WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1143 - Seth Rogen

Episode Date: July 27, 2020

Trigger warning if you are an anti-Semite: First of all, why are you listening to this show? Get lost! Secondly, you are REALLY not going to like this episode. Seth Rogen returns to WTF for the first time in six years and has, by far, the Jewiest talk with Marc that two Jews ever had on this show. And that's saying something. The subject matter of Seth's new movie, An American Pickle, might have something to do with it, but they really get into their shared childhood experiences, their attitudes about Judaism that have changed over the years, and a consensus pick for who is the world's toughest Jew.  Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing.

With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. What the fuck buddies? What the fucksters? What the fuckadelics? What's happening?

I've changed my tone to urgent. This is my urgent tone. How's it going? How are you doing? Urgency. Take a breath. Breathe it in. Breathe it in.

Breathe it out. Let's do a little of that. All right, everybody. Come on. Come on. Come on. Stop what you're doing. Stop what you're doing.

Take a breath. All the way in. All the way. Oh, go ahead and cry if you have to. I might. Oh, no. Oh, God damn it. I can't even take a deep breath.

I've been avoiding the deep breaths. Clearly. Hold on. Let me, clearly. Hold on. Hold on. Oh, no, it's right there, man. It's right there. Oh, man, I'm holding it in. I'm holding some of it in.

Sorry, let it out. Everybody all right? Okay. So today on the show, I talked to Seth Rogen. Now, Seth Rogen has been on before. Yes. The first appearance he was on with Goldberg. What's that guy's name? Is it Evan Goldberg, his partner? So they were on here together. This is Seth alone. And I have to say that there is a trigger warning. If you don't like Jews, you're going to get triggered. If you're anti-Semitic, this is going to definitely trigger you.

It's very Jew-y talk. It might be the most Jew-y talk we've ever had on the show. I don't know the show i don't know why i don't know why um but it's the first time seth has been on since 2014 and we had already covered a lot about his life and his early career on that episode and uh so that means i had to uh to i had to you know figure out some stuff and he just made this very jewy movie uh it's called the american pickle like it's almost throwback jewy it it's it's a movie that is so jewy you would think it was the 70s again when the jews and understanding jewish comedy and uh jews were sort of out in the world and world and the dictators of a certain amount of culture

back in the day, this feels like it could have fit there a bit. It's that Jew-y. You know, back when, you know, Philip Roth used to appear on talk shows and Norman Mailer. Yeah. Bernard Malmed.

So that's going to happen, man. We're going to do the Jew thing. Tomorrow I'm going to go get another COVID test because, you know, that's a fun thing to do. It's like going to an amusement park. You go park, you know, you get online in your car and you go through very slowly, go through a series of streets and turns. And then you end up in the Dodger Stadium parking lot. And then there's a video with the mayor. And then you're given some things, some fun things to spit in. And then you give it to another guy with a mechanical claw. And then he gives it to you with a mechanical claw. And then at the end, you throw it into another thing. And then in two days later, they email you the good or bad news. Very exciting way to spend an afternoon.

I am fighting back the darkness. I'm trying to fight back the darkness. But I tell you, man, it's hard as Jews when you kind of feel the fascism coming. And anybody, any of you Republicans that still listen to me, who used to just like what I do and then thought I got too political and thought I was exaggerating the possibilities of authoritarianism. Well, look what happened. Who was wrong?

You. I'm not saying I told you so, but I told you so. I want to be able to say it while I still can before there are jackboot thugs coming into the garage. I told you so. Hey, what's going on? Hey, hey, you can't hey before that not going live so the odds of that are tricky they'd have to be listening outside but you know jews historically i think have sort of a radar for it the fucking thing is is that

a radar what do you mean like i have judah. But do we have a little sensitivity to fascism? Who doesn't? Other than the people that are like, well, it won't be that bad, right? It's just going to be us. What? Of course. Well, what about your neighbors? I don't know them. We don't know them. That's a big question, right? How desperate does your neighbor who doesn't like the way you think have to be to kill you because he doesn't like the way you think if he's allowed, encouraged or assigned that task? How desperate at what level of dehumanization are we with everybody and how we take in information and how we see other people? How desperate does your neighbor have to be to kill you if he's allowed to because of the way you think? We're kind of pushing back on China, shutting that out, creating that situation to the point where my idiot father who watches ONN,

when I asked him what he thought of the pandemic, he said, well, we got to get back at China. I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? And he said, we're allowed to have a difference of opinion. And I'm like, that's not an opinion. That just sounds stupid, and I'm embarrassed, and I can't respect you anymore if you're going to just regurgitate garbage

that you hear on a propaganda channel through your face hole into the phone at me. If you want to discuss a broader idea about where we're at now with it as a doctor, but it's a Chinese virus. All right. You know, I don't know if I can ever talk to you again. So economic deprivation, economic collapse, desperation in the streets broken spirits hundreds of thousands of unemployed people angry people desperate people are you angry and desperate you want to wear a uniform what did you do in your civilian life branch. Would you like to be a commandant?

What did you do? School superintendent. Hmm. Do you want to run a camp? What did you do? I was a teacher. Would you like to be a reprogrammer? What did you do in civilian life?

I was a manager at a slaughterhouse. Are you able to make the jump to people? Everybody gets a hat. You're going to look good in that uniform. Can't afford clothes anymore. We'll feed you. Oh, you're not really

cut out for that kind of thing? Well, we can put you to work in one of the state-owned factories. I'm sorry. Is that too dark? I can end on an up note. Kind of up. Something gave me faith in the humans recently. I was on my hike. I was with Al Magical and R scoville heading up the hill three clowns three clowns outdoors and a guy walking down the hill was like delicately holding this little bunny there's a lot of bunnies up on the hills right now a lot of bunnies and it's a little sort of sad looking wet looking bunny a sick bunny the guy was holding a sick bunny this man walking down the hill with a sick bunny and we're like oh what happened he's like it's sick i i want i'm going to bring it home and uh make it better and then

let it out it's a nondescript accent not being racist because i'm not identifying it but he had one so we're like oh that's that's nice that's nice but it was just like in these times you know whatever he's going through whatever we're all going through, you know, that moment where he saw this sick bunny and he decided to do that. Well, I don't know what success will have, but the spirit of that, the action of that, the heart that goes into that, he's carrying that bunny down the hill. And I had read that there was a bunny plague. I felt bad because I didn't need to bring that up. But I did. I said, I heard that there,

there's a lot of sick bunnies around, and he said, oh can I get it, I'm like, I don't think so, and I felt bad, I should have just let it be, I don't even know,

if he can get it, but like, it was so nice, that there was something, he could do, it was something, he could do, in that moment,

I'm going to help, this bunny, I'm just saying, look, if you can help a bunny and use it as a metaphor. Okay. Use it as a metaphor. All right. Strap in for some juice stuff. American Pickle premieres on HBO Max on August 6th.

That is the film that Seth is in. And this is me and Seth Rogen coming up. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed,

how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only on Disney+. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that.

An epic saga based on the global best-selling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+.

18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. Hello. There's a Jew. There's a Jew if I've ever seen one. What are you talking about? Pin him. Oh, I see. So I can just see him. What are you talking about? Pin him. Oh, I see.

So I can just see him. This pandemic has turned everyone into my grandparents. Me and my wife spent 10 minutes trying to get on Instagram live today. So yeah, it's everyone. Oh, so you were trying to do it too? Yes. How is that one a problem? You just have to push a button.

We couldn't figure it out. Did you get on there? We did it. We did our thing. I got into a rabbit hole with Amazon today. How'd that go? I don't know how it went. Did you buy anything on Amazon today? No, I have not bought anything off Amazon today.

But you have recently, right? i mean pretty much every day every day yeah that's exactly so like today the guy comes up and he gives me two packages and one is um my oyster shucking gloves great yeah and the other one was an empty envelope that was supposed to contain my oyster shucking knife yeah that and he was just okay with that no he got he ran off before i could get him it's probably in his fucking truck just now now it's but now it's a problem now i i got an empty envelope i have no oyster knife i got five oysters that are going to be an issue later i'm gonna have to get a screwdriver

you get a rocker a screwdriver or some shit have you ever eaten oysters at your house i've done it at a friend's house who shucked them and it was uh impressive and i don't think i could have done it myself it was a i tried i tried one and I was like, this is not for me. I saw a guy put the oyster shucking knife through his fucking hand. Yeah, that's exactly what I would have been that guy. Again, not a Jew. Jews were not meant

to do that. That's why oysters aren't kosher because they knew we couldn't do that. They knew it was too challenging for us to open the shell. Too physically demanding for us. You know, that whole thing, that whole stereotype about Jews not being able to do things is not really true. And I think that movie that you were just in that I just watched is a testament to that. It's true. All Jews can do stuff.

There was a time where Jews were like, when I worked at a deli, did you ever do that? No, my great aunt owned a kosher butcher shop in New Jersey, though. Really? Where in New Jersey? In Newark, near Newark. Really? That's where my people come from.

That's the fucked up thing. Anyways, I'll get to that. Hold on. When I worked in a deli when I was in college in Boston, for some reason, it really blew my mind. These old Jews would come in, and they some reason, it really blew my mind. These old Jews would come in and they were ex-cops, plumbers. My grandfather was a plumber. I come from a line of very tough, blue-collar Jews as well.

My grandfather was a professional. He played professional football in Canada, and he was a plumber. His brother was an electrician. My great-grandfather on the other side was a mailman and like they were tough and that was that was a lot of actually where the idea for the movie came from simon rich the writer was like i was looking at an old picture of my grandfather when he was my age and i couldn't help but think that if we knew each other he would fucking hate my guts and probably beat the living shit out of me. And that's like exactly.

And my grandfather, he, they were nice to me, but you could tell, like he thought I was soft and like was tough on me. And like, uh, in general,

like, yeah, they, that was a tough, those were tough Jews. Yeah. Yeah. Well,

I've, I've, I've always had a theory about it, that there's the, um, the stocky sort of proletariat peasant theory about it that there's the um the stocky sort of proletariat peasant jew and then there's the um the composer jew the the math jew yeah and i'm i'm definitely not a math jew and i don't think you are either yeah whatever's happened to you

to make you soft mentally i don't know but physically i i come from a big people i'm a large jewish person you're like from the the james kahn jew exactly yeah yeah there's and then there is gene hackman who is a singular jew is he a jew gene hackman is jewish are you serious have you checked that when did you check that last gotta be checked how about i look right this second i think he must be jewish i don't i think you're i don't think you're i think you're wrong i don't want to hurt your When did you check that last? I've got to be sure. How about I look right this second? I think he must be Jewish. I don't think you're wrong. I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to hurt you. Is he not?

I don't know. I never thought he was a Jew. Well, he's not Jewish. Wait. No, he's not. Sorry, man. Sorry. He stole a Jew.

Well, it makes sense because what I was going to say is he seems too intimidating and scary to be a Jewish person. But that makes James Caan the scariest Jewish person of all time. Yeah. He's definitely up there. You know, James Kahn. And I, and I've talked to his son. I think in real life, he's relatively scary. I think he's, there you go. That's good. He's a, he's that kind of Jew that hangs out with gangsters. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. James Kahn's lucky. Gene Hackman's not Jewish. Cause that makes him the, the, the best Jew. Yeah. Yeah. And his father was a Gene Hackman's not Jewish because that makes him the best Jew. Yeah. Yeah.

And his father was a butcher, Cahn's. There you go. No, I classify Jews as kind of soft Jews and sinewy Jews. Like, I think that's like a category of the wiry Jew. Yeah. Like, like, like, like, like Israelis are very like they're they're like leathery and like they have their muscle. They're tough. They need muscular and.

Yeah, no, I would call I put them in like a tough category. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They don't fuck around. No. Israelis aren't going to put up with our fucking middle class. No. You know, Jew bullshit. Do you know what I mean?

They don't like that shit. No, it's like it's ridiculous. They don't even want to. They don't even care if we're religious. You know what I mean? They don't like that shit. No, it's like, it's ridiculous. They don't even want to know. They don't even care if we're religious. You know what I mean? It's like, all they want to know is that, do you believe we can kill them? Exactly.

Where do you stand on all this? Do you think they deserve a country or can we kill them? I haven't gotten along with an Israeli in a long time. Yeah, I don't think I've ever gotten along with an Israeli. No, at my Jewish summer camp, thereraeli counselors who were fresh out of the army and they were psychotic and they would torture us so really i never yeah was it a sleepaway jewish summer camp it was yeah because i went to a jewish day camp yeah and then i went to a very non-jewish sleepaway camp i went to a jewish sleepaway camp where the goal was essentially to get young Jewish kids to fuck one another to make more Jewish kids.

Really? At that age, you had to find or planting the seeds. It wasn't just a sort of experiment. I mean, a lot of people, my sister met her husband there. A weirdly disproportionate amount of people I know produce Jewish offspring due to this summer camp. Really? Is it a Canadian summer camp? Yep. A Canadian Jewish summer camp?

A Canadian Jewish summer camp. Everyone goes there. Were you there when you were what age? Maybe like 9 to 16 or something like that. Oh, my God. So it's like every year the same people you grow up with each other you've everyone gets laid the first time at the camp yeah basically yeah with other jews i guess you got it that's that's the thing when depending where you live

yeah like i grew up in new mexico so we had a you know there was like there was there was only so many jews you gotta know it's true you got where'd you you grew up and where vancouver yeah there's not a ton of jews there's some they're all in montreal right yeah all on the east coast where in new mexico did you where did you live albuquerque oh man i've lived there several times for uh movies on end yeah for movies and TV shows. We shot the show Preacher there for the first season. I like it there. I actually like Albuquerque, New Mexico. People get the wrong impression of it because, I mean, I don't think they really see the best of it sometimes when they live there.

And I guess there's not much there. And I guess it's gotten a little economically depressed since I grew up there. My parents are from Jersey. Yeah, mine too. My dad. Is from Jersey? my dad is from Jersey my dad is from Newark yeah yeah my that's funny because my mother's father was from Elizabeth and I was just going to say that the uh that fucking cemetery in the movie

it's exactly like the one my grandparents are buried in in elizabeth like there is a budweiser factory right off of the highway right across from new york in like you get off in newark and there's this budweiser factory and in the shadow of that is this little old jewish cemetery you see them as you drive around and it's just like oh like if the people who if the people who spent their life savings on that 100 years ago knew what it had become, they would be so bummed out. It's so upsetting. It was very true. That was very true. I think it's in Linden.

It's in Linden, New Jersey. Linden, New Jersey, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I definitely related to that. But the thing about the Jews in New Mexico, and I guess in Vancouver, too, is like, you know, I guess your parents, I think we talked about this a little the last time. You know, there has to be an effort made, you know, to get them all together. For sure. Yeah, I went to Jewish elementary school. Is your wife Jewish?

My wife is Jewish. See, so that worked out, I guess. It worked. And what's funny is I don't care that she's Jewish. And like, I would have been totally happy marrying a non-Jewish person. It's totally coincidental that she's Jewish. And it really bothers her when I say that.

Like, she wants her Judaism to have some value to me, even though it doesn't in many ways. Well, I don't know that you would know if that's true until you did. I bet you wouldn't be great with a non-Jew. Yeah, maybe. I'd be okay. Yeah, you'd probably be okay.

But, you know, there's not that. I was married to a Jew, and that didn't work out. And then I was married to a non-Jew, and that didn't work out either. So there you go. Sometimes religion has nothing to do with it. I used to do a joke about it. I said that the only problem with marrying a Jew is that means everything you hated about going home is now in your house. Yeah.

And I found, yeah, there's a lot of similarities for sure. But there's a familiarity, I think, to that. But also, like, I was a real, I found that ed but also like i was a real i found myself being like kind of a real novelty to some of the non-jewish women i dated like it was yeah like oh wow like like they'd never been around a funny person before in their entire life before so but if you're a jewish person then you're like i'm no funnier than your average jewish person's uncle is so the novelty has not, I don't think that's true.

I think, I think that I guess Jews communicate a different way. I don't know what the hell it really is, but I mean, I think there's some non-Jewish women who just like Jews. Yeah. That's also a thing. And thank God for them.

If you go on porn hub, you find that everything is a is is someone's into everything is there a jew like a jew fetish on porn hub how would that even play out really yeah there are some porn stars who are famously jewish and their work is featured as a result of it but do they look jewish would do would you like uh you mean like you mean men or women the men would be easier to pick out probably from a lot i know this i know yeah i think ron jeremy's a jew porn stars they're they're a female jew yeah they're a female jewish porn stars who would happen does this part of your brain go like how did that happen like my answer it does and then my answer is like probably super liberal like very liberal upbringing that's the weirdest thing about

jews in this sort of like you know this chosen people business that's been kind of uh put on us is that there's this there's this sense of exceptionalism which is kind of weird because that that's what i learned about when i was at the deli i like i had to wrap my brain around of course there were jewish plumbers all these jews that come over here first generation immigrants how are they going to figure out how to do whatever again make pickles like in the movie or whatever and it wasn't until the second or third generation that they actually started to integrate into the middle class and upper class and make a lot of money for sure it's and i think like to me making the movie like it like my grandmother was born fleeing poland fleeing

like the pogroms in 1919 which is when the movie how old was she she passed away in 2000 i think 15 so she was like 96 maybe something like that but she was born yeah so she was born in 1919 in a caravan fleeing you know people trying to kill jewish people and coming to america and like it will or she came to canada she moved to winnipeg which is a terrible place winnipeg oh my god what a beaten little city that is my only like reason i could think as to why so many Eastern European Jews went to Winnipeg is that maybe it reminded them of Eastern Europe. Like maybe it was, it was the closest thing to the shtetl they could find. The barren landscape.

Exactly. It's a frozen barren landscape. And so, yeah. And so it was, yeah. I mean, making the movie,

it was like really kind of reenacting my own history in a lot of ways. And it was, I mean, it made me think of it a percent differently. It's like, Oh yeah. That's why my grandfather was so tough. Like he grew up at a time and my grandmother was so tough. It's like they, everyone hated people beat the shit out of them. You know what I mean? He was, he had to, he had to fight. They had to, you know, I think a lot, and a he had to fight they had to you know i think a lot and a lot of people i think don't like i just conversationally understand that like if you meet

a jewish person in america they're probably here because someone tried to kill their grandparents not that long ago and like and we should be in eastern europe well that was actually a plan that that you know when the jews fled the holocaust spread out, there was actually an organization that would place Jews in as many different places as possible. I think that's a better strategy. So they couldn't corral them up again. Yeah, well, you don't keep all your Jews in one basket. I don't understand why they did that.

It makes no sense whatsoever. I totally agree with that strategy. Spread them out. And it would be nice to live somewhere that was not a part of the Christian apocalyptic prophecy, which is also probably a good idea. Maybe settle somewhere that the Christians don't think you all have to die in order for the... Yeah, and then they want us all to go there. They need a certain number of Jews.

They need us to go there so we can die, so the apocalypse... But it's nice to know that in the present, they need a certain number they need us to go there so we can die so yeah but but that but it's nice to know that like you know in the present they need us there's a similar there's some best common vested interest in the in the meantime the christians they they need us for their their ridiculous vision and they're not they're not gun they're not gunning for us not no but yes but luckily it serves our ridiculous, like our ridiculous visions are temporarily parallel. Could you imagine living

in Israel? Would you ever go live in Israel? No, it would be... I'm the same way, and we're going to piss off a bunch of Jews. It's like, you know, for some reason, my mother, who's not religious or whatever, but her generation, they were kind of hung up on Israel, piss off a bunch of jews it's like you know for some reason my mother who's not religious or whatever but there's her generation they were kind of hung up on israel and they find some comfort in in it and i i've been there and i'm like i can't i i couldn't imagine living here

no it's there are nice parts and i think you like for like i could imagine like yeah like at best you are convincing yourself that you are far enough away from a major conflict to not worry about it. Right. Which is, like, a terrible thing to convince yourself of. And, like, I don't understand. To me, it just seems very, like, an antiquated thought process. Like, if it is for religious reasons, I don't agree with it because I think religion is silly. If it is for truly the preservation of Jewish people, it makes no sense. Because again, you don't keep something you're trying to preserve all in one

place, especially when that place has proven to be pretty, pretty volatile. You know, I'm trying to keep all these things safe. I'm going to put them in my blender and hope that that's the best place that that'll do it. Like, it just, it doesn't make sense to me and so i i and and i also think that as a jewish person like i was fed a huge amount of lies about israel my entire life you know they never tell you that oh by the way there were people there they make it seem like it was just like they're sitting there it's like the fucking doors open. Hours for the taking. Yeah. Like it literally, they forget to include the fact to every young Jewish person, basically. Like, oh, by the way, there were people there. Well, they just want to make sure that you are frightened of your own survival to the point where when you get old enough, you will make sure that that money goes to Israel and that trees are planted and that you always speak

highly of Israel and Israel must survive no matter what. Yeah. And I don't understand. And I think like for Jewish people, especially who are thought, you know, who view themselves as progressive and who view themselves as analytical and who view themselves as people who ask a lot of questions and really challenge the status quo like you know what are we doing well yeah i mean well there's that there's a thing i mean i'm even i get frightened to talk about it you know you start i know and we're afraid of jews i'm afraid of jews i'm 100 afraid of jews that's it which as we started it aside from james kahn we have no one

to be afraid of yeah yeah no it says republican jews buddy no it's scary uh but yeah i mean but like we're jews we can say whatever we want about like we should if anyone could say whatever the fuck they want about this shit it should should be two famous Jewish people who, you know, if anyone's getting rounded up first, it's our fucking asses. You know, like we,

we are, we are outwardly Jewish. So I think like, but I find that, but don't you find that like, like when I watched the movie, I thought like, wow,

this is really, I mean, they're, they might be over doing it. It is a very Jewish film. Yeah. I'm wondering like, who is the audience for they're they might be over jewing it it is a very jewish film yeah i'm wondering like who is the audience for this do that are they how old are they you know i mean not in a bad way but but it's very specific it's very specific and it's sort of like almost a throwback to uh to movies when you know jews had some you know cultural profile it's like it's like for those

few years when australians were really cool like the early 90s like it's like it's like when yahoo sirius was famous you're bringing it back you're bringing it back i'm bringing it back to the yentl uh like crossing delancey late 70s early 80s it is specific but i do think that there's like you know the themes are pretty universal no i think that's true but do you i felt like you know when i see that and and i felt it like in my last comedy special too that for some reason even as frightened as i may be of of fascists and anti-semites i i almost feel like i have to overstate my Jewishness to in order for other Jews to be like, all right, well, someone's taken the hit. And, you know, we can all I can meet him halfway. Maybe, you know, maybe not at work, you know, but I do think it's important to represent for sure.

And Jews don't like it when you deny your Jewishness, which for me would be a ridiculously futile endeavor. And I think that and that is what's complicated about being Jewish. And I think, you know, it's something that I've reconciled. And I think the movie was, it was one of the things I was interested in the movie is like, unlike other religions, like you could find a corpse and determine whether or not it was Jewish, you know, like it doesn't work like that with with being a methodist like you don't know what that person like what because of what circumcision or the nose of our dna because like if you do a dna test you come back as jewish you know come back as uh you know right you come back as an ashkenazi Jew. It's weird, right? Did you get that? I was, yeah, mine just came back Jew.

Yeah, 99. Yeah, exactly. 100,000% Jew. Don't fuck your wife. You're probably cousins. But I think, no, and I think that is what's different about other religions is being Jewish is inextractable from us. It is our, literally our DNA comes back Jewish. That's what it says

on the DNA test. If you're a Baptist, they don't know that. It's your belief system. It's not who you are. It's why they believe. Being Jewish is not exclusive to... You don't have to believe in Judaism to be Jewish. I believe...

Let's round down and say I believe zero of Judaism. Yeah, I'm still Jewish. I can't help it. I just am. Right. My DNA comes back Jewish. But do you think there's something about that DNA that that whether you believe zero? I mean, what does it really mean to believe zero Jewishness?

I mean, what does it really mean to believe zero Jewishness? I mean, you know, there's something about the sort of legacy you are and the sort of like the way of speaking that tumbles down through generations. The inherited, the trauma inherited through our DNA, I think is also definitely a big part of it. Yeah, I think like it's not like being neurotic is not like a genetic, you know, it's that, that's like, you know, inherited, I think. But also like there's a premium put on, on education and on survival and on, you know, a certain amount of, of wariness, you know, and, and you know, I think there was something touching in the movie just because that character

that you play, that isn't the the the one that was the old jew uh you know you know comes to some sort of uh moment with his with his uh jewishness at the end and it was it was kind of touching because like i i i think you're probably more jewish than you think in terms of uh actual uh yes how deep the ritual is written into you for sure and i think also as i get older i appreciate that religion you know specifically revolving around death like judaism has a lot of protocol that is helpful you know and it kind of forces you to dude it's like yeah i just i went through it with the death of someone else who was not Jewish, but it was like, you know, like Jews, like you get the body in the ground.

Yeah. You got two days, you know, and you, and you, you physically bury it yourselves in a wooden box. Don't fuck with it. You know? Yeah. And then the Shiva thing, you know, is really kind of powerful for sure and and and it happens fast and what i've seen my wife's uh my wife lauren uh her mother passed away earlier this year and what i saw was like it puts you to work and it forces you to do stuff and it forces you to confront it and it forces you to be around people and talk to people and it is it forces you to it forces you to eat and drink and

and and it is religion but it was one of those things where i was like oh this is like a very a very useful tool that religion has created around a very painful thing and and and a lot of thought was put into this and it's actually you know for everything i could say about like as silly as noah's ark is that this is not silly this is actually like yeah practical very well thought out practical protocol to do after someone dies and whether you believe it or not it like is useful you know um and i think that's also something that you know because i was i went to jewish school and i went to synagogue and you realize that oh i was brain I went to Jewish school, and I went to synagogue, and you realize that, oh, I was brainwashed, and kind of just taught a lot of things that I don't believe,

and I was never really given the choice to make these choices, you know, decisions for myself, you, you, you drastically kind of revolt against it for a while. And then, now I'm kind of in last few years have more been in the phase where it's like, okay, I like, yes, there's a lot that I should not have ever probably been told to take as seriously as i did but but what will you talk because i mean i was brought up like conservative jew and i don't remember you know i kind of we learned a little bit of hebrew i learned to read hebrew i did the prayers but like i don't remember you know ever being afraid of god or taught to pray in any real way. I don't know what I was. That's true. So like, what did I really learn?

I mean, like I have no practical relationship with God. I mean, like it seems like with Jesus, they're like, you know, Jesus died for your sins. And, you know, you ask for forgiveness and there's it's a very kind of A plus B equals, you know, you get to heaven. With Jews, it's sort of like, who are we talking to? You know, like. No, it's true. But I do remember. Well, but that was a funny thing, though, because I think when you're young in Jewish school, they do kind of lay it on.

And I was pretty young. But I remember, like, I remember, like, my sister, who's only three years older than me, like being like, oh, none of this is like I don't believe in any of this shit. And I was like, what? And then she's like, mom and dad don't even really believe in this shit. Do you realize, like, we're not doing any of this shit. And I was like, what? And then she's like, mom and dad don't even really believe in this shit. Do you realize like we're not doing any of this stuff? And I was like, oh, wow. Like I'm being taught. And that is just like, I mean, it's like the tooth fairy.

It's like anything. It's like, oh, you're just, I was taught things that were never meant to come to fruition or be real in any way, shape or form. Except to remind you at your age now that maybe there's something to it. No. And then, yeah. And then I get to it now and I'm like, oh, for these very adult things that I wasn't dealing with at the time, things like death, and there's actually a lot of useful stuff to it. Honestly, Israel is the thing that I look back on and look at as maybe that was the thing I was most misinformed about. Sure. at as like maybe that was the thing I was like most misinformed about sure like I think the religious stuff there are I can reconcile it more like with what we're talking about now there are

tools but like with you know I think like just specifically like Israel and Palestine like that was stuff that like I was and not because of my parents or anything. I think just like culturally, it was not in the conversation of the average Jewish family to really get into the specifics of what was happening. You don't question Israel. Yeah. Right. Yeah. No, I think that's true.

And also like, I remember being shown Holocaust movies, the movies like, and that was a bit of brainwashing probably for to for the better where you're just sort of like this this happened it you can never forget it it was horrible and these are this is the pile of shoes here's all the hair this is exactly with the bodies in it that's you know never again i gotta say though in my parents actually always did instill i remember my dad when i'd be very young when my dad very frankly telling me like people hate jews yeah just be aware of that they they just do and it's honestly something that i am so glad was instilled in me from a young age, because if it wasn't, I would constantly be shocked at how

much motherfuckers hate Jews, because they do. And it is, it is pervasive, and it is prevalent. And it is too many Jewish people so confounding, that they don't assume it's true. Right. And I think that that is something that I that i'm honestly glad was always very much instilled in me because it's true yeah and it's interesting that it's confounding because hating jews is as old as judaism i know it was the second thing that happened yeah like it's so and it's institutionalized in some other religions yeah in a way super uh like it's so. And it's institutionalized in some other religions. Yeah. In a way.

It's super, yeah, it's really bizarre. And I think it's something that I've also like, you know, put it like, tried to put a lot of thought into why it happens. And, you know, I know why it happened. It was because, I mean, I know part of it, part of it was because the Jews were not allowed to participate in a lot of cultural things and things that required, like they were kind of pushed into a position. They couldn't own property. They couldn't do this.

So they learned other skills, and those skills became necessary for other people to exist. Banking, education. necessary for other people to exist banking you know like education yeah well they just sort of like you know these smart asses who are managing our money and i also think like you know people obviously hate people who do not look like them but i think and i think people also have a weird fear of people who look like them but do not believe the same thing they do fundamentally and i think that is like it's it's funny though like i can i can get mildly anti-semitic with guys that are too jewy where i'm like there's some people where i'm like you can turn down a little bit you know you're like you know you're why oh for sure you're the reason. Exactly.

You know, like, we're all, you know, you can be who you are, but it seems like you're overdoing it a little. I think you're milking it. No, for sure. And anyone who's, like, super, like, people who are, like, anyone who's too militant or extreme about anything, like, needs to fucking pipe it, you know. It's not even militant. It's just those guys that are like, I don't know.

Should we go to the thing or not go to the thing? how it is yeah you're not doing us any favors there either but yeah the very yeah the very um yeah that just like please for the love of god where did where did you meet your wife at that camp or no no i uh a friend introduced us we uh a long time ago yeah we met at uh we met at lcd where at lcd the mexican restaurant oh really uh-huh you boys at a special event because no one really it was a birthday it was actually whitney cummings's birthday party oh okay um 15 15 years ago wow no kidding so she was in the uh comedy orbit yeah. She went to. Yeah. She.

Well, she actually worked. I worked on the Ali G show. Right. Guy who worked on that with me was dating a good friend of hers who she had gone to film school with. But she worked for Robert Zemeckis at the time that we started dating, actually. Oh, really? Yeah. Huh.

So. So what's she doing now? She's a writer and director. Yeah. Huh. So what's she doing now? She's a writer and director. Yeah. She's made a film for Netflix. She wrote another film. Which one? Did I see it? Is it out yet? I don't know. It's called like father with Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer. Oh, okay. Yeah. I'll check it out. Check it out. So here's my question though. You know, we know what's going on you know you're you're politically active person and uh you're canadian and and i read an article that you're

slowly buying up most of the hollywood hills so let me and uh but like so you're really digging in i mean i would maybe i'm a different kind of jew than you but like for me it's like i would kill to have canadian citizenship i don't know what they're doing you're buying up all this property and it's like you might have to go back to canada next year but i i have an apartment in canada my parents are there my sister's there there's a lot of a lot of opportunity for me again i don't think i would leave them i mean things would have to get very bad for me to leave america i mean you love it here i do i mean and i appreciate like i've i've benefited so much

from living in america that my instinct is to not leave it as soon as things get rough here you know um like i i have a lot of american friends who actually reach out to me i'm sure half joking half not like you know any canadians i could marry you know like but my instinct is like we can't like like things would have to get very bad in order for me to leave this country and they're pretty fucking bad yeah are you not i was gonna say are you not watching the same programs i am it's's still, it's not, I'm still here. I'm not, I'm not leaving yet, you know? And I, I don't, you know, I don't know what leaving, like personally, it might make me a little more comfortable,

but I don't think it would do any like grand good necessarily. And I think like, again, as someone who I'm half American, I've lived here forever. I just don't know. Like my instinct is to not leave right now. Yeah. Right. So, but, but your father, like he's out, you grew up, he left New Jersey and went to Canada when he married your mother.

Is that how it worked? Yeah. Well, my parents hilariously met in Israel on a kibbutz. Really? When they were like in their twenties, they were doing the kibbutz thing. Like they were doing their bit. They were doing the thing. We're just kind of hippies. Yeah. And like um yeah my mom's from vancouver and then my dad

like went back to vancouver oh so what now what i think we talked about it a little bit the last time your dad was a he's a is it what what does he do your mom's a social worker you my mom's a social worker my dad uh never he was he's always been like outwardly against the concept of work and careers in general um he never like he's worked in non-profits basically and like whatever so he kept that that that hippie ideology you know exactly but he was never like he was always outwardly like work sucks do not try to gain your identity through your job which is ironic because it's a thousand percent what i've done with my life but it was not what he uh instilled in me in any way yeah but but that but you know but like but your job was self-dictated after a certain point it's not like for sure god damn it i gotta make another movie that i'm producing yeah

exactly and they were very supportive of me as well. So that was nice. And probably because of that. How do you make a living then? My dad, he worked at, again, like when I was a kid, he worked at the game room, in the game room of the vocational school in Vancouver. The game room? Like where the video games were? Literally, like if you went to the VCC, the Vocational College,

like if you wanted to like use the ping pong table, he would give you the paddles. And I remember this. I would go to work with him as a kid. And I remember like hanging out in the game room. And because it was a vocational school, I would get haircuts like as a kid from the people learning to be hairdressers. I remember once a guy with no ear cut

my hair, which was very distressing to me. I don't know why it was distressing because the odds that he was trying to cut his own hair and cut his own hair off. It was still symbolically distressing for some reason. You never forget the first time you see a guy with no ear.

When he's cutting your hair it's alarming was it a fresh wound or was it like it was scarred over but it was not like it seemed like last last six months i would say probably so your dad was a guy that's sort of like don't bang the paddles on the table exactly yeah and then he became like the bookkeeper at what was the vancouver coalition of people And then he became like the bookkeeper at what was the Vancouver Coalition of People with Disabilities, which was like a nonprofit organization that helped people with disabilities. And he helped run their books.

He's like, he dropped out of Rutgers. Like he's not a, you know. Really? He did not have like. My dad went to Rutgers. There you go. Was your father in the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity? I don't think he was my dad is not a

fraternity type he fenced he was a he was one of the he was at the third best state in the state for fencing and i think he won some champions the fencing hippie who doesn't want to work i like it exactly that old the z the zbt zeta beta tau was called a i imagine by anti-semites a zionist banker's trust it was a jewish fraternity sounds about right so since i last saw you i mean you've done a lot of stuff i mean like what how the animation business that seems like it's going to be pretty lucrative in the future because we're never going to be able to touch each other again. Exactly. How did that Sausage Party movie do? It did really well. It made like $100 million in the theater.

Yeah. Which is crazy. Yeah, it was. I mean, we spent a lot of time working on it, so I'm glad it did. But no, we spent a lot of time working on it, so I'm glad, I'm glad it did, but no, we have plans to try to do more R rated animation and we're doing kids animation now as well, which is hilarious. Like what do you got going? We're doing, we're producing a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated movie for

Nickelodeon. And yeah uh some more things like that but how does that work in in terms of like is that sort of like you know seagull doing a muppets movie how do you get how do you get access to the mutant ninja turtles um we some things just happen with like a phone like it's funny there's some things that i've been working like tirelessly for years to try to become a part of and it still is not materialized and then some things are like this we're like ryan robbins is the head of nickelodeon around 20 years ago he was a producer and he was one of the first producers to read super bad and we very much got along and then like i got a phone call one day and he was like i'm the head of nickelodeon want to make ninja turtles okay um and and so yeah now we're now we're producing ninja turtles as a result of that and are you writing it i'm i'm like producing no i'm like helping write it as a

producer and being pretty annoyingly hands-on throughout the writing process were you a fan when you were a kid yes i was obsessed with it i watched like every episode oh really because those those characters are so defined right yeah they are defined yeah there's a there's a party dude there's the leader there's a nerdy guy and there's a petulant rebellious guy it's all you need and what other And what other live action ones you got going? I mean, we have a lot of things that are now just kind of on ice, and we'll see what happens. We haven't filmed anything that has not come out. Like the American Pickle was the only thing we had produced that.

Actually, The Boys, season two of The Boys. We have a TV show on Amazon called the boys that's like a superhero show um and the second season of that is coming out um in september i think uh but yeah we haven't those are the only like on those are the only like produced things that we haven't released and everything else we were like about to start shooting some stuff but we now will maybe not shoot that stuff for right years who the fuck knows the American the pickle movie what's it called

again an American pickle we call it the pickle movie we refer to it as okay the pickle movie the American pickle there was a day where I was bothering everyone at my company and being like can we just call it the pickle movie is that weird I know like maybe like Kentucky, like move, like movies with the word movie in it is maybe a, not a great look.

It does not have like an incredibly wonderful history, but I, my instinct was to call it the pickle movie. Was it, was it actually based on a book or no? Yeah. It's based on the novella. Like, uh, like a short story by that uh simon rich wrote that was in the new yorker um many years ago seven eight years ago and it so like what what did you take from that like what points of the story i mean i guess i could just read it but i was curious about you know kind of like you know with any of these comedies that are a little broader you got

to suspend a certain amount of disbelief you know for story points right you know obviously we're going for that you cannot be pickled yes yeah concede at the beginning yeah but that's like but it's funny but um but is that what what was the story about was it exactly that well the story simon wrote from his own perspective and it was about his as though he met his own. He wrote it from the Herschel character's perspective, but he was Herschel Rich. From the old guy. Grandfather, great grandfather of Simon Rich.

Okay. The writer of the short story. Oh, I get it. I get it. Oh, interesting. Yeah. But the fundamentals were very similar. And I think the thing that we really leaned into when we were making the movie

was like, that was not as big a part of the short story was this idea of like grief. And like that to me became kind of the most interesting and original, weirdly, you know, like all plot conventions aside, like it became something that like i always like to think like it's nice to at least to yourself be able to justify that you were doing something that

is not done a lot or you cannot think of many examples or that shallow yeah exactly yeah and so i was i i was i was like i there's not a lot of movies about grief, and it's something that everyone experiences, and it's something that, as just a movie fan, it's not something I could think of, like a ton of movies that really dive into the subject of loss and moving on and reconciling that and how people deal with it and legacy and what we leave behind.

And to me, that's not a huge part of the short story but it became something that to me was was just really fascinating and and a subject that was just really worth exploring well yeah so you like as a producer you saw this story and you sat down with the writers and you said what about this or what no simon actually uh came luckily he envisioned it as a movie with me. Like the first time I ever hosted Saturday Night Live was his first episode as a writer on Saturday Night Live. And we were both much younger than everybody else that was there at the time. It felt like there were some people around our age, but we felt very young and inexperienced comparatively you know um and so we kind of bonded and then the short story came out and a lot of people liked it but i think people maybe thought it was too weird to be a movie but

we talked to him about it and he was like i picture it as a movie and i picture it with you and i picture you playing both characters also um and and it took me a long time to wrap my head around whether or not that was a terrible idea or not and eventually kind of uh many and and and the script it was a hard movie to crack like the tone is weird and it was something that i wanted to spend a lot of time making sure we got right and like i i I do, I slow down the process always, like more than anything. What was the concern? Just that it would be silly or stupid or,

and like to me as just an actor playing two roles, I didn't want to subtract from what I thought might be like a potentially powerful film by doing something gimmicky or just kind of silly, you know? I didn't want it to be perceived as self-indulgent. That's always something I'm just horrified of, you know, didn't want it to be perceived as self-indulgent that's always something i'm just horrified of you know even though i constantly am doing it so i think like all that was you know people just writing mean things about me is generally the concern i have

before i before i do anything can you avoid that though as a jew exactly i can i can mitigate it best i can in this culture but i find that interesting that because now that you know you bring it up because the i think you did a great job separating the roles and emotionally and that like i you know now that you say what you're saying because like you know i get hung up on things where i can see where the comedy bits are and I can see where you make leaps but but you know it really does become about you know about family and about his you know missing his whole life and you know missing his wife's life and you know his feelings about her and going to that grave and that being you know sort of the beginning of this important journey he's got to go on. And then you having these dead parents.

Yeah. And that like, it was interesting, like this idea of, you know, what our grandparents hoped our lives would be like. Yeah. And how they would have to recalibrate that for today, you know, like that in and, and, and that it's hard for everyone, you know, like that in, and, and, and that it's hard for everyone, you know, and I think that like, for the, you know, if my grandparents were to see how I live, they'd probably be very proud of some of the superficial things. But there are the fact that I'm not religious, I don't speak Yiddish, these kinds of things would be appalling to them. And

then slowly, they would probably have to kind of like recalibrate what they hoped their future generations would become and see that I'm a happy, you know, hopefully reasonable. You think they'd be upset you didn't speak Yiddish? My grandmother, she, her family, probably a little bit. Like they, they were, you know, like she would always say, you think you're a big shot that was one of her favorite sure to say you know my grandparents used to speak yiddish when they didn't want us to understand what they were talking exactly but they like to like i think

the things that they had there's more of them that they wish that we did you know well yeah because it's all gone now it's like it's over with them if our generation you're younger than me if we don't keep it moving it's over i mean you know for sure the delis are closing all that generation you know of those kind of uh traditions or just even habits you know you know like that because like i still sometimes somehow it's infused in me you know where it's sort of like i you know i, I can appreciate, you know, a good brisket, good pastrami, a good corn. Because you just aren't Jewish. Again, if we if I found if I found your body in an alley somewhere, I could determine you were a Jewish person. By the cholesterol level.

By the brisket in your in your gullet. Right. But no, but like that whole thing, I was always fascinated with that generation they were it was a fast and my grand like again the character is very much what my my grandfather was born in canada but he was a hard man and he was a tough man and and for sure if we were both 37 years old he would not have liked me he would have physically assaulted me likely you know like and and that's something you knew he really liked me as his own grandson and he had to because i was his grandson right you know right um like once when i was very young i had like uh i stubbed my toe and my toenail cracked a little bit and he ripped off my entire

toenail and I had to go to the hospital it was like a big thing you know and that was like his approach to that. He was a scary man. He was but he was also funny and he was like lovely

and he had a good sense of humor but and for sure as he got older he like mellowed out definitely sure but i also like he could rip an apple in half with his bare hand right right it was like a trick he would do like he was he was a tough guy yeah well i like that that part where you know that where the older generation the the ancient jew can't understand your disconnection from the religion when there's pictures of you at your bar mitzvah where you yeah exactly it just doesn't he doesn't understand how it's not integrated into your life yeah and how at a time and again our grandparents

like he was someone who was going to be killed because he was jewish and the only reason he was in america is because he was jewish and that's what same thing with my grandmother, like, she the only reason I exist is because people were trying to kill them. And so the fact that that is no longer this like, thing, you're hanging everything on and is instead like, I'm like, culturally, I'm Jewish, like one of 20 things about me, like, right, you know, I like to play board games. I garden, I'm Jewish. Like I went to baseball camp. I had a bar mitzvah.

Like I think that concept for a generation who was the target of systematic annihilation and had to literally uproot their whole lives and come to where I am because of that targeted annihilation. I think that is something that I would imagine would be hard to reconcile where it's like before Judaism was like, it was everything. If you were a Jewish person, you had to, it dictated a lot of your life and now it doesn't.

And I think that is like a real, right. But you feel it though. You feel it. You feel it you want to see it we do it you want to it is a privilege jewish people now have i think in america for the most part compared to previous generations but do you feel that like you know you you understand jews like you know like are most of your friends jewish uh most of them but i have a lot of jewish friends yeah yeah but like do you have childhood like well uh my friend from summer camp yeah you're still friends with him for sure yeah yeah it's wild right it's wild and none of us are religious and do anything yeah i know but but you but you have

an understanding there's also like not that long ago there was like 30 fucking jews on earth and so like if you go back like a disturbingly few amount of generations we're all related to one another like it is we are cousins i guess so wait how far back have you gone i was on that show you know the show finding your roots oh yeah he got back six generations oh yeah my family go they rogan is an unchanged last name mine is too isn't that ukraine mine too from galicia but my that's the other side my my marin's actually from the palest settlement in belarus in russia yeah my grand one side is from ukraine and from a place called chudnov which i think is now in russia and my grandmother literally

does not did not know where she was born or on what day she was born because she was born like in a caravan fleeing the pogroms wow you should get on that show because they do a good job no i would love to they'll go all the way back it was they did a jew show it was me and jeff goldblum and terry gross and i'm sure that and i'm sure you're all related not that far back in some capacity right i guess i guess we're related i don't know we might have been in the same neighborhood i mean i don't i i don't know if we're related it's why you get sick it's why we have all these it's why we're riddled with disease i mean i know it seems like the the orthodox the chesedim are a little tight like they their their gene pool is so tight that they're actually producing jews that don't even

look like jews like if they like if they didn't have the get up you wouldn't know they were jewish you know what i mean they've mutated beyond jew exactly and there's some other thing a whole new jew how do you feel about the chassidim when you like what is your first reaction when you see them in your mind again not doing us any favors i also am always thinking about how wizards are clearly based on hasidic people like yeah we know culturally as wizards is based on hasidic people like gandalf is based on hasidic people it's so funny i didn't realize that well they are wizards you know exactly that's i i get why i a hundred percent get why they they're the only ones that understand

certain things yeah you know you've got it you've got to be deemed worthy to understand it but but also you have to be stupid in every other way exactly um but but like the thing is weird i used to think that too they're not doing us any favors on some level but they ultimately are a community in direct reaction to uh the holocaust and that the only reason they're living the life they're living and reproducing as much as they are is specifically to make and that the only reason they're living the life they're living and reproducing as much as they are is specifically to make sure that the world is populated with very Jewish people. It's very fascinating. What's our end game here? I hate to break it to Jews. We need non-Jews. There're not gonna like there's a lot

of things we are again we are not cut out to do ourselves we we need the help of our non-jewish friends yeah i don't have like you know i don't i don't have i'm not gonna have any kids yeah exactly i'm not either you guys decided that it's just going that way and no one's no one's turning against it yeah yeah you don't you didn't have like the last so funny because we listened to the last time i interviewed you and i was with the i was uh deeply uh enmeshed with a person who i was going i was slowly surrendering to having children with but uh that i got out buddy i got thank god no we don't kids i don't know like i yeah it seems crazy to me to have kids does your sister have kids she has two kids yes well there you go that's nice more two more jews count them put them on the list but you can you like they're you like her kids right i do they're great yeah because like for me i'm just like i

can't like right now if i picture myself with a child i'm i'm freaking out me too i would i'm not happy because i'm like and where is he what are they doing what is he doing yeah is he eating did he eat as much as he should have is eating too little is eating too much yeah i'm like and i think about the only like problem with not kids is like, will you regret it? But that window is such a smaller window than the regret of having kids. If I had kids now, I could regret it for the next 30 fucking years. If I don't have kids, I'll regret it for the last few years of my life, and then I'll die. You know what I mean?

Yeah. It's not going to be like, it's not a prolonged thing like aren't you you're one of those people though like i could you'd be a good father i that's not my fear and me and my wife are like that's not our fear and like our friends are always like you'd be a good you'd be good parents we're like yeah no that's not why we're like that like i hate to break it to you like some of the dumbest motherfuckers out there are good parents. That doesn't mean everyone has kids. What is your fear then? I don't want that I'm happy not having kids.

You cut in on your you time. Yeah, exactly. And that the world's burning. And that my kid is going to look at me and be like why did you bring me into this fucking shit storm you knew it was bad like yeah no it was bad by the time this shit was happening you didn't know they'll be able to google the day they were conceived and be like sure sure you see what the fuck was going on yeah why did you fucking bring me here yeah it's like uh no those are the two things

we talk about and my wife like you know lauren has had you know a much sadder life than i have and there's a she's a genuine like like life is not always fantastic and why right went into that you know right right is there is that is is this a gift that we're giving someone or or not you know i think that yeah believe me i i've definitely thought about that and the funny thing is is that like i've never and i've been married twice and it was just never a thing that like i it was i never thought about doing it like i mean i knew i could but like i'm like i'm i'm not compelled people who want kids, they want kids. Yeah.

There are tons of people just don't even fucking think about it. Right, right. It's just what you do. It's just what you do. And that's it. I can't quite understand that. Because in my mind, it's like, you know you don't have to. There's plenty of people.

You don't have to. Yeah. And if anything, there are few things worse for people than other people. What problems are more people solve? Do you have pets? I have a dog. Yes. That I love very much. Oh, that's nice. So what was great talking to you? What happens now? What are you going to do today? You're done. It's a whole day already. you've been doing this all day with the talking no not at all i don't i don't i try to i i use the phrase i'd rather do fewer more impactful things so i'd rather to me i know i'd rather talk to you for an hour in the day than talk i don't do a ton of these i heard i heard a secret uh well i

heard something about you from somebody who had been to your house years ago yeah i just want i want to i want to check it off the list was there a tunnel there was huh i my yeah my house had a tunnel that it was uh it was a speakeasy and there was a tunnel that went from the backyard into the neighbor's backyard wild yeah and the front door was one of those speakeasy doors like a giant wooden door with a little like window really opened up so yeah you can see outside yeah um and uh and yeah they had a big i mean it was smack in the middle of west hollywood but it was uh it was a speakeasy yeah that's wild man what else what else do you know about the the history of the place that's it it was built in 1916 i think and okay yeah and it was turned and and during

the prohibition it was a speakeasy in west hollywood and it has a basement had a tunnel in the back in a basement which especially for houses built at that time were like non-existent so you have a basement um yeah i just yeah it's well it's tiny it's enough to hold like i guess some kegs of beer and shit like that well congratulations on all your success it was nice talking to you you too thank you so much most jewish conversation of all time. See, we don't believe in this shit, but it's all we can fucking talk about. So there you go. Well, I mean, you made the movie, buddy. You made the movie.

It's true. I can't help it. It oozes from my pores. Anyway, you too. Hey, man, if you didn't like Jews before that talk, you probably don't like them now. Or if you wondered if you liked Jews, you love them now. Can go either way with the Jews.

American Pickle premieres on HBO Max August 6th. It was a pleasure talking to my brother, Seth Rogen. And now let's play some guitar, not unlike I've played before. Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. Boomer lives. You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs and mozzarella balls, yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats, get almost, almost anything. Order now. Product availability may vary by region.

See app for details. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means.

I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative.