243. Adam Carolla on Will Smith/Chris Rock Oscars Slap, Uncomfortable Comedy, Athletes vs. Actors

Get started now. Sign up promo code Colin so they know we and I sent you. The Colin Coward Podcast presented by the Fan Duel Sports Book. Hi everybody, and welcome in to the Wednesday Morning Podcast. Now. Usually I have eight to ten to twelve minute preamble on a variety of sports topics. But since we have Adam Corolla on today and he's going to take a good thirty forty five minutes, I don't want to waste anybody's time. He's the host of the podcast The Adam Corolla Show.

He was one of the first big podcasts in this industry, you know, and from The Man Show. He has a book out. His latest book is Everything Reminds Me of something advice answers, but no apologies. And with that we bring in the world renowned Adam Carolla. So, Adam, I'm gonna give you my take, my ninety second take on Will Smith, and then you slice it, dice it, do whatever you want with it. As a stand up comedian, as somebody who's on stage, you tell me where I'm

wrong on this. So I'm agnostic. So I don't speak about religion. But there's a certain reality for the mobster who goes to repent his sins on Sunday then shoots the guy in front of a steakhouse on Thursday nights, not fooling God right like he's fooling himself. The Hollywood athlete or the athlete, or the Hollywood act or the leading man, they've all got side dishes right multiple when they come out. And I'm not speaking specifically to Will, but you know, leading man and athletes, there are no

industries where men cheat more than those two. They use their power in the leverage to gain access to beautiful women. I saw a lot of takes from athletes current former, a lot of leading men types, big tough guys saying, hey, you got to protect your woman and I'm like, no, no, Like the mobster who shoots the guy in front of a steakhouse, You're not fooling anybody but yourself. If you cared about the woman in your life, you wouldn't be

fucking around all the time. This is about your ego, which you couldn't subjugate because your wife cheated on you. It's very public, and in this moment you look small. This was not about your wife. This was about your ego. Take a well. Also, there's a context. You know, you're going to be in show business. You're gonna sit in the front seat of the Oscars. I've written for two Oscars. I've been there. You know. The process is you show up days before and they have the pictures of all

the celebrities and where they're sitting. By the way, always in black and white. I always thought to myself, this is the Oscars. You can't afford a color ink cartridge. But they can't. It's black and white, and by the way, some of the older guys and some of the other guys, you have to look at it for a while before you can realize just who that is. But anyway, so there's a context. Your front seat of the Oscars and here comes Chris Rock and it is his job to

roast notable people that are sitting up front. So this essentially it's like marrying a porn star, going to the set of the porn movie and then freaking out because someone's your wife. You you knew the job was dangerous when you took it. There's a context. Chris Rock didn't show up to your home and start making fun of your wife. You sat in the very front seat of the Oscars. He's a comic, He's gonna roast. That's your context. It shouldn't elicit that kind of response. Adam, I go

to you her most of Beach Comedy Store. I've gone, you know, down on Sunset West Sunset. So I've had friends that are comedy writers. I've talked to Leno. You know, when I was a kid, I wanted to be Johnny Carson. Like a lot of kids, I didn't want to be a sportscast or. I I didn't even know what it meant. Just wasn't talented enough. So I went into sports lower

bar for that probably. So one of the things I've noticed about the great comedians, They've got a set, but they played with the crowd, they interact with the crowd. I don't think somebody said it's not as scripted. It wasn't scripted. It was you look at her. You have a line. By the way, g I Jane was sort of an empowered woman, right, she was like a powerful, successful woman. So in that instance, I think Jesus, if you tell comedians they can't add lib in the biggest

stage in the industry, the Oscars, what are we doing here? Yeah, I disagree, just because I've been behind the curtain there a couple of times. It probably wasn't ad libbed. It could have been quickly thought of backstage or at some previous point, but it probably wasn't ad libbed. And that you get writing assignments. It's like here's here's gonna be sitting here and this person's gonna be there, and they'll go give me a few jokes for this person, and

give me a few jokes for that person. So probably wasn't off the cuff. Regardless whether it's off the cuff or not, you're on stage, you're telling the joke. There's no barrier between you and the audience, and sort of taking the law into your own hands is not a good precedent. Speaking of the law, I literally just got

done doing a podcast with Attorney Mark Garrigos. And as far as the law goes, if Chris Rock doesn't want to press charges and there was no damage done to him, then the law is going to leave it alone, unless you have some prosecutor who's looking for a bunch of publicity who would like to take this on. Is really a grand stand type type trial? What would you do if I was the prosecutor. No, if you were Chris Rock, we are a bigger, stronger you. You're a former boxer.

I think you're something right. Yeah, well, first off, I'd be so surprised that I don't know what I would do. Like, it's hard to fathom. Chris's brain must have been whirling like a dervish, not only from the slap, but just from the bizarre context of the whole thing. Right, I probably would have done what he did. I probably would

have just sort of carried on. Now, what I was hoping for is that they would escort will Smith out of the building and then later on, when he won the Academy Award, Chris Rock would accept it on his behalf. That's interesting. It was the greatest TV ever. Well, I don't have a problem with Will Smith confronting Chris after right, Like right, I just think, keep your hands to yourself. It's a public space, you know, let your ego go.

Um how much of this Like I was kind of not kind of I was totally turned off that the Hollywood set like not only defended Will Smith, gave him a standing ovation. Yeah, we'll turn off. Yeah, we've been setting the table for this. Remember a couple of years ago when the defensive end for the Browns took his helmet off and started swing Miles Garrett started swinging it

around at the Pittsburgh QB. And remember the kind of consensus was, well, he dropped an end bomb or said something racially insensitive, and then people kind of went, oh, is that what happened? And I was the one saying, you're still not allowed to put someone in a coma with your helmet because they said something. So we've kind

of set the table here. It's been it's been around for a few years where somebody said, you know, the guy behind the counter tried to choke the person at the taco bell and they go, what happened, Oh, he said something racial and then everyone's ractionalist. Oh okay, well, now I guess it's okay. No, it is not okay. I don't care what they say. I don't get if it's a joke about your wife. I don't care if it's Miles Garrett hearing something he doesn't want to hear

in a scrum. You don't get to weaponize your helmet. You don't get to weaponize your hand. This is our sort of societal problem. It's like that person put his hands on the other person, and then we all go, oh, what did that person say. I don't care what that person said. You can't put your hands on people. Do you still do a lot of stand up right? Yes, you drive a lot of revenue and podcasting that we all know. I figured you drive a lot of revenue

in your stand up, which you're very active. Do you worry now this incentivizes some idiot for Miller lights in the heck? Are you? I have little to no regard for my own personal safety. I've just always kind of been wired that way. It's never a thing for me. I've been in fights, I used to teach boxing. I just don't have a fear for my own personal safety. But you know, Jeff Ross does, and so he's gonna have to think about it when he goes up on stage.

I am wired from where I come from and work in construction and ride a motorcycle getting in fights, you know, teaching boxing and stuff like that. I just don't have that sure. Oh you know what could happen, And it doesn't mean it won't. It certainly is kind of greased the skids for that behavior, and I won't. It won't be in the back of my head when I perform. What's your guests? On the repercussions for Will Smith, he

apologized that was fairly obvious. I mean that you can see that that right hand Jerry Cory hook coming from an hour away. But what do you think the repercussions are? Um, I don't think anything. I think they gave him a standing ovation. Forty minutes later, the OSCARS has made some discussion about, you know, taking his oscar back or sanctions or you know, giving him the Kanye West treatment for the next Oscars or something. I suspect nothing. We don't

seem to universally condemned that behavior. We feel a little more the nation is kind of split, sadly on it. It seems pretty pretty cut and dry to me. But it's also like I remember talking to people during the summer and all the riots and all the BLM marches and a lot of when stuff got when stuff got nasty, And you know, someone would say to me, did you see those those cops in New York? They rammed right into those protesters, And I'd go, no, let me see

that tape. And the tape was a bunch of idiots on the hood of a cop car, jumping up and down and try to kick out the windshield. And then the cop car lurches forward and the guys fall off the hood, and I'm like, that's not a cop car ramming protesters. That's a bunch of jackasses jumping on the hood of a cop car and trying to kick out the windshield. So we've gotten this weird relationship with violence

and actions. You know, it's a mostly peaceful protest. As the CVS pharmacy burns behind you, you know, something happened where we And then we also went the other direction too, like did you see Al Franken assaulted that woman on the C one thirty cargo play And it's like he took a goofy picture with his hands outside of her

flat jacket. That's not assault. He didn't assault anyway. So we've taken this thing called assault and we've twisted it, morphed it, and sort of politicized it and used it so that if we didn't like Al Franken, then what he did was assault, but if we didn't like the cops, and what they did wasn't assault when people were trying to assault them. Vanduel Sportsbook NBA Same Game Parlay What is it? Gives you a chance to turn a small bet into a big payday. It's my favorite. Choose any

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and said, hey, what about Jada Pinkett. She has this um, you know disease which is fairly common, actually inability to grow hair, And David Spade said, yeah, I don't have a medical chart for everybody in the audience. I'm sorry. That goes back to my point, what's what's funny? What? Ricky Gervaise can be really sharp, but then there's stuff that can be mean. As a comedian, do you know instantly when a joke has written that's over the line

or is it something? Do you go into shows Adam, especially if you don't write all the material and think, man, I don't know how this, I don't know how this is gonna play. I write all my own material, and if it's funny to me and then it's funny, I will say it and I will do it. I will perform it. Now. The question in my mind now is I know it's funny, but we'll see how the audience reacts,

because they don't always feel comfortable laughing now. So there's a kind of a third element to this, which is I think it's funny, I will deliver it in a funny way, But we don't know if that audience is going to have a comfort level with it because they heard certain words that were in it that sort of made them recoil a little bit. Like I'll never forget.

I was. I'm a car guy, and I was down at the Pebble Beach Car Weekend Race weekend do vintage racing there and sitting at this event, and it was one of those big events where there's a whole bunch of different people and it's outdoors and you end up sharing a table with other couples, and you know, you're sitting there with your food and your drinks and you're talking. You're meeting these other couples, and everyone's a car guy.

So the guy goes off on some car he has, like I have a thirty two Dusenberg, and then the other guy's going, I have a Chord and the other guy's going, I have a Lamborghini Mura, you know. And we're talking about restoring the cars and getting more champagne and things of that nature and caviar. And at some point I stopped and I said, you know what, this conversation we're having here is exactly what black people think

white people do all day. And one of the women at the table went like, okay, all right, no no, no, no, no no, and I said, no, I'm just making it. Okay, we heard you, we heard you, we heard you. And I was like, I'm making fun of us basically, right, but I'm not making fun of black people, and I'm making a joke. It's just like, yeah, we heard you, we heard Please stop. I was like, people are so hair triggered now that if they just hear a topic, they're already like, oh, can I clapp can? I laughed,

I have to tell them the stub. She nervously wanted me to stop, which I didn't. But but I think that's where the comedian and the sportscaster, that's where it kind of it connects, right, Like we're both performers and we're both giving kind of a social commentary and sometimes intent isn't considered, like you were being self deprecating, and yes,

it made people uncomfortable. I thought about this Adam athletes in my twenty five years of doing this, or thick skinned Why because you can have great connections, but they have limitations. If you can't hit the ball, catch the ball, throw the ball. Make the tackle, you lose your spot in the team. Also, athletes deal with very punitive media and fans holding them accountable. Hollywood is different connections. It's very subjective. Unlike sports, it's very subjective. Connections can have

an odd leverage for people. That's why you see, like families that act, the media is fawning. I mean you almost you never see anybody on the red carpet ever have a critical word. You're beautiful, your outfits beautiful. Tell me more about how beautiful you are. And so whereas athletes have thick skin, they get heckled, they get ripped, Hollywood doesn't. And I think a lot of that is it's an entitled business with a fawning press. Often people

didn't earn their way in. It was family connections, and that's why I think a lot of people cheered Will Smith. How dare somebody make fun of us? Now? I'm just a layman, right like, I don't even know actors, but part of me thinks this is what Hollywood is. Out of touch with reality. Many careers are not earned. That is not to say Ed Norton and Don Cheetle aren't brilliant, but as somebody who covers. Athletes are overwhelmingly thick skinned,

grateful of shit, incredibly humble, they really are. I mean, it's incredible how grateful athletes are. I don't feel like Hollywood is. And maybe it's the tunnel where they arrived at their career. It's not built for grateful, humble people. Well, it's obviously built for narcissists. So you you know, make the proclamation that you should be up on the silver screen and you should be holding the microphone and the

great order order in front of all the audience. So you know, it's sort of you know, it's a self selecting group. You know, you have to think you're pretty good looking and pretty smart and have something to say, and other people should hear what you have to say, and so it attracts the narcissists. And then the other thing about the athlete is you were saying that, you know,

athletes have pretty short careers career wise. I mean, I started in show business, I didn't get my first I didn't make my first nickel until I was thirty one. Most athletes are retiring around thirty one, so it's a totally different world. And when it comes to actors, you know how many stories have you heard, Oh, this guy was originally the guy they wanted to play James Bond, and then they got this guy to play James Bond, and they wanted to make this guy and this role.

Can you imagine if that guy played this role, this role play, you are not necessary as an actor. There are a handful of guys that are undeniable, and you know that Daniel day Lewis is an undeniable talent. There's about seven of those guys, and then there's two thousand other guys who need to win a popularity contest. They will they will get rid of you if you're not on the same page as them politically or whichever way.

The night geis in. The wind is blowing. So imagine if you said to the athlete, you know it's not all going to be over when you're thirty four. You can go another thirty years in this athletic endeavor you're doing, but you better make friends and you better hope people like you. And they said, well, what if my fastballs not as fast or my forty times not as It's like, no, no, it's a popularity contest at this point, and you wonder why they all magically take the same side of every

issue every single time. It's not because they all individually just believe it. Some of these some of these things that are going on in the in the world, they're they're they're they're nuanced there there you maybe you're for the war in Ukraine, but maybe you're against the US

involvement in the War of Ukraine. And it is a thousand other examples how they magically all in lockstep on every issue every time because all you have to do in that group when it comes to an election that is literally a presidential election which is literally split the nation and half. You know, he got fifty one percent, he got forty nine percent, he got fifty and a half percent, he got forty nine and a half percent

of why the nation completely split. There's not one human being in Hollywood who goes, I'm voted for Trump, because if you say that, right, then you'll end up with Scott Baio somewhere right right right. You know, it's a it's an ongoing it's your senior year of high school and it never ends, and you're running for prom King Adam when you I mean everybody now everything is politics, I mean weather is politics. I was talking to a friend.

I like to ski. There's no ski season and I told a friend it's like the ski season now ends like March eighth. I'm like, is it global warming? Oh boy? I get pushedback and I'm like, I don't know. It just you used to be able to ski till April. Like the last two years, it feels like it's died.

You are more aggressive politically, and I kind of stay away from it mostly because everybody else is doing it, and I feel like, you know, ESPN went more heavily into it, and I thought it was a business decision. To the audience that was turned off by that, I'd mostly stay on sports and it worked. It helped as you pivoted more into politics. Are you glad you did? Are you happy you did? Have there been repercussions? Has it hurt revenue as it helped revenue? Where do you

stand today on that decision? Because I, you know, I think of your career and I think Man show, huge podcasting, and then we a lot of people just got stucked into as performers politics because the whole weather became political. Sports is political. How do you view it now? If you go back five years are you glad you kind of aggressively be moving into that space. I'm in the business of saying whatever it is I'm thinking, so I can't really control it, per se, whatever I happen to

be thinking of at the time. More so than other things. It doesn't help. I've got a lot of documentaries and none of them get into Sundance. That's for political reasons for sure, And it doesn't help in Hollywood at all. It's a non help. But I still say what I want to say, and you know, make enough to keep the lights on. And you know, people have this misnomer where they go, oh, you're you now become some sort of right wing talk mouthpiece and you go over to

Fox to get paid, and it's like Fox doesn't pay you. No, you're going Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity. You don't get paid, and you actually lose money because we're in a very liberal town and they will blackmail you if you don't fall on lockstep with them and all their kookie ideas. So no, it's not a good business decision. I tell my liberal friends all the time, I say, you get you were wrong on the masks, right, you were wrong

on them. You just you have to own that. If you're going to pretend you're the smartest people in the room on it, you were wrong. On the masks, you're also wrong. There was a moment at the beginning of COVID Adam and I'll let you go Jacksonville. A lot of people went on the beach in Jacksonville, and people went crazy. The media went crazy, And for two weeks at him, I kept going to a website to check

on Jacksonville's COVID numbers. They never popped, of course, And I thought, and I remember thinking, you're not going to get sick at the beach. That's what I yelled it from the mountaintop from from day one. You're not going to get sick outside. Now you'll get better outside, all right. Adam Crole is busy. He's got a lot of things going on. He's trying to get those docks approved into the Sundance Film Festival in Park City. You're busy. We

got we called you last second. Very appreciative of Thank you, sure, Colin No. Probably the volume. Make sure to check out the Draymond Green Show. I brought Draymond Green into the volume because one of the more entertaining voices in sports, unique perspective understands Behind the Rope also chops up with guests like Gary Peyton, Zach Levine, Tracy McGrady. Make sure download The Draymond Green Show wherever you get your podcasts, only on the Volume podcast Network