Dec. 16, 2025

Comedy News Update - Rob Reiner - Late Night hosts react, Kimmel goes after Trump

Show Notes
Transcript

Late NIght reacted to the death of Rob Reiner. Jimmy Kimmel was quite pointed about the President's comments.

00:14 Seinfeld's Connection to Rob Reiner
00:52 Rob Reiner's Influence on Seinfeld's Success
05:08 Late Night Hosts React to Rob Reiner's Death
08:58 Rob Reiner's Legacy and Contributions
10:20 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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WEBVTT

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Kaleroga Shock Media.

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And I'm Johnny Magan. We're continuing to follow the death

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of Rob Reiner. I will continue to do these as

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standalone episodes and focus it through the lens of stand

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up comedy. Jerry Seinfeld called Rob Reiner the biggest influence

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on my career. Seinfeld explained the show Seinfeld would never

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have happened without Rob Reiner. He saw something no one

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else could when nobody at the network. Like the early episodes,

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he saved us from cancelation. That I was working with

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Carl Reiner's son, who happened to be one of the

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kindest people in show business seemed unreal. I was naive

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at the time to how much his passion for us meant.

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Seinfeld praised Rob's marriage to Michelle Singer, calling it an

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imprint for me of how it's supposed to work, each

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one broadening the other. Their death together is impossibly sad.

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Rob Reiner was on The Howard Stern Show in twenty

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sixteen and explained how Castle Rock recognized the potential of

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the Seinfeld series. Rob defended it to NBC. As Rob

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told the story to Howard, NBC said, we can't have

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the show. What is the show, just people sitting around talking.

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As Rob told it, I said, please, I promise you

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there'll be stories. You can't take the show off the air.

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It's going to be one of the great shows you've

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ever had. I mentioned at the end of yesterday's Bonus

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episode at the President of the United States just made

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some terrible, horrible comments. I'm not gonna pull any punches here,

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just awful. Jimmy Kimmel spoke about those comments at length.

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I'm going to play a very long clip here from

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Jimmy Kimmel, but I don't think it could be said better.

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Here in Los Angeles, the murder of one of our

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greatest directors and patriots, Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle Reiner.

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And what we need in a time like this, besides

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common sense when it comes to guns and mental health care,

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is compassion and leadership. We did not get that from

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our president because he has none of it to give. Instead,

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we got a full rambling about nonsense. We got a

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brief moment of respect for our friends in Australia. We

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got a brief moment of condolence followed by a thing's

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happened for the students at Brown and for Robin Michelle Reiner.

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We got this posts. A very sad thing happened last

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night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling but

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once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed

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away together with his wife Michelle, reportedly due to the

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anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable reflection.

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With a mind.

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Crippling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome sometimes referred to

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as TDS. He was known to have driven people crazy

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by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with

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his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump administration

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surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the

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Golden Age of America upon us perhaps like never before.

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May Robin Michelle rest in peace.

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Just when you think he can't go any lower, he

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somehow finds.

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A way to do that.

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His description of what happened, of course, is not at

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all what happened, And this is exactly what I've spoken

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about before, this rush to pin the tale on the

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donkey in pursuit of the Trump friendly narrative, not to

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mention blaming his death on the fact that he is

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an outspoken liberal, insulting someone who's just been murdered, who

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leaves children behind without having any idea of what actually happened.

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It's so hateful and vile. When I first saw it,

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I thought it was fake. My wife showed to me

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this morning, was like, well lad even for him, that

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seemed like too much, but nothing.

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Is ever too much for him.

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Of course, he won't see the Fox newsgang screaming about

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this one, but a couple of Republicans did, to their credit,

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two of them, I think, And so a few hours

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later a White House reporter gave Trump the chance to

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take another shot, to act like a human being.

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Amber of Republicans have announced your statement hundred social murder and.

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Rob Ryer.

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Well.

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I wasn't a fan of his at all. He was

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a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned. He

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said he likely knew it was false. Is the exact

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opposite that I was a friend of Russia, controlled by Russia,

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you know, the Russia hopes he was one of the

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people behind it. I think he heard himself in career wise,

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he became like a deranged person Trump derangement syndrome. So

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I was not a fan of Reiner at all in

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any way, shape or form. I thought he was very

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bad for our country.

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Guy that corroded brain is in charge of our lives.

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If you voted for that, it's okay to reconsider. It's

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perfectly fine. And I'm to say I know ver my

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personal interacts with Rob Reiner, that he would want us

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to keep pointing out the loathso atrocities that continue to

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ooze out of this sick and irresponsible man's mouths.

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And so we're going to do that over and over

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again until the rest of us wake up.

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On that episode, guest Michelle Obama, this is really interesting.

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Listen to this. Michelle said, We've known them for years,

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many years, and we were supposed to be seeing them

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that night. Wow. I don't want to speculate. I don't

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know where the meeting would have taken place, but boy,

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very easy to let your mind run wild with that one.

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Stephen Colbert did a cold open.

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Hi, everybody.

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Normally we start the show with a short cold open

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about a major news story of the day, but after

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the terrible news this past weekend, the horrifying Honokah massacre

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at Bondi Beach, the tragic shootings at Brown University, and

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the heartbreaking deaths of Rob and Michelle Reiner. All the

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major stories are.

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Too dark for that.

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Other people's tragedy is sacred ground, and we try very

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hard not to walk there. But we are going to

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do a comedy show tonight in light of and in

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spite of the darkness.

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Seth Meyer has got very serious. He did seven minutes

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about the Reiners, but I'll play just a chunk here

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for you.

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We all got the news that Rob and Michelle Reiner

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had been murdered in their homes. I did not know

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Rob Michelle very well, but I'd been lucky enough to

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spend time with them, and they were delightful people to

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be in a room with. I had Rob here on

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this show for the first time a couple months ago,

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and I could have talked to him for hours about

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his work, about his career. A few years ago, I

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was lucky enough to get invited to a hundredth birthday

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party for Norman Lear. Norman Lear was an incredible creator

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of television. He was the mind and the heart behind

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some of the greatest shows ever made. One of them

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was All in the Family. Rob had been in that show.

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Rob was also at that one hundredth birthday party, and

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Norman was one hundred years old and he was still

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very with it. I was sitting next to him, and

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he could hold a conversation. He was incredible to behold.

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At the end of the night, remember about forty or

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fifty people there, the host of the party said, does

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anybody here have anything? Thatsk Norman? And somebody said, Norman,

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how did your career start? How did you know you

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wanted to do what you did?

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And you know, he was a sharp one.

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Hundred year old man, but he was still one hundred

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year old man. He was sort of struggling to come

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up with a way to answer that question. And we

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were all patiently waiting, and then Rob just yelled out

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from the back of the room. He said, Norman, tell

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them the story about how you once hit in a

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birthday present. And then Norman launched into the story that

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he clearly told a hundred times, if not more, and

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it was just the most wonderful story and everyone was

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delighted in it. And as soon as one story ended, Rob,

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who'd know Norman for so long, would just yell out

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another greatest hit story, and Norman would tell another incredible

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tale and I know this sounds like a story about Norman,

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but it's also a really great story about Rob. Because

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Rob was known. Rob had this reputation for getting the

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best out of people, and if you watch his films,

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you know that is something he had the skill with.

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But to see him in person and know that's what

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it was like in his real life as well, it

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was just so truly special to see.

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Late Nighter reported that Jimmy Fallon did regular monologue jokes

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about Trump, but stayed away from the Reiner story. In time,

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Late Night Ers says that Jimmy addressed it in a

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straightforward post monologue expression of sadness without any mention of

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Trump's accompanying comments. Johnny Mack will add the opinion that

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is a poor decision by Jimmy Fallon. Jim Norton tweeted,

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just a heads up, it's okay to be sad about

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Rob Reiner's death without letting everyone know that you didn't

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agree with the politics. No one gives a whot. Continuing

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to focus this story through a stand up comedy lens

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and not getting into the gory details of it, but

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Conan O'Brien's name, making the story Rob Reiner and son,

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Nick Reiner, were involved in a heated argument on Saturday

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night at Conan O'Brien's Christmas party. Sources told people Nick

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was quote freaking everyone out, acting crazy, kept asking people

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if they were famous. TMZ reported that after the arguments,

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Robin Michelle left the party. It is unclear if Nick

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left the party at that time. At the National Comedy

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Center in j Jamestown, New York, executive director Journey Gunderson

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says Rob Reiner visited in twenty twenty with his family

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to cut the ribbon on the Karl Reiner Keep Laughing exhibit.

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Journey said it was incredible because it wasn't a moment

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about him, even though his career certainly stands on its own,

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both within comedy and outside of it. It was about

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honoring his father's legacy, and he had reverenced in humility,

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in this kind of steadfast intellect about anything comedic or

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when it came to the humanity of the art that

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his father had created, she recalls. In twenty twenty one,

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Rob Reiner appeared on The Today Show to announce the

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Comedy Center's acquisition of Karl Reiner's archive. Journey said, my

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first meeting with Rob was to brief him on what

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he would then later find in Jamestown and our work

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at the National Comedy Center, and he really went to

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bat for us as a cultural institution because he believed

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in the mission and he believed in the cause. Gunderson said,

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not a day goes by at the Center where someone

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isn't laughing about Rob's own contributions, including This is Spinal Tap.

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She says it was a film that was largely improvised

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and collaborative, which is kind of rare. So many things

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are really scripted to a t. So in nineteen eighty

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four he comes out with his directorial debut of This

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Spinal Tap. Over the more than ten years since we

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started building the National Comedy Center, people come up to

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me all the time with their favorites, so their quote

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of all time, and it's many times that people tell

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me the original Spinal Tap is their favorite comedy. Gunnerson says,

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it feels like they've lost a leader of the entertainment community.

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Someone online said it best. They said, we've lost one

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of the few good men, and I thought that was

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well said. There was a regular episode in the feed

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earlier today. Back in the morning with a normal episode