From Telling Lies to Speaking Truth!

[00:00:00] Why are you guys so anti-dictators? Imagine if America was a dictatorship. You could let 1% of the people have all the nation's wealth. You could help your rich friends get richer by cutting their taxes and bailing them out when they gamble and lose. You could ignore the needs of the poor for healthcare and education. Your media would appear free but would secretly be controlled by one person and his family.

[00:00:29] You could wiretap phones. You could torture foreign prisoners. You could have rigged elections. You could lie about why you go to war. You could fill your prisons with one particular racial group and no one would complain. You could use the media to scare the people into supporting policies that are against their interests.

[00:00:52] I know this is hard for you Americans to imagine, but please try. I will tell you what democracy is. Democracy is the worst. Endless talking and listening to every stupid opinion and everybody's vote counts, no matter how crippled or black or female they are.

[00:01:43] Greetings. This is the Long in the Boot podcast, the podcast coming to you from the heel of the boot of southwest Louisiana. I am your host, G Long. Sitting across the way, as always, is Deb. Hello. Hello. I'm here. All right. Good to see you. It's hard to get me out of the yard, but I'm here. Yes. And you're cleaned up, too. And I cleaned up, yes. You cleaned up well. Thank you. And considering how dirty and nasty you were. Oh, it's been a glorious week of dirt. Oh, yes. For her. You did some help.

[00:02:12] I did. I did some things. You did some support for me. Yes. Some support. Much needed support. I needed support. I did. And I asked. Yeah. Thank you for asking instead of just trying to do it yourself and messing with you. I would have. You would have messed it up. It would have worked out the way I needed it to until I didn't. Hey, you know what? What? If you want to get a hold of the Long in the Boot podcast, all you have to do is email the show. And you can do that. Yeah, you can do that.

[00:02:40] By emailing longintheboot at gmail.com. You can also call and leave a message at 337-502-9011. Recently got a message. We did. We did. And today is a little bit of. It's a partial response to that. It is a partial response. Because she gave us a really large topic. Yeah. So we narrowed it down. We're going to slice it up. Like any good paper, you need to narrow your topic. And so, yeah.

[00:03:08] And by the way, the website, longintheboot.com for all your podcast needs. Pretty straightforward there. That's easy. It is. It is. We have a lot to remember. Longintheboot.com. Get all your podcast needs at longintheboot.com. People have. We've been doing. We've been upping the numbers. I've been pleased. And if you've been injured in an accident, don't call me. Don't call us. I can't help you. I can't help you at all. I got no law degree.

[00:03:35] Although one of my former students recently just got her law degree. I saw one of our former students just passed the bar. Yep. That's at least three that I know of. Yes. Yes. I can think of one other one that's in California now. She's practicing law. And it has for several years. Yeah. Yeah. Very excited for some of these young people. You don't want to name them. No, I'm not naming anybody. We wouldn't want to get the government angry at them or something. Who knows? No. I don't know anything anymore. If you're a lawyer, keep your head down. You know, that little, that little.

[00:04:05] Which is hard to do for lawyers. That little Borat routine about dictatorship. That was, that was 2012. Sasha, Sasha. Cohen. Yeah. Cohen. Sasha. Did that, that little. Yeah. What's wrong with dictatorships, man? Yeah. Oh, man. Thank goodness. Thank goodness we don't have that problem. Oh, I know. Well, he was pointing out that America, you know. And that kind of brings us to our subject, really. It does. It does. Well, wait. Before we delve. Yes. Before we dive directly into the topic.

[00:04:34] Is there any tidbits? Any small stuff? Local, state, any. Local and state. Are we being screwed over locally? Or in my state? Well, we may have, we may have the Ten Commandments posted in our room when we get there. It's possible. That could be. I think there are some churches. Could be an Easter miracle. Yeah. Have put forth the funds and had the printing done. Right. Because the government can't pay for it. That's how they're. They wanted to mandate that it's done, but they can't pay for it. Correct.

[00:05:02] We can pay for trips to Mar-a-Lago to golf every week. Well, that's the federal government. I'm sure that our governor doesn't take fancy trips anywhere. Come on. At the taxpayer's expense? No. For his personal travel? Not a chance. No, it doesn't. And I'm sure that gutting the ethics board and appointing a bunch of his own people has nothing to do with things that might not be ethically right. Yeah. And actually, you can still have an ethics board and still do unethical things as long

[00:05:31] as they agree that it's cool. It's okay. And so I anticipate soon we'll hear that the charges against him were all, he's found innocent and he's clean as a baby's ass. Oh yeah, he's clean. And so, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I, and I will throw one thing out that I read yesterday, which is, it's a, it's a Trumpy thing, but I don't care if it wouldn't matter who it was. He, he, he gave a pardon to this woman in Nevada. Yeah.

[00:05:59] So I was, well, I went and looked what it was she did and, uh, she was raising money for, um, a, Oh, a state trooper or a police officer who was shot and killed and they were going to, they're doing his family. Well, they were doing a memorial. Yes. Right. And she used some of the money for personal expenses and she was found guilty in a court of law and she was waiting, awaiting sentencing and she got pardoned. Oh, I wonder what the, uh, extenuating circumstances were.

[00:06:29] Well, I'm going to go look to have those nails. Well, I'm going to go and look and see who she worked for and find out if they made a large contribution to the Trump inaugural fund. Oh yes. Which is where a lot of money seems to be going now. Yes. Well, I thought his inauguration. Yes. That's the one he had back in January. Already over. Well, maybe that'll go towards the parade that they may or may not have. Well, it's weird. They haven't closed the fund down. Isn't that strange? Yeah. And then we have the sovereign fund. That's a different thing. That's a crypto thing. Yeah. But why?

[00:06:58] That's not Trump's that the sovereign fund is supposed to be for the United States. And the idea. You said the key word, supposed. Well, the idea of the sovereign fund is we have a lot of sovereign wealth in, in, in land and trees and water and all the natural things. Right. And that has a value. Yes. And their idea that they keep floating around, although I don't know the specifics of how

[00:07:22] this would work exactly, is to somehow base, um, a currency or a crypto on that. And that's not value. Okay. So it's a, it's a gambling. It would be a coin. They're gambling. It would be like a Bitcoin, but it would be based on the assets of the United States. Yeah. So. Well, you've sort of enlightened me, but I'm not, I don't know enough to try to be an X and I'm not.

[00:07:49] Look, if I'm wrong, um, I'm sure somebody could, if I'm wrong, keep it to yourself. I know, I know I'm probably not exactly right, but that was the way I understood it when I read the blurb. Okay. But I'm going to go look for more blurbs and I'll read a bunch of blurbs and then I will come to a educated decision, educated blurb based decision. And I used to, I used to do that as well. I'd, I'd, I'd read lots of different sources from different viewpoints and, and then try to make an educated decision.

[00:08:16] Um, now what I'm coming to in between all of the ads in the things that I'm trying to read, um, are the ideas that AI is writing a lot of this shit and, and well, I don't even know if I'm getting real information. Sometimes it's just a repetition. They just are redundant in what they're saying or they say it in a different way and give me no substance. And that may be. So I may have to start going back to books. Oh, actual books.

[00:08:46] Books. Huh? Yeah. Like physical. Papers. Books. Yeah. Like with paper? Yeah. That's not digital. So I know. You mean like you use on the toilet? Yes. Yes. I suppose so. Actual paper books with a hardback. What a novel idea. Ah ha ha. You are so funny. Humor. Yeah. Puns are not the topic. No, puns are not our topic. Actually, I think we've done puns before. We have talked about puns. Witty witticisms and puns. And things like that. But today.

[00:09:15] Puns are often called dad humor, dad jokes. Nowadays, yeah. Yeah. That's how we label that. But today we're still doing comedy. We are. But we want to talk a little bit about satire. Yeah. Because it has an effect. It's actually. Well, and it's everywhere. It is everywhere. And it gets more. It's not new, obviously. Oh, no, no. As you will soon find out. As you will find out, dear listener. Yeah. Because we do the past. We do the present. And we predict or think where we're going in the future.

[00:09:45] Well, I think the future is ripe for satirists. Oh, absolutely. This is why South Park can't stop. Yeah. How could you? They can't. They can't ever stop. Please never, ever, ever stop. A wealth of things to point out. In fact, get ahead of yourselves so that when you die, we still get some more. Yes. Or train. Or train an AI to see things the way they see things so that they can. A Parker Stone AI. Yes.

[00:10:13] And then we also need one for King of the Hill. We also need one for. King of the Hill? Yeah. What's his name? Bobby? Help me. Oh, Hank Gribble? No, no. Oh, Mike Judge. Mike Judge. Thank you. Yeah, well, Mike Judge is a great satirist. Yes. And he does it in such a soft, pleasant way. And if you don't know, Mike Judge created Office Space, Idiocracy, King of the Hill, one of my favorites, Beavis and Butthead.

[00:10:43] And Beavis. We still watch it. And that was satire. A very good satire. Absolutely. On a lot of stuff. Oh, so much. It was pretty amazing. From ancient humor to global phenomenon, changing societies, altering our viewpoints, satire. Satire. Yeah, it's key. It is key. Do you want to define it or should I? Sure. We got to start with that. Satire is a genre of visual, literary, and performing art, usually in the form of friction. Friction? Fiction.

[00:11:13] Sorry about that. It does cause friction. It does cause friction. So just, you're misspeaking. But every now and then they can even do non-fiction satire, which is harder, but it can be done, in which vices, follies, abuses, shortcomings are all held up to ridicule with the idea of shaming the flaws of individuals, corporations, government, and society itself into improvement. It has a goal. Yes, there is a purpose there. Satire is to teach you something.

[00:11:41] It's pointing out that it's critiquing our societal norms, our politics, our cultural issues that we are dealing with as a country or as a world all the time. All the time. Because we're always in flux. And it's meant most of the time to be humorous. Yes. But its purpose is constructive social criticism. Yes. And using wit to draw attention to the issues that are... Are difficult. Are difficult. They're truths that we don't want to deal with.

[00:12:08] And if you're trying to talk about things in a serious manner, oftentimes feelings get hurt. People don't want to hear it. They put up walls and they block things. But then if it comes to you in a funny format, oftentimes we may not realize where the commentator or the comedian is going with it. And then before you know it, you're laughing at something that is actually uncomfortable. Right. But it's an inconvenient truth, as Al Gore would say. And if you're a big fan of sarcasm and irony... Yeah.

[00:12:37] I don't know who could live today without that. Well, I've been told that I'm sarcastic. You are a sarcastic ass. I don't think so. Oh, I think I know you well enough. I mean, I obviously know a few things about humor because I've managed to live with you. For me, 300 times I've ever used sarcasm. Oh, please, please. I thought it was funny. Somebody said that in satire, irony is militant.

[00:13:03] I thought it said usually satire, you'll see parody, burlesque, juxtaposition, double on tongue. Slippery slopes. But militant irony, which is also what they call sarcasm, militant irony. Militant. I like that. It's aggressive and it's, well, militaristic.

[00:13:23] But when you use sarcasm, the key of that is that people have to accept what is the norm and natural in order to be satired. If it's something that people as a group can't relate to as being the way it is... Yeah, this is just how things are. Then sarcasm, militant irony, it can't work. Oh, I see. It's like a thing I had read.

[00:13:47] I came across it was how anti-Semitic tropes actually led to the success of Jewish comedians. Like we had these generalizations of Jews that got so ingrained in society that people actually, it opened up that, you know, in the 70s, Jewish people were only 3% of the American population. But 80% of professional comedians, 80% were Jewish. Huh. Isn't that amazing?

[00:14:17] That is pretty amazing. Yeah, I thought that was kind of funny. But the secret to their Jewish comedy is anti-Semitism. They owned it. They took it. They took it and they ran with it. And they used it to point out the foibles of people and they used their foibles to make themselves humorous. Right. Yeah, I thought that was kind of an interesting... I thought so too. I think satire really truly shows us who we are. Yeah, it's a defense mechanism.

[00:14:46] I mean, think about it as a couple, if you're fighting about something and you're having real issues, how do you end the fight other than violence? Usually it's humor. You know? Usually somebody... It is fun to slap someone. I enjoy that very much. Sometimes the way to get out of it and get back to an equilibrium is to find something funny in whatever the hell you were just, you know, arguing about. Yeah.

[00:15:13] And that lightens the mood enough for you to actually maybe have a real conversation about whatever your domestic situation might be. Well, I thought it was interesting looking at the history of satire too, that it's one of the oldest forms of social study. Yes, because you're challenging society and authority. And I think that obviously philosophers understood it. The earliest example I have of somebody talking about...

[00:15:42] Satire is one of these things that has to be done. It can't... It's not something you can explain. Yeah. It has to be done. The Greeks and Romans did it in plays. Right. And that's where it starts. And I thought it was interesting that Plato was once asked by a friend for a book to completely understand Athenian society. He was not from Athens. Okay. But he wanted to understand Plato gave him a book of the plays of Aristophanes. Oh, okay. Go read these and then you'll understand who we are as a people.

[00:16:11] You'll understand our psyche. I wonder what you would do today. Oh, today you would look at the memes. Oh, yeah. Memes would be a quick and easy way for you to understand a lot about America. I think, yeah, I think satire for us, I mean, we live in a political time. Oh, yeah. So satire is going to be there. I don't know who hasn't. Yeah, that's true. But... But it's so immediate now. Like Monday through Friday, it feels like every hour I have to get online to find out what new fresh hell is going to happen.

[00:16:41] Yeah, I've stopped doing that. I'm just... At the end of the day, I'll read a compendium of things. Of what happened over the course of the day. But I don't have time. No, I don't find I have a lot of time for that either. I have a damn job. And that's one of my criticisms of the administration is I shouldn't be hearing about things all the time. I shouldn't see posts on social media. That's childish to me. That's weird. I think it's weird, too. Well, but see, it's a new society.

[00:17:07] It would be fine in a local government to be constantly told what's going on locally. Yeah. But I don't need to know every subtle nuance of what's happening in Washington, especially because most of the time what I am starting to realize is it's making everybody focus on the White House. Yes. That's not who is doing this. It's not. No. Well, it's all the people. No, it's all the people around.

[00:17:47] It's all the people around. I have a little murder mystery. Watch The Residence. Oh, yes. It's eight episodes. And the book is actually about the inner workings of the White House and the staff, of how the White House functions as an entity with butlers and servants. Yeah, it's a production, Shondaland Productions. Yeah. And it's a woman, she took the story about the staff of the White House and how the White House functioned,

[00:18:12] a typical just straight ahead forward book, and has created this most wonderful little murder mystery. You would enjoy it greatly if you haven't watched The Residence. And in fact, we're going to watch the last episode tonight. Yes, I'm very excited. We'll find out who did it. Yes. Because I get so many, so many possible suspects. Here, do you want a sadness? We got Scarlett to watch it, and it started her on the last episode. Yeah. She didn't realize, so she watched the last episode without seeing the first. It's like skipping to the end of the book.

[00:18:42] It was sad. She was mad. I felt sad for her because she missed the most delightful parts. Oh, yes. The beginning. Yes. All right. Anyway. Anyway, so there you go. And it's a good satire on murder mysteries. On murder mysteries and the functioning of the White House. The White House itself. Not politically. But that connects to what you were just saying about how every four or eight years, you get a new group in. Right. And they bring their own. But there's this giant group that we never meet or talk to, really. And they stay. And they stay. They're always there. Yes.

[00:19:11] It's their life. It's their job. And they just have to make accommodations for the new groups coming in. I'm sure they're being watched closely for leaking. I'm sure. But I bet they don't even risk it. No, not if you. No, because I'm sure that's a good paying job. Well, the moment that they did, and I'm not blowing anything, but they talked about how they don't hear anything. Yes. When people important are talking, they're thinking about other things because they don't want to hear it. They don't want to know. And they're able to tune it out. Yes.

[00:19:39] And I thought that was kind of interesting because I bet you have to. Yeah. Because the temptations might be difficult, too. Yeah. Anyway. So, still, talking about satire, one of the other things that satire does for us is it gives us a counterweight to power. You can't just criticize power straightforwardly. Hey, you this. No. It's better to do it through a comedic way. Yes. Because then, one, you have that bumper.

[00:20:08] You can say, hey, I was just kidding. You know, because it's satire, right? Mm-hmm. And so, I didn't mean it. Yeah. Oh, no, I was being satirical. Right. And it helps with that. And although that has not always worked for people who use that as an excuse. Well, that's because it should be protected under First Amendment. Parody definitely is. Parody is different, though. Satire. Well, and that's the thing. You know, there is a difference between parody and satire.

[00:20:36] So, to mimic or make fun of artistic works or to criticize society, the First Amendment should provide a strong protection for that artistic expression, but it does not always. Well, and with political satire, you run the risk, depending on where you are, of them not getting it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I have a thing about political satire, and under totalitarian regimes, any criticism, but

[00:21:05] especially satire, is forbidden. That's how Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov ended up in the Gulag, was because they were satirizing everyday life in Russia. And it wasn't great. No. And their government didn't find humor. Satire of the Stalinist regime ended very quickly after Stalin took office, in a weird kind of way. Yeah.

[00:21:34] They all sort of disappeared. Oh, shocking. Shocking. Well, you know, Joan Rivers. Or moved. Joan Rivers said that comedy is about taking risks and being fearless. She said, if you're not getting booed off the stage at least once, you're not saying anything important. That's true. I, uh, I, the, one last thing about Russia, which I thought was funny, is when Stalin died, they said, well, you can satire Russian society, but you cannot satire Russian government.

[00:22:04] So satire took off in Russia, making fun of life in Russia, making jokes about not being able to find things in the store. But then you have to take that to, well, then who created that situation? I mean, we're in this situation as a society. We're all in it together. We're all in the crucible. Well, they considered it a great freedom. That's the thing. In Russia, this was hailed as one of the greatest things that's ever happened. They were allowed to come out. And eventually they were even able to make fun of political leaders, provided they did

[00:22:34] things very carefully. Yes. And, uh. Well, George Carlin said it's the duty of the comedian, right? To find out where the line is. Yes. And to intentionally cross that line. Well, I think in Russia, you get to the line and stop. And then you go to. You don't go any further. And then you go to Siberia. That's what happens. I, uh, I think satire, I mean, it can hurt and it can, it can have a lot of power that, which is, you know, part of, well, again, that's the pushback against power.

[00:23:04] And that's all we have. Yeah. We don't really have. Unless we have actual protest. I mean, we can take to the streets. That's true. But then that takes it into violence and then that's no longer funny. Right. Well, I guess not. The idea is that it won't be violent. It will be peaceful protest. But ultimately, if you've got thousands and thousands of people gathered in one area and they have come to this area because they're pissed off. I mean, yeah, that's why you show up because you're angry about something.

[00:23:33] That's absolutely true. It doesn't take a lit match to make that happen. And I have, we have a few examples of satire. You do. You do. And the first one is we're going to go back. I'm only going to go back to the 1500s. Okay. Well, we started with the Greeks and Romans. Well, that's true. I did talk about that. Okay. Well, now we're now we're to Pope Julius. Okay. And it's not Pope Julius. He was not a great satirist. He was in fact, the Bishop of Rome. Not all popes have a sense of humor.

[00:24:00] He was a head of the papal states from 1503 to 1513. So he was only 10 years in. Yeah. He is known in history as the warrior Pope, the battle Pope or the fearsome Pope. Oh, okay. So he was a bit aggressive is what he chose his name. Not in honor of Pope Julius the first. This is Pope Julius the second. I'm talking about he chose his name. I wouldn't get that on Jeff on the emulation of Julius Caesar. Oh, that's right. So he picked a general.

[00:24:30] Now he did some really awesome things. Like he was a central figure during the Renaissance. He helped rebuild the cathedral. He established the Vatican Museum and the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica. But he had a problem. He didn't live like a priest. He lived like a nobleman. Oh, he didn't understand the line. Yeah. He definitely had children. Okay.

[00:24:55] It is believed that he suffered from venereal disease. Shocking. He got it off a toilet. Yes. He also organized the Swiss Guard for his own personal protection. Okay. Because local lords wanted to kill him. People wanted to kill him. Okay. You know what? You're not doing your job well if they want to kill you. But he commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel. So he did these things. Well, so it balanced out.

[00:25:25] It's kind of like Gandhi. Sexual freak. Freedom fighter. He's the one that basically said, too, that, hey, indulgences can be used to finance all this cool stuff that I'm doing. So the use of indulgences where people paid to get rid of their sins took off. Oh, it's kind of like dinner with President Trump. He was a heavy drinker. He conquered land. You know what? Wine comes from God. That's right. Say, you know. Jesus had wine. Yes.

[00:25:54] I'm not going to fault that man for that. Julius, right before he died, was preparing for an invasion of the Ottoman Empire to take back Constantinople. Oh, wow. All right. That's pretty bold. That's pretty bold. See? That's why he's the warrior pope. And now you say, well, what about the satire, Glenn? I know. Get to the damn satire. Well, I had to tell you about Pope Julius because of what a priest wrote very quickly after his death. A guy by the name of... He waited until he was dead. A guy by the name... Well, it didn't matter. They still were pissed off. Oh, okay.

[00:26:24] The Catholic Church does not have a sense of humor. No, no. They were... No, no. We just saw that. So Erasmus, who was a priest from Rotterdam... Okay. Fine city. He wrote In Praise of Folly, his most famous work. Oh, that work, yeah. But he also wrote a sketch that was to be performed. It was done on a play. On stage. Okay. Where Julius arrives at the gates of heaven. Okay. And St. Peter is there. So Julius is one character and St. Peter is the other.

[00:26:52] And they're both standing at the gates of heaven. And the gate is between them. Okay. And it is shut. Oh. Right. And the pope has showed up and said, hey... Hey, let me in. Let me in. Knock, knock. And Peter won't let him in. He's like, why won't you let me in? And he looks under the priest's cassock and he says, well, you have bloody armor and a body scarred with sins all over. Your breath is loaded with wine, health broken by debauchery. To me, you are an emperor come from hell. Oh.

[00:27:20] What have you done for Christianity? Okay. As the leader of it. And of course, Julius has a comeback. I have done more for the church and Christ than any pope before me. I raised the revenue. I invented new offices and sold them. I set all the princes of Europe by their ears. I tore up treaties and kept great armies in the field. I covered Rome with palaces and left five million in the treasury behind me. Excuse me. To be sure, I've had my misfortunes.

[00:27:50] Some whore afflicted me with the French pox. When he was accused of showing one of his son's favoritism... One of his sons. The pope says, wait, what? Son? Popes? With wives and children? And Julius says, no, not wives. But why not children? Oh. Julius acknowledges that he has also been accused of simony and pederasty, but is evasive when asked if his plea is not guilty.

[00:28:17] And after Peter hears all this, he says, is there no way of removing a wicked pope? And Julius says, that's absurd. Who can remove the highest authority of all? He cannot be deposed for any crime whatsoever. Peter says, not even for murder? No, not for murder. A pontiff cannot lose his mitre even if he's guilty of fornication, incest, poisoning, parasite, and sacrilege. What?

[00:28:43] Peter says, well, that means that the pope could be the wickedest of men yet safe from punishment. Now, of course, the audience at this point is just... Yeah, enraged that he's saying these things. Peter says, well, I'm not letting you in. Julius says, well, the world has changed since the time you starved as a pope with a handful of poor hunted bishops around you. When that line is rejected, he threatens to excommunicate Peter. He says, you're only a priest.

[00:29:11] You were a beggarly fisherman and what's worse, a Jew. And Peter looks at him and says, if Satan needed a vicar, he could find none fitter than you. Fraud, usury, and cunning made you pope. I brought heathen Rome to acknowledge the beauty of Christ. First, you have made it heathen again with your treaties and your protocols, your armies and your victories. You had no time to read the gospels. And he says, yeah, you don't know. Julius says, then you won't open the gates.

[00:29:39] Peter says, I would sooner open the gates to anyone else than such as you. When the pot of threatens to, I will take your palace by storm. He's dead. He doesn't realize he's dead. Peter waves him off astounding that such a sink of iniquity could be honored merely because he bears the name pope. Now, this is when the Catholic Church was as powerful as it could possibly be. So really, he thought his role as pope was to make money. He was making deals.

[00:30:09] Yeah. Making deals every day. And could not be punished whatsoever. Not even by. And there was no one above him. What about God? He didn't come up in any of that. Yeah. Oh, well then he misunderstood his role. Yes, but Erasmus understood his role. Yes, he did. Erasmus, by the way, is often associated with Martin Luther, who basically cracked at the church. We've discussed Erasmus several times before.

[00:30:38] It said that Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched. Oh, okay. He set the way. Yeah. Yeah. Because, I mean, he had to move around. He couldn't stay in one place forever because they would eventually get to him. Yeah. But he seems to have gotten bolder as he got older. Sounds like Peter would have opened the gates for him, though. Oh, yeah. For pointing out. Absolutely. All of the problems. So that's the kind of thing satire could do even then. Well, yeah. Because this was performed across Europe.

[00:31:06] And you think, well, the Reformation is about to happen. It's right around the corner. So really what it was doing was continuing to stir the pot, making people aware. They laughed and laughed, but then they went home and said, you know. Well, it said that satire should make you laugh while you wince. Yes. Yes. And I think that's a good way of describing it. It's a bit uncomfortable. It's definitely uncomfortable. But it also allows you, it's palatable.

[00:31:32] It makes things more palatable for us to be able to take and reflect on. Right. And then when you go home and every little individual group goes home and then they talk about these things. And today we just have just nonstop media input. And the more ludicrous the title or the headline is, the more likely we are to go, Jesus, does it ever end? And no. No. Apparently it does not. Apparently not. No. So then as an individual, who are you really?

[00:32:02] Yeah. In the grand scheme. Like. I think that's the whole point of satire is you're basically you're shooting arrows at this giant Leviathan. Yeah. Whether it's society or a politician or the political machine that runs every. And satire is one of those things that sometimes somebody can be doing satire and you're laughing, laughing. And then all of a sudden they say something. You're like, hey. Yeah. Oh, wait. That one touched me. And that's really awesome because that's exactly what it should do. Yes.

[00:32:31] You know, it's firing those arrows. And every once in a while, one of those arrows might just land on you. Well, we're mocking those as individuals and as a society. We all have shortcomings. It's how do you get better? You reflect. Well, we don't like to reflect. Generally, people don't want to. We put up walls. We put up, you know, biases and we don't want to think about those things. So a good comedian. Dave Chappelle does a great job. Yes. Of satirizing who we are as men. And look how much hate he gets. How much flack he gets.

[00:33:00] When he makes these satirical comments, people are like, you know. And because that's the thing. You don't have to believe what you are saying to be satirical. That's not required. What's required really is being observational and somehow making it funny while also keeping its barbs. Yeah. So that occasionally it'll stick. One that just came to mind when you just said that was the Hannibal Buress act.

[00:33:27] His, I mean, that's what led to the arrest of Bill Cosby. Exactly. There were decades and decades of Cosby making jokes about drugging women. And we laughed. And we laughed it off. Everybody. I loved Bill Cosby. Yeah. So many decades. People bought it as satire. And finally Hannibal Buress just said. But even Hannibal Buress, the first couple of times he threw it out during shows. Yeah. Nobody even noticed. Nobody bid on it, but he didn't let it go. But he just threw him out there. Yeah.

[00:33:55] He never mentioned Bill Cosby by name until he did. It's like what I would say with my dad. I would plant a seed. I would never push a topic. Planting seeds. I would plant a little seed. And then later when I felt the time was right, I'd segue and plant that seed again, come back to it, water it a little bit. And then eventually it would start to grow. Yeah. And that's exactly what he did. And eventually he got Bill Cosby arrested.

[00:34:19] And those women and what they had said and been saying, and even more women came forward to say, yeah, actually that has been going on. And then you see all the clips of him making those jokes. Hell, they did it on the Cosby show. He did a Spanish fly episode. And had his wife do it on the show. And they all laughed about it. Did the writers not realize that? That must have been amazing. Well, I would have a clip of a great comedian, Bill Hicks, talking about planting seeds. But it sounded so bad that I can't do it.

[00:34:49] But it's when he's going off on advertisers and marketers. Yes, I remember that routine. And he's like, he's doing it. That planted a seed for me. Well, and he's doing funny. He's making you laugh, laugh, laugh. And he stops for saying this. I want to be serious for a second. Yeah. If you're in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. Yeah. There's no joke here, people. I'm just done with it. Just kill yourself. If you make your money trying to gimmick people into buying your stuff or buying what you're saying, kill yourself.

[00:35:18] Put a gun to your head. Pull the trigger. I'm not kidding. There is no joke. And, you know, there are things out there that people are helpful. And he just keeps drilling down on it. You're Satan's minions. And it's dead silent in the auditorium. And then he goes and he starts tossing his hand. He goes, planting seeds. Yeah. Just planting seeds. And you know what? As a young person listening, because I got a lot of comedians growing up, I listened to all the George Carlin's. I had Toledo Windabox. I had all of the Richard Pryor albums. I had Red Fox.

[00:35:48] Oh, yeah. We talked about all this before. But those are the seeds that planted my comedy, that crafted who I am as a person. Absolutely. And what I find funny. Right. You know, and I'm so pleased with that. And even Monty Python, a lot of the jokes went over my head when I was young. But as we. I enjoyed the slapstick, but there were parts of it that you did kind of get a little bit. Every now and then they hit something. Oh. And that was even a different culture. So you're learning about, you know, different cultures and the things they find funny.

[00:36:18] Right. Yeah. The Superman sketch. I've talked about that. I told my class about that the other day. And I said, and one of them goes, well, can we see it? I said, you won't think it's funny. You won't find it funny. And I put it up and about six or seven kids actually laughed. But see, that's planting the seeds. Planting a seed. Just like as teachers, that's what we do. And sometimes you don't hear for years, sometimes 10, 12, 15 years. And then I'll get up. Actually, it's the bicycle repairman sketch. I'll get a little messenger from a kid that are from an adult who was a kid. I just saw the other day.

[00:36:48] I wished a happy birthday to one of my children who was in my first class at Singer. I say one of my children. He turned 40. I was like, holy shit. I'm old. I'm old. But you, and you don't always realize which ones are the seeds that they take away. Right. So it is a comedian's job to rail on those things, to point those things out. Absolutely. And plant those seeds in society. That's how we swing the pendulum. Satire seeds.

[00:37:18] You know what? Satire seeds. Oh, Bella says hay. Okay. Okay. Now is the time for us to do the South Park. No, wait. No, because that's... Already? Well, that's the pendulum. Well, but I haven't even... I got another history thing. It's satire. We're talking... I want to give examples. We're moving forward in time. Okay. This is from the 1700s. Oh, you've moved up 200 years. All right.

[00:37:48] Get to it, G. All right. Jonathan Swift, an English author who wrote The Gulliver's Travels. He also wrote a treaty called A Modest Proposal, which is wonderful. If you feel like reading it, it's online and you can read it anywhere. It's delightful. It is delightful. But I have to kind of just make you understand what was going on in Ireland and in poor parts of England, but especially Ireland because, you know, they were Catholic. Catholics are getting such a bad rap.

[00:38:15] And the West Coast of England was also Catholic, so they were kind of included in this, but mostly Ireland. And what they were doing is all the rich people who owned all the land, all the Englishmen who owned all the Irish land, were basically going from crops to grazing of sheep, which requires far fewer people. They didn't want to pay labor anymore. Yeah. Yeah. So they were kicking the people... Trying to save money. So these people had been like living and working the land for centuries. Centuries. Yeah. And they were suddenly homeless. And the English were like, well, they just need to get a job.

[00:38:44] They need to go to work. Well, what are you going to do? And of course, there was nothing. There's no job. So there was a mass starvation of Irish people. And they're watching their children starve. And in England, people were just like, meh, no big deal. They're Catholics. And Jonathan Swift found this to be horrible. Yes. Yeah. Because to watch your children starve is pretty horrific. Well, he believed that the whole thing with Catholics and Protestants was stupid anyway. But he especially didn't like it because this was a whole group of people, the Irish.

[00:39:14] Do you not have the same God? Yeah. Right. I mean, ultimately, your dogma and all of that crap, does it... It should come down to your entity. And so what Swift did is he wrote this thing called A Modest Proposal, where he talks about... And I'm going to get to the middle of it because I don't want to read all of it. It's too long. Please don't. It's too long. I get bored when you do that. But he makes a point that, look, if these people are starving, these women need to stop having babies. That's what everybody says in England. Yes. Right? Yes. Just quit having kids. And he said, but of course, that's not going to happen.

[00:39:42] So we have to deal with this problem in some way. And so he meets a man who tells him, you know, kids are kind of worth money when you really think about it, because a lot of money has to go into them when you raise them. So more than $5,000. So he's gone now to go to the merchants to ask about a possibility. And this is his possibility that gets printed in every paper in England.

[00:40:08] And he says, I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London that a young, healthy child well-nursed is at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked or boiled. And I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragu. I do therefore humbly offer it to the public that of the 120,000 children already computed, 20,000 may be reserved for breed, where I have only one fourth part to be males,

[00:40:37] which is more than we allow sheep, cattle or swine. And my reason is that these children are seldom the fruits of a marriage, as we all know, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages. Therefore, one male would be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining 100,000 may, at a year old, be offered in sale to persons of quality and fortune. Through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month so as to render them plump and fat for a good table.

[00:41:05] A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends. And when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish. And seasoned with a little pepper and salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter. You can have leftovers. And he also goes on to point out that a child just born weighs 12 pounds and in a sole year will be 28 pounds. That's a lot of meat. He says, and finally, I grant this food will be somewhat dear and therefore very popular for landlords,

[00:41:33] who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children. Ooh, biting. Yeah. Yeah. And it really did change the view of. Yeah, because it's so ludicrous. But yet, what do you want these people to do? I mean, what are they to do? Yeah. I mean, we're going to resort to cannibalism because that's what people do when they starve. That is exactly right. I mean. And, but he, he made his point. Yeah, he did make it.

[00:42:03] And I will, I did a commercial, a fake commercial on the radio, on this podcast a while back. And I actually was told by someone that it was. Somebody who's a, who's a podcaster. Big podcaster. Yeah. Big podcaster who makes money and you sent it to him. And he said it was. Because he wanted something. He said, send me anything funny. I said, oh, well, I think this is funny. And he thought it was ghoulish. Yes, too ghoulish. Yeah. Well, there you are with your biting sense of humor. I didn't mean it. You know what? He's a foreigner. I don't think we should eat children.

[00:42:32] He's not from America. That's true. He doesn't have an American sensibility. We have a very particular comedic sense in America. That's true. We're a little bit different than the rest of the world. Some cultures don't really find humor in. No. Most anything. I mean, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, we could save that for another episode on another day. On another day. Yes.

[00:43:00] We, I mean, we're the, we've got a Mark Twain. We've got Will Rogers. We've got these kinds of men in our history who have done great jobs in. Mark Twain can be satirical in one sentence. Suppose you were an idiot. Suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. It's redundant. There you go. There you go. He was the best. So we're moving up. Speaking of Mark Twain.

[00:43:29] We're at the 1700s now. So we're leaving Ireland. Yeah. Oh yeah. We're done. We're done over there. All right. We're talking about Mark Twain now. And there's so much Mark Twain. He's amazing. His quotes are phenomenal. Religion, politics, people, Americans in general. And he, but he, he got to a point where his satire bordered very closely on just straightforward bitching. Bitching. Yeah. But I got something. Oh, I love Innocence Abroad. That's one of my favorites. That is a great one.

[00:43:59] And that's a good satire of European society. Well, yeah. And making fun of Americans who go over there and act like Americans. Act like idiots. You know, we're going to, Oh, look, it's the Pope here. Let me get a selfie. Yeah. Here's a dead Pope. Can I have a dead Pope and me with my big head next to him? So he, uh, I'll give you an example. Uh, and he, he wrote, uh, uh, he wrote more than one version of his own autobiography. Yes. Um, you know what though? And it was, his first one was a less inhibited edition.

[00:44:29] That's what he said about. He didn't hold back. The McKinleys and the Roosevelt's and the multimillionaire disciples of business tycoon Jay Gould, that man in who his brief life rotted the commercial morals of this nation and let them stinking when he died have quite completely transformed our people from a nation with pretty high and respectable ideals to just the opposite of that, that our people have no ideals now that are worthy of consideration that our Christianity, which we have always

[00:44:53] been so proud of not to say vain of is now nothing but a shell, a sham hypocrisy that we have lost our ancient sympathy with the oppressed people of the world struggling for life and liberty. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. That couldn't apply now. Well, that's no, but that's the point, right? He's planting that seed too. And he's cause he sees where we're going. That's true. He sees where we're headed. That was why Lenny Bruce and George Carlin and they were on the money because Mark Twain

[00:45:23] had already set the, set the, the seed in, in action. And here we are. Yeah. And today we are just a shell and he, and Mark Twain, there's so much you should, you should just go and research it yourself. Just read any Mark Twain. Start with Innocence Abroad. Innocence Abroad is one of the most accessible and Huckleberry Finn. Well, Huck Finn is yes, because Tom Sawyer is just a fun little book and what's bad. Huck Finn is saying some things. Yes.

[00:45:48] I'm still upset with people who get mad about Huckleberry Finn for its use of the N word. Huck Finn. That's how people spoke then. But if you know Mark Twain and his work, he was absolutely an abolitionist. And, and yes, because he loved his work. Jim is the hero of, of Huck Finn. We've talked about this before. Yes. He's the hero. Jim is what a good father should be. Exactly. He's the man who actually is the father to Huck. He's the one with the morals and the moral compass and understands how the world works.

[00:46:18] And, and, and as you watch Huck come to understanding, cause he comes from the side of society where Jim is a slave and that's it. He's property. But as time goes on, you see his change happen. You know, you can't pray a lie. That's a, that's Huck's point. You can't pray a lie. Um, I like, I'll do one more for good old Mark and then we'll move far more modern. Um, we, we are wonderful in certain spectacular ways, wonderful in scientific marbles and inventive

[00:46:48] miracles, wonderful in our hunger for money and it's indifference of how it's acquired. Wonderful in the exhibitions of poverty, in electing purchasable legislatures, blather skite Congresses and city governments, which robbed the town and sell municipal protection to gamblers, thieves, prostitutes, and professional seducers for cash. It is a civilization which has destroyed the simplicity and repose of life, replaced its contentment, its poetry, its soft romance, its dreams, and its visions with the money,

[00:47:17] fever, sorted ideals, vulgar, vulgar ambitions, and the sleep, which does not refresh. It has invented a thousand useless luxuries and turn them into necessities. It has created a thousand vicious appetites and it satisfies not a one of them. Actually, now it's created millions. Isn't that amazing? Just go watch, just go watch any of the influencers, go watch any of the TikToks selling you stuff, selling you ideals and, and products that you don't need.

[00:47:46] But that's what we're, this was, this was in 1901. What are we terrifying? Yeah. We're terrifying a bunch of products that we don't need. Oh, but we do need some of them. Okay. Some of them, but, but a lot of the shit that's wrapped up in this, Oh look, team, you and she just raised their prices. But baby, the Walmarts are so big that you've got to fill them with something. No, I, I, I remember just, you know, 15 varieties of cereal, not 62. Right. But now we have so many.

[00:48:15] And if we go back for me, it's not a huge deal. True. A lot of that's not going to be a problem. Yeah. Actually, the problem is, is I'm paying way too much for everything. I guess we should, I guess we should do another example of satire. Wait, we can't get to PC principle until we pass World War II. What? Yeah. You are talking way too long today, G. Oh, well, that's the way it goes. Too much. And I'm not actually. Oh, okay. So we're up to World War II, 1940. We were at 1901. Yes.

[00:48:45] We're in the forties now. Well, because last time we talked about the twenties and how the twenties and, and, and a favorite media was pushing all these new products and we have to buy things and we got credit. But we're talking satire and you couldn't do better for satire for World War II than a book called Catch-22. Oh, dear Lord. Yes. Catch-22 encompasses the entire absolute craziness around World War II. Yes. The, the, the rules and the regulations that make no sense. And we use that phrase now. I'm in a Catch-22.

[00:49:14] And in the book, just so you know, there's a pilot by the name or a bomber by the name Yossarian. And when he starts his journey as an Italian bomber in Italy, stationed in Italy. Which is terrifying. But he only has to fly 25 missions and he gets to go home. Yeah. And then he has to fly 30 missions. You have to fly and survive. Well, yeah. 25 missions. And so he's almost to 30 and they raise it to 35 and they keep raising it during the story.

[00:49:40] By the end of the book, he's got to do 55 missions and he's managed to not get killed. Not be dead. But he's been shot down once. And everybody around him, his friends in other planes have all been killed. Oh yeah. He's just watching a new group come through. So he comes up with an idea to get out and his idea is, I'll just fake being crazy. How could you not be? I'm in a crazy situation. And so he starts, but he's not having to fake anything. He's just actually that stressed. Yeah. And so he's gone mad.

[00:50:09] And so he goes to the doctor to try to get the doctor to say he's crazy. Crazy. So then he can go home. Yes. Okay. Doc, you got to help me. Let's forget about the liver. You can ground me if I'm crazy, right? Oh, sure. I have to. I have to ground anyone who's crazy. Then ground me. I'm crazy. You're not crazy. But I am. Ask anyone. They'll tell you how crazy I am. Yeah, but they're crazy. Then why don't you ground them? Why don't they ask me to ground them? Because they're crazy. That's why. Of course they're crazy. I just told you they're crazy, didn't I?

[00:50:38] And you can't have crazy people decide whether you're crazy or not. Is Orr crazy? Oh, he sure is. Can you ground him? I sure can, but first he has to ask me to. Then why doesn't he ask you? Because he's crazy. It'd have to be crazy to want to keep flying combat missions. Sure, I can ground Orr, but first he has to ask me to. And that's all he has to do to be grounded? That's it. Just let him ask me. And then you can ground him? No, then I can't ground him. Why not? Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy.

[00:51:07] Catch-22 specifies that a concern for one's own safety in the face of danger, real and immediate, is the process of a rational mind. What? Orr's crazy. And therefore, he can get out of flying combat missions. All he has to do is ask. But as soon as he asks, he's no longer crazy, and so he has to fly more missions. What? Orr would be crazy to want to fly more missions and sane if he didn't. But if he's sane, then he has to fly them. If he flies them, then he's crazy, and so he doesn't have to.

[00:51:36] But if he doesn't want to, then he's sane, and so he has to. That's some catch that Catch-22. It's the best there is. Social justice! Oh! Dang, I messed up. You know what? I'm going to cut that out and fix that. Are you? I am.

[00:52:00] Are you just let the flaw go and say, chalk it up to human imperfection? I guess. You can. Social justice! That's what we want. So that was Catch-22. That's what Joseph Heller was saying. The sound was kind of lame on the Catch-22 thing. Well, you did it. Yeah, I did. Man, you're just screwing up right and left, G. I can take that and insert it, though. Okay, well, that was Joseph Heller's, that was his social commentary on the insanity of war.

[00:52:29] If that clip sounds good, it's because I went back and fixed it. And if it sucks. If it sounds bad, I didn't. He didn't do it. We've got to go back to work. You're probably not going to fix it. Although, Catch-22, the miniseries that they did. That was from the miniseries. Yeah, 2019, they did it. It was actually really good. Really well done. Think about going back and watching it. The whole thing is excellent. So we've got one more example of satire. Are we moving to the modern era? Yes, and it has to do with PC culture.

[00:52:56] Well, it has to do with the social commentary on the idea that our pendulum had swung too far to the left. Right, but we don't get the farmers. We just get the frat. Oh, you're not doing the little, oh, okay. Yeah, no. But this is the reason that we're in this extreme situation, because we were in another extreme situation. Well, it was when political correctness went crazy. And South Park is... Which we did episodes on. Oh, yeah. Because the language police were everywhere.

[00:53:24] Well, South Park, wonderful, wonderful South Park. Being the social commentators that they are. They created a situation where they had a new principal. And he was known as PC principal. Well, if our audience knows... They may, they may not have watched it. They don't know. Why would our audience not be South Park people? Because they didn't watch it when they were young, and so they have no idea of what they're missing. But they wouldn't listen to us if... Well, maybe. Not necessarily. All right. I'm just saying. Anyway, they created PC principal.

[00:53:51] And it turns out that there is a whole world of PC out there where, you know, you can't do things like be sexist, racist. Well, yeah. But, okay. So what... But it goes too far. What are you looking for? I want to know episode... Oh, God. Year. 2015. 2015. This is why. Ten years. And political correctness had gone mad. It had. Everybody was being accused of being racist.

[00:54:19] We were taking names off of buildings. And it actually... And it got worse after 2015. It didn't get better because we were leading off... Then we went into the trans thing, right? They make the... Yeah, it just kept going. Caitlyn Jenner is a beautiful hero. Well, that's in that episode, the same episode. That's all part of the... But PC principal actually belongs to a frat. You didn't know it, but there's actually PC frats across the nation. Sure. And they came together. Yeah. All right. Social justice. One, two, three. Woo-woo. I want to be PC. Woo-woo.

[00:54:48] It's just the way to be for me. And you. Woo-woo. Your hateful slurs are through. Woo-woo. I call wee-wee on you. Woo-woo. We'll fight until you're PC black and blue. We are language police. Fighting bigotry. Hurtful words can suck our turns because it's PC for me. And you. Woo-woo. Yeah. Yeah, bro. Yeah. Yeah, PC, bro. Yeah. Social justice. You know what? Say your words.

[00:55:17] There are consequences. I'd rather know who you are than the fact that society has just beaten you down so that you're scared to say anything. That's true. I would rather know who you are honestly. That way, and I've said this dozens of times over our years together here, fly your Confederate flag. I want to know who you are. Yeah. And I don't care. And I don't care. Actually. It's just a piece of cloth. It is just a piece of cloth, but it lets me know something about you, honestly.

[00:55:47] And it doesn't know. It just says to you, that's a symbol that makes you believe that somebody. So it makes me. Because there are people. I will generalize from that. Yes. That's true. Yes. Okay. But then I get to know the person. So I'm not going to not know who they are as an individual because they fly that flag. But they may be flying it, in fact, satirically. Nobody's flying the Confederate flag satirically. Hang on. It's people who get obstinate about.

[00:56:16] They refuse to recognize what the symbol has been used for since it was originally used. Oh, I see. So they would say, for instance, look, if a Klansman's flying a Confederate flag, he's a piece of shit. And I don't fly it for that reason. So I'm different. Therefore, I can fly it. Exactly. But then that's my point. Then you have to get to know them as an individual. To actually know that. Yes. But that's true for racism in general. You want to get rid of racism, get to know people. Yes.

[00:56:44] Let them say what they're going to say. And if there are repercussions and consequences to their language, then that's normal. And society handles that. We don't need legislation. Free speech exists for that reason. Yes. That's one of the reasons. There's a whole bunch of reasons. Yes. But now we've gone to the other extreme. Well, now we're trying to. Now the other side is saying you can't have free speech. Right. Against us. Yeah. Because we. Whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So.

[00:57:12] It's a catch 22 and I'm losing my mind. Yeah. Yeah. And now we've got the. It's just the other way. Yeah. And speaking of. Okay. Last thing on satire. Last thing. Last thing. And then. Today. Yeah. Yeah. Some books real quick. If people are interested, just Clockwork Orange. Oh, absolutely. You have. The Prince by Machiavelli. That's done tongue in cheek. And it's very satirical. And it's a very small book. It is. It is. Animal Farm. Another small book. Yes. Catch 22.

[00:57:43] Yeah. 1984 is a satire. Satire. Yep. Ancient book. Candide by Voltaire. And also. Where they eat. Oh, yes. One you may never have heard of, but Slaughterhouse Five for you kids is an excellent Kurt Vonnegut. You know, in Candide, they get hungry and they sever a butt cheek. Yes. And cook and eat a butt cheek. Why not?

[00:58:06] So alternate to babies, maybe a little more palatable is find people with ample. Even Fahrenheit 451, which a lot of people have read because they have to in school. That's a satire. I'm not sure that that's still on the reading list. Actually, most of the. Most of those have been taken off the reading list. Vanity Fair. Satire. Yeah. That's a satire. Yeah. Making. American Psycho is a satire. It is. Yeah. People call it a horror movie. No, no. It's a satire.

[00:58:36] I'm not talking about the movie. I'm talking about the book. Oh, oh, oh. American Psycho. Yeah, I know. Okay. I was. I know you know. Oh, I see. I know you know. Thank you. I'm helping other people. I know Uno too. Where is the future going? I don't know, man. Is AI going to be satirical? Can we teach AI to be, you know, to have a satiric sense? Satirical sense of humor? To make fun of society in our foibles and our government? I would assume.

[00:59:05] I'm reading so many authors right now, so many people doing essays and editorials that are making fun of the things that are going on, and oftentimes they're doing it satirically. Well, Larry David, the creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, just did a letter called My Dinner with Adolf Hitler that is satire in a big, big way. And he's taking direct aim at Bill Maher. Oh, because Bill Maher went and had dinner with Trump. I saw that.

[00:59:35] Bill Maher is very upset by that. But, I mean, that was serious satire. Bill Maher came away from that dinner with Donald and thought that he was a grand guy. That's fine. Yeah. Well, because he doesn't need anything from Donald. Yeah. Bill Clinton was a great guy, I'm sure, but I didn't care for some of his policies. Not all of them. The headline the other day that I just, I'm still stunned by and thinking about the future because really the AI stuff that's coming, the computer technology, I know we're going

[01:00:02] to have manufacturing increase in this country because of tariffs in the future. But we do know a lot of those jobs are going to be done by robots because Elon's creating them. And he says they're going to be thousands of these robots that he has. And AI is going to do a lot of the jobs that humans do. So I don't know what the hell we're going to have. But the story was, if AI systems become conscious, should they have rights? Oh, yeah. I don't know. That bothers me.

[01:00:31] We can't give rights to people who cross our border. Again, to beat a dead horse tremendously, our rights are not granted by the government. No. Although one could say that the government can certainly get in the way of your rights. They certainly can and are. And we don't need to debate all the little minutiae of how you got here and how your people got here. And did you do it illegally? Did you do it illegally? Can you obey the law? Just obey the laws.

[01:01:01] Or can you make the laws make sense? Well, I don't know. Can you make them easier? We have technology. Why can't we do a better job of getting people legally across the border? Do I want murderers and gang members and coming? No. Yeah. No. That would be insane for me to say. Here's a thought. Process them at the border. In a better way. How about instead of building a wall, we build a better immigration system right there?

[01:01:28] A system where you can come in legally. Maybe it's a big giant dorm. And as they come in, they get processed. We find out. But you can't just cut them loose. Do we take fingerprints of everybody? I have my fingerprints on record and I've never committed a crime. Well, they do. They do. Okay. But if you come across the border illegally and you've never been processed ever, that's an issue. But right now you can't. Even if you wanted to, you don't dare. No.

[01:01:56] And we had people still waiting to get processed. Right. This has been in flux for so long now. But we haven't had the courts to deal with. That's the problem. No, and we don't have the courts. They don't want to spend the money to do the process, the due process. But the due process is required by the Constitution for all people in the United States, citizen or not. Yeah. Well. That's my thing. So really what it is, is they want to change the books. If you want to make it so it doesn't apply to non-citizens, then make the law. Then make the law. Congress. Oh, here we are back to that.

[01:02:25] But actually they would have to amend the Constitution. And that's never going to happen. And that probably won't occur. Because half the country is one way and half the country is either. Well, you know how that could occur? We just throw out that damn Constitution. There's a thought. It's a pesky document. It's made of really old paper. They couldn't even take it out and put it up in Donald's office. I know. He wanted it in the office. No, it's... And they said, hey. It's hermetically sealed. Yeah. Well, we can't do that. So if it's that fragile... He's got a Cupid.

[01:02:54] If it's that fragile. Yes, he's got a gold-covered Cupid. A cherub. All right. Well, we've got to wrap it up. Yeah. Yeah. We've been talking too much. No, we've been talking for 42 years. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's clearly too much. Too much damn conversation in this house. All this conversating going on. Getting nothing solved. So clearly we've established that... Satire. Satire is... Should be allowed. Should be protected. And should happen a lot. And it should happen a lot.

[01:03:24] And they're planting little seeds. Don't speak truth to power. Speak satire to power. Well, satire is the truth. Yeah. That's... You've got to couch it. Effective satire is the truth. Yes. That's the point. That is the point. And yes, you disguise it in humor. And then while you're laughing, you go, holy shit. Holy shit. That's right. That's right about all that. Oh, damn. I hadn't thought about it that way. All right. And so I guess that's it. I guess that's it. Spring break's wrapped up. Yeah.

[01:03:52] I have spent almost all of it outside in my lovely... I've got a little taste of something coming up here after we sign off or say our goodbyes. You're going to end it with something for people to think about? Yes. Because we've spent a lot of time, you know, denigrating, denigrating politicians. And it's just wrong. It's just wrong. And I have something in the end that I think will help clear up the real problem. So we just want our audience to be left with something to mull over. Yeah. Why not? Okay. All right. We can do that.

[01:04:22] I think. Absolutely. When is this clip from? This would be pre-2000 or right after 2008. All right. Let it go, G. Your joy is portable, folks. Yeah. You got to say the thing. Say the thing. I want to say that because I want to leave them with something happy. So say the thing. All right. Your joy is portable. Take it with you. It's a seed. There you go. Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about. Politicians.

[01:04:51] Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Yeah. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses, and American universities. And they're elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do, folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces.

[01:05:19] Garbage in, garbage out. But if you have selfish, ignorant citizens, if you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. The term limits ain't going to be any good. You're just going to wind up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So maybe, maybe, maybe it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here. Like the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody.

[01:05:49] The public sucks. Fuck hope. Fuck hope. Because if it's really just the fault of these politicians, then where are all the other bright people of conscience? Where are all the bright, honest, intelligent Americans ready to step in and save the nation and lead the way? We don't have people like that in this country. Everybody's at the mall, scratching his ass, picking his nose, taking his credit card out of his fanny pack and buying a pair of sneakers with lights in them.

[01:06:21] So I have solved this little political dilemma for myself in a very simple way. On election day, I stay home. I don't vote. Fuck them. Fuck them. I don't vote. Two reasons. Two reasons I don't vote. First of all, it's meaningless. This country was bought and sold and paid for a long time ago. The shit they shuffle around every four years, doesn't mean a fucking thing.

[01:06:47] And secondly, I don't vote because I believe if you vote, you have no right to complain. People like to twist that around. I know. They say, well, if you don't vote, you have no right to complain. But where's the logic in that? If you vote and you elect dishonest, incompetent people and they get into office and screw everything up, well, you are responsible for what they have done. You caused the problem. You voted them in. You have no right to complain.

[01:07:11] I, on the other hand, who did not vote, who did not vote, who, in fact, did not even leave the house on election day, am in no way responsible for what these people have done and have every right to complain as loud as I want about the mess you created that I had nothing to do with. So I know that a little later on this year, you're going to have another one of those really swell presidential elections that you like so much. You'll enjoy yourselves. It'll be a lot of fun.

[01:07:41] I'm sure as soon as the election is over, your country will improve immediately. As for me, I'll be home on that day doing essentially the same thing as you. The only difference is when I get finished masturbating, I'm going to have a little something to show for it, folks. Thank you very much.