Chapter 1: What humorous insights does Danny Ricker share about parenting?
Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Jeff Bezos' fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, became the first group of women ever to visit outer space in a giant penis. I mean, that is a penis, right? On Amazon, they would call it a personal massager, but it's a penis. On this episode of The Commercial Break...
there's these dramatic examples of like, yeah, I sent my toddler, you know, into the gas station by herself or whatever. But then there's two just going like, yeah, you can like take care of yourself. Like you can, you can make yourself a bowl of cereal if I'm not awake yet and you're hungry and all these things.
And I think it's like, you can start small and once they start to get those feelings of confidence and independence, it's infectious for them, I think. And And now, now my daughter, she'll ask for like a little too much, you know, she'll be like, can I, you know, like she'll, and we'll go, maybe when you're a little bit older and you know, whatever, but Hey dad, can I buy a pack of cigarettes?
Exactly. The next episode of the commercial break starts now.
Wow, you look terrible, Danny Ricker. Danny will be joining us in just a few minutes here, but he's got the bona fides. He's an executive producer, co-executive producer at Jimmy Kimmel.
I know, that's big.
And when asked if he could do our show, I said, sure, why not? Co-executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel. I'm not going to shy away from saying it. I said, yeah, okay, sure. And then I started to read his book. They gave us a copy, an advanced copy. It's on sale today, but I got an advanced copy.
And as a father, as a parent, this book will leave you probably stitches, probably crying, and with a little bit of good advice along the way. Because kids are a pain in the ass. And anyone that has them knows it's a pain in the ass. And he gives us a few... He gives his...
tips and tricks on how to, like, you know, declutter the mind, the soul, and maybe your house, and make life a little bit easier. Some cheat codes, if you will, as a father himself. It's a really well-written book. It is.
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Chapter 2: How does Danny Ricker balance work on Jimmy Kimmel's show and parenting?
I probably need to be a little bit more like you and just ignore social media altogether. Don't worry about it. But I can't. I don't know. We got to talk about something. And so social media is it. Plus, I do those damn clips at the beginning of the show and I find all those clips from the Internet.
If you want to know just how fucked up my algorithm is, just check out the, you know, WSHIT clips at the beginning of every episode and you'll know just how fucked up my Internet is. Anyway, Danny Ricker, co-executive of Jimmy Kimmel's very popular late night television show, one of the few remaining, one of the better ones, if you ask me, probably the best one, if you ask me.
He's written a book. It's called Wow, You Look Terrible. It is available now in many different places. I'll put a link to a few of those in the show notes. Danny is a noted comedian and writer. And I can't wait to talk to him about this new book. And maybe we'll get a few. Maybe we'll dig in a few questions about the Jimmy Kimmel show and how they get that all done.
every night of the week, 300 nights a year. They're like us. They're constantly on that wheel.
You've got to constantly churn it out.
Yeah, only there's no Danny Ricker here. Like, I don't have a Danny Ricker to help me out. Maybe I'll ask him if he needs a second job. I'm sure he doesn't. You think he gets paid well? I would say so. I hope so. I hope so, too. Maybe we'll ask him how much he gets paid. Is that rude? Is it rude to go, how much do you make? I think so.
Or is it rude to say, do you need another co-executive producer of The Jimmy Kimmel Show? Anyway, why don't we do this? Let's take a break. And then, through the magic of telepodcasting, we're going to have Danny Ricker right here on this screen talking to us. Little old us, Chrissy. Little old us. What do you think?
I feel special.
I always feel special. I am special in many ways. Yes. Big and small. All right. What do you think? Should we take a break? I think we should do it. I'm just looking for your approval. Yes, yes. I'd stamp it. All right. Danny, when we come back.
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Chapter 3: What unique parenting advice does Danny offer in his book?
So, you know, we started about 6 AM and we're doing a show at 4 30 and we don't know what's going to be in the show that night. But, uh, because we have such a great group of people, it gets done every day, uh, by hook or by crook.
Do you have like a, um, like, so here, you know, largely blossoms from our brains. We write notes down. We also do four, four days a week. So, but we don't have production elements. We don't have 25 cameras. We don't have props. We So whatever we can use our voices for is about as much as we're going to get out of the show. Do you have ideas that carry over from day to day, like evergreen ideas?
You put it on a list and you say, okay, Jimmy didn't pick that one. I'm assuming Jimmy has the last one.
say in what goes on the show he does he he's very you know i'm i'm one of the head writers i'm one of four head writers at our show but jimmy is really our showrunner and he's the final say on everything and um he's you know he does a ton of writing he does a ton of producing we i i often say for his own good i think he's probably a little too involved just because he is i mean he'll he's up all night going through scripts and stuff but um i think that's what makes the product uh good to have a host that cares that much but but yes he's he's always the final say
And so you have ideas like evergreen ideas that you can like carry over from one day to the next. Like he didn't pick it yesterday, but I'll throw it in there next week and we'll see if it works on this day or.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, part of my job is one of the, you know, one of the heads of the writing department is to sort of have like a little mix of everything, right? Like sometimes we have that great idea that can only go that day. It's based on kind of the big story of the day. We love to have one of those. And then if the news is such where we're like, yeah, it's me today.
Wasn't one of those days where there's like the, you know, the Pete Hegseth like signal story. We didn't have like You know, like we have a couple of good things we're going to cover. So I always try to plan and have like a couple of things in our holster be like, oh, you know what? We shot that bit last week, but that'll work tonight.
And then we have some stuff that's not remotely related to the news that we can always mix in. So we always kind of feel like we're, you know, we're kind of putting the menu together for Jimmy every day and we'll be like, all right, here's all here's all the items and you can kind of pick. And then he kind of sees how he feels that day and what's going on.
And he assembles what feels like the best collection of stuff. So we have another head writer named Josh who sits with him all day and looks at all that stuff and pieces it all together. So we just try to prepare for all possible scenarios.
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Chapter 4: How does Danny Ricker's experience shape his views on modern parenting?
There is someone who's got a level head, but also finds a way to laugh. And I think that's an important role that you play. You as it's an important role that you're giving voice to that.
Yeah. And, you know, I mean, we're under no illusions that it's like, you know, we're still just a comedy show. But, you know, I do feel like, you know, if we can make people feel seen, you know, like, you know, we always feel like if people watch our show and they go, yes, exactly like that. Maybe I didn't have that particular thought, but like you're so right in the way you're thinking of that.
And I think one of the. one of the great things about Jimmy is he's just a, you know, even with all his success and everything, he's just a real kind of every man kind of regular guy. And I think that's how we try to approach even complicated stories, whether they be political or, you know, whatever it is.
And, you know, we just try to point out like what seems weird about it or, you know, hypocritical or, you know, whatever it is. And, you know, we don't get too academic about it, you know, unless we need to. And I, we have that ability to do it if we need to. But I think like we, we just try to make everything digestible.
And, you know, we know some people get their news from us, which we don't necessarily recommend, you know, but but not you should like, you know, you should read some like real newspapers and stuff.
But, you know, I but I think if you are coming to us, we try to, you know, kind of explain what's going on and then also just kind of break it down in a way where you can, you know, understand it and then also hopefully find a little humor in it, whatever it may be.
You know, true story or not, you used to have the profession of watching TV on behalf of Jimmy.
We saw that.
You know, we were watching another interview that you did and we saw that you were like a TV watcher trying to find clips out. I only know this position actually exists because I was a listener of the Howard Stern show. And I know that JD, one of the people that works on that show, that's what he does. He sits around watching endless hours of TV trying to find clips that Howard can play.
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Chapter 5: What challenges do parents face with children's independence?
And that's always been great for me.
What it must be like to have parents that are proud of you.
You guys are going to be there.
My dad's still wondering when it's all going to work out for me. But, you know, that's my crossword. How did you decide that you're – first of all, tell me about – how many kids do you have?
I have two kids.
I have an 11-year-old and a 7-and-a-half-year-old. Oh, so you're right in the thick of it, just like I am. Your kid's a little bit older than my children, most of them. So you have a 7- and 11-year-old. When did you decide—obviously, you have a great comedic voice, and this is probably, I would imagine, since you're writing every single day, this is kind of an easy transition for you, right?
Let me put some of these thoughts down, collect them, organize them, and write a book. But I think you— struck a balance between good advice and funny shit. Like, how did you decide you're going to write a book and how did that come together?
Thanks. You know, it actually, it was, it was Jimmy's idea for me to write it actually. And yeah, yeah. So like we at our show every day, you know, on top of all of our topical material, Jimmy, you know, for many years asked that we submit just one little observational, non-topical thought. And we didn't even really have like a set way we were going to use them.
But he goes, I kind of like having these. And every once we'd have a bit where we need some observational humor. He's like, oh, let's go back and look in that big document of observations. But so, you know, I was doing this for years and mostly, you know, I'd be sitting right here going like, okay, what do I observe? And I had two little kids.
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Chapter 6: How does social media impact parenting today?
But, you know, I do enjoy it, too. I enjoy being a parent. And that was one thing when I started writing the book, I was like, I don't want this to be like a anti kid book. I actually like really enjoy being a dad. It's just that like, I'm I'm At constant odds with like, okay, like, am I going to engage in this ridiculous thing I'm being sucked into here?
Or am I just going to like exercise a little just stoicism and, you know, put something at arm's length? And, you know, really what I'm trying to look for in the book is like.
corners you can cut that won't affect your kids negatively right you know it's like sometimes like you you really you do things because like you said you feel like you're supposed to like like you know you're like oh you know you're supposed to sew your kids Halloween costume by hand it's like like what why You're not being graded or whatever. And it's like, you know what? $12 on Amazon.
Exactly. We'll survive. They're going to be just as happy. So it was trying to take the self-imposed ridiculousness that I feel like we're doing either for show, for other parents, or generationally we feel like we're supposed to do or our kids will grow up to be serial killers if we don't do X, Y, and Z. And I think ultimately they don't need much other than just like...
You know, they need to know you love them and you got to take them to get ice cream every once in a while. And, you know, that's about it.
Yeah, I agree 100 percent. I think that there is like this and especially in 2025 over the last 10 or 15 years when we were kids. And I don't know how young you are, but I would imagine you were in the similar age range when we were kids. There was a much less complicated parenting philosophy. And that was keep them fed, keep them clean, and keep them safe. And the rest will take care of itself.
And every...
10 years we've gotten more involved and there's more obligations and it's more um hovering and it's more babying and it's more you know but they grow up faster anyway now yep and so there i think we could all use a little bit of this kind of advice that you gotta own you gotta bring like you gotta be a whole person yourself before you can parent another human being number one but number two
is you don't have to live up to every expectation that's put out there on the internet or in the books or in whatever it is, wherever it is you choose to find out about parenting, because you really overcomplicate a situation that was going to be complicated from the beginning, no matter how you chose to parent them. And that they need to, they're their own human being.
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Chapter 7: What strategies does Danny suggest for managing children's screen time?
And the reason I didn't is because my mom loves me and, you know, was trying to help me out in high school and all these things. But I just went, oh. And I remember in my dorm popping the lid of the washing machine open and reading the instructions on the bottom of the lid. Who has ever done that? But you know, besides like me and I was like, Oh, okay. I need like detergent. I had no idea.
And that just came from my mom, like wanting to take care of me, like out of the kindness of her heart. But I've remembered that stuff and I've gone like, okay, so now like my 11 year old, like knows how to use the washing machine. And like, if she gets to like Monday morning and she's going to school and she goes, oh, none of my pants are clean.
I go, well, I guess you should have done your laundry this weekend. And that happened like one time and like now she's on top of it, you know? And so I think it's more of like a mindset, you know? It's like we, there's these dramatic examples of like, yeah, I sent my toddler, you know, into the gas station by herself or whatever.
But then there's two just going like, yeah, you can like take care of yourself. Like you can make yourself a bowl of cereal if I'm not awake yet and you're hungry and all these things. And I think it's like, you can start small and, Once they start to get those feelings of confidence and independence, it's infectious for them, I think. And now my daughter, she'll ask for like a little too much.
You know, she'll be like, can I, you know, like, and we'll go, maybe when you're a little bit older and, you know, whatever.
Hey, Dad, can I buy a pack of cigarettes?
Exactly. Exactly. Okay, so in your book, I think one of the funniest parts of the book is like you're talking about these lies, lies that won't harm your children irreparably, but you can talk to them, you can tell them to like save you time and effort and energy.
And one of my favorites, and man, I wish I could implore that I could install this rule in our house right away or say this lie immediately, but they already know how the car works. I wish I could tell them that the car no longer plays music because if I hear, Frozen or Apatow one more time. I think I'm going to jump out of a window. It's crazy.
They're like, they always want to listen to it on repeat too. It's driving me up the fucking wall.
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Chapter 8: What are the funniest parenting lies Danny Ricker recommends?
When did she discover?
When was her, like, the uncover age?
Well, it was a little dramatic with my daughter because she's like a trial lawyer and always has been. So when she was, I think, like five years old, she really wanted this gift for Christmas. That was ridiculous, right? And so it's a big plastic horse. And from like the second Frozen movie, it's like an ice horse, right? And this thing was like $150 and does nothing.
It's just a big fucking piece of plastic. And so she's asking for it. And my wife and I are going like, are we going to buy this thing? Like, we do not want to buy this thing. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah. And the place we were living at the time was like small. I go, this is going to take up like 2% of our total square footage in our house. This stupid horse, right? Yeah.
So, um, you know, so she's asking for it, asking for it. My wife and I are like, we're not, we're not going to buy this, but we're like, we're going to get her a bike, right? Bike. Great classic Christmas gift, you know? Perfect gift. Yeah. So then Christmas morning comes and, uh, there's no plastic horse and there is a bike and, uh, all the gifts are open.
And this, like my daughter's face just goes like blank and she goes, Oh, I know you're Santa. And we're like, whoa. And she would put it all together, and she's like, you didn't get me the water knock. You got me the bike because the bike is cheaper. I mean, she had us dead to rights. We're like, oh, boy. So she had figured it out. So then we start going like,
do we rush out and get, I mean, it's, it's like Christmas morning is, is Walmart open? Like, can we go get this thing? And so we eventually, so we, we didn't get it for her. And then, but she ended up, she had some money, like she had saved up from birthdays and stuff and she bought it. And it's still in our house to this day.
She never, I mean, you know, now she's like 11, like she doesn't need a big horse, but she is like, she's very stubborn. She's digging her heels in. She goes, I love that thing. I go, Oh, do you, do you really love it? Or are you just driving me insane?
Yeah. Have you guys started the cell phone conversation yet? Yeah. Oh, yes. Yes.
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