TCB Infomercial: Roy Wood Jr.

I was at the gun range and I saw somebody get bad service at the gun range. How you gonna be rude to somebody who showed up to practice murder? On this episode of the Commercial Break.
And the Rockets red hair. Don't forget America is good.
That's, when you're at the DMV for four fucking hours, yeah, before you leave, sing the shit. Yeah.
I'm going to give you your license. Yeah.
That's so true. The next episode of The Commercial Break starts now.
Yappa, yappa, yappa, yappa. Oh, yeah.
Guys and kittens, welcome back to The Commercial Break. I'm Brian Green.
This is my dear friend and the co-host of this show, Chris and Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Chris.
Best to you, Brian. Best to you out there in the podcast universe.
Welcome to a TCB infomercial Tuesday. So happy to have you here.
We are very excited because I think maybe the guest gods are smiling on us this year in 2025. Not that they haven't in the past, But we're going to start off with a bang.
We had Felipe Esparza, but he was recorded back before 2025. And now, today, Roy Wood Jr.
Roy Wood Jr. Who I have often said is Roy Jones Jr., but that's a different guy altogether.
My old brain doesn't work so well. I told Astrid this morning, I'm like, I'm so excited.

We're talking to Roy Jones Jr.

And she's like,

it's Roy Wood Jr.

And I was like,

yeah,

oh yeah,

that's a boxer,

Roy Jones Jr.

Yeah,

he tried to say that the other day.

That's what happens when you get old.

You start mixing names up.

Roy Wood Jr.

is coming in to talk to us.

Daily show fame.

Daily show host.

Last Comic Standing

has had a number of specials out there.

Roy Wood Jr. is where you can go to find out all the information including on the 17th of January his new special on Disney's Hulu Lonely Flowers and I'm really excited to see the new special I've seen clips of it a couple of months ago I watched his I guess the most recent special No One Here W one here wants you or no one wants you or something like that and um it was an hour of hilarity he is really good at what he does yeah and he was in a huge room i mean there might it must have been 5 000 6 000 people anyway he's extremely popular you know him from the daily show um the correspondence dinner cnn oh yeah he does that thing on cnn too yeah where he does weekly quiz about the news.
I read. I haven't seen it, but I read that he also did a BBC version of that same show also.
So there you go. He's all over the place.
Started off in morning radio. He did.
In Birmingham, Alabama. Buck Wild.
Buck Wild. Is that Memphis or Birmingham, Alabama? I can't remember which one was the Buck Wild show.
Yeah, I it might have been Memphis God, that's got to be a really difficult job morning show? he was a writer on a morning show a writer on a morning show that'd be like being a writer on the commercial break yes how do you do that? where do you even start? what are you writing about? I guess anything flies yeah, I guess you just like look at things you know, look at the news and you have but he's much more funny than we'll ever be so there you go but that's not that's not an extremely high bar to get there i don't know uh but i did want to mention on on a serious note you know uh los angeles is uh right now as we're recording this engulfed in flames and they by some accounts may take weeks to kind of get all the hot spots tampered down and let's hope that the santa anna winds are with uh are with the people of los angeles and that these fires settle down just a little bit i'm going to put a link in the show notes to an organization that is helping people um find shelter if they don't have shelter there's a lot of people out there that have been affected by this that probably are not going to have a hard time finding shelter. It's Pacific Palisades.
It's a very rich, affluent poncey area and beautiful area of Los Angeles. Such a shame because it really is very, just out there months ago.
And man, we drove through the Pacific Palisades. It's gorgeous.
We have friends that live out there. People that work with the show live out there and everybody in los angeles is really uh scared right now and so we're going to put a link in the show notes to uh an organization that is helping people find shelter if their homes or their apartments or whatever have been set on fire um this is the time when we all need to pull it together i mean imagine if you live near a major metropolitan city, imagine that your city was just engulfed in flames with no, with zero opportunity.
I mean, you can have all the firefighters in the world. When flames are out of control like that, you just need helicopters to keep dumping water and hope that your house doesn't go up in flames.
So our hearts are with the people of Los Angeles right now and our friends and family that are out there. And I really hope that these people find some relief because it's terrible.
Quite frankly, I thought Roy lived in Los Angeles. Yeah, he's in New York.
We think. We think.
We don't know. I mean, he's coming on the show, so I'm assuming he's not in any kind of danger, though we have had guests that have canceled because they are in danger.
So we know this situation is very serious. So, oh, and one more thing I wanted to shout out.
My wife sent this to me this morning. I think this will probably still be the fact when this comes out just a couple of days later, is that Airbnb is now offering free shelter to anyone that has been displaced by those fires.
You can contact, you can go to Airbnb website if you live in Los Angeles and and fill out some forms, I think I went on there earlier and you fill out some forms and then they will get you in touch. No charge.
There's no charge. I don't know how long that's going to last for it.
That is an amazing thing, quite frankly, that Airbnb is doing. And while I've had my gripes with Airbnb in the past, I would say that if I was in that situation, I would be kissing the feet of Airbnb for allowing me and my family members to have some shelter during this situation.
It's crazy. It really is.
And we're here complaining about snow. We're here complaining about one quarter inch of snow.
And, you know, it's apocalyptic in Los Angeles. I saw those flames over the comedy store.
The before and after. Oh, Chrissy.
Some of that stuff is just awful. I mean, there's quite a few landmarks that are just completely gone.
I know they're really like the Getty, I think, museum was. Around it got burned, but they were managed to save the museum from any kind of damage.
Yeah. Scary.
It is really scary. And, you know, I know they deal with this all the time out there, but it's, you know, you can predict a hurricane.
You know what hurricane season is. You know when a hurricane is coming.
You can predict a snowstorm. You see it coming down the pike.
Even tornadoes, there's favorable conditions for this or that, even though there's a little bit more random. But earthquakes and fires, two things they deal with very frequently over there.
There is no rhyme or reason. And once a fire gets going, remember Backdraft, the of course backdraft was this movie you can go watch a ron harrod ron howard film and they talked about in the movie how the fire had a personality and it moved up the wall and it took on a life of its own change this way change that way yeah go that way and it could move like a person and all this other stuff and i thought it was kind of hanky panky you know-pokey bullshit when I first watched it.
But I've come to believe over the years as I've watched some of these wildfires unfold on the news, that it's true. Like fire just kind of takes on a personality of its own.
And then it, you know, dry conditions, wind. I mean, it can go anywhere.
I think I talked about this when it happened, but when theaii fire happened when the maui fire happened um we are neighbors they're his brother which i won't get into too much detail but his brother they lived out there their house burned down they were in a car with all of their young children driving through a nightmarish hellscape of fire all around them as fast as they could to save themselves from burning and watching their home and their business go up in flames.

And we had a chance just to talk to them briefly about this.

And I don't know how the kids will ever recover from seeing that.

And so anyway, listen, I don't need to dwell on the negative, but if you can do some positive,

because we know the TCB audience can do some positive when we put our minds together, please go do that. We'll put links in the show notes.
Let's get on to happier things. Well, hold on.
I have to say on that subject that Jeff and I were talking last night about it, and we were like, it got us thinking, like, if we had to get out right now, what would we take? And it's a good exercise in what's essential and absolutely necessary that you would yeah you know we have a location stuff is just stuff yeah in the end but we have a location in our house where we keep some stuff that is the stuff that i want to take if i can take it and if i can't take it i have a picture of it a copy of it uh and medications on standby if you need them to take them or like, you know, an EpiPen or whatever we have in a bag that we can, a go bag that we can go. We have a little bit thought this through, but God bless.
Thank God we're not in that situation. We're actually going to be the opposite.
Instead of running from our homes, we're going to be staying in our homes for the next couple of days as we try and get through, you know, whatever, snowpocalypse 2025 or whatever it is.

Anyway, let's get on to happier things.

Roy Wood Jr., former host, rotating host of The Daily Show.

You know him.

You know Roy Wood Jr.

Roy Wood Jr. is very famous, and he's blessed us by agreeing to come on our show.

And so let's do this.

Why don't we take a break?

And when we get back from that break,

through the magic of telepodcasting, we'll be in conversation.

Telepodcasting.

You haven't noticed over all these interviews that that's how I say it.

I have, but I'm just hitting me funny.

It just goes to show just like Astrid. Chrissy is usually tuned out of everything I'm saying.

She's learned to tune my voice out. But the magic of telepodcasting, Roy Wood Jr.
After these words, we'll be back. I have a wild idea.
Go to our Instagram and follow us at the commercial break and then go to our TikTok and follow us there at TCB podcast and then go to our YouTube, youtube.com slash the commercial break and follow us there. And then text us at 212-433-3TCB and tell us that you followed us on all of those other places.
And then go to our website, tcbpodcast.com and browse, I guess. Well, those are all the ideas I have for today.
So see you tomorrow. Bye.
Hey, all you cats and kittens out there in the podcast universe. I want to tell you about Rule Breakers with Soraya.
It's a new podcast from our partners at Odyssey that celebrates the rebels, the risk takers, and the ones who make their own way. It's these people who often change the lives of the people around them and the world at large.
And while in the moment it may be hard to see the forest through the trees, those Rule Breakers often define what it means to be a success. Each week, former wrestling superstar Surya sits down with the boldest voices in sports, entertainment, and beyond to talk about breaking barriers, defying expectations, and rewriting the rules.
They're talking about it all, the fights, the failures, and the moments that changed everything. You can follow and listen to Rule Breakers with Surya on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.
And hear, hear to the Rule Breakers for keeping life interesting. Thanks for coming on the show, man.
This is an honor and a pleasure. We are big fans, and thank you for agreeing to spend a little time with us clowns over here.
Hopefully you're not out in L.A. Are you in L.A.? Yeah, that's the question.
No, I'm in New York, thankfully, but I've got a lot of friends down bad out there. We're kind of still waiting for all the comedians to do a roll call, and we'll figure it out.
You know, same as COVID. You know, there's a charity called Comedy Gives Back.
Yep, yep i remember that did a huge telethon and make sure that entertainers because you know entertainment's the first thing to go when the world shuts down so yeah you know we'll look out for people i know that there you know there is the assumption of oh it's all rich houses so they're all straight and ain't all rich people up there sometimes no no yeah that's true i was just out there a couple of months ago or maybe like six months ago eight months ago it's not all rich people and even even in rich communities there are people who service those communities and people who work in those communities and people who live in the your job was in this place that building burnt down too yeah and that is a terrible thing those images are apocalyptic. They really are.
And to think that it's happening in a major metropolitan city, it'd be like the Great Fire of Chicago or something, right? I stopped looking. I stopped looking.
And then the thing that got me mad about all of the fires in Los Angeles is, how can I put this? Do you remember when there would be a tragedy in this country there would be a tragedy and then we would all cry and the news would cover it and then there would be all the magazine articles that show you all the pulitzer photographs of the tragedy and then we would move on from that tragedy and then about a year after that tragedy then you would get the conspiracy theories then those people would come out and go hey man what happened didn't really happen you go tell me more but now the fuck it's right away i don't know the conspiracies are happening yeah in real time with the fucking information.

Motherfucker.

Let me, let people get through this shit.

It seems real fishy that there's a laser beam in that fire.

Did you see that? Yes.

Bro, the fire's still going.

People are still trying to get out of their houses.

I was reading.

Disrespect.

It's crazy.

I was reading that fucking x was just a

cesspool of shit right now i'm sorry i just got to say it out loud i'm sure everybody's thinking it if they're not saying it out loud but i still go to x when these events happen because you can see things in real time and a lot of times at least in my algorithm you know i've it's been tailored to me so i some of the noises flirted out but it's jewish space lasers already and it's this stuff and i think you're

right about this everybody is so keen to be sure that they know something that everybody else doesn't that they're fucking special that they understand something everybody else doesn't understand you're a moron yeah like imagine having the discussion about the melting point of steel on September 12th.

Yeah.

At least you got

the Loose Change documentary.

What was that like three years after the fact like it was yes it was way after now we can dissect government conspiracy but now everything is happening at the same time and i say all that to say that when you start trying to place blame mid tragedy, then you were taking focus away from the recovery efforts and people, even the compassion needed for people to have for those people. So I don't, I don't like that.
You are so right about this. What you in Los Angeles, this is affecting people who can, who have platforms.
So I think it's like some people who have platforms. So it's kind of out loud.
It's a megaphone. But there's still people.
They still have homes with families. And, you know, yeah, okay, maybe some of those people will be able to recover.
And financially, they'll take less of a hit than other people. But everybody gets caught up in it.
It's a major metropolitan city. city it's a heartbeat of this country and we should all care about the the exacerbation of these things because of the way that we're shitting on the earth it's just it's fucking morons yelling the the the mayor cut the funding on the fire department which if you dig deeper it's not even a goddamn truth.
There was a lot of money still given to the fire department. So there's no space for truth because we don't even take time to feel anymore.
I know, it's scary. We don't care about folks.
How did you get such an... You know, when you were on The Daily Show,

which is, I think, when a lot of us connected with you, right?

And I know you've been doing this for a long time.

No, but that's fair.

It's fair to say.

Unless you watched me on Last Comic Standing Season 10.

Or I heard your morning show.

Or I heard your morning show.

Yeah, you did me to Alabama.

Buckwild.

Number one.

We're in Atlanta. We're close to Alabama.
you're soft enough sometimes, I think, gentle enough

that, or you're soft enough

sometimes that I think it can be

received no matter which perspective you have

and I think that is a mix that doesn't

come around a lot.

Where did you get this kind of

world view? Is this just like

life under your feet?

Is this miles under your feet that gives you

this? I mean, I grew up reading newspapers. I'm the child of a radio news journalist your dad was very famous right and so my dad was you know for his era he was the first black in a lot of strange newsrooms and he traveled the globe covering various conflicts got shot at pretty much everywhere including america got shot at a lot of places he was covering bullshit so i grew up in a house where larry king live was always on c-span yeah always on you know granted it was in the back room and my dad was recording it but it was on yeah um you know that shaped a lot of just being curious about the world.
And like, I remember, I remember fourth grade, man, in the 80s, everybody, everybody could write a rap song. Like the teacher, I don't know, it was one of those, if y'all stop being assholes, I'll let you rap on Fridays.
The teacher was bargaining with you. Yes.
Well, you know, one of those. That was smart.
One of those dangerous mind. Yeah.
Michelle. Who's the actress? Michelle Pfeiffer.
Yeah. One of those Michelle Pfeiffer.
Hey, you black kids in the inner city. Stop being mean.
And I wrote a rap song about Michael Dukakis running against George Bush. Oh, my God.
I remember that. Everybody else, I'm rapping.
I'm the hippo, the hopper, the basketball is my favorite. Just vote.
Vote for Dukakis, Bush and Quayle. So that's me.
Even get out the vote. That's me.
That's who I've always been. And so when I look at when I look at the world now, you know, I majored in journalism.
You know, I had an eye for more quirky, weird stuff. I always enjoyed watching pieces by Jenny Moose on CNN.
Kenny Mayne as well. People were a little quirk, a little different.
Their approach to the a little more kaleidoscopic. Yep.
And how they view that's kind of where it came from were you a fan of anthony bourdain no loved bourdain like bourdain is the gold standard for any shows that are pitched after him i couldn't agree bourdain for this the bourdain for this the only person that i think was more ahead of the curve than Anthony Bourdain in a way is Dave Attell. He had a show on Comedy Central called Insomniac.
Right. I used to watch that.
And Insomniac, he would go around third shift, various cities, and it was kind of part Bourdain, part dirty jobs. You're right about that.
It was a brilliant show. Brilliant show.
Yeah really was i was just talking to uh one of somebody that works here with us like a booking agent and i was just she was talking about dave attell and i was like dave attell to me is one of my heroes because as a young man growing up that show was mind-blowing the fact that he could sit there and go with the garbage man in manhattan for two hours three hours on his shift or go under the city in the sewers or whatever make it funny make it interesting but then teach you something along the way was uh he just broke the mold heckling tattoo artists mint needles while they're poking people like this man is psychotic but he's great so this exploration of the world and what's going on and why things are the way they are i had that i get at the daily show and what changed was the daily show when you look at any world issue and you're trying to mine humor from it right the more painful and terrible and horrific the thing is, there's not pain in the actual thing.

The jokes come in the causation or the prevention. Wow, interesting.
If you're looking at, say, the LA fires, we could go back and roll back the clocks and look at Mayor Karen Bass and her policies regarding fire funding. Find truth in that or not.
or you can go on the angle of conspiracy theorists muddying the information pool when people are trying to evacuate so those are two realms where you could crack jokes safely and it's not at the expense of the people that are suffering the most the victims yeah so the daily show gave me a eye for that because trevor noah my comedy before daily show was very angry i was rooted in anger anger was the main ingredient from which i mind the humor where you can change anger into why is or have you ever noticed and you can go to the same places and people are more inclined to receive that. I think, yeah, I think that's, that's a really keen observation and it's a keen way of looking at things.
And maybe that is part of the ingredient that attracts me to your comedy is that it's not, you're not coming at someone hot. There are comedians who do this really well, right?

They do it well.

Yeah, there are comedians who do this well.

And I think, who is the,

Louis Black was one of the guys.

Louis Black is great.

He's great.

Ronny Chieng.

Yes.

He's kind of like a new Louis Black-ish in a way.

Agreed.

He can get ranty.

I just, I can't do it.

Also, I think my face is too round.

You want to.

Teddy bear face.

So, as we were recording this, Jimmy Carter's getting laid to rest.

And Jimmy Carter, probably the best ex-president that ever lived.

I think some people would argue that maybe not the best president that ever lived.

But he certainly was a man who dedicated the second half of his life to amazing things, right? We were watching, and I'm interested to hear your perspective. We were watching some of the coverage of this, and we see all of the ex-presidents are sitting there in the first two rows.
Oh, yeah. Over there chuckling with Obama.
He's chuckling with Obama, and then Bush walks into the row. Obama stands up because Laura Bush is there with George and so he stands up, I imagine, to let them in and to be a gentleman and Trump doesn't even look at them nor does George Bush look at him.
Roy, what is your take? I think it's so insane that even when petty it's petty bullshit and there are six people on this earth five people on this earth now that are alive that have been the most powerful quote-unquote men in the world and usually the funerals are where we can at least act like civilized fucking human beings for a minute. But this guy can't even for two seconds swallow his fucking, I don't know what it is.
Here's the bigger thing you missed as well. Michelle Obama's not there.
Not there. I thought that too earlier.
I was like, she doesn't even want to be in the room with him. It could be a million reasons.
But if you know you got to sit by Trump and Melania, maybe you don't want to do it. You know, you're looking at the same thing the week before when Vice President Harris is swearing in all the members of Congress.
And the husband of one of the Nebraska owners wouldn't shake her hand. Yeah.
This is your wife's first day at work, asshole. Why are you even here when they're giving out name tags yeah it is unbelievably uh insane to me what is your take on the same people that go we need to come across the aisle we need to come together together we're together you won't even shake my hand at another dude's fucking funeral roy they can't even get in the same aisle together they can't even shake hands when they're on the same aisle it's become a totally dysfunctional i mean the government has been dysfunctional for a lot of people for a long time it doesn't work for many people and i think that's part of the reason why we end up with a second trump term but what is your take award shows it's like award shows i went to the bett awards and they like literally have like the seat place signs the day before for rehearsal yeah and you're like okay we got to make sure 50 cent can't be next to ja rule but you can't be too close to ashanti but it's this guy shanti sits here but jay-z he's not confirmed it's that weird thing but with old politics with old white men i think that i think that we're we're in we're in a bad place and i think even within trump's cabinet right now you're still seeing infighting and dismay so they can't even come across the aisle on the same side of the aisle so it's really think to a degree a lot of this a lot of this presidential term will come down to how efficient of a cabinet he has yeah this isn't even about congress or this you know senate or the house coming together and can they no can you motherfuckers at your private decide on what you're going to propose for the people to argue about in the chambers? I couldn't agree with you more.
You can't do it, can you? No. Argue about immigration.
What's the best you got so far, motherfucker? Oh, let's buy Greenland. Change the name of the Gulf of Mexico.
Imminent domain? That's what he voted for? Yeah. Hey, I make Canada the 51st state, you fucking idiots.
It's unbelievable. I don't even think Panama has a standing army.
I mean, you're picking a fight with someone that I don't even think has a standing army. Why don't you go down there and take their little river dock machine? I know.
And by the way, Mexico is building a better river dock machine. So I don't think the Panama Canal is going to be as valuable as Trump thinks it is.
When you did a special, I wanted to say this to you. You did a special.
I watched it a couple of months ago. And I was reminded before you came on of the very beginning of the special.
You start talking about the national anthem and how uncool it is. And if you just made made a cooler national anthem maybe we could all stand for patriotism a little bit more but don't you agree that this was done well one time one time by Whitney Houston the national anthem was sung in a way where we could all get the feels about the national anthem I'm not going to say what I'm saying in an unpatriotic sense i'm simply asking a question of why at fun shit do we have to sing the anthem and remember the country don't forget america good yeah now football no you should be singing this shit got audited.
I've been audited three times by the IRS. And I don't know if you've ever been in a labor dispute with an employee over like wages and stuff where it gets really messy.
And you have to go up to the Department of Labor in New York State. I had to drive to albany to prove i did not owe this fucking guy

what he said i owed him and and i was very angry at how fucked up this country is that someone can literally just on a sheet of paperwork and a rumor without even having an opportunity for discourse have all my shit fucking frozen so i can't even do business with the other people that are honest and that I want to pay.

No way.

Now you should make me stand for the anthem because i'm not feeling very patriotic because this country is fucked and the way you allow people to fuck each other and the rockets don't forget america is good that's that's when you're at the dV for four fucking hours, yeah, before you leave, sing the shit. I'm going to give you your license.
Yeah, that's so true. I understand the need for the anthem, but I just wish we would write a new one that was jamming a little harder.
Just because something's old doesn't mean we have to keep doing it. True.
Yeah, no, I don't disagree with you. Yeah, I don't disagree with you.
Try for more. And that was a funny, like, when you get into, like, the idea of research, and to your earlier question to me, journalistically, the idea of doing research on a topic I find fascinating.
And it wasn't until I wrote that joke and I went, well, where did the anthem? We know Francis Scott Key made the flag, but who wrote the anthem? And then you realize the anthem is a remake of a British song. Oh, this is right.
You've talked about this in a special. That's right.
So it's not even an original fucking track. This shit we've been singing this whole time is based on a beat by the motherfuckers we whooped.
I'm nominating you to come up with something new. So maybe we should have a new anthem.
And that was all that was. And thankfully, the real patriots didn't get mad.
They understood where I was coming from. Well, I mean, I think we can all agree that the national anthem as a jam is a little bit outdated.
As a jam, it's a little bit outdated. The DMs are too low.
I know. But I still, every time I hear that, Whitney, it'll are too low.
Every time I hear that version by Whitney Houston, it gives me chills up my spine. I think that's the only version of the National Anthem that has given me chills.
It's the only one. I would counter with Jimi Hendrix on the guitar.
Oh, yeah. That's a classic.
Woodstock, where he did it? Yeah. He did it at Woodstock and he did it at the Montreal Jazz Fest also.

And there's two versions that float around.

The one where he set the guitar on fire was the Montreal one.

But man, yeah.

He slayed it.

It's like, okay, give me that.

Yes.

But otherwise, just let the game start.

We know America's dope.

I don't, you know, or maybe like after you, like when the McRib comes back. You think this country's fucked up.
But then the McRib came like right after the election. And that was perfect timing.
You think that's not a coincidence? Don't be happy. The mainstream media don't want you to realize this.
See, they give us the food to pacify us. We don't get angry, but the election, I saw a laser beam in the fire.
The fire came right after they took the McGreal away. I ain't saying that the McGreal keeps us peaceful.
That guy has two million followers while I'm struggling to get three likes on a fucking TikTok. This is the fucking craziest shit, Roy.
We have been saying that we've been doing this for five years. No bluster in these sales.
I'm just going to say it like it is. We tend to be somewhere near the up of the charts of the podcast universe.
We've been blessed in our audio sense. But we have 2,000 Instagram followers.
We are on the struggle fucking bus to get anybody to pay attention to us on social media. It is worst in the algorithm has has put us in algorithm jail my penis is small i don't know what's going on but the at youtube uh instagram and tiktok it's just so difficult but then i will see right now yeah i will see an old white man with his shirt off with big old man titties flopping around to some song and he's

got six million followers and anything that he does he farts on the camera and then he gets 50,000 likes it's unbelievable what yes this is what's wrong with this country and a brand deal and then some energy drink and give him a hundred thousand hey i'm fart man when i'm farting i drink again extreme murder water

whatever they call it now

right death

it's me

I'm farting, I drink extreme murder water. Whatever they call it now.
Right. Death.
It's me, McGillicuddy Floppy Titties here for murder water. Mouth drown.
He, uh, you know, uh, when I, this is like, tell me about The Daily Show. Your take on leaving The Daily Show, to me, was, I think you said it best.
I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I saw a number of places where you said this, and I know this is a little bit old news, but I'm interested in it. You said, hey, listen, I know that I am dispensable, because that's what happens in media.
Everybody, all personalities are dispensable. Everybody's dispensable.
My brother works in my brother works in media we work in me we know in entertainment in general so before somebody else has a chance to take control of my destiny i'm gonna take control of my own destiny i'm gonna call the shots and i thought that was i thought that was brilliantly said do you feel um not vindicated but do you feel good about leaving the daily show has that been does that feel like a good move yeah yeah i mean the i think that i think that when you look at people who make choices that people call brave or good or bold you have to look at their assessment of fear and what they're jumping into.

I don't feel like in leaving the daily show,

I was jumping into anything that I hadn't already been in before.

I've swam in these waters.

What career uncertainty,

not sure what's next and trying to figure it out.

Yeah.

I know those waters really well.

I've been in this place, but every other time I was in those waters,

I was pushed in the pool.

So I can look around here and I can go okay there is no host hasan minhage is out you don't know when or what this is before john i left before john stewart was even a rumor yeah so john stewart returning I huh? Well, if you don't know what the fuck. I could stay for a little while, but eventually it's going to be what the fuck.
Yeah. And I don't know.
I should probably start thinking about what I want to do next. Yeah.
Because if I'm not careful and keep and keep in mind but keep in mind at that time that show had no host correspondents were guest hosting which was working fine for the ratings i thought so i thought that i thought it was good yeah fine but this company's in a merger what if you merge and you don't want to do this show no more and don't tell me that that that's not a possibility. Oh, the show has been on.
It's an institution. All these shits is institutions.
Until they're not. Anything's possible.
Until they're not. 1230 on CBS was an institution.
That's right. And then you're like, no, we're not going to spend that kind of money anymore.
We'll do something that's cool and affordable. And we'll do after midnight.
Yeah, cool. So what is bulletproof when you're in an era where they will shoot a $30 million, a $50 million, a $100 million movie and not even release that bitch? Yeah.
It's crazy. Because it does not make sense.
Wow. So that's fucking expendable so anything is fucking possible so now was that understanding of the landscape and you're on the show that and then you're looking at everything that's going on with media companies imploding we're making less shows we're laying off people the writer's right just ended um we pay writers more, but to offset it, we're going to make less shows.

So I don't know what's going on, but I do know an election year is coming up. And I know what I do really well is talk shit about.
Yes. So if there's ever an opportunity to build a new place for myself, it is going to be now.

And it is evident to me per my conversations with Comedy Central.

This ain't nothing to do with the Daily Show producers. This is above them.

And I know for a fact within Comedy Central, y'all aren't trying to build any new fucking pedestals right now. Right.
You're not trying to put nothing on after Daily Show right now. And you got a child to feed, then you're probably smarter to leave now and figure it out.
And you're blessed enough to be able to go and sell a special to Hulu and go sell a book and sell two tv shows and that'll kite you that'll kite you yeah congratulations yeah congratulations so we're out and we get it's not like a full parachute but it's like that drag shoot yeah to start slowing you down yeah and hopefully you get a hope you land somewhere well i would say i, I've now seen the Hulu special promoted in a number of different places. Comes out on the 17th, right? Yeah, yeah, January 17th.
I think this was a good move because you're right. It's like, okay, you could keep on doing the spinny wheel thing and, you know, John coming back made sense, I guess, in context for comedy central or whoever uh was doing that and you know kudos to john for uh towing the line through the terrible election um but at the end of the day you you writing your own check i think that's what i like about podcasting if i'm being honest we all have come from radio you come from radio radio is a place where you learn really quickly that you are the personalities are treated like such shit talent is not fostered it's not welcome it's not loved on yeah once you know that pedigree once you know that you know that yeah you know what time shit look weird yeah fucking gone fucking gone that's right i'm leaving now because this shit looks weird.
Yes. And I don't know what the fuck.
Yes. And I think now- Oh, if your new Jon Stewart was going to be there, would you have left? No, I would have fucking stayed.
That's Jon Stewart. But I still would have been wondering what's next.
What's next? Right. Because it ain't going to be hosting this because it's fucking Jon Stewart.
The Stewart, yeah. So now, if anything, being with Jon Stewart or some other, I would have stayed with Hassan too.
I would have bought some time, but that five months of the writer's strike gave me a moment to go, wait a minute, what the fuck? I need to be in control. I'm eating at other people's tables, bitch.
I got to build mine. So the idea of, man, I remember in radio, man, I've seen so many motherfuckers get fired so yeah we did too but i mean you know you go home one night and they would change the format of the station the whole yes fucking station would get fired at one in the morning yeah and then you come in and everybody'd be like well i guess we're selling Spanish now.
I guess that's what's happening. We had the reverse.
We had AGG was 1320. And then it was like 680 La Mexicana.
La Mexicana. Quirmin' Helms, number one for La Mexicana.
And they was playing all the Latino shit. And then one night, I'm just in the production room.
I hear and then at midnight on the nose Jesus you're the center of my joy they will flip a format and email you motherfuckers in the dead of night until you don't come in we've already boxed your shit we're it fed exit to you so i'm not i'm not waiting for that when i know that's one of the possibilities right now i think that's why it's so difficult to be in entertainment for someone like you right now how many comedians we've talked to that say well listen you know the netflix special is great but i went to veeps because I can kind of, you know, control my own destiny a little bit. Like everybody has to make their own lane and those lanes are getting smaller and smaller and harder and harder to define.
And so you have nobody else to rely on except for yourself and possibly a team if you're lucky enough to have one. And that's it.
But the good news is, I think out of this is that the world is is evolving in a way, technology is evolving in a way, that we can make our own lane, and we don't always need the huge players in the game to kind of get from point A to point B and make a living doing this. But hey, listen, having a Hulu, having a special on Hulu or having the comfort of a daily show check or whatever it is, is still a good thing, right? It's still a thing that feels good at night when you lay your head down and you go, well, at least tomorrow I go into Comedy Central and I get a nice paycheck on the 15th and the 1st.
That's it, right? And I work with great people and talented. I mean, you spent what, six years there? Was it six years? Eight years? You spent eight years.
So I, you know, and that was a great run, but it was, if whatever I'm going to do next, this,

this, years there was it six years eight years he spent eight years so i you know and and that was a great run but it was if whatever i'm gonna do next this is the year to go do it this has been a great job and a great opportunity but i know this is not permanent regardless of john stewart john oliver colbert they all could have come back one by one and all had a respective day sooner or later my time here is finite yeah your time in any place is finite so if you want to do more then you're gonna have to leave so when you leave can either be up to you or can be up to them and so i just chose to leave and i'll figure it out i always have yeah i've i've i started this shit sleeping on the fucking bus so don't talk to me about oh there's a big chance are you scared i know at minimum at minimum i can leave my house right now and there are 30 cities i can travel to where strangers will show me love And I will give them jokes in exchange For money and my bills will be paid My son will be straight His mama too And that's all that matters As long as I got that All this other shit is extra gravy bro So I tell my wife I say hey listen babe In times of struggle and there have been especially during the pandemic right when we were starting the podcast in times of struggle financial struggle I told my wife I said babe at the very least I know I can pick up the phone and start shaking the tree and something will fall out of it it may not be a brand new car or a beautiful big house but it'll be food that we can put on the I know I'm smart enough to do that, and I know I have the ability to do that. And in life, if I can give that to my kids, if I can give that same attitude and skill set to my kids to maneuver, to make it happen, then I will have given them the biggest blessing ever.
Because in this life, you need to learn a couple things, and one of them is, it's all on you. Ain't no one coming to save you.
Not the government. Sometimes not friends and family.
Even though they may want to. If you want to get something done do it.
Yeah and I think you take the best attitude in the world about The Daily Show when you say hey listen I'm the dog. The tail is going to wag the dog on this one and I'm going to make it.
So the Hulu special comes out on the 17th. Yeah.
And you're doing what with CNN. Hulu's on the 17th.
And CNN, we're back season two. Have I got news for you.
Great show. I'm excited.
You can stream the last couple episodes on Max. All we're doing is doing a fake quiz show about the week that was in politics.
But a lot of these issues are timeless. So I think it makes the show still very streamable.
Yeah. That's not a word, is it? We'll make it.
We made it a word. We just made it a word.
It's a streamable. The streamativity of his product is very high.
Senior floppy tits on streamability. Roy Wood Jr.'s brand new streaming platform.
That comes in 2027. How was doing the White House Cor the white house correspondence dinner in 2023 yeah that must have been a highlight that was chaos that it's wow you can look out you can do a political joke look out and you can see caitlin jenner staring at you with scowl and then you look two tables over

and it's Lester Holt

grin

that's gonna be wild

yeah

and nothing wow two tables over and it's Lester Holt. And not like a full throated laugh because these are still his colleagues.
But it was that it was a black man giving me that encouraging. Yeah.
Like when Mr. Miyagi at the end of the first karateate Kid, when Daniel wins, he looks on at him and smiles.
That's great. I think when you do the White House Correspondents' Dinner, you have officially made it.
When they ask you to get up there and roast him. Listen, the White House Correspondents Dinner and Jimmy Carter's funeral are the two places

where we're supposed to be at least a little bit

jovial and

kind to each other.

We'll see if they even have a Correspondents

Dinner this upcoming year.

Didn't it get canceled?

I hope they don't just have some author or something.

I really hope they...

Roy Wood Jr. for the White House

Correspondents Dinner.

Hey, slow down, motherfucker. I said it was Roy Wood Jr.
for the White House Correspondents Dinner and creating a national anthem I said it was a good time I didn't say I want to do it twice Would you grab an award show? If you were given the option to do the Golden Globes or one of those would you jump up there and do that? I'd say yes to all those shits and in fact I would argue those are more difficult award shows are more difficult than a correspondence dinner because politicians and journalists don't necessarily take themselves as serious as actors yeah that's true necessarily argue they're not going to laugh at everything because of the politics of the room right but actors how dare you make a joke about anything and why would you make a joke about him he is a stellar performer wow that was a mean joke like it's a lot of that shit yeah you can make those people laugh then that's a that's a that's a whole different world like um i'd say the only room that's probably more difficult or an actor that i think does a great job hosting, I think is underrated as Anthony Anderson with the NAACP Image Awards.

Oh, OK.

Some stuff with the Emmys.

But when you're dealing with a room full of black folks and reverence and history and culture and how dare you and civil rights.

Right.

And you can get them to laugh.

Yeah.

Yeah. Anthony is really really funny by the way um and i thought nikki did a good job with the golden globes by the way i have no knock no knock on her i heard she got paid a pretty pretty big i she got i asked her to ask me my wife asked me how much do you think those people get paid and i said i don't know that they get paid much at all because it's just like raising their profile you know they get but i was wrong it's kind of like super bowl hosting i don't know what nikki got but i know the emmys pays dick and i know that the correspondence dinner doesn't pay much and i and i say not much in the sense of this is just enough to turn around and just pay your writers right yeah she she said on stern i think she said she got paid close to half a million to do the hosting.
Yeah, that's not a bad thing. We've got a team of four.
Yeah. Stuff like that.
She said on Stern, I think she said she got paid close to half a million dollars to do the hosting. Yeah, that's not a bad...
She's got a team of four. Yeah.
That's a solid day. We have to do 200 episodes of this show to gross that.
Roy Wood Jr.'s brand new special is out on Hulu just a couple of days from now. We're releasing this just a few days from when it comes out.
We'll make it Roy Wood Jr. week.
We're going to make sure we talk about it. We'll have the links in the show notes.
CNN season number two. Roy, you are welcome back anytime.
It is honestly, we have been so excited about this since we agreed to it. Yeah, thanks for coming on.
And I have enjoyed watching you get super famous and I hope you continue to kill it. We're on your side.
I appreciate it. And next time I'm on, I'll have the right map where Africa is the right side.
That's right. Thank you.
Thank you. I've been saying this.
And so has the West wing for a long time. That's where I learned about it on the West wing.
But anyway, that's for the next conversation. Thanks Roy.
We appreciate it. Have a good one.
Have you got a hankering down deep in your soul to tell us what's up? Well, I am encouraging you to do just that. Text us at 212-433-3TCB and tell us what's going on.
Give us the haves. Tell us the dirty secrets of your life.
That's all we've ever wanted to hear. You can also leave us a voicemail at the same number.
That's 212-433-3822. And also follow us on Instagram at thecommercialbreak and on TikTok at TCBpodcast.
And if you want to see any video episodes, you can go to youtube.com slash thecommercialbreak and they are all right there. And if you're hankering is not to tell us what's up, but it's for a new sticker, I'm sure there's probably one on the website.
Go to tcbpodcast.com, click contact us and find I want my free sticker. I know you can do it.
And I can't wait to hear your thoughts on anything and everything. Love you, bye.
Okay, so like a little behind the scenes about Roy and our interview with Roy. 99,999% of the time, guest comes on through this little software portal that we have.
The magic of telepodcasting. The guests come on.
We do a little chitty chatty. We explain how the show goes and the structure of the show.
And then we tell them, okay, we're now going to go into the interview portion. But we were so engrossed in conversation with Roy right from the beginning that we never even did that.

You actually heard everything that had to do,

every moment of the conversation with Roy Wood Jr.,

which is unusual, quite frankly, for us.

But I think that's good.

You know, you pointed out the new Severance podcast,

which is on Odyssey, our network,

and you can go download the Odyssey app for free, and then you can listen to severance or anywhere you listen to your podcasts and i say this because i love severance and ours too and i say this because i love severance the show and i am so excited that on the same day roy wood jr's new special comes out the next episode of severance will be out um but very exciting chrissy pointed out to me last night she called me and she said or she texted me she said hey listen did you listen to the uh severance podcast where they were talking about podcast guesting like who was the guest um what on the severance one on severance yeah it was the guy that plays i think his name's zach but he's yeah he's right. Yeah, his name is Zach.
You're right. Okay, so Zach is on there with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott, and they are talking, and he is explaining that it's often a little uncomfortable with podcasts because they either have to be in the studio or on some phone call or video phone call for 30 or 40 minutes while the guests- And they listen to the hosts.
like they're not even there exactly so weird so the guy the the guy zach was like yeah i thought i had more phone time sorry wait you're ready to go into it yeah i thought i i thought i had time to waste oh you actually want to talk to me yeah but chrissy and i made a decision a long time ago i'm glad we're not doing that that the guests would probably leave immediately While we had them, we just had to go ahead and talk to them. If they had to listen to us for 15 to 20 minutes before they actually came on.
So we don't make them suffer through that. Anyway, all right.
So Roy Wood Jr., new special on Hulu, January 17th. Please do check it out.
What a good guy. I really had enjoyed my conversation.
Very pleasurable. There's some guests you see you could go out and have coffee or a beer with.
And then there's other guests where it's a great conversation. But you're like, I don't know if I could sit.
I don't know that we would get along had the lights and cameras not been on. Not got along, but had such a good conversation if it wasn't.
I feel like Roy was one of those people you could go and sit and have a beer with and you would feel very comfortable that you wouldn't run out of conversation.

He's had an interesting life.

He really has.

And from radio to Last Comic Standing to Daily Show to now, you know, a man of the people.

Specials and CNN, yeah.

Yeah.

I look forward to seeing what's next with Roy.

All right.

So all the links in the show notes.

Go check out his special.

And we're going to catch you tomorrow on another episode of the commercial break. Sorry, Christina and I just doing baseball hand signals to each other.
You guys do need like some signals. We do.
It's this. Yeah.
It's this. Yeah.
I just point over there when I want to end other. You guys do need some signals.
We do. It's this.
It's this. I just point over there when I want to end the show.
Alright. Well, you know how to get a hold of us.
TCBpodcast.com That's where you find more information about the show. All the show notes, all the sponsors' links and codes, all of our guest information.
You can get your free TCB swag. You can do that by hitting the Contact Us button drop-down menu.
I want my free sticker. Give us your physical address, and we will send you something.
Please do. 212-433-3822.
212-433-3TCB. Questions, comments, concerns, content ideas.
We do take them all there. You can also leave a voicemail if you're so inclined.
But if you leave a voicemail, we may play it here on air. So just be mindful of that.
Add the commercial break on Instagram. TCB podcast on TikTok.
We're up to past 5,000. Come on, let's keep the momentum going.
We're getting very close to 6,000. And I will tell you this, not because of our listeners, but because of the Venezuelans.
Exactly. That reel just doesn't know how to stop.
It just keeps going and going. Every time I look at Instagram, it's another 100 notifications.
Wow. Who knew? Who knew some throwaway line? Anyway, speaking of Venezuelans, a special episode with our good friend and my brother-in-law, Gustavo, will be broadcast later on this week on Saturday.
A special bonus episode for you. So tune in.
And if you want to know what's important about Venezuela and how to bed your own Venezuelan. If you want to get a Venezuelan in bed, I'm going to teach you how.
So tune in this Saturday. Nothing like talking to him about bedding his sister.
Well, it won't be the first time or the last time I've had that conversation. Thank God he's cool.
That's all I got to say. He is.
He's the best. Thank God he's cool.
He's the best. We have many kids.
I think he knows what's going on. You know what I'm saying?

YouTube.com slash The Commercial Break for every single episode on video, including this one with Roy.

So go check it out.

Subscribe, like, comment on your favorite video.

We'd appreciate it. Okay, Chrissy, that's all I can do for today.

I think so.

I'll tell you that I love you.

I love you.

Best to you.

Best to you.

Best to you out there in the podcast universe.

Until next time, Chrissy and I will say, we do say, and we must say, goodbye. Watch your profanity.