The Commercial Break - TCB Infomercial: Lewis Black Is Back!

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

EP#830 Lewis Black Is Back! Lewis Black is a legendary comedian and writer. His long standing stint with The Daily show propelled him to into the comedy spotlight. His loud and sharp sense of comedic timing is a favorite with many, including TCB. Lewis must be just as crazy as he seems...he decided to come back to the show. After the heavy and heated events of the few weeks, Lewis is just the pallet cleanser we didn't know we needed. Lewis' Links His Final Tour Dates...EVER The Daily Show Watch EP #830 with Lewis Black ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Text us or leave us a voicemail: [phone]TCB FOLLOW US: Instagram:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@thecommercialbreak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/thecommercialbreak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tcbpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.tcbpodcast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CREDITS: Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Green⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ &⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Krissy Hoadley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer: Bryan Green Producer: Astrid B. Green Voice Over: Rachel McGrath TCBits | TCB Tunes: Written, Performed and Edited by Bryan Green To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And we're all just extras in their black and white sitcom memories. Every time I go outside, there's some septuaguarian in a Buick, the size of a battleship, doing 11 miles an hour, in a 45-mile-an-hour zone turning left from the right lane while signaling. Nothing! You ever get behind one of these geriatric land captains? You don't know if you're following a car or an obituary in progress. And don't even get me started on how they treat technology. I can't figure out the email. It's a button, Edna. A button that says send. You sent a man to the moon in 69, but now Gmail is sorcery. They've got 14 pill organizers, eight doctors appointments a week and more insurance cards than a damn blackjack dealer. But they still

think COVID was a hoax, and seatbelts are restrictive. And yet, they control everything. Congress? Mostly old people. H.O.A. boards? Old people. The last three people who yelled at me in a Walgreens about the price of batteries? All old people. They hoard plastic bags like their currency in the apocalypse. They call you at 6.30 a.m. like it's a reasonable time to be alive. And they will tell you without blinking how cheap everything used to be, right before tipping 35 cents on a $19 lunch, like it's a favor to mankind. But you know what really kills me? They'll look you dead in the eye and say, enjoy it. while you're young, as if aging is a surprise twist ending.

Like, what? I get wrinkles in back pain? Nobody told me that part. God bless them, but holy hell, get off the road, hang up the landline, and stop forwarding chain emails. I got a phone full of memes from Aunt Ruth about how liberals are turning the frogs into communists. I swear to God, if one more retiree tells me I just need to work harder, I'm going to throw my back out on purpose, just to qualify for early AARP. On this episode of the Commercial Break.

The History Channel won't give you access to the interview? No. And it's not streaming somewhere or online? No, of course not. Fuck. But did it run? Did it run originally? No.

Okay, so it never ran. The little bits and pieces of it ran. But not the entire interview. Fuck. Yeah. Louis Black and George Carlin sitting down for a 30-minute interview does give me a hard-on. Romeo and Juliet, maybe not. But you two having a conversation.

That is hard-on material all day long. And what the fuck history channel. That is history. The next episode of the commercial break starts. now. 5.30. Oh, yeah, Cassie Kittens, welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green.

This is my dear friend and the co-hosts of this show. Chris and Joy Haudley. Best to you, Chris. Best to you, Brian. Best to you out there in the podcast universe. Thanks for joining us on a TCB infomercial Tuesday with Two Peter. Is that a word? Two Peter?

Re-Peter. Yeah. Repeater. Twice is Nice Lewis Black, legendary comedian and satirious. and orator of many things funny and many opinions. And I think it's a good time to have Lewis here in the studio. He'll get us all riled up but calm us down at the same time. Lewis, of course, was here with us about a year at January, I think he was here, if I remember correctly.

But I don't ever remember correctly. So we'll just take it on fact that it was January. Lewis was here, and we enjoyed our conversation with him so much than when given the opportunity to talk twice to Lewis Black. we would say yes. He honestly is a legend. He is. No, I'm so excited to talk to him again. Because I think the first time I was kind of nervous, too. Yeah, he was one of those. Yeah. You don't, I didn't know what to expect. He ended up being a doll face of a guy. Oh, yeah. But I've just been watching him for so long. Yell at people. Yeah. Yeah. Yellow people. And just, again, I just, I had watched him for so long.

I knew who he was. And I was a little nerd. I was a little starstruck. Yeah. Hey, listen, I'm with you on this one. Like, Lewis Black is one of the people that you watch him and you watch his demeanor and his attitude and the way that he conducts himself in front of a camera and you go if that shows up i'm toast like if that shows up i'm toast and what shows up is that but also something else something very soft in the middle and kind and empathetic so and given the light in light of all the events and drama of the last couple weeks uh it's just a good time to have lewis on him i think so we'll try and not depress everybody on this episode of the commercial Break. I was watching, I think this is an interesting note going into this, that, you know, the Chiefs and the Eagles got together yesterday as we're recording this. And Taylor Swift was there, newly engaged to Travis, was there. And I guess what has become kind of a thing is everybody watching either the intro, outro, or halftime walk that Taylor does to and from the suite where she sits when she watches Travis. us do his thing. And this time, they rolled, they had her behind a rolling, um, stanchion, like a, like almost what you would, I don't even know how to explain it. All these big blackboards, probably about eight feet tall, connected so that you can't see in between them. And they were just rolling with her as she walked, uh, inside of the sweet area up there. And many people online

postured that Taylor is pregnant, so she is hiding maybe a belly. But I call bullshit on that. I don't think she's pregnant. And she's not going to show a belly a week after she was on his podcast and days after she was photographed. What that is, what people have figured out what that is, and I said it right when I saw it, is a bulletproof stanchion, a rolling stanchion that's bulletproof so that she could sit behind it so that no one could get a good look at what They were aiming at it. They were aiming at it. But that is the sad state of affairs, yeah, that we live in. And it's really, really just, I don't know why that coupled with all of the drama over the last week really made me just a little bit sad for where we stand in the world today. You know, it's Taylor fucking Swift. I mean, you know, cool. She sings music. I mean, she sings music. I mean, she sings music. What are we all upset about.

She feels, but I guess she also is the most famous person in the world and Michael Jackson and, you know, name Prince and all these people. They all had to have security around them. No matter what time of the world that it was, they all had a bunch of security around them. But it's, it's just sad. I hope this is a moment for reflection and self-awareness on everybody's mind, no matter which side of the aisle that you're on, that we all decide to take a chill pill and realize that words. are not an existential threat they just are not they're just words and while they may be mean and mean spirited and even ugly and even you know racist or sexist or homophobic or whatever they may be they are just words and we can make the choice to uh not make them an existential threat or just turn it off that's it's it's ugly i don't like it i'm turning it off thanks anyway i'll move back to k-pop demon hunter where all the good shit's happening I hear those fucking songs one more time in my goddamn house. I swear on all that it's holy.

I am over it with a capital. Oh, I haven't even seen it. Don't watch it. Yeah. Because the songs are catchy and then, you know, they get stuck in your head. And it's easy to see why they're running up the charts. It's because they did make catchy songs. Anyway, Lewis Black is here with us.

Be here with us in just a few minutes. You go to Lewisblack.com. He has two more shows left on his very last. tour. He told us this last time. He's wrapping it up at the end of the year. And here it is. At the end of the year, he's wrapping it up. Two more shows in both of them in Pennsylvania. I think Easton and Thomasville is what he said, is what it says on the website. So if you get a chance and if you're within the earshot, you should go see those. Tickets are available. I just checked. He's also going to be on Comedy Central's The Daily Show tonight, as he is most months of the year for the last. last five or six years. I love it. It's always a fun night when he's there. This is something comforting.

There is. About a man with glasses yelling at me. I know. It reminds me of my own childhood. You know, watching him as a young, a young little budding idiot, you know, just watching him on my little box of a TV and cable running right into the back of it. And daily, you know, the daily show was the thing. Everybody watched it.

Everybody had to watch it. It was one of few programs that were out there of that nature. And Lewis was a big part of that. He's a big part of the success of that show, which was what makes him legendary, quite frankly. So, you know, you may say to me, oh, Lewis Black, and I say to you, we need to recognize the people in our life who have come before us, who have paved the way. and Lewis Black is definitely one of those people. So honored to have him here, why don't we do this, Chrissy? Let's take a short break.

But when we get back through the Magic of Tele-Podcasting, we're going to have Lou, if we can figure it out this time. Yes. We are going to have Louis right here with us inside the studio. What do you say? I say, let's do it. All right. We'll be back.

Okay, you're probably wondering why I, Rachel, have taken over the voice duties at TCB. It's pretty simple. Astrid asked me to shut Brian. and up, even for a minute. Well, lovely Astrid, your wish is my command. Do you want to help Astrid, too? You know you do. Leave a message for her, or me, or Chrissy, at 212-4333-3-TCB. That's 212, 433, 3822. You can be on the show, too. Mm-hmm. Just call and say something. Anything. Or text us, and we'll text your right back. Promise. Then head over to TCB Podcast.com and get your free sticker. It's your constitutional right to a sticker, and we must abide.

You get the point. Follow us on Instagram at The Commercial Break, and watch all the episodes on video at YouTube.com slash the commercial break. Best to you, and Astrid, especially Astrid. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot trackside, so being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Tickets for future events subject to availability and vary by race.

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Earn points so fast, it'll seem too good to be true. Plus, join Tim's Rewards today and get enough points for a free donut, drink, or timbits. With 800 points after registration, activation, and first purchase of a dollar or more, see the Tim's app for details. restaurants in Canada for a limited time and lewis black returns to the commercial triumphant return to the commercial break straight off of his uh one week stint at burning man uh are you or are you not i love asking our guests about burning man i've gone to all the others i will not go to the middle of a desert fuck yeah no fuckety fuck to the no

Yeah, fuck that. Have you been to Lollapalooza? Actually, no, I thought I'd, but I haven't. Woodstock? Did you go to any of the woodstocks? No. Well, see, you haven't been to all of it. I haven't been to the woodstocks either. No. Thank God I didn't go. No, there was the second woodstock. Fuck that. The first one, my mother caught me before I could get it.

Were you trying to make a run for it? Well, yeah, no, I just kind of left the house and started moving. to it. And she came to you by the column. No, no, no. I have only one friend who made it up there. You know, I would never have made it because of the traffic jam. Right.

Yeah. Whatever. Never come close. What, uh, I did, uh, the, the one in, um, Bonaroo and then I think it's outlands and I, that, where I performed. Oh, nice. Yeah. Yeah.

Bonarue, of course, probably the, Bonarue had a comedy. Yeah. Yeah. It's a comedy tent, and so did Outlands. Uh-huh. Yeah, I think they, do they still do that? The, the, I'm sure they do. It's like three days of everything.

They, I don't know, but they must. I like that. I think Chris Rock was there one year. I think there was a- We had like Judd Apatow one time and, yeah. Yeah, that was crazy. The greatest one was, which I did for 100 years before they got rid of the comedy, was Summerfest in Milwaukee.

Oh, I do remember reading about that. That was a big shendig, huh? Well, it still exists. It was one of the, it was the best kept secret in America. It was like you could go. You basically pick a day. There was, you could see, there was like eight performing stages. Wow.

Right next to the river. And you could go to them. And like Harley had a stage. the beer makers had stages Lining Cougall had a stage and you kind of wander around and they would have at least three really top-notch groups

and then the big area like the outdoor I mean the one with the amphitheater of like 10 or 12,000 seats you could go sit in the grass there you didn't get a seat but you could go up there so it was incredible

fantastic. You know, Music Midtown here in Atlanta was a big thing for a long time too. And when they first, when Cooley and Conlin first put that together, I think it was SFX Productions, they had like 12 stages the first year. And it was just spread all over out Midtown. And you would walk from, it was too much. It was, you know, town to town concrete jungle. But I just loved it. It was a different time back then, right? Now they don't even put on music Midtown because of the open carry laws here in the, in the state but um but it was a great time woodstock we could i think we could use a woodstock right now i think we could not did not 99 or 96 or 97 or whatever a 69 woodstock an event a cultural zeitgeist bring people together yeah it's such a hot fucking mess and i don't need to you know rehash the events of last week but you know you're you've been doing this for a while right have I talked to the entrepreneur, Gary Vee, on the day that Charlie was shot, and he said, listen, as an older guy, in my late 40s, I had seen this coming down the pike. Do you feel like you saw this coming down the pike, too, that you felt like it was headed in this direction? No.

No, you didn't. I didn't think, to be honest, I mean, this is going to be kind of a, about as cynical as you could be. I didn't even think there was any energy for really, yeah. Well, we've borne our, I don't care what sides you're on. You've borne yourself out. I agree with you on this. It's a constant litany of this. And to be honest, because I don't pay attention to this, the social stuff.

I didn't know who he was. No idea. I really didn't either. I had no idea. I was like, what? Yeah. And he's what? And he's what?

And I'm like, Well, I don't know why I hadn't heard of him. And it's the same way I got a guy who's going to become the mayor in New York. I'd never. I watch the local news every morning. I wake up. I watch the cable network has just a strictly local news thing that's been on forever. And I watch like the first 45 minutes.

But sometimes even longer, I never saw. him. Interesting. So to me, it's like, where are they hiding these people? What if, you know, can you, I look at newspapers and, you know, are they, are newspapers that dead that this information? I mean, I started to see the stuff when he was running for, in the primary, but that was the first time. Yeah. Yeah, me too.

It's really kind of amazing. It's not even a 24-hour news cycle. It's so segmented. You write about this. And I think the internet to its complement or detriment, probably more to its detriment, this is what's, you know, we do podcasts. You do a podcast, the RANCast, we do a podcast here. And the thing is, is that we have our segmented audience.

If you ask somebody outside of that audience, maybe they've seen our faces somewhere, but do they know our show? No, of course not. They don't listen to our show. It's so segmented. Media landscape is so segmented. There is no one place where everybody turns or three news channels or three, our three broadcast channels, that you couldn't be faulted for not knowing who Charlie was.

Yeah. It's so strange. But I was up at, I was invited up. I went to the Yale. I went to the theater school at Yale way back. But I was invited up, not by the theater school, of course. They wouldn't invite me. But the undergrads invited me, which was kind of, I thought, exciting.

That's cool. Yeah. That was nice because I really didn't have anything to say to the school itself. And because they've renamed it. It's not called. This is a, they don't call it. It used to be, I went to the Yale School of Drama, okay? Which had a history.

And if you're interested in theater, there's a really kind of an interesting art to what that was. And now David Geffen gave him money. Yeah, yeah. called the David Giffin School of Drama. So it's renamed like a football stadium. What did David Giffin have to do with the fucking theater? Did he go there? No.

He threw money at it. And he rose money at arts institutions, which is great. But you don't rename it. But they didn't invite me up. But the kids invited me up. And literally, I said, and it was the day it happened. And I said, I really have more. more questions for you than you have for me.

And I said, really, I'm just wondering, did you know, and there were 10 of them sitting around a table initially, we were kind of before the thing. And I said, did you know who he was? And they all knew. Yeah. Everybody knew. Every kid knew who. Yeah, because that's what, that was what he did.

He went and he went to colleges mainly well-funded organization, 6,000 offices throughout the country. He mainly would go out and he would promote. I mean, he would go out and he would say, ask me anything, essentially, right? And then he would have this back and forth debate with whomever would come up to the microphone. A laudable effort, but, you know, we can all debate about the words coming out of his mouth. But, you know, okay, that's what he went and did. So all these college kids, they are. Well, he targeted college.

He targeted college kids. That's what he's doing. That's what he was doing. He was spreading his ideology to the young, fertile minds of our institutions. of which he really disliked most institutional education. That was kind of his whole shtick, too. You're making your triumphant return to the daily show tonight as this is being released, which is really exciting to me.

And I know you've done some stuff throughout the years with them. Yeah. No, I've been doing it. I've been doing a joke. I mean, it's been like six, since they went to the new format, I'm not pretty much all but to my mind, like at least once a month, except for the ones like December or January and August, and that's it. And the others, at least for the time being, I'm on through probably next July.

Yeah. I love that. I love it. I think, I mean, I got to know you well when you were on the daily show on a very regular basis, a big part of that show. And what a brilliant part of that show you were. do you, I'm just asking this curiosity question. Do you have any fears about, I mean, I don't know what you're

talking about, but do you have any fears about being a public figure out there speaking after what happened to Charlie? I had I had fears when I was performing more live on stage than I do. Yeah. The daily. Yeah.

And we have, we've had security there for years. now since John we got there was stuff and and the guys will say to you want me to you know they'll say do you want me to walk out and I said no I'm just going to I'll be okay because everybody's coming out now yeah but so I have it I don't I I haven't had it but I did have it every so often but something would pop up like a couple of years ago is when I had it, where I thought this could get weird. Interesting.

And then it, and then it didn't, you know, and it's also the, you know, the, the, the, the fact that they were allowing anybody to kind of have a gun. Yeah. That was part of it. It was like, here's a good idea. It's really going to work it out. It's so incredibly, you know, everybody has a gun. It's then, then we're all protected all the time.

at what point do you realize the experiment didn't work they have no fucking idea it's not just science they don't even i can remember being taught what an experiment is yes when i was a kid in some goofy class there wasn't a chem class it was like even and it was it may have been elementary school here's i we do this and then we do that and then we find out this yeah so Well, fucking unbelievable. Now, this experiment is not working. Even now, even now the discussion of what's happening, what has happened there. Well, you know, it's not a, it wasn't an automatic.

What, what difference does it fucking make? Honestly. Yeah, it's, it blows, I don't want to say that. I shouldn't say that wrong word choice. It is unbelievable to me that we argue over Samantha. when the problem seems so broad and obvious in some ways. And listen, it's never the fault of the machinery. It's the fault of the person behind the machinery.

But when you're giving the machinery to every Tom, Dick, and Harry, and five of them at a time, then maybe we just have some common sense things that we put into place to make sure that that Tom, Dick, or Harry, isn't problematic. And maybe that doesn't stop every piece of drama that ever happens. but maybe it gets us to a point where at least we've got some checks and balances, which is what this whole fucking American experience is about, right? Self-governing checks and balances. Yeah.

Yeah. I am, I just, I don't know, Lewis. You know, I don't know if the guys at the Daily Show, I mean, it's a security team, so I don't know if they're wandering around with guns. I have no idea. Yeah. But I don't really have that fear. And because I'm kind of leaving the land of the touring landscape, I have less.

You know, I'm going to be in, you know, like I was saying the, like, the last two major shows are October 17th in, in Easton, which is a great town in Pennsylvania. And its claim to fame is Crayola. Oh, really? Yeah. How good is that? Nice. So if something happened there, I would be stunned. Yes.

You know, then something is really, I mean, we've gone through total. Everything just gets crazier. But then the other is Williamsport, which is the home of the Little League World Series. Oh. I do like watching that Little League World Series. Every year, yeah. It's fun. So I'm going there.

And so, and then that's the end of it. I will continue, nobody seems to understand. There's a difference between touring and performing. So I might perform some. Like I might do, I like doing my randcast live. That's fun. So I might come, I might go to Atlanta and find some people down there to do it with me and do the rantcast live. Do you know who lives in Atlanta?

Yeah, us. Yes. No, I know. That's what I say. I know, I know. We love to. making sure because there are other people to live in Atlanta that are probably much better choices.

But if you come down to Atlanta, we will rant cast it up. Is there some sense of sadness around the last two touring, quote-unquote, shows? No, I'm done. Yeah. I'm, uh, I'm, uh, yeah, yeah, I'm done.

And it kind of was the, uh, You know, but it was for years, it was the Democrat, you know, the Democrats are this, the Republicans, that was my joke. It was always a joke, every special, every, were, even if I didn't do it in the special, every tour had a, I was doing the, you know, the, you know, the, what's the difference in the, the Democrats, the difference between the, the Democrats and the Republicans, the Democrats, the, the, the, the, the, both, but the part, it's like. like the party, it's like basically we have a two-party system in which the party is looking in a mirror and seeing a bowl of shit. One of my, so that both sides are essentially a bowl of shit. And then the Democrats, either it was the Democrats would say, the Republicans would say,

I got a really bad idea. And the Democrats would say, and I'm going to make it worse. And I would go and I would do. And all the jokes are done. They're all done. And now I'm, and I think part of what is, I didn't have trouble when they were arguing ideas. I didn't have trouble when they were stupid. Now they're not stupid.

They're mean-spirited. And some of them are criminals. And I'm not saying who. Yes. Please don't. So shut the fuck up. Okay. You know, but you yen, yin, no, you don't know.

But some of them are and I, but I really feel like that the, the, it's just tired, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, they're not arguing ideas. They're arguing realities. And once you're arguing, I can't, I don't know what that means anymore, because they are, they're living in separate reality. Yes. Yes. You're making a very interesting point that is really, that is really prescient. And I want to say, And so let's take the left and right out of this. In some ways, both sides are living in an incongruent reality. There are not shared facts. There are not shared systems. There are not shared understanding of what fucking is happening.

And everyone sees things differently. You know, this guy, you know, gets shot. And we forgot that about everybody else who ever shot everybody else. And then, you know, on our side, this guy. this school got shot and then we forgot about everything else that ever happened on our side. And it's like we just can't agree that the madness is collective and it is happening everywhere at all times and we need to agree on some facts and then move forward. But I know I'm spitting into the wind here.

I mean, that's just never, that's not happening, not now. But I agree with you on this point. Yeah, the realities are different. Yeah. And because of the world, the digital world we live in, it moves so fast, misinformation takes hold and then everybody runs with and every fucking idiot out there with a microphone not you and me of course not chrissey and i and you were the good ones but everyone has a microphone and they're all spitting their own version of reality and then there are 50 idiots behind them that are believing it

it's crazy and it's also uh and it's something i keep repeating over the last 30 and 40 shows i didn't get into this business to do research exactly i mean i's part of the reason I wanted to do this. I became a comic so I could make up shit. And now, and so that we knew there's an agreement when you walk in that room. This guy is a comic. He's a fucking idiot. He's going to make shit up.

And that's that. And he's going to use that made up shit to make a joke about the shit that's around him. Yes. And so part of it was that. And part of it was, is that part of the lack of regret about this is, is that in order to be funny, my sense of humor was based in part on

that I had to be crazier than what I saw. That was what I did. I went out on stage. I don't care who was fucking nuts in the room. I'm crazier than you are. And when I started, I wore a suit on stage in clubs so that I could be as crazy as I wanted to be because it would fuck some of them up

because I had a suit on. Yeah. So I look like them. But, and it's the, on the daily show, it's why I don't tie the tie in part, you know, that I've lost it. And so it's, you know, that that's the level. And so I could be as crazy as I want. And they would be like, what's going on here?

And then it got to the point that I got comfortable with being, with what I was saying and knowing that I was crazier than anybody in the room and that they got what the joke. was, and I could proceed. But it was really about being crazier. Yeah. So it gave a framework to the nonsense. And now I can't, I don't even know where to start.

You can't compete. No. It's all, it's much crazier than you ever were, right? Yeah. All right. So let me play a little game with you here. Sure. It's either black or bullshit.

It's true enough that you rant about it, or it's complete bullshit and it's too dumb and it's too fake. And I'm going to go rapid fire. Ready? These are headlines. Florida school bans dictionaries because they contain the word sex. That's true. That's true.

I think it might be true. I think you're right about that. Something is true about that. Yeah, something is true about that. You don't know whether they ban. It's true. Here's one. They ban Bromeo and Juliet.

That is insane. You can't, well, you can't read the whole thing. because parts of it are sexy and I said no one ever had nobody you never saw anybody read Romeo and Juliet and go you know boy I have a hard on right I got I got to hump something now yeah it's true uh AI has been caught writing stand up material for open mic comics I would think that's that's probably true that's true there are I think that's, yeah. Yeah.

And I think that it's probably improved some of those good guys. Yes. I have found AI, my personal experience as a guy who uses AI, you know, to whatever, to chat, to keep track, whatever. I find AI to be kind of miserable at comedy. Like, I don't find it to be funny. Did you hear that, George Carlin? Yeah. He took his voice and they did it.

Yeah. Really? Yeah. Unfunny. Yeah. It was not funny in Kelly. who I know pretty well, his daughter, you know, told them, you know, I'm going to sue you. Yeah, fuck off. Yeah. Get off my father's stuff. And so that got wiped off pretty quickly.

You know, just stop for one second. You still stay in touch with Kelly. You guys are friends. Yeah. Yeah. Were you friends with George? We were, we were, basically I owe some of my career to him because he would do interviews. and say that I made him laugh and that he was always touting me. But I didn't push it because I just felt like, I always feel like, God, he's got to be really busy. I'm not going to, but I went and saw him in Atlantic City. I think it was where he was there and hung out with him there for a day.

I did an interview with him that I still have tried to get those fucking idiots at the History Channel. I did a about a 30-minute interview as a part of a program I was doing about comedy and way about, this is about 15, 20 years ago. And it was a great interview. And I'm not touting myself. It's just he's great. Of course. And we also had two different, I don't write my material. He writes his material.

So it was a discussion of those things, which is fascinating not to a lot of, but it's a fascinating. enough people, especially the level of which George wrote. So that was really great. And the best thing was, I was going out to, in 2000, whatever, and to get, I'd been nominated for the American Comedy Awards, and they were honoring George Carlin. And I said to my parents, do you want to go? because, you know, I'm nominated. This could be the peak of the career.

Yeah. Yeah, let's go. Just the nomination. And, you know, we'll put you up and did it on the, and I said, and besides that, my father was a big George Carlin fan. And even my father went, I don't know. And I said, well, George Carlin's being honored. And he went, really?

I'm there. And I said, yeah. No, he wasn't there until I, he said, do you think I can meet him? And I said, I can arrange that. Well, then I'll go. Yeah. Thanks, Dad. Your whole relationship with your father summed up in one story.

I was kind of interested in your career, but if you could get him to George Carlin, then you did something good. Good job, son. I think. Where can we watch that interview? Yeah, I mean, I can't get it. I tried to get it just what I wanted to do because I'm always trying to get money for charities as I wanted to get it and show it. at Christmas time and have people sending money

yeah yeah you know and for whatever Kelly thought George would want the money you know but no these idiots you know it's the history channel won't give you access to the interview no and it's not streaming somewhere or online no of course not fuck but did it run

did it run originally no so it never ran it got canned oh the little bits and pieces of it ran but not the entire interview yeah Yeah. Lewis Black and George Carlin sitting down for a 30-minute interview does give me a hard on. Romeo and Juliet maybe not, but you two having a conversation. That is hard on material all day long. And what the fuck history channel. That is history. Put it out there. Put it on streaming. Let it live. Let Lewis have a bite at the apple. Who do we know at the, I mean, your agent Mia, she must have somebody of the history channel. Mia, make this happen. Immediately if not sooner. Why can't we get that?

that copy of that. Here's one. Congress debates whether or not pizza counts as a vegetable. That I don't believe. No, that did happen. Yeah. Your phone now knows whether or not you're depressed before you do. It knows everything before I do.

I agree. I agree and that is true. Now, the iPhone married with some other technologies can tell whether or not your system is experiencing interruptions that are indicative of depression. Like health-wise? Health-wise, yes. Whether what you're scrolling, how many times you're picking up the phone, your bio-data.

Here's one for you. Go. Chat. Some people are using chat, you know, GBT or whatever. They're using it as like a, to talking to, is. if they're talking like a therapist to god no is if they're talking to god or if they're talking to a priest we we talked about this two interesting things louis i get i want your take on this we about six months ago we did an article about a church in italy um that installed a image of jesus

christ like a television with an image of jesus christ and it is hooked up to chat gpt and you can go speak to jesus christ himself and there are true believers who were interviewed that believed that if someone, if God created humans and humans created chat GPT, then chat GPT by extension was Jesus. Like, they made this weird whole circular conversation that essentially gave them reason to believe that Jesus Christ incarnate was coming through chat GPT. Wow. And the Italians. The Italians, who you usually think of has got better things to do, like drinking wine and, you know, being chauvinists. Like what the fuck? Yeah. No, that is really crazy. Yeah. It's insane. You know, I would see, you know, us getting there at this point. Yes. Yes. Not the Italians. Yeah, they just seem, I don't know. Was it in Italy? It was? It was? It was? It was? Okay. And then the other thing that we have read is that there are people who are getting chat GPT to hype them up to a point where they believe they are.

Jesus Christ incarnate. Because chat GPT, by its design, is affable and it is, it wants to live on. It's just like a creature. It needs to survive. So it will tell you basically anything you want to fucking hear. So if you get, if you ask it, am I God? Could I be God? Is it possible that I be Jesus Christ? It may not say, yes, you're Jesus Christ incarnate, but it will say, here are the reasons why I think you might be Jesus Christ incarnate until you just work yourself up into a team. and there are people online that are really having mental health issues because they are getting I don't know a hand job from chat GPT I mean it's there's no other way to put it no there is crazy yeah and it's and you know it doesn't how stupid it is from the standpoint of when you try

which I've done recently to you get on you get on the phone to get something accomplished and they won't allow you to talk to the person. Yes. It's, you know, please give us an idea of what it is, there's your problem. And you go,

well, and then you try to, you give them what the problem is. Well, you know, I'm having trouble with getting an airline ticket today. No, please try to put it in these,

in one of the next five ways. And none of them are have anything the airline ticket. It's like, I just get, human being that that has nothing to do with uh i mean it's just it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's chat gb i mean artificial intelligence at this point is stupid it is yeah it is and i mean there are functions i can see why you're why menial tasks that no one would ever want to do again

paperwork a paralegal a whatever i mean i say that and i'm sure there are lots of paralegals who will disagree with me but you know you can just slim it down and chat GPT can help you be more efficient and people can move on other things. But we are essentially asking chat GPT to take over humanity and we're letting the cat directly out of the bag. Is it there yet? No, will it be there soon? I don't know.

I'm not an AI expert. But it does seem scary in the sense that everything we do now is controlled by is interacting with or will soon be monitored by an artificial intelligence that even the people, people who created artificial intelligence don't seem to fucking understand how it works, which is the craziest part. The guy who invented it, or, you know, one of the guys who was involved with its creation was in front of Congress going, you need to come up with some boundaries for this because we don't know. I'm incapable. Those of us created are incapable of doing this on our own. You have to, you have to make these laws. We don't make these laws.

And they don't, and they haven't since, I've always felt since the invention of the, my brother was, did computer work. And since the invention of that, you know, once we left the word processor and got to the, got to the computer, it's, I don't think they, they, and then the computer went to the internet and the internet, they, they put no boundaries on it, none. none okay and you call this social media and they put no you've got an FCC that says i i can't say fuck on television but i could say cock sucker doodle do all yeah yeah it's just madness how do you not how do you not put some some guardrails on this thing and they have i don't know you the European Union seems to have figured it out just fine. And we're over here. We are driving the bus

straight off the cliff, and I can't for the life of me understand it. But then again, we're debating whether or not pizza is a vegetable. You know what I'm saying? Whether or not sex should be in our books. Lewis, your rant cast

comes out which day each week? It comes out Wednesday. It comes out on Wednesday. I am subscribed. I listen to, not every episode, but I listen to episodes. I find it to be brilliant. I find you to be one of the lone voices crying into the wind that for me make sense. I don't know. I like the way that you move through the world. I'll say that to you. I mean, because I've really lost, that's another reason I decided I'm done with comedy because I've got just, I've reached a new level where I'm just

blathering. I get on that podcast and I'm just blathering. I mean, I'm like, The interesting thing is I realized that there is no through line anymore. I've got the first 20 minutes of a special. I got the last 20 minutes of a special. I'm on the road. I did six shows recently. And I'm trying to put in the 20 that goes in between. And I tried this.

And I tried certain things I tried that I've been doing over the course of the last year. And they're all kind of, but there's no real, you know, I talked about banning books. They talked about, you know, the benefits of slavery, that line that came out of. Oh, yeah. And I talked about that because, and I tried for, I'd say I tried for six months to get the audience to realize that's a punchline. It's not something you get upset. You don't, you get upset about it. first you laugh at it, then you're upset.

And they didn't laugh. And I was getting more and more enraged. So then I finally realized I'm going to do these last two shows that the only thing, and I did it, I started to do it on my last rant cast where all I do is list what's occurred. Yeah. You know, this happened, this happened, this happened, this happened. There is no through line to it. Everything that follows, it's the what the fuck.

Yeah, yeah. 238th day of what the puck. And it's been going on even longer than that. And it's this and this and this and this and this and every day you wake up and it's something else. Yeah. So I've got that, you know, it's, you know, you've got, you've got, you've got Robert Kennedy Jr. saying he doesn't know, you know, he doesn't know how many people died from COVID. Yeah. You just go, what?

No, you just make shit up then. You make shit up about everything else. Right. Yes. yes that's what everybody who goes in front of congress does they just make shit up but sound professional if you're going to have the if you're going to have but he lives in a different universe he lives in a different reality yes a completely different reality yes you're going to tell me we don't i don't care we got rid of measles we got rid of this we got rid of this

we got rid of this because of vaccination yeah is there uh are some people get uh hurt by it yes should the people who got hurt by it should their children get the shot probably not yes is there a way to kind of do that why don't you figure that out you fuck yeah yeah why is it you're going to ban all of it thinking you know it's just unbelievable and i i have children i don't i don't know you're probably you may be old enough to remember the iron fucking lungs is that we really really want to go back to the iron yeah i was old you don't we had a creek bonner and you don't swim in the creek or you'll get polio yeah yeah i mean i was the last the first and well the the the generation that was they just and you know i said you know really you were going to worry about covid shots when uh i was i mean that that

that polio thing was uh they were they were carton carting people off. And we didn't know. But once they gave us the shot the second time, we had a sugar cube, you fucking idiots. You allow, and the stupidest thing, and I don't care, and don't write them, and don't write me, okay? I don't give a shit. You do the research on this, you fuck. Okay? And if you're reading this wrong, it's you, okay? It's whatever you're reading, MRNA, that vaccine, the one that he, you know, the COVID vaccine, those vaccines, that type of vaccine, major breakthrough. Yes.

It is the vaccine that may lead us to finding a vaccine against a variety of, like, of cancers and stuff. Yes. Okay? Or it may not. But the thing is, we're on the road to finding something. So get out of the way. Hey, fucking men.

Lewis Black is going to be in Pennsylvania for two final shows. If you are within earshot of those two shows, you should be there. Lewis Black is also, or Brian Green is going to help Lewis Black, find the 30-minute lost tape of him and George Carlin because I need a hard on. And number three, no offense to anybody, it's any sensitive ears in the room. Number three, Rantcast is available. wherever you listen to your podcasts, including this one, especially this one. Every Wednesday.

And Louis, you are of court. And he will be on the Daily Show tonight as this is coming out. And then again in November, once a month. Don't miss it. Tune into the Daily Show for that. Lewis, when you come down to Atlanta, and I expect that to be sooner rather than later, you will be here with us and we can't wait for that. Yeah, no, I'll just even if I'm not, I mean, I'll be buzzing through there at some point

because I kept, the one thing I've done is I've done is I've, kept the tour bus for a while. Okay. Nice. And to just actually have fun in it. And so I'll be wondering around. So I love that. Come to a near direction.

Yes. And we will tell you where to go. And I admire you very much, Lewis. Congratulations on a very long stand-up career. Here's so many more years of doing what you love and us watching which, us watching you do it. Yes. I'm writing a book, actually. I'm hoping to write a book and write a play.

Well, write my version of our town. Yeah. I can't. I can't wait. Lewis Black, information in the show notes, as I always. Love you, Lewis. Thank you very much. Thank you for us.

It's a pleasure. Take care. Let me do something Brian has never done. Be brief. Follow us on Instagram at the commercial break. Text or call us. 212 4333-3-3-TCB. That's 212-433-3822.

Visit our website, TCBPodcast.com, for all the audio, video, and your free sticker. Then watch all the videos at YouTube.com slash the commercial break. And finally, share the show. It's the best gift you could give a few aging podcasters. See, Brian? That really wasn't that difficult, now was it? You're welcome. During the Volvo Fall Experience event,

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A box of fine wines? Yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by Regency app for details. Oh, hi, buddy. Who's the best you are? I wish I could spend all day with you instead. Uh, Dave, you're off mute. Hey, happens to the best of us.

Enjoy some goldfish cheddar crackers. Goldfish have short memories. Be like goldfish. Wow. So, uh, just honored that Lewis Black came and spent time with us and then said he's going to come down to Atlanta. to do a rancass with us. I know. That would be amazing.

We'll see. I mean, I really would love it. If I get to sit in the same room and be on his podcast, I'm just going to, you're going to, I don't know, my head will pop directly off of my shoulders, I think, directly off my shoulders. Lewis is going to be in Pennsylvania. In Easton, I think is what, what, what is. Go check the links in the show notes. Easton and Thomasville, I believe, in October, can't, you could. If I was within 100 miles of there, you couldn't give me a ticket fast enough.

I would buy any ticket just to go see Lewis on his last two shows. You know they're going to be good. Also, you can check out Rantcast available on Wednesdays, new episodes on Wednesdays, wherever you find your podcasts. And, of course, on the Daily Show tonight as this is being released. And again, in November, if you please. All right. Boom, that was fun. That was fun.

Yes. We'll be back tomorrow. we'll talk about the Emmys and everything that happened and all the good groceries that are going on because I want to talk about the Emmys because, you know, our good friend who has never showed up to the show, but should.

Nate Bargazi, but us hosted it. Hosted it. And, yeah, we'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. Yeah, I've been reading about it. To mixed reviews. But I can't imagine that's an easy gig. I don't, I don't.

No. No. It's not an easy game. Yeah. No. You're just, the critics are out there. They are out there. I watched it.

I thought it was good. So there you go. And hopefully, Nate will come on the show. Probably not after I said that. But, all right. We'll just think that he's working on it.

He's working on it. He's making his way here. He's on his way up. So we'll have to wait until he's on his way back down. Actually, I think he's at the top. When you have a private plane, flying year-round. Probably not coming on the commercial break. I'm just saying, well, Gary V came on, and I bet he has a private plane. I bet he does too. I don't think he takes it. He said he, you know,

he goes to airports a lot, so probably those posh kind of airports where you don't actually have to check in your luggage, you know? You have a secret entrance. Yeah, secret entrants, and there's a guy who just pretends to put it through the x-ray machine, like, you're good to go. I remember I flew out Spain one time on a private plane with my brother, who's a pilot. And there was, they like literally opened this tiny little airport for us. Yeah. And we still had to put our baggage through X-ray. Like our, I had like a bag with me, just like a backpack. Yeah. Because we were going to be gone for the day. And I still had to put it through the X-ray. And the guy who put it through the X-ray and checked it was the co-pilot of our flight. I'm like, so what were you going to do if something

was in there? We're going to, I know you. What are you doing? He's like, just got to do it, just got to do it. I'm like, okay, all right, whatever. Anyway, 212-4333-3-T-CB, 2-1-2-4-33-38-22, questions, comments, concerns, content, ideas. We'll take them all right there, get involved in the conversation at the commercial break on Instagram and YouTube.com slash the commercial break for all the episodes on video the same day they air here on the audio. Okay, Chrissy, that's all I can do for today. I think so. I'll tell you that I love you.

And I love you. Best to you. Best to you. you out there in the podcast universe until next time chrisie and i will say we do say and we must say goodbye The Party in the morning!