Samantha Bee on Being 'Democrat-Celibate' (from 'The Assignment with Audie Cornish')

Samantha Bee is a comedian, author and former late-night host who hosts the podcast Choice Words with Samantha Bee and co-hosts The Daily Beast Podcast with Joanna Coles. Her weekly late-night comedy series, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee was nominated for over 70 awards — and she has personally been nominated for 18 Emmy awards and won for both writing and executive producing. Full Frontal was explicitly, and hilariously, political and left-leaning so it’s a bit surprising that Bee has declared herself Democrat-celibate, (at least for now). Samantha explains her new approach to politics and dishes on her biggest regret in this CNN pilot titled “Off Script” with Kara, Audie Cornish, CNN correspondent and host of The Assignment, and Van Lathan, co-host of The Ringer’s Higher Learning podcast. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Kara Swisher?

  Hi, everyone, and happy holidays. I hope you're unplugged and taking some time to do whatever it is you like to do this time of year. The ON team is taking a break for the holidays, so today we're sharing an episode of one of my favorite podcasts, CNN's The Assignment with Audie Cornish. But don't worry, you're not totally free of me because I'm actually in this episode. For a pilot we're doing for CNN, Audie, podcaster Van Lathan, and I sat down with Samantha Bee, one of the funniest comedians I know. She's a former host of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and host of her own podcast called Choice Words with Samantha Bee. We talked about a lot of things, and I've interviewed Sam many times over the many years, but this time we talked about her checking out of

• 0:41Kara Swisher?

  politics, which has been her area that she's been making jokes about for so, so long, and why she did that, and also about the worst thing she's ever done. It has to do with a friend and a boyfriend. We'll see what that is when you listen to it. In any case, I think you're going to like this listen. It's a great conversation I was very happy to be part of. Enjoy.

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• 2:51Speaker 04

  Please introduce yourself.

• 2:52Speaker 05

  Hello. Okay, well, hello. My name is Samantha Bee, and I'm a former television host and current New York City get about?

• 3:02Speaker 04

  Get about.

• 3:03Speaker 05

  I don't know.

• 3:03Speaker 04

  Oh, get about's a good word.

• 3:05Speaker 05

  That's a good word. I don't know what it means exactly.

• 3:08Speaker 04

  You kind of do.

• 3:08Speaker 05

  It's another word. Lay about. Sometimes a lay about.

• 3:12Speaker 04

  We are, we're super glad you're here.

• 3:15Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 3:16Speaker 04

  But we do, before we can like add you to the group chat,

• 3:19Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 3:19Speaker 04

  you need to submit to the authenticator.

• 3:23Speaker 05

  Submit. Okay, to determine if I'm an authentic human being. Is that it? Okay, all right, okay.

• 3:30Speaker 06

  First question.

• 3:30Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 3:31Speaker 06

  If aliens landed on Earth.

• 3:33Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 3:33Speaker 06

  And you had to nominate one person alive to represent the human race, who would you nominate?

• 3:40Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 3:41Speaker 06

  Our fate is in your hands.

• 3:42Speaker 05

  From the entirety of the human race.

• 3:45Speaker 06

  The whole human race.

• 3:46Speaker 05

  The choice is obvious. It's Ina Garten. Because she is an entertainer. She makes the best parties. She brings baked goods. I think she could do it. She's like, she's fun. Her and Jeffrey? Actually, it's the two of them.

• 4:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 4:03Speaker 05

  Okay. Don't you think? And she'd provide the famous tomato sauce. She's an emissary of peace.

• 4:08Speaker 04

  So you feel like we're gonna host a party for the aliens? You're anticipating like a...

• 4:11Speaker 05

  I think you start with a party and then you go.

• 4:14Speaker 04

  Then you move to kidnapping.

• 4:17Speaker 05

  I wonder why you didn't pick Martha Stewart, who isn't... Possible enemy of Ina Garten. Uh, real, are they? Yeah, they were beefing about something. Were they beefing? Apparently. They were beefing about something.

• 4:26Speaker 04

  Hey, I'm here all week. Okay, sorry. You like that?

• 4:30Speaker 05

  I'm choosing Ina because I just personally mainlined her memoir two times in a row. At slow speed, because I found it really comforting to hear a woman describe, like, roasted chicken. It comforted me greatly.

• 4:45Speaker 06

  Are we in a friendship circle here?

• 4:46Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 4:47Speaker 06

  I don't know who that is.

• 4:48Speaker 04

  Oh! But we were in a friendship circle.

• 4:51Speaker 05

  Now you're out.

• 4:52Speaker 04

  I am so shocked. She is one of the premier, modern, entrepreneurial domestic goddesses.

• 4:59Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 4:59Speaker 04

  Is that a good description?

• 5:00Speaker 05

  Wow, oh my god. Can you do more descriptive? Because it would be much better than what I thought about myself.

• 5:07Speaker 04

  And author of The Barefoot Contessa.

• 5:08Speaker 06

  Oh, I know The Barefoot Contessa.

• 5:09Speaker 04

  Hey, Brandon.

• 5:10Speaker 06

  Okay, I know The Barefoot Contessa.

• 5:12Speaker 04

  Next question, Amy Authenticator. What is a popular song that everyone loves?

• 5:18Speaker 05

  Oh.

• 5:18Speaker 04

  But that you hate?

• 5:20Speaker 05

  Okay, a popular song that everyone loves but I hate. Oh, actually, well, a singer that everyone seems to love that I hate is Elvis Presley. I hate all his music. I actually hate it so much that I would leap across a studio to turn the music off. Like, I would do anything. No, it's every song in the...

• 5:46Speaker 06

  So there's not one Elvis song that you kind of like?

• 5:47Speaker 05

  I can't, I find it so intolerable, like, actually intolerable, that even thinking about it? Like, it's just like upsetting viscerally. I have, I just have a second. I just want you to know.

• 5:59Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 6:00Speaker 05

  I've been to Tupelo. I love Elvis so much, and I'm basically just like...

• 6:03Speaker 04

  I was about to say, yes, I think we got the look.

• 6:06Speaker 05

  I'm literally jailhouse talking.

• 6:08Speaker 06

  Young Elvis.

• 6:09Speaker 05

  I've never even, I never, I don't see, I don't see it. I feel like we can't be friends anymore.

• 6:13Speaker 04

  Wow, I've betrayed you.

• 6:15Speaker 05

  I've been to, I've been to all the places.

• 6:17Kara Swisher?

  All right, next question. Well, I know how this is not gonna be answered.

• 6:21Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 6:21Kara Swisher?

  Yep, your celebrity crush.

• 6:23Speaker 05

  Celebrity crush, I'm going to, okay, I have a really hard time with celebrity crush. I don't really have celebrity crushes. So I'm gonna say, who is the person who I will always sit down and watch? Actually, no, sorry. I'm gonna say George Clooney. Okay, it's a complicated answer.

• 6:40Kara Swisher?

  All right.

• 6:41Speaker 05

  I did meet George Clooney recently for the very first time, and a picture was taken of the two of us together, and I'm literally looking up at him, holding on to my heart, like, holding it into my chest, and my eyes are closed, like I'm having a religious experience. And it's a highly embarrassing photograph. So I'm gonna say.

• 7:02Speaker 04

  So the truth was revealed.

• 7:04Speaker 05

  It was like a party, it was like a fancy, it was a fancy party, and he was hosting it, and so it was a pleasure to be there. So I'm gonna say him because I've never made that expression when meeting.

• 7:14Kara Swisher?

  Can we see it?

• 7:15Speaker 05

  Any of us.

• 7:15Speaker 04

  Yeah, we're gonna have to Google it immediately.

• 7:17Kara Swisher?

  No.

• 7:18Speaker 05

  Truly humiliating.

• 7:19Speaker 06

  What's the worst decision you've ever made in your life?

• 7:22Speaker 05

  Oh, I chose, I chose a boy over a very long-term friendship, and that is the worst decision.

• 7:29Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 7:29Kara Swisher?

  You still remember it? How old were you?

• 7:31Speaker 05

  I was a teenager, and I wish, it's like the one thing. Because I don't really think back on life and go, oh, I would love to change all of these things, because I kind of think even bad decisions make you who you are. They give you spice, but that is one decision that I would have changed.

• 7:46Speaker 06

  What was his age?

• 7:47Speaker 05

  I can't, I can't, these people are alive.

• 7:50Speaker 06

  This is just like the first name.

• 7:51Speaker 05

  I can't.

• 7:52Speaker 06

  Toby, Brock?

• 7:54Speaker 05

  Brock, yes, it was Brock. It was definitely Brock.

• 7:58Speaker 04

  Those are, I see where you're going with that.

• 8:00Speaker 05

  Brock.

• 8:01Speaker 06

  Those are beefcake teenage.

• 8:03Speaker 05

  I yawn and Thomas to start. I realize that we've just met each other, but do I look like somebody who would date a Brock?

• 8:09Speaker 06

  It looks like you're recovering from a Brock.

• 8:11Speaker 04

  We were all young once, yeah, exactly.

• 8:14Speaker 05

  Oh, my God.

• 8:15Speaker 04

  Okay, one slightly more serious. I believe that people are basically.

• 8:19Speaker 05

  The same. Actually, I believe that people are basically the same. The same, meaning? We're kind of motivated by the same things. Which are? Which are, well, I think we're motivated by love and hopefully the majority of people are motivated by protecting their loved ones. They want to keep their families safe. We're also motivated by selfishness and greed and kind of self-serving. And I think that kind of just is true across the human race. It's not all good things. Yeah, it's good, same thing. So what would your mother say about you? I think that my mother would say that I remind her of her mother.

• 9:00Speaker 04

  In a complimentary way?

• 9:02Speaker 05

  In a complimentary way. I just have a lot of qualities. I share a lot of qualities with my mother, but also, but with my grandmother, I think there's a real similarity. I think there's, she was like, kind of precise and she was like, she liked her things just so. And she kept her glasses in the kitchen in like an orchard. And I do, I have all those habits. I like to keep the corners clean, you know?

• 9:28Speaker 06

  What keeps you up at night?

• 9:31Speaker 05

  Worrying about the safety of my children, for sure. Yep. For sure. It's pretty much the only thing that keeps me up at night. Hard agreement on that one.

• 9:41Speaker 04

  We asked you earlier about your regret. What do you, what do you think is your superpower?

• 9:46Speaker 05

  I think that my superpower is de-escalation.

• 9:51Speaker 06

  That's a fantastic.

• 9:52Speaker 04

  Say more, yeah.

• 9:53Speaker 05

  I do think that I actually have a calming influence to things. And I do like, I am, I was born in Canada and that's probably partially where it comes from. But I do like to take a fight. I'm a good moderator. I'm good at actually calming everybody down and sorting things out. Interesting, I'm an escalator.

• 10:13Speaker 05

  You know what? That's why we're a good team. Yeah, that's why we're good together. Yeah. Do you like, do you like being that? I'm just curious. I don't always like being that. Yeah, no, yeah. Because I often, I think.

• 10:25Speaker 05

  Sublimate myself to the process.

• 10:27Speaker 06

  You feel compelled to be that.

• 10:28Speaker 05

  I do. I can't, like, I can't, I'm, I don't know, I'm an only child. I don't know, I can't stand it when things are really tense. I can't operate in those, I can't think straight, I can't see straight, I need everything, I need everything to be kind of calm. I'm gonna have hard discussions, like, within the calmness, but I like it to not be a fighting atmosphere.

• 10:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, I feel like that, did that make you a good boss?

• 10:52Speaker 05

  Uh, I don't, I'm a good, good and bad. Like, I think that there's benefits and there's also, there's, yeah, there's a benefit to it, but there's a downside to it, too.

• 11:03Speaker 04

  Yeah, things don't have.

• 11:04Speaker 05

  Which, like, people sometimes need to fight. They actually need to express themselves. They don't need me modulating their, their opinions at all times, which I do kind of have a tendency to do.

• 11:16Speaker 04

  Yeah, my son's a de-escalator. I wish he was more of an escalator.

• 11:18Speaker 05

  I think it makes, I think it makes me a good, I think it's good for parenting.

• 11:22Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 11:22Speaker 05

  I think it's actually very, very helpful.

• 11:24Speaker 04

  All right.

• 11:25Speaker 05

  Last, last question, and it's difficult. Okay. What's your most controversial opinion? Make it good. Uh, I think that the, okay, I think that the drinking age and the driving age should be reversed.

• 11:41Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 11:41Speaker 05

  I think people should be able to drink at 16, and they shouldn't be able to drive until they're 21.

• 11:46Speaker 06

  You know, okay, I like this, but you know what the problem with it is?

• 11:49Speaker 05

  Tell me.

• 11:50Speaker 06

  Okay, so this is the problem with it. I watched this whole thing, it was fascinating.

• 11:53Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 11:54Speaker 06

  The older you have to learn to drive.

• 11:57Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 11:57Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 11:58Speaker 06

  The more afraid you are. The reason why it's good to have people learn to drive at 14 and 15 is because they don't have an affixed understanding, whatever. That's the driving ages that we learn to drive in Louisiana. People in my ears are telling me that's not the driving age.

• 12:14Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 12:14Speaker 06

  But the reason why you learn to.

• 12:16Speaker 05

  Fourteen.

• 12:17Speaker 06

  Oh, I learned to drive at thirteen.

• 12:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, okay.

• 12:19Speaker 06

  Yeah, I learned to drive at thirteen.

• 12:21Speaker 04

  Same thing.

• 12:21Speaker 06

  The reason why they say that psychologically it's better for you to learn to drive that way is because

• 12:26Speaker 04

  You have no real risk assessment, you're saying?

• 12:28Speaker 06

  If people start driving, because there are people that live in other places that don't have driving cultures, and then when they have to learn to drive, they're twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, terrified.

• 12:38Speaker 05

  I feel like it's, I feel like it's good to be terrified. I think you should be, I think if everybody was like a little more terrified, that would be better. And I think people should be able to drink earlier because I think when you keep it.

• 12:51Kara Swisher?

  To like France?

• 12:52Speaker 05

  Like France, I think when you keep it like separated from people's lives, they,

• 12:58Speaker 05

  they, they wait too long to develop like a healthy relationship with alcohol, or they're forced to like take it underground and like do it secretly, the way that I did, like out of the trunk of a car before a dance. And I feel like if we just like had a healthier, oh god, Canadian rye whiskey, like out of a jam jar.

• 13:16Speaker 04

  It's pretty sophisticated.

• 13:17Speaker 06

  That is.

• 13:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, I thought you were gonna be like peach nut.

• 13:19Speaker 06

  Yeah, I started off on E and J, Mad Dog.

• 13:22Speaker 05

  Oh, okay.

• 13:24Speaker 04

  All right, well, you have been authenticated.

• 13:25Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 13:26Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 13:27Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 13:28Speaker 04

  Uh, please stay with us because Sam B is gonna stay and talk more.

• 13:35Speaker 03

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• 15:11Speaker 05

  Welcome back. We're here with Sam B. Hi. Hi, Sam. Hi. How you doing? So I just had you on my podcast and you were talking about where you are right now as a voter. Explain what you, where you are. I was so surprised when you said this. Oh, really? Absolutely. Yeah, because you know, from your show, you're, you know. Sure, sure, sure. I said on your show that I am changing my political affiliation to just like be an independent for a while. Because, not that I'm like not GOP curious in the least, but I am want to be a little bit Democrat celibate for a while. I just want to take a break. I don't want any more fundraising emails for a time. I would like to step outside the circular firing squad and not be a part of it for a little while. Really? Yeah, I knew, I'm on a break.

• 15:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's interesting that you use the word celibate, though.

• 15:58Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 15:59Speaker 04

  The connotations of like this move.

• 16:03Speaker 05

  Let's have a dry spell, folks.

• 16:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, exactly.

• 16:04Speaker 05

  Let's all just step away for a minute and reassess. So you're like 4B, you're going to 4B them? Yeah.

• 16:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 16:11Speaker 05

  I'm going to 4B them. Yes. Yeah. But do they deserve that? Shouldn't you be jumping more in? To it like isn't it critical to jump more. I'm just exhausted. I'm happy to. I'm happy to jump into the issues, happy to talk about all the issues. Very excited and agitated by the news and like ready to get in there. But I don't need to go and prove my bona fides. I'm like, you all can fight amongst yourselves. That's fine with me. But you're not, you'll be curious. I couldn't be less, you'll be curious.

• 16:41Speaker 06

  You know, when I'm talking to a friend who has jumped out of the dating pool.

• 16:45Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 16:46Speaker 06

  And is not interested in men or women. I always ask, what are you looking for?

• 16:51Speaker 05

  Uh huh.

• 16:52Speaker 06

  Like you're celibate now from the Democrats. You don't want to date them anymore. What are you looking for in a Democratic Party?

• 17:00Speaker 05

  I, that's a question I just cannot answer right now. I just want to like, I feel like there's a lot of work to do. There's a lot of stuff to talk about. I don't have to have a political affiliation particularly to get in there. Like to get in there and talk about it and think about it. I don't look.

• 17:18Speaker 04

  Does it make you miss satire? Cause like Jon Stewart coming back to his show and kind of jumping right back into the fray of things. I wondered if you've had some moments at home where you thought, actually, maybe.

• 17:30Speaker 05

  I mean.

• 17:31Speaker 04

  I could have fun with this.

• 17:32Speaker 05

  It would be fun to watch them all like tear themselves to pieces, which they so clearly are right now. But I'm podcasting. I talk about it kind of when I want, I write about it when I want to. And that is actually very satisfying. I don't feel the need to, I don't want to have to talk about it. Do you know what I mean? I love to just kind of at my leisure engage with.

• 17:53Speaker 04

  Also, I'm not sure that if that humor works anymore. Like this is moving away from him himself, but just a lot of those shows that was, that were pretend news person behind a desk. Like they didn't survive. And I do wonder if it is harder to do.

• 18:07Speaker 05

  I feel like everybody, you know, we always reach for those shows to achieve like catharsis or to see the issues of the day kind of like processed in a, in a way that is unique and interesting. And, and that is great, but I do feel the full force of the news cycle at all times. Like I'm still, I am still a person who is just like completely pegged to the news cycle. I am, I always know exactly what is happening. And sometimes I do need to take like a little step back from it. I don't know. I don't know. It's gonna be a wild ride. Can I stick with comedy? Because one of the things that you were so good at. And when you went to like the GOP convention and you asked, and there was that famous one where you said, "There's a word choice." That was your bit. I love that bit.

• 18:52Speaker 05

  I watch it over and over again. That was sort of like, and Jordan Klepper then grabbed, did this similar thing. So like, you act like they're smart, right? Essentially, and then get them to say the bad things. Is that effective? I'm trying to think about it. I kind of like it, but then I think, is that actually funny anymore? Well, I mean, again, to me, the purpose is catharsis. Because you're not like, you're not reaching outside. I mean, we are siloed now. Like, the walls of the silo are made of impenetrable materials. Like, no one who doesn't agree with your worldview is going to watch a piece like that and go, "I did look silly. Oh, hold on a second.

• 19:37Speaker 05

  Let me rethink my positions on the issues." But you, but there's a benefit to people who want to experience that kind of like, that letting go, that kind of like, what's the word? It's just kind of affirmation, you know? It can achieve something, but it's more of an affirmation.

• 20:00Speaker 06

  Speaking of comedy, the one thing that people say about President Trump, whether or not they're criticizing him or not, is they say, "Well, the guy's funny." And it seems to be the way that he seeps himself into being. They go all the way. You can't say Trump's not funny. He makes me laugh. Do you find Donald Trump to be funny?

• 20:18Speaker 05

  I find him to be so deeply unfunny that I can't, I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of, to me, there's just like a ton. Often what happens is he says something outrageous or just completely like addled, or he goes off on some crazy weave. And then the cleanup is like, "Oh, he was just trying to be fun." I don't know. I just don't find him. Maybe I just don't get the joke. I don't know. I don't find him funny.

• 20:45Speaker 06

  Why do you think so many people do?

• 20:47Speaker 05

  I have no idea, but there's no accounting for taste. We all think different things are funny. That's not to my taste. But he did well on those sort of bro comedy things. Like, how do you look at those right now? The Andrew Schultz, the rest of them? I pretend they don't. I don't engage with them. Like, I don't, I'm not even remotely curious about. I think I know. I think I pretty much have an idea of what it's, what they're talking about and what it sounds like. And I don't, there's no need for, there's no value in my life. Like, I don't tend to, which would really surprise people. I don't really tend to drop into things that will drive me crazy, that will give me, like, will wake me up in the middle of the night. I just kind of, I practice avoidance.

• 21:32Speaker 05

  I put on Ina Garten's autobiography at, you know, 0.25 speed, and I just listen to it slowly over 18 and a half hours. Like, I don't need that.

• 21:43Speaker 04

  Especially since, like, the show is satire, but I do fantasize about being the news person who will suddenly get to stop thinking about it. Like, it comes to me where I'm just like, oh, I would like a day where I don't have to know. So I'm just looking at you now with raw envy and...

• 22:01Speaker 05

  Do you ever get a day where you don't have to know? You don't ever get a day. Even when you're on vacation, I bet you have to know.

• 22:06Speaker 04

  You do, and you don't, you feel it. You start to get jittery. I don't know about you, but if you don't have a byline, yeah, why did I even ask?

• 22:14Speaker 06

  Yeah, I like to know it.

• 22:15Speaker 04

  Oh, really?

• 22:16Speaker 06

  I'm one of those people that likes...

• 22:17Speaker 04

  But when it's your job, when it's, like, when I was first starting out and there was, like, bad weather somewhere, right? Like, if someone was getting executed by the state, I was waiting for my phone to ring, right? Like, I had to go to it.

• 22:30Speaker 05

  Sure, right.

• 22:31Speaker 04

  And it made me anxious, you know? It just was very, like, intense.

• 22:37Speaker 05

  I know. I had a blackberry in my hand when I had my baby, so I guess I like it. I don't know, I feel like it's... Yeah, yeah, no. I mean, I like it too. I'm not, like, dropping out of the news cycle, but it is nice to be able to choose to be in it or not, or not in it.

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• 24:15Speaker 06

  What's the most brainless thing that you do?

• 24:18Speaker 05

  The most brainless thing that I do?

• 24:19Speaker 06

  The thing that you do, like for example, like I'll get on the PlayStation 5, swing around as Spider-Man, three hours, nothing else matters. Just zoned out, completely detached, mind rebuilding. Is there anything that you do that is just mundane, brainless, takes absolutely zero mental work?

• 24:37Speaker 05

  Well, I do like, okay, there's two things that I do. So I like to do, I like cycling classes, like in a dark room, and I just feel like they, when the music is, I love it. Like when the music is right, which is like intergalactic.

• 24:54Speaker 05

  Robots just like murdering each other in outer space. Like, I like really horrific.

• 25:01Speaker 04

  You're paying someone to yell at you. Like, I don't understand the joy of cycling classes.

• 25:05Speaker 05

  Everybody's, everybody's happy. Everybody's just like listening to them. Everybody's just like in the music. So that is a full detachment because I'm just trying to survive. Like, that is just survival. I'm just like, am I breathing? Great. And then anything beyond that, I like to cook. I actually like to do, I like to do stuff with my hands. So I like to, that's, that's how, that's my meditation, actually, is like, is, is cooking. It's completely bifurcates my. You say, and cocaine? And cocaine.

• 25:33Speaker 04

  Yeah. Sometimes Kara just zones out and like fantasizes.

• 25:37Speaker 05

  Right, right. Which I pay for with the check. In that vein, you have a podcast with Joanna Coles for the Daily Beast. You, you got Mika Brzezinski. Talk a little bit about that. Sure. Talk about it. Well, Joanna and Mika are friends and, I mean, they're, yeah, they're friends. And so Joanna asked her to be on and she's like, Mika's become the news herself because she and Joe. It's just the way she likes it. Went to, they went to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump and just have a short discussion. So, and she was getting tremendous blowback from that. So Joanna asked her to come on and she said yes. And so we interviewed her. And I actually, I thought it was really good. I thought it was really interesting. She said something that I did understand.

• 26:19Speaker 05

  I'm sure hundreds of thousands of people will disagree, but her point was, that she made to us was that this, this is the hand of cards that we were dealt. And it's not really normalizing something that has been very normalized. Like, you are not, it's, the ship has sailed on not normalizing Trump. He is normal. He is the president again. More than half the country voted for him or whatever it was. He's the president, he has the House, he has the Senate. It couldn't be more normalized than that already. And she, her point was, if I can move him on the issues that are, that are important to me or press my point, I'm going to take every opportunity to press my point. And I see what she's saying.

• 27:01Speaker 06

  Right. How does that, what's the prescription for the average American? Because you said before that we're siloed and we are siloed.

• 27:08Speaker 05

  Sure.

• 27:09Speaker 06

  But there are people out there that are like, just. Deathly afraid of being a part of the thing that destroys the country.

• 27:19Speaker 05

  Of course.

• 27:19Speaker 06

  And they don't want to, their neighbors that they see that are a part of it, people at their jobs that they see that are a part of it, they don't want to be one of them. However, we can't live in silos, we have to share a community together, what do we do?

• 27:31Speaker 05

  Well, in real life, we do share a community together, you know, in real life, real life is real life. And that is, that is different. Like, I don't really know, I don't, you know, I don't have the prescription for the country. I know that we just like-

• 27:44Speaker 04

  Did you buy it when she said it?

• 27:46Speaker 05

  I do buy it, I do buy it, because I do buy it for her, I don't buy it for myself.

• 27:51Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 27:52Speaker 05

  Did you do an interview with him? Never, no, never. I never would. You couldn't drag, you would have to cremate me and take my ashes to Mar-a-Lago to get me to transgress the doorstop. But that's, I'm not her, I think everybody's got their personal limitations, that's like a whole, that- Well, that's a big difference from her going cremation and her, so what, yeah, well-

• 28:16Speaker 04

  And this is the escalator thing.

• 28:19Speaker 05

  We're different people, we do different jobs, I'm not on television, it's not my job, it's not my work.

• 28:24Speaker 04

  We've also talked about access, and it's funny with this story and them, I haven't thought so much of the normalization thing, but what is the price of access?

• 28:33Speaker 05

  What is the price? I don't know, and I do like- I agree with you on that. I, I agree with you, and, and I also agree with her, like, I mean, to be a de-escalator, I kind of agree with both. I mean, I can agree with both, because I do, I see the point, like, okay, reproductive justice, reproductive rights, it's something that she, it's one of her core beliefs, and if she feels like she can be in his ear like a tiny amount, and it doesn't have to be a social, I don't-

• 28:59Speaker 04

  Although it's not a nonpartisan thing to say, I think we've learned from the last four, six years, that when you're in Trump's orbit, you don't move him. He's the son.

• 29:08Speaker 06

  Well, she's already-

• 29:09Speaker 04

  And like, there's, you go around the son, but the, this, I think more than enough, like, memoirs came out after of Republicans who thought they would change things.

• 29:18Speaker 06

  The only thing you do is make him apologize.

• 29:19Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, but that's not a bad thing, he's the president, but the idea that you somehow will have this undue influence just by being there has proven not to be true.

• 29:27Speaker 05

  And I don't think, and by the way, I should have said at the beginning, I don't think that anything she's trying is going to work. Like, I definitely don't, but I understand her, I understand her motivation, but- I understand her motivation for it. If you had a show, would you do it? I would have a complete plot to interview Trump. I would interview him at Mar-a-Lago. He would. With velvet ropes in the middle of the lobby.

• 29:49Speaker 06

  Oh, you got it all planned out?

• 29:50Speaker 05

  Yeah. She does, she has, yeah. I want to have a hometown crowd. I want to feel safe there. Right, right, right. That's good.

• 29:56Speaker 06

  Do you have friends that are Trump supporters?

• 29:58Speaker 05

  No.

• 29:59Speaker 06

  You don't?

• 30:00Speaker 05

  No, I don't believe, well, I don't know. How do I, I don't know.

• 30:02Speaker 06

  Is it a disqualifying thing for you to be friends with someone who?

• 30:05Speaker 05

  I think it would be very, it would be very difficult. I wouldn't be able to understand, but I don't know. I don't have like a, I don't have a purity test that I force my friends to go through. But I have a small group of friends. I think I know them very well. I really, you know, voting is very private. It's possible that some of my friends voted for Trump. Like, I would die if I found out. I would.

• 30:25Speaker 04

  See, one of the things I've been thinking about are the people who are like blocking their friends who posted a lot, or their family members, just basically saying, I am no longer even occupying the digital space with you. And does that feel kosher to you?

• 30:42Speaker 05

  I can't make that judgment.

• 30:44Speaker 04

  It seems silly.

• 30:45Speaker 05

  For other people, I think it's so individual.

• 30:49Speaker 04

  But what's a scenario where you can lock someone out of your life? Be, unless they're, for me, unless you're wearing an actual pointy hat. You know what I mean? Like, you have to kind of be like burning the cross on my lawn before I'm like, you should not, I erase you.

• 31:04Speaker 05

  Yeah, that should be your criteria. But these also, like, these could be.

• 31:08Speaker 04

  It just feels like, I don't know, you're always so open to things. I'm sort of surprised you're saying this.

• 31:14Speaker 06

  I'm open to things, but there are things like, there are conversations I won't have, right? So if you come up to me and you go, well, if you look at it this way, George Floyd wasn't really murdered, I'm gonna go, I don't think we have very much to talk about. And that's not because I'm making a judgment about you.

• 31:28Speaker 04

  But you're not like, and I don't want to ever speak to you again.

• 31:31Speaker 06

  We probably don't have a lot to talk about. But the only reason why I'm saying that is because that comes from such a distinct worldview that inviting you into my life is gonna invite nothing but confusion.

• 31:41Speaker 04

  See, I think I'm more than capable of existing with someone and holding them at arms length, which is probably something through my therapist to tackle, but.

• 31:50Speaker 06

  I don't like to do it. The people that are around, I like to huddle.

• 31:54Speaker 04

  You're all or nothing, yeah.

• 31:55Speaker 05

  I just hang up on people.

• 31:56Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 31:57Speaker 05

  And I hang out. It's not super clear. I find that whole world and all of like Trumpism in general is an ideology that I would like to take and push into the sea and have it drop into the Marianas trench, never to be heard from again.

• 32:11Speaker 04

  I mean, they might feel that way about you, so I think that would be.

• 32:14Speaker 05

  One more to share of that. You're doing podcasting now. You're doing, you want to do other things. Would you get back to comedy? And what's funny to you? How would you make comedy now, given comedy's on TikTok, comedy's here, there's a bro comedy, there's this. Bro comedy's always been around. It's always been around. Yeah, it has always been around. I don't know. Take my wife, please. I feel like for me, I still do comedy. Like I'm writing a book about menopause, actually, and it's really, really funny. And I had a show and it did great. And it was so fun to do and so funny. So like, I will do, I do comedy all the time. It's just very, you know, it's a, it's a sliver of a thing.

• 32:58Speaker 05

  It's just something that I feel passionately about and I will talk about it and make comedy.

• 33:01Speaker 04

  I am secretly stoked you brought this up because the menopausal sense that's happening, we're like Halle Berry and like, all of these people are very publicly talking about perimenopause. It's kind of fascinating. There's like a cohort of entertainers who reached it and did not feel the need to just like disappear and never mention it. It became like the social media feeds, the magazines, talking about people saying, did you know? Cause I didn't know. And it sort of reminds me of that period when everyone was talking about like an orgasm, you know what I mean? It's sort of like, hey, remember when women are discovering? You don't remember? I feel like this was like the plot of Fried Green Tomatoes.

• 33:43Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's straight ladies.

• 33:44Speaker 04

  Don't you remember that? This was an, you know, did you see Fried Green Tomatoes?

• 33:49Speaker 06

  I saw it.

• 33:49Speaker 04

  It's classic.

• 33:50Speaker 06

  All we gotta remember about the movie, didn't someone get killed and then fed to somebody else?

• 33:54Speaker 05

  Yes, that was the best part.

• 33:55Speaker 04

  It had multitudes, okay? The point is, it's everywhere. And is it weird that it's everywhere? And did you feel weird talking about it?

• 34:03Speaker 05

  No. Well, I felt weird. I couldn't, I really couldn't talk about it for a couple of years, probably. Where I was just like existing in this space of not understanding what was happening to me and actually just thinking that I was completely losing my mind due to my like high intensity job. When actually there were like a lot of things going on. So I don't feel weird talking about it now. I have a healthy relationship to it and I actually think that it, that it is comedy. Like you can always make jokes about something that is happening to you in the moment. And that is what I, that is what I do. I'm very, I'm very super comfortable with it. Can you let me know what the funniest thing about menopause is?

• 34:40Speaker 06

  Yeah, cuz I'm, yeah, I wanna, I wanna.

• 34:41Speaker 05

  What is the funniest thing about menopause?

• 34:43Speaker 06

  I'm like, I'm, who's carrying menopause? Who is that?

• 34:46Speaker 05

  What?

• 34:47Speaker 06

  It's a joke. But what's the funniest thing about menopause?

• 34:49Speaker 05

  Oh my god, I don't even know. Oh, oh my god. Like funny, but it's like comedy, it's more like comedy tragedy. It's more like comedy, comedy slash tragedy. It's very hard for me to, we're gonna have to go off camera and I'll tell you everything.

• 35:02Speaker 06

  Who makes you, who makes you laugh right now?

• 35:04Speaker 05

  Oh my god, who makes me laugh? Well, that's a, I don't know.

• 35:09Speaker 04

  Oh no.

• 35:10Speaker 05

  Oh my, not Trump.

• 35:11Speaker 04

  Yeah, no, but that's.

• 35:13Speaker 06

  Sam, you've completely, you've completely checked out.

• 35:17Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:18Speaker 06

  You're in your old bubble. You've checked out.

• 35:21Speaker 05

  Laugh, I don't know, it's so weird. Having come from the world of comedy, all I watch are tragic things. Like I'm watching that show about Ireland and the troubles.

• 35:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, but also great book, great show, yeah.

• 35:32Speaker 05

  Oh god, so good, so good. Move on to the Memendas brothers, man. When I really wanna laugh, I'll go back. You know what, when I really wanna, actually, that's so funny. Election, the day after the election, I was like, I have to watch some Tim Robinson sketches. And we put on, I Think You Should Leave, and we just selected our favorite sketches.

• 35:49Speaker 06

  The funniest show on television.

• 35:50Speaker 05

  Always will laugh.

• 35:51Speaker 04

  Oh, haven't checked out. Still has to do a pulse check with comedy.

• 35:55Speaker 06

  The funniest show on television.

• 35:57Speaker 05

  In existence that I have maybe ever, that it consistently makes me laugh.

• 36:02Speaker 06

  Now, it is.

• 36:03Speaker 05

  To tears.

• 36:03Speaker 06

  Sublimely stupid, right?

• 36:05Speaker 05

  Oh, it's insanity.

• 36:06Speaker 06

  It's like, so, but it's the funniest show on television, for sure.

• 36:10Speaker 05

  So that makes you laugh. Oh, yeah.

• 36:12Speaker 06

  You know what that tells me? That you that you're at a point where you have to, because that's

• 36:16Speaker 05

  It's chaos.

• 36:17Speaker 06

  Chaos, like aggressively beating you over the head with comedy. And you're kind of in that space where you have to be

• 36:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, it has to cut through.

• 36:26Speaker 06

  It's wild outside.

• 36:27Speaker 05

  Like, I don't watch, like, I don't, okay, okay, actually, that's I also love Maria Bamford. Do you know Maria?

• 36:33Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 36:34Speaker 05

  I love Maria Bamford.

• 36:35Speaker 04

  Literally comedy about depression and mental illness.

• 36:38Speaker 05

  Yeah, no, no, no, it's so much more than that. It's so much more than

• 36:42Speaker 04

  Interesting, given what you've said.

• 36:43Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, I just love it. I went, like, I binged a bunch. Maria is she's one of the funniest people on planet Earth, and she just, like, takes me there. So I went to see her.

• 36:57Speaker 06

  Are you worried about your ability to laugh?

• 36:59Speaker 05

  No.

• 36:59Speaker 06

  Now that you're not?

• 37:00Speaker 05

  I will always laugh. I will always laugh. My husband does, like, we're both comedic performers, we're comedy writers, we all laugh. My children are insanely funny. I like to watch shows about the troubles. I'm like a very complicated person.

• 37:16Speaker 04

  You are.

• 37:17Speaker 05

  I'm not an authentic, she contains multitudes.

• 37:20Speaker 04

  She is, she is. And I've just, like, I had a roller coaster of emotions in this interview. Thank you, Samantha Bee. Thank you so much for coming.

• 37:29Speaker 05

  We made you laugh.

• 37:30Speaker 04

  Coming on the show.

• 37:31Speaker 05

  We made her laugh.

• 37:32Speaker 04

  Going off script. We appreciate you.

• 37:35Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 37:45Speaker 03

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• 38:29Speaker 02

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