June 2, 2026

Conan O'Brien Harvard Lawsuit, CBS’ Byron Allen Time-Buy, and Patton Oswalt on AI

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac covers Daily Comedy News, leading with a long Conan O’Brien clip joking that he’s “suing Harvard” over various student grievances while riffing on the administration’s claims about foreign students. He explains CBS’ late-night deal with Byron Allen: Allen pays $15 million a year to lease the 11:30 slot and sell ads himself, meaning CBS profits even if ratings are low; the first night drew 878,000 viewers, and CBS cites a shift from losing about $40 million annually to $15 million profit. Patton Oswalt tells Vice his new special Tea and Scotch argues AI can’t replicate lived perspective and chose a small Madison venue; it premieres on YouTube June 9. Tom Segura partners with Fox Creator Studios on multiple projects. Nate Bargatze discusses clean comedy, Rob Schneider tweets about Adam Carolla’s Walk of Fame amid Jimmy Kimmel remarks, and new releases from Greg Proops, Jamel Johnson, and comments from Nish Kumar on fellow comics and Riyadh-related “cultural washing.”

00:13 Conan Sues Harvard
03:40 CBS Byron Allen Late Night
05:07 Patton Oswalt On AI
05:35 Tea And Scotch Release
06:29 Tom Segura Fox Deal
07:13 Nate Bargatze Clean Comedy
08:12 Rob Schneider Kimmel Drama
09:12 New Comedy Albums Roundup
09:57 Nish Kumar Calls Out Comics, especially Jimmy Carr

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This is the animal sanctuary mentioned in the February 10 episode.

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Calaruga Shark Media.

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Hey there, Johnny Mack with your daily comedy news. Conan

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O'Brien is suing Harvard. I've got a clip for you,

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a little longer than I usually play for a clip,

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but it's great. Here's Conan.

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Perhaps the biggest issue facing this institution is that the

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federal government of the United States is suing our university. Yeah.

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Many people think I've come today to defend Harvard. Well, sorry,

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those people are wrong. Not only am I not against

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these lawsuits, I'm here to announce that I'm joining them.

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I too, am suing Harvard. I'm suing Harvard for the

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cast iron bunk bed that greeted me upon my arrival

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at How Were They sixteen my freshman year, a bed

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that has since been confiscated by the Hague as an

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instrument of divine c I'm suing Harvard for allowing me

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to sign up for a nine am class at the

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Science Center and a ten am class down at Soldiers Field.

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For God's sakes, I was a child. I'm suing Harvard

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for my less than spectacular undergraduate sex life, for me

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having a three way man adding a second mirror to

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my dorm. I'm suing Harvard because once I had to

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listen to the Harvard Crocodillo's do an eight minute rendition

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of split splash, I was taken a bath. My god,

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each one took a solo and it was awful. And finally,

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I'm suing Harvard because, and this is absolutely true, in

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the spring of my sophomore year, while trying to grab

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a quick lunch at Adam's house, I was served a meal.

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You has served a meal called capt'n Ben's fish spaghetti.

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To this day, I have no idea who capt'n Ben

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is or why someone would combine government issue cod with spaghetti. Harvard,

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I'll see your ass in court. Yes, I'm confident that

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my claims will have more merit than those filed by

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the President of the United States. Yes, as you are aware,

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the current administration feels Harvard amidst too many foreign students,

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and who knows, they may have a point. After all,

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what has any foreigner ever added to our American culture,

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with the possible exception of music, literature, art, cuisine, architecture, dance,

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scientific breakthroughs in the core of our moral codes and

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ethical blaze? Seriously serious, If foreigners hadn't gummed up the

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works right now, it'd all be listening to delightful Calvinist reggae,

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eating savory Church of England ZD and dancing the forbidden

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and sexually charged the Lutheran LOMBARDA wow.

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And you can send your letters to Conan O'Brien now

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via Deadline. BBS is letting you know you could take

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all the shots you want at them over this Byron

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Allen thing. They're good with it. I see people on

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threads and they're like, the ratings are down for Byron Allen.

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CBS is getting what they deserve. They know what they're

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walking into. Byron Allen is fine with this. CBS is

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fine with this. CBS wants you to know that Byron Allen,

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who is a billionaire and has had a lot of

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success in television, doing this sort of thing. Byron Allen

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is paying fifteen million dollars a year as a time buy,

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meaning that he's leasing the eleven thirty hour from CBS

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and selling its ad inventory himself. So on the CBS end,

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even if this show gets zero viewers, they make fifteen

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million dollars a year, so they don't care. You can

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hate all you want the first night of Comics Unleashed

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got eight hundred and seventy eight thousand total viewers, which

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honestly is not that far from comparing apples to slightly

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different apples here, but Seth Meyers show really doesn't get

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a lot more than that. I'm comparing eleven thirty and

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twelve thirty, and maybe that eight seventy eight was some

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curiosity mixed in. We'll see where the Byron Allen number

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settles in. BBS said, We're proud to partner with Byron

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Allen on a new business and programming model for Late

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Night that proactively addresses a network date part that was

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cost prohibitive to continue with this time by model, we

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have shifted an hour that was losing roughly forty million

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dollars annually to fifteen million dollars in profit, a fifty

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five million dollars swing. Some industry sources or curious how

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a CBS arrives at the negative forty million dollar number,

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doesn't really matter. The Late Show is over. Star trek

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Ruinner Patton Oswalt spoke to Vice about his new special.

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One of the topics was ai. Patton Oswalt said, stand

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up as an art form is a living, evolving snapshot

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of one person's life and their reaction to an opinion

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of it, which is why I think a lot of

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younger people are kind of seeing the job security of

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it at all. A I might be able to craft

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technically funny jokes, but it will never have a point

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of view that comes from living a life of heartbreak, joy, accidents,

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massive f ups, and real growth. The new special is

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called t and Scotch. What's with that patent? He said?

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The titles of my specials and albums are never consciously

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connected to anything within the special, But later on I

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realized I was subconsciously expressing something I didn't even realize

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was eating at me. And right now, the way we're living,

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it's either soothing tea or bracing scotch. Maybe I'm struggling

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with how I've willingly embraced living under those two extremes

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and fooled myself into thinking it's somehow healthy vice ass, Patten,

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this seems to be the smallest venue you ever filmed

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a special. Aunt. Is there a reason for that? Patton said,

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I did some shows at Comedy on stateon Madison, Wisconsin

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a few years ago, and I was blown away by

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how electric and just plane present the crowds were. By

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the time the weekend was over, I knew that's where

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I was going to film my next special, small, raw, intimate.

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I still love the big streaming platforms, but a lot

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of them seem to send some pretty brilliant comedy specials

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down a digital black hole. This was a chance to

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own my product, control the distribution, make sure the right

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eyes got on it. Roll with the new t in

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Scotch on YouTube. June ninth, Congratulations to Tom sigor who's

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on a bit of a roll. Fox Creator Studios and

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Sigora's YMH Studios are joining forces. It is a strategic

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MULTII project partnership to develop, finance, and produce a broad

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slate of original content. That slate includes a stand up

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comedy showcase spotlighting both established and emerging voices, a horror

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comedy animated series, and a live action comedy series set

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in an airport bar. Sagora til Deadline. We've spent years

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building a business where we can create independently and stay

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directly connected to our audience. Fox Creator Studios understands that

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model and brings the infrastructure and reach to help us

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expand it in a meaningful way. Nate Bergantcy was hawking

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his new movie The Breadwinner on in the Ovaughn's podcast.

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They started talking about clean comedy. THEO said, you can

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get away with a lot more when you don't curse.

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I think you could say a lot of things and

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talk about a lot of stuff. When people hear foul language,

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they either check out or label a comedian as dirty.

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Nate said, just be in control of it. When did

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he get into comedy. Let me look this up two

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thousand and two, Nate, you could say stuff by two

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thousand and two. Relax, You couldn't say whatever you wanted

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to say way back in two thousand and two. That's

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not a bad thing. That means you have to be

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creative in a scenario and come out stuff in different angles.

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THEO Vaughn said, foul language is kind of how I

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operate a regular day. Nate said he doesn't consider von

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a quote dirty comic and told him to do whatever

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you want to do. I think Nate needs to hide

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out for a while. I think if we look back

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in this run that started with what did he host

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the Emmys like? He had all the heat coming off

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the Snlharents. But then the Emmys, the Game Show? Did

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anyone care? The movie? Does anyone care? The theme park?

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Does anyone care? I think he needs to just tap

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the brakes a little and just do a stand up tour.

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But what do I know. He's making more money than anybody.

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And I'm sitting in the basement. Rob Schneider in the news,

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and there's always when Rob Schneider is in the news,

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it's about, you know, really positive things. I don't know

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what it is with Rob. He's just one of those

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comedians that every time he appears, just like strife involved

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with the story. This time he was weighing in on

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Adam Carolla making the Hollywood Walk of Fame. How about

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you just say congratulations Adam Carolla, or don't say anything now.

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Jimmy Kimmel was there at the ceremony. Kimmel said, Adam

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and I, as you probably know, don't agree much when

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it comes to politics. But I love him dearly. I've

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never worked with anyone funny or I'm proud of him.

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This is guy worked his way up from nothing to

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become literally a millionaire. And if you don't believe it,

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you'll hear him say at every single show. Schneider, who

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was not at the ceremony, had to jump on Twitter

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and said, have a friend like Adam Carolla who's able

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to set aside the most egregious whiny. He hates viewing

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leftists lying even about murder bs and still be a

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pel all at uh is believed to be about Jimmy Kimmel, Adam,

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congratulations on your well deserved star and your loyalty above ideology.

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Greg Proops has a new album. It is called Kidding

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but Still. It's available via a Special Thing Records group.

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Recorded at the Punchline in San Francisco on New Year's

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Eve for the fifth year in a row, he did

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a spontaneous set of tales from the road, improvvel's pointed

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political observations, and more. It is his tenth live comedy album.

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Jamel Johnson's third album is available for pre order. It'll

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be out on June twelfth. That's called mid Range. On

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mid Range, Johnson brings levity to serious topics like the

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racial biases of artificial intelligence, the way men encourage toxic masculinity,

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and the pros and cons of being a fat boyfriend.

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There are also some hyper specific references like phone game ads, basketball,

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ice hockey and living with an iPod Touch instead of

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a phone. The Guardian caught up with Nish Kumar now.

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They point out, while they were doing the interview, there

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was a big poster promoting prime videos last one Laughing

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UK and in the center of the frame is Jimmy Carr,

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The Guardian reminds us. In Kumore's last stand up show,

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he recalled the time he confronted Jimmy Carr about Jimmy

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Carr's decision to appear on Jordan Peterson's podcast. The Guardian

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tells us Kumore is initially as it into criticizes fellow comics,

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saying all I'm thinking right now is a single phrase.

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You should not be allowed to give interviews. But soon

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he was calling out Jimmy Carr, Bill Bird, Dave Chappelle

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and Jack Whitehall were playing a part in the quotes

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cultural washing of a repressive regime. All that about the

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Riod Comedy Festival, I imagine he found the participation of those

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who have complained about cancel culture egregious. Kumore said, I

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don't want to hear about free speech from any of

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those sea words again. He tells us he's not living

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like a superstar. No one I know of his level

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of wealth where they have transcended the mechanism of day

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to day life. That's a Jimmy Carr level of money.

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We found out that Kumar even turned down last one,

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laughing when his agent laid the offer. She told him

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the money was really good and that Jimmy Carr was hosting.

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Nish said, I said to her, do honestly think I

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could say yes to this given the content of what

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I'm saying on stage right now. If I'm essentially accusing

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him of being part of the mechanism that's wondering fascist,

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misogynist ideas in the mainstream discourse, I can't then be like, oh, Jimmy,

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isn't Bob Mortimer good? And that is your comedy news

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for today. You can follow a show on Spotify, and

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you could turn on notifications so you never miss an episode,

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And you can also use the comments section on Spotify

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to chime in on any of this if you'd like to.

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And there's also the Facebook group Daily Comedy News Podcast

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Group And I'll see here tomorrow