The Ben Mulroney Show - So much conflict in the world so let's talk comedy! No cancellations!

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

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Chew on this bold question from Dentine Gum. Is it ever okay to compliment a millennial on their skinny jeans? In 2026? Dentine, chew bold. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney show on this Tuesday, the 13th of January, 2026. And that was the musical stylings of Ben Mulroney and the Intrepid producers, who charted with that hit back in 1961. Was it 61?

1961. That made it all the way to number three on the Hot 100. I think that's the only 100 they had. They didn't have like, you know, R&B or country. Of all the songs in the land, that song about the Ben Mulroney show made it to number three in 1961. You know, those big bands, they just did so well back then. They were ahead of their time. They were ahead of your time.

You didn't even exist. Ahead of my time. I always did. Intrepid producer, how are you today? Doing fine. Doing wonderful. I like the name of the band. I think we should come up with some other alternatives.

Yeah, yeah. Throw them out there. If you have any ideas, text them to us. Music came from Chad GPT. Let's ask for a band name for Chad GPT. Santiago, how are you, man? Oh, good, Ben. How are you doing? I'm doing well.

Doing very, very well. Thank you very much. I wish we could look to the producer box over the penalty box over there where Amy Siegel, our video producer sits. But unfortunately, she's not here today. We miss her very much. And she'll be back hopefully tomorrow. Yes. But yes, so what I told you off the top about that song charting, that was a lie, right?

And that's the only lie I will tell today. Everything else I will endeavor to tell the truth, okay? But that was... That's not even a lie. It's just a little... Yeah, but you know... We're going to be talking about jokes and stuff later. Yeah, we are going to be talking about jokes and who should tell them and what...

Who should say what? Who should be joking about what? And who is able to tell other people what they can again? I'm pretty sure you know where I land on that. I'm looking forward to hearing it. I can't think about it. We'll get back about it. Well, here's what we wanted to start with.

We want to start with a really good news story. And so I want to tell you the story of Bami. Bami is a rescue dog from Korea who was in Metro Vancouver on a leash with their owner, got off leash, took off into the wilderness, disappeared. Disappeared without a trace. For how many days? The family was crestfallen that they had lost this dog. And look, anybody who has a dog. Oh, yeah.

You got a dog. I mean, you believe that your dog's special. Everyone believes their dog is special. My dog is so full of love. I've said this before. When I go get the mail and come back, she greets me as if I've come back from the front. Like, I can't believe. She's so lucky that she gets to see me. And so I put myself in the shoes of this family that lost Bami for 54 days. I don't know at what point do you think to yourself, that's it. We're done. Rest in peace, Bami. It was a rescue dog.

So it had some street sense. Yeah. It knew what it was doing. If my dog ran away, which he never would do because he is terrified of the world. He would not survive. I don't think he'd survive an hour in the world. I know. And look, there's some big bad creatures out there, right?

So there was a lot of community support. They used trail cameras and thermal drones that finally led to. finding Bami. There were some numerous sightings. They failed to trap Bami. Finally got Bami back. Amaciated but alive. And the owners just talked about

the power of persistence, the dog's survival instinct. And we want to start today with that good news story. I want you to keep that feeling that you're feeling right now of Bami in your heart as I share a few more stories with you.

Close your eyes. Breathe a little. Yeah, close your eyes. Unless you're driving. Close your eye. If you're driving, do not close your eyes. But just keep BAMI. And if it's hard for you to keep BAMI in your thoughts and in your heart, we have a little audio aid.

Just lovely. That may or may not be BAMI, but we're hoping it links you to the story. Okay, so there's that. And now we've got to turn our attention to Iran, but seen through the lens of the diaspora. and specifically the Toronto Iran demonstration. And look, it wasn't a protest. They're out in full force in front of the U.S. embassy. Not a protest.

How do I know it wasn't a protest? Because I could see everybody's faces. That's how I know it wasn't a protest. That's how I know it wasn't undermining and it wasn't destructive or corrosive or toxic or calling for anybody in this city to be to die. it was a demand for support from the Americans. Hundreds gathering chanting slogans like make Iran great again.

And Trump act now. There's some audio from it. Yeah, let's listen. What do we want? What do we want? What do we want? What do we want? What do we want?

All right. And look, you know, I'll just say this. The deafening silence by the loudest of, people who have been shouting for human rights and the end of the war and a ceasefire and genocide. Where are those people? Where are you Mark Ruffalo, Greta Tunberg, Cynthia Nixon? Where are you? Every person who marched in this city. The people who took over the University of Toronto, Concordia University of Victoria, University of British Columbia. Where are you, you students who decided that it was more important to foment chaos? And a and and at

attack Jewish students just for being Jewish. Where are you today as the women of Iran are rising up against the gender apartheid that they have been forced to live under since 1979? Where are you today? Because I'm not hearing from you. I guess you're back diligently studying because this doesn't rise to the level. You do realize that the people who were. funding Hamas or this is this I guess that's why they're not.

Probably not. They're probably not. Let me hold on. Let me just follow that. I'm just thinking about this now. Okay. So they're not they're not out there because they supported Hamas and Hamas was funded by Iran. So I guess they are by the law, the transitive property support the regime of Iran. That makes sense. Okay. You know what? I rescind my criticism because you're being consistent. You're being consistent. You are pro-Iranian regime.

So that would make them against human rights, against women's rights. Women's rights, human rights, gay rights, trans rights, any rights. You're against that. Your silence tells us everything. I knew this was going to happen. It was as predictable as the tides.

As the sun rising in the morning, I knew this was going to happen. And I'm so glad you were consistent and you delivered by not delivering, by not delivering. Thank you. Bravo. Yeah. Just a reminder of BAMI, please.

Let's get him back. There we go. Yeah, lean into that sense. Lean into it. Yeah. And now we go to Minnesota, where federal agents use tear gas and eye-irited on activists in Minneapolis. Because they're doing their sweeps.

And, you know, they've apparently student staged walkouts in a suburban school. Minnesota and two mayors are seeking a court order to halt the operation. They're not going to win. Somebody pointed out on social media because they're like, oh, why do these guys have to have tactical uniforms and scare people and show up in big trucks and wear their masks and all this stuff? Maybe because of this stuff. Well, the officer, the ICE officer that was involved in the shooting, a lot of information is coming out about him. And the most recent thing is that his neighbors say they don't really know him. He keeps to himself, which is, you know, that's fine.

But he was at one of these street barbecues a little while a couple of years ago. Yeah, a block party. And they said, so what do you do? And he told everybody that he was a botanist. And now they're outraged that he said that, that he lied about that. And they're like, I can't believe this guy is living here. Oh, my, they're horrified. That's why.

And the guy never bothered you. He's a federal agent. Look, I've heard a number of people point out. that more deportations happened under Obama and under Biden. And people say, well, and they didn't have to have this show of force. I was like, exactly, because of people like you. Because you didn't put up a fight before. You didn't care about these illegal immigrants before because it was a Democrat doing it.

Now that it's a Republican doing it, that's your problem. Your problem is not with the deportations. Your problem is the deportations by Trump. And so these guys have a job to do made harder because of people like this. One more time with Bami, please. It turns out it's not for the listeners, it's for me. I thought you were going to go over a jip-chip to talking Frenchie. Oh, yeah.

Well, we'll get to that one. All right, listen, when we come back, we're going to talk about what can you joke about. Who can joke about what and when? What does top talent really want? Do our tax research tools make us seem outdated? What does top talent really want? How can we stop losing people to our competitors? What does top talent really want?

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this bold and magnetic musical epic tells the story inspired by a true legend, Anne Lee, founder of the radical religious movement, The Shakers, the Testament of Anne Lee. Exclusive Toronto Engagement, January 16th, in theaters everywhere, January 23rd. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. And I'm sure I've told you before that my first job, my first real summer job, was working at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. I did that for three summers.

And I fell in love with the skill and the craft of stand-up comedy. I saw just how hard they work to make it look effortless. And for a long time, comics would get up there and they would figure out where the line was and they would cross it. And we were better for it because on the other side of that line was what you weren't supposed to discuss. And that's where they went. And they discussed it. And we laughed. And from there, that disarmed us.

and allowed us to get comfortable in a place where we are normally uncomfortable. That is to me, I think, the noble pursuit of comedy. And sometimes it's just gutter comedy that's just funny, right? But in all cases, a comic's job is to make you laugh. And if they don't do that, then they should find another line of work. And getting there first as well, like being topical, getting to that joke wondering when the news is changing, and social media sort of demands that

these comics have to work faster than ever before. Mark Norman is at the top of his game right now. And I want to play a joke for you that he wrote pretty quickly after the capture of Nicholas Maduro. How about that Maduro? That was wild, huh? Boy, oh boy, they took him and his wife. You know, he was probably like,

you couldn't just take me? Had him in that cool Nike sweatsuit. I looked like an NBA player, chilling. You know, had the glasses on, Like, Wigan and Bernies? What the fuck was that? Yeah, that was crazy. It's the first time Trump's brought an immigrant into the country.

Yeah. Wouldn't that be funny if we brought him in and ICE was like, hey, get him out of here? I'm like, wait. What about to? I got to get home to my baby. I left him out of Somali daycare. But, yeah. All right.

Okay. You see, come on. Yeah. Okay. So I want you to think about how that joke made you feel. and sit with that. We'll come back to that in a minute because there are people out there

who want to behave like the comedy police. And there is a comedian in the UK named Rosie Jones. And she has a... She's thought long and hard over who can joke about what and when. Let's listen to a little bit of Rosie Jones in her own voice.

Don't worry. I get it. I get it. the combination between the cerebral palsy and the strong Yorkshire accent is a f***-mind feeling. So Rosie Jones is a young, millennial comic out of the UK with cerebral palsy.

and she is taking issue with some pretty heavy hitters with Jimmy Carr and with Ricky Jervase blasting them I can't believe these words are still used like this as privileged cis white straight men

for making jokes about the trans community telling them to shut the F up in an interview with Attitude magazine and then she did us all a kindness thank you Rosie Jones offering us how to joke responsibly. I mean, doesn't that sound like a barrel of laughs?

How to joke responsibly? She asks, these are some questions that you should ask yourself when you're putting a joke together and then telling that joke. Ask yourself who you are. Do you have lived experience or close connection to the subject?

Now, I'm not going to take credit for this, but there was an analysis of this breakdown and the writer suggested, okay, well, yes, Ricky Jervais and Jimmy Carr are not trans women. But trans women were born men, which Ricky and Jimmy are. And he very, I think, on the nose asked, is that a close enough connection for you, Rosie Jones? I asked it rhetorically. Check your intention is step number two. Are you punching up at privilege?

or punching down at marginalized groups. And again, this person who did the analysis said, progressive left-leaning comics don't ever seem to have a problem punching down when it's redneck Trump supporters, right? Yeah. But they do have a problem when it's quote-unquote marginalized groups. And we're going to get to that punching up versus punching down nonsense in a minute. And then here's the last point that Rosie Jones suggests when asking yourself,

how to joke responsibly. Ask why you're telling it. Is it to spark conversation or just to be controversial? And this is my own thought on that. Call me crazy. And this is a pretty hot take. But if you're telling a joke and your priority isn't to make people laugh, like if your priority is to spark conversation or to be controversial,

I don't know that you're in the business of comedy. right if your first priority isn't does this make me laugh and will this make others laugh okay so anyway she's like she argued comedy should aim to make people think not just shock and well let's let's go to ricky sherva's because he's sort of the subject here in in her mind here's what he had to say about punching down comedy should punch up you should never punch down you should never punch down sometimes you've got a punch down like if you're beating up a disabled toddler You know what I mean? If you punch up, you'll miss a little bit and they'll win, you know.

I like that joke because it highlights the difference between metaphorical punching down in jokes and actual punching down. But people nowadays want you to believe that words are actual violence, right? Now, you laughed at a joke about beating up a disabled toddler. No one got hurt. If I'd have actually dragged out a disabled toddler

and started beating him up, you would laugh, right? That's why I dropped that bit. I mean, he's, somebody tell me where he's wrong. Somebody tell me where he's wrong. You see, if you're taking that as a literal thing, oh yeah, you know, it's a hitting the disabled toddler, of course, he's joking. Obviously he's joking and he's trying to make a point.

No, but nobody. But he doesn't have the right to joke about it. That's not his lived experience. Get over it. These are the same people who say, um, only gay actors should play gay rights. roles, right? There's not enough gay roles out there and gay actors should be the ones playing them.

Without thinking that to its logical conclusion, because if you believe that only gay actors should play gay roles, then you must, you must believe that gay actors can only play gay roles. And cannot play straight roles. That's my point. That's, I literally just said that. Yeah. You have to believe that. You cannot believe anything else. and you've got to continue with that. You've got to believe that

roles that were intended for black people can only be played by black people. And acting is gone. Acting is gone. You're not acting anymore. You're not interpreting a role anymore. These people are not following things to their logical conclusion.

And so you may have been offended by Ricky Jervais telling a joke about beating up a disabled toddler. You may. Here's what he has to say about you being offended. That's the thing about offence, isn't it? When people say they're offended, it's just because you're offended, it doesn't mean you're right, you know. It's, offences about feelings and feelings are personal. Some people are offended by equality. So what? You know, so you can't second guess people. If you try and please everyone, you'll please no one. With comedy as well, you've got to, I think you've got to deal with taboos and contentious issues. And sometimes you deal in irony and some people don't get that. But, you know, you can't legislate against stupidity. Otherwise, you'll be doing nothing.

Yeah, I mean, he's, he's, he's, his, his, his take on these sorts of things is so often dead on. And I think, I think he said, like, you saying you're offended is like saying that you're, um, like you, you have a, a pain in your shoulder. It's like, okay, that has nothing to do with me. Like, I'm sorry, it has nothing to do with me. Go, go fix that. That has nothing to do with me. You being offended, it has, it has no bearing on me.

And I had nothing to do with it. Go, as George Costanza once said, stuff your sorries in a sack, mister. I have no time for you. Anyway, when we come back, we're going to open up the phone lines and we're going to ask you, what do you joke about?

Where's the line for you if, in fact, there is even a line? Because for some people, the job of a stand-up comic is to push boundaries and to talk about everything and make us laugh with the things that are most uncomfortable. I want to hear from you. What's funny next on the Ben Mulroney show? In market news, Sam's apartment fund is up 10 points. after significant contributions over the last quarter.

We're projecting a positive outlook for her new one plus den. Invest in what you're really invested in. With custom goals on Scotia Smart Investor, Scotia Bank, you're richer than you think. Who can joke about what and when? According to certain people, you can't punch down. But according to those people's worldview, if you're a cis straight white man, you're at the top of the pyramid. So who can you joke about if everyone is below you?

because technically, according to those people, everything is punching down. So I don't subscribe to that. I want to know what you think. Let's welcome Patrick. Patrick, welcome to the show. I'm good, thanks. How are you? I am awesome. Where are you calling from?

I'm calling from Alberta. Nice. I'm from Airdry, but I'm on my way to Fort McMurray right now. Oh, Airdry. I love Airdry. I took my kids, I took my sons to, where was it, to the Dinosaur Place. You stopped in Aertrie on the way there. Where are all the dinosaur bones?

Is that Drumheller? Drumheller. Yes, I love Drumheller. Oh, it was awesome. Awesome. One of the best trips of my life. Excellent, excellent. So to answer your question regarding what do I joke about?

I joke about everything. Yeah. My motto is this. Like, what makes me laugh doesn't necessarily make you laugh. But if it makes me laugh, I'm a better person for it at the end of the day. Yeah. I mean, look, if people want to be offended, then that's something you have to deal with. At least I want to get back to a world where that's how things were.

And you know, you don't have to listen. And you can also go out there and support comics that don't offend you. There's all sorts of things you can do. You can withhold your attention, withhold your money, and withhold your likes and your clicks against all of those people that you disagree with. You can vote with your feet and vote with your wallet. I mean, there's a lot of power in the individual, and offense doesn't factor into that as far as I'm concerned. That's true, but on the flip side, when you do stuff like that, you truly miss out on the comedy and the laugh. Yeah.

But, hey, that's on you. It is. Hey, thank you so much, my friend. Talk to you soon. Let's go to Lisa. Lisa, welcome to the Ben Mulrooney show. Hi, Ben. So I just wanted to talk about the actor Eric Stone Street, I believe, who played the role of Cameron Tucker on Modern Family.

So he's definitely, I understand, a straight white man. I mean, he brought such magic to that role. He was so outstanding. And if he didn't have the opportunity to bring us that role, like we would have all lost out, I have to say. And look, John Leguizamo, who is a great actor, was upset that James Franco was going to play Fidel Castro. He said because he's not Cuban.

And then somebody pointed out that John Leguizamo who's a great actor, a wonderful actor, he has played all sorts of ethnicities that are not his, right? And so it was this situational hypocrisy that people forget their own lived experience that contravenes their worldview. The hypocrisy falls apart under its own weight

and the danger of segmenting people saying you don't have the lived experience. Actors are not supposed to have lived experience. They're supposed to connect with material. And it has nothing to do with lived experience. And anyway, but you're absolutely right to bring up Cameron Tucker because he's one of the best. My favorite, my favorite line. So Cameron is at school doing a play and his husband brings him his lunch and he says,

I brought you at lunch. She said, what did you make for me? He said, I made you a P, B, and J. He goes, pear, brine, jumbo, my favorite. I know that, I know. That was a very funny role. It is the best line. I love it.

And I have to say, you are so articulate and you're always, like, you always have such a good understanding and, you know, make me think about things. And just, you're so awesome. Thank you for doing this show. Well, thank you. Yeah, bringing your intelligence and common sense to this world badly needed. I hope my brothers and sister heard that. Yeah, well, you could tape it, tape it, and play it for them.

Or they could stream it on the IR Radio app. Lisa, thank you so much. Take care. Okay, have a good day, Ben. Let's go to John. John, are you calling to compliment me on being well-spoken? Well, let's just say, Ben, you're spreading the love and the common sense, and we love you for it. Thank you very much. Thank you. You want to talk about George Carlin?

I was just going to give him a shout out because George Carlin to me was one of the greatest comedians of all time. He could play it straight. He could be controversial. He did it all. And he offended everybody, and yet everybody seemed to love him, and they laughed right along with him. Yeah, I agree. Hey, thank you very much. I love George Carlin.

And he's timeless. He's timeless. And the takes that he had back then are still hot takes today. Scott, welcome to the show. Ben, how are you today? I'm good. I only have about 15 seconds for you, my friend. I'm sorry.

I'll be fast then. So I've got two little girls. and I like to, I have a wide variety of humor, but like I'll watch Seinfeld with them, you know, and like you can have left and right, you get whatever. There's just common sense, it's having a little etiquette, and what would I be proud to teach them? I'm not hiding anything from them either.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah, look, listen, there's stuff that's age appropriate, stuff that's age inappropriate, and there's a time and a place to watch certain things with your kids, and as they get older, they're going to develop their own taste. but thank you very much and thank you to everybody. Don't go anywhere. We're going to keep this conversation going next on the Ben Mulroney show.

What's funny? Who can tell what joke and when? You know, some of the greatest thoughts I've ever heard from anybody has been from stand-up comics. I remember listening to No Cure for Cancer by Dennis Leary, where he was explaining why we as human beings get to determine why some animals are food and others are pets. and it was very funny.

His essential, his conceit was, we were anointed by God with opposable thumbs. That's really what it comes down to. And so we get to determine, and he said, what are you? I'm an otter. And what do you do? I swim on my back and I do human things with my hands.

You're free to go. What are you? I'm a cow. Get on the truck. But I'm an animal. I have rights. You're a catcher's mitt. Get on the truck.

That's funny to me. And then, then there's also some really incisive social commentary. Chris Rock, for example, explained the OJ trial in a way no one else had. And he pointed out it was not about race, it was about fame. Because had OJ not been OJ the football player, had he been a bus driver, he would have been a rental, the bus driving murderer.

And it was all about fame. And I heard him say that, and it changed how I was ingesting all of that information afterwards and all the information I've taken since. I thought it was a really interesting. This is what we get from stand-up comics if they're not afraid to go there. But again, sometimes a joke is just a joke, right? Sometimes you can learn something, and sometimes you learn that you can pee your pants a little bit in public, and it's okay.

Anyway, so we want to hear from you. Let's go to Dwight. Dwight, you saw George Carlin live? Yes, sir. At the Calgary Jubilee Auditorium, saw him twice. Wow. three times, but the first time, early 80s, it hurts so much when we were leaving. We laughed.

So, it was awesome. I loved them. Yeah. So smart, so quick, his commentary. He just, you know, to me, tying in comedy with a little crashing comedy. Oh, no, we lost you, Dwight. I'm sorry, but call back anytime. Danny, welcome to the show.

Good afternoon, Ben. I have to get used to you being in the afternoon. I can't compliment you on your great speaking, melifluous tones, but your hair. Your hair is what I'm most envious of. Thank you. Well, it's mostly fiberglass, a little bit of steel. And there's a underpinning girders just to keep it in place.

It's a feat of engineering, the likes of which we haven't seen since the Hoover Dam. It's a beautiful thing. But two things. My take on comedies, everything goes. There's no rules, no off limits, as dark as you want. It could be about any tragedy, any great thing. It could be child level, adult level. I don't care if it's offensive to others.

It should all be exposed. That's where I'm coming from. And my range is from Dawn Rickles in the past all the way to Ben Bankis, Maria Bamford. And my current favorite is Nick DeSanto. He's an Iranian, Italian living in London. Oh, wow. I bet he's got a lot to say.

Yeah, yeah, very intelligent guy. He was in intelligence. But your previous caller was talking about age appropriate, and it had me laughing. I couldn't believe it. I remember going on a road trip with my family and my mother-in-law. And my daughter was seven. My other one was four. And what's it called?

Borat. Borat showed up on the TV in the hotel room. And we all watched it. The mother-in-law was freaking. Like she couldn't believe it. She was shocked. My little kids were shocked. I could see them and laughing.

To this day, they keep sending me clips of it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and listen, you know, sometimes even the inappropriate stuff, it's fun. On long road trips, with my kids, I'll listen to Sirius XM and we'll listen to, we'll listen to like the comedy channels, a stand-up comedy. And a lot of it is not appropriate. But I look back and I see how fun. My kids know that hearing a bad word doesn't mean they can say it.

laughing at that bad word doesn't mean I ever want them to say it. Even the concepts, the concepts that are exposed to them, they're so abstract and out of the blue and shocking, non-shocking, but it's a way of thinking and that we all talk about the kids don't have resilience today, the younger people. And that's what it is. It's like the ability to confront these types of ideas and then just laugh at off and realize that the world didn't come to an end that you can move on. I think is really critical to their development. I thank you for that. That's a really, really good point.

Thank you, my friend. I appreciate it. And look, there was a time a few years ago where stand-up comics were afraid of going, they just wouldn't go to college campuses anymore. It wasn't worth the risk, right, to try their material out in a place where the intolerance of the tolerant left was in full display, where everything was triggering and everything was offensive and everything was racist. and misogynistic and punching down.

And so they just wouldn't go anymore. It does, I don't know if they're going again, but I'm noticing that there are certain things that are being done again today that was verboten just a few years ago. For example, the comedy of different accents, right? For a while, you couldn't make,

their comics could not do accents because it was offensive and it was stereotypical and it was racist. Now, you could do an Italian accent and you could do a British accent, but you couldn't do a Chinese accent or a Japanese accent because those things were racist, but the other ones, those were okay.

It seems like we're not living in that space anymore and certain stand-ups are going into that area of comedy again. And look, it might not be your cup of tea, in which case, don't listen. And for others, they find it really funny. you know what? The world hasn't ended. As our last college just said, you know, people are doing accents again and the world hasn't

ended, right? And when he stopped doing the accents, racism didn't go away. That didn't solve racism. In fact, it probably didn't solve anything. And so all that performative nonsense is gone, or it's on its way out. It feels to me. And I think we're getting

to a place where things are a little more rational and probably a little funnier. Oh, we got another call from Alberta. John from Calgary. Welcome. Hey Ben, how's it going? I'm going well, thank you. Excellent. So I just wanted to make a point here of the anonymity of social media and people getting all indignant and, you know, can kind of get mad at whatever they want without any repercussions.

And then you have a comedian who bears it all and stands up in front of people and has the courage to broach these subjects in person. Yeah. To get an actual in-person response versus. saying whatever you want and having no consequences because no one knows who you are. No, that's a very good point. They're in the arena, right?

They are the strong man. The weak man is the man who chirps from the cheapseats. By the way, that's what I say, I do. A bald dog behind a fence syndrome. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I've seen that video, right?

Where the two dogs are barking each other to the fence and when the fence opens up, they just look at each other. It's amazing. They get real quiet until the fence closes again. That's a good point, man. Thank you very much.

Looking forward to coming to Calgary in a couple of weeks. All right, who do we have? Oh, Daniel. Daniel, welcome. It's an honor to speak to, Ben. Oh, thank you. I'm a big fan, huge fan. So like I told your producer,

he asked me like what changed it for me or what was like when I saw watching comedy. Yeah. It started with me with SNL and Eddie Murphy, Delirious. My dad used to play Robin Williams for us in the car, stand up on tape. Yeah.

So, you know, I love comedy. Over the years, my favorite. It's, well, one of my favorites was Dave Chappelle, and I'll tell you the minute why he's not anymore. I love now Ricky Jervase for a long time, Bill Burr, Matt Rife. I don't know if you know who he is. He does crowd work. Matt Rife is very good, yeah. Yeah, very good.

You know, they say Kumail Nanjiani's new stand-up special has been hailed as the best comedy special of the year. Came out at the end of last year, and I've watched it. He's so good. I love his comedy. Love it. Thank you. I'm going to watch it tonight. I just wanted to say one thing.

about the, so I used to love Chappelle. I actually saw him when he came back from obscurity, right, at Matthew Hall. I had great seats in front of Samuel Jackson, actually, my friend for my birthday. But now I don't watch him anymore because I just find that him and Jimmy Kimmel is also one of them, I don't find it comedy anymore. I just find them ranting and raving. It's almost like a lecture they're giving instead of actually putting forth the jokes that they've written.

I don't know how to explain it. That's how I feel. And one last thing. But by the way, by the way, you know what? You have every right to not like it. If it doesn't land with you, it doesn't land with you. But you don't strike me as a type of person who's going to go out of his way to try to do everything you can to make sure that he can't tell his jokes.

No, not at all. It's comedy subjective. Everybody should watch whatever they want. You don't like it. Don't watch it. And one last thing, Ben, you said, in terms of people that comedians have to stand up in the college campuses. Well, you know who stopped going on college campuses? It was Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Carolla.

And last year, Jerry Seinfeld did a show on. Australia. I don't know if you've seen this clip before where a protester, I won't say, well, from what movement started heckling him? And he basically said, you're in the wrong place. If I went to Australia Rules rugby game and did what you did, they would throw me out. You're just in the wrong place, and not only that, but you're

giving them some money to somebody who's, you're protesting against. Yeah, exactly. Oh, I saw that clip. I did. Hey, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Yeah, look, you don't, you know, you once like Dave Chappelle, you don't like Dave Chappelle anymore. You want your comedy to be lighter. You go find Kevin Hart.

Kevin Hart makes me laugh doing absolutely nothing. He is the biggest comics in the world. And then you've got Russell Peters. Russell Peters does accents, right? Now, maybe he's allowed to do accents because he looks a certain way. I don't say, if he can do it, anybody can do it as far as I'm concerned. I bet you he'd say the same thing. I love Russell Peters.

A good friend of mine. And his ability to nail the nuance of different racial communities in a place like Toronto. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. So good on. Hey, we've got time for a couple more calls. So let's take Ian. I think Ian's been waiting a long time. Ian, welcome. Hey, Ben. I don't know what else to compliment you. You've had your hair complimented and everything else today. So I don't know what else to say other than you got a great show, bud. Well, thank you, what kind of comedy tickles your fancy? Yeah, so I went, I actually found these guys on YouTube. They're called the Hodge twins.

They're also called the conservative twins. And I'm sure you can tell what kind of style of comedy they have with that name. But they started off actually as YouTubers with exercise videos. They're ex-marines. And then they started taking all these videos and they would dissect them and they'd add their commentary and make jokes and everything else about them. And then after they started doing that, they actually went on tour. And so my buddy and I picked them up in Buffalo, New York, and we drove down to Toledo, Ohio. and we went and saw these guys

and man, it was hilarious. And yeah, I got to tell you, I think that's kind of where the new generation of comedy is actually coming from. It's different strokes for different folks, right? Like, you get to like what you want, and that's the glory of social media. That's what it does well.

It's going to, the algorithm will help you find what makes you laugh. And that's great. That's great. Which means all of these comics, even if they're niche and they're very specific, they will find their audience. And that's a really, really good thing.

And you can tell, by that audience, they hit their audience. 100%. There you go. Hey, thanks so much, man. I appreciate it. Take care. All right, let's, we got Doug from, I know, another call from Calgary. Yeah, but we have a couple of, some

people have pointed out some other comedians that really influenced them, like Joan Rivers. Don Rickles. Come on, Don Rickles. Yeah, of course. I knew Joan Rivers very well. Did you? I knew her very well. First of all, we were next to each other on the Oscar Red Carpet for years, and then she became friends with my mom. And so

we spent a lot of time together. She was amazing. She was a force of nature that woman. I love it. Yeah. Somebody also wrote, George Carlin and the family said, there are two knobs on the radio. One turns it down. The other changes the channel. Yeah. I mean, you can do, do you have that power? But there's a third knob

on the radio. Oh, that's me. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Okay, real quick, Doug, welcome the show. Hey, yeah, I got to get back to George Carlin. Yeah. I was, well, I moved like your dad's age, so I was listening to him back to the 60s and 70s. And he defined politically and correct

comedy. Yeah, he did. But there's seven words you can't say on the radio and that kind of thing. It's still as fresh today as it was then, Doug. Thank you so much. Thanks to everybody. That was a great, great conversation. Hey, the world is changing from the misuse of AI and the rise of deepfakes to the dangerous spread of misinformation. It's getting harder for Canadians to separate fact from fiction. That's why having a trustworthy news source is vital. At global news, we're committed to objective journalism that cuts through the noise.

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