Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, there's something I got to tell you. You're not going to hear this, but I got to tell you, it's on you. It is your job to stop the fascist takeover of our country. It's on you. I know, I know, you don't want to hear it. I know you don't want to hear it, but in the movie that is made about this era, the camera is zooming in right now on you, on your character. It is on you.
And I know you're like, but I'm not ready. I don't know what to do. I didn't train or whatever. No, you know, Neil wasn't ready. Luke Skywalker wasn't ready. Katniss wasn't ready. Shuri from the Black Panther wasn't ready. Moana wasn't ready. Those pups on Paw Patrol are never ready. Except for Chase. He's a cop. But yeah, it's on you.
It's on you to figure out how to stop America's fascist takeover. Jesus Christ. He wasn't ready either, actually. Yeah, but it's on you. No politicians are going to save us. Nobody else. It's on you. You're welcome. I'm sorry.
On this episode of The Commercial Break.
When the president has troops and his law enforcement kidnapping people off streets and taking them to places where they don't want to go and not giving them ever access to a lawyer in that process, that's fascism. Ta-da! Congratulations. You're Venezuela. Yeah, no, and I think Venezuela, we did an episode of United Shades of America about Venezuela. I remember.
So I'm happy, not happy, but to hear your wife say that and hear her positive, I'm like, oh, so I've been right. I've been saying this happened in Venezuela. And one day you look up and, as I learned in that episode, and suddenly you're using the currency for a napkin because it's not worth anything because they've totally raided everything and nothing is worth anything anymore.
And people are using garbage or emptying out garbage cans to steal water. It's like that... That we're on that track right now.
The next episode of the commercial break starts now.
Oh, yeah. Cats and kittens. Welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green and there's no one here with me as Chrissy is out on her menfo break. But I had an opportunity to talk to W. Kamau Bell on a TCB infomercial Tuesday. And I'm super excited to share that conversation with you.
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Chapter 2: How does W. Kamau Bell prepare for uncomfortable conversations?
And I'd be honored to have you on also because my kids, you know, cause my kids. Yeah, no, for sure. For sure.
I'd be honored to have Olivia Rodrigo on my podcast. No shit.
No shit. You know, listen, the world is run by the youth, the youths, as they would say. And I don't know how old you are, but I'm making the assumption we're around the same age and we are not the youths anymore. Those days have long passed.
I'm a proud member of the greatest generation, a.k.a. Generation X. Amen.
Amen. Generation X. So you grew up in the 90s just like I did, 80s and 90s just like I did. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I was telling a friend of mine who's currently in Chicago, and we were bantering back and forth about all the stuff that's going on in Chicago, but we both grew up across the street from each other. Haven't seen each other in a long time, but I said –
Totally off topic of politics, I said, my children will never know what it's like to get up on a Saturday morning and be babysat by Hanna-Barbera. They just will never know that. Hanna-Barbera and a sugary cereal. And I feel like they're missing out on that.
Yeah. I mean, I think it's, I really noticed, especially like I've had, I have three daughters. And so it's funny how much it's even changed from the 14 year old to the seven year old that I have now and how much more access she has to, I want to see exactly what I want, when I want to see it as many times as I want to see it.
Whereas when my 14 year old was born, there was streaming, but it was like a Netflix, the only like Disney movie they had on Netflix was Aristocats. So we saw that a lot. And I was like, I had no idea this was so racist. Uh, But yeah, so it's like just and she had access to streaming.
And it's funny, it always it would always end up we'd go to a hotel and she would turn on the TV and be like, I want to watch. And she would say something like, we can't do that here. We have to sort of do whatever the hotel wants. But yeah, the choice is different.
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Chapter 3: What role does comedy play in bridging cultural divides?
That's fascism. Ta-da! Congratulations! You're Venezuela. Yeah. Yeah. No. And I think Venezuela, we did an episode of United Shades of America about Venezuela. I remember. And so I'm happy, not happy, but to hear your wife say that and hear her father. I'm like, oh, so I've been right. I'm saying this happened in Venezuela.
And one day you look up and as I learned that episode and suddenly using the currency for a napkin because it's not worth anything. because they've totally raided everything and nothing is worth anything anymore. And people are using garbage or emptying out garbage cans to steal water. It's like that that we're on that track right now.
I couldn't agree with you more. And I don't say this to be I mean, there's there's no more alarmist about it. The alarm is ringing. It's ringing loudly. And regardless of whether you're a conservative or you're a Democrat, you know, in Venezuela, Democrat or liberal has a bad connotation because that is how fascism entered their lives. Here it's entering through conservatism. Right.
But it's really populism at the end of the day is is what it is. It's it's populism. And then it turns into fascism.
And so my father and Hitler was a socialist. That's right.
It doesn't matter what you call it. And my father in law made this point to me so many years ago, that decade ago when we met and they kind of Trump was moving on the scene. He would probably have considered himself more of a conservative if he lived here and he was voting here. Right. But he said to me one day, he said, it doesn't matter what you call it. It's a circle.
and it all ends up in... Extremism all ends up in the same place, the exact same place, right? And he couldn't have been more right about that. And I wonder when you were doing Fifty Shades, or when you... Fifty Shades. When you were doing Fifty Shades... Hey!
Yeah, sexy.
You looked hot in that movie, just letting you know. When you were doing the CNN show... United Shades. United Shades of America. When you were doing that show... Years ago, did you smell this coming? Could you tell just by being out there on the streets, having these really tough conversations and really interesting positions, could you tell that the country was kind of pulling itself apart?
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Chapter 4: How do personal experiences shape views on racism and activism?
I mean, I understand that. I'm sure you get this question a lot, but it's just a curiosity. It has got me on this one. How do you prepare for that mentally? How do you keep your fists in your pockets? I don't know.
I mean, so that one specifically was the very first episode of United Shades we ever take. It was the pilot episode that sold the series. So I was the one who pitched that idea because it was the idea of the show was like, black guy goes places he shouldn't go or you wouldn't expect him to go. And so they were like the country club or the golf course. And I was like, or the KKK rally.
Cause I was like, you got to go big or go home. But then it was like, it really was. the hardest thing about that episode was that it was the pilot. So I didn't even know the crew that well, and I didn't know the producers that well.
So at the times in the making of that episode, when me, Kamau Bell, the human was having an emotional reaction to something, there was nobody to turn to really and be like, help. And I mean, there was a, there was a, a friend of mine was a producer on that episode, but there was just really nobody in, in control. to turn to and be like, this doesn't work for me.
This thing you're asking me to do doesn't work for me. And, and, and if I have to explain it to you, I'm going to start weeping. Like, you know, so, so I had a friend of mine who was there to help, but they just really didn't disregard him or me as being like, as far as they were concerned, you know, host of a TV show can meet a lot of different things. And some hosts are just like wind up toys.
And that's what they want to do. Like, I'll just sort of tell me where to go, what to say, how to do it. I think it will be like Chris Harrison from The Bachelor. He doesn't actually care at all who gets the rose. He's just supposed to ask. You know what I mean?
That's it. We make fun of it all the time. He walks in 30 seconds and he goes, gentlemen, there's one rose left. And he walks back around.
And he goes back to the hotel, the nine star hotel in Thailand where they're staying. That's right. Uh, And so, but I was like, came for, I wanted to do this because of what the work I'd seen Morgan Spurlock do. And then he Bourdain do and Michael and Michael Moore. And so I was like, I'm, I'm, I want to be in it and have decisions and make decisions.
It took me several years to get that level of control. But that episode, there was just times, right? Like for the thing, the story I always tell is like, at the, at the, the, the meeting, those clan members in the forest where we're going to do the cross burning later. And we were there for hours because they wanted it for, we got there early and it had to get dark.
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Chapter 5: What insights does W. Kamau Bell share about democracy's future?
As I always say, Martin Luther King Jr. would be 96.
That's crazy to think about.
Yeah, no people you think he's like, Oh, you'd be 20 years old. No, he could still easily 96 doesn't get you a happy birthday on the TV. It doesn't get you a you're not there yet. You know, so you're still four years away from anybody caring about how old you are. And he can still be alive today. And you know, so it's not like we're this stuff is not a million years ago.
You know, like speaking of genetic lottery, I said this just a couple of weeks ago on the show when we were talking about immigration. I said, it's an imaginary line in the sand. And it's about, it's really like... It's really about a lottery that you win. What skin do you – what skin are you born into? Where are you born into? What language do you speak? What language do you speak?
Where are you born? What religion are you – do your parents or whoever's around you, you grow up in? All these things are non – Choice. You don't make those choices. And largely your parents didn't make those choices and their parents didn't make those choices. So then we go around demonizing people based on things that they have no control over at all whatsoever.
But we point to them and we say they're the problem and they're the bad guys and they're the evil ones and they need to get out of here and they've committed some, you know, crimes.
horrendous felony for crossing over an imaginary line in the sand when they had zero choice in it you just won the fucking lottery that's the only thing that happened to you dude and you wanted at this point in history because at another point in history if you'd been born in that same place you wouldn't you wouldn't have won the lottery you know what i mean so we're like again we're talking about that line shifts and moves and the and that country's reputation means something different a hundred years on either direction of whatever of whatever date you were born
It's so true. And I wish that more people could see that when we're ripping parents away from children at bus stops and when we're, you know, just on the news today or when a young lady goes to the store to get food for her house and her mom's not there.
When we're doing this to these people, the horrendous offense that they have committed, most of them, the horrendous offense that they have committed is walking over that imaginary line and not filling out the paperwork. That's it. That's the only thing that they have done. But, you know, this has been going on forever.
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Chapter 6: How can humor be used to discuss serious political issues?
Yeah, exactly. You and I both know, how did President Bill Clinton get into office? How did he get into office? Going on Arsenio Hall and playing that damn saxophone. That's it. He got the white people. He got the black people in one fall swoop.
And then he got the young people when he went on MTV and answered Boxers or Briefs, I think. Oh, yeah, that's right.
Boxers or Briefs. I did not inhale. I tried it, but I did not inhale.
Yeah, I didn't inhale. Didn't.
depends on the definition of what is is okay so but yes i think that he was one of the first ones to understand that i mean as you know goes back to kennedy initially but like that being in being a part of the pop culture is actually helpful to this and and trump understands that too he's just a part of a pop culture that i don't want to be a part of so but that's why he's on like the joe rogan show and theo vaughn show and
And Andrew Schultz, because he understands connecting with both and Aiden Ross, all these people who are now regretting stumping and endorsing him, stumping for and endorsing him. But he understood that pop culture was important.
I say to those guys who I share the podcast fear with, I say, we'll argue about it later. Keep speaking out. Keep telling people that you made a mistake. That's okay. We'll argue about why later, right? But now we're at where we're at, and it's good that you're speaking up at all.
Go ahead. But I would say that I agree with you. I would just say this. I wrote a subsection about the 12 steps to recovery from MAGA for comedians. And one of those steps is make amends. Fair enough. It's not enough to go like, I should have done that. Well, you've also alienated a bunch of people who you did that to. So that means you've got to do more work to come back.
It's not enough to go, I don't agree with him anymore. In AA, you can't just go to one meeting and go, I quit drinking, everybody. I'm done, and never go to another meeting again. It's a constant practice of showing people that you've changed and being okay being held accountable. And that's the thing I think I see what happens to like Andrew Schultz. I didn't vote for any of this.
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Chapter 7: What challenges do comedians face in today's political climate?
No, no, no. I don't because I got three kids at home. So I don't go. I go out. I go out and go back. I got 14, 10 and 7. Yeah, 14, 10 and 7. Oh, yeah. So, yeah. So we're in it. We're in it. Yeah. One kid went to school late today because she wasn't feeling good. Another kid's coming home early today. She's not feeling good. So we're in it.
I just had one stay home for five days with a fever. Five days with a fever. with a fever. I was like, dude, I hope everything's okay.
You know, that's when you start to get worried. You're like, uh, five days is a long time. So I don't go out for long periods of time. So the tour is pretty spread out. So like my next step, my next stop is beginning in November. I'll be in Oklahoma city and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Then I'm a couple weeks later, I'm in Louisville, Kentucky. And then December 6th, I'm in, uh, in Rochester, New York.
And we'll add more dates as we do. It's just, uh, you know, I just also have a lot of other stuff going on. And like I said, I don't like to go out and be gone. Um, Because I like to see these kids grow up one piece at a time.
I am so happy that I get to do a job where I can walk out the door and my family's there and I get to spend time with them. It's a privilege that I wasn't afforded with my own parents. But that's like the biggest blessing the universe could give you is the ability to move in the same space as your family for extended periods of time. You watch them grow up.
So the Substack, I have a lot of friends who are on Substack. I know a number of characters on, you know, got people who are making a great living doing Substack. And for those who aren't turned on to Substack, this is a incredible platform where people are speaking out and speaking up and being funny and talking about all different kinds of things.
It's not political by nature, but there are certainly a lot of political commentarians who are doing great work and great writing. And you're on Substack also.
Yeah.
I think it really started out as a platform as the newspaper started to shed reporters and opinion writers and long-form journalists. Substack came up as a way for those writers who are quality writers who the newspapers just don't want to pay anymore to still do their work and get paid for it. It's like Patreon, but it's more of a community than Patreon is.
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Chapter 8: What is the significance of platforms like Substack for content creators?
Even if you don't agree with me, I still welcome the conversation. Until next time, I love you. Best to you. And until next time, I will say, I do say, and I must say, goodbye. Goodbye.
Thank you.