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Off The Record: How Do You Feel About Modern Comedy? (ft. Christian A. Pierce)

#comedy#standcomedian#comedians#jokes#rapport
the transcript auto-captions · entered into evidence

0:00 foreign what's up everybody welcome to another episode of careful boys today we have with a special guest Christian Pierce [Applause] of a really good situation where you wanted to ask him something I thought was really interesting so Christian's a part of the same era that when we were doing skits and stuff on YouTube and um it's been pretty much 10 years ish since then right around that time yeah but a lot has changed people's tastes in comedy and what is acceptable and all that stuff has changed and I feel like it's gotten to this point where people don't even talk about the change openly that much right and what's okay and what's whatever it's just this taboo topic but I wanted to hear your thoughts

0:51 on like all the things that's changed in comedy and you're still working in the industry um and I feel like I'm out of touch because I'm not in Hollywood I just do whatever I want on YouTube but then even we like had a how do what do you call it like scale it back or be careful in a lot of ways but um how do you feel about the climate today and and and do you miss the past or do you like where it's going or like yeah I don't love words I mean it's hard man because I'm always going to be down with like progress and like things moving forward like you know just that's it's inevitable you can't fight time you know I mean you better like figure out a way to like find your lane but with YouTube and like comedic content in that space I will say there was a big shift between like when we were doing our thing and

1:42 now and I think it was because when we were doing our thing we were watching traditional media movies TV and trying to be like okay the thing that we see here is like come with original ideas and make your version of it put it up you know your fans come then after us the thing became conform it became like do what everyone else is doing all right yeah it was less about true it's about do original thing and just do what everyone else is doing because the value is less about the idea and it was more about getting famous yeah the algorithm yeah and like getting everyone was just copying each other yeah right yeah it was like it wasn't about like making good ████ oh ████ you are proud of it's about getting views every time I go talk to kids like I've been talking to kids at whatever conventions and schools and stuff for years what do you do when you grow up every single time with Outfield they all say I want to be famous it's like the biggest thing you hear it sounds like a joke almost but I've been

2:32 everywhere and like that's the first thing they say it's like all right we're gonna take that seriously they're like what does that mean it's like that's what is a value to them not making something not even a YouTuber just being famous I don't ████ how this doesn't matter yeah because when we were on YouTube coming up we wanted to be good at that thing like music sketch comedy whatever skill that we wanted to do I mean Fame was just because they love what you did not because of because you have a lot of followers right right that's yeah it's weird bro and like it's ultimately lazy you know what I mean and like I think the internet and just like phones have done this to us like we want the quickest route to something yeah you want food now you have to order it like you want to hit a laugh now you go to it it's instant right so it's like we want to be famous now we want because that comes with money or comes with this and that

3:22 people so to think and with comedy it's tough because I think cancel culture is a lot of the same laziness or it's like people get canceled not because everyone has like voted like yeah this is a bad thing this person shouldn't talk anymore it's because it's way easier to push a hard problem to the side and keep moving than like dive in and dissect it so you have a few things happening like comedy is like dwindling on you know the internet which is like the main source of everything because people are just trying to do what everyone else is doing so it becomes less original and just becomes a smaller pot and then if someone makes a joke that's a little bit more out there and more original that might ruffle some feathers it's like get them the ████ out of here sit down sit down original idea I don't know what you know what I mean oh man yeah I thought it was really interesting how um it's almost flipped to where like it's it's almost like um instead of

4:13 being original and pushing against the grain what's conforming now is what used to be revolutionary so like so like let's say um I don't know like like gay was taboo back in the day but Gay's now mainstream right so then things there it's almost like people are still fighting this fight that doesn't exist anymore but you're actually the mainstream yeah oh actually yeah it's like it's like there's no reason to fight you don't need to fight against this there's no like whatever but then there's a lot of groups like I think that's happening so in comedy things feel like oh you can't talk about that no more and I'm like wait why they're not a persecuted persecuted group and then if you treat it like that that's even worse yeah right yeah I think it'll come back I think racism coming back for sure

5:03 that's what I'm wishing the conforming people are now like the mainstream but then that's gonna get super oversaturated as it already is and then it's just gonna repeat it's gonna bust out I'm tired of ████ being so PC yeah yeah people are waiting right yeah people are waiting it is crazy how the internet and the whole algorithm and even the implications of the algorithm has changed the the landscape of Comedy because I to me I'm like the the purest form of Comedy to me is stand up right it's you you're Mike and your audience your immediate audience your immediate feedback but even then the biggest comedians now aren't really the best comedians it's the ones with podcasts if you have a podcast and you can blow and that is subject to the game of the internet yeah

5:53 so if you're good at the game of the internet then your podcast is huge and if you're huge your tour is Big Book right crazy the only like great that constantly gets booked is Dave Chappelle but there's a lot of really insanely good comedians that are kind of overshadowed because they don't have podcasts right and it's just crazy how the whole yeah the whole landscape just changed yeah I think you have to be if you love their if you love your craft so much you better find a way to adapt yeah you can't be like I love this ████ like but I'm not doing a ████ podcast well then you don't ████ love it enough bro and it actually makes your life easier because I see the reason why AI stand-up comedy changes because in the past right the only way to see a stand-up comedian was if you went to a comedy club and then you don't know this person so the comedian has to build rapport in such a

6:43 short period of time whereas like if you fall upon a podcast there's so much time to just get to know and build that Rapport so then when you get to the stage they could be even funnier because you have that oh I remember that story he told on that yeah okay and then he couldn't Advance on it so like I almost feel like that's what's happening in media too right so if you watch like traditional news they have a format they have a method they have a way they have to just have to quickly get through an interview and then a lot of the times it comes off inauthentic it comes off like ████ up because they're looking for like sound bites so they're trying to trigger an emotion and then people hate that style of interview now so then they see traditional media as like you're a bunch of you're full of ████ but it's just because they're locked into this old format and I'm thinking maybe comedies involved in that sense too where like now you can build like months

7:34 of rapport with your favorite comedian and then when you see them at a show it's a completely different experience than when you were if you were to just walk into like seeing a stand-up comedian like Breakthrough like real quick and and make you laugh and then you got those jokes because it's it's just funny and you don't you don't know this person but that's why I think what's crazy is I think stand-up comedians are actually turning into influencers because that community building that Rapport that's not sound of Comedy yeah it's changing a definition yeah it's like a true I think a true stand-up comedian makes you laugh about things you disagree with yeah that's like that's why that's why Comics are just powerful too this rock is great like things like I took a hard stance on this and they flip your script on you yeah oh ████ I see things Yeah a different way or so you're afraid of yeah yeah she's

8:24 laughing that's why comedy's power yeah Louis CK like all the grace of that right but if they make you laugh at inside jokes then that's just being like an influencer or a commercial right yeah art of stand-up comedy is like is morphing into something else yeah yeah I'm sorry no I was just saying like we're at dinner last night David was talking about how like all these stand-up comedians like old school standard comedians their new specials now are kind of like less funny and like less about the jokes and just more about like talking about life and being a little bit more serious of its own yeah you know what I mean right like that's the standard like he's he's doing kind of like people compared to like George Carlin yeah Carlin for a while was like a jokey joke guy and then later in his career he's like angry at the end yeah [Applause] yeah we'll set people on fire but like we're still jokes but still talking

9:15 about real stuff right like you said the influencing part because I think a lot of people looked for comedians for truth and inspiration and actually having no filter because they're like oh they're not they're not backed by big corporations sponsored by Pfizer or whatever whatever exactly yeah I'll buy athletic greens you know and better help but but that's how it goes like they see them as those individuals so it's easier for them to be like yeah that's what like they can change how people think about stuff way easier than like a news channel nowadays it's funny because I don't know rainy guys like class clowns coming up like in school I definitely was like every single year and it's like when you are a Class Clown and you start to hang with other class clowns like it is a very specific type of people now I can reflect how I look back and like oh we were the kind of guys who weren't afraid to break the rules not like in a cool

10:06 ████ way no we were just like we just didn't see Authority the same with everybody else we kind of always looked outside the lines yeah and right those are the people you might want to go to to like hear some ████ to shake up your own perspective yeah but if you keep shooting those people down or if like that lane keeps closing and it becomes just like making ████ funny gym videos if that's the thing ████ are we do yeah one of my favorite Clips is of Chappelle he's had like a small comedy club in the east coast and he was talking about how why comedy is so sacred and he was like every single thought different thought that you can have in America that opinion is being championed by at least one stand-up comedian somewhere and that idea is being pushed out there being tested against people flipped around so like they are technically like the purveyors

10:57 of free speech and even dissecting and understanding what Free Speech means so that's why we have to keep comedy alive and I'm like damn that's deep that's facts I wonder what happened though because it's not like stand up I mean the people that are probably complaining now they they were probably alive when things were you know different ten five years ago so like what changed because people would say gen Z soft but most of the people that are complaining I would see different ages I think the topics change but I think the essence of Comedy never really went anywhere because like although it has like podcasts and specials Tick Tock whatever there's so many different forms of Comedy but what didn't change like what it would have what have you guys noticed that did not change in comedy the bit the big related the one thing I do like about like not one thing I like

11:48 a lot of things about like Tick Tock is that um you know the big relatable videos that everyone can laugh at I really appreciate those yeah the quick ones that like no matter who you are everyone thinks this is yeah yeah there's something special about that you know I mean I think Tick Tock put a lot more of those at the Forefront like a Chinese guy getting kicked in the nuts right always I'll never not be funny yeah like I'm not a comedy slot snob I love slapstick yeah like like three stooges kind of stuff like fart jokes like it would never be not funny yeah like just simple Primal stuff yeah even fart jokes like I'm like a cerebral level like you're just making fun of something everybody does right but I'm sure somebody else might take ████ seriously yeah yeah we all fart IBS dude that's ████ up as a writer did how often do you run

12:38 into the situation where like because I know you write so much stuff for yourself but since you also work in the industry and sometimes you might have to work with producers how often does it come to a point where somebody uh disapproves of something you've written and they're like changed that like two PC reasons yeah for any reason yeah it happens that happens a lot yeah yeah I'm pretty good at filtering those things out though because I'm also like if I think I'll fight for a joke too I'm like no no this is gonna be okay and I'll tell you why I'll definitely Champion for like it to go a little bit across the line um but there definitely are if you're putting a show like on a network like there's a team of people and there's another team another team people who are ready to like read those scripts and be like nah they just are looking out for something that could like trigger somebody and then even then you still have the editing phase but can still cut some ████ out yeah so there's a lot of people in the way of like you know

13:29 risque jokes happening but it happens all the ████ time have you been in the situation yet where you're like writing a film and then MPAA comes in and says you're gonna get an R rating if you leave this in or something like that we'll see with this one right now like we'll see what happens like it probably oh no it'll definitely be a r rating this okay yeah but like I don't know what else I'm gonna slap us with I'll send you one of the scripts that we wrote and I really like this one as 30 seconds okay it's our MMA movie and at the time this is pre-covered we sent to a bunch of Studios is one person like the person that read it he was just like this is absurd like and he was just I was just like honestly this is like one of the funniest things I've ever read or we haven't worked on because even thinking about just every scene is just so ridiculous like there's this one part I don't want to ruin the movie even though we're never gonna make it but Dad he's a deadbeat dad that is divorced

14:21 with his wife and his wife hates him and his kid thinks he's a wag it and uh and he yeah yeah and but he's trying to rekindle he's a spider that's trying to rekindle his relationship with his with his son in the most heart-to-heart moment of the film like mid act two while he's trying to have a heart-to-heart moment with this uh with his kid his ex-wife's getting railed in the back so it's like that's good oh yeah yeah and then he's trying to like explain to his kid like why he hasn't been around I remember getting notes back this is absurd or whatever and I was like man you guys what that literally happened in Forrest Gump that's true yeah [Music] yeah and there's no way anything in that movie is more ridiculous than cocaine ████ Bear yeah oh yeah that's true

15:11 about a bear who gets high on coke and runs through the force that's the other part of I think like Hollywood that's important is the networking because if the wrong person reads your project yeah oh that's just goes to the bottom somewhere right and the gatekeeping yeah yeah depending on who's there yeah because if he was like at the representative of the studio but oh this is tight yeah yeah dude don't give it don't let people who you think don't let people read your ████ if you aren't expecting a specific kind of like perspective from them like if I sometimes get feedback from people I'm like yeah but like you're a cynics like that's good I'm gonna take that into this consideration or if someone's like this is incredible yeah but like you're too easy on stuff like I'll I'll kind of meet you I think everything is incredible yeah I never let one person's opinion like tear me down or lift me up too high I just kind of take it in the

16:01 context of like who they are like yeah well you might think this is good or bad because of that you know yeah other people tell me ████ was track or no this is like not it or you shouldn't do this I'm like I ████ I sold the thing like you were wrong yeah yeah what do you think makes makes a good writing partner ooh collaboration is a very special gift or tool practice I think I think there should be classes in college thought about just collaboration because like the art of like making somebody something with someone else or with another group of people like it's not always easy like you have to be akin to like their inclinations are creatively also just as a human like also like as like a friend kind of like what sets them off what gets them tired like what things they laugh at like how do we get the energy back so I think a good writing part of collaborator is like someone who's like flexible who's like down to

16:52 just kind of like Bend as you know there's two people in the room like you guys are different I think someone who is doesn't take criticism so hard that they like kill their ████ Mojo that's the hardest thing I can't work with people who I'm like be like this is a good idea I'm like I might want to film about the next one they're like oh ████ and the rest of the day we can't ████ work on anything because you're sad about that one bad joke yes the whole room got brought down yeah I will pitch 100 bad jokes I don't like that okay next one like next one yeah did you ever write a sketch about writing partners because that's pretty fast is it relatable because I feel like anyone that's worked creatively in a group knows exactly new projects for high school same ████ yeah you know when I feel like that but I'm trying to figure out what to eat with my girl oh

17:42 it's to say anything into the first thing no oh [Laughter] like why would you want that I don't know that kills collaboration so quick people who can't take criticism like also like if I think an idea is good I'm gonna put you to you every day until you think it's fun yeah yeah yeah I pitched it was a sketch uh oh you guys know Steve Green yeah together on our Channel called like when NFL refs if they play Fantasy Football and like I that was an idea like I had pitched Jimmy one you're like yeah what if we do this thing he's like nah I'm not seeing him okay and then a year later he starts playing fantasy football and hey what if we do this thing he's like that's yes let's ████ do it yeah yeah whatever like he wasn't feeling it

18:32 at the time yeah it wasn't the right time to make that ████ yeah you actually really like writing with Steve being written four movies with them that's great because we'll do like our processes will book like a little Retreat and then we'll get an Airbnb like for four or five days that's the way to do it so it's beginning and end and then we have a one world rule meaning like everyone is only looking at that one screen so no one is off on their phone or no one is off on their computer because then now we're uh disjointed so we can have pen and paper but we're contributing to the one project on the screen unless we have breaks like oh damn ████ what was that one thing we need to like do a little bit of research like when were motorcycles invented you know and then we'll like all break off but then after we're done we go back to yeah yeah and I really like that rule that he said in place so this is cool yeah sometimes we take days where like me and Jimmy like we had this one hardcore writer's block rather show for quibby a couple years ago and we were stuck on this one episode for like

19:22 literally like six days which is crazy for us we'd never get stuck for more than like a day right or even half a day and then like on the seventh day we were just like should we just do a bunch of mushrooms like ████ this we're like yeah ████ this scriptures and like two hours didn't like the best ideas let me just I couldn't run all this ████ down yeah like went you know when I went to sleep woke up like oh those ideas probably suck woke up no dude it was the best script oh wow but it really was just like taking the edge off of like the pressure of like what did I do about it yeah yeah getting in there because for how long you guys were in that rut for exactly just all we could see was the rut just break away so I guess that's flexibility right someone was just like trying to say ████ this it's just like yeah that's a great day MMA movie I was talking about we wrote with Steve

20:20 [Laughter] [Music]

// end of tape