May 15, 2025

Bill Burr on Accountability

Show Notes
Transcript

Bill Burr's take on the issue of holding comedians accountable and how it contrasts with corporate America's behavior. Nate Bargatze talks about his career journey and expresses gratitude for staying a clean standup. Zarna Garg recounts her brave decision to refuse an arranged marriage at 14, and TJ Miller dives into his passion for Bitcoin and the challenges of getting people to understand it.

00:12 Bill Burr's Interview with The New Yorker
02:05 Nate Bargatze at the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation
04:35 Mo Amer's Adjustment to America
05:09 Zarna Garg's Arranged Marriage Story
06:02 TJ Miller's Bitcoin Passion
07:12 Conclusion and Call to Action

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hey there, I'm Johnnie Mac with your

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daily comedy news. My son graduates college today, So both

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today and tomorrow are pre tapes that I did about

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a week ago so that I could be with the

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family today. I'm sure you can understand. Bill Burr spoke

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to The New Yorker. Bill said, there was a thing

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for a while while we're holding comedians accountable for what

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they were saying, like we were these wizards like would

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go on stage and say something, and then suddenly people

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thought that and then meanwhile corporate America could be as

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effed up as they want to be. Then Burr asked

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the interviewer, are you homophobic? The interviewer said no. Burr said,

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all right, what joke can I tell that would make

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you homophobic? Is there a joke? How does that joke go?

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The New Yorker said, I mean, I agree with that

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up to a point. But I just wrote this piece

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about how parasocial relationships. Burr cuts in the article says,

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with visceral disdain parasocial relationships. Who's going to say that now?

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Is that a same term parasocial? That sounds like some

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bs to censor comedian and blame the ills of society

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on a comedian rather than the people that are actually

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making the efing laws. I'm not running into a box store,

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I'm not hiring people. I'm not trying to poison the

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fing a food supply New Yorker. As a journalist, if

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I say I just wrote a bunch of stuff down

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and you don't have to listen to me, that wouldn't fly.

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I have to take responsibility for what I'm saying. Bur.

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Journalism is not stand up comedy. We're not in the

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same world, New Yorker. So what do you think your

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responsibility is? Bur? My responsibility is to make you laugh.

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And if I'm being malicious, people know. People know if

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you mean it or not. So what people did you? People?

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You journalists for a while, they're not even because you

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gave an f just because it was a hot story.

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All of a sudden, you'd finish your act and somebody'd

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be like, I want to talk about some of the

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statements you made, statements I was up there telling jokes,

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or it continues. I've had people who have said fed

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up stuff about me on the internet and then they

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come up to me and they're like, Hey, Bill, how's

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your family, and I want to be like, you don't

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give an f about my family, but I can't because

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they're a white woman, and I can't say anything. Oh

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my god, when a white woman complains, people listen. So

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I'm just cordial and those are liberals, dude and burst?

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Are we only going to talk about this because I

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don't want to be this like political ideology. Guy Bert

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was there to talk about Glengarry Glenn Ross. Really good

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piece in the New Yorker. It's behind a paywall, but

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if you're good at the Internet, you can figure it out.

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Nate PERGATSI, you talked to USA Today last week. They

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described the scene as Nate is at the fundraiser for

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the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation. Nate gets up. He

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jokes he has a sustain for reading because every book

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is just the most words. We're told he's wearing a

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black tracksuit on zip to reveal a casual white T

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shirt and sneakers, and he opens up with I didn't

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know you all wore suits. My business casual is different

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than your business casual. It's the most ties I've ever

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seen in my life. That's a good way to warm

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up the crowd. I like it, He apologizes to the attendants.

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Reading is a hard thing. I really want to do it.

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I love the idea of it. He talked about his

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new book and said, We're not a book that's better

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than anybody. We're just one that sits there and it's

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a fun read. And then after us you go back

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to the books that they are actually going to learn

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something from. Nate looked back on the days of starting

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out and said, started in New York, I'd stand on

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the corner handing out flyers, and I would get stage

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time if you could bring people into the show. Yeah,

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if you've ever been to New York City, I feel

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bad for those people doing that. You see them all

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the time in the Times Square area. It is awful,

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and Nate said, I didn't imagine it to be the

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level that it's gotten, meaning his career being really huge,

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specifically playing in front of nineteen thousand people at the

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Bridgetone Arena. It's kind of weird because you hit a

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moment with this thing that's been driving me for twenty years,

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and I've got to think about what the next thing's

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going to drive you. That's where the Nate Land Company

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and all the other stuff came in. As he said

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in a few other interviews, he thought about, you know,

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maybe not being a clean stand up. There were times

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and you'd feel like, all right, if I went another route,

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maybe I'd get to jump up. But fortunately I always

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tell myself, no, stay the course and just trust that

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it's going to work out. And then he once again

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in this interview, floated that he's going to do two

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more tours. Osco at Costco is part of a New

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York Times series where Asian American comedians talked about people

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they really dug Osco talked about Tignatour and said she's

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a friend now, but before that it was a comedy

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idol of mine. She directed my first HBO specialty Intruder.

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She's unapologetically herself as a comedian in person, an artist

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super deadpan, and her joke no Moleste plays on linguistics

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and uses that as tangient Osco explains, a lot of

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Americans only know one language, English, so the idea of

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hearing the word moleste is like, oh, it sounds like

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something that would have a negative connotation. She does the

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classic if this then what set up in stand up comedy?

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That structure only works when you continue building out the

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bigger picture and go further, and she does that really well.

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I think about that joke a lot because it's so simple.

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It's not over explaining a situation. It's trusting that all

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humans communicate similarly, and then we all have the ability

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to see of the absurd in situations. That's what I

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love about it. She plays at the height of people's intelligence. Moa.

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Mayer spoke to The Houston Chronicle about coming to the

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States and said, there is an adjustment period. You can't

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just land and feel at home right away, a massive

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adjustment to the geography, the buildings, the people, everything. I

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landed here a few days before Halloween. I didn't even

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know what the hell Halloween was. Then two days later

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everyone's naked and crazy and there's blood everywhere. Is beyond

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shocking and terrifying. It was a lot emotionally. I didn't

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have my mom or dad with me. It was just

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my sister and my brother. Was really tough for a while.

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Where a parent's going to be okay. I left right

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before the oil fields were set ablaze. They wanted to

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protect me and get me out of there, but I

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almost wished I didn't leave. I wanted to stay with

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my mother and help as much as possible. Zarna garg

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I told a story on Fox News is Brian kill

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MEA's show about how her father had set her up

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for an arranged marriage, and at fourteen years old, Zarna

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made the decision, no, Zarn, it's old, Brian. My dad

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was like, listen, if you don't want to get married,

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you can't live here. He thought he would scare me

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to submission. And I thought he'd come around. I thought

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he's riddled with grief because his wife just died, my mom,

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and then he's going to come around. This is all

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going to be okay. We're basically in a face off.

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She wound up couch surfing for two years. I showed

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up on my friend's house and after day and my

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friend's mom was like, you should go back. And that's

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when it hit me like, oh my god, I have

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nowhere to go, and was almost two years of where

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can I go? Tonight. Zarna says her father was coming

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from a good place. I know it feels shocking here

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in America, but what he remembers is that I walked

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away from a guaranteed life that he was going to

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set up for me. He wasn't a bad guy, to

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be clear, he wasn't. He came from a good place.

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I have three siblings who were arranged. My sister was

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arranged and is deliriously happy and successful. TJ. Miller is

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really into bitcoin. He says, eventually there will be a

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movie about the bitcoin revolution, and it will be interesting

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because the revolution didn't happen all at once. According to TJ,

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it takes only a little over two full days to

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get the average person up to speed on bitcoin. He

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was asked why more celebrities aren't bitcoiners. DJ says most

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people refuse to sit down and study. Again. He was

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on Coin Stories and told host Natalie Brunell it's really

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hard to get people to study after they graduate from

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any level. According to TJ, it will take you about

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fifty hours of study to truly understand bitcoin. So by

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two days, he means two full days. See, I thought

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he meant, like, you know, two days in a row,

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No fifty hours. So to say somebody, it's going to

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take fifty hours feet to understand this, They're like, I

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don't want to. They can't even watch a netfl series,

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they can't even watch White Lotus because it takes seven hours.

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Miller introduces himself as the only celebrity that is a bitcoiner.

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I can't really think of anyone else you can tell,

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and I'm passionate about it. So what I'd like to

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be able to do is be somebody that helps bring

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cultural awareness, spread awareness, and just be a trusting name

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and face in the bitcoin community that hopefully will bring

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more people to it. And that is your comedy news

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for today. To enjoy the program, please tell a friend

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about it. They might like it too. If you're discovering

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this thing on YouTube, it's really an audio podcast. I'm

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just making these things because you know, you gotta but

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smash the bell and hit the like and all that,

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and I'll see you guys tomorrow