Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Jimmy Kimmel on COVID-19, His Karl Malone Character, Kanye West, and Being America's Late-Night Dad

Episode Date: December 11, 2020

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay are joined by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to discuss COVID-19, his history of comedic characters, Kanye West, the current cultural situation in America, and much more (16:00). Then they discuss the morals of using COVID-19 to promote an album (1:03:00), Olivia Jade’s appearance on 'Red Table Talk' (1:23:00), and Rush Limbaugh’s recent inflammatory statements about secession (1:31:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. It's higher learning. It is I, Van Lathan. It's me, Rachel Lindsay. We were just talking about something. Shout out to everyone that's over on the Cameo app. You guys know what Cameo is, Thought Warriors? It's where celebrities is an app.

Yeah. And you pay a certain amount of money and a celebrity will then give you a greeting, like a message. Everybody knows how to be a new now. Who is the most? Who you think right now is the highest price person on Cameo? It's a great question. I don't know. Okay, people who are doing it for charity don't count, right?

Because you have like the one-offs that come in just to do it to raise something. Chris Harrison is like 500 plus. Are there people more than that? 500 plus. Yeah. Chris Harrison. I see, oh, they got Debbie Gibson on here. I will pay for a Debbie Gibson came in here. Would you?

Yeah, get on there and do, I think we're alone now. Is that her or is that Tiffany? No. aren't they the same person? No, Debbie Gibson and Tiffany, wow, you racist as hell. I think we're alone now. No, I thought her nickname was like Tiffany, but her name of Debbie Gibson. What?

I thought Tiffany was like the stage name. You are not going to be let into the white villages anymore. You are all out of here, man. No, like Debbie Gibson and Tiffany, they were like rivals? Like Britney and Christina? Like a Britney and Christina for the late 80s. I'm looking right now, it's got, so Debbie Gibson is $2.49.

I think that's actually low for Debbie Gibson. It's a different generation. I'm telling you, Chris Harrison's like $500 plus. Sort. Let's sort by price, high to low. Let's see. Who the highest person, Caitlin Jenner. Oh, how much is Caitlin?

$2,500 to get a Caitlin Jenner cameo. I wonder if she's ever sold. one. I'm sure she has. That's a lot of money. Now, have you ever bought a cameo for someone? Of course not. Okay, I did for my older sister. Wow. And she loved it

for her birthday. Second question, would you ever be on cameo? Fuck, no. Excuse my language, Judge Lindsay. But no, no, I wouldn't. And by the way, I am shocked by

some of the people that I see who are on cameo. I was about to grow off on cameo. I am shocked. Who's the name that shocks you? Sanal Lathan. A lot of people, is it for charity? Or is it just her? I don't know if it's for charity.

Sanai Lathan is on cameo. A lot of people. Ice Cube is on cameo. Marlonne. Shaka Khan is on cameo. D.C. Youngfly, I know he got a lot of money. He's on cameo. My man, Damon John.

Richard Dreyfus is $1,000 on cameo. I was about to put the wheel and cameo back. but the reality is that it seems like I'm the only one not. What do you think your cameo price would be? What will be a fair price for a cameo from Rachel Lindsay? I'm not on cameo. I know that shocks people because they see me doing ads on Instagram. I don't know.

There's something personal about cameo that I just don't want people to have that kind of access to me and like saving videos of me in that way. I guess I'm private in that sense. My price, though, there are a lot of Bachelor people on it. Okay. It seems like it would be a good little side hustle if you have been on ABC for a while. Yeah, a lot of people. I'd say about 250. 250. Okay. So if you're in the 250 range of Cameo, I'm going to tell you people that are around the same range as you. Dog the Bonnie Hunter.

Okay. Okay. Tarik L. Musa from Flipper. Yes, yes. Denise Richards. Okay, housewife. Housewife. Lexi Pantara. I don't know. She is a celebrity twerker instructor and rapper.

Paul Rubens, Pee Wee Herman, is $2.50. Let me see. Chanel West Coast, Steve Gutenberg. So 250. Nisi Nash is 250. Nisi, Nisi. When we get Nisi on the podcast, Nisi got to be. I feel like I should be more than 250.

I feel like, Nisi got to be way more than $250. But this is the thing, you don't want to outpriced yourself. Right. You can't start too high. So I understand there are people who change their prices. You know, if you realize that the demand is high, then you need to raise your prices. James Vanderbyte is $2.25. Damn.

Alyssa Milano, 225. I'm not going to lie. Look, I, the cameo thing isn't for me. I think it's kind of corny. Not that anyone would pay for my cameo. I just, it just... Oh, they would. They would.

I seriously doubt that people would pay for my cameo. Well, what you wouldn't be able to handle is the request, right? Like, they would ask you to do something specific and you wouldn't, I don't think you would be able to handle that. Yeah, yeah. Can you say this? I love when you say this. Can you tell them this?

Can you curse my friend out? Can you, you know what I mean? It would be stuff like that. Can you pretend like I'm Kanye? And then... That's exactly what people would say. Yeah, it's not for me. I don't knock anybody who's doing it.

I think it's a great side hustle from some people. People make a lot of money off of it. I've paid for it for other people and they thoroughly enjoy it. Like, my friend had iced tea. And he gave a fantastic video for her. You know? Fantastic.

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18 plus. Bonus is non-withdrawable and expires seven days after receipt. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tool. Restrictions apply. See terms at fandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash herms. Do you want a Van Lathen mental health update? Well, how could I say no?

Of course. You're smiling, so I feel like it's going to be a good one. Oh, yeah. I mean, look, so. And laughing. Okay. I'm laughing because the more I think about this, the funnier it is to me at this particular time, like this moment.

The moment, a moment right now. I don't think this is going to be funny anymore. A moment right now where I'm feeling okay. Okay. Okay. So, but the more that I think about that this happened, I just have to laugh at the way. things are going, I just have to. So

I've been up and doing therapy. We've up the therapy now to five days a week. Okay. That's okay. Whatever it takes. So we've up the therapy now to five days a week. When I wake up intense anxiety, I told you guys about this and then about 40 minutes after that, when I get up and start to walk or something like that, just a wave of depression to where like you cry for like, I don't know, like an hour

and a half two hours or something like that, like really bad. Like a guttural, why be? You cry. And so a lot of times, the therapy in the morning is, it's with me and Koli and she witnesses these tears.

Like her and Kola Kulika, and they witness these tears, right? So we had a conversation yesterday morning. I remember I was at the beach. And I was doing therapy on the phone. That's great. Yeah, yeah, at the beach. And I said something to her,

and she just kind of glossed over. And it's kind of glossed over. Like, she didn't gloss over. She glossed over, right? When I was feeling better later on, she texted me. And she goes, man, you're a gun on her, right? And I'm like, yeah.

She goes, let's do an exercise. I want you to take all the ammunition from your gun that you have. And I want you to get it out of the house. I was like, what? She's like, yeah, just to be on the safe side. Like, take all the ammunition for the gun that you have and get out of the house. And then a thorough therapist, she goes, then call me when this is done.

Because I want to hear you. And so I'm like, okay, so my man, Nick, shout out Nick May, called Nick up. I was like, Nick, I got to drop off 300 rounds of shotgun ammunition to you. Oh, God. And he's like, he's like, what? He's like, yeah, I got to drop off 300 rounds of shotgun at the initial. Like, I got to bring it over. He was like, is there any reason why?

I'm like, I don't really want to go into it. But yeah. And then so here's the thing. I'll tell you why I tell this story at the beginning of the podcast. The reason why is because there was something cathartic about doing that. And I can't explain what it was. most times in my life when I'm feeling okay

if you ask me to do something like that I'll say that I'm going to do it and then I never will. You know what I mean? But in this particular point being active in your healing being active in your self-care or your self-protection

with a team of people around you including Kalika, including people from this new place I'm trying tomorrow and all of this stuff like this, it felt good. It felt good to get up and actually go do it

because think about it. Like you're at home, you're in the doldrums. But to do this, you got to go and you got to load up the shells. And then you got to put them in the car. And then you got to drive. And then you see people skateboard and stuff like that. It's like little things like that that kind of get you out of your head. But I.

So every single day is Groundhog's Day, right? It's like I level out. I level out in the evening. But in the morning, it's like terrible. Right. So, but once I get clarity, I didn't think about, I can reflect

humorously on how fucked up I was just a couple of hours ago. Okay. And it's funny. It's funny to like be walking around like L.A. with a certain degree of people knowing who you are, like crying and people. Oh, dude.

Oh, you cry like on your walks and runs? Oh, yes. Like as soon as I start walking, and my throat starts like welling up. You know what I mean? I can't control it. I really don't know what's going on. And so like when you walk around and stuff like that,

people see you and they go, they don't just go, hey, are you okay? They go, yo, Van, dog, you straight? And I just look back and go, oh, man, it's 20-20, bro. You know what I mean? I don't know what to say. Everybody understands that. Right, right.

And then they're like, shit, you telling me, bro. But yeah, man, can you get you get me in a TMZ? No, nigger, I'm in Christ. That's what people say. That's what people say. Call down. Give the man a break. All right.

Hey, bro, but seriously, man, are they hiring at the ring? Or like, bro, it's like, chill, dog. You don't see me with my shoes off, walking through the grass? Oh, you're earthing? I'm grounding myself. Yeah, let me ground.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like that. I do that too. Yeah, but so, and I say this to say, that's already one N-word for this podcast, too. I say this to say the people out there that might be going

through the same thing because dozens of people I've reached out that are going through the same thing is it's very hard but take the first step and do the work. Like just take the it's, I know. I know guys.

I really, I know. Nobody knows better. Well, there are people that probably know better, but I'm telling you, I know. Take the first step and do the work. If they tell you, sometimes it doesn't feel like it's going to work. They say, hey, get up. Sit down and put a puzzle together. Or play a video game. do something to activate your mind or they say, hey, get up and take a shower,

first thing, then go for a run, meditate, do all of these things. I'm telling you, just try. Yeah. I think it's great advice. Yeah, just try, try, try. And if you can build a team, build a team of people. I'll tell you, Van, I'm not laughing.

I found no humor in what you just said, but I am glad you're okay. I am glad you're okay. You know, I started to drop the shells off at your career. You could have. You know, it's funny is that something else that I realized that was troubling. When I, when she asked me to do that, I've been out here 16 years, right? Nah, 14 years.

I've been out here 14 years. When she asked me to do that, there weren't very many people I could think to call and drop that off with. Like, but you know a lot of people. You just meant like people you could trust, like you felt like comfortable enough to do that? Yeah, there weren't very many people that I could think I'm okay with them understanding what's going on with me right now. Nick is obviously one. Me and Nicker, that's my brother. But like it and I thought for a second about like in Louisiana to where I could have actually been curled up in a bed and I could have called people and they would have driven to me and taken everything out of there and cooked and stayed around and told stories and do all of that.

and I've been living for 14 years here, and that kind of doesn't exist. And it's not that I think about it all the time, but I thought about it then. I've been so single-mindedly focused on kind of what all this that we're doing and everything else. But I haven't thought about the fact that, shit, I don't know if I start drowning out here,

I don't really know who throwing the oar. I would throw the oar, maybe too. Right, right. I would help you out. You could always drop it off. I could sit on it. People used to sit on money too back in the day. Hey, hey, man, yo, Rach, Rach.

It would be so funny if I can't, it would be so funny if I concocted that, right? I told you that. And then, like, I get over there and I deliver it because they're in big canisters because I bought, like, Winchester canisters of 12-gauge double-out buck. And I delivered it to you and then, like, you opened it up and wouldn't have but that dope in there. You know what I'm saying? I think my front desk guy can't even be like, hey, man, let me help you out.

Got storage. Kitty is about that life. Kitty would have been like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on him. People come to me like, man, you got it? You got the coat? I'm like, nah, man, I don't know where it's that. And you think you're doing me a mental health favor?

You're a drug mule. Wait, can I ask you, is Bozeman helping? Like, are you going on long walks with him? You're taking him to the dog, or dog parks aren't even open. So you're going on log walks with Bozeman? Does that help him? But Bozeman won't walk. What?

Bozeman walks for a little while and then Bozeman attacks the leash. Okay. Oh, yeah. Puppies do that. Yeah, so he walks for a little while and then he attacks the leash and see what happens is once you pull the leash,

then Bozeman thinks, hey, we're playing now. Yeah. So then he pulls the leash. And so then I pulled the leash. I'm like, Bose, please stop. And he's like, wha-w-whi-whi-whi-wah. And so then it's me, and the whole neighborhood thinks it's hilarious. It's me.

And then after he pulls a leash, he just lays down. I like him. He's got a personality. He's got his own thing. Maybe he needs another dog with him. I'll bring copper over to walk with him. Yeah. I'm into it.

I'm into it. We have a very special guest. The number one late night host in the world. Jimmy Kimmel, everybody. Give it up for Jimmy Kimmel. Hi, Larry. Jimmy. Thank you guys.

So, no problem. So I say you're the number one guy. Is there like you feel that way? Is there like huge competition between you and Colbert and Jimmy Fallon and Conan and everyone? Oh, we hate each other so much. No, you know what there used to be? It used to be a big thing.

And I think YouTube maybe made it a not big thing because it used to be that you could only watch one show at one time. And then you had to tape it and go back and watch the other one. And who's going to really do that? So now everybody watches a little piece of everything. So it's not anywhere near as competitive as it was. Yeah. Jimmy, I haven't seen you since I was on your show.

Yes, Van, I was on his show. I was on stage for The Bachelorette. And I know you're a big fan. And you might not know this, but Van is new to Bachelor Nation. He has started watching this season for the first time. Why did you start this season, Van? Because I'm doing the podcast with Rachel. And we're like, we need content.

Jimmy, I don't know if you know there's not a lot of shit going on out here, bro. We got to have stuff to talk about. It always sounds like you've got something going on. I'm actually really like, I don't know, I'm tickled by how neurotic you are, fan. Yes, you are. Speak on it, Jimmy. What does that mean? Because when I met you, you didn't seem to be the slightest bit neurotic.

I mean, you're like, hey, whatever, and you're very kind of confident. And then, you know, I hear about you worrying about these things. And I don't know, makes me feel better about myself somehow. Right, because you know what? You know what that is, Jimmy? That's a little bit of like, oh, look bad, big black. dude, he's got a little Woody Allen and him, well, not... Wait, what?

Woody Allen is neurotic, all I'm saying. So maybe you feel like you're, you're, you get, are you getting something from my perceived weakness? Is that what you're saying? No. I don't know, maybe. I don't know what I'm saying. What I'm saying is you just seem like, you know, like a guy, you're into sports, you're an athletic guy.

You don't seem like, like, like these writers that I hang around with here at the show who all think they have sciatica and they're going through. medical dictionaries. Listen, that is him 100%. But I think that's what the beauty is of this podcast is we're very open about our personal lives and like what's going on. And we really go deep about how we're affected

by everything that's going on and how it affects us, especially in 2020 and the black culture and everything that's going on. I agree. I mean, joking aside, like when you were talking about, you know, like just kind of crying, thinking about things and, And most people don't talk about that kind of stuff.

And I think it makes people feel like they're not the only one. Speaking of that, now, obviously, you're a very successful guy. And sometimes with, and to be honest with you, you've been very forthright about some of the things in your personal life that have happened. And I think that's up for a lot of people. That's when you became not just a funny talk show host, but a part of their television family is when you kind of let them in. how mentally for you has COVID been?

It's like, because there are so many people out there right now that aren't on TV every night, they don't have millions and millions of dollars, and it's wrecking them emotionally, financially, and spiritually, has it been tough for you at all? It hasn't been as tough as it is for a lot of people. I mean, just to be perfectly honest with you, I have a big house.

You know, we're very fortunate. We can order postmates, every day if we want to. That doesn't mean I don't think about people who don't have that. And I don't think about what they're going through. Because I do worry about that. I mean, I think about it a lot. You can't help but think about it all the time when you drive in L.A.

And you just see people who are so far down. And if that doesn't bring you down, then there's probably something wrong with you. But for me, there have been, I have to say, there have been good things about this. And the good things for me are I was pulled in a million different directions. And it was always something I felt like I had to do. And I'm kind of realizing now that I didn't have to do it. And, you know, I like every night my son, who's three and a half years old,

I have to lay down next to him on the floor next to his bed and tell him a story. And then sometimes he tells me a story. and then almost inevitably I fall asleep before he does. And he says, Dad, lay with me and I have to lay with him every night. And it's nice because we get to like really talk and, you know, I get to have a very low-key conversation with him,

which you don't really, that's an opportunity that you get with a three-year-old when they're running around the house. But when you're just laying there in the dark, getting ready for bed, it's, that has definitely been good for me. And I think that maybe,

I will come out of this more mentally healthy than I was. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's one of the things we talk about a lot on the show is just with everything that's happening, how we are self-reflecting and how we want to be better moving forward. One of the things that came out as we were doing this podcast is that the FDA has now approved Pfizer's version of the vaccination. And so we've been talking about like our fears affiliated with the vaccine and how we feel about

taking it and Van has been laughing at me because in California, I'm deemed an essential worker. That means you, okay, that means you are too, Jimmy, because we do television. We're technically deemed essential workers. How do you feel about taking the vaccination? Well, I think we're essential workers from the standpoint of being allowed to work. I don't think we're essential workers from the standpoint of moving up in the line to get the vaccine. I would never ever want to move ahead of an old person or somebody that had some pre-existing condition or a health care worker. I mean, the only situation in which I would see myself getting the vaccine,

which I very much want to get. I would get it right now if it was available. But the only situation I would see is if I was doing it on television to set an example of some kind because we do know that it's so important that these people have been working on this vaccine for, you know, furiously for months and months now to try to get it ready. And now the idea that more than half of Americans want to wait and see how it goes before they take it is I just, it's not something I understand. You know, it's just the concept of vaccination is the most successful health experiment in the history of the world. The number of, I mean, my grandmother had polio.

She walked around with a limp for her whole life. She got it when she was a child. And the idea that none of us have to worry about that or measles or, you know, rebella, these diseases. This is, you know, it's, it's, you give somebody a little bit of a disease and your body create, naturally creates a defense system, naturally. And, you know, I get the idea that people want to like kind of see how it happened, what happens to others before they put it in themselves.

But as I said on the show I just did tonight, we also, we will drink something called Monster Energy Assault without questioning it we're doing plenty of stuff in our bodies that we shouldn't this one seems to be for a good reason I have a question

how much nicer are you to your staff after Ellen got fucked up right? How much was that something because they really came her with the full weight of the internet and the Twitter sphere.

Did that make you start? Did that make you add some people to the holiday list? I mean, because, you know, once one falls, I was waiting for a string of them. I was waiting for you to get it, for Colbert to get it, for Fallon to get it for all of them. Did it change anything? I wasn't the slightest bit worried about it. Never concerned me for one moment.

Honestly, it's, I have a very good relationship with, you know, you get people here or there you have to let go for whatever reason or or there's you know there's something up with them but for the most part i mean my staff would kill somebody if they spoke out against me i really feel that way i feel strongly that way i have to say as a person who's been there not once but twice van everybody is professional above like above board with with everything you know i thoroughly enjoyed my time I've been lucky because I don't like to fire people. Nobody does. If you do, you're a sick person.

If you're Donald Trump, you enjoy that sort of thing. But I've had a bunch of shows. So I started on Winbenstein's Money. And then we did The Man Show. And then we did, then I did Fox Sports and I did crank anchors. And so each time you're kind of starting over, you know, most of these shows don't last the whole year. So what you do is you take the people you like the most from a show to the next. to the next show

and then you take the people you like the most from that show and by the time I got to my talk show you know I had a pretty good core of people just start and so that's really like a weird benefit of doing this

and this and this and just kind of move because you know you get in situations where you can't ever fire half of your staff but most of the time you probably should now speaking of the mansion when you were on the man show, you did a Carl Malone character, which you were in black makeup from head to toe,

and a lot of people wanted you to, over the years you've been criticized for having done blackface, and a lot of people wanted you to apologize for having done it. Why did it take you so long to actually get around to doing that? Well, I didn't want to,

I didn't want them to win, I guess is the answer to that question. I felt that I wasn't hearing I wasn't hearing black people upset with me. I was hearing people who probably loved that bit in the first place pretending to be upset with me. And so until it reached a tipping point, I didn't feel like it was, it had really offended the group that I care about, which is, you know, my black friends, the black people that I work with, black people that I know. But then when a story takes on, its own life, people don't know all the details. And I did feel like at that point I wanted to

clarify. And I mean, really, that's, that's, it's as simple as that. But it was being, it was something that was being pointed to whenever I would talk about racism or health care or really anything that didn't fit into the, the MAGaverse. That their, their argument for everything was just to put a picture of me, dresses Caramalon on. line. And I just felt like, okay, now we've reached the point where I have to address it because it's starting to spill over. I think for people like me, I didn't know about the bit until it just kind of came to the forefront and it took a life of its own. And so for me, it was more of like I was looking for something for you for an explanation as to why, like why you would even

go that route, knowing the history of doing blackface. Well, yeah. And it's, you know, it's just ignorance. You know, it's maybe not the type of ignorance that, that you think of when you think about ignorance. But, I mean, just, you know, I just thought I was doing an imitation of Carl Malone, who I used to listen to on the radio. I didn't think it through.

And I should have thought it through. And I just didn't, but I definitely didn't have, I didn't really. maybe it sounds crazy, but that was never about race, that character. It was never about race. I mean, Carl Malone is, he's a character. I mean, he's a guy who shoots squirrels. He's, you know, he's 300 pounds of muscle, and he does these things that you would never expect a guy like Carl Malone to do.

And I just thought he was a funny guy. And I didn't think of it any differently than I thought of any of the people that I did imitations of. Yeah. So, like, when it, so it's interesting that you said you never heard anything from black people about it. Had you heard something, had there been an outcry, had someone pulled your coat on it, do you think you would have been sooner on it? Do you think it would have been a different situation? Because I'll tell you why I asked you that. Because when, when you say that you, that the Magaverse is using it against you, sometimes as a black person, it always feels like we are bystanders in wars between white America, right?

Right. White America on this side is fighting over this thing, and then we're in the middle as a bargaining chip. And so in the situation where they're coming at you, and you had never heard anything from us, did it change your perspective about the active relationship that you should have with the black community and what may or may not be offensive to them and how you might need to be proactive on things? Yeah, I think it maybe changed my perspective on every other community. And I think in a, in a, maybe it sounds crazy, but I'm glad that it happened because it made me think about these things. And it made me evaluate what I was doing.

And I know now that what I was doing was just trying to get people to laugh without thinking about any of the fallout. that might be. And that's not what I want to do as an adult. That's not how I want to behave as a man in his 50s. And when I was on the radio, nothing was, I mean, I considered it, I don't know, I consider it to be cowardly to reel in any of my thoughts. I, you know, I said everything that came into my head. And I wanted to be extreme and I wanted to be controversial. I wanted all of those things. And I didn't, it never occurred to me that there was, that there was any negative that came out of that. To me, it was like, oh, look, these people are laughing. That's it. You know, and it's just immaturity, I guess. I mean, it's also, I think it's, uh, desperation in some way. You know, you're just, you're just trying to be funny. You're trying to

get something going, you know, and you have no confidence and you don't have a real personality. You don't have, you know, there's no person there. There's just somebody saying a bunch of things. And as you get older, hopefully you move beyond that. And, you know, that's hopefully I've moved beyond that. Well, I was just going to say, I think it's great that you say you're glad that it happened because you learn from it. I mean, we had Amy Schumer on the show who talks about a situation.

that she went through where she said, you know what, I'm glad it happened because I learned from it and I grew from it. I mean, if that hadn't happened, we might not have had you on the Emmys chanting Black Lives Matter

with Anthony Anderson, which, you know, I think... I would have done that anyway, honestly. I'm glad you brought that up. Because I... That's something that is interesting because that made a lot of white people really mad.

Really mad. And I mean, you say, of course, but it wasn't obvious to me. I mean, maybe I'm blind to this kind of stuff. But to me, I'll tell you what that was to me. Anthony is one of my good friends. And we came up with a funny comedy bit that I felt had a positive message.

And that was the end of it. You know, and, but a lot of white people, I think, who are men especially who are scared of losing whatever imagined control they have over their neighborhoods, their country, their job, whatever it is, you know, that there is a fear, and it's always

about fear, we're very, they act as if I'd surrendered somehow. And I never imagined that that would. All I was wondering is like, okay, is this going to be funny or not, you know? And also, people don't seem to understand the nature of scripted comedy either. Like we planned every minute detail of that

of that bit. We rehearsed it. We refined it. You know, there was not that was not, Anthony didn't come in and strong arm me in that situation. We worked on that together. And sometimes it's really weird. I mean, I like

to take it as a compliment, I guess, because you wanted to feel as natural as it is. But I remember one time in particular, I had, after many years of making fun of him. I had Matt Damon come on the show. And I did an intro that was so long. It went on for minutes that we ran out of time for him just as his butt hit the seat on the show. And he, and then we had a fake fight and we were screaming at each other. He was screaming at me. And so many people were mad at me.

So many people. And like if you just sit there and go like, wait a minute. And what universe do you think this was real? Right. This is not real. Yeah. But it's funny. People are still like mad at me to this day that I did that to him. It's like, you've got to be kidding. But stop fucking over will hunting. You know, you obviously throughout your career have friends of all different political spectrums, right?

Yeah. All over the place. How do you deal? Because see, here's the thing with me. Black dude, 40 years old. I don't have any Trump Republican friends. I don't. How do you, is it possible to be friends with a Trump support?

Can it be done with kind of how things are right now? Well, I assume you're talking about Adam Carolla. And I just, I do want to say that, although most people think he is, he is not a Trump supporter. Oh, no, I wasn't talking about Adam specifically. I was like, I like, I've worked with Adam. Yeah. I wasn't, I wasn't talking about Adam specifically, but. Yeah. Well, I don't, you know, the only other friend I have who's a Trump supporter is Ben Stein.

I mean, no, that's not true, actually. Now I'm thinking in my life, I do have it. And I have more family members than, than friends who are Trump supporters. And I think part of that is because I live in L.A. and, you know, and it is a bubble for sure. It's very hard. and my approach to it is I want to be I want to try to effectively convince them that I don't want to say what they think is wrong

but I do think it's wrong I do think it's wrong to support the guy and I will tell you that in almost every case there's one particular issue that Trump is like for instance I have some friends who are Jewish who think Trump is pro-ism

real. And I don't think Trump's pro-Israel. I think he saw that as a way to grab us a particular demographic. And I think that he's a complete phony. I don't think he's more pro-Israel than Joe Biden by any stretch of the imagination. I don't think he's pro anyone other than Donald Trump. But, you know, I don't know. I mean, I have I know some people who don't believe there were dinosaurs.

and it's it's very hard to what's what are you talking about I'm not kidding who doesn't believe doesn't believe that dinosaurs ever existed

yes yeah I know people like that actually we got the bones dog like what are those like what are those like they think they were man made the bones are a one of the most

puzzling conspiracies of all time there seems to be no I don't know if it's the museum people who are in on this or if it's the people who make plastic Tyrannosaurus rexist or Stephen Spielberg

and Michael Clark Spielberg Maybe it's Spielberg Spilberg had the whole thing drummed up in the past so he could have a franchise and all that's I've never

that's one look coming from the hood I've heard every conspiracy that there is but the no dinosaurs one is actually one I've never heard before oh yeah

that's a thing and people think that you can't rationalize believing in the Bible and dinosaurs. I guess my last question for you is, like, last, that's it, this is it? Do you want to, look, we can keep me here as long as you want. Yeah, let's keep going. Come on. I listen to the show, now I'm on, so here we go.

Okay. Well, I want to know something like, for you specifically, what was the importance of the change, right? Like, you seem like a fucking complete 180. I just watched an episode of you and Adam on politically incorrect. Oh, yeah, right, yeah. I used to do that show a lot. It was, but this one specifically was you and Adam versus the two ladies, and they have put out that book the rules.

The rules, right, right. Right. And you guys were demolishing them. Not into like a disrespectful way, but it was just super aggressive. And now you're kind of like America's sort of late night host dad almost. Like what in your life changed you from being that to that? I remember you were on the fucking show early days doing an interview with Shug in a bulletproof vest. That is totally different from now.

And I'm always interested in what makes people grow and change and evolve and like what was it for you? like how did you become who you are now? Well, for the record, if I did another interview with Shug, I would also, I would still be wearing a bulletproof vest. You still wear a smart man. Yeah, I got you. And remind me to tell you a Shug story in a minute after I answer this question, because I have a really good story about that.

You know, we went to college together. We both went to you and LV at the same time. You know, we didn't hang out. But yeah. Yeah. But I, you know what? I was never the guy on the Man Show. When I was on the Man Show,

people didn't know I mean people couldn't believe I had children. I mean, in fact, I think in that episode one of those women said, well, yeah, this is why you guys aren't married. And you said I'm married. Yeah, I've been married for whatever,

10 years at that time. I don't know what it was. And she was shocked. But I played a character on the radio called Jimmy the Sports Guy. And it started as a character called Vinny the Sports Punk. And the idea was, Vinny was this Italian guy

with a gambling problem who lived with his mother. and that was part of my schick is I would actually play my own mother yelling at me from the background and that was my bit I did that in Seattle and then I took that character to K Rock in L.A.

and I called him Jimmy the sports guy but it wasn't me it was and in fact I spoke with a very thick New York accent and the character that I played on the man show was just that. It was a character

you know it was we were these two Neanderthal how do you believe any of that stuff. I mean, right. Of course, some of the stuff, whatever. But I wasn't like that. I was never like that. It's just that people, because that was the first time they saw me, thought that was what I was like. But if you would watch when Ben Sides Money, you would see the me that you see now. I mean, that when I hosted a game show, I wasn't doing a character,

you know, but the man show required it. It was a very particular sketch comedy program. And I really felt like it was not that much different from Carol O'Connor playing Archie Bunker. It's just if Carol O'Connor's name on all in the family was also Carol O'Connor. It's confusing. And I understand that. But I didn't understand any of that stuff at that time. And I didn't know that I'd have a talk show and I'd be, you know, the things would go the way that they've gone. I thought, well, I'll do this. And then I have a crank call puppet show. And, you know, who knows, well, maybe I'll write for somebody or do something behind

the scenes, but I never even intended to be on television. My goal was to do a morning radio show in a big city. That was really what I wanted to do. Okay, you have to tell us the Shook story now. Shug Night. Now, this is,

you have to remember, like, at that time when Shug was on the show and I wore the bulletproof vest, that was a no joke like scary time. There was a lot of crazy stuff, going on at that time. And our show was live. It was the perfect place to kind of make a name for yourself

by taking a shot at Shug. And our security, let's just say it was lax. So, but I was interested in Shug and, you know, I have to say I've rarely met anyone that scared me more than he did. And

you know, he's a scary guy and and he's done some bad things. And Maybe some of the stories aren't true. Maybe they're exaggerated. But I mean, I heard a story once. That's one of the craziest stories I ever heard of my whole life about him. And I would not want to find out if it was real or not.

So I'm hosting American Music Awards. And I have this sketch I'm doing with Snoop, who I've known Snoop Dog since like the day his first album came out. You know, I did stuff with him on the radio in the early 90s. and Snoop were doing actually Snoop was holding a bake sale in the lobby of the American Music Awards and the joke and Josh Grobin was in the line and the joke was you know like these people didn't realize what kind of brownies they were about right to buy so anyway I have to go from the stage it's during a commercial break I have to go from the stage out into the audience to do an introduction from the audience and this time Shug wants to kill Snoop I mean you know there's it's you know it was fucking up. Yeah. Like Snoop had defected

and left death records. Yeah. So yeah, it was fucked up. It might still be fucked up.

I don't know. So I am now, for whatever reason, the stage manager loses track of me and I have to cut from the audience to go back to the stage

and I walk into this stairwell and it's just me and Shugnight in the middle of a live award show that I'm hosting. And he's smoking a cigar in the stairwell. and his eyes are beat red

and he's, you know, high out of his mind and he was not supposed to be there. And I just looked at him and he's like, he goes like, hey, how are you doing? You know, I was like, oh, good. I'm going to get out of it. And I guess I bolted back to the stage. And I mean, it was crazy.

This happened during. Did you warn Snoop? Yes, I did. I did. You like, hey, Snoot. Just to let you know, bro. Sugg back here, dog. You might want to walk life.

Snoop and everybody else. That's what I was going to say. Yeah, I warned everybody. I was like, hey, should night's here. Guys, I don't know if you're aware of this. The killer's in the stairwell. So, like, you have an interesting relationship with Kanye West. Obviously, I have an interesting.

Wait a minute. I thought we were never talking about him again on the show. What's happening here? What's happening? We already broke that rule. Remember, we broke that rule sometime ago. We already broke that rule. One of us keeps breaking it.

Go ahead. Go ahead. You have an interesting. I have an interesting relationship with Kanye West. You have an interesting relationship with Kanye West. What do you think of Kanye West? That's the most open-ended question that I can ask. For a lot of people, he is straight villain.

For a lot of people, he is straight genius. For a lot of people, he is somewhere in between because of his mental health status and their heart goes out to him. So you've talked to him a lot. You guys have had your back and forth. What are your thoughts on Kanye West? West. Just open it to question.

Zero villain. I do not think of him as a villain. I think of him as a very kind person who wants to do good who has mental health issues. That's how I think of him. And I think that

I've known him for a long time too. In fact, he met Kim on a show we produced together. And I'll tell you a story about Kanye West. you know, this is not the Kanye you hear about. But we did this show and it was called Alligator Boots and it was like a hip-hop puppet show.

Jordan Peel was one of the writers on the show actually. And it was in the kind of that while Crank Anchors was on the air the first time around. And Kanye was really an interesting guy. He was always reading fashion magazine taking pictures of the things he liked and really just like, really interesting. in the fashion stuff more than anything. But, you know, we became, we became friendly. It became friendly with my brother Jonathan, with Daniel Kellison, my co-executive producer. And we had a wedding in Austin, Texas.

My friend Daniel was getting married. And Kanye just showed up at the wedding. He, you know, Daniel invited him. He didn't think he would come. You know, he was a big star or whatever. He gone on a Southwest Airlines flight. No. Wow.

And he flew to the wedding. And I got to tell you, I learned something from him that night because weddings are the worst for famous people because you're surrounded by, you know, you obviously know the bride and groom. And so you have to be nice to everyone they've invited to their wedding, which is harder when people get drunk. And it's even harder when they surround you and they, you know, they want to take pictures. and Kanye had that at this wedding. And he was so nice to everyone and so patient with everyone. And he didn't know any of these people. I mean, he knew three of us.

And I have a great picture of my dad, my dad with Kanye West. That is, I mean, my dad who is, who looks like Wolf Blitzer, you know, he is like a skinny Santa Claus. They're smiling with Kanye West. and, you know, it's, I just know, I remember that guy when he, you know, spins out a little, I always just remember that guy. Can you imagine boarding your flight and your A-13 sitting next to Kanye West on a

South by Southwest? I can't even imagine that. Jimmy, I have this question for you. With cancel culture, the way that it is, and it's at such an all-time high, being in the public eye, doing what you do, making jokes, interviewing people, Does it at all concern you? Are you fearful of it? Do you take it into consideration when you're, you know, coming up with material? Yes, you definitely take it into consideration. And anybody that tells you otherwise is either a loose cannon or lying. But you do take it into consideration. And, you know, some of it is probably most of it is justified.

You know, some of it, there only seems to be one option. And that option is, canceling that person permanently, banishing them from show business or from the planet Earth. And I do wish it was, it had, there were some more shades of gray there. Right. Because, you know, I don't even want to mention particular names, but, you know, there is a difference between Harvey Weinstein and most everyone else. Sure. And yet, there doesn't always seem to be.

And I think a lot of it is driven by a tiny group of people. who seem to enjoy tearing others apart. Yeah. You know what the interesting thing about it is? It's like, the interesting thing about it is, and the thing that I struggle with it is that I'm going to be honest with you here. The honest part of me is I sometimes feel like, honestly, that it's time for the white American power structure

just to get kicked in their nuts a little bit. If I'm being real. And that's not, it's, for me, when I think about the, I think about cancel culture as the overcorrection for us to get to the baseline.

Like, there's always an overcorrection of things, right? Because things were running so rampant, man. Especially now, I look back at old things that I watched back in the day, and I'm like, God, damn. They were really wild. Now, I don't know if things were different then,

but looking at it, through my eyes now, I think, was everybody that was the butt of all of these jokes, that were, were they just miserable the whole time and not, and had zero voice to speak out? And are we living in a time now when those people can actually make a collective effort to come together and speak out? And now we're seeing this sort of radical realignment of societal norms. I get that. But at the same time, it does seem like they just letting the chopper loose now. Now, Everybody is just kind of getting sprayed up for almost every single thing.

But I do wonder, though, is this moment that we're in, is it necessary for people to understand just how destructive some of these things can be? Like, if you're talking about the Me Too movement specifically, you're looking at women and, you know, you're looking at women who had decades and decades and decades of stories, like with the real ones. And then, like, real ones about this. And then I saw this woman tweet this one thing.

And I can't remember who she was. What she said was, and I'm not saying that I agree with this, but I can understand her where she was coming from. She was like, if a couple of innocent men have to go down for us to get our hands around this, then so be it. And I was thinking to myself when she tweeted that, I'm like, God, damn. But the thing is, you know, is she wrong? Yes.

okay, oh, from the lady. Okay, she's wrong. I guess, and I mean, I want Jimmy to be able to answer the question, but I'm just saying that's very extreme. You know, especially from the, speaking from the perspective of a person of color, when you've seen so many innocent people, I get it, it's not necessarily the same comparison,

but when you see so many innocent people that are incarcerated, that are on death row, that have lost their lives because they were wrongly convicted of something, I just, that's the first thing that popped in my head when you said, if innocent people have to go down just to get justice. That's not the way to do it. That's not the way that things need to be done. Yeah.

I guess I agree. Well, and also, I don't think that cancel culture is confined to white people by any stretch of the imagination. Hell no. You know, and I don't know. I think that I think when you're the, when you're one of those two people, your perspective changes. And I'll tell you another thing.

Like, when your son is one of those two people, you're, you're, when your son is one of those two people, your perspective changes. And when, you know, someone you love is one of those, those two people, it's, you know, it's all a matter of perspective. I just would hate, here's what, here's what concerns me. What concerns me is that you're creating a nation of liars. Like people will stop telling you what that you really don't get a sense of who somebody is. if you hit them over the head with a bat when they say something you don't like, they're not going to stop saying that stuff

or thinking that stuff. They're just going to retreat to their little circles. And it actually, I think, intensifies. You know, I think that, you know, when you see something like, you see somebody grant forgiveness to someone, it's just such a beautiful and positive thing. It's just something that makes the world better and makes people better.

I mean, you know, we've seen it even like, we've seen it with mass shootings where, you know, where somebody shoots up a church and then you see these people from the church, they go on the news and they say, we forgive him for doing this. You know, it usually is, you know, it's based in religion and Christianity and that idea that we should forgive. And it always makes me, I don't, I just feel like, like that's the, that's the thing that works when it comes to bringing people together. You know, I look back sometimes some of the things I've said about, about people who support Trump and, you know, I realize, like, what do you, how do you think they're going to react

when you call them stupid, when you, you know, sometimes it's hard for me to resist because I think things are stupid, but I can almost guarantee you that if we all approached everything in a different way,

we wouldn't be on the brink of a civil war in this country, you know, which is, which I feel. Do you think we are? I think we might be. I think that,

I think that, and I don't want to get you too worried, Van, because I know that, I know, We talked about this on the show today, though. Man, and I text about these things sometimes. But I worry that our president is subtly putting it out there by using words like courage,

which is not at all what this is about. And I worry that, I worry about what my reaction will be if something happens in the Supreme Court and they throw this election to Congress. and Congress says, okay, Donald Trump's the president. I'm not going to take that. I'm not going to have a rational reaction to that. And what a terrible position for our leaders to put us in. Yeah.

What can be done to save it? Well, what can be done, I wish I had the answers, but I think if I was forced to give an answer, my answer would be just this. idea of communicating and loving each other and seeing the positive. And I mean, we all know, like you could work at a Best Buy and everybody has different opinions and everybody has different feelings. But when somebody who works through their child gets ill, everybody gets together and everybody, you know, everybody does the right thing. And I hope that we can, something like that

happen on a national level. You know, I hope that there's a moment or a leader or a point at which we go like, hey, you know, we're supposed to be on the same team here. I mean, sometimes it takes a common enemy for us. And you hate to see that be the thing that brings us together. But sometimes it is. I just think that if we all polish the edges a little bit,

that we'd be in a better situation, you know, because we're not in a good one. Yeah. I'm going to lighten it up. I was going to ask you another question about that because we do go into that on the podcast today, actually. But you've had pretty much everyone on your show.

is there somebody that you would love to see as a guest on your show that's never been there? And then on the other end, if you could have somebody on your show that is no longer with us, who would you have? Well, I think as far as who's no longer with us, I would love to have Kurt Vonnegut, the writer on the show.

He's somebody that I think is somebody I love reading and who's who as a human, being I admire greatly. He's somebody I would love to have on the show. Of course, you know, there are people like Abraham Lincoln or, you know,

these people through history that would be fascinating. But just as far as people who died within the modern era, he'd be somebody I'd love to talk to. And a person I'd love to have on the show, and you're right, I have had most everybody on the show is Banksy, because

I'm so interested in who he is. And what his motivation is and I think I think that he's a very positive force and I love his work I think he's very clever I don't know if you ever seen that documentary

they made about him yeah exit to the gift shop it's I just think he's great and he's somebody that I would love to have on yeah um Jimmy look man wait a minute before you wrap it up Van I heard you guys talking

and I heard you say that somebody told you not to say the N word on the podcast anymore. And you would not reveal the identity. Yeah, I didn't even ask who it was. I know you didn't. I noticed it. I know you didn't. I tried to be nice. Because you knew you wouldn't get the answer out of them.

Was it? And I'm only going to guess once. I'm not going to go through a laundry list. But I want you to promise me that if I guess the right name, you will tell me that it was. I got you. Okay. Was it Sarah Jessica Parker? No. Oh, all right.

Little older, a lot blacker. A little older and a lot blacker. All right. I'll go back to the drawing board. Right. Yeah, that was a good place to start. A good point to start.

Jimmy, man. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for my pleasure. That was funny. You guys are great. I love listening to you. I think it's interesting. I think you have great chemistry.

I think you guys are, I mean, I think Rachel, you might be the only good thing that ever came out of those. Bachelorette shows. Thank you so much coming for you. You know, I feel like I can be my real self on this podcast. We love doing it. Thank you so much for being on here. Is there anything to plug? Is there anything to plug? You just take over the world one viewer at a time there. Yeah, no, I just, I do the show every night and that's, uh, when I go home and I lay down

next to a three-year-old. So I'm going to go do that now. We have the same birthday. Your son and I have the same birthday. Oh, you know, Whoopie has. the same birthday as well as us. It's a popular day. And Whoopi sends me a present every year on my birthday, which is very sweet. That's fucking amazing.

It's always, it's always pop. Oh, speaking of that, not a flex, but speaking of that, speaking of gifts, not a flex. This is normal on the podcast.

It's not a flex at all. Go ahead. Go ahead. Quick story. Me and Jimmy met a couple of years ago, and my mother's going to love the fact that I'm telling this story. me and Jimmy met a couple of years ago

and somebody randomly hit me up and asked me for my address, right? So give the address. Then this very nice fucking like farmers meat packaging thing comes. It's like it had like, it's a holiday gift. It had like fucking peanut butter in it.

It had jelly in it. It had bacon in it. It had like all this like from a farm or something like that. Say, Merry Christmas. And I'm like, yo, this shit is really cool. It's very nice. My mother is in town.

And I'm telling my mother's looking. And I'm saying my mother, say, hey, you know, that peanut butter, that all natural organic peanut brother that you're using? I want you to know. Jimmy Kimmel sent me that peanut butter. He said, boy, you lying. I'm like, oh, would you like to see the card? The card says on it, Jimmy and his family right there, look at it.

Boom. My mother, every time she made a fucking sandwich, every time she cooked bacon, every time she roasted coffee, girl you know what I'm doing over here roasting some Jimmy Kimmel coffee what you're talking about Jimmy Kimmel such a nice man

sent my baby this whole package of foods they are such good friends they go on vacations together and stuff like that I know your son ain't never amounted to shit but my son is friends with Jimmy Kimmel and I'm just drinking some of the coffee right now wouldn't leave it alone well let me tell you something

if you send me your mom's address I will I'll make I know you probably won't be skiing her but I'll make sure she gets something to brag about to her friends this year. I got you, man. She would love that. Appreciate you, Jimmy. Yeah, thank you so much. Thanks, guys.

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Ask your doctor about trim fire. Tap this ad to learn more about trim fire, including important safety information. Yes. So let me ask you a question. Okay. And I want to ask you a question is this is an am I an asshole right here? Oh, no. Am I an asshole?

You're like three for one on these, but okay. Three for one like asshole? Yeah, like three. You're winning an asshole column. Okay. Okay. Let's talk about it. So a singer that I like a lot,

been following her career for a long time. Mm-hmm. Seven Street. All right. Do you know her? Yes. Girl I'm cool with is their good cousins. They're good cousins.

Their cousins. The first cousins. So, yes, I've met seven. I met seven before. You've met seven. Mm-hmm. Seven is super talented. Mm-hmm.

Okay. She's beautiful. All of the things. Just a star. A star. A star. Right. A star.

Now, she posted something a day ago that caught my eye. Okay. This is it. She, seven, unfortunately, for our sister has come down with the COVID. We risked her speedy recovery from it and all the health in the world. This is what Seven did to announce that she had COVID. She says, just got the word that I've tested positive for COVID. Now, this is on her Instagram.

black background, white cursive right. Just got the word that I've tested positive for COVID. I'm all good, but we'll be isolating for a little bit to protect those around me. And trust me, I'm doing everything so that I can deliver my new project, drunken words, sober thoughts to y'all, top of 2021.

I have to make sure I'm being safe first. Love to everyone in these crazy times. Stay safe and stay healthy. Okay. Now, when I first saw that, I thought to myself, did Seven just promote her album during her COVID announcement? And if so, ain't that kind of fucked up? Like, am I an asshole for thinking that it's not appropriate to promote your album

while you're making the announcement that you have COVID. Man, you're not an asshole on this one. You're not. It's not, there were so many ways she could have made this announcement without mentioning the album. She simply could have told us, hey, guys, I have COVID, you know, I'm taking care of myself, I'm doing okay, keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

I'm hoping to be back healthier, better than ever. You know, that was it. Right. Next thing could have been, why did they have to be in the same host? You could have separated the two. You wanted them to be combined for a reason. To gain sympathy, to gain attention, to garner attention, and to, with that attention, announce an album.

I mean, there's really no other way to see it. Right. So I'm looking at something right here. I, when I, like, if you're scrolling through, you might not stop. But when you see the COVID announcement, you stop. I actually had no idea that drunken words, sober thoughts was dropping at the beginning of the year.

I didn't know that it was coming out. I would have been visually heard that it was coming out, I'm sure. It popped up on my title or whatever. But I didn't know it was coming out. So I guess what I'm saying is it worked. And by the way, she is not the only person

that's done this. Who else is doing it? I'm still shocked that you can see likes, by the way. I scroll through people's Instagram. I can't see anybody's likes, but my own. Oh, sweet. But I, there are other people to me that have used COVID announcements

to kind of drum up some promo around stuff that they're doing, you know? And I'm not saying, I'm not saying that it's necessarily intentional, but it's definitely to me a little wild and weird. I don't know, I just, I look at COVID as a very, very serious thing. and it seems like rapping it around an album kind of announcement.

Yeah. It's like the meme when people are like, nobody, nobody, nobody. I'm dropping an album. I have COVID and I'm dropping an album. Like nobody asked you about the album. Just tell us that you have COVID. Right.

You don't need to talk about the album. I don't know. I think I follow her, but I don't know if she's been talking about it. We're fans asking, had she said she had COVID before and fans were like, hey, what about the album?

I have a hard time thinking that people would talk about the album when you have announced that you've had COVID. Your fans just want to make sure you're okay and you're going to make it with us into 2021. Not about the album making it with us into 2020, 2021. It's, I mean, it's calculated.

Well, the reality is that that sisters, that our sister's going to be okay. Like, we wish, we wish our all the best speedy recovery is going to be okay. I just thought it was interesting. You're not an asshole. You're not.

I'm not an asshole. Not for that. Not for that. Not for that. I'm not an asshole for being like, I don't know about the whole dropping of the album and COVID shit. No, it's not a good look. Not a good look.

But I'll tell you one thing, though. You support Seven Streeter? Yeah, we do. And saying that, can't wait for the album to come out. Yeah, can't wait for the music. Drunken words, sober thoughts. It worked. We're talking about it.

We're getting it out there. And a lot of people here who might have not streamed her before. I mean, she's very successful. But a lot of people, they're going to go streamer? You're going to be fucking, like, delightfully surprised.

You're going to get some new great music in your life. So go do that. Make sure you spell her name right when you're looking at it for all I thought we're not familiar with her. S-V-Y-N. Y-N. Yep. But, you know, we had to like she's not.

People know. On the COVID front, a couple other things. Number one, I don't know if you just saw this, the FDA approved two of the vaccines for emergency usage. I did. And now, now the debate will rage of whether or not people are going to take the vaccine? Well, you saw what Fauci came out with, right? Fauci has said that the woman who created the drug is a black woman.

So we should be African Americans should not be scared to take this vaccine because a black woman was behind it. That is what Fauci has come out and say and said, do we trust that? I'm not saying that there is not a black woman that's involved, but does that make you? you feel any more comfortable to take this vaccine? I was comfortable taking it in the first place, but I don't like that. Are you? Yeah, basically, yeah, for the most part.

Wait, wait, why don't you like that he said that? Because I understand why he came out and said it. It's a huge thought in the black community. I got a text chain going off right now with my friends, like, I'm not taking that drug. Right. First of all, I'm glad that she got her due for creating it. But don't lay all of that responsibility at the feet.

of the sisters. Hey, like, look, I'm serious to me, a scientist created a vaccine and the vaccine is going to work or is not going to work. Like, black people go out and take the vaccine. Like, it's like, at some point, at some point, we have to listen to science and not to cultural endorsements. Okay.

And so, and look, I want her to get all of the things that she is supposed to get because of the fact that she is a brilliant black woman that created a vaccine. But I don't think that we always play this game to where we have to have an emissary in order to, and that's kind of what they do to us. It's like, hey, vote for this guy because we're going to send two chains into your neighborhood. But I don't think that's what this is. It reeks of that.

The fact that she created the vaccine is fantastic. It's phenomenal. But just to let you guys know, a black woman who created the vaccine is like. I guess I just see it totally different because we've even talked about it on. this podcast, the history of how, you know, African Americans have been, African Americans, I'd never say that, how black people have been. I never say that. Blacks have been treated when it comes to health care and when it comes to being tested on things. And so we talked about that. We talked about the fear that runs rampant in our community. And so I looked at this more as

not about putting her up in front of it, like just some figure, hey, a black woman is involved. It was more like, listen, I know you guys have fears. I know what the history. has been, and I'm just letting you know, there has been women, women of color, people of color are behind this vaccination. They're not, it's not for us, by us. There's a woman who is black who's been involved. So all

those fears that you have, just know that somebody who's just like you has been involved in creating this vaccine. That's how I take it. But she's not just like she's brilliant. She's a scientist. Like, that's the point. She's not just like me.

She's a scientist. She's a person of She wants to see people of color who are three times more affected than whites. We saw that that's changed. In the recent, the CDC has come out and said that the results have changed from when they were previously announced. She wants to see her, like, that's how I guess I look at it. You know, she's not exactly like us as far as her smarts. And you know what I mean? But I'm saying she's like us and that she is one of us.

So don't think this is white people making a vaccination. But my point is, my point is, if. I'm skeptical enough to not believe this, to not trust Dr. Fauci that the vaccine is saying, why would I trust Dr. Fauci in regards to who he says is okay to listen to? That type of person is always going to be that type of person. They're never going to believe anything.

But for me, I'm fearful. But to hear that a black woman was behind it, I have to tell you that makes me say, oh, okay, all we've heard is bad things about how this, this disease, this virus, is affecting people of color. Oh, now you brought in a person of color to help create this vaccine

that is so badly affecting us. That, to me, resonates with me. Well, how about, whenever I see black women, I feel safer and I feel better, just the way that it is, right? So that's how you feel every time you get on this podcast. Yeah. But so whenever I see black women,

I feel safer, I feel better. But I will say this, just in a real way. way. The science is the science. Okay. In this situation, the vaccine is no safer because of the ethnicity of the person who created the vaccine. It's just no, it's no safer. So what I'm talking about is if you want, if you want to use, if you want to use her as a conduit to get the message out to people and stuff like that, then let her speak for herself and let her talk about it. Foucher going, hey, just let you know somebody black.

created it, like that whole method of thinking to me, I'm ready to do away with it. And it's not on the same lines, but I have people that back in the day would say, hey, this person said I could do this so I could do this. This person said that this was no more cultural passports in any way. I guess I don't say it that way. Because it's really not that way, but it's how I interpret it. Like you're speaking to 40 million people. So when you speak to us, talk to us just like you talk to everybody else. Like, talk to us on some, like, where we can get it. There are definitely trust issues in the black community as far as the way American history and things that have happened to us. But I'm telling you, if the network is done, you don't need to come through

and coddle a bunch of people about this. I just don't look at it as coddling. I mean, I understand what you're saying, but for me, it was like, oh, okay, all these people, don't look the same who are putting this out. Like I guess you take, I don't know, you're right. The science is the science. I understand that. But to know that we have these fears and to know that there's someone who's involved who can speak towards, I guess, how it's affecting us and what's going on, it does make

me feel better. I, you know, maybe it's, it's, it's just, I don't know, it just makes me feel better. It's not a scientific thing. I just feel a little bit more comforted. Knowing somebody, I guess, is at the table. Look, here's the thing, man. If you really want to get some of the brothers I know to take the vaccine, give a pair of off whites.

Give a pair of off whites. Off whites, off white Nike lows. You don't even have to be off whites. It could be regional. Like, you want people to take the vaccine. This is easy, easy work. If you in New York, let's say you're in the Bronx, Vaxon Thames.

You come in and take the vaccine. You get. So we're just going to sell it, sell our souls for a pair of Tim's. Do you know how many people? For $150. Do you know what? I said people I know. I can't speak for a lot of people.

That's how I do. People I know. Do you know how many dudes I know that if the dudes. Because you know what's about to come. You know what I mean dudes I know. If the vaccine came with a pair of Jordans, they out of here. Like, hey, bro. Hey, bro.

You know, I might grow a third foot. But that third foot will probably have another Jordan on it. I'm not going to lie, bro. I'm going to get that vaccine, man. Like if you, so look, if you go, if you go coddle people and try to get them culturally, just go all the way. Just go all the way. This ain't, here you're your vaccination. Here's a vaccine.

It's like, you're like 40 acres in a mule. I'm going to give you the vaccine 40 acres and more. Translates to 2020 a pair of Jordans. No, that is not how this is done, man. I'm just saying. Look, I'm saying, I'm saying the reality is that if. That's how you're going to play. If you're going to pay people with a wide cultural brush like that,

then just go ahead, yeah, go ahead and do it, you know. Vaccine brunches at, uh, uh, was in kitchen and cocktails. At, no, at true, true, true kitchen. True kitchen. No twerk, limited twerk, vaccine brunches at true kitchen and cocktails in Dallas. You know what I'm saying? Get a shot and take a shot. That's right.

You can get in the VIP section if you get, If you get back to that. See, that'll work. That'll work. Get a shot, take a shot. Get a shot. And then you come around with a limit drop shot as soon as you take it. Boom.

Get a shot, take a shot. It's so good. That's what sad. But go ahead. Please. We've got to keep it with it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, Mom. But I am very proud of my sister. And the reality is this. Guys, and my man Pete Rock, shout out to Pete Rock. went on his Twitter earlier today and was talking about how stupid he thought the vaccine was.

Here's the thing. Guys, COVID's got to come to an end in some kind of way. It's interesting. People the people say, yo, I'm not going to take a vaccine. I'm not going to,

we've talked about this before. I'm not going to get into anything that I don't understand it, right? It's so dumb. Listen, I'm not saying that that's dumb. I'm saying you do that all the time. all the time. Like, tell me how the plane flies.

Like, you get in a plane, right? Tell me how the plane flies. Exactly. The flu. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Tell, like, tell me how to do this. By the way, if you, if you don't have measles, mumps, or polio, you've probably been vaccinated. If you've never had it before. Well, then you didn't have a choice. Now you have a choice. How many y'all get vaccinated for the flu? Well, no, I mean, I don't ever get vaccinated for the flu because there's no reason to. Yeah. See, why don't you? Because I need those days off of work. That's really why you don't get that.

Because I need those things off of work. I just don't do it. I mean, like, it's like, I just try to keep my immune. They used to have. I don't take it. They used to have the flu shot lady come to TMZ. But to me, it's always better if you're actually sick.

So you don't have to like fake it because I would take. TMZ, TMZ, they knew it. They knew the first Tuesday of every month, I wasn't coming to work. Like, Monday, I would come to work. And I tell you why. So these are the, this is the way I had it. What was the first Tuesday of every month? First Tuesday every month, I wasn't coming to work.

I was going to take a day off of work. I was going to be sick. Something was going to happen. I wasn't coming to work. Because we worked at TMZ 12 hours a day, five days a week, sometimes on weekends. You know what I mean? It was always and it was nonstop.

When the rest of the city would go on hiatus and stuff like that, we had nothing. It was a grind every single day, like a baseball season. And so for me, I just needed every once. in a while, I just needed a day to chill, play video games, go out and see the sun, do all that stuff like that. But you couldn't take Monday off because it was a heavy news day. Right.

All right. You don't want to take Monday off. You can't take Friday off. Right. Because Friday, you're getting all the stories for the weekend. Wednesday and Thursday are the two litters days. You don't want to take those off. The only throwaway day in a week was Tuesday.

So when the flu shot lady would come around, everybody would be like, bang, get a flu shot. Van, get a flu shot. And I'd be like, why would I get a flu shot when y'all know I'm going to get a flu shot? the flu in three weeks. Listen, you get the flu. I don't want it, but I try to just keep my immune system. I can try to avoid shots,

but I don't have to take them. I don't know where I stand. I mean, I just don't want to be the first one to take it. I understand it. We won't be, because it's going to be dished out in certain waves.

But when we're dished out, I don't know where you fall in. I'm going to fall under essential workers. Maybe you fall under essential workers. Why are you in essential workers? In California, I'm deemed an essential worker because I go in the studio every day for extra. That is the most California piece of horseshit bullshit. I have ever heard before.

I'm not a frontline worker. So I'm in like a different wave. I'm not front line. You should refuse the vaccine. I'm not front line. I'm like in the third wave. You should refuse the vaccine. I didn't say.

I'm still on the fence about taking it. No. No, you can't be on the. offense about taking. You got to get vaccinated. I just don't know how quickly I want to, you know, and this new report coming out about Bell's palsy and people getting it. Did you see that? Did you see that?

You guys, 70% of the country has to be vaccinated for us to put COVID to bed. We have to get vaccinated. You have to get vaccinated. I will eventually. I'm not, I will eventually. But you're telling me to turn down. Apparently I'll be in the third way and I'll be above most because of being

an essential worker and you're telling me to turn it down. I'm telling you as people at Walmart, that see 100 people a day. They're essential workers. They'll get it too. They're with me too. Don't take a dose away from somebody who's really essential. We're all in the same business.

Like in California, entertainment is considered. I just tell you that Governor Newsom said, entertainment, look at the order. Entertainment is considered because we produce news every single day. News. So it's called News Entertainment. We do news every single day. We're considered an essential worker.

like a grocery store worker. Do you think that Billy Bush deserves a COVID vaccine? Seriously. More than like some more than like, you think Billy Bush deserves a COVID vaccine? I don't want to say anybody deserves something more than another. I'm just telling you by order from the governor what we are deemed as. That's not I didn't say that.

I lobbied for that. I didn't say I'm an advocate for being deemed an essential worker. I was shocked, but I was like California. California. Let's take a break. This episode is brought to by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need weather tech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping.

Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business.

They keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 US-based support. Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply, services not available in all areas. All right. It was a monumental guest on the red tabletop.

This is a big deal. Olivia J. The son, excuse me, the daughter of Lori Loughlin, the daughter of Lori Lofman, who was public enemy number one in the Varsity Blue scandal. Dead. Dead. Dead.

Dead. Dead. It was an FBI operation to take down kids, wealthy kids, USC kids primarily, but some of some other schools. as well that were juke in the system using this guy to help

them get to help them get into a school. There was this guy who would falsify your records and do all kinds of different stuff, lie about things that you had did, and then you know, get you preferred access into USC. And of course, USC being a private school, if you get in, that means another student

does not. Olivia Jade was like on YouTube and all of that stuff like that. She was becoming big on YouTube. You guys remember the Lori Loughlin. She was the aunt on Aunt Becky. Aunt Becky on Full house. Full house. Yeah. And her daughter looks just like her. Very beautiful young lady. And she lost all her YouTube stuff

because she was college admissions. Because she's a cheat. Criminal. She's a cheater. She went on the red tabletop to talk to Willow, Jada, and a dream about this whole thing. And I think my question was, who fucking cares?

I mean, are you done? You want me to go? So I share your sentiments. I was disappointed by this. I don't know if you felt that, but I was disappointed. And particularly in one part. I didn't watch the whole thing because I wasn't trying to, like, give so much attention and watches and likes to this whole, you know, what's the word I'm looking for it? It was a show.

A Dream? Is that, is that Jada's Mom's name? Yeah. A Dream. A Dream. A Dream. A Dream. A Dream. A Dream. A Dream. A Dream. Vanfield Jones. Jada's Mom. Okay. A Dream. There's this moment where she says she says she. gets upset. And she's like, at the end of all of this, you did all of this, but you're still going to be okay. Your parents, your parents went to jail. You might have lost your sponsorships on social, but you're still okay. And I had a problem with this because I get that part of the whole

shtick was for them to call her out because they would have been, people are already upset that they did this, but it would have been worse if they didn't challenge her and call her out. So I guess that's part of the display. But you're part of the problem by bringing her on to your platform. For you to call her out and say, okay, you're going to be okay, I feel like you're feeding into this. You're contributing to making it okay, right?

Like you're giving her a platform, you're giving her attention, you're giving her empathy, you're giving her grace. And at the end of the day, she's going to say her peace, say whatever, but you're giving people the opportunity to empathize with her. And at the end of the day, she's going to get a book deal, she's going to get a reality TV show, she'll get her sponsorships back at all because you gave her a platform to speak out and to be understood.

I would have never wanted to contribute to that. Rich, ever. To cut in, does it change your mind at all that? that according to Yahoo, Adrian Banyfield-Jones said she fought tooth and nail to have her on. And that is her being here is the epitome of white privilege is what she said. She said that early on in the episode. Yeah.

It was clear that there was a schism between her and Jada Pinkett Smith. Overrub and not to have her on. She didn't want her own. So, you know, thank you for bringing that up. For me, I wouldn't have been a part of it. Because I just feel like I get you and I appreciate you. and I appreciate the fact that you share the same sentiment that I have, you have, Ann, and a lot of other people,

but she's still there and you were still a part of it. You could have had the option to just not be there and put out a statement as to why you didn't want to be a part of it. You're giving her, and it's like, at what point do we sacrifice what it is that we believe for the attention and the money and the likes, you know, and the watches for the show that you're trying to put out? Is it about the money or is it about really doing what you feel is right?

And I guess that's what I have such an issue with to bring her on. We didn't even really need to talk about her. Her parents have been convicted. They're currently in jail. You know, as you said, this girl's going to be just fine. So why are we giving her a platform to speak out? I mean, my God, the first thing she said was I didn't even realize I had this privilege. I don't want to hear her explain that.

Like, it was the epitome of white privilege. And by the three of them sitting at the table talking to her, you contributed to that privilege. Interesting. The reality is that the most annoying thing about the Olivia J. Red Table Talk and Olivia Jard hurt no one was that it was unnecessary, like you said.

Like who gives a shit? Like Olivia Jada is, like it was unnecessary. Like everyone said, if Red Table Talk or any place is going to be, now it's unnecessary to me, obviously wasn't unnecessary to Jada Pink and she had something she wanted to say and she did what she wanted to do

and that's her right as her show. That's her form. Okay. But to me, there have been other situations at Red Table Talk where the cultural weight of the offense or whatever was worth a discussion. This wasn't. If you want to have that discussion with somebody,

have it with Lori Loughlin. Yeah. Because Lori Loughlin and the people, they were the people putting these things in order. Olivia J. is just the kid that's going to go on and continue to do her thing. And this is going to be a blip in the entire. Patty Hirsch, Patty Hurst,

another white lady from the 70s, Patty Hurst, eras to William Randolph's Hearst's newspaper empire, right? Got with the, it was like there's a black militant group. Oh, yeah. Remember this?

Got with a black militant group. Got her on tape. Ratatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatat you know what I'm saying? Go like going ham with all of these guys, right? She was hanging out with them. She was down.

She had the beret on. She was getting it, right? Later on, it's like I was brainwashed, guys. You know what it becomes? It becomes a book deal later on in life. Exactly. Like you said before, it becomes a movie of the week. And this is what that's going to be for Olivia Jane.

So it's not, the only thing that was offensive about it is that we're acting like it's an important thing. It's not an important thing. Not at all. So like, you know, be important. Right. So what I'm saying is the most offensive thing about it to me was Red Table Talk. acting like things are one-to-one and that they're equal.

And that's kind of what Jada's mom was talking about. There's really no need to discuss it or to really even parse through it because like Olivia Jada is going to be just fine now. I can't say what mental toll it took on her. You know, I can't say what psychological told it took on her. She's a young woman starting her life and she deserves to be able to tell her story.

But I'm just wondering why. But why give it to them? And on an all black platform at that. You know what I mean? Give her, go somewhere else because anybody would have been willing to take that. You know what I mean? And the fact that they did it. It would have been different if she was a family friend that they grew up with,

that they had some kind of inside knowledge to this family. I might have been a little bit more like, all right, all right. Okay, I can understand this. But it was just more about like, we got it first. So I think. that there is something that we have to talk about at least very, very briefly. Okay. So down into the political toilet here.

Let's talk about Mr. Rush Limbaugh. Now, just let you guys know that, uh, just let you guys know, uh, it, we went back and forth here at the team on how I learned about whether or not we would discuss this story. Mm-hmm. Because it's coming from Rush Limbaugh, who Rush Limbaugh's job, it seems to be, uh, is to sow division and to create an us versus them cultural war that will eventually end in the fragmentation of America and maybe a schism in this country

that we might not be able to recover from. Don't make no mistake about it. The first time I heard the term culture war, it came from the silo at Fox News, and it was Bill O'Reilly. That is not me railing against the right. That is me saying that the term cultural war, was introduced to me,

by Bill O'Reilly. Bill O'Reilly thought that there was a cultural war that was being waged in America against straight white males, and that there was a group of people in America that wanted to challenge the dominance. This actually was said on the show, I never forget it.

And the leadership of straight white males like Bill O'Reilly. Rush Ruffa has been on that for a very, very long time in terms of what he believes America should be, who should be running in America, and what he believes an American actually looks like. He said something today. He says something today.

He says, a peaceful coexistence, not today, earlier this week, maybe yesterday, there cannot be

a peaceful coexistence between liberals and conservatives. I actually think that we're trending towards secession.

Now, we talk about words that are dangerous, and you guys think what, what, what does

Russell Limbaugh's opinion matter? And in a grand scheme of thing, maybe, maybe it matters very little.

But I can tell you that in my estimation, I don't think that That's true. I think it's very important for everyone to realize that we're closer to that eventuality than you think that we are. In terms of a full-scale secession, I don't think it will work just because of economic reasons.

That's not it. But a cultural secession apart where even more so than there is right now, whether there are two Americas that are fragmented politically, religiously, and economically, but not, it's always, sort of been like that, but not so formally, right? To where you have, you'd have a large swath of the country where abortion was completely illegal. Where you have a large swath of a swath of the country where you could have guns in another part of the country where guns were, you know what I mean? I don't even know how that works. Well, I mean, the abortion thing would be very easy.

You strike down a row versus way that goes back to the States. Right. And there would literally be two Americas, one where you can get an abortion and one where you can. Right. And with the political climate that we're in right. now and some of the things that quite frankly the rights been able to pull off very well there we have to really sit down at a table everyone and decide what america is and we have to do it pretty soon but that's my thing how do you do that you're right you're right in everything that

you said but the scary thing is and which is why you have to talk about um i don't know how, even though everything you're saying is right, how do we come to the table when you have a side that is saying, we're all about our country and patriotism and we love our country, but you don't love the people that are within this country because they don't look like you, because they don't act like you, and they don't do the things that you do. We can never be on one accord if that's the way you really think. If with your chest and your words and your voice, you're saying America, but what you mean is an America that's for me. We'll never get there.

And that's what I think rush is putting out there without actually saying all those things. That's what he's saying. That's why we can't get there. Well, I mean, also, the problem with statements like Russia's are that they're, first of all, it's a concrete statement. First of all, Rush Limbaugh doesn't know that to be. true. Like it's a concrete statement, right? It's a statement that there's no wiggle room. So what you do is when you make a statement that says, hey, there cannot be

a peaceful coexistence. You create hardliners. Like you create people that go, okay, it's either here or there. So you create a hardliner when you make a statement like that. And he doesn't know that to be true. Is it a more tumultuous time for the left and the right than ever before? Yeah, but it doesn't mean it has to stay that way. And to be honest with you, it doesn't mean that even either side, the left or the right, have to stay the way that they are. The reality is it's going to take a lot of work from everyone. You and I included for there to be a redefinition of what it means to being in America.

Right. Because being an American doesn't mean that you're a white Anglo-Saxon, Protestant male or female. But being an American also doesn't mean that you get to go about your life, complaining about everything, and never, ever working towards the solutions that will actually make you like a whole citizen. So everyone's got to do some work. Now, I believe to me, just from my point of view,

the work I'm doing isn't actually to be an American, it's to be a human in this country. But that's how we look at it. They don't. I get it. They don't. But what I'm saying is that

there has to be a baseline agreement made about what everyone's expectations are. Like, what are your expectations from living in your country? everything you're saying is so reasonable and logical, but I feel like when it comes to other people who don't feel that way at the table, they can't reason it that way.

And the problem with what Rush said is that he's giving those people another option. The option, he's not saying, come to the table and let's figure this out. His option is to just leave this and start your own. There is no compromise. There's no coming together. There's no unity,

which is the same thing Trump was preaching. And then you have Congress, within states who are pushing forward these ideals. You have to, I believe it was the Missouri congressman who had to take down his tweet because he said he, he won a secession and he spelled it like the TV show. Excuse me, the TV show. Then you have in Texas another person who's pushing forward what I believe is called the Texas Independence Act, which has been brought up several times to secede from the, from the country. There's been a lot of people on that too. Texas and Alaska both have.

like a little wonky little parties that are down for something like that. So we laugh at them or we don't take them seriously or we brush off a rush when he's talking about this. But then they start to gain steam when you see a country that's so divided because you're giving them options. Well, this doesn't work. Well, this doesn't work. Which is how Trump got into office. Well, I like him because he's different from the rest and he's extreme. And he's not a politician. He wants to get things done that are separate than from what's been going on. You know? Remember, so I don't have very much faith in actual succession.

I think all of that's malarkey. And the reason why I think that is because there hasn't been a war in America that corporate America hasn't signed off on in a very, very long time. And there are, you would significantly complicate the economies of a great many gigantic corporations if there was an American succession. you would you would it would because then there has to be new type of inner you have to be new treaty sign right that changes passports that changes tax stuff that changes all kinds of things right and for a while it would be very very bad for the stock market it would be very very bad for the economy it would be very very bad for a lot of people who just want to sit back i mean the coke brothers and george sorrows one of them wants the country to be left, the other one wants the country to be right,

but they both don't want to be broke because they're too used to being rich, and that's apparently a lot of fun. All right. So I don't think that that's a very realistic scenario. You know what I mean? Like corporate America has to support wars. They have to.

And I don't think it's very realistic that that would happen. But I don't think that the alternative to it, which I said is a cultural succession, in a major in a major way, in an organized way, in a semi-legal way, based upon things that could be deemed unconstitutional by a conservative Supreme Court

and based on other things, is any less destructive. And I think, look, bro, it's like if people are ready to go to the mattresses, well, then so be. And America was built on this type of situation. But just understand, just understand how much trauma,

there's going to be. And civilizations fall. And I don't think people understand their world history. Soviet Union used to be this great big deal. It's one country now. It's still a pretty powerful country, Russia, but the rest of the people, the rest of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and all of that,

you know, Kazakhstan and all of that stuff like that. Now it's kind of centralized right there in Russia. Maps are redrawn all the time. But you see, when this map gets redrawing, it's going to be scared. Yeah. I'm scared just listening to. us talking about this conversation.

It don't sound hopeful, man. It does not sound hopeful. But that's why it's important to talk about what Rush said, because you got to start paying attention to this. You can't ignore it because sooner or later it could be an actuality.

All right, so I watched episode 9 of The Bachelorette. Episode 9. Episode 9. We were blessed enough to have Tasia in our presence for the last episode. Strong black sister Tasha joined us on the last episode of higher learning. And

here's my recap about this this, this I gotta be honest with you. I'm having trouble speaking. I am so pissed off at the treatment of Bennett. Speak on. And the way that Bennett has been treated by Tation.

If I would have known if I would have known that Tasha was this type of pit viper black widow dragon lady to treat Bennett this way

okay first of all Tasia is getting Ellen Bennett not for what's going on between her and Bennett but for what's going on between Bennett and some of the guy so Bennett has a beef

with some dude and all of a sudden that makes him not a great mate so you're going to go through your whole life with somebody and they're not going to have bees with people half of a relationship with a lady

is listening to her talk about who she don't like. This is true. This is true. You understand? Half of a relationship is listening to her saying, I can't stand that bitch.

And do you know what you say? I don't like her either. That's the only acceptable answer. I don't like her either. When I went to that holiday party, I saw the way she was acting. It was too much. You know what I mean?

And then they make up. And then you got to act like you never said that. But that's the way it goes. So Bennett can't have a beef. Right. Bennett can't have a beef. So she, because of this, it's Benet, what's the guy's name, Noah? Noah.

No. So Benny and Noah can't get along. So she kicks Bennett off. She asks Bennett to leave. And immediately regretted it. Immediately regretted it because she's not able to stand on her square. Of course, so Benet got a little beef. Look, if you got that much swag, then obviously it's going to be some people that

that don't know how to deal with it. You know what I'm saying? Quite naturally. he glides when he walks. So the reality is that, you know, um, so before I move off of the Bennett situation, has Bennett gone or not?

Because he came back. So, well, currently he's still with us. He's back. She didn't send him home. He professed his love. And she said, you know what?

Nobody ever told me that they loved me in a long time is what she said. So Bennett. I don't even remember. She said that, wow. Yeah, she said, I haven't heard that from somebody in a lot. And so she was very,

Bennett is a man of his word. He doesn't play games. Bennett, you know, he's with us for now. By the way, this was the episode that made me certain that there's no way I could lose if I was on The Bachelor of Rame.

I'm sorry, no way you could lose? No way. There's no way I could lose. Why? Because I got too much trauma. This episode was all about trauma. Do you know how many fucking sad stories I could tell? I got too much trauma. Think about the story about the

shotgun shells alone. That right there, the shotgun shells alone. Forget about stuff that happened back in Louisiana where you know, as soon as you like 13 year old friends get cancer routinely because of the environmental conditions. It's a true thing, cancer alley. But what I'm saying is that forget about that. Because everybody was very sad in this episode. Riley and his daddy. I know. I got to take back everything I said about about Yoda, black Yoda.

He's great. He's kind of cool, man. I felt for him. No wonder he has pointy ears. Because he's got so much on his mind that it's spreading his eyes out. That has nothing to do with it. Don't justify it.

His mind is settling into his head and is spreading his ears out. Like, that's what I wonder. No wonder. I almost fell out about your eyes. No wonder. He's like, he's got pointy ears. I didn't know that.

He lied. Because I think why is he lying about his name? I'm like, why would you lie about that? And then it's a sob story behind it. You know what I mean? Oh, so you believe the lie detector test as well? I don't believe. No, I didn't believe it, but it's like,

I love how they, they, I didn't believe it, but it was like, it was good TV. You got to love how they, how they ask certain questions. Yeah. A lie detector stuff is always good TV. So I didn't believe it, though. I didn't believe the lack of it. I wouldn't say that I believe.

But, so that, and then the other guy who had, tried to commit suicide? Yeah, Ben. Ben, it's tough. Like, I was watching the show like, I'm actually feeling okay. Like, these guys got it way worse than me. Like, yo, you know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that all of this is right, though? So that's a question that a lot of people, this, I will tell you, what we're getting from these men is heavier than I've seen from any season that I've watched. Now, I know I'm not well-versed before I was on the show,

But this is a lot. I think part of it is because normally you see people going from country to country to country. And part of it is filler of, oh, my gosh, we're doing this amazing activity in the middle of Finland. And so it's now it's about the conversation, which we don't normally get to see all of this. So I feel like that's part of it. Also, since you're a newbie, this usually happens with one or two contestants. It's like I have to tell her my story. before I can have her meet my family,

I need to let her know this about me. It's only fair. So, yeah, there's always the story. Interesting. And it's part of the reason of casting. It's part of what makes the show the show. People come in with these deep-rooted paths. Hmm.

And it makes America fall in love with them. Yeah. It is, it was, this is heavier than normal, though, with Zach, with the drug addiction and the brain tumor, Ben, the Army, suicide, the eating disorder, Riley, the family, the name change. It's weird because it seems like the guys are kind of up in the ante a little bit. Not that they're doing it on purpose, but it's like,

everyone's trying to go deep into their bag of trauma in order to like get a lady. Well, they don't know what the other one is doing, right? It's probably at this point you're assigned to a producer. So the producer's like, hey, remember when you told me this? Like, maybe you should share it. that with her so you guys can connect. It's like that kind of thing. Yeah.

So let's see. There was that. There was the whole Bennett situation. Noah, I hate them. She doesn't give a rose to anyone. I don't like that type of stuff, man.

These guys are going through it. It's like they're going through it. You mean him tell me Riley couldn't get a rose after all of that? Oh, by the way, I was wrong again. Spencer, gone. Yeah. Like Spencer. What a dud, right?

We never heard from him since the first impression rose. Spencer came in there and got the first impression row. and then Spencer was like mute. He was like he was basically turned into Groot from Gardens of the Galaxy. Like you couldn't even said one sentence the whole time and it was it. No more Spencer.

What happened to Spencer? I think those men got to Spencer. Remember how like they came at him hard for the way he came in all confident with the first impression? They scared him. He went into a shell, never came out of it. Actually, I know what happened to Spencer.

What happened? Spencer has been concussed this whole time. Because. Because Riley gave him one of them goddamn big handbones with that big ass, big ass arms. Riley, Riley, Riley elbowed him with them big ass arms

and Spencer probably in the pool. Spencer probably got CTE. Spencer probably got CTE from the elbow. Most likely. And that's when he probably, probably just probably was like, yo, I was on the bachelor. He was like, yo, Spencer, Spencer, you didn't win a bachelor? He was like, I was on a bachelor.

What are you talking about? I was a bachelor. Spencer, yeah. Spencer's going to forget 2020 ever happen after that elbow. Like, he's going to be somewhere, people are going to be wearing masks. He's going to be, what's wrong with you freaks? You're trying to rob me?

Like, big spots in his memory. Yeah, but they better not get rid of being it. Oh, by the way, breaking news. Chadwick Bowesman will not be recast as Chala in Black Panther, too. Wait, well, wait. Was that an option? Because they weren't going to see GIM. They said that.

I mean, they weren't going to have like a hologram or anything like that. No. They already said that. So we knew that. Right. It says, Black Panther 2 in 2020, we'll explore the world of Wakanda and the rich characters introduced in the first film. They will not recast. Chabre ghost.

Oh, recast. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So there will be no Black Panther or it will be. The mantle will probably hand it to Shuri. Which really happens in the comic. Okay. Yeah.

Black Panther goes. America, Black Panther goes space, sure he becomes Black Panther for a little while. Does she become Black Panther in secret? So people think, No, no. Okay. No, she hasn't become Black Panther in secret.

She looks completely different when she's in a body. No, but I thought, you know, like he wears a full suit. So I thought like she was pretending to be Black Panther. You know, like kind of like in Troy when Patrick Clis. Yeah. Prettinent to be Achilles. Yes. And what happened to him.

Look what happened to him. Okay. Stop doing that part. I was just, you didn't have to take it there. of Hector, actually, actually he fought for a little bit because that's why Hector thought,

he got his ass kicked. That's why Hector thought it was Achilles. He was like, no. They were like, he moved like you. He didn't say he could fight like you.

That was not a good fight. He was like he even moved like you. Whatever the servant guy, his right-hand man. They were lovers. They were lovers. Now, people don't want to talk about that. That Patrick Cuss and Achilles were lovers.

Yeah. Because if you read the original shit, they were lovers. I know. They made them cousins in the movie. I know. You see what you're doing how you did. I know. I know. It's one of my

favorite movies. You love that? That's Peak Brad. That's Peak Brad. That we talked to the Fall. I can't even go there right now. All right. All right. Look, guys. Oh, wow. Jimmy Kimmel. Right? Big time. This is the one time where your name dropping paid off. Because I feel like Jimmy was like, you know what? Vans a friend. I'm going to give y'all all my time.

All my time. That's my man. Yeah. Jimmy Kimmel. Fantastic guy. Great guy. Yeah, really. So because we had Jimmy, we obviously got to get Jimmy's due, we are not going to get to have a mailback or an inspected ally of the week, although I, you know.

I think you guys will be okay with that. I think you're fine. I think you guys got to be okay with that. So we'll do two mailbacks next week. We'll give you a mailbag on Monday. And we will see you then. By the way, guys, just let you know, I'm going to be okay.

I'm fine. I'm going to be all right. Don't worry about me. It's cool. Okay? It's a process. Okay. It's a process.

says. Thank you to Jimmy Kimmel. Take your thing caps off, but do not stop learning. I am Van Lathen. I am Rachel Lindsay. We are.