The Daily Stoic - Christina Pazsitzky On Teaching Comedians Philosophy

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

Ryan speaks with Christina Pazsitzky in the first of a two-part interview about her new Netflix comedy special Mom Genes, why she believes that comedians should go to college to study philosophy, how she balances her work and home life, why ego is a tool for survival in a comedy career, what the Stoics would have to say about cancel culture, and more.Christina Pazsitzky is a stand-up comedian, podcaster, writer, host and TV personality. Since starting her comedy career in 1997, Christina has been known for her intelligent, thought-provoking, and hilarious takes on the realities of women’s issues, motherhood, and popular culture. In addition to touring the world, she has released four comedy specials, two of which have been featured on Netflix: Mother Inferior (2017), and Mom Genes (2023). Christina and her husband and fellow comedian Tom Segura host the hugely successful podcast "Your Mom’s House" together, and she also hosts her own podcast, the popular “Where My Moms At?” where she discusses motherhood. You can find more about Christina’s work, tour dates, and booking information at christinaponline.com and on Instagram @thechristinap, Twitter @christinap, and on her YouTube channel christinacomedy.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each weekday we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, a short passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength and insight here in everyday life. And on Wednesdays, we talk to some of our fellow students of ancient philosophy, well-known and obscure, fascinating, and powerful. With them, we discuss the strategies and habits that have helped them become who they are, and also to find peace and wisdom in their actual lives. But first, we've got a quick message from one of our sponsors. Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic podcast.

There is obviously this perception that stoicism is boring, that it's's dour, that it's devoid of any and all emotions, any sort of zester joy for life. We've talked many times about how this isn't true, but I think one of the areas that we can really combat this is by showing that the stoics had a sense of humor. There's jokes even in meditations, Mark Suresa repeats this weird joke, we don't quite get about how this guy is so rich

and his house is so full of stuff, he doesn't have any place to go to the bathroom. So even Mark Suresa, people don't seem to think as, I don't think many people would read as funny, actually is funny. And the Stoics love the theater, right, which is where they would have seen comedy, not just tragedies, actually is funny. And the Stokes love the theater, which is where they would have seen comedy, not just tragedies, but also comedy.

And that's why I love talking to comedians. And in the case of today's episode, we have an interesting quirk where we are talking to an Oxford trained philosophy student and a hugely successful and very funny comedian. The one and only Christina Pazinski, aka Christina P, you've probably seen her many specials on Netflix. You've probably seen her hugely popular podcast, which she hosts with her husband Tom Segura, your mom's house.

She has her own podcast, where's my mom's at. And just an overall really smart, really hilarious person. I first heard her when she was on Mark Maren's podcast many years ago, and now she is a fellow austenite. I did Tom's podcast, Two Bears One Cave, and when I was there, I gave a book for her that I thought she'd like. This book I've been raving about called Baby on the Fire Escape, which is about the creative life, but it's specifically some of the struggles that creative mothers have had. And we ended up connecting. And then she and my wife became friends. They came out to our ranch recently. And we putts to around and had fun. And anyways, I'm a big fan of her work. I think she's very funny

We did a long awesome episode here in the daily stoic studio. I'm splitting it into part one in part two So you can better listen to it. So you can break up the listening You can follow her on Instagram at the Christina P that's Christina with the C or on Twitter at Christina P You can go to her website Christina P online. She regularly performs here in Austin at the comedy mothership among many other shows. You can see her first one hour special Christina P mother inferior came out in 2017. Then she did she did one called the degenerates which was shot in Las Vegas. You can also see that on Netflix. And then her newest special mom jeans, which came out in 2022, is awesome.

And you can check that out on Netflix. Also, you can listen to her podcast, where my mom's at, anywhere podcasts are found. You can check out your mom's house everywhere. You've probably seen it on TikTok and Instagram. The clips are very, very viral because they're always funny. And for now, you can listen to me in Christina P. talking philosophy, parenting, life, creativity. And whether it's possible for the Stoics to be funny, I say yes.

And here we go. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery's podcast Business Wars. And in our new season, two of the world's leading hotel brands, Hilton and Marriott, stare down family drama and financial disasters. Listen to business wars on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. I can't imagine there's many comedians that have studied philosophy. Nobody's stupid enough to do that. What idiot gets a degree in philosophy? Fucking moron. What are you to it? 80, it gets a degree in philosophy. Fucking mori.

What are you to it? Well, I'll tell you, I, you know, I was a very depressive teenager. A lot of anxiety at 13, I had my existential crisis at 13. I realized my parents were fucking worthless. And I was like, I gotta raise myself. Yeah. But thankfully I had a bitch in paratits

so I could buy cigarettes at 13 years old. So my life was complete as long as I could smoke cigarettes. And anyway, I had really dark thoughts. And then I studied philosophy as a freshman. I had my first class, and I was like, oh my god. In high school or college? College.

Okay, where'd you go? I barely eat through high school. I mean, I don't even think I broke a thousand on my SATs. I couldn't study at home. It was a mess. I get into college just by the skin of my teeth. I went to the University of San Francisco. I got in on academic probation, like such a loser barely get into college.

I'm in great philosophical questions. This brilliant man, Dr. Mankus, rested peace. He's dead now. He gave me Heidegger's, what is called thinking, not me the whole class. Is this idea that there's a layer to thinking, what is called thinking, not just thinking, what am I gonna eat, am I gonna take a shit, we're gonna have popsicles, are we gonna screw,

but like thinking. And my brain fucking lit up. And I was like, this is what I've been waiting for, answers to the universe, this is it, this is it. And then I just, I was obsessed, I was obsessed. Yeah, and then it taught me how to be, how to think, how to be free. Like Sarger says, the existence proceeds essence.

I can define my future. I can think for my future. And this is one thing I want to teach my kids. It's not about when I'm going to learn in school, even though that's important, I believe in learning stuff. But to form your life actively, nobody fucking tells you that.

Nobody told me like, hey, if you don't plan your life, life will run you over, man. You need a plan, homie. Get into it. And the one good thing about philosophy degree, which I would say, if you're, for anybody thinking about getting one,

is that it teaches you to think clearly and to speak clearly. And I know so many dumb motherfuckers in this world who can't even think. I mean it. And I'm fucking bored when I talk to 90%, I love you, because I think you're just, my eyes glaze over, because I'm like, Jesus, I know where this is, I know what you're gonna say,

and not that I'm so brilliant, but I fucking, I think about dumb things. This is what I love doing. Yeah. And I get very frustrated. You just pick that up from the internet. You know what I mean? Like you're like, you're just repeating something

you heard someone else say. That's what you're gonna Peter said yesterday on Instagram, you fuck, I know very frustrated. You just pick that up from the internet. You know what I mean? Like you're like, you're just repeating something you heard someone else say. That's what I'm Peter Sins said yesterday on Instagram, you fuck, I know that guy. Yeah, yeah. But I also feel my brain dissolving after having two kids. But what was really great about philosophy, it's teachers you had to think, it's teachers you had to write, it teaches you how to analyze reality.

And it really got me out of the matrix of how women are supposed to be and stuff too. That was another one. I was like, oh wait, this is bullshit. Oh, none of this fucking mat. Like, yeah, I always laugh when people blame society. And like, a society tells women. It's like, do they? Is there a mandate? Is there a rule? You have to be a Kardashian. I understand that it's hard to not compare yourself when you're a young, impressionable girl, but it's like you can also go,

I don't need to do that. I can be my own thing. I can do my own thing. But things can be systemically fucked up and unfair and all that. And the stokes would say, still you control how you respond to that. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't address the larger problem,

but the fact that the system is what it is, doesn't absolve you the individual from the necessity of figuring out how to navigate it and not be corrupted or broken by it. Or even thrive in it. So when I started comedy, there were no women. And I could have, and I was broken by it. I was like, only there are no girls.

I'm going to be the only girl to comedy store. And then I went, I'm the only girl at the comedy store, like home alone. You know, and he's like, what is it? They, oh, I made my parents disappear. I made my parents disappear. And it was like the party moment, where I was like, I'm the only one in the game.

Great fuckers, watch me run. Yeah. You don't like it? Suck my tits. I don't care I don't like you. I don't care You know dr. Drew's who introduced me to it. I was the same thing. I was in a philosophy I was taking a class on Aristotle is like ethics in the meaning of life. Yeah, and I mean aerosol is great And we were we did Aristotle we did Camus and who taught your class, dr. Drew? No, no

I went to Riverside and I was taking a regular philosophy class with a philosophy professor who's interesting and I'm reading it. And then I went to this thing, I got invited to this thing in Hollywood that Dr. Drew was speaking at. And so I asked him if he had a book recommendation. He recommended Epic Titus. So that's how I ended up being introduced to the Stokes. And I was like, this is way better than what I'm learning in school.

This is like actually usable shit from like real people in the real world as opposed to just abstract questions. And yeah, it's totally true. But what like, how did it grab you by the nuts? What was it? Do you know, there's this passage in meditation that I think hit me especially as a college kid? He just talks about how hard it is

to wake up in the morning. You know, he's like, he literally goes to the, he's like, I don't when you awake and then he interrupts himself and he goes, but it's warm under the covers. And he goes, is this what you were put here to do, you know, to huddle under the covers and be warm? And like, so he has this, like dialogue with himself about getting out of bed in the morning. And that's not what we think of philosophy as being. Philosophy

is like, how do you know if you have free will or, you know, like it's, it's questions that are interesting, but it's not like, let me, let me help you get out of bed early. I just fucking loved that. And it's so readable and accessible. Especially the Greeks, the stoics. Yes. Yeah, the stoics especially. And it's because Mark's realist was writing to himself. And so it feels like he's writing to you. He's not writing to the audience.

Wow. He's writing to you. And there's a parallel to comedy there in that the most specific comedy is the most universal. Yeah. And so here you have a philosophy text that wasn't written as a philosophy text. It's notes in a diary that somehow becomes the most universal

and sort of memorable of philosophy texts. Yeah. Because he wasn't thinking of you, he was trying to be honest with himself. So there's no, it's totally stripped down, there's no performative element in it, there's no artifice, it's just him talking to himself. Yeah, because once you get self-conscious, it gets inauthentic. Yeah. Once you start thinking about the audience too much, like there's a certain level you have to, where you're like, I have to explain this premise properly. I have to, yeah, they're gonna tell you

if it's working or not really, the laughter. But yeah, are we rolling on this? We can cut up your eyes a little puffy. I gotta put on my glasses. I had some filler done in LA when I was there, and it's there a little puffy. I got to put on my glasses. I had some filler done in LA when I was there and it's still a little puffy. Sorry, I'm not doing this to be insane. I just look crazy. My eyes are too puffy.

Listen, I know your wife is fine. Okay, you're used to insanity. Look, we're all much now for you and my love. I'm so pumped to can I tell you something? Yes. In holiday, I never really do other people's podcasts really no, but I love you I love what you're doing and I believe it's intrinsically valuable as the philosopher said yeah It's a service to humanity and I like I hate making chit chat

Yes, and I think it's so important to have real conversations about things that matter We yeah, if you do your own podcast, you're not super excited to then just go do another one It's you're like, I talk fucking enough. Can I curse on the show? Of course. Oh, fuck yeah. Yeah. Wondry lets you curse. Uh, yes, although I often do get angry messages from regular people about it. Really? Yeah, I'm looking at California persons, so I say like and I curse and stuff and people like think it's not professional or whatever, but I can't turn it off. I can't turn it off either because I listen back to one of my shows and be like, oh, I wish I hadn't f-bombed so much. Yeah. Because what if there are kids in the car or something and then, I don't know.

When I wrote the Daily Stoic, my editor asked me to remove cursing. She was like, look, I think we can really sell this in like religious stores. And if you curse, you won't be able to. And I was like, I don't give a shot. And we sold zero copies in any religious stores. And now I wish I could go back and put some of that. Well, that's interesting. You say that because as a creative person, the initial thing is like,

I want the most amount of people to like me. And then you're like, they're not gonna give that up. I don't like you anyway. Stop it. You're not going to appeal to that person that's just not into you, right? It's not fucking hot. I every, most of the few,

most of the few things that I regret about stuff that I've done, it's never that I went too far. It's always that I pulled my punch because I was concerned what a certain audience was going to think. Yes. And those people ended up not liking it for other reasons. Or that I didn't, that I even existed at all

with upsetting to them. So like I didn't get the credit that I thought I was gonna get. Well, and two, like I will write bits that I'm like, oh yeah, I'm gonna get canceled on this one. And I'm almost excited when an air is on like, ooh Netflix is gonna be juicy and no one cares. And it's the innocuous throwaway line or just something you're not even thinking about.

The Twitter will blow you up far and you're like, okay, so you can't predict what anybody's gonna like or dislike. No, and yeah, it's, I don't know, it's better just to do what you think you wanna do and not care about what other people are thinking. Yeah, I agree. And that gets easier the older I get,

the less shit I give. Oh, what's. And that gets easier the older I get, the less shits I give. Well, what's not giving a fuck book? What's his name? The subtle art of not giving a fuck mark. He's great. Yeah. Well, I think people think about the last part of the title, like not giving a fuck,

but like actually the weight in that title is the subtle art, because it's like there's some stuff you should give a fuck about, and other stuff that you shouldn't care about at all. It's really knowing the difference that is the whole thing. Or as he says, where to put your fucks, which is essential because I do think, and I think the lovely part of having children is it whittles down a lot of time, time to think, time to be idle and time to give a fuck about things that aren't crucial. Yes.

Especially when your children are very, very young, and you start to go like, oh yeah, why did I? Oh my God, I cared about so many things. Why really like Tom's bit about not having time to argue with people once you have kids because who gives a shit? Yeah, you're right, fine, great. Yes.

Because you argue all day with small children. Well, that's what I think so funny about Elon Musk. This dude has 10 kids. He's the richest person in the world. He's running like eight companies. And he wakes up and he just argues with random people on the internet. Like, he's retweeting like,

catered to or whatever. Like, these are the people that he's having conversations. That's a real account. Yeah. Oh, it is? Yes, it's like, yes, it's all right. Stupid account. But the point is like, it's a good one. Yes, it's all right, stupid account. But the point is, don't you have a lot going on?

How do you have time for this? I have friends who are deeply successful, deeply time constrained men, and yet they get into these... Do you see that thread on red? And I think it's because it's a lovely place to Displace your anger, right? Like either it's road rage or it's like getting mad about something somebody set on Twitter It's a safe place to display rage because you guys can't fighting each other anymore You can't like go into a ring and fight lions or whatever that as the Greeks did So now you guys have to duke it out in a safe space.

Is that maybe it? Because women, women general, are we not? Are we doing this stuff? I don't know. Yeah, maybe you're in- We're not doing that. We're not doing that. We're not doing that. We're not doing that with actual people.

Like, can you believe so and so sit like it's about real people that you actually know? Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. As opposed to just like tweeting 50,000 times a day. Yes, we like to do a snip, snip, a snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip it. Snip, snip, snip, snip, snips, kind of close doors. Yeah, like group chats, I mean,

oh my god, cafe. What's like, there's the group chat, and then there's the one, then two people jump off to talk about what someone just talked about in the group chat. There's a lot of that. I do do. Yeah.

But my, like, I think also it's, people are looking for any distraction from having to be in their actual lives. Of course. If you were actually spending time with your 10 kids, you would never open Twitter. Or if you were running just one of the companies. I know. That's so true if you were really engaged.

Because people always say, oh, your children, they grow up so fast. I'm like, well, you're not spending enough time with your kids. Because if you're really there, if you're really there every day, like, yes, I understand time is a construct and you feel certain, feel slower, it feels faster, but it feels about where it should be for me. Yeah, we spend so much time with that. It's like, what? No, like I talk to people and they're like, oh, yeah, like, like I was talking to this

person I knew and they told me how they saw, like, top down, like, three times in the thing. It's like, what? You have a two-year-old. Like, like I was talking to this person I knew and they told me how they saw like top them, like three times in the theater. It's like, what? You have a two year old, like what? You know? Or my favorite, I love TikTok. It's where I get all my news and information from. And I love the people that are into the lifestyle, swinging and polyamory.

Oh, you're very sure. Cause you're like, who's got this much time to be invested in their orgasms and in their genitals? Like, if, just really, you're an adult, if you're in your 20s, I got it. That's fine. Sure. But you have like adult responsibilities, you're building a career, you're putting books

in the wall, and you're like, who am I gonna f with my wife? Who are we gonna hot wife tonight? It's absurd. Yeah, yeah, how do you have time for this stuff? And some of them also have kids, you know what? I know. It's crazy. I know. Yeah.

Could you imagine and your kids find out? Oh my God. No, that's super weird also. I would tell you. Well, it's actually Samantha and I were talking about someone that we know. I think we're gonna say, we were talking about swinging. We were talking about again, who at the time. No, we were talking about someone who's very into that

and we were like, you know what the worst part about it is? It's not that they do it. The worst part is, it's that clearly part of it is that they need us to know that they're dead. That is the crux. And that's the crux is the, I think that's why like this identity, politic thing, if that's what we're calling it.

I'm an able-bodied non-binary, semi-gluten-free, lesbian, whatever, and it's like, eh, good for you. Be, if it's fluid, you're just gonna change the shit tomorrow, so I don't wanna have to learn all your things today. And see, nobody gives a shit. Nobody truly cares about your fucking,

who you're banging, what gives you an orgasm? I don't wanna know it dinner. I don't care. Right, no. And you could just not only, It's crazy. If it's so great, just enjoy it. You don't need to convert anyone to it.

It's just big. Well, today I was reading, there's a comedian that came out, he was living as a straight man and he's like, I am now pansexual. I mean, Brady. Right. He seems like a nice guy.

I love Lee Man. So like, let's take him out of the equation. But I think the idea of taking out a press release, like, I mean. What is pansexual? Is that where you're attracted to everyone? You're horny. You're just anything. So like most people.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm horny guys. Taking out a press release. Anything. So like most people. Yeah. Yeah. I'm horny guys, taking out a press release. I want a bang. Like why do the, and he has kids and stuff too. It's like, okay, all right. Thank you, thank you.

Now we're just gonna text about you and make fun of you. Yeah. No, it is, it's a time thing. And then who decides to make this like their entire identity. The polyamory thing is nuts polyamory Psychedelics is just should the fuck up do you live your life? I haven't figured anything out the problem with poly is there like so we're introducing a third into our pod Yeah, and it's all about communication

So you have to talk about your feelings and then talk about your feelings that you've had in the feelings. And you're like, Jesus, all this talking just so that you can squeeze another person's titty. Yeah, how much better can it be? It's really no dip. Yeah. I mean, sex is in the mind. And I think you learn that. It's funny I was just talking to a comedian

and he's like, I don't understand these men who we talk about somebody that had multiple children outside of his marriage. He was married for 40 years. It acted like a normal person. But they had like a second family? Not just a family. Just father, just had so many children,

he's Johnny Apple seated. Yeah. And you're like a fetish, though, I think. Really? Yeah, I think people, they like the idea of reproducing. Yeah. That's so narcissistic. Of course.

It's bad enough you do it with your own two kids. But who's my point with that? I guess. He fathered all these kids. Just like the amount of anxiety and the amount of work for what an orgasm is what my friend said and I was like, God, that's so true. Like, what? But if you're not actually doing any of the work, you're just writing a check,

which is what other things a lot of people are doing. Yeah. You know, then it's, you're not, like I've been talking about this distinction between like having kids and being a parent. Oh my gosh. And I think a lot of people have kids, but then it doesn't change

like their actual life in any significant way. Oh, oh yeah. And so I think like if you're just like someone who has kids, then deciding that actually your main pursuit is, you know, opening up your marriage or whatever, it doesn't really, it's not a serious impediment in any way because like you were already just doing whatever you wanted all the time anyway.

Right, right, exactly. But having children should be an impediment. Of course. In a major way. In a huge responsibility. Yeah, it's a life. I was a workaholic before I had children. And you, okay, let's talk about this.

Yes. Let's talk about it. Let's talk some shit. Okay. The women's movement taught me that I could have everything. Right? I could have the career. I could have my children,

and it's all good, it'll work out. Okay, well, so my husband and I were on the same career path. Okay, we have children. Well, who's gonna stay home? Yeah, right. This guy, who's gonna this guy, breastfeed and take the kit, and so there's an ethical duty, there's an imperative.

One of you has to raise these kids, so I could go on with my career full throttle. Sure, I could be a Supreme Court judge or whatever. The women can do anything. Okay, but who's gonna raise the kids? And I know that's such a crazy antiquated idea. Like, oh, women, just go back to work. Like that, what's that?

Cheryl Sandberg, was that her name? Leaning. Leaning. Leaning. You fucking, first of all, okay, I guess some women have to lean in. Maybe they're the breadwinners. I understand it.

But as a mother, as a human being, I don't know how you do it. I don't know how. When we think of sports stories, we tend to think of tales of epic on the field glory. But the new podcast Sports Explains the World brings you some of the wildest and most surprising sports stories you've never heard, like the teenager who wrote a fake Wikipedia page for a young athlete and then watched as a real team fell for his prank. Diving into his Wikipedia page we turned three career goals into eleven added twenty new

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Listen to Sports Explains the World on the Wondering App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Sports Explains the World early early and add free on Wondering Plus. Well, I think it's also, I think it's also true for men or it should be true for men too. Like what should people talk about work life balance, but what they're actually talking about is trade offs. Like you can't have, you can't have one thing without the cost of another thing. There's an opportunity to cost everything. So if you decide you're going to do this thing and you're going to be good at it, it requires sacrifices.

And this guy's name is Austin Cleon. He lives in Texas. He's great. He wrote this book, steel like an artist. Oh, yeah. Love that. Yeah. His thing is work, family scene, pick two work.

Sorry, work, work family. And then like the scene, pick two. Work, sorry, work. Work, family, and then like the scene. Like the hangouts, pick two. Paul Amory, yeah, exactly. He's like, pick two. You can pick two. Right, you can either swing. Right, yeah, I agree. Yeah.

Yes, I agree. And so, yeah, there's like lots of cool perks that come with my job. Like I get offered to do shit. And it's just like sort of not even a question about whether I'm gonna say yes or no because like I already said yes to this other thing. Now I guess in some relationships, the dude says yes

to everything and then somebody else picks up that slack. That seems kind of shitty to me. Oh, oh, sorry, this guy. No, but I think our career's a little show business is there's a very finite window. So I just don't get me wrong. I'm very happy my husband's making the bulk of the money. That's you should right now.

He's very funny too. Yeah. But there's trade-offs. There's 100% and you have to choose which one you will take. And I think with children, I've heard this great saying that it's pay now or pay later with children. You invest at the top or you pay the price later

in adolescence and adulthood. and I'd rather be there. I just can't. But then again, my parents, I know I also over-correct. I've been told my therapist tells me I'm over-correct because my parents were so boomer, self into themselves and into their polyamory. They weren't polyamores. But you know what I mean.

So now I'm trying to figure it out, honestly, and I don't malign anybody for choosing their career. That's not true. I secretly judge. But I definitely don't judge when there's no choice. I agree. You know what I mean? That's, at some level, it's kind of a champagne discussion.

You know, like, what does that mean? Well, like, you know what a champagne problem is? No. Oh, champagne problem is like, you know, do you want this champagne or that champagne? Like, it's a rich white people problem. Oh, sorry, yes, you're absolutely right, yes. This is a good problem to have. 100%.

Am I spending too much time with that? You know, when other people are like, I'm not sure I can pay the power bill. You know, like, that's a different discussion. Yes. But when it's a choice, then you can be judged for the choice, I think. Yeah. But then there are women that are like surgeons and stuff. And how the hell you don't,

you don't, okay, that's it. You're a surgeon. You have, you can't lean out of that. You can't, can you dip out of surging for a decade? Yeah. You can't. Probably not. Probably not. Right. Well, anyway, you choose your battles. You choose your, choose your heart as your trainer says to you, right? Yes. Sure. No, it's true. You have a trainer. But I think there is this, because you can basically do anything and you're not supposed

to judge people for doing stuff. People do get very caught up in just sort of basically what the philosophers just call sort of the pursuit of empty pleasure as though that that's where meaning and happiness comes from and it's not. Well, I'm just to find empty pleasure because this is an interesting discussion distinction to make because I've also developed an appreciation for the atelic, atelic events. Okay, so like there's tele-logical stuff stuff that you do for an end. And then the atelic is like just sitting down and watching the leaves blow. Sure. And you're like, that's

kind of rad, dude. I really developed a real love of atelic activities. But is that the same as what you were saying? I mean, I think that's funny, right? Like the word epicurean, people think means sort of the pursuit of pleasure and like to the point of hedonism. So you go like, this person's polyamorous, they're epicurean, right? You say that. But actually, like when you read epicures, he's like, how what a delightful cup of water. You know, or he's like, look at the leaves falling. He was just saying, he's getting excited about very basic pleasures. Right?

He's not chasing fine foods or the fanciest, you know, establishments or the, you know, he's not participating in orgies or something. Like, he's, these are really basic pleasures. So I think those are available and accessible to anyone at any time, but people get really caught up in, even Seneca writes about how people travel from place to place. He says, like someone flipping over their pillow trying to fall asleep. You're just like, well, maybe it'll be better if I, and it doesn't make no difference at all. It's totally in your head. No.

And so I just know people who, they're like, I really wanna find someone, I really wanna say, I wanna really be happy. And then it's like, so stay in one fucking place for like, oh, we, you know what I mean? This isn't like, stop breaking up with people. Oh, like, like six months into the relationship every time. Like, life is about settling is the wrong word, but it's about making decisions and sticking

with things. Right. You choose it and then you stay the course. And in those struggles of the course is where you find, I don't even say happiness. Some my mom and Terry glimpses, but really contentment, long-term fulfillment and contentment. I always loved Martin Heidegger, who loved the Greeks. The meaning of being is located in care, care. And I love this idea of where we lend our attention to. We lend our care to. It's a really cool word. Like you lend your care to. And that is where you find the meaning of being, of living is in care.

Like, oh shit, so what I focused my attention on is really what's gonna matter. It's not always gonna be pleasurable. He didn't go into all that stuff what the Greeks are talking about. But yeah, and then also what you said reminded me of like, and were those old hippies like Rom Doss? And they're always like, it's be here now.

And then it's, that was saying that was like, wherever you go, there you are. Wherever you go there. And I never understood it until I got my shoulder. And I was like, yeah, you're still going to have all this madness. It's all here. You may as well work it out with the same person that you trust in this circumstance that you've built that you kind of, right? Jive with. In Ladybird, the nun says something like that. She goes, like, isn't that what've built, that you kind of, right? Jive with. In Lady Bird, the nun says something like that. She goes, like, isn't that what love is? Paying attention. It's like what you spend your time.

Someone said that to me once, it said, love is spelled T-I-M-E. Mm-hmm. And so it's like, you say you're doing it for your family, but like, what does your calendar look like? Yeah. Or you say you love your work, but like, how does your calendar look like? Yeah. You know, or you say you love, you know, your work, but like, how much time are you actually spending on it?

Yeah. Well, I know so many. I mean, especially when you're a creative person, it's so difficult. Excuse me, to start that process of being a 20-something or a 30-something or whatever. And you're like, I think I want to be a singer, a comedian, a dancer, whatever. And it is a herculean thing to get over the fear and not a hump of that. And then the discipline of sitting down and doing that activity to get better at it and get better at it.

Like the War of Art is my favorite book. And now you discuss that one to your huge fan. There's a reason like that it's the discipline. And in that discipline in yourself is where the control film, yeah. Yeah, well, it's the procrastination is hard and then also the put it, I think, an underrated part of it is like the willingness to put yourself out there.

Oh, that's terrible. That's a whole other fucking discussion, man. Yeah, just like you have to be bad in public for a while. So it's why it's good to start when you're young. Yeah. Because you have less shame or maybe a little more narcissism, a little more ego. It would be hard to start something

that I'm embarrassingly bad at in public right now. Oh my god. Well, I was just, I literally, when you were saying that, was thinking to like my first five years in standup. Yeah. And how grateful I am to have grown up in a non-social media. Yeah, you weren't like, here's my clip.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Or just like, yeah, or like someone else puts the clip up. Sure. I would be like, I'm not one who saves all my old videos, my old standup, like I don't wanna see it ever again. Yeah.

I hate what I did last week. I hate what I did last year. Sure. But the, you know, I always think about the Beatles too. They did their 10,000 hours. What is it in Germany and that? That bar. Yeah.

And imagine, I always think, imagine if YouTube had existed back then. And the Beatles started their first, they're on hour 20 of the 10,000. Yeah. And they're like, look at, look at my new band, mate. And all the comments are like, you guys suck. The Beatles are shit. And the Beatles probably would have been like, I can't do this. This is garbage. Give up.

Yeah. What if they gave up? Because of public opinion. I wrote a glass call that he said there's a taste talent gap. So like, you get interested in music or art or comedy or, you know, anything, right? Sports. You love the thing, right? So you know who all the best people are, you know what all the best work is, right?

And then you suck. And so, and you have it, but you have good taste. You have a sense of what's good, and what you're trying to do, and you are not physically, emotionally, like creatively capable of getting anywhere close to that thing. So one of the necessary skills

or traits to get to mastery is the ability to live with that kind of thing. To keep going even though you're like every day what you're expressing is not even good by your own standards. No, and you're probably poor because Tom and I were broke for a decade. Like I mean pure, pure, like I still won't shop

at Trader Joe's because we't shop at Trader Joe's because we lived off of Trader Joe's for a decade. It was misery. Yeah, and to deal with the stress of the external world, the internal world, and to hang in there, and also the court of public opinion, sometimes club owners tell you, you suck, sometimes other comics tell you, you suck,

and to be like, no, I'm gonna stick to this. One day I will be good, one day I will be good. But do you think that's why ego is so common in most of the creative professionals? Yes. Early on ego can be adaptive, right? Because the delusion allows you to keep going. For sure. So if you're talented, but you get physical, you can sort of push through what would make a more self-aware person just want to kill themselves. Of course, yeah, the delusion. Then you get good, but now that you go to things you're still better than you actually are, and you're a dick, and you think the world revolves around you, and you don't,

you end up destroying what you've built because you're an egomaniac. Well, that's the famous level. Yeah. Sorry, and I've, that's the famous level. Sorry. And I've seen that happen so many times. That usually happens in comedians who get famous too quickly and their talent doesn't match their level of fame. Now, thankfully, most of the time,

comedy is a excruciatingly slow grind that takes about 15 years to get good, great, good-ish, 20 years you've made it. And if you haven't, something is a miss in your life. Usually the cream rises to the top in our business. But yeah, thankfully, it's that slowness of fame and that being poor and suffering for so long that you usually won't want to sabotage your success. I mean, if you look at a guy like Joe Rogan who's been doing it for what, 30, 40 years now,

he had the slow, steady rise and my husband, and yeah, it's the ones that get it too easy. It's too cheap. Yeah, I think I started in my first website in 2005, and my first book came out in 2012. And that was fast. That was fast. You know what I mean? Nobody gets to write a book when they're

25 or 26. I was very like that was lucky and then you know they didn't really start selling until several years after that and so you know it took a while it took a long time like it took a long time and then you talk to people and they're like I'm thinking about writing a book and you're like have you written literally anything else anywhere to any public audience? And the answer is no. It's like, you don't start at the World Series. No, and I love this thought of what you said, like, well, what makes you hang in there?

Some of it is you go, but then the other bit is for at least comedy, passion. I really like it. A blinding, yet to be obsessed with standup. And I am obsessed. I still am. I love comedy. I love joke.

I love failure. Now I'm on the other end of standup where I'm actually making a living and whatever move and ticket's great. It happened. Praise Allah. I can't believe it. So now actually is the fun where I go, I'm competent,

and now let's flounder. Like I'm working out this new bit, I wanna make fun of this really touchy subject. How am I gonna do it? And now I'm working it out. And I actually enjoy that rockiness of like, ooh, I gotta solve this problem. It doesn't destroy me as it used to,

because he used to like really cut it into me like, oh my God, I'm not funny, I suck, I should quit. Now you just kind of go, like, yeah, I should quit. Now I shouldn't just keep going. Because you build a resilience to failure, a tolerance for failure. People talk about, like, they're just the process, right? Yeah.

And it's only actually, like, that's very hard to do if you haven't experienced the process. So, like, the first time I wrote a book, right, you're starting at zero. And then you're hoping you get to the end and then it comes out and it works. But you have no idea like what's between these two points. Then the second book you have some sense, you're like, okay, it's hard for a while and then you, but like now I've done it so many times that I get excited about starting a new book because like I, I not only get excited about the process of starting, like starting fresh, getting to do it again, but I don't get that discouraged

throughout the process because I'm like, there's always the point where you think it's not going to work. There's always the point where you hate yourself. There's always the point where you get distracted, you know, you start thinking about other stuff. Like I know all the sort of peaks and valleys of the process. So I can be like, yeah, if I just keep showing up every day, eventually, I'll get there. Yes, and also, because I was listening to you talk about that on a prior episode of just showing up every day. Same with Dan, like the reason people are like,

why did comics get paid so much? They're just telling jokes. It's like, yeah, well, if you're selling tickets and people have paid and committed to coming to see you and your dog died that day, you're still going to have to go up and be funny. You find out your mom's diagnosed with cancer. Guess what, bitch? You're telling jokes that night because that's show business. So the ability to be funny on command, and that comes from this tolerance that you're

talking about, of failure. But anyway, that's fucking gnarly, dude. The self-loathing, oh, oh, and showing up. Sorry, that's what I'm saying. The showing upness, but someday sucks so bad creatively, and you're in your head and you hate everything and you hate yourself. And I think some days I'll just be like, I can't.

I shouldn't even touch this, I'm poison. That's like poison. That's like an extra level of mastery because early on, if you listen to that excuse, like I'm not feeling it today, then you never do it, right? Because you never feel it. And then you get a little bit older and more experienced the way that an athlete goes, and he's feeling a little weird today. I don't want to blow out my knee, so I'm not going to push this.

I'm going to go rehab or I'm going to do this other thing and watch film instead. So the it's like at the beginning, you have to cultivate this muscle of like, I force through anyway. Yes. And then older, um, I was actually just just writing about this. The, the motto of the Royal Air Force is something like ad Astra. It's ad Astra is what's shortened to, but the Latin motto is basically something like through adversity to the stars. And the writer, I had a monitor's name, it's SC Gwen, he's an amazing Texas writer. He was talking about how, yes, that's like obviously how you succeed.

He's like, that's also how you crash and die. And so you have to cultivate, you go like, we didn't pass the checklist today. We're gonna send the plane back for repairs, or the weather is looking a little, let's not do this. And so yeah, as you get older and more experienced and better at it, knowing when to push and when to step back, because it's own,

that's another part of the process. It's an art form too. And there are some days where I'm like, I should not be texting people back. Today is a day I will not email back. I will not be returning your phone calls. Mommy needs to go out on the lake or whatever, look at my leaves or be with the kids

or not be with the kids, sit alone in my weird book room and just get weird. You know, like, yeah. Because that's also part of a creative process too, because your brain is like sometimes solving or working through stuff. So do you think like those dark days are kind of imperative to the creative days? Because after I have a dark spell, then like,

all the creative stuff comes out. As I've gone on, I used to be like, okay, I got to write for certain number of time per day, or I got to get a certain number of pages per day, or now I just try to make one positive contribution every day. So like today, I literally changed one sentence in this book that I'm working on. And so like I succeed, I showed up. Like I can't do that every day, So it needs to do a lot more. But by I just radically lower the bar to a level that like, I just do one thing. And, and so I'm always making a contribution. And who knows that

contribution might matter to someone or, you know, it adds up, but also just the idea of like, I'm going to make it low enough that I can never accept procrastination. Mm-hmm. And then always feel like I'm creating momentum and I'm making progress. Procrastination, I've watched people very close to me really wreck their lives. I'm talking lives on procrastination, not just career stuff.

I'm talking like, should we have a baby? I don't know. And there's a time limit. Things are very time limited. You're not here forever. Yes, there's an arrogance to procrastination. Oh, let's talk about that. That's exciting.

Well, the stone should say you're assuming that tomorrow is a given. Yes. But you could get hit by a bus. Oh, for sure. Yeah. For the aliens could come tomorrow are new overlords. Yeah. And that's that.

Sure. When you're window could close like you're talking about biologically or just career wise. Oh, yeah. It's terrifying. Yeah, the trends could change. Yes, a lot of that stuff could happen. The economy could crash. Oh, but yeah.

That's why I love the existentialist when I was in college because they talk about that. This is it, dude. This is not a drill. And I feel like the existentialists particularly were, I mean, they were European. Yeah. French. So they saw two world wars, like real close together, and a lot of them died and was fucking horrible. And so I think that sort of hung over their sense of the world, which is crazy as things have been here, you know, the last decade or so.

It's really can't, it's still things that felt very stable, very comfortable and very nerf. Yeah. Yeah, COVID sucked, not gonna lie, but it wasn't the same as a world war. And my husband's really been into World War II right now. Yeah, he's watching all the, oh, that's how you know your dad is when we're in the World War II.

When your kids get you Costco books the thing is yeah the toilet reading dad toilet reading is like Hitler So yeah, that's real tragedy that's real life your country is just shredded Tragedy Seneca's thing was the one thing all fools have in common is that they're always getting ready to start Oh I'm seeing that too, I've seen that too. I've seen that tomorrow. Tomorrow.

I'll do it later or I'll do it after my kids grow up or I'll do it when I retire or I'll do it when I make a little more money. I'll do it when the economy, you know, what people have been saying from COVID when things go back to normal. Yeah, and they never follow up. Yeah. I'm trying to think because I remember dealing with procrastination in the beginning of my career too.

And then something flipped. Maybe like, I think because I saw the, oh, I think what it was is like, you realize the process of like, you write a half hour, you write an album, you write an hour, like, there's a project. Yeah. And you have to have your project complete it. So now you have something to work towards versus just this infinite. I'm going to be a writer. Well like no, no, no, dude, start with like writing a short story. Maybe it just starts there and then go to like just

write. I know I daunting. I must be to write a book. I can't even imagine like all these chapters, the table of contents. How do I? What do you like? I don't have to write the table of contents, how do I, what do you, I don't even know where... I don't have to write the table of contents, they do that for you. Oh! Or like an outline? I don't know. I don't know where my mind's gonna go unconsciously

in this process. What comedy has going for it that not many of the other arts do is that you can get your reps the easiest and it's the most built around getting your reps. I have to give a talk tomorrow and I haven't given one in six weeks. There's no way, there's no other, like I can't, like, because in my line of work basically all the gigs are corporate gigs. So I can't just go like because in my line of work, basically all the gigs are corporate gigs. So I can't just go like do a warm-up corporate gig. You know what I mean?

I can't buy a gig. Hey guys, thanks for coming. If the coffee house is on. Yeah, like if it's show up at some random business and I'm gonna talk to everyone. So like, there, what's cool about comedy is not just that you're supposed to go up every night, but like, you're supposed to go up multiple times a night

in some place. So you're just like, you're always practicing it. Even the best people are demonstrating the fact that like, you're all supposed to be practicing at a certain level. And there's this sort of equalizing effect of like someone who sells out stadiums and someone who's trying to make it are both performing at the same club for the same amount of time. On the same stage.

Yeah. I mean, even right now I'm working out a new hour and I do it very quietly here in Austin at the mothership. I'll do the small room. Yeah. And yeah, I love that part though. I mean, look, I don't know. That's that is maybe one of the few art forms.

Yeah, where we're all comrades. We're all in the trenches together. And I've heard some of the biggest comedians you know of say the most self-debt behind closed doors, but like, oh my god, I'm the worst. I hate myself. And you're like, really? You hate yourself. If you hate yourself, then I'm gold and I can't believe it.

Someone's always always like, yeah, it's just getting over this. Yeah. Right. I think it looks effortless to the audience, but everything has been done hundreds of times So, and the easier it looks, the better the person is that's doing it. Yeah, it's like surfing We're like, I should look so easy like no, it's not Yeah, it's so hard to surf Yeah, I was trying to think of what you were talking about during World War 2. Oh the existentialists

They saw the whole world just. Dark. Oh, but what was really, what I loved about them and what changed my life. And I think what's interesting about the Stoics too is that it's really, if you read them, you're like, oh, did this guy like develop psychology and psychotherapy?

Yeah, it was independently, yeah. Yeah, like the Greeks had it figured out. Yeah. The Greeks really had it. And then the French came along that fucking day card and ruined everything. And he was like, actually, how do we know we can even trust our own minds? And everybody was like, dude, what are you doing? We had this to figure out. And now every idiot's like, yeah, how can I trust this is the simulation? Like, okay, even if it is the simulation. What are you going to do with that information? Who cares? You're still, it still feels as real as the real., like, okay, even if it is a simulation. What are you gonna do with that information? Who cares? It still feels as real as the real.

So like, fucking, let's move on, Franci. But what I do love, Jean-Pau Sartre, is what he said is that existence precedes essence. Whereas prior, it was essence, right, precedes existence that this acorn is gonna develop in a certain certain way no matter what. Like you're kind of predetermined your essence. The Greeks were big into this stuff.

The essence of whatever animal, the essence, the soul, the anima. And then that determines everything else. But he flipped it and he was like, no, no, you're not determined by your past. Just because you're in the shape of a woman doesn't mean you have to act like a woman or just because you're of your race or you're whatever, you can be whatever the hell you want. And I was like, oh, you mean I'm not my crummy family? Like I'm not tethered to, I'm not doomed to cursed because of my upbringing or blah, blah, blah. It was very liberating. I've talked about this with epictetus, who's the stoke who was a slave. And- Oh my God, Epictetus. I never heard of this guy.

Yeah, it's funny. He even Epictetus never questions like the institution. Epictetus. Epictetus. Epictetus. That's how I say it. Other people say it differently, I guess. Oh, Titus, Sepatata, Sepateto.

He's dead, who cares? He's fucking dead. Yeah, but and his name, his name just means acquired one. Like he doesn't even have an actual person's name. But he never questions slavery. Like he's like, here's how you make it work inside slavery. So I do think when I look at the Greeks and the Romans who I like a lot,

one thing I always try to remind myself is that they had much less sense of agency or dynamism. Like the Mark even Mark's really, it's become emperor, he doesn't want to. He's just like, they made me the emperor. Like he didn't go like, yeah, you know, your dad doesn't like get to pick what you do. You know, like there was a sense then that like,

you know, like if you're born, if your dad does this, you do this. Same with your family does this. There, and the idea that like, you could start a company and create generational wealth, this was all incomprehensible to the Asians. It's not until much later, really probably the 1800s, 1900s, that the idea that your life could be anything you wanted it to be.

There's no real philosophical understanding of that until kind of like post-war America, right? And so I think we, that's a great invention. That's a great invention that you can do whatever you want and that like society, race, gender, etc. It's all bullshit. Go where you want, live where you want, do things how you want. That's not the Romans didn't, what, the

Romans you're like, what? No, if you're born asleep, you're a slave, you're a slave. You're like, thank you. Goddamn. And then did they really send them into the lions? Is that real? Send the Christians to the lions? Is it the sense of Christians? Well, I mean, yeah, people, the gladiators obviously fought in the arena. And then later that was supposedly a punishment for the Christians. For the Christians, these Christians are so annoying. Is that what it was? They were just annoying.

No, it was just a way, it's like how are we gonna punish these criminals and like, with a smatch and fight in the... We're just so rad. I love their hedonic sense. Right? Why don't they like effing a lot and puking

and eating and puking and then... They had a real sense of heat in this. I'm sorry, I would like to get a pen because then I forget my ideas. Oh, all right. Do you have a pen, Lummy? Where were they like that? Is it because it was a pre-Christian society? I think so. There wasn't also a sense of like, I don't know, that every human being, like, it's important. We've made a lot of inventions that like each person is, and be like, it's important. We've made a lot of inventions that like each person is,

you know, deserves dignity and respect and equality. These are new ideas. You know? So new. People don't like, I remember reading Hobbes and Locke. So what is that? 1800s, even before, okay, so there are two couple of Brits. And one is like, yeah, life, liberty, and property. That's where it starts. The pursuit of happiness, is that even? That's the Jefferson invention. Yeah, that's later on. So the origins of the American dream are like, you can own a life, liberty, and property.

You should own stuff. Stuff is the most important shit. And then later, we were Americans where it's like, all right, you can be happy. Like, you should do it to fuck you should do what you want to do. Very recent in humanity. Totally. How interesting.

Yeah, and even that like, one of the things that's always like an interesting, it's like how many offenses were punishable by death when they were around us. And it's like sneezing, punishable by death. Do you know what I'm saying? So I think that I've always, this is a cancelable, cancelable. Sure, letable by death. You know what I'm saying? So I think that I've always, this is a cancelable, cancelable.

Let's do it. But like when you go like, how could they have slaves? And it's like, well also like the punishment for like stealing a piece of bread was like, you know, death or slavery. So like, you know, man's inhumanity to man when everyone treats everyone shitty.

Yeah. I think it was harder to go like, hey, I'm not going to treat someone shitty. You know? So, there's just a general cruelty and heartlessness. I think it's important that we realize that that is contagious. And one of the reasons we developed politeness and manners and even like political correctness is that it matters.

Like, it's part of the, it's part of the elimination of violence and cruelty. As long as we're not canceling comedians for making jokes, I absolutely, that is my pet cave. Don't come after us. That's nonsense. It's all meant to point out absurdities. Nobody's advocating hate. Um, shit. What is it? Epic Titus says, um, you find yourself offended. Remember you are complicit in taking offense. Ooh, ain't that the truth. And imagine a, imagine the, uh, the hubris is at the right word to, to be like, I'm offended. Like, oh, you're so important. You're so important that you get to be offended by fucking what words good for you should have. Oh, yeah, I was thinking of Foucault's discipline

and punish, did you ever read that one? So Foucault, I mean everyone, I like Foucault because he's this like fun gay guy, right? French, hobby fun. And he talks about how we became civilized, this idea of the public scaffolds, remember like back of the day what you're saying, like, somebody stole a loaf of bread in the market.

Who's gonna watch them get drawn in quarter? Yeah, and then you'd bring your kids and your kids would, they pushed the kids to the front so that you can get really good view. Get a really good view. You're a six year old to watch someone get chopped into four pieces. Like, oh my God.

That's gnarly and I'm even weary of him playing like Roblox if the game is too violent. Whatever, yeah. So you're watching people get violently punished. And I'm even weary of him playing like Roblox if the game is too violent or whatever. Yeah, so you're watching people get violently punished. But the civilizing element is to put the punishment behind closed doors is what he says. Like, yes, we still murder people. We'll give the lethal injection,

but it's behind closed doors. We're very civilized about how we kill now, which is lovely. Can comedy be funny? What? No, sorry. Can philosophy be funny? Sorry, can philosophy be funny? Yeah, there's some, oh my God, Nietzsche,

probably one of the funniest writers, if you, yeah, yeah, read Nietzsche, read his one liners, I'm trying to think about, there's one good one. Men love two things, most, danger and play, and he loves women because she is the most dangerous of play things. That's a good one. It's not funny, but it was just one that just came off. He's funny. Yeah, and he hated women, which always makes me laugh too. But I think it's that

there. He was so harmed and hurt by women. His own sister, supposedly, wasn't Sheila, I don't know if you know, but you know, kept him hidden and bad or whatever. He was sickly. He had syphilis. He got syphilis from a hooker. Yeah, the French are really funny. Not the Germans, not so much. The valley strict, very stringent. I think that thing from Camus is funny where he's like, should I kill myself or have a cup of coffee? That's fucking life. Yeah. Yeah. Like, is this a perfect existential question that's both brilliant and like commonplace. Do you know what I'm like?

It's so high and low at the same time. Oh, yeah. You know, Dostoyevsky, I love notes from underground. The opening to it, he's like, I'm an ugly man. I'm a mean man or whatever. My teeth hurt. And he likes to poke the tooth that hurts because it gives him joy to hurt himself.

And you know, because you do that, like you get a little boo boo when you pick at it and there's something satisfying in that self-harm, that tiny bit of self-harm. Yeah, I like that too. Yeah, they're funny, but not all of them. Yeah, the English heart. No, you know who's really funny?

Barkley, wait, who wrote why I'm not a Christian? He was an English guy. He was really funny too. You know, one of the stoats died of laughter. No, yeah. Impossible. Yeah, Chris, his name was Chris Sippis. And I ask every comedian that's interested in stoats and they can explain it to me. So. So the idea is he's sitting on his porch and this donkey walks up into his front yard and it starts eating these figs out of his garden. And the person walks up and goes like, I'm so sorry, and Chrisibis says, you should get your donkey some wine to wash down those figs.

And they start laughing at his own joke and he laughs so hard or so long that he dies. He's just like, so is it a, is it a, you had to be there joke? Is it something that I'm not understanding? Is it some philosophical lesson? But I love that he, like we think of this joke as being like dour and, you know, not fun. And here the stuid literally laughs himself to death on his own joke that's not even funny.

I think it's a cautionary tale for comedians. Like, you don't wanna laugh at your own material at heart. Maybe that's what it is. It's so shameful. Like, I see it as shameful. Like, oh, don't laugh at your own joke that hard. Yeah, or it's kind of douchey, you know? Or it's just like the things that make us laugh the hardest

are never actually that funny. You know, like they're not these elaborate premise, you know, like multi-part, like high jokes. No. It's somebody points at something and that thing is funny or somebody parts or whatever. Like you don't even the most ridiculous things are the funniest.

Of course, like I, yeah, okay, well, what makes you laugh without fail? My kids, I mean, of course, are insane. Yeah, the one my wife and I laugh at all the time, we were sitting at this like this pool in my in-laws' neighborhood. And we're all sort of sitting around eating and my son walks up and he goes, and he throws this thing on the table and he goes,

is this the dead bird that you were talking about? And it was a dead bird that he picked up off the ground. And to this day, we can't... What are you talking about it? Yeah, we were not talking about a dead bird. We don't know why he picked up the dead bird. And he said it was such, like, I found the thing you're looking for.

You know, just they're just post like that. Like if I had died laughing in that moment, I would, I think I would have, I would have understood what Craycifus is going. Yeah. Yeah. It's so absurd. The absurdity of that. And it tickled you in such a way because you're like, I wasn't talking about what, like

what was your reaction? I'm like, what is happening? Yeah. First of it's like, shit, you just touched a dead bird. You put it on the table or eating, and now I have to like sanitize your entire body. And like, also, are you a psychopath that you killed? Yes.

Yeah, that's the way it's the worst thing. There's a bunch of things. But just the, what? They're so mentally ill, small children. They act like crazy people. Yeah, it's so funny to me. You know what, this is so horrible and I'm totally gonna get canceled for this too.

But if you've ever watched your mom's house, it's like, it's always a stream. We call them cool guys of weirdos, of people that are, I call them outliers, the marginalized community on TikTok, the weird beards. Those people make me laugh so hard. Like, God, this is so inappropriate. I'm just gonna cut this out.

But there was this one girl. She was doing vlogs to Hitler on YouTube. She'd be like, hey Hitler. So Nathaniel says, we're like, what? Vlog to Hitler. Sorry, it was so funny. That made me laugh for years. Like that kind of stuff. But not the but on bumps. Just very, very rarely. There's a few that stick out

in my head. Yeah. Like David tells a great joke writer. Yeah. David told me, make me laugh for years. You think of a line. You're like, God, I was so funny. Yes. Do you watch TikTok? I feel I'm obsessed. I only watch Instagram Reels of TikToks. Oh, why aren't you on the pure thing?

I don't know. I'm afraid of it. Get there. I'm afraid that once I start, I won't be able to stop. Yeah. Because it's so addicting. And the algorithm is so good. And like, Sam will sometimes just have to come by and just go.

And thank you so much. Just plugged in, plugged you from the Matrix. Yeah. TikTok, here's, okay, so here's why it's valuable to society. I agree, I don't care for like the dances. None of that stuff interests me. But like during the pandemic, I would go on TikTok and people would be like in Queens,

Brooklyn or whatever, Queens, New York, people will be like, oh my God, these are the bodies right now being dragged into an ambulance. I know I'm sorry to do the voice, but you're like, oh my God, this is a real pandemic. You are like, when stuff happens in the world, I go to TikTok because that's just the average person going, hey, this is happening versus like CNN or Fox News, which I mean, I don't know.

Does anybody even trust? I don't know anyone that watches television news that isn't like a million years old. It's like people who are watching sitcoms on like NBC. Yeah, like tuning in for an all new episode. This is us. This is awful. I know. I listened to this interview with the head of Viacom

or something, me as Paramount, whatever the one that does the TV is. And they were talking about, the person was like, why do you just air like 13 episodes of Ridiculousness in a row, the Rob Deertic show? Who I, I know I've had on the show, he's great. But like, he was like, because the people, who he's like, is the people who care about what they watch

are not turning on TV. So he's just like, what happened there's basically like, somebody turns on MTV and then they just don't turn it off. And they like, they don't seem to change the channel and ridiculousness is on. So we just pack the whole day with that. And yeah, you just realized it's there's different levels of consuming stuff. And and the worst thing you can do for your brain is watch the actual news. I think reading the news is okay. But I think anyone that is getting their news from television is rotting their brain.

Yes. First of all, let's pull it out. There is some value in background TV. I like Netflix. Sometimes I'll be so brain dead that I'll be like, what's like the dumbest thing I can put on? I'll watch Mean Girl. I like Mean Girl.

This is a great movie. Just have it on the background so I can text to my people. But yeah, I agree. It's because the news is mostly hysteria-based. It's the language and the tonality. It's intended to create hysteria. Whereas if you watch the news, like I actually, when the shit hits a fan on something,

I'll download Al Jazeera on my iPhone and see what those folks are saying. I'll be like, oh, this is clearly. When I'm at the airport, you know, like CNN has a deal with most major airports and they pay for CNN to be on in the airport. There's a special version of CNN. What?

Yeah, it's like airport CNN and so for instance, like they never show airplane crashes. There's like certain things that it's as. Makes sense. Right. But the idea is like, if you catch it, if like that's running, you will not be able to turn away. Even in the snow sound, you just, so like when I'm at the airport, I have is like, if you catch it, if that's running, you will not be able to turn away. Even in those no sound, you just,

so like when I'm at the airport, I have to like physically turn away. That's how much I don't want to do. Like this Orwellian TV, like that just can see you. Wherever you are, you know. I mean, just see something to be out of you. And like I see it, like we turn on the commentary shows on ESPN.

Oh, go on. You see how it's the worst. You see the formula that they're doing, and it's so laughably stupid, that you realize that that's also what the news is. It's like, is LeBron James the worst basketball pair of all time? What? Are people discussing that?

And then like, yeah, they talked about it for an hour because it's so aggravating, and then it requires a statement. It requires Steven A. Smith to be like, yeah, I've strong thoughts on this. And so that's the whole, they need, it's like professional wrestling that's basically watching.

Yeah. So like what I find like something's happening with the pandemic is that I wanna read a book about a different pandemic. For like 100 years ago. 100%. Oh, okay, I get the broad stroke. So now when I get like current information,

I know where it slots into the general framework of like how humans respond to stuff. Brilliant. Because Dr. Drew during the pandemic was like, you have to read this book. What is it like the history of the masses or something of the masses? It's about like how that dissemination of information

lends to hysteria and what happens in blah, blah, blah. I'm like, oh yeah, it always just repeats. Or a history's on a loop. Yes. And yeah, it is. The people were on the same way. The same way. I'm like, wait a minute.

We've never had this happen. Like actually we have. I don't know. I don't know. Exactly one hundred years ago, the exact same thing happened. Well, even now with, and I think it's calming down, but even with, you know, the monitoring of people's language,

the cancel culture, the monitoring and the canceling, you didn't like with that person said in 2008 on Twitter. Uh oh, I mean, this was, this is how it ramped up to communism. I don't know, my dad's always telling me about that because he grew up in Hungary and he's like, this is how it starts. I remember when Michael Richards got canceled for dropping the end bomb at the left act rate, which obviously I don't agree with. Yeah, I didn't need to just scream the end.

We're like a lot of times out of one person for no reason. Just one. But I remember that, you know, the outrage and the done, my dad was like, oh, here we go, another cycle of this stuff, once it starts happening. And I was like, yeah. But anyway, and then Trump happened, that was weird. I don't know what's going to happen now. When the aliens land in 2026, I think it is. When are they landing? Well, any of it matter. Thanks so much for listening.

If you could rate this podcast and leave a review on iTunes, that would mean so much to us and it would really help the show. We appreciate it and I'll see you next episode. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts. download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.