Club Random Podcast | Justine Bateman - AOL INC

While you were remodeling your backyard to make it more, you know, zen-y, we were remodelng our merch store to make more random. We've slapped our new logo on t-shirts, tie-dyes, hoodies and hats, and all with premium printed labels. Look, I wasn't kidding. We have it. Because tags are like the junk mail of clothing. All merch is available exclusively at clubrandom.com Once again, that's clubrandom.com. Oh, is this like a trial where I've introduced a word and now it's fair game? Well, it is fair game. Okay. Bill, have you ever had an answer to this question? What's the end game? Anybody could tell you. You haven't thought this through. It's Cloud Cuckoo Land. Hello? Hi. Am I on? Are you here? Hi, welcome to my home. I know. How are you doing? It's such a pleasure to meet you. Yeah, I guess our paths never did cross, did they? I don't think so. I don' t remember it either. That doesn' t mean it didn' t happen. It could have. I mean, come on. It could. We' re not 20 anymore, and we were around, and we' re in the same town, and the business, and- Yeah. We probably met at a- Probably. Were you stoned back then? No. Never? I wasn' t on that train. You never, or you drank a lot, or nothing? I did my thing. And it never made the tabloids. No, but I mean, like... I'm not going to count myself now. I'm saying, like, I could have met you, you know, because I drank a lot in those days. Oh, out and about? I was out all the time. I'm sure out and About, yeah. Were you out andabout a lot? Yeah. You were? It was so fun. Exactly. It was fun. You think we're different or the times are different? The times are way different. I mean we're not the same age, right but the times are way different but wait before we start i gotta tell i gotta thank you publicly oh good for having been one of the extremely few people who were saying from from for for years now this is all very fucked up what's going on and i mean there was hardly anybody else saying it so like i don't know starting uh you know i donno 2019 2020 or when there was like nobody else saying hey there's something wrong with what's going on right now like we're not all just going along with this right but i just want to thank you i'm talking about the left or the right oh i mean all of it but i mean mostly right all of it well that is the difference between me and i'm not gonna disparage anybody people have their own way of doing things but like i never understood this change that happened where like um to be a immediate in this town anyway oh the comedy you just have to be like sort of preaching only to one side and it's like a lot of them hate me because i never became a fucking republic or anything i just won't go along with the nonsense on the left either i'm not i'm not no they turned it into a religion a religion it is people have written books like that you know like the john mcwater i think wrote it's a book mostly about race racism and calling racism on stuff obviously it still exists a lot but uh and you know there is kind of the religion of wokeism and the religionof anti-racism and i mean you know yeah i i wanted to have you here because i think we are simpatico on a lot of political stuff for sure yeah for sure and it's free thinkers are hard to come by yeah because you i guess one has to be willing to not have a membership card correct to some group like right i i don't you know no they're purists which which is so annoying since they have so little to be pure about there's like this list of tenants right yes and and even if you subscribe to eight of the ten tenants if you don't subscribe to all ten exactly fucking out right like i know exactly what and so the people that have the membership cards maybe don't even really believe it but they're terrified i think terrified of not being part of this of being ousted because maybe they've never been in a situation just where you're just standing on your own and you're going i don't care i don'T need to belong to either group i say this every week it seems but show people they're so talented i'm not saying that this issue says they are their talent takes your breath away they're not bright generally i mean there are exceptions but they're just and they're certainly not politically savvy what's important to them as it is with all actors is to have a speech where you're the hero so they just want to be like these morally superior people and yet their moral compass is as broken as the republicans i mean garrison keeler had to go but they'RE okay with hamas rapists they just are it's dumb and then they are what's so infuriating is that they're dumb no we can't be in your club because we're not bright enough no our eyes are open you're just sheep it see if this fits too it seemed to me that uh uh the dna of the film business was uh i appreciate your sacrifice too I'm like jonesing because I'm so used to reaching for a joint. Okay. It's okay. Yeah, I don't know. I don'T know if it makes me nauseous, but anyway, I appreciate it. Well, we don't do that. We don't want you nauseous. But please, like, drink a lot of tequila then or something. I can take care of my own. Okay. I can moderate my own mind, but thank you. Okay. The DNA of the film business is we'll make a film about whatever we feel like making a film about. Everybody can fuck off, right? That's the DNA of the film. And then there's this financial structure component, too. And these two things kept everything going. And they also were able to look around at society and see what was missing. Is it happiness? Is it conflict? Is het whatever? And they supplied it. when the when social media came on the scene the 1 000 loudest people on social media right suddenly had so much yep influence i think partly because the media got really lazy and started quoting correct john one two three yeah that's on facebook or who the fuck is this guy and they just started just printing these twitter says twitter three guys exactly you know and just looking at what's trending and then just doing that and then having these little bits of and i think the business got scared like a corporation got scared that they were gonna that people were going to i mean us the whole business that people Were going to hate them that people were going to boycott them, people were this. And they started capitulating their decision-making to what would appeal to these thousand loudest people. And that has been, and then there's other reasons why the business has, like, gone off a cliff. But that's one of them. And it's, you can't run a creative business when you're catering to people like this. People keep saying their business is off a Cliff, and yet, I mean, in the last five, was it five years that we've all just turned to streaming there's like so much more content than there was when we were on sitcoms you know that's a content factory that's not that's the film business i think it's a different business you know i was on an nbc sitcom in 1985 did you know this yeah sarah do you remember sarah it was uh it must have been it was gary goldberg's other show yes yeah who created family time yes i know i'm just saying that i mean for the viewers i don't know if they know who he is. Well, he was a very big TV producer. I mean, Family Ties was as big as it is. But we were sandwiched in between your show and Cosby, I think, for that year. Yeah, yeah. So we actually have a link. See? Must see TV. Did you ever see it? That show? I'm sure I might. I didn't watch much TV back then because we were doing it. Come on, man. Give me something. No, Not Sarah, with Geena Davis and Brunson Pinchot. Now I'm going to go watch all of it. Alfre Woodard. What a cast. Alfre woodard is like so talented. Yeah, she was an Oscar nominee when we were doing the sitcom. Really? Oh, yeah. That's awesome. We're still good friends. So you're going to be at the NBC 100th anniversary, I assume. Really? Are they having such a thing? Yeah. Oh, I didn't hear about it. When is that? This year? Yeah, I think in December. Oh. Well, maybe I will. I think they're going to focus on the last 20 years and then do, like, clips of all the other years. You mean there's not going to be a tribute to one-season shows? Or what about failed pilots? Just the pilot. Wouldn't that be great? Remember those days when, I mean, pilot season? Oh, I know. It was fantastic. It was fascinating. It was nerve-wracking. No, but it was a lot of work and hope. and like, you know, this one could go and that one could go. It was like exciting. You wanted to get a pilot, which was, if people are too young or don't remember or never knew, I guess it's our business, but the way they made television was like in the spring, I guess, maybe starting closer to the beginning of the year, then they made the decision in the Spring. Yeah, the beginning in the year like one of the only times a year they actually work, they would make a bunch of shitty shows. But only the first episode. It was called The Pilot. It would be like 50 of them or something. They're only going to pick up 20. Right. Well, even those numbers are too big. But they would probably make a dozen or so. And they would pick up three or four years. I mean, they needed some. They also canceled shows all the time. It was survival of the fittest. I mean it was great for the viewer, I guess. I mean every year I would get the fall preview issue of TV Guide. Come on. Do you remember that? It was exciting. You know, it was very exciting. It was the thick. Very thick. It was like the September issue of Vogue. You know? It was, like, very thick with potential and the new shows. What was going to... The schedule, what was against the... Oh, yeah. What were we against? We were against dynasty. Listen, folks. Paying $500 for a basic T-shirt just to flex someone else's logo isn't fashion. That's paying a company for the privilege of being their billboard. Most guys just want classic, high-quality clothes that look great and last longer than a few washes. That's why Quince makes getting dressed so easy. Quince make high-quality, everyday staples using real materials like organic cotton, merino wool, and 100% Mongolian cashmere. Their cashmère sweaters start at just $60. When the team here got their hands on a few, they were shocked by the quality. They also have classic wool coats and down jackets for fall, all priced 50 to 80 percent less than luxury brands because they cut out the middleman markup. Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. now available in Canada and the UK too and when Quince asks you where you heard about them tell them it was club random it's the best way to support this show I don't know who we were against because we were always like number 2 or number 1 Cosby was number 1 and we would be number 2 so it didn't really matter who was opposite us your show was a giant hit mine was positioned to be one but then Gary Goldberg had a a shoving match at a taping with the head of the network, Brandon Tartikoff. Did he really? Yeah. I didn't know about that. I didn' t see it, but nobody denies it. I didn'' t know that. Yeah. Isn' t that funny? But Brandon, you know, when Family Ties started, the ratings weren' t that high. But NBC was, like, number three of three. And so it was Brandon Tarnikoff and nothing to lose. So he was like, let' s roll with it. You don' t miss any of that, do you? It was, I mean, I feel like I had the fullness of it. Right, me too. And it was a lot better to be famous back then than to be famous now. So I'm glad I got the fame experience then. Yeah. I mean I would not want to be famed now. Well, you are famed. It's like such a drag. But not like. Not like that. You couldn't go to Disneyland. You couldn'T go to the airport. I mean you couldn'T Go anywhere. Right. I mean it wasn'T like Brad Pitt level of fame. Right. But it was. Yeah. I wrote a book about it. Well, it would be like if they're parked outside your driveway or something or want to follow you to do mundane chores, that is the level of fame where it's not worth it, I think. Yeah. You know, not that I do mundane tours. You'll never catch me doing them. Maybe they want to following your assistant so they can be like Bill Maher adjacent. I'd still like the right to do Monday and chores. And I do have the right. Yeah. You know, I mean, I do not worry about someone following me into Target if I knew where a Target was or what it looked like inside, which I don't. You sound like Hong. No, what's his name? Sorry, NVIDIA. What's his named? NVIDDIA. The CEO of NVIDRIA. Oh, Jason Huang. Yeah. He's like, what did he say? he said nobody's nobody he goes nobody's gonna know they're there he goes they're he's talking about why ai is gonna be so great and he says well you you don't need to know your address your phone number this is i don't i don'T know my address i donT know my phone number i DON'T know this i DONT know that and i was like dude you never pay a bill you have a staff right like you never need to KNOW your address you never NEED to deal to call you a utility company you're the head of this tech company the people at your company are not going to let your shit glitch up although i've seen that actually happen to the headofapple trying to you know when he was trying to like present something new and it fucked up but us regular folks the stuff is always glitchy it works in theory in theory i think a lot of programmers don't use their own and they're always locking you out. And like the idea that it's perfect. So I don't have to remember my number. I don' remember anything because the machine is perfect. The machine is so far from perfect. I know you're anti-AI as I am. Yeah, I am, I think it's one of the- And Bill Gates is this week, you know, going around basically with his hair on fire saying, you know come on guys. And Trump had a big meeting yesterday and just agreed that, well, these are great guys, and why would they ever do the wrong thing? And the smartest of them are concerned. I mean, Musk said it years ago, he was very concerned about this. And Amodai, I think, is a good guy who doesn't want this to get out of hand. Even Sam Altman, not exactly a charmer, but I think he's smart enough to get it that, like, yeah, no matter how rich I am, it's not great if the world is gone, and the people are dead, or whatever, you know, shit could happen. So I think it's not like a number of them aren't onto it. And then there's like the Huangs and the Zuckerbergs who are like, everybody's worried about nothing. Well, Bill Gates, really, you don't take his word. You think he's worried About nothing. Is he that dumb, Bill Gates? I mean, I don't think you have to, you know, run a tech company to see the issues. I mean You don't, but they know better than we do. No, but no, they have more money than we do, but we don't know. Seriously, you think you know as much about tech as Jason Huang or whatever, I'm probably saying his name wrong, or Altman or Elon Musk? You don's. You know nothing. I know nothing, they know more, the problem is they don't know everything about it, which is what's scary, but they way more than we know. That's why they're doing what they're doing, and why there's any hope of reining this in is that somebody kind of gets uh you know behind it on the knowledge curve because where it's going now is what's so scary is the thing is out there making its own decisions ordering itself around that's because of the way it's been coded like here's my problem with it the technology yeah technology is technology it's like money it's well not quite like money like money is very neutral but who's controlling the money is going to be the issue who's controlling this tech and from the that's the point nobody itself listen the pod from the podcast tours that these guys do non-stop to any interview they've ever done it sounds like the most irresponsible group of people who have ever been in charge of something big in the united states and that's what the problem is I don't know, ever. And they also seem to be just money worshipers. I have never heard them say anything that sounds like they, and I'm not talking about every single CEO, but I hear very few of them concerned with any of the ramifications of having AI. No, they are, please, that's just not fair. Okay. They're in the press. It's in the news. They are concerned. There was a whistleblower about a month ago. And usually when there's a whistleblowing, the reaction of corporations is, this guy's full of shit, blah, blah. That was not the reaction. The next day, the three that I just mentioned came out and said, he's not wrong. We are taking this seriously. Now, maybe that's just lip service, but it's still more than what they, a lot of other people in this, the tobacco companies never did that. They never said, oh, yeah, you know what, you're right. They were forced. They were sued. These guys, again, they're not stupid people. Musk said it 10 years ago. He was like, this could be an extinction event. So let's exclude Musk. I don't see that. And Amodi and Altman. They're not, I'm not saying they're doing. Altman seems like a psychopath. I could not agree more. They're all on the spectrum themselves. I don' think they're concerned with, if they were, they'd do something about it. But they're not going to do something about it because they're in this to make a lot of money, as much money as they can possibly make. Of course. And that is driving all their decisions. The things that are holding them back is, yes, money is very attractive. They're all richer than. They're not stupid. They don't know that they already have more money than they could ever deal. No, the businesses have needs so much money to run. Yeah, that's true, too. It's unsustainable. And also, but the bigger one is that they don't want to lose to China. That's in their mind. Well, then maybe they don't hire so many people who have handlers in China. I mean, I don't know. It isn't just like this. Well, Chinese Americans are loyal mostly to America because they're Asian. But I mean if, well, yeah, I'm not talking about, I mean I'm talking about like people who are still reporting to China. I mean i'm not taking about their morphology. I mean talking about where do they have their, who do they belong to. China ain't playing. I mean, China is, you know, the snake, the giant boa constrictor that's wrapping itself around you and Trump thinks, oh, this is cuddly, but it's really sizing you up to eat you. I mean they're definitely – not definitely, but they have a good chance of winning this race and that's what's freaking people out is they don't want China to have the upper hand because obviously this has great ramifications. whoever wins ai wins a sort of war that could be a war of conquest certainly taiwan is on their minds i just when when we're talking about ai and who's going to win the race taiwan is very much on their minds because taiwanis where they make the chips if we don't have the chips from taiwan we don' t have any computers let alone these giant data things they're building I just think it's being done. I think it is a bit sloppy. It is very sloppy. It is crazy. It is a little bit of like, it reminds me of gain of function. Totally. Okay, wait. You are doing this so that you can develop a vaccine for this, but then, oops, the shit gets out before you have developed a vaccine. You are exactly right. And you have fucked up the world. It is techno. You are exact. It is technical version of gain and function. And this is what is going to happen. Yeah. They are going to have this, this tech is going to get enmeshed in the foundation of too many institutions. I just got, I got an email today from my bank. This is a general email to everybody right at the bank, not to me specifically, saying, you know, as AI, you Know, it's this folksy kind of email that you get, right? Like, you Now, AI is becoming more and more popular and all this and just we just want to remind you when you're using agentic ai don't give usernames and passwords because that's just like giving it to a stranger and you're responsible for anything that occurs when this system has your and it's like oh my god doesn't it have it anyway doesn't have it already or else it wouldn't be in your thing of course it has your all that shit it's in your phone it knows everything in your phone that the that the ai models have all your passwords and logins i i i'm talking out of my ass because i don't have it in my phone because i don't want it in my phone um i got a separate phone just for ai and never really used it because i dont need it i i mean oh yeah i'm the same i like i dont i can't think of anything i would ever no there's plenty wanted for it no i absolutely can in fact i was playing basketball about a year ago and got what they call a mallet finger. Still hasn't really healed. But, you know, when you rebound and the ball hits that middle finger. So it's like, it doesn't usually happen, but it's, like, and somebody looked it up right on their phone, right AI. What is this? How do you deal with it? Yes, it can be valuable. It can be viable from, it's already being very valuable in a lot of things, including medically. It's coming up with things already. You know, ways to, Andrew Huberman was just telling me last week about this, that if you have a certain type of cancer, it can very quickly go through all the things that have ever been tried, all the medications, all possible, and very quickly get you to the absolute best response you can make. That's very valuable. Nobody is saying AI isn't also a marvel. You're not saying that, Right. I'm not saying it's a marvel. I think it's more of a pilot trick. You don't think coming up with the best way to... Did it come up with it? I don't... It's just a predictive algorithm. It can search. Yeah, it can search, Okay, but that can be very valuable. Search has definitely been valuable to society. Yeah. So can we admit, why deny that? Why deny that there's something awesome about AI? We're just saying, we think this... I just... You don't see it. It's not for me in any form. Well, if you get cancer, you probably will change your mind. I don't think so. People have gotten cancer in the past and have, like... Died. Recovered. And men recovered. Apparently, people will take Medicare advice from anybody. Some guy you vaguely remember from a 90s sitcom, a retired athlete wearing a headset. Basically, anyone with a headshot and a teleprompter. Chapter takes a different approach. helping people compare Medicare options without simply steering them toward whatever pays the most. They look across every available plan based on what actually matters to you, your prescriptions, your providers, and your needs. They're honest, and they don't get paid more for pushing one plan over another. Novel concept for this industry. If you're already on the right plan, they'll tell you flat out. If not, they'll help you find one that fits. But folks who found a new plan with Chapter saved an average of $1,100 on healthcare costs. It takes about 20 minutes and is completely free. No pressure. You don't need to just trust any random celebrity or even me. Find out for yourself and call chapter today at 984-217-3643. That's 9842173643, but also mostly died. But I don't think we have data that shows that because AI exists now, people don't die from cancer. I think we do. I don' t die anymore at all. Not as quickly that we are moving the curve on that how could it not be i don't just think about that like if this thing is that because it searches faster yes because it searches fatter and they've already done math problems that people couldn't do for centuries and it does it you know in 10 minutes or something uh honestly i think that one really sucked these guys these guys and gals who are mathematicians who are this is their life's work to discover this sort of thing and it goes bippity bop just does it it's like did you need to i mean now like their whole i think it's it's depressing for them this is why i always think i'm the only reasonable person in america because even when i talk to somebody like you i think is very reasonable and i can't get you to like sort of agree on the half of this equation which i think ist undeniable that there is marvelous things about ai it makes me always go So why can't people just like, you know, come right down in the middle of what's obvious? I don't know. Maybe because I have a computer science degree and I know engineering, the lack of engineering ethics that's in programming. But ethics isn't efficacy. Efficacy we're talking about. What is the actual efficacy of having AI in our future medical challenges? Well, hopefully I'll never need to find out. Hopefully. Yeah. But, I mean, you're younger than me, I'm sure, by quite a bit. But I'll tell you what's ahead is not all good things. Yeah. I mean the human body, the flesh is what it is. And it is corrupted as we go on. You look great, by the way. Thanks. I don't know what you'd do for it, but I know you've spoken about plastic surgery, and you're so right in that you don't need it. Well, now, why can't you come down in the middle of that? Well, I do. I will come on that middle of it and say, but if you like it, go ahead. And also, sometimes it does work. And that's where I am with AI. Sometimes it does works. If it floats your boat, go for it. It's just not for me. No, I'm just admitting that it's doing some good things. Well, what have you admitted? Not for you, just for society, for life, for mankind. I don't know. I haven't seen that myself. Right. And you're probably right. There's a lot of things I haven'T seen. Yeah, look, I mean, I'M 70. That's a scary number when you start to have a seven. Isn't that the lucky number? Well, yeah, but come on. Come on. I would say when you turn, if you're lucky enough to turn 77 on the 7th of July in 1927, won't that be like you're going to get the jackpot? All those sevens? Do you really believe sevens have a power? Many societies do. Could be. Well, it could be. We don't know. I'm going to come down on the middle of that. A three and a half? Yeah. No, when I was younger, I did have a real phase where I put a lot of stock in numbers. I mean, I was 19. You know, I'm not saying I was— Did it work? I don't— Did you win the lottery? No, it wasn't like that. I just was going through the kind of angst you go through at that age, and I think I was just searching. I was over Catholicism, which is how I was. Was it like auspices where you say, oh, I see three birds, and that means? No, it was like this happened on this date, so it's significant, and then this other, oh three and four add up to seven, and so I'm going to get her back. Nice. It was like bullshit about it. It was encouraging though, right? Well, it was like grasping at some straw for my very kind of like frustrating and, you know, kind of desperate life. I was never meant to be like young. I was always meant to being an adult. I was not good as a young person, you now. Shy, you couldn't talk to girls when I was desperately wanting to, that kind of thing, you kno. But the numbers gave you comfort. It was the successor to Catholicism, and equally stupid. You know, looking back, that's how I think of it, but who knows? Again, it's true. For some reason, all societies sort of did land on seven. Yeah, that is interesting, isn't it? Like, independently, like, they just all thought— You know what's another interesting thing to me? I know this will seem like a left turn. How did we wind up with salt and pepper being the two spices that go on the table? I don't know, but I bet you a historian would be able to tell you, like— I'm going to try and find that out. Yeah. Maybe you could put that into your chat, GPT. I was just going to say. It'll make up something fantastic. I couldn't agree more. You know, I've done a lot of editorials, like, fucking really cutting the balls off of AI. So I'm your friend here, you know, and that's one of the points I've made many times. If it really was Mr. Spock, remember Mr. Spock from the original Star Trek? Oh, yes. You know, like completely. On the neck. What? Oh, that's how he used to take people down. He just pinched their neck. Oh, yeah, that is right. But, I mean, his whole character was, as a Vulcan, he did not have the human flaw of thinking of things emotionally. He always just gave you the exact, right, correct, honest answer. And when it was politically incorrect, He did not even understand why. Yes, Captain. No, this has been trained on everything we've ever said online. So there's no fucking way it cannot be politically turned. I know they don't like to say it. It is woke. Because look what it's been trained. But it is. If it had only trained it on the Encyclopedia Britannica or something like this. I don't think. Or Meet the Press from, you know, the 60s and 70s or something, it'd be different. I don'T think there should even be an option for asking its opinion. It's an opinion. Someone once really pissed me off. It wasn't their fault. They asked it, what was my best special? And I just did not like the answer AI gave. And it wasn't the right answer. And AI shouldn't have an opinion, It grabs, it's not an opinion! It is, it is. It's AI's opinion. And AI doesn't deserve one. But it, yeah, it doesn't have one. It does, but it renders one. It'll give you one. But it's, it'll give me an answer. But it's not anything. But people believe it is. Well, because people like to personify things. They like to think that their animals are, you know, loving them when they lick them. And they're probably just getting salt off your skin because they need it for their system. They think plants do better when you talk to them. They're just sucking your carbon dioxide. Correct. You're expelling carbon. You're expelling around them what they breathe in. Yeah. So that's it. It's not because you're telling them they're beautiful. You know why fruit tastes good? It's because that tree is hoping that you're going to swallow that pit and then poop it out a mile away and plant more seeds of themselves. That's so interesting and so strikes me as true. It's thinking you're gonna, right. It wants you to eat that, and if you're a caveman, you don't bother throwing it. You just eat it and eat the pit. Or if you eat a strawberry or something, or the seeds, you eat the seeds. I've got to say, some pits would just make you choke to death and die. So those trees are not very bright. Some pits are way too big. Well, then you're going to take it, you're gonna eat it, you're gong to drop the pit somewhere else. Maybe just that. Maybe you don' t eat it. Oh, I see. Right, you throw it on the ground. but the other the other right it doesn't have to be in poop right yeah but it could be you just want to have something eat away the flesh the sweet part so that you have the yeah i'm gonna yeah i'M gonna tease you into spreading my right seeds that's basically it i mean i just love nature what no it's true it's uh there's a there's there's motive to a lot of things i could never live in a city you know with a high rise and concrete all around it's just so unnatural i know yeah some for some people it's the most natural thing in the world we all know lots of new yorkers and yeah but it's not to be around here who live in the wilshire corridor you know the you know that i know right a bunch of high rises like it's great i have a balcony it's like you can have a backyard i mean there's plenty of room balcony why this isn't why would you rather have a balcony like tokyo or new york city we're not in hong kong you know where there's like 17th century amsterdam where you have to build vertically because we have lots of room here yeah there's plenty you know i mean whenever you fly over the country what do you mostly see down there oh my gosh nothing that's lots of land well some of it's a lot of his farms i'm always fascinated with farms no with vegas that somebody went i mean you've driven to vegas right and you've seen all the land around vegas if somebody went somebody went I'm gonna put a city right here now now I gotta tell me more oh I am going to okay tell meもう you haven't seen godfather 2 yes okay it's well bugsy seagull yes let me do the scene for you it's hyman roth member played by who was really Meyer Lansky, played by the great acting coach, Lee Strasberg. He was Al Pacino's acting coach. And he's like, Al Pacano, Michael Corleone, he comes in there, they're supposed to have this deal. And he says, who killed the Rosado brothers? And Jaime Roth says, there was this kid I grew up with, did our first work together, worked our way out of the ghetto. Things were good. Ran molasses into Canada during the Depression, made a fortune. Your father, too. As much as anyone, I trusted him and loved him. Later on, he had an idea to invent a city that was a desert stopover for G.I.s on their way to the West Coast. This was a man of guts, a man a vision, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. somebody put a bullet in his eye when i heard about it i knew mo headstrong saying stupid things i didn't ask who gave the order that is the business we have chosen bugsy siegel invented las vegas not somebody okay but i'm saying to most people don't put something in the middle of nothing i mean same thing is starting the united states of america It was a desert stopover for G.I. Okay. There was already something. Oh, you say there was something actually there. It was an desert stop over for GIs on their way to the West Coast. That's why I did that whole speech. Because there was Something There already. Yes. Okay, then the Something There Already. I'm impressed with it. He just had the vision that because this is Nevada and gambling is legal, no one is taking advantage of this. It's very similar to me, Hugh Hefner. You know, nobody really had the idea. Naked women. Guys looking at naked women. At least not in one magazine. I mean, they're not in the pin-up, right? It seems like an obvious one. It seems, well, I know, but the morals of the time, I mean it was so scandalous to do something like that. It was scandalous. I mean when you look at those Playboys from the 50s, they are showing less than they show in a perfume ad in Vanity Fair today. Yeah, well that's different now. I mean, with like OnlyFans and the whole, everything's just gone. So October hits and mornings turn against you. It's 7 a.m., it's pitch black, and your body wants to know who authorized this. People try all kinds of morning rituals, but you can't fake actual energy. That's where AG1 comes in. It won't fix your sleep or get the sun up any earlier, but it gives your body what it needs so the dark mornings don't take you out before noon. A few of my teams swear by this stuff. When the season shifts, the last thing you want is a nutrient gap. 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You really should. Yeah. Because you're a director now. Yeah. That's so much better than an actor, isn't it? Writing and directing. Once you get on the other side, you think, oh, wow, I was kind of a schlub when I was doing the act. I thought I was big stuff, but I wasn't making any of the decisions. Oh, you're really not. You're not. You're non-important. Well, you think you are. You are. You are, but you don't get to make any decisions. And you're replaceable in a way that the creator isn't. You're replaceble. If they can get somebody else of the same value off the list. They replaced Valerie Harper when her name was the title of the show. I know. That was nuts, right? That's fucking baller. Wait, I'll take you further back. That's badass. Let me take you farther back. Bewitched. Bewitched, yeah. They switched out the husband and didn't say shit about it. But it wasn't the titular character. You're right. You're Right. The show was called Valerie and they replaced Valerie. But I remember as a child watching that. That is ballsy. It's like Archie Bunker's Place and Archie Bunker's Out. Right. Right. It was now the Hogan family. Yeah, it was the Hogen family. Roseanne. They did it with Roseanne recently. They did too and made it the Connors. Yeah. Say, we'll use your last name instead. It's just, I'm telling you, it's just kind of gangster the way this town will do that and let you know exactly what your importance is. Or you could be in it and then you wind up not in the final cut. I mean, I always say this about show business. It's the most full of shit place in the world. It's also sometimes the least full of shits. Like, they will tell you exactly what you're worth is. I've had such great experiences with it. I tell you, the only time I've had bad experiences is with people who aren't, I don't really consider being in the business anyway. Like there was one, like sometimes a financier or sometimes, you know, like a new distributor who's really not in the business. And that's the only thing I've ever had. That's the one time in all of my years in the business. But, I mean, I don't know. I think the business is just not happening. Well, it's funny that we're finally begging for some socialism because – and even – and Trump is – yeah, boy, he's – I've got to tell you, I think that's really big of him, considering how he's been talked about by – You're talking about giving tax breaks to – Doing – Well, the – Well, its – It's our industry and it is – The national tax credit, yeah. To your earlier point, it is dying out here. But I always used to brag about our business and California supporting it in the sense that the conservatives would always talk about how shitty we are here in Hollywood. But you know what? Farmers are the ones getting the welfare. Or the car companies or whatever. The socialism that you hate so much, and I don't like socialism either, but socialism is taking place anywhere but Hollywood. We make our own way. We make a product the world likes, movies, and they do very well. Now, this is before COVID and shutting the movie theaters down and streaming and a lot of other challenges. But movies are back. Movies did very well this year. People, I always said it, people like a thing they can do on a date where you don't have to talk, and that is a movie. True. But how much better would we be doing if you weren't sitting down to some lesson every time you went to the movie theater? And also sitting down to a piece of content, which is made to be second screen, your phone being the first screen while you're scrolling through Instagram or Twitter or something. And then they have to make sure that if you glance away for 15 minutes and come back, you don't feel like you've missed anything. And as a filmmaker, if you can do that, then that's 15 minutes I should have cut out of my film. If you look away and come Back and nothing's moved forward, then it was cuttable. I couldn't agree more. I did a whole thing one year about it was the year of Nomadland and like we had the Debbie Downer Awards and, you know, just like sponsored by razor blades and rope. You know, it's like I'm sure it was a great movie and an important film. and uh but it's been this entire century i would say now getting worse all the time where yeah they don't care about quality they care about what political point of view you are signaling yeah with your work which is not mutually exclusive but they've made it so that it is yeah oh it's totally they've and and film film festivals have done this too where they'll take a film that is where the filmmaker is a one-legged albino from Alaska with two gay mommies and that checks those boxes, but the film's not very good. Now, that's the lead, is that? And the lead. So, you know, they say, well, look, I just feel like if you're not going to have quality be your bar, then what are you doing? You're not helping anybody. You're nicht helping the audience. You're niet helping the filmmaker by just letting films in that check boxes and you think you're helping people and teaching people and all this. Hollywood. And that's also not mutually exclusive. You can have something that teaches people something, but make it excellent and make it entertaining. And we've had that for years. There's room for that in the film selection each year, but it can't be completely that. Either super violent films or teachable moments where you're jamming things down people's throats and nothing else. that's not how you stay in business. Well, they used to know how to make a movie about something and also make it entertaining, like China Syndrome. Absolutely. There's so many of them. They just want to preach now. The Oscars used to be a show that was saying, look at us, these are our products this year, and look at how good we are as filmmakers. And now the show is all about, look at what good people we are. You know, and it's just whoever wins the award is always going to be the person who played a part that was about a cause. It's not about the performance. It's about, you know, well, you played a guy with AIDS, you knows, voting's over. And it's important. Hollywood does a great job at bringing issues to the public's attention that do need attention. I give them all the credit in the world. But it still has to be good. Right. And when it peaks over into lecturing, I just don't need it. I don't want it. And it's not your place to do it. And it is boring. You're boring me. And I think this relationship with the audience has been really crushed. Who? That filmmakers, the studios, filmmakers, streamers, whatever, their relationship with the audience have been really fucked up. Because for two reasons. What you were just saying, you know, putting out these didactic films. Right. And then, and, and sequel after sequel, after sequel after sequel, right? It's either and reboot, and also putting films in theaters, training them to just watch it online, where it's just like sort of this online supermarket, you know, video supermarket, not leaving films in theaters long enough. I mean, when you said earlier, like we've there's been a lot of success and, you Know, with success in Hollywood, in the years so far we're talking about box office we're not talking about netflix ratings right we're trying about box offices and yet they're like sort of allergic to leaving things in the box office long enough to even make any money i don't know there's so there's some i mean that's a little weeds for me like how much you're going to leave in the theater but the bigger point is so true the movies are either mindless or trying to mind shape you know yeah they're either trying to shape your mind with the movie and look i'm all for being stimulated and i'm all for making me think about things but i like one that leaves the question open yeah not just don't tell me who to hate you know stop telling me who the hate i say the same thing about music you know these people who think they need to like make the concert about whatever their stripe is you know i mean like as if everything's a fundraiser everything is exactly i mean i'm not for what Macklemore was doing, and I'm also not, I mean, I think his message is horrible. Bruce Springsteen, I agree more with the message. You know, is Trump a corrupt, inept president? Yes. I've said that more than anybody. Still say it every week. I don't need to hear it in a concert. Don't open the concert by telling me who I am supposed to hate. I can handle that on my own. You are there for escape. Some moron I said that on the show and some moron wrote the next week Bill Maher is such a hypocrite because he's saying celebrities shouldn't comment on politics but he does yeah, that's all I do. That's your job. It's my job. It's not my That's her job. That's you're job. Yes, exactly. That is all I did. I don't know. Did he think that you were like you just starred in like a big blockbuster film and now you are commenting now you're you're switching gears and you're commenting on politics i mean you does he not know you how long you've been doing this so stupid i'm telling you everybody is stupid they get mad at me for saying that people some people how could maybe you say but it's true what am i i'm caught between a rock and a hard place if i don't say it i'm lying which i'm not going to do and if i say it a mean because oh don't tell people they're stupid okay what should i how should i couch it you're anti-bright you're giving me dumb maybe it's maybe something like george carlin remember that joke he had about drivers and he said do you ever notice on the road everyone's driving slower than you is a fucking idiot and everyone's riding faster than you and maybe that's maybe that'S how we gauge intelligence too i don't know he was amazing What's been, like, like I said, I'm so grateful that you do this and have been doing this for so long and so consistently, and how are you? How are you feeling about things? How are your feelings about where things are going? Well, my life is different from what I feel about the country, um and i very often i'm busting people on at least not recognizing the cognitive dissonance between the country and your life i've said this before people come up to me often at restaurants nice restaurants where rich people go places where you go you hollywood phony and you know they say some version of or very often exactly say bill what are we going to do and i know what they mean they mean trump is so awful what are we going to do and i always say go back to the table and finish your thousand dollar dinner for three people you fucking phony because like your life is great your life has not been actually affected by donald trump at all that's not to say donald trump is not a threat in the many ways he has always been but is way less so now he's a lame duck now. But just recognize the reality of that. Your life didn't end. I mean, I was more alarmed about Donald Trump 10 years ago than I was now. He hadn't been president yet, and I already was recognizing the fact that he doesn't concede elections. I was the first one to say, this is not going away, and this is going to be a giant problem. You know, folks, everybody thinks they know what happens next. Good news, you can now put money on it. Kalshi is America's number one prediction market. The biggest stories in the world and the stupidest questions in pop culture, all with a live price and somebody on the other side who's sure you're wrong. Every year on Oscar night, America becomes a nation of film scholars. People who watched 11 minutes of a movie on a plane have takes. And none of it costs them anything, because being wrong about the Oscars is free not on calci dune part three is trading at a ten percent probability to win best picture put a hundred on it and that's nine hundred and forty dollars if it takes the award on calchi you're trading against peers in a live market meaning there's no house and as the probability changes you can buy in and out of your position download the calci app and use code random to get $25 when you trade. $25. K-A-L-S-H-I. Kalshi. Trade. What's next? 18 plus only. Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Kalschi products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see Kalsshi.com slash regulatory. That this guy does not recognize losing elections. So much so that he ran again. There's only two outcomes with him. Either we win or you cheated. And that cannot stand. I said it to his vice president on my show. I said, this shit has to stop like he's going to do anything about it. Of course, then he has his own bullshit. But so that's where I am. I recognize the threat to the country from the right and from the left, from the people who want communism and think the heroes in the Middle East are Hamas. Yes, I worry about them just as much. But my life's fucking awesome. Good. And I'm not going to pretend it's not or feel guilty that it is. Right. Because there's no reason I should. Yeah. You know, I recognize I have had some advantages. Other people didn't. Some on the left would always like go immediately to race. Yes, that's part of it. In 1980, when I was doing comedy clubs, my second year in comedy, could I have gotten a job at the, you know, Philadelphia Comedy Club because I was white and some other comic was black? That's possible. and you know but like that kind of shit first of all mostly straightened itself out i think even then they were probably hiring the funnier one but yes that could have happened okay are we going to obsess on that every life is a it's a complex mixture of advantages and disadvantages i've had my i think a much more significant advantage i had in my life was a stable family i grew up in an era where mom and dad stayed together i never worried that they didn't love each other. I didn't think they were going to split the family apart. Kids today don't have that mostly. Families are broken and it affects the kids. I did not have drugs in high school. Thank God I had them in college, but that is the appropriate time to be introduced to them. So I had a stability that is much more an effect of my life than race stuff, even though it is an advantage to be white if you were born in 1956 as I was. I mean, what are you going to do? You know, really, people can take it up with God. I mean you got dropped into this bag. What are you supposed to do, you made the best of the bag you were dropped into. Exactly. And that's it, end of story. What are we supposed to end up with? What are supposed to you do? And endured lots of pain in my own life. What are your supposed to to? Yeah, no. This is what you were dealt. Yeah. And this is the track you were put on. Yeah. And you did well. Yeah. And you, I mean not did well, you did well but you also you were faithful to your gift you were you didn't self-sabotage you fucking made it happen you know i got the mark twain award this year right man okay come on that's this is that's incredible that's for recognize i mean they don't always like stick to mark twrain but this year you know people didn't make the point and it's true mark twaine was a guy who like didn't never pulled a punch. Talked about both sides, you know. I mean, it was not, I'm not saying this in a braggy way, just like in a absolute what the guy was kind of way. It was a more appropriate this year than a lot of years when people were brilliant comedians, but weren't sort of in his tradition. I am in his traditions, you now. I do never pull a punch, You know, and that's what people like or hate about me. Because when you don't, people get punched. I don't think I ever do it in the mean way. The kids today talk in a way we never talked about each other. I mean, when you listen to them, it's just very routine. Like, Hasan Piker, have you ever heard the kind of stuff that this guy says? He seems like a— Like, America's a dogshit country. He just— It's just amazing, but that's how they talk. I wonder what, you know, I don't know what his upbringing was, but he just seems like, he just seems so sad to me. So angry about your privileged life. But he can't, it just, he has all the behavior of somebody who nobody pays enough attention to. Right. And it feels, it seems like it is so much his spine of existence that he cannot go one minute without saying something that he hopes will make people turn to him yeah well it's well i it's i i just think it's it's a lot of it is very sad clicks is they're addicted well and that's part of it addicted to like part of it right addicted to saying something that's very vitriolic and and and incitive and will start you know people angry and yeah you know i mean for people who complain a lot about what a shitty country this is you know what america isn't something that just happened to us it is us you don't want to be a shitty country stop being shitty people yeah what are you contributing to it what are you right i mean the whole what are you solving the jfk you know what are you doing for you know junior what are not junior what do you doing free you know ask out what the country's doing for you what are doing for country i mean it's really it's really one of the i mean i'm i'm the one millionth person to say this like it's one of the greatest quotes that was ever said because you can you can say that about anything you'll walk into a party and go well i guarantee fucking sucks like what'd you bring to it i guarantee 95 of people under 25 don't know the quote oh have no idea when kennedy was president okay well for anybody is if they did if they did hear it they would stick their nose in the air at hearing it because america don't you know happen you listen to hasan piker america is the worst country ever it's a dog shit country well that's what he's saying that's like saying your own family that's saying yourself like you are the worst person that's ever existed i mean they're close but like the dsa they're it's on their website i mean THEY SAID OFFICIALLY THE UNITED STATES HAS NEVER BEEN A FORCE FOR LIBERATION AND NEVER WILL BE REALLY TELL THAT TO THE PEOPLE ON THE STREETS OF PARIS IN 1944 IT'S JUST SILLY NONSENSE ALL OVER THE WORLD ALL OVER YOU KNOW INCLUDING MUSLIM COUNTRIES THAT WE BOMBED NOT to bomb muslims kosovo we bomb to liberate them but they don't look at little details like that they just say nonsense i feel like like it's like uh unfortunately it like a child they're going to say something that is contrary to whatever you're saying like if particularly trump if trump says uh ice cream is a wonderful confection harry treat they will say ice scream is horrible for you it's awful exactly or i or he says you know it's very pleasant if people are able to spend the day at the beach on fourth of july i mean we've seen that a fourth of July is sinful nobody should ever have anything to do with it and nobody should be at the beach and this is like what a child does because they don't know where they stand and and frankly it's when you have pre-teens and teenagers but really at pre-Teens when they're trying to and this is important for them to break away from mommy and daddy to be more of an individual and sometimes when they don't know what that is at all they will just simply be have a contrary point of view like mom likes jazz then i hate jazz you know you're going to be contrary just so you it's like for your starter kit of who are you and i feel like whoever's doing that now you know not just in politics but just like everybody in the streets you've got your starter kid now build on that who are you and i think for a lot of people they don't want to let go of this you know adhering to the 10 tenets of the of the world culture because they're terrified of going back to 2015 before trump when they were just judy who had this normal job right and you know had a boyfriend who hadn't asked her to marry yet and mom and dad are asking you about if you're going to have children or not and when the woke thing started or you know blm started a little bit there which had a good foundation and things by the way it's all part of this and then and then covet they could say mom dad okay well with trump they said i'm there's more important things than whether or not i'm going to have a child i'm fighting for democracy and then 2020 and they go like honey what are you going to do with this mom dad people are dying how can you be asking me about when i'm to have children and so this and then when trump was elected the second time it seemed to me that there was a group of people like a lot of these people who had been up in arms you know and by the way you know i had been you know I had been definitely upset about certain things and I was like wow this is not sustainable what am I how am I but they they they I think when he was elected the second time so you know now we're not in 2016 we're in 2020 26 oh 20 26 20 20 was real sorry sorry 20 21 2024 2024 right okay so 2024 i think a lot of these people went they finally realized this is not sustainable i got to get back to work and do my own life fine i you know these people are saying i don't like trump but he's going to be here another four years just let leave it be but there was a collection of people who went over my dead fucking body right because then that means i got to go back to me 2015 i'm going to double down and i think that's the result we're seeing now doubling down on i am not going back to my life no fucking way this is i i must make this be true and when he's done and we have someone else's president like what are those people going to do i mean first of all that's such a brilliant analogy and analysis really that means a lot to me it really is um and then i want to ask you about your own kids okay after this because you brought that into it which is so true oh are we is this like well your character is this a trial where i've introduced a word and now it's fair game well it is fair game okay uh i mean there's no game here uh you know but you know when you were characterize them as like, you know, oh, mom, dad. That rings so true to me, and I never have had kids. But you were a child at one point. Well, I just see what's going on. Or no. You say you felt like an adult from the beginning. I did, and that's why I never had kids, I never liked them, but I hear from all my adult friends, and i see it portrayed on tv and movies. This is exactly what i hear from my friends who have kids who are, you Know, pushing, pushing the envelope. Just like, always like how can we do that because this gaza is going on like shut the fuck up just live your life as a decent human being what happened just because all your solutions you're doing nothing what are you actually doing nothing you're making a land acknowledgement did one indian ever get one inch of land back from the land acknowledgement no it's just you yammering about how the chumash people should really be here. But they're not. It's a pizza hut. And you don't want to get rid of it any more than they do. It is just crazy. And it is just hypocritical. And it is a performative. I mean, it is true. All the things. It is. I think they are trying to ensure that that membership card stays valid. You ever see those lawn signs people have? Oh, yeah. You know, in this house we believe. Yeah. That's their whole raison d'etre, is to be the lawn sign. It's moral superiority. In this House, we believe there are no illegals on stolen land. Okay, but you're not giving your house back, are you? In this house, we believed all love is good. Of course, we all believe that. Even the Republicans aren't against gay marriage now. You know, you're just posturing. You're not doing fucking anything. I think it's just signaling to other members. Signaling. Other members of the club. I'm a good person. Don't kick me out. I'm an ally. I'm still part of this. Even though I'm driving a car that isn't quite on our list, don't kick me out because look at my lawn sign. I think they're terrified of not being part of this group that they, which by the way, would roll them over for very little. Well, I always call them liberals in theory. Yeah, I wish there was another name for it because I don't find this to be liberal at all. They're still not over slavery, and yet they treat their assistants like 24-7 slaves because they're liberals in theory. They're okay with slavery as it pertains to their assistant, but they're very upset about the institution that ended in 1865. Yeah, I think, I don't know. I think it's better to deal with what we've got now versus things that happened. And there's a list of them. I mean, I'll just speak as a woman. I'm not ruminating every day that women, not me, sorry, I misspoke. I almost said that I once didn't have the vote. That was never true. My mother didn't. Okay. My mother was born the year before women got the vote, my mother, not some ancient ancestor, my mother, 1919. and women once couldn't own property and women once couldnít have their own bank accounts and all of this stuff for me now Iím like thankful to the men and women men and woman and I want to talk about that too men and women that changed all of that and I stepped into when I was born into a world where well I think the bank account thing was still in effect but as you're right as an adult i was there was nothing i can do anything you can do anything there's nothing that holds me back the way i like to do my life is i see that there is an advantage to every situation i have whether it's rejection or an ailment or having some money whatever it is i'm not looking at any of any of it saying this is bad this is good i'm saying this is all interesting and if you're going to be resentful they don't even know you're being resentful to them this is just going to like that's just a way for you to like pour acid on your insides you'd be good you'd me good having like a dr phil show i'm i'm game i'm very good at coming up with i'm like i should be a man i should do it under your You be the Oprah. I should be a manager. I really should. I come up with good ideas for people. Come on, Bill. You be The Oprah. No, really. And you put it under your umbrella of shows. Because, I mean, I try to do this, too. But, you know, I think it's a good idea. I mean the kids just turn off to anybody who's not their age, which is like the worst thing you can do because the kids your age are as stupid as you are. But if they would listen to older people like every society has learned to do, like where is the wisdom, the people who have been down the path before. I mean this is like The Perfect Advice that they need, what you just said. The perfect advice. But I think the difference is... That's not how they think. It's a victim culture. Because... There is currency in victimhood. And I'll tell you why. Okay? So there's something called mimetic desire that a sociologist named Gerard... Anyway, I forget his name. Apologies. And he says that his theory is when we come into the world, we don't really want anything. We only want to survive. We want milk. Right. So that's survival, right? We want to survive. Like the human, you know, at the core level, right. And then we look around and we look around at what other people want. And we then decide we were going to mimic them and want what they want. Okay. So imagine children growing up, they're looking at, you Know, when I was a kid, uh, you looked around at what what did adults value they valued people who were um uh doctors and lawyers and uh learned musicians and you know scholars and all this and you're like oh well i want to mimic that i want to desire that too i'm gonna i wantto be like that iwant to be these things that the adults around me admire then we fast forward to now the kids now what have they what's been modeled for them what have they what are they what desire are they going to mimic well we've certainly lifted up the wealthiest people on the planet as as the ones to follow as the one to listen to about everything and i'm i know we're in disagreement about like i don't i don' t anyway not to get into the ai guys again are not worthy of worshiping just because they're wealthy but very often they are wealthy because they, or not often, but sometimes, like Musk, are wealthy because they did something extraordinary. Okay. Now, yeah, Musk I have to take out of it because I think he's done some really incredible things for society. He's undeniable. Okay. But if we are looking at worshipping, you know, in quotes, worshipping people who have money, and then also when social media came on the scene, you know what 20 well 12 17 years ago we started quantifying instead of qualifying value we start quantifying how many followers did you have how many likes did you get how many reposts yeah and that and so you're looking at that and now that is now the two are combined right if you get a lot of quick clicks and do a lot for whatever reason Assam piker like you said only fans whatever it does actually it's not a it's not theoretically connected it does result in you being able to make a living if you can get a lot of clicks of course from X from OnlyFans from Onlyfans from YouTube from Facebook or maybe not Facebook Instagram crazy they all have these programs so which I'm not saying are bad or good that people are making money off this but so now you have these kids and so when they say what do you want to be when you grow up it's like well i want to i don't think they didn't come into the world thinking i want to be an influencer but they look around it what is being you know what is been honored what is no money with attention and they go well i guess i'll be that there's no part of the culture that tries to encourage that i can see uh kids to do anything that we would consider one of the traditional esteemed professions you were mentioning we saw the adults wanting to be doctors and lawyers i mean i've said this before i'm going to keep saying it until somebody writes about it but you can scroll endlessly through pornhub and never see the same girl twice when i was a kid not a kid when i Was a young adult there was like you know eight porn stars in the world jenna jameson and i don't know seven other people and now i'm telling you it's like everybody yeah it's it's uh well i think we did young women and men uh a disservice to to to make all this like sex positive uh sex workers are you know this is this is a valid uh respectable i'm you know did you see anora huh anora won the oscar last year yeah i mean actually like i like sean baker a lot i do too and he's done a lot for film and and and for i and i know i know but i'm saying and there and there's always been that area in film where you know the the soft spot for the sex worker in a film and everything you know like the the prostitute with a heart and all of this sort of thing absolutely but i'm saying in society this is a that's a movie in society to have to present to young women that this is a viable this is available right line of work to get into financially it is viable but i am saying like that is that is not going to go well you i don't think you're still a human being to be fair You're not going to come out unscarred from doing that for a living for a while. The line has been so blurred, like Florida Project, one of my favorites of his. I mean, is she a sex worker? Yeah, she's turning tricks while her kid is sleeping in the other room in the bathroom of the motel. Okay, that's a sex workers. But, you know, she is not like a hardcore determined prostitute. She's just trying to get the money to pay that week's, you know, it's just, the prostitution part of it is a small part of a portrait of desperation in America that exists a lot. and also i mean why that apropos to our earlier uh debate about like don't lecture me but just give me a great choice in a movie like that's a movie about a mother who is like cover of bad mom's magazine and yet when the child services come to take the kid away like what would i vote for no i know the mom's really imperfect but this kid loves the mom the mom is the kids too much her friend as opposed to her mother. But it's not like she doesn't love the kid. She is a terrible mother, but she is the mother and she does really love the kids. And the kid really loves her. The kid might get killed crossing the highway, but if she doesn t, she's really having a good time and she really doesn t want to go to child services. So it's a brilliant moral choice that this director leaves you with. That's what a great movie is to me. Yeah, and he is a great filmmaker. There are women and men who have made situations great for me that I was born into, right? The year I wasborn, you know, like getting women the vote and we could own property and all this sort of thing, right. Right. And I included men because. Yes. They made it happen. I am so grateful to all the men who have done anything ever in the world that's beneficial to us. And this crushing of men, particularly young men, that's happened over the last, I don't know, 15 years, I think is a horrible, horrible, shameful thing. I mean, you said it earlier about the left and how they kind of only believe one thing and then they stop thinking. Yeah, I mean, was the women's suffrage movement started by women and carried through by women? Yes, it was. Carrie and Nation and other people, Susan B. Anthony, that's where it started. And they get a lot of credit. But it never would have happened because there was no women in government unless men did it too. Slavery was terrible, but also it was Lincoln and white men who stopped it. Both things are true. Both things ARE TRUE. again can't you just fucking people it's all yeah it's all yeah i think just basically people are scared but i but and so they they adhere to these things because they they don't know what else to do but i i think now we're getting into like um i think we're getting beyond the oh i'm scared so i'm gonna i have to use pronouns all the time or whatever they're whatever somebody's thing is but i think we've gone past that now and now we'RE in a like a a state of this commitment to destruction and that like the whole like the dsa here's what we want to do want to get rid of the police um okay have you thought that through i want to get ridof the jails have you got that through want toget rid of private property okay hold on and this list that they have published yes and i'm just like okay now i have a line in the sand i have a fucking line in the sand that's why i said i'm not this is not about politics this is about and i was saying to the guys earlier like to me being an american is um i am free to pursue the kind of life i want and to uh do whatever i want so long as what i'm doing doesn't impinge on somebody else's ability to be the same now stuff they're talking about impinges on my ability And this is not conducive to an American society. That's why I told the vice president, my vote is in play. And then, of course, within 24 hours, they wrote, Bill Maher's a Republican. I never said that. I'm nothing. I said my vote isn't in play if you are really going to pursue this communist. and it's, again, not socialist, it's communist, taking over the means of production, taking over, and then they will list. You can read it. It's in writing. It's, yeah, no interpretation. They're key industries. It's all the key. That's what communism is, when the government takes over all key industries, and again, I'm not against a certain degree of socialism. A certain degree is a certain way. A certain way of socialism is appropriate. I do not think the prisons should be in private hands. I do think that would probably not be, you know, like some corporations shouldn't be trusted with certain things, but not everything. You're going to ruin society. And, of course, these are the people complaining about how terrible capitalism is sitting there ordering their food from their phone and having it brought to their door. You get your food from your phone. Somebody just leaves it and you go out and get your Food. you fucking assholes your life is so fucking good and you hate it you hate it dog shit America I know dog shit America I want to know yeah you forgot the fries yeah Bill have you ever had an answer to this question what's the endgame let's say they get whoever you know they and again I'm not gonna use the word liberals I'm just say like these fucking insane people let's see you get everything you wanted let's Everything on that list. You get the whole thing, the whole thing. I mean, first of all, I can tell you for sure, anybody can tell you, you haven't thought this through. It's cloud cuckoo land. But, like, what then? The DSA website says... You've got the purge in real life because you have no jails and no... Everybody better have a gun. I've said the same exact thing. Don't touch the Second Amendment. It's the purged. Everybody needs a gun if you're going to have that. No police and no jams. Abolish the police. It's The Purge every day. And, and every, and, but everything is, I mean, look, none of it makes sense. Everything is free and you're like, well, somebody's paying, who's paying for that? Okay. But let's say they get all these things. Now what? Now what now, now you have to, now what are you, how are you going to manage this? What? But again, as I said at the beginning, it's like you expect me to bow down to just one side of it, the left side of I'm the bad person because I'm questioning things. Yeah. That we're going to abolish the police, that everything is going to be free. I mean, their website literally says, you know, imagine this world where you don't have to worry about rent. You don't Have to worry About transportation. If you're a child. Yeah, I can. But, you Know, but somebody's something. Right. You want to make sure I can do this. Make sure there are enough parents. But you're the good people. You're the smart people. You're The people who shouldn't be questioned. I got that when I started questioning Newsom. And I said, oh, we've had, I think it was $30 billion just poof, out the window through unemployment cards during 2020, during 2020 through 2023. $30 billion. And I know for a fact from somebody who worked in the government that they were told, just, we're not going to worry about the fraud now, just get the money out. And I started saying, well, $30 trillion may sound like this crazy big number, but just tell me, anybody, what did you pay in taxes this year? Was it $100,000? Was it$50,000.? Was it a million dollars? Okay, what if I just take that money from you that I'm sure you could have used, right and i'm just gonna throw it in the toilet and i'll never gonna pull it out of the pipes that's it how does that feel because that's what he did but here's the thing about newsom and then people go like oh you sound like a trumper and i am like wait wait wait i'm like when you have a housekeeper or a mechanic or anybody you've hired because we we pay for these people's salaries and they don't do a good job do you just go that's okay i want to make sure that You know, they know that I'm on board with everything, and so I'm not going to question this. And I'll lie. And then you don't say, like, hey, man, where's my fan belt? Right. Like, I can't drive now. And they go, and then what do you think he's going to say? Like, oh, what are you saying? Are you an un-mechanic? Are you a non-mecanic or whatever? I don't know what you'd say. I don'T know what the word would be. That is priceless. No, but you say, no, this is ridiculous. I'm never bringing my car back to you again. And that's how I feel about some of these politicians. Okay. Like, no, I never want you to be, I don't want you to drive a bus I might be on, because I don'T think you're responsible. So here's the key question. Okay. I'm really getting to it now. All right. I'm serious. So you and I, we're right. We're the smart ones. Okay. We got our handle on this. Okay. Yeah. These other people are insane. How do we win in Hollywood? because in Hollywood, they're all against us. No, but see, I haven't found that. They're part of the stupid variety. But I haven'T found that, I've, I mean, last year, I worked more last year than I, and I've worked on. I mean just win on the court of public opinion in this town. I mean you said. No, no, but I think there's too many, like I said, I don't think these are bad people, I think these uneducated fearful fearful okay fearful people fearful of being ostracized by other people who don't know what the fuck they're talking about yeah it's a fearful thing and also fearful of the thousand noisiest people how do we listen the entertainment business is not it's it's done it's i mean yes there are still things being made not done but generally well whatever's being done this is a content conveyor belt and and sometimes you get an outlier that's a really good film you know like back rooms uh kane parsons i saw it back rooms maybe you didn't like it i thought it was i mean i thought genius i think he's a genius that's strong word no i think i think he's uh he's film prodigy i mean really wanted to talk to him he was going to be here but he never has so like um i i don't know if i should like uh i mean i'm i didn't hate it um what was genius about it i thought the way that he uh first of all and and and like i gotta like tip my hat to a24 and jason blum and everyone who was involved too they did that you have a new sounds like an acceptance speech yeah i'd love to accept something for kane parsons but i think that also god to to have a New filmmaker come in and do something that is so um what was it entertaining i mean it's a lot of i guess i found it to be metaphorical for where we're at right now it is so many things i agree and then i went on his Someone at the price of being entertaining. I mean, if people haven't seen the movie, it is a smart movie about an interesting subject. But it's, I mean- Are you a horror fan? No. And neither am I. Okay. And I think horror fans were just like, give it to me. Oh, really? They didn't like it? No, no, they did. They were like, Give it to Me, Give It to Me. So for them, when you say entertaining- Because it was a twist on a horror film. When you say, entertaining, like horror fans found it really entertaining. You know what? I actually honestly feel like it's generational. There's a certain sort of anxiety in the younger generations that they very much related to in that movie that I do not have. Okay. Like, I mean, if you didn't see the movie, people, it's very hard to explain, but the guy owns a furniture store, and underneath the furniture store is this world that goes on forever. Yeah. Full of back rooms. No, I get you. It doesn't have furniture in it. No, I get you. It's very metaphorical. You know what it reminded me of a lot? 2001, A Space Odyssey. Okay. Remember, you'd see the monolith, and now it's like in outer space, and now it is here, and there is a grandfather clock. Especially the last 10 minutes of the film. It is not literal. Right. so but i i the fact that he got something that um theoretically complex out there and that made a lot of money which means he'll be able to do make more films and then i went to his youtube account and looked at one of his early like this is this the second thing he ever posted or fourth thing he never posted was some short he did i forget the name of it when he was 14 years old or something and conceptually and the manner in which he executed it i'm telling you this guy's a film prodigy oh he is i that's why i wanted him here yeah um i want to talk to him yeah well check out check out that if you do have him in here check out the the the one short before you bring him in i will i mean again i think some of it is uh in the category of in my generation I can never get this close to this movie because it just does not speak to my I was a free range child we got home from school and we just ran out the door and did whatever the fuck we wanted until dinner time that is not this generation's experience and so for them to be in this claustrophobic world yeah is very very close to their reality so given that yeah i mean i like the movie as much as i could have i hear you and i totally agree with you that it was not uh in the realm of entertaining like i just want to go to the movies and just you know someone to just show me a good time that's okay so yeah and there's room for that one of the problems with the film industry is that though there is there's always been space for films like back rooms um Unfortunately, there's hardly anything, you know, we've got back rooms and then we've got this like second screen content and then we've got, you know, uber like violent, like violence porn, like really violent stuff. And then, and there's room for these kinds of films. But then if you don't have any of the rest of it, you don' have, you don't have the comedies, you don't have the romantic comedies. You don't have the, you know the moving uh dramas that are uplift you know is there a movie you want to make that that you can't get made because they don't get it oh sure i've got a satire called panda man a satir on 2020 called panda men what do you mean on 2020 oh the year 2020 called panda man that's pandemic no no no is that with the pan no no panaman's reference is something else entirely but uh that was the pandemic so funny but it was it was but it's about the pandemic no no and this is a parallel this is uh uh something else happened so it's not about 2020 in our world and why can't you get it made oh i don't i it's just it's not it's it's a it's just not meant to be right now i don' t know and i've got other ones uh i'm not gonna go through all those all the scripts i've got holy shit but yeah i've got other ones that i can't get you know here's an interesting thing yeah i saw an article that said you know not enough indie films are being made like the buyers are out there and i haven't read the whole article just saw the headline and one of the issues is and people may not know this for studio films i don't know studio films or streamers but for indie films in order to get the funding you have to have a cast member or two or three that is on the list right and the list is pretty finite and getting smaller every day because we don't make movie stars anymore we don'T make new movie stars any more and and all the this handful of actors are being offered all the indie films and they can only do one at a time so and then they've got their lives and maybe they want to have a kid or you know whatever's going on for them or do a studio movie or do a studio film yeah or get an apple apple tv payment or something or or have a t-mobile ad or i mean whatever right i mean i don't mean that disparaging to whoever's doing t-movil but just like you know there's there i mean you you gotta admit like that there was a big shift in the last couple of years from you know movie stars doing yeah when i turn on commercials when i go to um fandango at home which used to be voodoo you have that i can't keep track of it all the name changes in the really you don't know so you never had that you never heard voodOO it's just just movies right i like them because unlike the other streaming devices they never locked me out and like make me prove i really am who i've always been oh boy just like you know what you want to watch this movie that was in the theater three three months ago here you go there you go that's how it used to being right yes success it's all hbo or showtime always success on bandango at home that's great the other ones it's it's often fuck you who are you who were you wait a minute you know me who are your for years you know but we're gonna show you commercials now what do you mean really the password again i understand why they're doing it anyway um but um like i see movies there that i never heard of sometimes they're quite good and they're independent kind of movies somebody green green lit them somebody made them into a real movie and then i guess they just went well we don't think it's going to make money at the theater so we're just hardly anything so why throw good money after bad and promote it so we are just going to throw it here on the streaming service. Also, promotion is really hard. Right. It used to be so easy. And expensive. It usedと be so easy. So just sell it to Fandango at home. Because people watch movies at home anyway. I actually did. I'm a contributing film editor for Spin Magazine. Bob Guccione? One of my oldest viewers? Yeah. He's really I like him so much. Who doesn't? He's great. And one of the pieces I just did that I it's from the spring issue they do it quarterly now so I write for the physical magazine I just with their permission put the last springs up there which is here's a bunch of movies and series you might not have seen because it's such a Costco sized kind of arena to find something you want to do find something you want to watch that the ones that are good And they've been there. They're hard to find. So there's a list now. How can the industry be doing so bad when they're making so much? There's so much. Well, let's think about this. Let's think of the financial structure, right? The financial structure for films for 100 years or so was you want to see this movie, you're going to pay. I'll just grab a price, right, $15 every time you're gonna go see this film. And every time, if you want to see it's $15, or I want to see it as $15 even if we go together, and even if we want to multiple times, we'll have to pay $15 every time per person. Okay, that's a financial model, and you have residuals and all these other things, right? TV series, you got good ratings, then the advertisers are gonna pay more per 30 seconds to be on that show. Sell it into syndication. Syndication was where all the real money was. And then you have, yeah, you have back end, syndication, all these kinds, this is our financial structure right and it really worked then the streamers came along which are tech companies and they said you know what our financial model is because we don't have the same financial model as you guys because we depend on uh stock prices and investors and they ruined people who didn't talk i mean you know it's just like this always happened but the financial structure did not change from the talkies well it has to well but you go to a financial structure like this where you say to the user, you have $15, pay me, and I will give you access to 1,000 movies for a month for your whole household. Now, that is not... You think about that financials compared with what I just mentioned. That's a very different kind of model. That was never going to be profitable for filmmakers. My friend who was writing The Golden Girls in the 80s when we were on our sitcoms on NBC said to me once, you know you used to look at the schedule and see what you're up against now you're up against everything that was ever filmed that's it you're up against plus video games oh yeah plus everything and social media plus ketamine everything you're just up against anything and that's why marketing is so difficult now too because the audience is so scattered I mean Trump was tweeting shit about me this weekend and it was like it's so funny the things he says like, you know, Bill Maher, oh, the ratings are so low. It's sad because I like him. I mean, he really, sad. And like, he even knows what my ratings are. I don't even know what my ratings are, but- Are there ratings anymore? Exactly my point. Like, even if there were, I wouldn't believe it because, first of all, I assume because HBO keeps me on, they're not bad. But also, could you even tell, people watch things on every different format at every different hour of the day they can see it on youtube they can See it pirated they can it on HBO it's just it just doesn't you know it's how many people are really seeing something and you just can't measure that and and how and they're seeing and even the way the streamers like gauge engagement gauge engagement measure engagement so I mean, it's changed over the years, right? Sometimes it was like, well, if they just clicked on it. And then it was, like, well, they watch at least a minute. Right. Well, if the watch 10 seconds of it. Right. Well, you know, so it's like, I don't know. Did they even watch it? Who knows? All right. I've kept you long enough. Thank you. Thank you so much. This was such a pleasure. I'm glad I got to know you. I'm so glad, too, really. The best thing about this podcast is when I get to know somebody who I kind of wanted to know And then, you know, what, are you going to call somebody up? Hey, I don't know you, but I always liked you. Come on my podcast. Go have dinner and be like, who's this fucking pervert? But if it's a podcast, you Know, it's sort of like what Sam Harris once said about praying. He said, if you took your hair dryer out and you spoke into it and you told people you were speaking to some sky god, they would call the insane asylum. But if you take away the hairdryer, you're praying. If it's an invisible God, you are in better shape, right? Well, I am just saying. I mean, I'm saying. It is an invisible god. I mean whether you have the hairdrying in front of you, if you think you are communicating. And I don't judge. I am an atheist and think it is silly. But I don' judge religious people. Are you religious? No. Yeah, well, I mean, and if you were, I wouldn't love you any less. I just have... It's just no, there's no judgment in it with me. I think religion and spirituality are two different things that are sometimes compatible and oftentimes not. And religion can twist things. I don't even know what spirituality is, and I'm not sure anybody who uses the word does either. And that's okay. You know, I get it. It's like this thing that's not what we really know, but it's sort of like wanting to be better than we are. And I feel like I have that innately because I was raised the right way. Well, you know, and I think it's really important that people have some kind of foundation they can count on. And for some people, it is a sense that everything works out. For some people it's like, well, I had a solid family foundation, so I've got that. For some people, it's God. For some People, it is the universe. Numbers. Numbers never fail. Seven. Right? And I think when you have that, whatever that is for somebody, then you are not going to be tossed to and fro when everything gets crazy around you. No, it so true. So that is why I think it is important for people. But, you know, I mean, whatever people want to do, that is up to them. It's exactly what my mother said when I interviewed her for my movie Religious and said, why, I mean, you're Jewish. Why didn't you ever mention that? I'm 13 when I'm first hearing this, you know, and she said, well, we didn't think it was important, but you're not Catholic. We were raised Catholic. And she said I thought it was more important that you have some structure. In other words, it kind of doesn't matter what religion it is, as long as you believe in some bullshit. You know, some bullshit that you can count on. And dad is really kind of insistent that it be Catholicism. You know his family is, you know, it was not like the thing to do in 1951 for a Catholic to marry a Jew to begin with. Not that my mother was very Jewish. She was barely, I mean never went to temple herself. But that was the family. But it was just, that's the way it was seen. Like, you need a structure. And maybe they were right. Structure is what kids don't have today. Enough structure, I think. If you look at, like, in the physical, right, like in nature or, you know, when we construct buildings or something, if you don't, if a tree doesn't have a strong root system, you just knock it over. If a building has a poor foundation, it's going to fall down. like it's it's just that it's simple it's simple are your kids too woke are they do you know about wokeness I tell you what no how old 23 and 22 that's the thing about the nails if you paint your name if you yes I saw your nails you're racist I'm like come on you guys do not have anything if you run out you run out of things because this is just stupid it is so stupid no and people will say oh gosh you know they're they're racist because they're saying what they're saying but the joke folks who are judging us the joke is not about that we think racism is cool the joke is about we think your reaction to it is over the top which it is yeah there's a big difference there once again we're right well just like he's making stuff someday maybe a lot of people we will win a lot of people need there to be a problem in order for them to have to they really do have to maintain their position of being the the solution deliver the people with the lawn signs and if there's not a problem they need to think that they're living up to the lawn signs but they're not yeah they're doing anything no just treat people well yeah just treat just live your life and be a good person it's almost like how many times have you read a non-fiction book that stated what it was about in the first 30 pages and then spend another 160 pages kind of repeating it everyone that's what i'm talking about yeah like that's it you don't want to be you know racist sexist whatever just be just be uh i went to write a health be decent to people book, a workout book, that literally was one page long. It was a whole page book. That's what I'm talking about. What did it say? It was called The Power of Ten. Instead of doing reps, like you do 10 reps, and then you rest, and then three times you do that. This was saying, just do one where you're slowly coming up and slowly coming down, but you never rest, as opposed to this, where you kind of rest. Rest, rest, rest. This is no rest, but you do it for, you know, a minute. But then you just do that one, like, with no rest. That's it. It could fit on one page. Maybe it's right. Maybe it'S wrong. Maybe it' s the same. I love that. But, like , you did not need a whole book. That was the whole book, and then they just, it's like, I'm like, wow, you're really just saying the same thing over and again. I think I got it on page one. Yeah. But, anyway, thank you. This was really a lot of fun. So great. Yeah, yeah. So great, so great. I hope we do it again. Sure, anytime. Cut. Friends. I said I feel like I'm on the Los Angeles streets here with like flock cameras, with all these cameras around. Yeah, but I hit them pretty good, didn't I?