Tag: Japan

[Music]

Okay, comedy. Do you like comedy? No. No, me neither. End of podcast. Yeah,

thanks guys. Bye.

Like and subscribe. So perfect example of British comedy right there.

Actually pretty good.

So I want to tell you a joke that I learned in Korea and it was illustrative

. Illustrative? Illustrative.

Illustrative. Illustrates. It’s I don’t know how to say the word that is in

my head. It’s a real word.

Illustrates. Illustrative. No. Illustrates. Yeah. What are you talking about

? No, there’s another way. There’s like a fancier way to say it.

This is a high class podcast man. All right, we got to use the word. We got

to use the three dollar words man.

So illustrative. Illustrative. Illustrative. No, illustrative makes it

sounds like it’s shiny. Yeah, it is shiny. This joke is shiny.

So I was I lived in Korea and they told me a joke and the joke made no sense

to me until a year after I left I talked to a Korean friend and I asked them

about this joke and they’re like, oh that’s a really famous joke and it’s

really funny.

So the joke is there’s a father and a son walking on a mountain side and the

father’s walking ahead and the son’s about you know 10 feet behind.

And they’re going to take their wares to the town to sell them and up on a

cliff there’s a giant Boulder. The giant Boulder gets shaken loose and rolls

down the side of the mountain and crushes the old man flat. He’s dead.

Guts everywhere. It’s horrendous and

then the Boulder continues on and rolls.

all the way down the hill. The rest of the hilarious. Nice. Well done.

No, the punchline. Oh, sorry. The son says. Dad look out. Oh, that’s it. And

then like in then Korean people thought that was really funny.

Now I learned like a year later. So I heard that joke. I was like, I don’t

get it. There’s something missing.

These people came from this town where they are famous for speaking slowly.

So it was like the massive pause was part

of the joke. But that to me was very clear.

It illustrates that culture and context make humor. So the instant you’re

outside of that, things that other people are just losing their minds on you

like I don’t to get it.

No, yeah, shed experience, culture norms. So if you ever had a similar

experience or like because we talked before about not on the podcast we’ve

talked before about when you meet someone who just doesn’t get jokes.

Like they don’t seem to have a sense of humor. Like there’s lots of stuff

that maybe I don’t find funny, but I get it to joke and I get there.

Maybe there’s stuff that’s technically funny, but I don’t laugh because I

don’t find it funny. But I wouldn’t be like that’s not funny. I’d be like

that’s not funny to me.

Not funny to me, but I’ve met a few people who just don’t seem to get any

jokes. Like you make a joke and they just look at you.

And then some people will analyze the other girl like that doesn’t make

sense. Yeah, like something meant to.

I tell you it’s so weird to me because I’m always looking to laugh. It’s

weird to me that that’s someone’s life. Yeah. Wow, how depressing.

It is to us, but to them it’s fine. Like they just, they don’t, that’s it.

They just live without humor and that’s how they live.

Yeah, I know. I can’t, I can’t actually can’t think of anyone really that I.

‘ve met that didn’t have at least a sense of humor. Even if it’s one that I

didn’t understand.

Yeah, one that I didn’t get. That’s fine. I understand that. There was one

time someone came at me because I post a lot of stuff on the Internet.

So sooner or later people try to like take shots at you and it was I made a

joke and it was sort of on the border of being dirty and gross.

And they came at me and they were like, so the story was like it’s the in

Japanese high schools part of the dress

code is you have to wear white underwear.

But that ignores the fact that that means sooner or later someone has to

check the color of the underwear. Yeah. And so the joke is that you know

gross pervy men they want to get in this job so they can check underwear.

So essentially it was a story and then exaggerated premise as the joke. So.

what is the worst extreme you could take the situation to and that that

exaggeration is supposed to be the humor.

And I get that that’s not for everyone. And I think this person came at me

like is that your solution? I was like no, that’s a joke. And then they kind

of like repeated they came at it again.

I was like do you understand the joke?

It’s like I understand the joke. It was very simple. But that’s not a good

solution. And I was like well actually your statements right now just

contradict each other because it’s not a solution.

The solution was about two minutes prior to this. Yeah, this was a joke. And

then they kept saying like they get it

to joke but then they could talk about it.

I was really tempted to keep this going and go like can you explain the joke

to me so that I actually believe you but then I just gave up.

Yeah, because they were actually that they do not get it. They were not

going to get it at any time soon.

Yeah, but that’s interesting again because that is a type of humor that I.

find fascinating and like very funny where you insert absurdity into a

situation to laugh about it.

Yeah, to me it’s the more serious the thing you extrapolate the more egreg.

ious example is funny.

Yeah, it’s funny because it’s absurd but it’s also funny because you can.

imagine that maybe somebody out there

is thinking that and that is also funny.

Well, in the news, Japan a lot of it is based on creepy dudes. There’s a lot

of creepy dude stories and that’s the stuff it’s fun to talk about but it’s

fun to talk about because it’s like how do these guys navigate society?

Yeah, how do they get to this world where but then they do they end up in

these jobs like they’re like oh you have

to check girls underwear. I want that job.

Yeah, like even if it’s like a fringe thing that they do every now and then

that’s like the whole purpose, the whole reason that they got there.

Yeah, and it’s like what how does that drive you mad? And that’s funny

because it’s not normal.

Yeah, and the thing I think it’s funny because they’re dead serious and

everyone else would be like that is a ridiculous idea.

Yeah, but that’s not really comedy.

That’s just an example of humor.

Yeah, talking of like stuff that I never really got like when I moved lived

around the world a lot moved.

I was too young and I didn’t really experience like jokes in those cultures

because I was living with like other forces kids so it was mostly English.

But since living in Japan I’ve definitely

bumped up against not getting humor.

So to describe Japanese humor, I say like they still do the duo team like

they have the straight guy and the guy who makes the jokes and then they

slap his head.

Which I’ve always hated. I don’t understand that.

And then that to me has an old almost 1950s feeling to it.

These duo groups.

And the other to me primary form of humor in Japan is repetition.

So they’ll say one thing funny, it becomes a catch phrase and that’s all

they do for an entire year to the point where everyone hates it.

There is a lot of catch phrasing in Japanese humor.

I cannot stand it.

Yeah, there’s a lot of…

And it’s also very child, they do a lot of like child, if you were?

Yeah, it’s kind of like a very physical humor kind of gross like people call

it toilet humor.

The stuff that’s on TV, like comedians

and stuff, I just don’t find funny at all.

So I find it a bit.

Like because I have no problem with like toilet humor but I just don’t find

their brand of it interesting or engaging.

Yeah, so it’s just very crude, it’s stuff about weight.

There’s lots of like physical appearance stuff.

Lots of body shaming stuff.

So we both teach classes, we both teach English classes and then I have

found that if I want to make my Japanese students laugh, I make a joke about

my receding hairline.

Yeah.

Anything body shaming oriented is really funny.

So overweight is funny, two skinnies funny, losing your hair is funny, kind

of being ugly is funny.

Funny, yep.

And so they… that again, it all feels

very old to me, like it hasn’t developed.

Which is in line with my thinking about like Japanese music is still stuck

in the 60s or 70s.

Their pop music is just not progressed beyond… I would actually, I guess,

the 80s is where they were stuck.

If you have a song from 1980 in a song that was on the radio yesterday is

brand new, it would sound exactly the same to me.

But when it comes to like person to person and like general life, there’s

actually a lot of funny stuff in Japan.

Like I love the Oyaji Gagu, but they’re just puns, they’re that jokes.

Yep, like what we call, and they are pretty funny, like word play.

Word play is good in Japanese.

It’s really good.

And they can do a lot of it.

Yeah.

And then there’s a thing, I don’t know if you know it, Daku-Go.

No, I have to explain it for the audience anyways, even if I did.

I actually don’t.

I probably have heard of it, but I don’t realize it.

But we have to explain everything just to be safe.

It’s just a tradition in Japan, telling long, comical stories that have like

foolish characters and like, like, they make social faux pas.

They’re actually kind of funny.

But that kind of stuff isn’t like the modern media.

It’s not there, like they’re just more like traditional, like, you go and

see someone in a small town hall, like they don’t put it in.

Yeah, they do have like hotels and stuff.

Yeah.

My wife watches, or she used to, I actually hasn’t watched it recently, but

they do do this like essentially comedy competition.

They get like two or three comedians on, and they have categories.

They have like, “Mine, so do it without seeing any words.”

They have like improv skits and stuff.

And you had to make X amount of audience members laugh to succeed.

And they would focus the camera on one person.

If you make that one person laugh, you get like a point or you win.

Yeah.

They fail so often.

Yeah.

And my wife, I don’t think I, she watched it every week for a couple months

at least, or maybe a couple of years.

I don’t think I ever saw her laugh once.

And I was like, “Is this funny? Like, I

don’t get it, so I don’t want to judge.”

But you’re not laughing.

She goes, “Yeah, most of this is not very funny.”.

And it’s because they’re asking people to do it on the fly.

And then, if you’re a funny person, you should be able to do it.

It should be.

Because I agree with you.

When they do stories, when they talk about just daily life stories,

it’s sometimes really, really funny.

Because they’re so concerned in Japan about

etiquette and social full pause and stuff.

And they get into situations, usually trying to do something so they don’t

get in trouble.

They get more trouble. It’s a pretty common story.

Doing something trying to not embarrass yourself and therefore embarrassing

yourself more happens a lot.

Those storytellers are good.

Yeah.

But funny.

Yeah, really, really funny.

The puns, the puns are great.

I find those really, really fun.

But just the stuff on TV and like the stuff that people see, like in the

world, from a Japanese humor, I’m like, “Oh, it’s so poor.”

Some of it is because when they do weird stuff, and people find it really

funny, that usually gets like viral on the Internet.

People will talk to me, “Oh, Japan’s so weird and funny.”

And I’m like, “Well, actually, it’s weird and funny in Japan too.”.

Like, it comes from here, but it is weird.

And Japanese people, it’s not like they think this is normal humor.

They think it’s weird too. That’s why it’s funny.

All right, so you okay?

But overall, Western humor, again, I kind of had this conversation with my

wife, so it was interesting because she was like, “What do you like?”

Because I watch a lot of comedy on the Internet.

And I’m like, “To me, peak comedy is now storytelling. That’s funny.”

And so it loops back and it has callbacks and it has things, but it’s like a

five-ten-minute story that takes you on this little journey.

It’s not jokes anymore.

I actually think modern comedy actually

isn’t jokes as much as it used to be .

See, for me, that’s an American, like an North American comedy style.

Because Jimmy Cot.

He’s not. He’s like spit-balling.

Yeah, I don’t find him funny unless he’s talking to people.

Yeah. So when he does a comedy special, I’ll watch it and be like, “Oh, it’s

just one-liner.”

And it doesn’t do it for me.

But that’s what I can watch it once and laugh my ass off.

And then I’ll never watch it again.

And then the second, third time, I see it coming, so it’s like, “Yeah, it’s

non-has funny.”.

Because to me, Eddie Isard put on some of the bass comedy shows.

He tells full stories and then comes back and drops things back in.

And I can’t remember his name.

There’s this one comedian from England and he just…

He will literally tell a 20-minute long story.

And then it just altifies him.

It’s not Ross Noble, is it?

He does that shit. He’ll tell a story

and it basically starts at the beginning.

And he finishes the show with the end of it.

And everything in between is just him getting sidetracked.

Seems like tangents, even though it’s probably out of planned out.

Now, I watched a couple of…

He talks about the craft of comedy a lot.

And there was one and he was talking about someone eating and going,

and he did it for way too long.

It’s one of those things where it’s funny, it’s not funny, but it’s going to

be funny again.

But then he stopped and goes, “He looks at someone in the audience, he goes,

“Every time you look at your watch, I start again.”.

And then he kept going.

So he was literally at that point making fun of one guy in the audience.

And that’s actually next level stuff.

Yeah.

I guess I don’t know.

So what do you think about British comedy?

What do you think if you’re going to kind of define it?

I don’t know.

I think there’s a lot of self-degradation.

Yes.

The “butt” the joke is usually the person telling the joke.

But there’s also a lot of…

I don’t know.

We all like to pull each other down, but in a friendly, fun way.

That’s why heckling is such a big thing in the UK.

When people want comedians to rip them.

Yeah, because they think it’s funny.

They think it’s funny.

They think it’s funny.

“Take the piss out of me, man.”

Yeah.

So funny.

Because Jimmy Carls, essentially, that’s part of his show.

Yeah, he just plays the floor.

Everyone tried to shout something and I’ll rip it.

Yeah.

So there’s a lot of that.

There’s a lot of like… denigrating each other.

I don’t know.

Denigrating is the wrong word.

Well, putting yourself down.

Self-denigrating.

Yeah.

And then I find a lot of satire, irony and sarcasm.

Those are very British traits, I think.

Like satire…

For me, there’s always been in the UK.

But I feel like it’s the last decade or so

in America that started to take off more.

But I don’t personally know, because I never really watched American TV

comedy and stuff like Daily Show.

Like this week tonight or whatever.

Last week, this… Is it the day you did?

Last week tonight, yeah.

Then I was like, most of them are hosted by Brits or Brits adjacent people.

Yeah.

Trevor Noah is not British, but he was

clearly spent so much time in England .

He had basically a British accent at times.

The guy I was thinking about, I just looked it up.

It’s stewardly.

For example.

That’s how you know we’re heading into

a fairly tight-y written bit, isn’t it?

Use of the phrase, for example, that’s the giveaway there.

Anyway.

For example, what?

Something you’ve written?

Yes.

So… Anyway.

So, for example, I know it seems to contrived now, doesn’t it?

For example.

What?

You know, anyway.

For example.

Yeah, he says that.

It’s like, you dad, isn’t it?

For example.

Put that over there.

Anyway.

Stuart Lee is… Yeah, he’s really dark.

I love him.

Yeah.

But he does.

Yeah.

He’s like, “I love him.”

Yeah.

He’s like, “I love him.”

Yeah.

Yeah.

He’s really dark.

I love him.

Yeah.

But he does, he does like, full on 10, 15-minute stories with jokes in them.

And I really enjoy that.

It’s funny, because his start was just a sketch show on TV.

Like, the… The… Oh, he was his partner.

But I remember them.

They had some real, like, when I was like a kid.

They had this really weird TV show, and there was a lot of like, catch

phrases and stuff in there.

I guess only ran for a couple of seasons.

So, who is your favourite British comedian, man?

Bill Bailey’s up there.

The… The minor key?

Scales.

The… The building blocks of music.

The minor scales, much more evocative.

The beautiful melodic minor.

The hopeful accent.

The depressing decent.

Things are looking happy and joyful.

No, they’re not there to praise again, please.

It’s a harmonic minor with that little Indian ragga at the end.

It’s impossible to play that without playing this.

Bill Bailey’s good.

Sean Locke.

Yeah, Sean Locke.

I… I don’t really like his stand-up.

Yeah.

I like him on TV.

Him talking was way funnier than any stand-up he ever did.

Do you in skiing gear?

So, I’ve got a beard and a Viking horns.

And this is kind of my look.

So much more comfortable.

And it’s warm.

And you just don’t have to have that awkward social, is that you?

Is it not?

How’s Jimmy?

That kind of thing.

That’s a challenging wank.

I think so too.

And so he was clearly just always funny.

But it’s almost like when he organized it, it was less.

Yeah.

His stand-up was planned out as I was like, no, knowing that he’s saying

stuff on the fly in the moment and it’s so funny.

To me, it was impressive.

It was so much better.

Yeah, no, I love him.

Like I said, Jay must be rectum of the year.

Not really, yeah.

No, no, it’s different.

This is rear of the air with the gloves off.

I knew I’d run when I heard three of the judges throwing up behind me.

I thought, I’ve got this in the bag.

Sure.

I’ve been… Sure.

A big phone call.

There it is.

Let me tell you, hers is pretty messed up.

I’m speaking.

I mean, of course.

That got me through to the world.

So, I got to the… Went to the world finals in Cancun.

Cancun?

I thought I was going to win.

I thought I was going to win this.

And then, Jay, go Maradona beat me.

We need to bend over, set the sprinkers off.

There’s a lot, though, I like, for different reasons.

I like Simon Anstel.

He used to host Nevermind the Buzzcocks

and he was, like, bitingly sarcastic .

Like, hammer to the face sarcastic.

Like, he had people walk off the show.

I think I’ve seen clips on the Internet.

I think he had a guy in his show and then the…

That guy’s ex-girlfriend wrote a book.

And he started reading, like, bits of the book to him.

But it was so sarcastic away.

Well, because, of course, she was like a… Like a model.

So, she’s lazy, yes.

Even the book is bad as it was, was

probably ghost-written and it was still bad.

The parents’ Hilton work was a low point for me.

It wasn’t what I wanted to be doing.

And on top of that, it caused me some real problems with my hair.

[Laughter]

What?

So good.

Haven’t you read it?

I don’t want to spoil the ending for you.

[Applause]

The photo shoot was for the Daily Mail,

which made me feel really posh and upmarket.

Are you going to see it like I’m… What?

Oh, no, pressing.

No, seriously, I don’t.

Press, we’re having fun!

Come on, press, don’t.

Oh, no, we can’t lose press, don’t.

Yeah.

I know.

And the dude who walked off wasn’t particularly smart, I don’t think.

No, it was clear that he almost wanted him to leave the shot.

And I like the absurdist stuff.

I really enjoy the mighty bush and the…

Like, Vick and Bob, but as the older they got…

Like Reeves and Mortimer, they got less funny.

I think they just had to force it more.

That’s another thing with humor, right?

You can’t force it.

Yeah, and you also have to want to do it.

I bet comedians at times, it’s like this is a job now.

And then there’s also the problem with getting rich.

Is you kind of get weirdly out of touch.

Yeah, same with actually, that’s really similar with music, I find.

When they start and they young and passionate and they’ve got a fire.

And then they start making money.

Well, that’s essentially what happened to George Lucas.

Because he made Star Wars and he got super famous in everything he’s genius.

And then he made the prequels and there’s like, what is this?

And I thought it was interesting because I saw a documentary.

And it was showing them making the original Star Wars.

And they got models and they’re running

cameras and they’re in the desert and stuff.

Like, it was hard.

And then they showed him making the prequels the first one.

And he’s sitting in a chair in front of a giant green screen drinking.

He’s fat and he’s drinking Starbucks.

Yeah, being fined by naked Swedish models.

Yeah, but it’s just like at this point, he’s not.

The passion that was in that first project is not in this project.

It was interesting.

Who’s your favorite British comedian?

Oh, Sean Locke.

I could watch him talk to anyone about anything for hours.

And when he died and the compilation videos

came out, I watched the whole of them.

And the comedians would talk about their favorite moment.

He was clearly a comedian’s comedian.

A comedian.

Which is weird because I’ve heard that a couple of times.

There’s like musicians.

It’s a musician who musicians like but normal people don’t as much.

And then there’s comedians that comedians love but everyone else is like, oh

yeah, it’s funny.

But it’s like, we as just normal people, civilians are missing something

that comedians who do this for a living get.

And it was a…

Yeah, I think Katz, when Sean would go

and everyone was just crying on the panel.

Yeah.

And he just doesn’t stop.

Jimmy Carr was talking about him after he died and he was talking about like

how it was just constant and it was relentless.

And he was like, if he had an idea, he would go.

And then one of the ones that revealed to me is it was one of these panel

shows and he’s got a partner.

And then his partner starts laughing really hard and then Jimmy Carr goes

like, what are you doing?

And he goes, well, I can’t sit next to Sean.

And he goes, why?

And he leaned over and he goes, you know, Hitler wasn’t all bad.

And he’s like just to make this guy not be able to concentrate on what he’s

supposed to doing.

On to our first numbers round.

Okay, John and Sarah go to pick the numbers.

Sean, Miles.

Sean and Miles, I wouldn’t say it again.

Fingers on lips.

Hands on heads.

Pay attention, it’s the numbers round.

Yeah, ready. I’m ready.

What are you ready?

No.

He’d brought up Hitler.

He was whispering to me about Hitler.

Why was he whispering to you about Hitler?

He said, I don’t know about you, Miles, I’m on the fence.

I’m not saying it.

What is wrong?

I don’t know if it’s him, no, Sean.

I’m afraid I’d just Swiss during the second round walk, okay?

I could see the good side and the bad side.

I’m gonna say neutral.

Okay, on to our first number.

Oh no.

Oh no.

It’s so good.

There’s another dude who I could just sit and listen to his Richard Ayawati.

Yeah, he’s amazing.

It’s funny because in the IT crowd, he’s fine.

It’s just like a comedy show.

It’s like an mediocre.

But then when he talks about anything, it’s amazing.

And then he just sand pouring from his mouth.

It’s so dry.

And he did an interview on the BBC about, I think he had a book come out.

The guy started asking me these questions and he goes, this isn’t real.

This doesn’t matter.

And he just started deconstructing the interview.

So this is an advertisement.

So, you know, these heavy questions are irrelevant.

Like you just started like destroying what the guy was putting out there.

In a way, the books are comic book about film really.

It’s not a deconstruction of the idea of interviews, particularly.

Hopefully it’s a container for jokes that is themed around film.

So it’s not about Richard Ayawati at all?

No.

Any more than the most story by Woody Allen

is about his grappling with Wild land.

And he’s like making it almost impossible to interview, which was awesome.

I think I’ve seen that.

Yeah, that was good.

Now he’s fascinating, man.

Because he holds it together so well.

Yeah, he never breaks.

He never seems to.

Yeah, I bet making him laugh is really satisfying.

Because just people who don’t laugh.

If you can make them laugh, it’s just better.

Because I was watching some interview show probably like Conan or something.

And it was a comedian who worked with Ice Cube.

He’s like, Ice Cube never breaks.

He’s always just like at that dead scowly face on.

And he goes, “If the day you make him…”

And he would come in every day and say, “I just want to make him laugh once,

just once.”

And that was like his goal.

And he’s like, “If you can make him smile, it’s like your whole day.”

Yeah, he’s awesome.

All right, well then let’s move across the pond.

Yes.

North America.

It’s harder.

It’s so much harder.

I actually have more favorite British comedians than American ones.

There’s always American stuff I like, something they’ve done, but I don’t

like everything.

Yeah.

So probably the most famous comedian right now is Dave Chappelle.

He has bits, jokes, and stories I like, but actually often his whole thing.

Now, I actually like him less than I used to.

I think he’s kind of lost touch in a weird way.

He used to be funnier to me.

I don’t know if I’ve changed or he’s

changed, but he has gotten like wicked rich.

Yeah.

No, yeah, definitely.

I find him interesting.

I like the way he does tell stories as well.

But Bill Burr is probably the most

legendary American comedian at the moment .

Yeah.

Yeah, and I don’t think, even if I disagree

with what he says, I still it’s still funny.

He just has this angry, mad delivery that is captivating at times, but can

be a bit too much as well at times.

Yes.

You’re like, “Oh, stop shouting.”

But what he does though is he tries to push everything to this edge where

the audience is uncomfortable, and then he somehow still brings it back.

Like, Dave Chappelle has people who hate him.

Bill Burr actually doesn’t seem to have that.

No, I think you’re right.

Like, yeah.

People hate Chappelle, but people go, “No, Bill Burr is.”.

He just says things, and then I don’t know how he does it.

Dude, there is an epidemic of gold dig and whores in this country.

And every night I put on the news, and I wait for someone to address it.

Every night, you never see it.

You know?

Every night I bring up gold dig and whores, and the whole crowd pulls back,

like I’m up here talking about Bigfoot.

Right?

Like I’m saying, the moons made out of cheese or something.

Talking about whores, people.

They’re everywhere.

How many?

How many more great men are going to get

chopped and half before we do something?

Why is it so quiet in here?

Well, he goes. He goes. He goes. He goes.

And then he’ll either turn around and come back, or he’ll come at it from a

different angle and show you the exact same story or something.

And he’s like, there’s always like two, three ways to say it.

I watched an interview with him, and he said like one of the most concerning

things is when he comes out of a club or something.

And somebody goes, “You know, you think

it, I think it, but you say it out loud.”

And he’s like, “Oh, that guy doesn’t get it.”

He thinks like all this, like I hate women stuff is serious, and he thinks,

“Yeah, that’s not a guy I want to be.”

Because so he knows it’s a show, whereas some of his audience maybe doesn’t.

It’s the problem.

It’s hard, isn’t it?

It’s comedy.

Well, it’s hard because you’re supposed

to be pushing boundaries, but modern.

society is in a place where pushing boundaries is wrong.

So like you can’t make fun of pronouns, you can’t make fun of stuff because

it’s really important to social issues.

It’s like, “But that’s the stuff you should be making fun of.”

And then like that’s on the liberal side, and then on the conservative side

you should be making fun of them.

And like it should be both sides.

Yeah, because comedy is a great way to process stuff with e-links.

Because what are terms with things?

Yeah, Tim Jeffries.

Jim Jeffries.

Jim Jeffries. There you go. Jim Jeffries is correct.

Yeah, Jim Jeffries, I saw him in Tokyo.

How did you?

Yeah, I paid like $500 or $600.

I got a ticket, and I had to buy the shinkansen and stuff, and I went and

did a day trip out there.

It was awesome. He was awesome.

It was the audience was all disgusting.

I hated everyone in the audience.

It was all these foreign people, and they were all doing their best to drink

as much as possible in public right before the show,

and then sneak alcohol in.

And it was just disgusting.

It was the worst of Western behavior.

Maybe I’ve been in Japan too long.

I was just looking at him going, “You shouldn’t be doing that.”

You should pick up your bottle.

If you’re going to drink, you should at least carry your cans up.

But they were all putting them on the floor and just walking out.

And there was a lady, two rows of infirmity, who would not shut up.

I almost threw something out.

But his show was good.

His show was good.

And he’s one of those guys.

He just pushes boundaries as much as possible.

So maybe that’s what I like.

I like people who are like pushing.

Yeah, it’s interesting to see how far people will go.

Because I wouldn’t be that brave yet.

I don’t have enough money.

You have to be financially secured to really push boundaries.

Really push boundaries.

I remember with Jimmy Kars’ new show came out and he went,

“This is the one that’s going to get me canceled.”

And it’s like, “But why do you care? You’re rolling it.”

That dude, isn’t he?

Yeah, how much money?

Because he had, if you looked at British, he was like,

“Have five or six shows he was hosting?”

Yeah.

He was getting a ton of money for that.

He wasn’t paying any taxes on it.

Yeah.

I’ve never been to a live comedy show.

I’ve only been to a few.

Because there’s no, being in Japan for so long, there’s no comedy clubs.

I did five minutes of stand up at an open mic night once.

Did you?

Yeah, it was funny.

Not good, funny.

It was funny for you, not for everyone watching.

Actually, no, I got a fairly positive response.

I’m not going to say it was like, “obrurious.”

But I have a friend who, his whole deal is like,

“Let’s find what you’re uncomfortable with and make you do it.”

And I went back to visit Canada and we were in Vancouver

and he’s like, “You do this stupid podcast.

Why don’t you go up and do five minutes of just your podcast material

and see if anyone laughs.”

And I was like, “Okay.”

So I took the Hulk stuff and I tried to make a five minute set out of it.

And then I was sitting at the bar and so nervous.

Like, this was terrifying.

I’d never done anything like this before.

And there’s a guy who is talking to me.

He’s being really friendly and polite.

So I’m talking to him.

He’s like, “He’s going up after me.”.

And he, I realized about halfway through,

he’s trying to undermine my confidence.

He started like, “Oh yeah, man.

Everyone bombs the first time and you’ll get past it.”

And I was like, “I haven’t bombed yet, so maybe that’s not right.”

So then I did, I don’t know.

My friend said that it was a very Peter thing to do.

I just threw out all the material I prepared,

walked up and started making fun of that guy.

So I was like, “Hey, I was just sitting down there and that guy just said

this and this and this.”

And he basically just said like, “He’s an asshole and stuff.”

And everyone actually found that really funny.

I didn’t get massive applause or anything,

but there was only like 20 people in the club.

So I do my fail five minutes come down.

He comes up after me.

He goes, “That guy is a bit of an asshole.”

And then this dude in the audience goes, “Nah, he seems all right.”.

So I was like, “Oh, I kind of won that one.”

I mean, I didn’t, again, my comedy career didn’t take off,

but at least I beat one guy.

Yeah.

Got it, yeah.

But that was, yeah, that was the,

I was so angry when I realized what he was doing to me.

Because it was just such a shit thing to do.

Like he wanted me to– I don’t think that, like, “Oh, I don’t worry.

Everyone fucks up the first time.”

It’s like reassuring.

And it’s like– No, you’re saying.

Yeah, you’re saying.

Like I’m talking about– Yeah, if you fucked up.

Yeah.

If you actually went up and you bombed,

which honestly with the Hulk material was very likely.

Because these weren’t, these were like bits that I thought were funny

that I’ve tried to craft into jokes.

And I’ve never written a joke before.

So probably if I’d gone with my original thing, I would have bombed.

But because this guy set me off, I just shit

on that guy, which I was pretty good at.

And since that felt more natural and in the moment,

everyone else was laughing along with me.

And I think that’s real key to humor as well, right?

Yeah.

Again, it just coming naturally.

Because I do– You would have forced that Hulk stuff,

and everyone would have gone, “Oh, well,

maybe I probably would have gone, “I get it.”

They wouldn’t have laughed.

Like I get where the joke is.

He just hasn’t done it yet.

He hasn’t made enough jokes in his life to make that a joke.

But I get that the premise is solid.

Like I think everyone would have been like,

“That’s a good idea.

I don’t think anyone would have laughed.”

But yeah, like we do–

In our company, we do the annual meetings.

It’s like 100 people, and I got to go up and say stuff in front of them.

And a couple of times people have heckled me.

Like said stuff, and I just tear them apart.

And it’s just because I’m not going to look bad here.

I got my bosses, I got my co-workers, I

got all the other people who work with us.

I can’t let you make me look bad right now.

And then I’m like, the problem is not going

too far, so that I become the bad guy.

Yeah.

Do you think humor is appropriate in almost any situation?

Well, it depends on the type of humor.

Let’s separate that personally.

Yeah, it can be.

I think you can make a joke anytime anywhere,

but it has to be appropriate to this.

Like you have to know the other people,

you have to know what they find funny.

So like if I’m making a joke at work in front of 100 people,

it’s got to be pretty innocent, to be honest,

they can’t because there’s 99 people could be offended.

Yeah, no.

I can innocent joke in a work situation.

Yeah.

But like would you laugh?

Like I don’t know, like if someone in my family died,

and they were at the funeral,

100% it.

I would make a joke because I knew that that would be the right thing to do.

Yes, like yes.

Because I would…

I would absolutely hope that in my funeral people were making jokes.

Yeah.

And I think everyone who would maybe attend

would know that that, I would feel that that was appropriate

and the best thing to do.

One of my podcasts was about eulogizing everyone I know.

Yeah.

And I was like the closer you are,

the more you like someone, the easier it is to write their eulogy.

Because you have things instantly that you would love to say

to share with everyone else.

And then some were not, again, comedy,

but it was borderline amusing or it was good stories or stuff.

The goal would be like, here are all the positive, funny memories we had.

We can laugh at them together.

Yeah.

And then like other people it was really, really hard

because all I had was like, they were a kind person.

And like even saying it, like you just

like, I clearly don’t even believe that.

Yeah.

So I think, yeah, if you… It’s rapid

water, but you can navigate it for sure.

And come through unscathed.

I would much rather be surrounded by people who would prefer to be commemor.

ated in comedy rather than teased.

100%.

100%.

I don’t want people sad at my thing.

I just want them to sit down and have to watch every podcast I’ve ever read.

Like, ah, God thinking about it.

The stuff I would do, well this is 10 weird.

If I was like, I’m going to die soon.

I would start taking really weird portraits to have like, like, on around,

like with me, like doing stupid shit.

Or like, I don’t know, like pencils, up my nose or whatever.

Oh, they have a couple of websites where you set a picture of your dog and

they put your dog in like a Renaissance picture.

Yeah, I’ve seen those.

Yeah, I actually wanted to get one of those of Dave, but I was like,

actually me and a military uniform, you really funny.

And have that as, because you know in

Japan, they have the big shrine like thing.

And they put a picture up there and I don’t have it.

It’s a really dead serious picture.

I’m like, where do they get those?

Yeah.

Like, how did they take that picture?

So I was like, ah, actually, I could, if

I made the picture in advance of me .

I’m just in a lobster outfit.

Oh, I was thinking in general’s uniform, like, look really like I had been

in like an Napoleonic war.

And something like that.

And everyone would look at it and like, you know they could end up in the

100%.

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

And realistically, no one would really say anything, but everyone would be

like, ah, fuck, he did that on purpose.

Like, everyone would know he did that.

And I think I would think that was funny.

Yeah.

Doing stuff on purpose that other people can’t laugh at in the moments,

pretty funny to me.

It’s really funny.

And I make a lot of jokes that other people don’t get because it’s a

reference, it’s actually a reference for myself or something.

Or like, I’ll make a joke in a group that only one person will get.

And to me, that’s almost funnier because they laugh and that’s it.

Yeah, I never know what I was saying.

Like, what?

That doesn’t make sense.

So, I guess inside jokes, but that’s the nature of inside jokes is just

showing sort of your, your together.

Your relationship.

Yeah.

All right, so, what we talked about like Japan and like Asia and UK and

America, like the separation of comedy.

But what do you think connects comedy?

What do you think the things that connect all comedy are?

Do you think that is anything?

Yes.

Because we’re all humans.

Yeah.

Fundamental desire to do something right and failing is universal.

So I think every joke, like universally, if you’re going to do universal

jokes that everyone could get,

it’d be like, I tried really hard and failed is universally pretty funny.

Especially if you, or like, I did it wrong.

Whatever I was supposed to do, I just did it wrong and through my own inept

itude or I was an idiot jokes, are you pretty universal?

Yeah.

And then, yeah, because every culture has you make funnier friends, but you

‘re making funnier friends, quirks or foibles and stuff.

So, that kind of all works out.

So the other one for me is, is language.

Whilst we might not understand jokes from other languages, the fact that

language is something that people find humor in,

like subvert and get and switching, like meanings.

So I know one Japanese jokes that translates to English perfectly.

So it makes the same amount of sense in English and Japanese. It’s kind of a

kid’s joke.

So it’s a mother and a child are on the train and the door is closed and the

child looks at the mom and says,

“Mom, I have to pee.” She goes, “Why didn’t you tell me faster?” And he.

looks at her and goes, “Mom, I have to pee.”.

I’m going to have to pee.

And you can do that in Japanese.

And it’s the exact same joke and it makes the exact…

Yeah, so it was like, “Hi, kuyute.” So

it’s like, you should have said it faster.

And then the kid, then you just say the last line faster.

And it’s…

Let’s push that.

The exact same joke and it’s just as funny. Like, it’s not an awesome joke,

but the fact that it 100% translates.

I was like, “Ah, I bet you could do that joke in a lot of languages.”.

Yeah.

No, that’s true.

Yeah, like that, like…

I think that’s another thing with humor,

right? It’s subverting expectations .

Because everyone’s like, “Ah, you should have told me faster.”

Yeah.

And then the kid just says it faster.

And that’s not what people were expecting, right?

I think that’s pretty universal in all humor too.

This is that you have to subvert an expectation somehow.

Like the Korean joke you told earlier.

Yeah.

Everyone’s expecting you to care about your father being crushed by a rock.

Yeah.

Just says, “Watch out.”

Dad, watch out.

You have to say that part really slowly as well.

Dad.

Watch out.

I guess just dunking on other people is kind of universal to them.

Yeah, but it’s a Korean joke.

And I know like people do that in Japan.

They dunk on people from other parts of the country, right?

But it’s also punching up and down is also universal that I’ve seen.

So like, you can make fun of people who are on higher positions and stuff

and it’s okay.

If you are bullying or punching down on people, most cultures that I’ve…

How many of my experience actually not that many?

But it’s frowned upon.

Like it’s not only bullies find bully jokes funny,

but everyone finds making fun of people stronger than you funny.

And self-deprecation is pretty universal.

You can make funny yourself and everyone will be like, “Ha-ha-ha.”.

Because that’s safer.

I don’t think that is universal.

I disagree there.

I don’t know enough.

Like I know the places I’ve been.

And basically everywhere I’ve been, if I

make fun of myself, people think it ‘s funny.

Do you have a favorite joke?

A favorite…oh man, come on.

No?

I mean, I don’t know.

Some of my favorite jokes are just like the really shitty ones.

Yeah, give me one.

Even if it’s one, you would tell your kids.

Since I was a kid, I’ve really liked this one.

What’s brown and sticky?

Oh no.

What? A stick.

Oh yes, I actually heard that.

Of course I heard that one.

Yeah, I don’t know. I’ve always liked that one.

Remember my mum’s reaction.

She’s like, “Ugh, I don’t know. It’s a stick.”

And she’s like, “Ugh.”.

So you can have a joke about having sex with sheep or a joke about having

sex with camels.

Oh, just do both.

Okay, so I’ll do them fast, which probably isn’t as good.

There’s a sheep researcher going around from country to country and doing

research on sheep and health and stuff.

And then they have this sort of subsection of research they want to do about

do Shepherds actually have sex with sheep.

So they kind of pull the Shepherd aside.

So he’s in England and he goes…he

goes to the Shepherd and he’s like, “Ugh .”

So just, you know, I’m down low.

Do you have sex with sheep?

And he goes, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

And he kind of happens. He goes, “Well, how do you do it?”

And he goes, “What do you do is you take their hind legs and you stick them

in your boots.”

And then you can have sex with them so they can’t run away.

And they’re like, “Oh, okay, they’re worth that deal.”

Went to Australia.

Our New Zealand New Zealand has more sheep.

Went to New Zealand and does all the research and then says to them, “You

know, on the down low, do you want to enjoy

some sort of sex with sheep a little bit?”

And it happens. And you’re out here

on the paddock. It’s very lonely. So you.

grab the sheep by the back legs and you put it in your boots and you can

have sex with the sheep that way.

“Oh, okay, so that’s maybe that’s universal.” And he goes to Wales and he.

talks to a Shepherd and he goes, “So, do you go through all his research?”

So on the down low, do you take the sheep’s back legs and put them in your

boots and have sex with them?

And he goes, “Well, how do you kiss them?”.

“I really enjoy the idea of people kissing sheep.”.

And the other one is the French foreign legion and they’re in the desert and

there’s a new recruit and they’ve been out there and they’re in the fort.

They’ve been there for a while and he goes, “So, when you guys get your man

ly urges, what do you do?”

And they go, “Oh, we got the camel.”

He goes, “Oh, it’s disgusting.” He like.

ignores, walks away and he’s offended by this.

And then a couple days later, they’re sitting around the fire and he goes,”

No, no, seriously guys, you gotta take care of yourselves. What do you do?”

And he goes, “Well, we got the camel. Just take the camel.” And he’s like,”

Oh, it’s a terrible horrendous idea.”

And he’s like, “I’m really offended.” But now we’re like, then it’s like a

month in and he’s like, “No, I really gotta take care of some stuff.”.

What do you guys do? The camel is there. Just use the camel.

And so the guy’s like, “Okay.” So he

goes and he gets like a step ladder and.

he gets out behind and he comes back the

next day and he’s like, “Really relaxed.”

And he’s like, “You know what, that’s not the sex with a camel. It was a

really good idea.”

And they’re all like spit their coffee. I’m like, “What?”

And he’s even telling me to have sex with a camel for like a month. He goes,

“No, no, we ride the camel into town.”.

The minute you start telling that one, I always say, “I’ve heard that one.”

Yeah, I think everyone’s like, “Those are two very old jokes.”

I’ve never heard the kissing the sheep one.

No, no. I just like the idea of someone thinking like, “Well, you gotta kiss

the sheep.”

I like it. It’s almost like a little romantic, which I quite enjoy.

I like absurd ones as well. Actually, I just think of some more. There’s two

frying eggs and a frying pan.

One looks at the other and says, “Hot in here.” And the other one goes, “Ugh

, talking egg.”.

That’s pretty good.

[Music].