"RE-RELEASE: Sarah Silverman"

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Speaker 1 Hey gang, welcome to Smartless. We are a sweet new podcast starring myself, Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman, and Will Arnett.
And we are complete idiots.

Speaker 1 So what we do is we bring on a guest and we ask them stuff and they make us smarter. Hopefully, it's super cool.
So please come with us and joy the show. Smartless.

Speaker 1 Smart

Speaker 1 less.

Speaker 1 Smart.

Speaker 1 Now, listen, I need to say this before we get too deep into this. I'm about to have a COVID test because it's 2020 and I get them done like once a week or every 10 days.

Speaker 1 We have to with the kids and everything. And mine just happens to coincide with us doing it.

Speaker 1 So at some point during the podcast, I'm going to have somebody come in and she's going to come in and give me that's not true. Yeah.
Why?

Speaker 2 Why does it have to be during our time? And what is COVID?

Speaker 1 Oh, bless him and his.

Speaker 2 Why does she have to do it during our time?

Speaker 1 Because it was.

Speaker 2 Bad scheduling.

Speaker 1 Bad scheduling, but a lot of things conspiring because tomorrow afternoon I'm busy. Uh-oh.
That's always boring. With you.
Wait, what? Uh-oh, you guys golfing? No, no, no. We have a business meeting.

Speaker 1 We're going to charity. Oh, I see.
Charity.

Speaker 1 I guess I'm busy too, yeah. Feeding kids.
Busy.

Speaker 2 Making smiles. Charity meeting.

Speaker 1 I thought you were going to say after your COVID test, you were going to have like

Speaker 1 a reveal party of the results. Oh, yeah.
You know, people get mad because I keep doing on the subway, I used to do gender reveals reveals all the time.

Speaker 1 I'd wear a trench coat and I'd just go, hey, you know,

Speaker 1 and I'd just reveal my gender to people.

Speaker 1 Stupid. I know, it's so dumb.
And people got mad for my gender reveals on the subway. Well, next time you have the results.

Speaker 2 I hear a female laughing. So your guest already, I can tell, is a female or a fella who

Speaker 2 might sound

Speaker 2 like a female. Yes.
Might sound like a female.

Speaker 1 Good for you. Yes.
Good for you. That's restraint.

Speaker 1 look how much you've grown.

Speaker 2 Oh, wait, so let me guess. I know it's a woman.

Speaker 1 It is.

Speaker 1 It's a really, I don't know if you can tell by her laugh, because mostly people are laughing at what she's doing. Okay.
Is it Phyllis Diller?

Speaker 2 So she's a comedian.

Speaker 1 She's a comedian. Well, I mean, she's a lot of things.

Speaker 2 Stand-up or actor.

Speaker 1 You ready for this? Uh-huh. All of the above.
Oh, God. She started as a stand-up, then got into acting, then did sketch, then did SNL, then did her own show.

Speaker 1 one two Emmys, is a hilarious, just all-around hilarious person. She's got a brand new podcast

Speaker 1 that is killing it.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gents, Sean and Jason,

Speaker 1 Sarah Silverman is on the show today.

Speaker 1 Sarah Silverman!

Speaker 1 Woo-hoo! Woo! Woo!

Speaker 1 Look at that. Look at that.

Speaker 1 Good. Why are you embarrassed?

Speaker 2 Because you're smoking the skinniest cigarette I've ever seen.

Speaker 3 It's a toothpick.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, she's tough today.

Speaker 2 Oh, I'm so excited you're here.

Speaker 1 I know. How good is this? So cool.

Speaker 1 Look at this.

Speaker 2 Can you believe it? Price going, Will. I know.

Speaker 1 You guys.

Speaker 2 Price going.

Speaker 1 We're all such fans of yours. You're such a super comedy, hilarious person.
There she is.

Speaker 2 Will, what's your first question? Since you've had time to work on good questions, it's your guest.

Speaker 2 Let's have your best one right now.

Speaker 1 Okay. Sarah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 How's it going? Oh, that's good.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 listen.

Speaker 3 Gender reveal on the subway is the funniest joke, by the way.

Speaker 1 So dumb, right? It's so dumb. That's a great joke.
Oh, my God. I needed to tell that for like four days.

Speaker 3 I've been when you said it. You know, when you hear something and you can't wait to tell a friend, you know,

Speaker 3 it wasn't quite that, but it was like almost that.

Speaker 1 Can I tell you something? So, so I'm going to tell you this, Sarah.

Speaker 1 One of my favorite jokes that I have told many times over and over, or I've retold the scene, which is people's people's least favorite thing to hear when you're like, hey, do you remember the scene where was from the your old program?

Speaker 1 So I'm going to start in the middle from the Sarah Silverman program where you did on Comedy Central. Such a funny show.
It's so good. And you did this bit.

Speaker 1 By the way, I don't know if you could do it today. It was the episode where you wanted some good news, so you decided to get an AIDS test, right? Yeah.
And

Speaker 1 first of all, there are like 80 jokes crammed in this tiny scene. And you go, she goes, did you ever have unprotected sex? And you said, is there any other way?

Speaker 1 Then she said,

Speaker 1 in the 80s, and you said.

Speaker 3 No, yeah. She goes, did you ever have unprotected sex in the 80s? And I go, oh, my God, yes.
And she goes, you did. You had unprotected sex in the 80s.
And I go, oh,

Speaker 3 no.

Speaker 3 I thought you said in Haiti.

Speaker 1 So then, so, so then she goes,

Speaker 1 so then she says, tell me how many times. And so you take a piece of paper and you start writing and you hand it to her.
And she goes,

Speaker 1 what's that and you go that's the number and she goes there are two numbers and you said yeah for the front and back and she goes they're the same number and you said yeah i'm kind of ocd like that

Speaker 1 it was like a domino effect of jokes it just like started and it was just non-stop

Speaker 1 me man i've told that that's such a funny bit and it's such a you're just everything about that scene was again i don't know i think people would might be offended today i don't know there are a lot of problematic things looking back but you know such is comedy.

Speaker 3 It's not evergreen.

Speaker 1 Right. So, so that's my thing: is like you've always been such a, I don't know,

Speaker 1 such a fucking stupid word, edgy, but you know, cutting edge. Like,

Speaker 1 thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 Prayer hands, prayer hands. That, um, do you, what is it? It's like, it's always about the messenger of the joke.

Speaker 1 It's never really about the so you can say, like, on the Sarah Silverman program, you could do a joke about AIDS like that, and people embrace it and laugh because it's you saying it.

Speaker 1 So, what do you think is the difference between you saying it and somebody else saying it and not getting away with it?

Speaker 1 It seems like you get away with a lot of stuff because you're so fucking funny, but it's some of it's pretty dark.

Speaker 3 I think it's the intention behind it. Like, this is a math term, but it's kind of like the absolute power of the joke.

Speaker 3 Like especially back then, I always said the opposite of what I thought, you know, and that was the joke kind of.

Speaker 3 And then hopefully the truth transcends that I don't really feel this way, not to break it down in the least funny possible way. But it is also interesting, too, because like that comedy I did,

Speaker 3 you're right. It was like, oh, it's okay because you know I don't mean it.
But then it also is kind of like, we're liberal, so we can say. anything.

Speaker 3 So we could say, you know, the words that are unsayable or whatever. Like, you know, I don't mean it.
So I could say it.

Speaker 3 Like there is kind of like a liberal like doucheiness about it, I think, and in retrospect. I mean, I don't know.
It's a weird balance.

Speaker 1 I think you're right.

Speaker 1 I was thinking about that the other day, which is like, what's been gone is things have gotten so serious because everybody who's not liberal is so serious and so dark and so real about their negativity or hate or racism or whatever it is that it's taken all of that away.

Speaker 1 You're like, I don't even want to joke about anything, a lot of things that are rough or maybe pushing boundaries because you feel like

Speaker 1 I don't want it to be taken the wrong way because there are so many people who mean it.

Speaker 3 Right. Yeah, there's not enough distance.
You know, it's like so close. Like people go, oh, it's so funny.

Speaker 3 I saw like a comment in Spanish of something that I wrote and I go, ooh, you know, I have a fan that's Spanish. You just then I pressed translate and it was just,

Speaker 3 why don't you stick to comedy and you know, leave politics out of it.

Speaker 1 I was like, oh.

Speaker 1 So wait, I'm sure you've had your share of criticism. Like we all have like positive, negative.

Speaker 1 But is there someone in your life that mattered to you who said that you may have taken certain materials too far or something like that? Which of your friends have you offended, Sarah?

Speaker 1 And lost forever.

Speaker 3 I've actually kind of made friends that started out as like them calling me out.

Speaker 3 Right. Interesting.

Speaker 2 You know, I would guess, and please correct me, but I would guess that one of the things that appeals to you about

Speaker 2 comedy, about thinking of funny stuff and crafting it into something, you know, in order to deliver to an audience is about identifying that which makes some of us uncomfortable, as opposed to some people look, it seems to me, look at other things

Speaker 2 that makes them excited about comedy.

Speaker 2 With you, it seems like you have an affinity for, as do I, trying to identify the thing that all kind of makes us a little bit uneasy because it only exists in our smallest place.

Speaker 2 And you want to kind of bring that out and amplify that and share a common sort of reference point.

Speaker 2 So, are you finding that you're frustrated that outside sources seem to be narrowing those borders and those walls? And now you have to kind of think twice and three times about that.

Speaker 1 Or do you not listen to that?

Speaker 3 I think like what you said, edgy, or, you know, I know it's corny or whatever, but it's like, you can't have it both ways. Like if you do something that is risky, you have to be risking something.

Speaker 3 Like there are consequences.

Speaker 3 You can't get mad that there are consequences. And I don't mind, I like like when young people, you know, like students or whatever, like they teach me new language.

Speaker 3 I'm into that because I feel like they're always on the right side of history. And I want to like learn new words and pronouns, even though I fuck up all the time.

Speaker 2 Fire, by the way, is a new one for something that's good. Okay.

Speaker 3 That's not that new. Fire.

Speaker 1 No, it's brand new. It started yesterday.
That's not new, granddad.

Speaker 1 I had a guy tell me, I had a guy tell me on Twitter, it made me think about... You know, there's an ad that came out for Biden with Sam Elliott doing the voice for it.
I don't know if you heard it.

Speaker 1 And so I just, I retweeted, I said the VO master, right? Because he's just like the voiceover idol of mine. Like, he's so good.
All I said was VO master. And this guy responded, stick to comedy.

Speaker 1 And I thought,

Speaker 1 I was like, wait a second. Do you do voiceovers, Will?

Speaker 1 Who's asking?

Speaker 3 You have to be one thing. You have to be the one thing I know you as.

Speaker 1 Right, yeah. Exactly.

Speaker 3 You are a monolith.

Speaker 1 And it was within my, and I'm like, I can't even comment on voiceover?

Speaker 1 Like, wait a second.

Speaker 3 Also, like, whoever's saying that, what do they do for a job? Are they a critic? I hope that they are only a critic.

Speaker 1 I hope so, too.

Speaker 1 So speaking of sticking to what you do,

Speaker 1 you started doing stand-up when you were young, right? Like

Speaker 3 17. 17.

Speaker 1 That always blows my mind when stand-ups started. How did you scary courage?

Speaker 2 You have more courage at 17, don't you? I did.

Speaker 3 I was a bedwetter until I was almost 16. So by the time that

Speaker 3 I did stand-up, but you know, nothing is humiliating.

Speaker 3 Nothing competes with that kind of humiliation.

Speaker 1 But how did you know how to write at that young age? Like, how did you know how to craft and construct a joke?

Speaker 3 I mean, I wasn't good.

Speaker 1 You know, I just did it.

Speaker 3 I wasn't a good comedian.

Speaker 3 I like did like jokes about, you know, I went to a high school actually that was really, they'd have an assembly on Mondays and Fridays, and they'd let me do like a couple minutes. No way.

Speaker 3 And I had a math teacher that would let me like tell a joke at the beginning of every class as long long as I shut up the rest of it.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow.

Speaker 3 And it was nice. It was like it was really encouraging.

Speaker 1 I studied piano. I know this is where everybody passes out.
I studied piano and classical music when I was much younger.

Speaker 1 And I remember in high school, my dentist told me that he and his wife were throwing a Christmas party. And I would, would I come over and play background music at the party on the piano?

Speaker 1 And I'm like, yeah, totally. Oh, wow.
And serve drinks. Yeah, and serve drinks.
And wear this outfit.

Speaker 2 And couldn't you park cars? Or

Speaker 1 Do you mind wearing a mask?

Speaker 1 The point is when I was done, he handed me $100 and I was blown away that I got paid for a talent that I got something in exchange for the years I, you know, put into honing this craft.

Speaker 1 Do you remember the first time you got paid as a stand-up and like what that was like? Did you report it? And do you remember how old you were?

Speaker 3 When I was 19, I did a road gig at a club called Joker's Wild. And

Speaker 3 what's the town that has Yale in it? But it's like besides Yale, it's gross. Okay, sorry.
I mean, wonderful. So it was like this low-rung, mob-run

Speaker 3 place called Joker's Wild. I was the MC.

Speaker 3 For six shows, I got all together $100.

Speaker 1 Less than Sean got for the

Speaker 3 harassed me the whole time and kept asking me to do cocaine.

Speaker 3 And I had to find my own place to stay. and I stayed with these elderly cousins of friends of my mom's that were both deaf.
It was like a rough week. It was really odd.

Speaker 1 And you're all jet stout? Oh, you're all jet stout?

Speaker 3 No, I did not. I did not do cocaine.
But

Speaker 3 yeah, in the headliner that week, I won't say his, you probably wouldn't know him, but he ended up kind of losing everything. He was like, at that point, he was married.

Speaker 3 He just had a kid, and he was such a nice guy, mostly impressions.

Speaker 3 But then I heard a friend of mine was in NA with him, and he did a brilliant thing. You know, comics are so dark.
They're very close to criminals, you know.

Speaker 3 But

Speaker 3 he would go to open houses and use the bathroom and steal all their drugs, you know, all their medications and stuff.

Speaker 1 Wow.

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Speaker 2 My next question is, what's the perfect balance for you from comedy? Like, what do you like to do that balances you out on any particular day or week or month, hobbies, or

Speaker 3 I'm so boring i love nothing television television watching television ozark oh my god here we go i got it oh my great interview guys

Speaker 1 she hasn't said it's good yet let her finish

Speaker 3 what ozark what so it's such a solid bee of a show no

Speaker 3 it's a god i just i thought

Speaker 3 so anyway you don't need to but thank you i just am a big fan of all of you like but most like individually, I could go off, but I just want to say you're and you're, you know, all of you are brilliant actors, brilliant performers, but your directing is like, it's really beautiful.

Speaker 3 And I thought season three was phenomenal.

Speaker 1 Come on.

Speaker 3 And that's all you get.

Speaker 1 That's a lot. Thank you.

Speaker 2 I will take it. That'll get me to sleep tonight.

Speaker 1 And Will, your, your, the Reese's commercials. Oh, Reese's.
Yeah, the Reese. Sorry, not sorry.

Speaker 2 Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 Sorry.

Speaker 2 So you like watching drama stuff or do you watch it all? What about like reality shows? Like, what about Bachelor? Do you have like a guilty pleasure like that?

Speaker 3 I am watching The Bachelor with my lover. Yeah.
Yeah. And we have a lot of fun.
My wife loves that. It's just fun.
It's so dumb. Yeah.
But it's so fun. It's just big laughs all throughout.

Speaker 3 But besides that, I like dramas. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Do you want to act in one of those or do you just want to watch them?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I would like to act in one of those, but I love watching them.

Speaker 3 I think it's like watching comedy can be when it happens, I'm like, I enjoy it, but it's never my go-to because it's just kind of a little more stressful than right, you know, watching a thriller or watching.

Speaker 1 I would say it's like you know, doctors don't run home and watch crazy anatomy, right? Yeah, it's like you've never said that, Sean. That's a fucking lie.
You've never said that.

Speaker 3 Sean always says that, he does, yeah. But a thriller, yeah, I'd love to be in a like a or like a tactical, is that right?

Speaker 3 Like a born a born movie or like a oh, yeah, you know what I started recording because they've been playing them. I'm is a um old Columbos from the 70s and they're so good.
Oh, Columbos.

Speaker 3 They're like watching a 70s movie. Like they're on film and they Peter Falk, right? Peter Falk.
And the episode we watched was Ruth Gordon in a rare role as a rich lady.

Speaker 1 Oh, I love her.

Speaker 3 She's my favorite. Harold and Maude.
Yes. Of course.
And my favorite movie is Where's Pop?

Speaker 1 Every Which Way But Lose? Huh? Every Which Way But Lose. With Cleanest, but which is.
Any Which Way You Can. Sure.
Any Which Way with one of my favorite lines in any movie.

Speaker 1 When the orangutan is on the thing, and she goes, What are you doing? Eating all the yogurt yolks crapping all over the place.

Speaker 1 That's one of my favorite lines.

Speaker 3 She always leads with her thumb. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Let me ask you this. So, Sarah, can I want to go back to when you started doing, do you remember?

Speaker 3 Hi, you guys.

Speaker 1 Hi, Sarah.

Speaker 3 I'm just happy to see your faces. Sorry.
Go on. No, no, no.
We'll let it all this. We'll make it clean.
No, we don't have to.

Speaker 1 I'm only asking questions because Sean gets really mad if we don't stick to asking questions.

Speaker 2 He doesn't like conversation.

Speaker 1 He doesn't like conversation. And then he feels that the people in the middle of the country in Wisconsin are mad if we're not getting information out of our guests.

Speaker 1 So our guest today is Sarah Silverman, just to remind everybody. Sean, happy now.
And

Speaker 1 Sarah, I just wanted, I was thinking about you being 17, being on stage, and you're trying to write jokes, and you were joking that like they weren't any good.

Speaker 1 But can you remember your first joke that you thought was funny that maybe still is? Yeah.

Speaker 3 My friend Eric Noyes said, does my breath smell like tacos?

Speaker 3 And I said, I don't know. Do you put shit in your tacos?

Speaker 3 That was in high school.

Speaker 3 But I found an old notebook. Like I save all my notebooks.
I found a notebook from when I was like 19. And there were jokes in there that were so bad.

Speaker 3 Like, and and reading it written, you know, it goes,

Speaker 3 and a lot of my jokes early on were like, I don't know, I'm just,

Speaker 3 and so it was like,

Speaker 3 I don't know why my goldfish died. I put it in a tank.
Dot, dot, dot, beat,

Speaker 1 top.

Speaker 1 A tank top. Yeah, sure.

Speaker 2 Do you have a set time each day that you dedicate to, all right, I'm going to stare at the wall. I'm going to think of stuff I can write down for a possible performance or script or whatever it is.

Speaker 2 Or do you just kind of just let stuff happen to you and you always have a little thing in your pocket and you could be at a red light. You can think of something and you write it down.

Speaker 3 Mostly the latter. Yeah.
When I'm my best self, I do, sometimes I'm just sitting in a chair and it really is like, I remember someone calling me and I was just sitting in a chair.

Speaker 3 in my room and that they're like, what are you doing? And I'm like, working. And I know I was being defensive, but I do feel like a lot of it is just sitting, you know, stillness, if you can.

Speaker 1 I thought about the title for your memoir, if you haven't got one already. And I want you to consider

Speaker 1 Goldfish in a tank top.

Speaker 3 That does sound like a comedian's.

Speaker 1 Doesn't it sound like a comedian? That would be great.

Speaker 2 You have to put the ellipses in between tank and top.

Speaker 3 Goldfish in a tank, dot, dot, dot. Yeah, you're right.
Turn page, flip over, top.

Speaker 2 And then in parentheses, get it.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 Upside down questions.

Speaker 3 L-O-L-J-K-J-K-J-K.

Speaker 1 Sarah, I have to ask the cliche question to another funny person. Like, what do you like? Favorite food? What the fuck happened to you as a kid that made you funny?

Speaker 3 Well, I mean, I think I was extremely hursuit. You know, I was growing up in New Hampshire.
Really, I didn't know Jews.

Speaker 3 I didn't, you know, I didn't go to, like a lot of people go, oh, all the bar mitzvah season and all that stuff. I didn't have any of that.

Speaker 3 like my parents are atheists they call themselves agnostic to be more polite

Speaker 3 or jewish to be even more polite

Speaker 3 but like there weren't jews so we like my sister says we thought being jewish just meant being a democrat because that's how we were different in new hampshire you know

Speaker 3 but i i think because of that i was like i was really hairy too and um Wow. Yeah, like my dad goes,

Speaker 3 you know, you want your dad to just think you're so beautiful. And he does, but he, because, like, in high school, he goes, if you want to spend a summa getting electrolysis, I'll pay for it.

Speaker 3 And I was like, why would I do that?

Speaker 1 Jesus, oh, no, never mind.

Speaker 3 He really just meant it to be nice, but then I think he was horrified because I was like, why would I do that?

Speaker 3 We should be acknowledging this, by the way.

Speaker 1 Will, you know, you don't need to do the brain scratcher anymore. Why? Yeah, I want to be thorough.
Did they say stick a thing up your nose for the

Speaker 2 shallow ones are thorough, and so is the saliva one now?

Speaker 1 I mean if it doesn't dude, if it doesn't hurt, if there's no pain, then it's not fucking valuable. Have you not learned that lesson in life?

Speaker 1 That's what my dad said right before you. My dad was right when he said, God, you're stupid.
What the fuck is wrong with you? You'll be nothing.

Speaker 2 You're not listening to your cry.

Speaker 1 Right in between the times that he never told me he loved me.

Speaker 1 You know what's interesting about that?

Speaker 3 So you know how that like makes people go into show business? Like my mom only, she just read People magazine and she didn't look up from it. She didn't come to my games.
She didn't, you know.

Speaker 3 So it's like, I think a part of me wanted to get into People magazine. You know what I mean? Like, right, right.
And I think all of us have, I'm sure that.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 2 Sarah, you mentioned that your parents didn't go to your game. My dad did.
What game? What sport did you play?

Speaker 3 Every sport. I was,

Speaker 3 you know, listen, I'm not bragging.

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 3 was a fast pitch pitcher for the state of New Hampshire

Speaker 3 of softball.

Speaker 3 and um not to minimize it

Speaker 1 so

Speaker 3 and you know and I played soccer and I played um basketball I still play basketball although I haven't since COVID and now I'm like do I still play basketball because like my bones are so rickety now but when you do play it's not you're not going down to like the local park and doing a pickup game you have an organized game a bunch of your friends get together I have gone to pickup games and I do play pickup games but the two games I've been playing out here for the past couple of years, I don't know anyone there outside of that game.

Speaker 3 Like, I don't.

Speaker 1 What's the difference between a pickup game and a game?

Speaker 2 It's all strangers. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You just show up and you say, hey, I want to play. All right.
Well, maybe I'll sign up for one. Yeah.

Speaker 3 But the last time I played outside, I played with this guy. We smoked pot together.
You know, he was adorable, whatever. Thank you.
And then we were all playing.

Speaker 3 And then at the end of the game, we finished and that guy had left a little early.

Speaker 3 He had had taken like five different people's car keys, no way, and then pressed them to see what went boop boop and then got in one and stole one of the guy's cars.

Speaker 1 Wow, this is this is the cute stoner who's all stoned up, he's all weeded up.

Speaker 3 Yeah, well, I like to smoke pot when I play basketball because um, I become incredible or terrible, but it's a grab bag I'm willing to.

Speaker 1 Oh, hang on, hang on. We'd love to get you to repeat that for a PSA if we could, real quick.

Speaker 3 Just hi, I'm Sarah Silverman. You know, when I play basketball, I feel marijuana enhances my game or puts me into a ball.
But either way, it's worth the risk.

Speaker 1 But you also like to smell it when you're not playing basketball.

Speaker 3 I like to have a puff at night.

Speaker 2 Oh, that's nice. Sure.
A little night, night puff, puff. Now, do you follow professional basketball? Are you a Laker fan?

Speaker 3 You know, I like watching it. I mostly like watching like a close game in the last half, last quarter.
I'm not, I don't have like a team that I'm obsessed with or something.

Speaker 2 It's tough to watch the first three quarters.

Speaker 3 I like any underdogs. I mean, but then again, I also like the Warriors just because I love Steve Kerr.
And

Speaker 3 I like the Lakers and I like the Celtics, but only just because of various reasons.

Speaker 1 So, Sarah,

Speaker 1 your resume is so crazy because not only you're an incredible stand-up, but you've been part of some just great, memorable shows, you know, SNL, iconic shows, I should say. SNL, Mr.

Speaker 1 Show, Larry Sanders. I mean, it's incredible that you got to be part of all these things that for somebody like me were shows that really

Speaker 1 kind of spoke.

Speaker 1 I'm trying to.

Speaker 1 Just give me a second. I'm trying to fucking cry.

Speaker 1 Jesus, you just broke it. No, I'll never get there.

Speaker 1 No, I'll never get there. But these are shows that, like, you know, Mr.
Show and Larry Sanders, they showed me, I was like, oh, wait, I want to do that kind of shit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they're like comedy gold shows. Oh, my God.
Yeah. like you like, yeah, set the standard.

Speaker 3 I mean, I got to be on all of those are iconic shows that I had nothing, you know, I was like Zealig.

Speaker 3 I just got very lucky and ended up in

Speaker 3 I'm not being modest, I just, you know, I didn't, I had nothing to do with creating the, you know, I mean, but yeah, it is. It's, I've been in a lot of like very culty

Speaker 3 Star Trek Voyager.

Speaker 1 I know, I love that. Wait, what was your time like at SNL? And

Speaker 1 do you watch it now?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I watch it. I watch it, and I'm a fan of it.

Speaker 1 Take the pause out and post. No, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 I mean, it's, I had the year that I was there, I would never want to take back.

Speaker 3 It was like hard and it was long and it was frustrating and, you know, but I got along with everybody, you know, and stuff. It was really a different time, you know.
I mean, it was, I mean,

Speaker 3 they didn't have computers. Like, we wrote our sketches on legal pads and gave it to a room of typists.

Speaker 1 Right. Wow.
Well, how did you like living in New York?

Speaker 3 I love New York. Yeah.
I moved moved there when I was 18. I love New York.
I love just walking through the streets.

Speaker 2 Do you wish you still live there?

Speaker 1 Because I'd love to live there, but I have to live here for other reasons.

Speaker 3 I'd love to live there too. But I mean, the last time I had an apartment there, it was $450.

Speaker 3 You know, I lived on a five-floor walkup where I, you know,

Speaker 3 there was a guy who lived on our floor. We had our own bathroom, but it was a building that had a lot of like padlocked bathrooms in the hallway that the apartments shared.

Speaker 1 It was a real dark kind of place.

Speaker 3 And then this guy who just got out of prison lived in on our floor.

Speaker 3 And my roommate and I were walking downstairs, and he was walking behind us with a friend, and he dropped a box of bullets.

Speaker 3 Bullets were just running down our legs, running through our legs down the stairs, and neither of us acknowledged it. We just acted like it was not happening.
We were so scared.

Speaker 1 That's hilarious.

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Speaker 1 Sarah, who do you find absolutely hilarious? Like, either growing up or now, like, who you're just like, oh my God, I can't get enough of blank because they're so funny.

Speaker 3 So many people I know. If I start out, have you seen Kate Burlant? She's incredible.
I love Teg Notaro. I love

Speaker 3 Zach Galfanakis. I love

Speaker 3 Kyle Dunigan, this guy, Kyle Dunnegan.

Speaker 3 He just, you know, they're people that just make you.

Speaker 2 It sucks like that for me.

Speaker 1 That kills me.

Speaker 1 So funny.

Speaker 3 And then he's just got this huge heart, too. And, you know, he's just like a good, such a solid, lovely person.

Speaker 3 And he's so funny. You know, I like it.

Speaker 2 What about back in the day, somebody who made you laugh that,

Speaker 2 well, I guess you can't really say who made you laugh back then, but based on how your sense of humor has changed now, kind of doesn't.

Speaker 2 I mean, there's certainly television shows and movies that I thought were funny back then that I would watch today and go, oh, no, that doesn't hold up. Or, or my sense of humor has just changed.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, I've gone so many directions. Like my friend Mark Cohen, years ago, when I first started, he'd put a nickel on his head and say, Jewish Ash Wednesday.

Speaker 3 And I cried because I was so sensitive. And then I went like 180 degrees, you know, but I'm the same inside, you know, but like I was so upset by that, you know.

Speaker 1 Oh, really?

Speaker 2 Yeah, an example of how people change, people's tastes change.

Speaker 2 And you kind of have to find yourself trying not to factor that in when you're thinking of stuff that might be best suited for something that needs to appeal to a wide audience because the people who are financing this don't want it to appeal to a narrow audience.

Speaker 2 Do you have to?

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, that's why I think I approach

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 3 prefer to be niche.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 3 You know what I mean? Like,

Speaker 3 you know, it's, there's a lot of rules in the mainstream. Right.
That's why I'm doing this podcast now.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And called the Sarah Silverman Podcast. And the one cool thing about it is like, even if you're on cable or streaming or something, I mean, you can really say anything.

Speaker 3 I think I said fuck way too many times in the first few episodes because I felt so free.

Speaker 3 And you have to have the kind of get those same lessons that you have when you do stand-up where it's like now it's just gratuitous it's lost any power it isn't cool you're using it as a crutch but i had to kind of learn it over again because i was suddenly so excited to get to say anything i wanted that i was like fucking this and fucking that i listened back and i was just like oh yeah yeah what i always thought you did such a great job of doing you do it when you were like on a panel like on a um your guest on a talk show or whatever you found ways to i think a lot of people you were for a long time considered kind of like dirty or you would do, you would dress jokes up.

Speaker 1 You never knew what you trojan horse, like you'd come in and you dress it up and be kind of super bright about it. And then the punchline would be really dark.

Speaker 1 And you found a way to constantly, it's kind of going back to Sean, I feel, I sound like an old man, like you were edgy, but you found ways to push the boundary and you didn't necessarily swear, but you did not shy away from making jokes that were hit really hard.

Speaker 3 I never felt dirty.

Speaker 1 Like everyone would be like, she's a putty mouth.

Speaker 3 Like she's dirty. And I guess I am, but like, I never feel that way because I was raised in a house where you used just the words weren't taboo, you know? So it's not like I swear a lot, really.

Speaker 3 It's more like I use technical language or explicit, maybe, you know.

Speaker 1 Yeah, right. You didn't say, you didn't say fuck a lot.
You didn't do that at all. Like you found a way to bring people to a punchline that was potentially really

Speaker 1 they hadn't heard it before and it was kind of dangerous and you were kind of pushing the boundaries. Can I ask you this?

Speaker 1 So are there any kind of Jason asked you if you want to do like a drama or anything like that, but are there any like comedy people for Reels that you would want to work with or comedy directors that you think, like, oh, I could, you know, I haven't done a lot of comedy.

Speaker 3 Well, this is the thing:

Speaker 3 the things I've been in in comedy, like in movies, it's like

Speaker 3 this has changed a lot, but since you know, it's the angry girlfriend or the angry roommate or the

Speaker 3 sleaze bag

Speaker 3 executive, or, but it's like, so I go, after a while, I go, I just don't even want to be in comedies because the access I have to comedies is I can't be a comedian in a comedy playing a straight role.

Speaker 3 It doesn't, it's stupid of me. It doesn't, I don't make money from doing movies.
I lose money making movies. I

Speaker 3 get the least amount of money. I can't be on the road, you know.
So that's why it's like dramas or something where I'm in like someone else's domain is, it just makes sense.

Speaker 3 I just want to play, if I'm in a comedy, I want to be funny in it.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 3 And otherwise, you know, I just want to do interesting things.

Speaker 3 You know, I like acting, but I like doing everything.

Speaker 1 Sarah, I don't even know where to go. I mean, we could talk to you all day.
It's so fun having you here.

Speaker 3 We've been talking for so long. I can't.
We haven't talked about it. I'm so sorry.

Speaker 2 We've taken a lot of your time.

Speaker 3 Very generous. I'm so happy to be just seeing you and talking to you.
Likewise. But we'll wrap it up.

Speaker 1 let's someone wrap up we're gonna wrap it up but we're gonna say you're an absolute delight you are a you're a comic titan i'm gonna say that i find you to be so fucking consistently hilarious you've made me laugh so many millions of times so thank you royalty yeah royalty doesn't it make you feel old i remember when joan when you'd go oh joan you're a legend she'd be like fuck you i'm still vital you know like

Speaker 3 it makes you feel done yeah i the next thing i do you know how like your agent will go ooh, but we got with or and for the credits.

Speaker 1 And you go,

Speaker 1 who cares?

Speaker 3 Why is that a thing? I want and introducing. That's really.

Speaker 1 Sure.

Speaker 3 I want them to fight for that.

Speaker 1 My thing I keep going to is I'm asking my, my, I'm like, I want to fight for in advance, fight for my position in the in memoriam segment on like the Emmys and stuff.

Speaker 3 Oh, I'm already working on my replay.

Speaker 1 I want to get the final

Speaker 1 final card.

Speaker 1 Fuck. And I want to bring down the house do you know the song will do you know the song you want to play five dollar footloin

Speaker 1 five dollar

Speaker 1 five dollar footloin

Speaker 1 i love that

Speaker 2 we love you sarah thank you sarah bye sarah thank you

Speaker 1 bye sarah silverman bye thanks so much

Speaker 1 so funny always uh

Speaker 1 you know

Speaker 1 there's that gross word again but always edgy dark like she's the kind of comedy you choose when you really want to, it's like truth comedy, you know?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I always thought of her, and she's one of the cool kids. Like, she was just so funny in such a great, real way.
You're like, shit, man, I just don't want to fuck up around her. Yeah.

Speaker 1 She's so funny. You know, that's how I don't want to be unfunny at any time.
Yeah, I don't want to be a fucking loser. You got you're so stupid to even think that.

Speaker 1 And then I just don't even get out of my car.

Speaker 2 I'd love to go see her do stand-up.

Speaker 1 I don't think I've ever. I saw her do a stand-up at the improv in Melrose, and her opening joke was about rape

Speaker 1 just to sort of drop the flag and say here here it comes yeah so yeah you have to be a fan and uh and be open-minded but I am and I'm a huge huge fan well I think you know and she made such a great point you she's made a lot of jokes that like has taken people aback over the years or whatever but she's right it's all about intention and her intention is good she's a good person and she's going the right direction and she wants

Speaker 1 I think that

Speaker 1 sometimes she has to make jokes like that to kind of shed light on the other side.

Speaker 1 And that's her style. Yeah.
And I love it. I respect it.
And she's got a new podcast, the Sarah Silverman Podcast, and it is great, of course.

Speaker 1 I've heard it. It's fantastic.
Yeah, it's super good. And she's a stone-cold babe.
Yeah, she's a stone cold babe. She's a babe.
She's a stone-cold babe. And you know what the third thing is?

Speaker 1 Yeah, we can say that. The third thing is

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