Knowledge Fight - #991: You Can Do It, But Should You?

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

In this installment, Dan and Jordan kill some time while Alex is still out of studio by checking out Rob Schnieder's speech from the TPUSA America Fest.

N-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-knowledge fight! Dan and Jordan, I'm sweating! knowledgefight.com, it's time to pray! I have great respect for knowledge fight. Knowledge fight. I'm sick of them posing as if they're the good guys saying we are the bad guys. Knowledge fight.

Dan and Jordan, knowledge fight. Rattler, rattler, rattler. I need, I need money. Rattler, rattler, rattler. Andy and Kansas, Andy and, Andy and. Stop it. Andy and, Andy and Kansas, Andy and, Andy and. It's time to pray. Andy and Kansas, you're on Knowledge Fight, I'm Dan. I'm Jordan.

We're a couple dudes like to sit around, worship at the altar of Selene and talk a little bit about Alex Jones. Oh indeed dead. I'm Jordan. We're a couple dudes like sit around worship at the altar of Celine and talk a little bit about Alex Jones indeed we are Dan Jordan Dan Jordan quick question for you So what's your price about today buddy? My bright spot today is actually a podcast that I think I'm not supposed to talk about I can't tell anybody about this is it's a secret unknown podcast that you're not supposed to talk about It was a secret one that you're not supposed to tell people about okay Tiny dinos has a second season. I know I very excited about that I'm surprised You know what?

I almost texted you about it because we hadn't talked about you turned me on to tiny dinos in the first place Yeah, and then a second season popped up We're not supposed to be talking about that I didn't text you about it Which is wild because you're not supposed to tell people it seems like that's why and it doesn't make any sense People can't find out about those those tiny things very small so anyway I'm very excited I enjoyed quite a bit what's your bread spot do you like you listen to the first I listen to the first two I am a little bit late all right catching up I got you all right it's very exciting mm-hmm you know what

I'll say one thing about it okay Okay. Just from the opening. Yeah. There's a moment that makes season two valuable for me. And that's just the moment where you get him going like, oh you made them, you know? And it's like it validates him. James? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of it's very sweet in a way. Sure, it is. It is. Yeah, their friendship, their best friends. Exactly. It is kind of sweet. It's very sweet in a weird way. Very much. There's a lot of heart in this dumb show. But very good. Yes. So what's your bright spot? My bright spot is that Tomorrow or you know the day that you're listening to this my cousin and I are going out for lunch I I know that seems like it should be that big of a bright spot, but I

that we always want to get together but You know, my wife has school and then you know, there's the whole thing and then we just don't go out I mean, honestly, we just say it's so easy to just No, leave your house. Just close the doors and lock up now that people mail me marshmallows Why do I why would I leave? Make me go outside, right? Oh, no. No, it's called on. There's more people wrong I went out the other day and it was snowing. Yeah, get out of here Yeah, so this is a perfect time for us to actually go out be with them

My wife's on holiday. It's gonna be great. What genre of food are you gonna get? No idea. That's their it's their business Do you like do you like how I called food genre? Did I I did because I is it it's I feels appropriate it is right? Yeah Cuz there's not just like oh, this is Ethiopian food or Chinese food or something now It's like this is this is fusion. This is postmodern food exactly The device authorial intent right Well, I hope you have a great time. I will I'm sure we will so today. We're not gonna have as great a time here We have we have a bit to unpack sure and so I'm gonna unpack as great a time here. So we have a bit to unpack. Sure.

And so I'm gonna unpack all this, but first let's say hello to some new wonks. Appropriate for Christmas. Yes! Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's gift wrap all over this pile of shit. Hello to some new wonks. First, Ryke and Selene's feline acolytes Maya and Flock. Thank you so much.

You're now a policy wonk. I'm a policy wonk. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next, condolences to the Fahle brothers for extending their losing streak to five. Better luck next year. Thank you so much. You're now policy wonk. I'm a policy wonk. Thank you very much. Thank you. And Kay from Wisconsin sending this on the eve before the 2024 election. I hope we'll all be better tomorrow. Uh oh. You're now policy wonk. I'm a policy. Thank you I have bad news about this and don to grant me I said to her okay. I said Kay an email Before I put it in like hey

Just so you know you were coming up, but maybe it is they were like ha ha ha ha yeah, so I'm down Yeah, I'm with it. Well. We also got a technic right in the mix Jordan So thank you so much to the thought police at the muck's I'm with it. Well, we also got a technocrat in the mix, Jordan. So thank you so much to the Thought Police at the Muck's Opticon Think. I'm installing a rainwater collection system while stockpiling hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.

But thanks to my trusty bone conduction headphones, I'm secretly dialed into knowledge fight and contemplating whether to begin my 11th run of Stardew Valley. Thank you so much, Jordan, I have a technocrat. I'm a policy wonk. Four stars, go home to your mother and tell her you're brilliant. Someone, someone, sodomite sent me a bucket ofk. Four stars. Go home, keep your mouth and tell her you're brilliant.

Someone, someone, sodomite sent me a bucket of poop. Daddy shark! Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp. Jar Jar Binks has a Caribbean black action. He's a loser little, little titty baby. I don't want to hate black people. I renounce Jesus Christ! You ever, you ever play Stardew Valley?

I have not played Stardew Valley. It's very Relaxing yeah and mellow. Mm-hmm I think it's a great game, but I don't understand why some people are so deep into it Okay, there's a there's a there's people who can play it like 11 times I'm not sure why I get I get it that it that some people really really get into it sure and I'm not sure why. I get it that some people really, really get into it. Sure. And I'm glad for them, not judging them. No, of course not.

But for me, I think I played it maybe once or twice through. You know, it occurs to me, I don't know if I like any game that is relaxing in that sort of way. I like it. All games that I appreciate have an edge to that. I should be afraid to lose in some fashion. I like all games that I appreciate have an edge to that like I should be I Am should be afraid to lose in some I should be afraid Right I think you can be afraid of things and it's less about maybe dying though and more about like missing windows of opportunity Oh boys, that's even worse. It's more. I guess maybe stressful

In the way in that way interesting. yeah, but you know you farm stuff you Do plant crops you? Go down in a cave. That's life you date. It's a life simulator all right more or less But then there's like little monsters and stuff. I mean that's not too different So like I said we got to unpack something sure that is that Alex is still out of studio sure And so we don't have Alex stuff to cover. How long has he been out of studio in total? A bit.

A bit. A bit? Yeah. A bit? About a week maybe? About a full week? Give or take, yeah. Hasn't said, like, I'm in, bswebdobr.

No, he's been shooting videos in his car periodically. And I have not watched all of them, so forgive me if he has actually revealed this mystery, but I'm pretty sure he's in Arizona. I'm pretty sure he's at America Fest in Arizona, because it looks like the desert that he's in, and it's clearly some other location. So I think he went to America Fest, the Turning Point USA conference

that they've been throwing. Trump just spoke today as we're recording. It's been a who's who of all these folks. Charlie Kirk, Jack Posobik, Donald Trump Jr., Cenk from the Young Turks. Sure, why not? Yeah. It's a big thing for the people in this form of the media. America Fest. And I thought for sure, like, oh, Alex is going to pop up and he's going to speak and then we can cover that. Yeah.

And then he didn't. Oh. I mean, if he did, I can't, I haven't found video of him speaking. You think he's being relegated to the club tents at Lollapalooza. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, oh, everybody, you can go inside and hang out. Oh, this is great. Yeah

Yeah, he's running the chill chill out. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, not good. I don't think yeah Definitely junior varsity if booked but like I don't think he spoke And so that kind of is a problem So I was looking at the speakers who were there cuz I'm like Alex is there Whatever, right what's going on over there. And I saw that Tucker spoke. And so I was going to cover that. But that's two Tucker episodes in a row.

That's a lot of Tucker. And I felt a little bit like, I don't know if people are ready. If you get two Tuckers, they're too furious. Yeah, people will be too furious. Because I did get a little bit of feedback from people that was a lot of like, I can't listen to his voice.

Screeeeat! That's all I hear. I can't listen to his voice. What are you... I can't understand that criticism or that feedback because the alternative is listening to Alex's voice. No, I mean... He's not like super relaxing and delightful tones. You know, there's flavors of trash. Yeah. I mean, and you know when you're used to a certain flavor of trash and then somebody

gives you a different flavor of trash, sure, objectively you know they're both trash, but the unfamiliar trash is worse! Right, but I guarantee that that is an illusion. And well yeah, obviously, you know they're both trash. Well, but also, if you've gotten used to listening to Alex's voice, you can get used to listening to Tucker's. That's a very small hill for someone to climb. I I have no qualms with challenging that perception.

You can't listen to him. Sure. Sure. Sure. I think we can make it entertaining. Sure. But I still just didn't want to do too back toto-back Yeah, and so we'll save that for later Maybe if we maybe if Alex did give a off to the side speech at America Fest We can cover that that'd be sad with with Tucker did a little after party But there's something else that I saw at America Fest man I you can just unironically call it America Fest and then everybody goes on with their day.

It's not like everybody goes, hey, you remember when this was a dystopian future that people imagined in the 80s? Any punk band would be like, hey, we'll play at America Fest, ha ha ha, because that's only what jingoistic monsters would do. Now we're just like, yeah, that's it. The America is awesome and it's only for us fest. Great, cool, cool, woo! So I was looking at the list of speakers

and obviously a lot of them I don't really care. I don't really care about what Don Trump Jr.'s got to say. I'm not particularly interested in Glenn Beck's speech or Cenk from the Young Turks. I love that Glenn Beck had a good couple of years where people were like, he's changed. That's great. Fantastic. Yep.

Everybody should be very proud of themselves. Well, he seemed convincing when he cried. See there you go. Right. So I thought there was one name that stood out among the rest. Yeah. And I regret this. I don't even know why we're doing this.

Okay. And it's Alex's fault because he's been in the middle of the desert somewhere and not doing his show. Uh, but Rob Schneider spoke. Oh, wow. Yeah. You know what? Here's what's crazy about this. I think I've come through to the other side where I am now interested to hear what Rob Schneider has to say. Do you know what know what I mean? Definitely like now that we've like what's there to argue about or fight about? Let's see what Rob Schneider has to say that dudes nuts now sure I think that a lot of times when there have been comedy acts at these like Trump events sometimes it's Jim Brewer sure and I don't particularly care because he doesn't I'm not convinced he delivers sentences I'm not I don't think he communicates he doesn't... I'm not convinced he delivers sentences.

I don't think he communicates. There's a lot of noises. Sure. And stuff. Sure. Like that? Famously goat boy. Sure.

But he does a lot of like, ah, ah, ah, kind of stuff. Those are the days. That was when comedy used to be great. Right. It's like, I don't know if I wanna delve into the waters of of of him Yeah, but you know we listen to Tony Hinchcliffe on the at the Madison Square rally

And so I felt like I know that Rob Schneider can make sentences. I know he has thoughts sure So let's listen to him like you can do it wait no Was that him that was yeah, there was him in the water boy. Okay, all right All right, I can remember one thing. Would you believe that is the first thing someone yells from the audience when he gets on stage? Yes I would! Yes, because it was the first thing I yelled! I was shocked that no one yelled

That's a huge bitch! Oh, that's what... From Zeus Bigelow. So I'm going to throw this out at you. Yep while the the comedians That we've seen associated with the whole movement have been of a lower caliber. I Guarantee that there are higher quality comedians who are not doing it because they don't want the look right not because they don't

Agree, do you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah I think so. You know like these people they like what I don't think they realize is that they could be having good humor around. They're just so shitty that people don't even want to be associated with it among our community of comedians notorious dirtbags. It's amazing. It's amazing. I'm looking at the SNL wiki. Yeah. And I'm looking at the characters that he played on SNL famous characters. Okay. And the first I guess it's alphabetical so I can't be too mad about this. But the first impression that he has is Adolf Hitler. Okay. So that's fun. Wait, Rob Schneider does a Hitler? there's a picture of it here yeah okay I

mean it's mostly the mustache you know like you know it's not hard to let's face it in history most of Hitler is is the mustache I think I mean look Rob Schneider is what he is sure But he was a big part of like comedy in the period that we came up in sure we grew up in yeah Yeah, yeah, not came up in no, but like SNL at the like really important time for SNL I'm so it was a murderer's row of a cast Yep, and then Adam Sandler is you know one of the most influential? And then Adam Sandler is, you know, one of the most influential people of the 90s in terms of comedy. Of course. And he was a hanger-on that was in all of his movies.

Yep. To the point where I don't know if I remember a whole lot about the water boy outside of You Can Do It. There was the old guy. You couldn't understand him. He was arararar guy yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah his name was Bobby Boucher I remember that that was Adam Sandler's name yeah yeah yeah you know there's an alligator I think what was what was fun about them I feel like at the time for me was that they were almost a okay let me try and make this

make sense, right? So you've got your mainstream people and you've got your kind of alt kind of people, that kind of thing. Adam Sandler and that kind of area were just mainstream enough that you could enjoy a Norm McDonald as being like, oh, these are different, while at the same time still enjoying Adam Sandler, you know? It was like, oh, I'm allowed to rebel against this thing and see comedy as something greater than that,

but at the same time, this is a good thing. This is good, yeah. Yeah, there's only a certain amount of distance between Dirty Work and Doos Bigelow. Absolutely, totally. At that time. 100%, yeah. only certain amount of distance between Dirty Work and Absolutely! Do Spigalo Totally! At that time 100%

Yeah And you know I think that that makes him exist in a sort of place that's similar to how it's with Roseanne Yeah You know like Yep He's somebody who is like wow you were around and you were actually important in a pretty interesting place.

Um, and so I don't know, let's, let's hear the man out. Let's do, let's do what we got to do and see if we survive. So here's, here's where we open things up. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm honored to be here. President Joe Biden just pardoned Lee Harvey Oswald. Oh God.

If President Trump wants to make Canada the 51st state one stipulation, at least one of the senators has to be a moose. So it's tough to tell what the commentary on the joke is for his opener. The moose senator thing is just silly. But Biden pardoning Oswald, there's supposed to be some meaning behind that, right? I mean, you'd think. I guess. I think it's, I mean, it's supposed to be like, he would pardon the most evil guy, right?

I don't think it's just that. I think it's supposed to be a play on the attempted assassination of Trump and Butler. And somehow it's meant to bring to mind the image that Biden's pardoning that guy because he would be letting people who shoot at presidents off the hook. I think that's what he's trying to evoke. There's something there, yeah. Rob should revisit this joke after Trump pardons people who tried to overthrow the government last time around,

but whatever. Biden's given out some bullshit pardons, and I could give a list of horrible people Trump pardoned in order to try and be like, but look at this. But that's actually, it doesn't address the issue. The problem is unequal access to clemency and the misapplication of the justice system,

and that extends to pretty much all elected leaders ever, so we need to look at that holistically. What gets me about this joke in this opener is how unedgy it is. The Grubb Schneider's coming out and telling a joke at the place where joke telling is legal now. They're supposed to be the people who can say whatever you want. This speech was on December 22nd, so Oswald and the attempted assassinations, it's all kind of a cooled off subject. It's a little bit dull. It feels like he should have done like a Luigi Mangione thing if he wanted to be topical and make a riff off of

Biden's pardons. Like for example, he could have come out and said something like, can you believe that Biden pardoned his son? The only thing more shocking was that finding out he's got a secret son named Luigi. Something like that. You know, there's ways that you could go with this Biden pardons. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's an angle there. Yeah, but this is just dead on the floor. Do you know what? There's a significant part of me that suggests that unless we start hearing the N-word more, they're all full of shit. You know what I'm saying?

Like now that we are where we are, really it boils down to these people, they want to say the N-word more, so say it! Right. It's this bullshit of like, hey, you're all complaining about how you're the only ones who speak freely You're clearly not Toss it about see what happened and even more than that. That's just one signifier. That's just one thing There's so much more like you should be talking about how you don't think some people should have rights No, absolutely just speak freely. I mean truth-teller that you imagine you saw yourself to be edgy I hardly believe that I'm going to say

this but I kind of want to hear them say the n-word boy at least would have less dissonance yeah yeah yeah of like okay you're actually just whiny little babies yeah yeah great yeah so Rob I think he's trying to, he's making a point in his next joke. Okay. But I, I don't, I think it's a little, uh, a little bit confusing. Okay. Unlike Oprah, I am not being paid to be here. I'm here because I love my country and because Donald Trump surrounds himself with intelligent women. Who are very good looking. What a crowd.

Wow. What? Wow. So the message that Rob was trying to send with that joke was that Oprah only showed up to Harris events for money, whereas he's actually there because he believes in Trump. Unfortunately the way he decided to deliver that joke was a bit off, and he ended up implying a couple things that he might not have intended to. The first is that no one is willing to pay him an appearance fee.

Even if he believes wholeheartedly in Trump, it's kind of silly to imagine that he wasn't paid to go to AmericaFest. Like if he's not getting paid something for this, there's something very wrong. Yeah, absolutely. Like, Charlie Kirk may have pocketed his money or something if he didn't get paid. I mean, I would be angry on his behalf if he wasn't. Who's your agent? Yeah, absolutely. This needs to be handled.

Yeah. The second thing that he's implying is that he was booked at AmericaFest because Trump surrounds himself with intelligent, beautiful women. The implication was supposed to be that Oprah isn't intelligent or beautiful, but Rob is comparing himself to her as a booking choice. He should have said that Trump surrounds himself with intelligent, beautiful people, not specifically women, because now it seems like Trump booked Schneider due to his policy of booking intelligent beautiful women.

The way out of this is to say that Trump surrounds himself with intelligent beautiful women, which is why Rob is there. He's drawn to the intelligent beautiful women that are around Trump, which is why he said yes to appearing at this event. This unfortunately calls into question the sincerity of the claim that he's there because he really believes in Trump, whereas Oprah just wants money. His motivations are just as shallow as anyone else, it's just that no one wants to pay him as much to go places. They know that being around attractive women is enough payment for Rob. This is just poorly written no matter how you try and slice it. Yeah. Yeah, because just from a funny standpoint, it would be far funnier if he were blunt. If he were like, I don't find Oprah attractive. I'm not getting paid. I'm trying to fuck. That's a good three sentence bit right there. Sure. Comparatively to what's going on here. This is a level of implication that I don't think anybody is prepared to unwrap

and I don't think he is prepared to deliver. No, but I think that that almost would be too edgy if he was like I'm not getting paid and I'm trying to fuck because it would underline some of the misogyny that that kind of underwrites Damn it man. This is misogyny. Let's go sure. That's my new that's why you know what? I've been I'm embracing the the sports people who say let's go about stuff. I'm talking go exactly. That's what we're doing Yeah, so this next Boof. Oh boy. This is rough. I believe you. This is really hard to hear. Sight unseen.

As somebody who has been on a stage before, this is tough. There's gotta be 5,000 people here, which is double MSNBC's primetime viewership. Wow. Well, what an election. Wow. I haven't seen a man beat a woman that brutally since

the Olympic Games. We don't want to be like the Democrats who want to destroy American traditions, like counting votes by hand. They don't care about you, they only care about themselves. I didn't edit that. That is a zero response to something that he very clearly thought was going to be a laugh line. Yeah. Let's tease laugh line. Yeah. Let's tease that out. Sure.

All right, why do you think he thought that the counting votes by hand was a punch? Well, because the line right before that, the signaling to transphobia got a response. Right, but that's different. Right. No, it's not really. No, I mean, it is. It's a different reference to like a thing that these people care about. Right. And then

it's confusing the like voting by hand. Right. But it's easy to imagine that in each instance, all you're doing is pointing to some right wing social media grievance, shiny set of keys. So you might think that you'd get the same kind of response. But there's nothing transgressive about the counting ballots by hand part. You have the edginess in like, oh, see, people will be mad if I reference this Olympic thing where I call this obvious woman a man and it'll piss people off. And you'll recognize that I'm pissing people off and we'll both laugh at how I don't mean any of this bullshit and we're just pissing people off.

I don't get the hand ballot counting thing though, you know? Yeah, I think that it's something that's really popular with, you know, excuses for why Trump actually won in 2020, the bedrock of our democracy is in actually counting votes and you know like I think that there is enough of a twist In the the weed aren't like the Democrats. We support American values sure and then that American value is a right-wing Media complaint yes, so like I think I think that there's enough of a In your mind that I could see how he would think there would be a laugh there, right? But he miscalculated terribly

No, this is this to me feels like a learning experience like if I'm if I'm an open mic er Then and I'm I'm delivering these back it back to back which is about the skill level required I'm thinking you know like oh These people want me to be an asshole. They don't want me to be like slightly incisive. Well I know yeah I should give you a little peek behind the curtain and if you watch this it's clear he's reading this off like the piece of paper so like there's a chance that someone else wrote these jokes for him and he's just delivering them. I don't know or maybe he's just not that confident in his performance, but like reasonable this

If I had to try and guess why these went off each other Maybe it has something to do with like his beliefs in Sort of transphobia and gender being something that he considers to be an American value And it's like this is a tag off that. I don't know. But it's really tough to hear someone be like, hey, there's 5,000 people here, and that's so much better than watch the mainstream media,

and then just dead. He gets a big response to some social war bullshit that he's pointing to, like, I'm on the right side of. Sure. And it's actually an embodiment of the very thing that they complain is what's wrong with comedy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's virtue signaling. And then getting a big response.

And then he does something that he thinks is a joke and there's nothing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You think this is a joke? Wrong. You're saying something that signals to us that you're one of us and that we are here together without any of those weirdos. Hooray! Yeah.

You know, you want to complain that like, ah, woke comedy is all claptor and it's like, this is all this is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There is no joke. There's no artifact, like craft to this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's ridiculous. Yeah, it is not good.

So the basic structure that Rob goes down is like listing off the reasons that the Democrats lost sure and so it's just a cavalcade of things for people to clap for yes, like it's You told people the economy is good, but they couldn't afford groceries Men can get pregnant Is he booked to be a comedian or is this like a weird speech? Well, here's the thing Like this is why it's interesting on the back of the like Tony Hinchcliffe Yeah, he was trying to do a comedy set Yeah in the setting where he shouldn't have done a comedy set wrong and I think that Rob Schneider is trying to do both

Okay, because obviously when he came out he was trying to do an opening joke. It was an opening bit for sure Yeah, and I think that he tries to maintain some of that like joke structure and shit. But he's very clearly more like also doing a speech. But he does have like clear points where he's like hold for applause, hold for laughs. Yeah. So here's a part of his list of why the Democrats lost. Here's one of the beats in that. Okay.

You lost because flying Haitians into Ohio in the middle of the night just to increase your voting base is kind of a shady thing to do. Now, I have no problem with legal immigration. I'm just not sure Haiti is sending us their best cat-eating rapist cannibals. Sorry. That was too much even for me. I apologize. Never apologize, Rob. What the fuck? Why was that too far even for him?

Like what about that joke was even edgy? This is exactly what they think Haitian immigrants in Ohio are. It's not really even an exaggeration for some sort of comedic effect. Their media sphere obsessed about Haitians being cannibals and eating everyone's pets for weeks as part of an electoral strategy to scare their white base into voting so they wouldn't get eaten next. Here's why that joke was too far, even for Rob. It's not that it was edgy or pushing the boundaries of what you're allowed to say, it's that it was too close to a reducto ad absurdium of his entire belief system.

These people don't believe that American cities are being overrun by cannibals, they're just beholden to a political machine that benefits from making them pretend to believe that. Delivering what's a sincere argument of their political media in the form of a joke like this kind of lays bare how it isn't even really a belief. This is a joke to Rob, a joke where the actual punchline is that people actually had their votes swayed by shitheads pretending that Haitian immigrants were cannibal rapists. The joke is on the audience, and the really lazy way that Rob does comedy

is a little bit close to making that punchline too clear. And that's why he's like, oh, sorry, that was a little bit much even for me. I think it's almost impossible to understand the joke except as a joke on the people it's being told to. Because if you believe that half of a population in a city is cannibal, rapist, Sure. monster folks, what do you, is it, is it, is there political solution you're advocating for this?

Then the bit though is they did send us their best cannibals. You know, like, oh, they sent us their best cannibals, now they're starving. You know what I'm saying? Like the bit is that you go even further than you could imagine. That's where the humor comes from in terms of like a joke. As opposed to like I get that maybe it's not funny or whatever, but in terms of like how a joke works. I agree that there's a better way to approach this if your point is making a joke. Yes. I agree with that.

But what's being communicated really isn't like a good or bad joke. Right, no, that's- What's being communicated is Rob realizes kind of like, this is an insane thing to say, to imply that this immigrant population, these refugees are cannibal, rapist, animal, like pet eating folks. That's insane. But that is actually what they have been demanded that they believe and perpetuate as part of Trump's electoral strategy. So living in that space and that moment on the stage, it's got to be kind of tough.

You know, there's a part of me that wonders if it is like one of the things that we're constantly running up against and that whole concept of like, oh, conservatives aren't funny. It has more to do with just simply joke structure tilts toward the powerless. If you can't find a way to make the powerless powerful in your joke, then you have failed, you know, like anything that's punching down is just ultimately not funny or only funny to the people who are punching down together, you know? So it's just, it's just like, you can't tell a,

you can't tell a joke like that and not understand that it's not a joke. Right. Because it's not, do you know, I'm struggling with it, just like, because the structure of the joke is the transgression against the status quo. And in this case, the status quo, as you pointed out, is we think they're cannibal rapists yeah so you're just going like oh those people we think are cannibal rapists were there right that's not a bit yeah yeah no it's not it's um and and i think that um it's kind of tough to imagine thinking that it is yeah uh but hey I guess you didn't get paid to be there. So

Listen hey, I get it. Comedy's hard. It is but that's that's one of the dynamics that I Thought was actually kind of interesting about this This set or this speech more than just being like haha. This is bad comedy or whatever There's something that's happening in terms of the language of comedy. Like that is an example of your comedic exaggeration is actually exactly what your media says is the reality. There is no exaggeration here. There is no point.

This isn't a bit the way you're constructing it. However, at times there is the like, oh, hold on. This is kind of like what a joke is. And lastly, you lost because you can't give a hundred billion dollars to Ukraine and only seven hundred dollars to American fire victims in Maui. And only $800 to American hurricane victims in North Carolina. Zelensky is obviously a cokehead. All the signs are there.

You give him a billion dollars, the next week he's broke. He's always wearing the same dirty t-shirt that Sean Penn gave him. He's always saying delusional shit like, I'm gonna defeat Russia. Well, 29 days until President Trump takes office. Giving money to Ukraine and not to US citizens is a fine complaint, but speaking at Turning Points America Fest, on a lineup full of speakers who have absolutely nothing but contempt for government spending on public welfare. They don't want the government giving money to hurricane or fire victims. That's what insurance and charity are for, according to them. It feels really good to point at Americans not being taken care of because that sucks

and it doesn't feel right, but Rob would probably get roundly booed out of the building if he wasn't just doing that to attack supporting Ukraine. If he just got up there and advocated for public works administrations or universal housing for Americans, I don't think he would be getting this unpaid gig. Now that bit about Zelensky is pretty close to joke structure, and I gotta tip my hat a little bit. The premise is that Zelensky is like a cokehead, which is then expanded upon by giving examples of how things he does are similar to things you associate with people on Coke.

They need more money, they wear redy clothes, they associate with Sean Penn, they think they can defeat Russia. These are all solid beats for a joke, but this is still bad, because there's no punchline. If the punchline is supposed to be that Zelensky is like a Cokehead, then the setup is the punchline. The examples aren't building to anything, they're just tags being added onto the setup, which feels incomplete. That's why Rob gets lost in a laugh there.

He knows, from his time being a comedian, that this is actually how a joke works. This is building, and the audience is on board. This is what it's like to do comedy. You establish an idea, take the audience along with it, and then you land the plane. But Rob realizes mid flight that he has no landing gear, so he just laughs weirdly. This is a joke that's on the open mic level. It's the kind of thing that you might say at an open mic and then later that night you and your friends would get drunk and think of some way to crack the nut. Try to find some angle that would take what you've got and elevate the point into being something that's like, oh, that's a bit now. But it's not. This is just an unfinished,

unpolished piece of shit. Yeah, there's too much personal bullshit in there. You can edit out tons of that where you're like, oh, I'm talking to my weird shithead friends. You've got four examples, so you've already cut it down to rule of threes. But I think he combined the ratty shirt and Sean Penn in a way that makes it three. And I think that's okay. But I disagree because I think the third one should be, I can defeat Russia. So you cut down, you get rid of the money, you go Zelensky, he's exactly like a coke head. You give him money. All of a sudden the next day you see him wearing a worst shirt. The day after. He's doing the whole thing

Then he comes to you scratching his neck going I bet I can defeat Russia this time That's your that's your bit because that's the escalation beyond what you would expect from just a cokehead Sure, yeah. Yeah. No, I think you need something else. I think I think you need a whole lot of something else, right? this unlike a lot of the stuff that you end up seeing and a lot of the the Shit that just ends up being like haha clap for this complaint that we all have on Twitter Like I think that this actually is what a lot of pretty basic joke Writing is this has has a recognizable form. It's just it doesn't lead anywhere.

But I think he knows that in the moment as he's delivering this, which is why he just gets lost in a laugh of being like, oh, it's kind of funny. He's reading off this page. It's kind of funny. Oh man, he is like a coke head. I don't have a point there.

What? I wonder what it would be like to like and I'm not comparing it to to some sort of Alzheimer's in a way but like To gradually age to the point where you can remember joke structure But only in the form of like a mad libs like you can't understand what goes where and why but you can understand What it's supposed to look like from space Do you know what I mean? Like that would be that would be horrifying. I guess but I mean like I don't Gun to your head. I don't think you could remember a single Rob Schneider joke

I think you could definitely remember characters and like make a cafe You know like you could do that, but you couldn't remember a single joke Oh my god, that's right to be boiled down to making coffee, right? But he did a number of making coffees You know like in terms of the word part of this that you have in your mind of little moments and stuff He has a fair amount of utility that he served in that space Yes and stuff, he has a fair amount of utility that he served in that space. Yes.

But I don't think there's ever been like a, god damn, that was a really well constructed Rob Schneider bit. So I think that he knows like some of the sketch ideas. Totally. Some of the A and B and C and whatever, but like this is a guy who seems like caught a fish here and he's not reeling it in. Yeah, no, I think you've inadvertently revealed the whole thing by saying he's made a bunch of making copies in so far as, yeah, it's a bunch of different characters, but it is

reduced to the same basic thing. He goes, ehh! You can do it! Exactly, that's it! He goes, ehh! In a different way than you. Right, but they're words. Whereas with Jim Brewer, it's noises.

Right, it's right! Right, right, right words. Whereas with Jim Brewer, it's noises. Right, it's right. Right, right, right. It's different. But it's the same. Kinda is. So anyway, I was confused by this sort of like,

cokehead runner, and then it didn't really have a punchline. Right. Here's what happens right after. Okay. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha right after. Okay. Well, 29 days until President Trump takes office. And the Bidens are already starting to pack up.

They're going through their drawers, checking under beds, looking, you know, they're looking under closets and that's just, you know, gathering up a hundred Biden's coke stash. I wrote this late last night. That was a huge missed opportunity. So Rob has delivered this incomplete joke about Zelensky being a cokehead, and then he gets distracted by his own joke kind of being a joke, and it leads him to completely botch the delivery of this Hunter Biden coke stash joke. He tries to save it by saying he wrote this material late last night, and the audience

lets him off the hook, but there would have been a perfect opportunity here if he put a finger up to his nose. He just made two coke jokes in a row and he needs a bomb saving line because he screwed the second one up. He had the sense to say he was up late writing the set, but why not just say that he was up doing Coke writing these jokes? The audience probably wouldn't take it seriously enough to care. And even if they did, he was deuce bigelow male gigolo.

It would have tied everything up nicely, but oh well. I was like watching it and I'm like, put your finger in your nose, but do it, do it, make a joke. Do something, and he doesn't. It sucks, this sucks. It sucks, it sucks in the way that it sucks if I went back and watched Dave Chappelle's block party.

That like what, like 2000? You got the roots you got you got everybody and you got Dave Chappelle at the height of his Chappelle show powers, and then you watch it now, and you're like ah fuck me time kills man This does not suck in the same way No This sucks in a hugely worse way right but in the same way that like deus bigelow was not chapelle's block party You know what I mean, so like the the relative quality the highs are different highs and the lows are different lows That is true. Yeah, I don't think that oh You know what was Dave chapelle's block party with her upside to the sure deus bigelow european jiggle

The sequel is really where they figured it was that the one yeah I just was bummed out that he like I even thought that if he was like I was up late Yeah, doing you know right in this set I think even that would have been kind of edgy in this room Yeah, I think like that would have been a comedic choice that would have been challenging to the audience totally and I just Making fun of hunter do and coke but also guess what? I'm a little fun guy, too You know SNL in the 90s Impish like listen, I'm I'm the bridge between what you think is evil and I'm the comedian You know holier than thou us Rob Schneider be a clown for fuck's sake. So this next joke I thought was like

Well, there's some potential here, but I think the audience maybe doesn't care. Okay You got to give credit where credit is due though last week Joe Biden achieved a major foreign policy breakthrough and A literal al Qaeda terrorist is the new president of Syria Come on man, I'm serious. Come come on man i'm serious come on man i'm serious look man he's a bad dude why probably dementia you know how senile people sometimes you know they put like

their clothes in the oven you know they do weird shit. Sometimes they install a literal al-Qaeda terrorist as president of Syria. We are the party of compassion, the Republicans. BOOF. BOOF. So Rob shouldn't have tried to get a laugh on the line, a literal al-Qaeda terrorist is the new president of Syria twice. I think the first time when it just laid there on the floor, a literal al-Qaeda terrorist is the new president of Syria twice.

I think the first time when it just laid there on the floor, he shouldn't have gone back to the well. A couple of missed shots here too though. One is that his Biden impression kind of sounded more like George W. Bush. I thought it was Bush. Was it supposed to be Biden? That was supposed to be Biden. Jesus, man.

Yeah, he has dementia. He's a good guy. He should have said Jack, at least, or something. Sounds like somebody else What some malarkey just throw something in there to signify? Like literally doing a bush and that was a bush impression That was a bush another problem is that it felt like he was gonna play around with how serious sounds like seriously But then that went nowhere went nowhere. Yeah, I think I know I think he I think he heard it in the moment Was like is there something there and then yes

No, there's nothing there and then moved on because this whole like set is essentially being delivered off a page Yeah, right. Yeah, it's it feels kind of dead where that's serious Seriously, it felt like oh playfulness. Is there playfulness? I'm lazy. I'm an old man. I don't give a shit. I'm gonna do a George Bush impression I'm not dead. It's don't give a shit. I'm gonna do a George Bush impression It's Biden. Why why shit man? I just I don't even Okay, maybe maybe I'm I'm I guess I'm just expecting Too little because I'm not even asking for base

Funny, you know, I'm asking for base competency. Yeah, yeah. And this is worse than that. I'm asking for comedy on your terms. Yeah. When I say that that Zelensky bit is a bit, I'm not saying it's funny. No, no, no, no, no.

But I am saying that like, this is what the expectation is of you're introducing an idea and you're making it funny. You're adding these details in a way that expand your thought and umbrella it out in a way that the audience can go along with your train of thought. I expect that. Yes. I want something. And yeah, this is not that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If we were in the comedian's

guild, we would be like- Friars Club? No, different. More like medieval comedians go we would be like hey don't take those words that you just said outside of this room But they do have the language of a joke so now we can work together to make them a language It's an open mic exactly exactly and the rest of this a lot of it's not even open mic level jokes It's barely a tweet. Yeah, like some of this stuff. It's it's brutal. It is it is brutal, but he does have some decent points Here in there. Okay, and maybe this is one of them. All right Nancy Pelosi fell down and broke her hip and as much as I disagree about her politics, I feel horrible about her fall Because I had all my money on Mitch McConnell in the office broken hip pull

that's a joke it's a bit of a misdirect that's not terrible sure and the point that he's making is essentially that the leadership in the country is too old that's fair enough right I mean relatively speaking you know but I mean That's not terrible. Sure. And the point that he's making is essentially that the leadership in the country is too old. That's fair enough. I mean, relatively speaking, you know. But I mean, that's a, that is a bit. No, when we were talking about baseline competence, I was like, that's baseline competence. That is baseline competence.

It's whatever. Thoroughly. Some perspective though, like Mitch McConnell's 82. These guys, these ding-dongs, they all love Trump and he's 78. He's going to be the oldest president ever at the end of his term So like I think that the point that's being made is good It's you're missing the forest for the trees a little bit But at the end of the day all you can ask for is a joke and he gave a joke that was that was

Yes, yes If I was at a place in the back of the room having listened to the rest of the set, my ears would perk up at the sound of like, aha, I see sir, so it is somewhere. You do know what you're failing at the rest of the time. Or whoever wrote this. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I hear it now. You are failing. You're not just bad at this. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, like, hey, Nancy're not just bad at this. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, you know, like, hey, Nancy Pelosi fell and broke her hip. That's really bad. It's really terrible. You know, I feel so awful about this because I lost money on a bet that it was going to be McConnell. Totally. Perfect. At least in terms of A, B, C, D, like, aha, we have a joke, folks.

If it could be boiled down to something so very base it would be just good at the end where they thought you would zig you zag yeah and drag congratulations performed compassion yes then I turned it into something else there you go the sake of a joke done tada yeah that is about as good as it gets it's a magic trick yeah this next joke is not I did not get paid to be here like I said like Oprah got paid because I got doged by Elon and Vivek. I'm just grateful that the American people saw through Oprah's lies saying that you will

never vote again if Trump wins. America didn't fall for Obama in his mama jeans, trying to shame black men into voting for Kamala just because they may have mommy problems or issues. I'm glad nobody listened to Kamala Harris because she never really said what she stood for. Because at the end of the day, just like her party, she stood for nothing. The Democrats had no policy this year. I mean, that's just clapped her there. I mean, like there's nothing.

That wasn't even... Yeah. They weren't even interested in clapping for that. I feel like some of that applause was like, we got to give him something. We got to give him something. There's something roughs happening on that stage. He's talking about Obama being in mom jeans. It feels like this is a moment to give him support.

That's what it felt, that's what that applause felt like. It felt like, no, you can make it to the end, buddy. Are you trying to say that black people voted for Obama because they have mommy issues? Because that felt like what he was saying. Yeah. I didn't know we could just, like, as far as offensive stereotypes go, I didn't know we could just alter those at will. I don't fully understand what he's hitting on here. Absolutely no idea.

No. Nope. I think it comes back to, like, I remember very early, starting out and being in these low stakes showcase rooms where the headliner quote unquote would be the guy who could do 10 minutes compared to everybody else doing four or six or whatever, you know? And then I would watch that and that guy would do four minutes of here are the family guy impressions I can do sure I

know exactly who you're talking about yes you do yep yes yes you fucking did we all opened for that guy yeah yeah yeah me and Nick Rowley down in where was that a? Oswego, I believe. Yeah, probably Oswego. Yep, probably. Yep, yep. I'm getting too specific. I had a fine set. I'm sure you did. But I remember just sitting there

with a certain amount of awe that in all reality, it was just the spark of recognition. That's what it was. It was like, I recognize that from elsewhere. right? You have brought it here. Now we laugh together. And I feel like so much of these words are just like, if I say this word, I think these people will have the spark of recognition. And it's him doing is, hey, Peter, like

it's that that's all it is doing an impression of like a family guy character or whatever, in the context of something that is interesting is not Does that's nothing to be ashamed of sure if you can if you could say something through that impression It is what it is I suppose but the recognition the pure recognition where it's just I have a laugh because I sound like Peter Griffin Yep is exactly the same thing as Alex taking Adrian Ditman seriously because he sounds like Elon Musk. It's like this recognition, this surface level shit is enough and it's not.

Listen to me deliver this line from that show you watched in the exact same way that you watched it. Yeah, let me give you a complaint that you all have from social media. Roll clap. Remember when we saw this yesterday. It feels like that, it feels like what he's doing is a version of like America's funniest home tweets Where he goes through yesterday and he goes like hey guys

I don't know if you saw this yesterday or if you did you'll also enjoy it nothing really matters here but that's why the like Biden pardoned Oswald is like as an opener is even weird because if you're trying to get applause from familiarity and all that stuff, it doesn't seem like the best route to go. Yeah, that sounds just like an insane person. Right. Yeah, that's an insane person's thoughts that were on the notebook. And then he was like, well, it's there. So I might as well say it. Right. Someone else wrote this here. I didn't finish it or do anything, but I might as well say it. I also, I don't know about this, but I wonder, because that felt a bit racist.

Yeah, it was very racist. It felt like there was something going on there about, like, was there a stereotype of Obama wearing mom jeans? Never heard of it. I don't know. I know like tan suit. I know some of these other references about Obama. But mom jeans is not one that I think of.

So when I try and analyze what that means, he had a white mother. So mom jeans could be G-E-N-E. If, if, okay. white mother. So mom jeans could be G E N E. If if okay, let me throw this back at you. Uh huh. If what you are saying is true, and they gave this level of thought to those words that he spoke, I take back everything I said, we're operating on some sort of genius level intellect here that has figured out a way to make a Sudoku puzzle

out of bad jokes that will eventually culminate in some sort of racist. Yes, absolutely. There is no way there is that much thought applied here. There cannot be. But also the surface of it doesn't make sense either. It makes no sense. I just don't know.

It makes no sense. Rob. It just does not make sense. So sense. I just don't know it makes no sense Rob It just does not make sense. So I got one last clip here. I have the man the myth how we gonna dismount right? America has decided That Donald Trump will make America great again Let's help get Donald Trump, all President Trump, all of his appointments in by the Senate. And let's, just like the, just like Americans stood up and said no to this bill thanks to Elon Musk and Twitter, we need to get all his appointments in, including Tulsi Gabbard. Let's get them all in to make America great again. God bless

you. God bless all of you for fighting and loving this country and God bless America. Thank you so much. We'll see you now. You can do it. There we go. Just say that 15 times and leave. Right. That's all you need. Done. Yeah. Worth every penny. Absolutely. I would pay more for that than I would for whatever was I just said. You can do that America! Yeah.

I don't know why he needed a speech spot. I would have given him shorter. I think. I think he had too long to work with I think he didn't have a lot of material. Sure. I Thought this was strange Because it's It it satisfies a lot of the complaints you have about Tony Hinchcliffe's comedy set which is like that's too much comedy You know, you're trying to do something and you're pretending you're doing crowd work in Madison Square Garden. What are you fucking doing? Right. This is less comedy, but still clearly trying to be funny, still trying

to have some bit structure. So it's solving that problem, but it's still bad. I just, I just I guess I realized Maybe maybe I would rather just hear Jim Brewer make noises. I Think goat boy is now the height of comedy. Yeah, maybe this is worse It is it has to be worse and here's why to me it's worse Because I don't care What you believe period in terms of being a comedian. If you are a comedian and you are saying we need to get some blankety blanks appointments through, you have missed every part of what a comedian is. Right.

Right? Like, just, what are you doing? What are you doing right? What are you doing? There's a there's a feeling of like I'm trying to grease the wheels of power for the elected president and the richest man in the world who Clearly up to no good. What are you doing? Yeah? It doesn't it doesn't really feel like there's a comedic angle what that's worthwhile Mm-hmm, and it's interesting to see him try. I would love if there was a good comedy thing

at one of these. Sure. Like I would be interested in seeing what like a gifted hand could do. But- I mean, like, but here's the thing. The thing that's crazy about it is I think what Rob is secretly reacting to

and maybe is why we get where we get is because if you did have somebody who shared these types of general beliefs, if you will, you know, I don't know, I don't know anybody, let's call them I don't know. I don't know anybody. Let's call them Big Bay Hokerson. Something along those lines, right? Who has an angle on these things and who escalates to the right points. These people would be mad. It wouldn't sound right to them. Probably. You know? Like it would be more alienating for them to live the comedy version of what it is they think they want. Yes. Then it would be for them to just suck. A good version that isn't based around just like clapper,

claptor and feeding these complaints right back to them for the sake of recognition Totally. would be somewhat challenging even if it is closer to their belief system. Yeah. And I think that that would be really difficult. Yeah. Even if they leaned into like the, we believe in your stereotype stuff, but because I'm a comedian, I'm going to take what you think, I'm going to put it in a different angle and make you see it in a different way. It's the seeing it in a different way that's the problem to these people. Yeah. It doesn't matter how good you are at getting people to see it in a different way. The problem is they just don't want to see it like that, man.

Yeah. And that's pretty indicative of this mentality. And I think Rob Schneider is almost like a perfect comedy guest for this event. Because when they say, I don't want to see it like that he says you can do it and Yeah Anyway, maybe we'll cover the Tucker Carlson speech another time. I didn't want to do two back-to-back right so this look I'll be I'll own it a little bit. This is kicking the can down the road a tiny bit. Sure. Let's talk about Rob Schneider's dumb ass. But hey, it is what it is.

It's the holiday season. Enjoy. Happy Xmas. Yes. We'll be back with another episode, but until then, we have a website. Indeed we do. It's knowledgeright.com. Yep.

We're back, but until then, I'm Leo. I'm Leo. I'm DZX Clark. I am the Mysterious Professor. Woo yeah woo yeah woo! And now here comes the sex robots. Andy and Kansas, you're on the air. Thanks for holding. Hello Alex, I'm a first time caller. I'm a huge fan. I love your work.