Joy, a Podcast. Hosted by Craig Ferguson - Thanksgiving Tweets & Emails

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

The episode of The Joy Podcast comes to you from craig on "vacation mode". Well, really it's him spending some time with loved ones for the Thanskgiving holiday. Answering your Tweets & Emails with questions about his time on set with Jim Carrey, Dr. Who, A.I., and Scotch Tape. But there's not much downtime as he finds himself back on the road next week. Have a question for Craig? Drop him an email at [e-mail], send him a message on social media, or drop a comment below.  _______________________________________________ Craig is also on the road. Dates and tickets can be found here https://www.thecraigfergusonshow.com/tour _________________________________________________ FIND CRAIG: Website - https://www.thecraigfergusonshow.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/craigyferg TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@craigy_ferg X - https://www.x.com/craigyferg Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thecraigfergusonshow ABOUT THE JOY PODCAST: Storied late-night talk host Craig Ferguson brings his interview talents and singular world view to a discussion of the modern state of JOY, sitting down with notable guests from the worlds of entertainment, science, government, and more. How's our Joy doing? Bridled? On life support? Where do we find joy in a world that seems by any rational measure to be collapsing around us?

This is me, Craig Ferguson. I'm inviting you to come and see my brand new comedy hour. Well, actually, it's about an hour and a half, and I don't have an opener because these guys cost money. But what I'm saying is I'll be on stage for a while. Anyway, come and see me live on the Pants on Fire Tour in your region. Tickets are on sale now and we'll be adding more as the tour continues throughout 2025 and beyond.

For a full list of dates, go to the Craigfergersonshow.com. See you on the road, my dears. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Joy Podcast. I am your host, Craig Ferguson, here with my friend, Snakey. Snakey the snake mug, that's not his name. Don't ever say that. My name is Craig Ferguson.

Welcome to the Joy podcast where today what I'm going to do is what we've been doing recently is taking questions from you and I will answer your questions in the most honest way or sometimes dishonest way possible. It is, in fact, a reflection of the internet. Sometimes it's true, and sometimes it's just simply not true. That's a tasty beverage, Jill. That's what that is definitely true. All right, so with a lot of messages coming in,

now, if you know anything about this podcast, you'll know that sometimes it's just me talking, and sometimes it's you talking to me, and sometimes it's just me talking to someone. else in a studio. I don't do the Zooms because I tried doing that and I didn't care for it. I didn't care for the Zoom interviews, so no more of them. So what I will do, it's nothing to do with the people I talk to. It's just, it's very sunny gear. I would apologize. Well, I'm not apologised. It's not to do with me, but it's sunny here. So I'd have to, if you notice, I'm in the shade. If you're watching it, if you're listening to this, it doesn't matter. But if you're watching it, I'm in the shade between a pillar. If I go that way, it's too sunny. And if I go the other way, it's too sunny. So I'm going to probably it quite still. But if you're only listening to this and not watching it, this will have no interest to you whatsoever, like many other things perhaps

in the podcast, but that's the way it is. Anyway, today is a podcast where I'm talking to you and drinking a delicious beverage out of my coiled snake. Good times.

All right. This is from Rebecca Nierdes from Sweden. Now, let me just say this. First of all, I don't know if that's how you pronounce Rebecca's second name, Nierdis. I have been to Sweden though and I did meet someone called

Neerdis, I think. I don't know. They might not be pronounced their own name properly. It's very hard to tell with the language you don't speak. I really liked Sweden when I was there, by the way. I don't know if you were been to Sweden, but I went to Sweden and I stayed in Stockholm in a

place called the Diplenat Hotel. And it was fantastic. And they this thing called Higa, I don't know if I'm pronouncing it properly, but what it is, is towards the, when you're having breakfast in the morning, towards the end of the year, like, or in the fall and stuff like that, it gets very cold and dark up in the swings. So they do, I think Higa is a Swedish word for cozy, but I mean, during a breakfast, they used to light little candles at breakfast time. I went, oh, so now every day when I'm having breakfast or a, I don't. I have breakfast every day. Sometimes I just have a cup of coffee. Most times I just have a cup of coffee. But when I have a cup of coffee with, I have to say my lady wife usually if I'm at home

and if I'm not at home, then actually probably still like this. We do it like this. She is a cup of coffee. I have a cup of coffee. We do usually like a little candle. I'll show you actually. If you're actually seeing this, not just listening,

there's a little candle here. Look, use a little candle, see? And sometimes we're having coffee. this is this room here that gets all the sun we have a little coffee and a little hangar anyway this is from Rebecca in Sweden she says what is your favourite snow-based activity

now coming from Sweden I'm not surprised to hear that and living here in the northeastern United States we also get snow now I have to say I grew up in a country where although it can be cold and damp the snow is never that great So snow-based activity for us It was mostly slush

It was a slush-based activity So it would be like making some form of ice ball That you could brutally assault your enemies with I don't know if that's an activity or sort of war Anyway We used to make slush balls And compress them into ice and they'd throw them at each other It was very very painful

Some of the kids got hurt badly Anyway the snow that you get here in New England there's a lot better. It's and my wife's family are all big skiers. They do a lot of the skiing. And I

didn't try skiing until I was in my well I tried skiing once in Scotland when I was a kid when I was about 15 or 16 and I case it and I thought, why does anyone do this? This is awesome. We just kept falling over all the time and it was damp and wet

and hard and squishy and then I went on a skiing trip when I was in California my wife's family were all big skiers and she wanted to go to Mammoth so we went up to Mammoth when our youngest, our oldest was young and I went skiing up there and I was like oh my god this is

amazing and I did love it so I do like skiing I don't like the snowboarding I took some lessons in that once when I was doing a comedy show in Aspen and this guy gave me a snowboard lesson I didn't like it. I didn't have a board tie to my feet. And I can't fall in my ass all the time. I suppose that clears up after you've learned a bit. I don't know, but it really hurt.

So much so that I was like, I can't take any more than that. And so I do quite like skiing. But that being said, I'm not very good at it. And I feel like I'm reaching that point in my life now where if I hurt myself, it might be bad because you know I've got my bones and organs are all a bit more vintage than they used to be

one of the things that happens as you get older I don't know if you guys are aware of this but it takes longer to heal I had a motorcycle accident a motorcycle accident once when I was 40 years old and I was on this motorcycle in the hand accident I broke three ribs in my collarbone and it was very painful

and it took months to heel but I suspect if it happened to me now it would be even longer because you know all my old organs and skin and all that's all it's all old so it feels like I actually if you're unaware if you're young and you don't know what it feels like to be olding to be olding if you're olding if you're young and you don't know what it's feel like to be old imagine you're had a motorcycle accident that's what it feels like it feels like you're recovering from a motorcycle Alexton all the time actually you know what it feels like I feel like getting older is like I stopped I mean is very everybody knows this I stopped drinking when I was in my late 20s

runners 29 and um you know so I haven't had a hangover in a long time but nowadays I wake up with it feels like I've got a hangover and I haven't had anything to drink for 30 something years but um but I still wake up with kind of a hangover because that's just what happens as you go older you kind of wake up with an hangover. So there you are, young people. If you don't know what it's like getting old, imagine you had a motorcycle crash when you were drunk, and suddenly you're 60.

Although some people are in great shape. I'm not in bad shape. It just feels bad when I wake up in the morning. So my favourite snow-based activity, to be honest, Rebecca, is probably Higa. Higa, which is the sitting down and being cozy indoors. is probably my favorite snow-based activity. Yes, I think that's right.

This is from Lisa B in Dallas, Texas. I don't know if Lisa is a B, or she's trying to remain anonymous, which is Lisa B, or maybe... Is there a singer called Lisa B? Maybe it's the singer or Lisa B. I don't know. There might be a singer called Lisa B.

I'm not aware. Lisa says, does Scotland take credit for Scotch tape? If not, they should. well I think they probably could I don't know I'm not in charge of what Scotland does

or takes credit for but I feel Scotch tape is called Scotch tape because there's a little bit of tartan on the box I think that's it maybe Scotch tape is from Scotland I bet you there's somebody

on the internet knows I bet you there's somebody on the hey by the way I don't know if you if you're just listening to this this will make no sense to you but I've just noticed

that when drinking right-handedly from the snake cup, the snake's face bites you in your face. That's probably why I always drag using my left hand, because the snake doesn't bite you. So there's a tip for you. If you have a snake cup, like the old one I used to have in late night, don't drink with your right hand.

Because if you drink it with your right hand, the snake's going to bite you in the face. Does Scotland take credit for Scottish tape? I don't think it was invented in Scotland. It might have been, and then the internet will tell you. The internet will tell you because the internet is full of the information. It's the information super highway. Richard from Merrimack, New Hampshire.

I know where that is. It's not too far from here, actually. Richard from Mary Mac, New Hampshire says, Craig, I saw you were in the Ken Burns, the American Revolution documentary. I'm sorry. How did you get involved in it? Did you have to up your Scottish accent since you're American now and you only have a hint of one?

well yeah I got involved in it was if you hear from Ken Burns like if you hear Ken Burns would like you to do a voice in a documentary I mean I just I got a phone call said that Ken Burns wants you to do a voice it's kind of like a summons do you know I mean King Burns is kind of like a I feel like he's an institution it's kind of like saying you have to be uh it's like jury duty a little bit you're like yeah you better go uh Ken Burns was just so you go and they're very nice and they're I did some voices in it. I did the voice of John Paul Jones, who was a Scotsman that was the father of the American Navy. Well, I'm sure you all know because you're Americans in. And the Scottish people will know this too.

He was a sailor. You want a sailor to be in charge of the Navy. You don't want to get put in the hands of a computer tech guy. Probably wasn't a lot of them around in the 76. But you know what I'm saying.

Anyway, he was qualified to do it. How do they get involved? Well, they just, they fly out as well. Did I have to dampen down my accent? Now, it's interesting that, because I have had Scottish people tell me that I don't have an accent anymore. And that I sound, so like a yike. You sound like a Yikee, by the way, in Scotland just means anyone from America. It doesn't mean people from around here in New England.

There's plenty of Yankees around here. but yikey means any American I think it's from the Second World War when Yiki read that

to the British people anyway the yanks are come in and all that stuff anyway the little thing there

so Scottish people say you said like American you're scoise at sushi that's another one scogevin at sushi I'm like

what I'm like okay I guess or I suppose it changes I've noticed that when I'm talking to Scottish people my kids say this you sound much but I'm talking to Scottish people I sound much more Scottish and when I'm talking to American people I said much more American now I have a theory about this which is I like to be understood so I don't like to repeat myself over and over again so I've learned I'm not conscious of doing this but I have learned

probably over the years that if I adapt my accent sufficiently then no and I'm not again I swear I'm not conscious of doing it I don't think about doing it but it probably just happens that I end up talking you know changing my accent sufficiently so that I don't have to

repeat myself and stuff but I still think a lot of Americans would consider me having more than just a hint of an accent but I don't know. It depends. So, you know, my job is in large part is to make myself understood. So I think it's important that I make myself understood. Did I have to change my accent?

When I did the Ken Burns documentary. Do you know, I think I did a little bit. I think I leaned into it a little bit when I was doing the Scottish voices. But I also did some Northern English voices in that documentary as well. So people are talking like that from, in my throat's type voice and all that.

I did voices like that too. So I, yes, when you're doing voice work, you tend to mess around with your accent. When I was doing that, the Dragon movies, and I played Gobber and the Dragon movie cartoons, or would you call them cartoons? We might call them animated movies. I can't remember. But the,

when I was doing the Gobber voice, I would talk a lot more, well, it was a lot more Scottish like that. But that's not really how people were in Glasgow talk. That's how people in Fife with the east coast of Scotland talk

so you mess around where your voice what I'm saying is you miss around with your voice you mess around with your voice a little bit when you're using it so yeah I did miss around with it Carrie Howard from San Francisco California has sent in a question she says

what is the best sandwich well I it's a wholly contested issue with the best sandwich of course I think it is it's a subjective obviously, you can't say

definitively the best sandwich because if I said, for example, the BLT was the best sandwich, then vegans would be an uproar unless the bee stood for bush bush

lettuce and tomato sandwich with vegan butter is by far and away the best sandwich. So I'm going to say definitively the best sandwich for every day is the BLT. the bush lettuce and tomato sandwich

or the bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich it depends on what your bee is if your bee is bacon good for you if your bee is bush good for you everybody should enjoy a little of both in my opinion except bacon I can't eat bacon anymore too old my bones and organs we can have it

plus I've never been a fan I've eaten bacon and this this may come as a shock to many of you I like the smell of bacon but I don't like to eat bacon I don't eat pork. No, for no religious reasons

or anything like that, I'm not a religious person, but I'm a non-poorker, you know, eaty-wise. I'm a bit of a porker, and when it comes to, you know, my own personal girth, that's what's... This is from Broke Andres Vernell.

Wow, that's a great name. Broke Andres Vernal. I wonder if... Or if he's from Sweden, or I wonder if it's from Brock Andrews and Vernal. But I don't know where Vernal is. Is it America of Vernal? I look forward to your informed comments. Brock Andrews says, or Brock in Andres, Vernal.

Get on with it. Lemony Snicketts, he says, is one of my favorite movies. How is it working with Jim Carrey? It was interesting to do in that movie, the Lemony Snicketts movie. I did that movie. I've watched on that movie about a month. I think I'm in the movie for about. It's four or five seconds.

It's one of those movies where you do a bunch of things. The director had this idea that he was going to do a bunch of improvised scenes. So I did a bunch of stuff with Jennifer Coolidge and Jamie Harris and Louis Guzman. We did a bunch of improvised scenes. But the thing about when you do improvise scenes in a movie, they never make it into the movie really unless it's part of the story. because by the time you get to the end of the movie you're like,

I don't have time for anything like you have to take them all in it and so none of those scenes ever really made it into the film but we did a lot of a lot of time in makeup I remember and I very much enjoyed working with Jennifer Coolidge

and Jane Adams and Louis Guzman and Jamie Harris I will say this I didn't work much with Jim Carrey I worked with him a little bit he was great though he was very very nice and I remember

it was one day it was after filming and we were all he had a kind of it was like at the end of the week we worked Monday to Friday and at the end of the week

on the Friday we were all kind of Jim's trailer was at one end of the we were all kind of spread out and he was at one end of the lot and we went over it everyone was like over to Jim's trailer and we were all going over there

and I remember particularly because I was sitting down talking to someone and Jim came over and he handed me a diet Coke because I was drinking Diet Coke at the fact. He went, hey, I got you a Diet of Coke. I thought, I'd say it's pretty good, you know.

I mean, because he's like a big giant movie star on a big giant movie, and he was like noticing people and being friendly and being nice. And my experience with Gem has always been 100% positive. He's always been very friendly, very nice. I kind of engaged, I mean, clearly, And extremely talented, and a bit of a loony, I think, in some ways a bit. But that's kind of my, it's my favorite people, really, you know, kind of little unhinged, a little crazy. Very talented, very clever.

And kind, I felt like he's like a kind guy. That was the vibe I go from him. I don't know very well, but he seems very nice. And so I enjoyed it, is the short answer. Milton Mina says Do you think AI can make a show about the simple pleasures of Daffy Duke Would you watch it?

Now, reading from that, I can only assume that you're mentioning There was a bit of improvisation Josh Robert Thompson and I did on the old late-nigh show Josh, of course, was the genius behind my robot skeleton friend Jeff Peterson and Josh and I would often improvise. Now, the good thing is about improvising in a late-night show, particularly one where there's no script.

It'll make it into the show. Oh, so it was in the show, and I remember I mispronosed Daffy Duk at some point. I said Daffy Duk, and then he busted my balls for saying Daffy Duke, and then we pretended to be German and said, we love to Duffy Duk, or something like that. I can't even remember what it was, but it was a thing, and then it became a kind of running joke in the show about the simple pleasures of Daffir Duk being a sort of wistful German cartoon animated idea, I guess. me the art show is

do you know what is weird I adjusted my hoodie I'm wearing a hoodie because it's a bit chilly today and I thought oh I better be careful because of the microphone and then there is no microphone it's me and you talking. Yeah you get conditioned. I think it's because I'm

drinking out of the snake cup I expect to be wearing a microphone because I don't know if you guys know this good but I was doing that late and I show I was always wearing a microphone. That's how you heard me Anyway Could AI The implication be

Could AI do a show like my old late night show Well finally enough I was talking to some people about this Because a friend of mine A fashion designer And a very talented man called Cond Elaine Who does the kid super brand

We were talking about He would say I wonder if the If AI It was just something he was talking about. I don't think he's an AI expert or anything, but he's young, so he may be. Anyway, he and I were talking about it. And we imagined, I wonder if AI could take all my old lightning shows,

because there's like thousands of hours of that old lightning show, thousands of hours of it, and create new shows using that imagery. Had been, if it can't yet, it probably can soon. And then I'm thinking of myself, well, is that good or bad? And I think he comes down to the simple answer as well, it depends if I get paid for it. If we get paid for it, it's good. And if I don't get paid for it, I'm not my own against it. I don't know if AI could have done it in the first place.

I don't think so. I'm not a huge believer in the AI. When I ever have interacted with AI, I'm like, it feels like this is just voice-operated Google to me. But maybe it really can't do things. Whenever I've talked to people who don't work in show business and AI, I remember talking to Dr. Robert Cofolio, who's been on this podcast a couple of times, one of the leading thoracic surgeons in the world.

Talk to him about AI. He's like, oh, I love it. It's saving lives and it can do so much and help and stuff. So depending on who you, talk to people that are either very negative about it. You know, people like me who are like, well, what if I don't get paid? And then people who actually will use it as a useful tool, like I suspect, diagnosticians and surgeons and engineers and people who can really, you know, scientists, I guess.

I think it's, I think they can use for that. Can it make my old late night show? No, I don't think so. Could it make my old latexon night show? out of old night late night shows? Yeah, maybe. And that might be interesting. This is from John Templeton

who says, Craig, what were the pros and cons of hosting a game show? Would you do it again? You looked like you had a lot of fun of hosting celebrity name game. I did have a lot of fun hosting celebrity game. I enjoyed hosting that show. He did hundreds of them. I did like hosting games shows for a couple of reasons. One,

it's a world which is and this is really important it's a world to itself so you know you're not referencing anything outside the room you know it's you are the contestants and what's going on so

you don't have to get involved in any other subject other than what you're doing there is a task to do and I like that I feel like it focuses you you know even when I was doing late night you know, I always had this idea

that it would focus me if I if I would talk to the robot or interact. You want to try and be in the room with the things. I don't know if I'm explaining this very well, but it just feels self-contained. So I like game shows for that. And the other thing is

you're kind of every time he hosts a game show, you make somebody at least a little bit happy. Maybe not the audience. It's not always possible to make the audience happy. But you're usually giving someone some cash and the added bonus it's not my cash so i just give them cash that isn't even mine and make them happy and i liked it so much that i did in fact accept the job of hosting another one i hosted a

show called scrabble now scrabble it is uh i don't know if you're familiar with scrabble it's a game it's a great game i play it a lot i play it in my phone sometimes a lot of times on my own. And I, you know, we play Scrabble in the house and stuff. But I was asked to host the game show TV version of Scravel. Scrabble. Did I say Scrabble? That's a completely different game. Scrabble. And I hosted it and we saw, I think it's like 30 hours of it. It's a lot of it. 30 hours or 60 half hours. I can't, I can't remember. Anyway, there's a lot of shows. And They're done, and we finished them, and they're starting on the CW in January. So then you get to see if you like it.

I think we did a good job. It's not that easy to get Scrabble and translate it on the TV, but the guy's working on it. It did a fantastic job, I think. And it really plays like Scrabble, but watching it on TV. Well, I thought so anyway, and I enjoyed hosting that. And I hope they asked me to do more, because I like to. I liked it a lot

and if they don't ask me to do more I'll be alright but I don't they do it because I like to I'm looking down here because this is where my computer is with the questions on it I'll do one more and then then that'll be it

I wouldn't bother you more today next week by the way I'm going to be in California you think California or Florida I'm certainly going to be somewhere where it's sunny I'm filming for a different TV show not Scrabble I'm filming next week

uh in florida and california so in both of those places i'll be able to do a podcast where i talk to someone maybe not in florida because i don't know anyone in florida but maybe i'll meet someone and in california i know a lot of people and so i think what we'll try and do is we'll do some interviewy type shows when i'm in california but until then i'll do one one of these that this one that we're doing now. This is the one we're doing now. This is from Anton in Croatia. Okay.

Anton says, Craig, why don't you ride motorcycles anymore? I do. I do write motorcycles. I don't write them as much as I used to, but I do write them. The same motorcycle, in fact, that I used to. Just so, you know, Croatia and a motorcycle is the best possible travel combination in the world.

I've never been Croatia. I've heard it's very nice, Lovely for riding motorcycles. I tell you, look, here's how much I still ride motorcycles. This is T-shirt I'm wearing here. It says Team Nova, good, honest, obsessed. Team Nova motorcycles is a motorcycle repair shop

in Turner's Falls, Massachusetts. And they repaired my old Indian scout and they gave me a T-shirt as well. So, you know, they're not paying me to advertise them, but I will say this. they do give you a free I don't know if they give everyone a free t-shirt maybe I got a free t-shirt because

because I was on TV that sometimes happens I'm not going to lie to you sometimes I think oh they give free t-shirts to everybody but I don't know if they do but Nova motorcycles in Millis Falls Massachusetts they

they fixed up they gave me this lovely t-shirt and they fixed up my old India Scout which had been sitting around for a while now the indian scout that i have is it's not that old it's a it's a 2001 indian scout which uh the indian motorcycle company was 100 years old in 2001 so they made a hundred centennial scouts sorry a thousand centennial scouts a thousand centennial scouts a thousand centennial

scouts um and i bought one of them in 2001 and i still have it and i still ride it around a little bit but like i said at the start of this epic I did have a motorcycle crash motorcycle accident about 20 years ago so 2000 yeah about 2005

yeah I had a motorcycle crash 2004 in fact and maybe more than that anyway I had a motorcycle accident in 2002 maybe and it was bad and I still write

motorcycles I mean it was It could have been a lot of worse. I still ride motorcycles, but I don't feel like I ever got that little, that I stand out of my head. And I don't ride them the way I used to, which is probably no bag thing. I mean, it's not that I was particularly daring on motorcycles I wasn't. But, you know, I have kids. Boy, and my older boy, you know, man, no, I guess, is not.

It doesn't seem that interest in motorcycles But the younger one I don't know I'd like them Be great if they weren't into motorcycles Can I'm saying I feel like it's a real way to get hurt Now I know people love them

And I love them too And I do ride it around But And it's not really about me I feel like I could handle the motorcycle Okay but I get very concerned about You know The way other people drive a little bit

It's I feel like little bit like remember right at the start when we're talking about skiing what's your favourite snow-based activity and then I started bleating on about my bones and organs I think I feel

the same way about motorcycle I feel like you know if I was to get in our motorcycle likes than now it'd be tough getting back from that and you never know what you're going to get either you might all get to walk away from it so I don't think I ever quite got that out of my head

the feeling of invulnerability left me after I had that accident and I'm never quite caught that so in conclusion that's all for today so the conclusion is my favorite skiing activity

my favorite snow-based activity is staying indoors and having a delicious beverage I still ride motorcycles but not really a little bit I have won and I ride it sometimes but only in a nice day in the summer when I feel like it.

And some other stuff in between about whatever else we talked about. So that's us marking the spot. I bid you a hearty, snake-filled gulp. And I will see you

next week, I think, from California. I'll need to check the calendar. California or Florida. I sound it won't be here because I have to, I don't know if you know, I've been at home for a while. I haven't shaved or I'll have to do all that shave and get air cut and go back to work. So I will. I'll talk to you guys in a bit. Stay well. Thank you.