitness, largely geared towards women because New York is. So my partner, Noah, came up with the idea when, I don't know if you remember that was girls getting attacked. in the streets on New York by like most likely the same guy.

Yeah. And he was the founder of Rumble boxing. Okay. So sold Rumble, needed something new, came up with this idea and it's absolutely the best workout I've ever had in my entire life and we're growing fast. Where is it? It's on 23rd in between fifth and sixth. Nice spot.

Flatiron, perfect. Right across from the big Home Depot. I used to own a place on a place on a... 26th and 6th. It's a great, great neighborhood. Yeah. And then obviously the social media handles are Tank Sinatra. Yep, thanks, good news.

Thanks, good news. And then the other one, which is the influencers in the wild. That one is really great. So once you go to one, you can find the others. Yeah, they're all listed in the bio. Yeah, yeah, good. All right, man. Thank you so much.

Good time. Good time.