Feb. 5, 2026

Kermit Gate: The Muppets Voice Controversy

Kermit Gate: The Muppets Voice Controversy

Johnny Mac takes a deep dive into the 'Kermit Gate,' involving criticism of Kermit the Frog's new voice. Highlights include a segment on recent Epstein jokes by Jimmy Fallon, a report on Bill Burr’s latest concert dates and the humorous fan...

Johnny Mac takes a deep dive into the 'Kermit Gate,' involving criticism of Kermit the Frog's new voice.

Highlights include a segment on recent Epstein jokes by Jimmy Fallon, a report on Bill Burr’s latest concert dates and the humorous fan reactions, and a detailed examination of the changes in Kermit's voiceover through the years. 

The episode also touches on upcoming performances by Dave Chappelle and John Stewart for a benefit concert, Craig Ferguson’s podcast strategy, and a unique segment about a peculiar French hospital evacuation!
 

01:23 Bill Burr's Facebook Drama
02:23 Kermit the Frog: This new voice is unacceptable
09:42 Upcoming Comedy Events and Announcements
14:34 Comedy Survivor and Listener Engagement
16:07 International Comedy News
17:23 Bizarre News to End the Day

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media.

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Hey there, I'm Johnny Mack with your daily comedy news

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and daily briefing on stand up comedy comedians in the

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comedy industry. A phraeze that apparently if you stop saying,

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your Spotify numbers go down. Apparently that phrase works, And

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I'm gonna try and keep it light today. I'm looking

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ahead to tomorrow's script. I'm gonna dive in tomorrow about

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Andrew Schultz a little bit. So tomorrow's gonna get a

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little political. I'll keep it silly today. I want to

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dive into this Kermit gait. Have you heard Kermit the

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Frog's current voice. We got a whole problem with that.

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We'll get to that in a second. Briefly political, you

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know this Epstein stuff is pretty serious when Jimmy Fallon

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is cracking jokes about it. Fallon said, well, guys. The

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fallout from the latest Epstein files release continues, and President

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Trump's Justice Department said that it's not a crime to

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party with Epstein. Falon said, did years to come up

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with an excuse, and that's what you went with. If

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someone said that to you, what a super Bowl party?

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And slowly back away and call the police fallent again

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in a Trump impression, said partying with Epstein doesn't make

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me a criminal. The thirty four criminal convictions do fallen

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s data, and this one's a little hacky, but on point. Yeah.

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They said it's not a crime to party with Jeffrey Epstein,

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which is pretty much like saying it's not a crime

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enough brunch with Jeffrey Dahmer. Jimmy Kimmel said, that's right.

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It's also not a crime to borrow a bottle of

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baby oil from Diddy. Our first story today, I'm doing cold.

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I came down to the studio right around noon and

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check my phone and I had a note from one

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of the listeners who told me I might want to

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check out Bill Burr's Facebook page, and I'm like, hmm,

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I'm intrigued. Well, it seems here that Bill Burr has

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announced some dates he'll be playing some shows, and I

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was told to check out the comments section. Let's see

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common number one, how many Saudi princesses will be there

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for the show bill Someone posted Bill Burrd did the math.

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I figured it would be worth losing ten million dollars

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to make one million dollars. Dennis posted, sure, hope they

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have a Chili's near these venues. That's very good, Dennis

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for the win there. Peter, after he did his free

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Luigi on a chat show, a call was made and

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he hasn't been the same since. Dave went with bonesaw

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Bill coming at you get your tickets. Ray wrote, I'll

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bring my Saudi funded nine to eleven shirt. Liam called

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him the Prince Harry of comedy. I like that one,

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and Matt went with Texas Are you sure? Bill Burr

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may have had the worst year of any of the

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comedians of twenty twenty five. Our big topic today is

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Kermit Gate. I can't decide if this is either going

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to be the thing that gets more downloads than any

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episode I've ever done, or if I'm making a total mistake.

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A lot of new listeners joining on this week as

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I'm running some advertising. Hello new listeners, I appreciate you,

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hope you stick around. But this Kermit thing is bothering me.

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Have you seen this. There's a new Muppet show and

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someone is doing the voice of Kermit the Frog. I

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brought some audio. Let's go all the way back to

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nineteen seventy one. The original voice of Kermit the Frog

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Jim Henson. This is very early in the Kermit the

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Frog universe. Jim Henson, here is a guest on Dick

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Havevitt's TV show. I just want to share this with

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you quickly, and I want you to remember this when

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we get around to Kermit the Frog on Jimmy Kimmel's

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show some forty five years later. But here's Jim Henson

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performing Kermit the Frog.

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Hell yeah, hi, oh yeah, well how do you do?

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It's nice to be here, you know, and hello out

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thereon you left. But he's his whole body has changed

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a great deal since you know, the early one. Why

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did it change? Is it a matter of diet or yeah,

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well it's not really diet. No, same matter of progressing,

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you know, in the direction of you know, better looking frogs.

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I suppose.

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Get a little bit more modern. This is the Kermit

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the Frog in your head if you were of a

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certain age, say fifty six years old, recording a podcast

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in your basement. This is what Kermit the Frog sounds like.

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This from the nineteen eighty six oscars I Got I

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Got You?

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Yes, Unless or not. Animated short films weave their magic

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unrestrained by the limitations of human actors.

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True, an animated character can defy the laws of gravity.

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Mmmm, move from place to place without regard to space

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or time.

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Woo, and continue to amuse generation after generation without growing

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older or asking for a raise.

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Yeah. In short, and we are animated characters, and these

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short films, they appear and can do absolutely anything the

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imagination can conjure.

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Sadly, Jim Henson passed away in nineteen ninety, Kermit the

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Frog did not. Kermit was voiced by others. And I'll

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get back to that. Here is two thousand and two.

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S it's a very very Muppet Christmas movie. And this

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still kind of sounds like Kermit the Frog. Jay, I

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could sure do with a little star power around your triumph.

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Here's any way you can help me out. Muppet movies

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are always debased.

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You mean, not for me to pop on.

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Right right? You got me again? Uh huh, bye bye.

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And now here's Kermit the Frog in twenty twenty six.

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Listen to this disaster, and I will say to you,

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as a master of half ass impressions, most people's half

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asked Kermit is better than what you're about to hear.

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If I walked up to you right now, and said,

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do Kermit the frog. Your kermit would be better than

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this one. I don't have a kermit. I know I

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have all my half assed impressions, but I don't do

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a kermit. I'm not attempting a kermit. You cannot bully

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me into doing a kermit. Unless you want to come

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to the brewery and buy me a couple beverages. Then maybe,

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but I'm not doing a half ass kermit for you now.

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If you want to hear a half asked kermit, here

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is official Kermit twenty twenty six, speaking with Jimmy Kimmel.

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Thanks for having me.

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It's great to have you, and I'm excited about the

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new project. Wondering how this happened or like you, was

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it difficult to get the other muppets together to come back?

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No, no, not at all, okay, I knowing you know what.

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They couldn't wait to do them up at you again.

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But then again, there's not a big demand for a

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pig who sings, ain't bear who tells jokes, and a

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bunch of dancing raps soue.

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Okay that's there now. What were they doing though? During

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all this time? What were the other muppets up to.

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Oh, well, not much involving a bait check. But you know,

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I was trying to get the special off the ground,

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which you know, it took a while. Jimmy. You know,

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it turns out that a lot of people in Hollywood

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say yes when they actually mean no.

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I have experienced that myself, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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But you know, as far as the others go, Miss Piggy,

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she was on vocal rest, which actually we were all

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kind of okay with.

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That is unacceptable. They need to do something about that.

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The New Muppet Show is out. The Guardian watched it.

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They gave it three stores out of five. Their subheadlines says,

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this story half hour anniversary special captures the spirit of

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the original TV show at points, but Kermit's voice takes

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him getting used to. It's the fiftieth anniversary of the

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Muppet Show. Disney, which now controls of the Muppet Show,

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got the old gang back together and added guest appearances

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from Suprise a Carpenter, Seth Rogan, who happens to be

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the executive producer, and Maya Roodolph for a one off

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half hour special. The Guardian writes, God bless everyone involved.

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They've tried. You can feel it. They want to make

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it good for us. They know we deserve it, They

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know everybody at the moment desperately needs a brief, shining

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moment out of the darkness. But as Thomas Wolf so

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rightly said, you can't go home again. Look, it's fine

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if you've never seen the original. It's probably even good

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if you have. There are still moments that tease it

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taste and memory. But the bits in between their drab

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the script, including and most obviously Statler and Waldorf's heckles,

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is begging for a polish Is this despite the half

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centuries notice they had a rush job, Or has the

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show's time simply passed and no one can carry off

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exuberant silliness anymore. Well, let's get to the point of

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today's podcast. There does remain the nagging problem of Kermit's

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voice Your Mind is Henson played until nineteen ninety. Veteran

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muppeteer at Steve Whitmyer inherited the role and played it

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until he was dismissed by Disney for what they can

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called quote unacceptable business conduct. Matt Vogel now plays the character,

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and our dearest Frog sounds jurrently different to anyone born

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before Vogel's tenure. It puts the magic even further out

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of reach, but maybe only to us and we've had

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our time. You'll find all this on Disney Plus now.

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Steve Whittmeyer, who was the second voice of Kermit the Frog,

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has a blog. Steve wrote, Kermit as Jim created him

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contains years of depth and growth without default attention to that.

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Do you really believe it's Kermit just because it looks

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like him? Kermit is at the top of the Muppet pyramid,

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the spoke in the middle of the Muppet wheel around

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which all things Muppet revolve, and without Kermit being fully intact,

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there is no future for the Muppets, no new directions,

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no exploitative reboots, nothing that nurtures the historical connection to you,

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the audience. That connection as it was originally established, is vital.

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Whitmeyer continues viewing the Muppets primarily as rolls began as

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soon as Jim was gone and altered the perception from

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seeing them as individual entered who exist on our own

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world to being a corporate owned puppet character franchise with

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people hired to play them skipping ahead. Corporate thinking goes

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that all the years of interior development done by an

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originator can be replaced by simply auditioning someone who could

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lip sync approximated voice and focus the eyes, even if

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that person has no true understanding of the reasons behind

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why the world has a solid and loving connection with

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the character. But I want you to know, from day

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one throughout nearly three decades, not once did I ever

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have the notion to make Kermit my own. On the contrary,

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was absolutely vital to my process to make certain that

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any egotistical notion of marking territory never happen, so that

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Kermit remained based solely upon Jim's foundational original Kermit Gate Everybody,

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I love it. Dave Chappelle and John Stewart will appear

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together at a benefit for Yellow Springs Radio Station WYSO.

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This benefit February thirteenth, that's like a week from now.

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The general manager of the radio station says, we see

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them as aligned, even though they're very different. They're two

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of the most important voices calling out how dangerous it

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is that First Amendment rights are being trampled, that we're

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seeing censorship of important voices and legacy media capitulating to

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the Trump administration. We are told the evening with Chappelle

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and Stewart will have a talk show Vibe. The GM

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said Chappelle has a list of friends he likes to

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collaborate with, and John Stewart is on the list. In

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John said yes immediately. Jimmy Kimmel told his viewers during

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one of his monologues this week that he will demand

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to host the Oscars in twenty twenty seven if Milania

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ends up nominated in Best Documentary category. He said, mark

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my words right now, if Malania gets nominated for an Oscar,

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I will host that show. Whether they asked me to

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or not, I will insist on it. We'll let Conan know.

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Bobby Slayton is in the Epstein files. This from Syracuse

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dot Com, who report Bobby Slayton was regularly sending messages

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with Jeffrey Epstein. According to screenshots of text messages and emails,

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Bobby Slayton's name appears in more than two thousand documents.

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I've done two thousand episodes of this podcast. I think

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I've mentioned Bobby Slayton twice, including dis mention some of

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the correspondents. Thanks Jeffrey Epstein for letting Bobby Slayton stay

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at a New York City apartment while on tour. Now

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this caught the attention of Syracuse dot com, not for

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the reasons you're thinking. Apparently upstate New York sticks up

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for itself. They are focused on September twenty fourteen correspondence

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in which Slayton wrote, wish I was in NYC having

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dinner with you and Woody in Rochester in the depths

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of comedy hell send Woodman my best. We are getting

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along here, but I left myself a note here that says,

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don't bump these next two stories. So okay, Johnny Mack

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from the past, I won't. Craig Ferguson was talking about

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his podcast and says he'll still do interviews, but only

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if they're in person. Ferguson explains, I think I'm probably

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as good as anyone who does zoom call interviews, but

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in person, I think maybe I'm a little better than

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most people who do it. So I kind of feel

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like played your strength. I enjoy it much more when

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you're in a room talking with someone. So what I

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do now with the podcast is if I'm away on work,

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I'll just record a half hour of me answering questions

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from people who watch the podcast, and then that's the podcast.

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If I can't have a guest in the studio, and

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I'll just talk directly the people who watch it. Craig's

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tour begins today. See that's why I can't bump. The

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story begins today in Charlotte, North Carolina. The tour is

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called Pants on Fire. He's not sure if he'll make

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it a special. Craig says, I don't know if I

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want to make any more stand up specials. I made

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one a couple years ago and it turned out okay,

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and I was happy with it. But the thing is

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about making special I always think you do it, and

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then if you ever look at it later, you go, ah,

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I could have made that better by doing that. Jay Leno,

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who some think is the worst person who ever lived,

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Craig did not comment on that or not. Jay Leno

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has never made a stand up special in fifty years,

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and I don't think he ever will. I kind of

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get it. I like the doing of stand up. I

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don't know that I need to film it. Maybe I will,

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I don't know. I hope somebody jokes aside. I hope

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somebody has at least captured some jay Leno material, so

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that someday, one hundred years from now we could see

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what a jay Leno concert look like. Here's another story

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that passed. Johnny Max says, I'm not allowed to bump.

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British comedians Rob Beckett and Remesh Waggonnathan have tried their

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hands at Bob's letting with Team Great Britain. Yes, it's

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the Robin Ramesh first Team GB Winter Special in that

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the comedians squeeze into Bob's lay suits as they get

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a taste of life in Bob's lay. The two part

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special follows them in search of their very own winter sport.

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I have this dream that someday I'm going to hit

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up the Republic of Ireland and see if me and

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some friends of mine can be their beach volleyball team.

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I haven't done anything about this, but someday I will.

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Lance Corporal Taylor Lawrence, who was training for second Olympics,

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posted about the experience on social media. He said filming

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with SkyTV and Rob Beckett and Ramesh Reagon Ethan was

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a lot of fun, although I don't think they should

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give up their day jobs. Great guys to be around,

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and jumped in with both feet. I see what you

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did there, bumping a lot of stories on the fly today.

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It's always good when that happens. That makes me happy.

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Tomorrow's show, like I said, we'll get into the Ander

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Schultz of it all a little bit. Then. Of course,

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it's Friday, so Comedy stock Market. Saturday will be the

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super Bowl preview. A lot of comedians doing commercials. I'll

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talk about that someday. I have a fantastic interview with

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comedian Ismo. Ismo will be playing the Just for Last

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Vancouver Comedy Festival. I had a lovely half hour conversation

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with him the other day, So that'll be Sunday's episode.

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Looking ahead to Vancouver. Friend of the show Mike Chisholm,

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you know him from the Letterman podcast. He's going to

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act as the Vancouver correspondent. The nice folks at Just

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for Laughs hooked Mike up with some tickets. He's going

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to hit some shows and report back to us. Plus

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he's going to see David Letterman. And I told Mike

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if he can come up with a David Letterman interview,

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I will send him one Canadian dollar via Venmo. Get

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it done, Mike. It's been such a busy week. I

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really haven't commented too much on Comedy Survivor. Now, if

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you're a new listener, we're playing Comedy Survivor. We put

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sixteen comedians on Comedy Island, and each week the listeners

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are voting off one comedian. What you do is you

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go to the Daily Comedy News podcast group. You'll find

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a picture. This week's picture is me extinguishing the torch

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of Ron White, and I love that. The listeners are like, hey,

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you should have had Ron have a cigarette, or you

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should ad him some potato salad, and like, Okay, I

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don't know how much time you guys think I spend

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on these bits. Voting ends at end of day today

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so I can record the episodes on Friday. The results

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of Comedy Survivor come out Monday's at noon. Easter. And

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let me just skim here and just see how things

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are trending. I see one vote for somebody whose name

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hasn't come up before. H This seems to be a

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couple of votes for Jay Leno. Leslie Jones' name seems

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to be yours. I scrolled down. Okay, looks like it's

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a tight one. Some people are hanging back to see

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which way. The group is going to see if they

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can help vote someone out or perhaps steer the conversation

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away from someone they don't want to vote it out.

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Very fascinating. Comedy Survivor. Go to the Facebook group Daily

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Comedy News podcast group. Write down the name of somebody

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you want off. Please make it super crystal clear so

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I don't write like I was kind of thinking maybe

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somehow I'll vote off Joshmo. Let's just write Joshmo out

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that way. It's nice and easy. We don't need a

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controversy over Comedy Survivor. The last thing I want to

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get is like a note from Dylan in the Facebook

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group on the side, be like, hey, bro, you said

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Schmoe had six votes, it's actually seven. I think we've got.

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That's a last thing I want for this bit. This

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has kind of scary From Reuters, a Russian stand up

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comedian was convicted of inciting hatred and jailed for nearly

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six years. This over a joke the comedian made about

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a legless war veteran Artemi a stan. It has been

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sentenced for five years and nine months, also fined three

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hundred thousand rubles that's around thirty nine hundred dollars. I'm

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no expert on the law, but it seems to me

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like the fine and the jail time are very out

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of sync. Astanin was also convicted of offending the feelings

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of Christians with an off color joke he made about Jesus,

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which angered Orthodox nationalists. The crux of all this show

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last year in March, the comedian joked about how an

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impoverished war veteran who had lost his legs after being

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blown up by a mine was now forced to get

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around on a skateboard, and the crux of the joke

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being that the veteran had run over the comedian's foot. Apparently,

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there is video of the joke's punchline, which shows fellow

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comedians remaining straight faced and the sound of several audience

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members laughing. A stun In tried to flee Russia last year,

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but was arrested by police in Belarus and returned to

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Moscow to face charges. He was asked by the judge

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on Wednesday if he understood his sentence. A stun In

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is quoted as saying, to hell with your judicial practice. No,

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I don't, and I'm gonna leave you with this one,

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because we could all use a laugh this week. This

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has nothing to do with comedy. This is just I'm

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on the internet all day and I'm looking up stories

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for this and for Palace Intrigue, the podcast I write

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where we cover the royal family. And you know, I'm

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just on the internet all day because this is just

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it's what I do. I saw this one again, has

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nothing to do with comedy, but it might make you smile.

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From the Daily Mail, a man sparked an evacuation at

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a French hospital after doctors discovered an eight inch long

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live World War One artillery shell in the man's rectum.

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That's right, the man was in the hospital. He had

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an eight inch World War One artillery shell in his rectum.

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The twenty four year old man was described as being

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in a state of extreme discomfort. Emergency surgery was carried

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out to identify the large object in the man's rectum.

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They figured out it was an artillery shell dating back

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to the First World War. But here's the money quote

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quote Worse still, it had not exploded, so bomb disposable

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experts had to be called in to diffuse the shell.

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With the fire brigades standing by. Explosives are no jokes.

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Staff and patients were evacuated from the hospital. A security

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perimeter set up around the accident in emergency unit. The

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man is set to be interviewed by police. They are

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investigating the charge of handling Category A munitions And here

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is I'm gonna read it verbatim. I'm gonna read it

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from the article and I'm trying not to laugh. I'm

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gonna just try and read this. This is from quoting

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directly from the Daily Mail article, and they wrapped it

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up with there was no I can't this is too funny. Oh,

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let me try again. I could edit this out, but

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I want you to hear that. I think here, okay

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from the Daily Email. The final sentence of the article

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is I can't. Let me have a sip of my

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iced coffee here, m okay, try this again, John, and

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I could edit this up. That's no fun There was

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no Oh boy, I might have to go record another

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episode and come back just to do this tag or

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have the AI do it right? Why more try. There

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was no initial explanation as to why the shell ended

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up in the man's body, but local media speculated that

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it might have had something to do with his social

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life that as she copy news for today Bye,