Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Thursday. How are you? I had to think for a minute what day this was. Haha. It's July, apes wit guns on horse back will come for the human race. So far 2020 is like looking both ways before crossing the street and then getting hit by an airplane.
June 2020 marked the 10-year anniversary of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory continuously watching the sun. The SDO has been orbiting Earth, and without pause, has collected 425 million high-resolution images of the sun, capturing an image every fourth of a second. According to NASA’s recent article on the event, the 20 million gigabytes of data collected has “enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system.” How freaking cool. The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center recently released an hour-long film, capturing a 10-year time-lapse of the sun. The time-lapse video is a collection of these photos, illustrating “a decade of the sun” in 61 minutes by displaying one photo from every hour. It reveals “notable events” that are part of the sun’s solar cycle, which last 11 years, including solar flares and gas altering the sun’s magnetic fields causing sunspots, all seen across the sun’s surface. It even has its own original background music called “Solar Observer” by Lars Leonhard. NASA explained that the SDO uses the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument (AIA) to capture pictures of the sun “every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light.” The time-lapse video also shows the pictures taken at 17.1 nanometers, an extreme ultraviolet wavelength that reveals the sun’s outermost atmospheric layer, also known as the corona. NASA also explained that the dark frames in the video were “caused by Earth or the moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the sun” admitting to the moments the SDO didn’t get to capture. One of the longer blackouts in 2016 was actually caused by a temporary issue with the AIA, but who’s judging when you’ve got close to 500 million other photos to choose from. If there’s one thing we can appreciate about modern society, it’s always going to be what space agencies have to offer, whether it’s inside the core of our Earth or into the outer atmosphere of the farthest galaxy we can reach.
A 36-year-old Polish welder living in Peterborough in the United Kingdom was found dead in his apartment from an apparent caffeine overdose last December, authorities have concluded. According to the coroner, Lukasz Sandelewski had a blood caffeine concentration of 282 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter. Any level over 80 micrograms is considered lethal. Investigators say that Sandelewski’s room was littered with caffeinated energy drinks at the time of his death. Authorities have said that while it is clear that Sandelewski deliberately consumed some high though as to be determined amount of caffeinated drinks it does not appear that he consumed them with the intention to end his life. The death was ruled a ‘verdict of misadventure’... or unintentional overdose... and not a suicide. Sandelewski’s roommates told investigators that the night before his death they heard Sandelewski yelling and talking loudly on the phone from the hours of 1:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. They claimed that the Polish national was a regular and fairly heavy drinker and had been drinking the night in question. According to the autopsy, Sandelewski was intoxicated the night of his death but not significantly so. The evening of the next day, Sandelewski’s mother contacted her son’s roommates and asked them to check on her son. It was after Sandelewski’s mother’s call that they found their roommate face down on the floor and unresponsive. Emergency services were called to the home and quickly determined that there were no external injuries that would indicate foul play were on Sandelewski’s body, and thus ruled out any potential criminal activity that might have lead to his death. Neither police, the man’s family, or his roommates could provide a reason as to why he would have been consuming so much caffeine at the time of his death.
There aren’t a whole lot of ways to make pizza terrible but one Ohio couple got a heaping, hot ‘n ready helping of one such way when they opened their Little Caesars pizza and were greeted with a pepperoni Swastika. Jason Laska visited the Little Caesars near his home in Brook Park, Ohio to grab dinner for himself and his wife Misty Laska. When he got home and his wife opened the box she was taken aback by the poor... and racist... pepperoni distribution. The couple immediately called the store, which had just closed. The Laskas declined to eat the pizza, opting instead to keep it intact as evidence. Misty Laska posted a picture of the pizza to her Twitter, writing...
The pizza looked like this...
After the incident, the Laskas received a call from both the store’s owner as well as the Little Caesars corporate office. The store owner explained that the pizza was never intended for the Laskas, or anyone else. It had been made as a joke in poor taste between employees and was accidentally served to a customer. The store owner also informed the Laskas that the employees responsible for the pepperoni Swastika had been fired. Little Caesars also released a statement on the incident, saying, “We have zero tolerance for racism and discrimination in any form, and these franchise store employees were immediately terminated. We’re deeply disappointed that this happened, as this conduct is completely against our values. We have also reached out to the customer to discuss this personally with him.” The Laskas, however, has vowed not to eat at that or any Little Caesars again. When I first heard this story I thought it was going to be from a Camp Hill, Pennsylvania Little Caesars. Just sayin'...
The attorney for Vanessa Guillen’s family has named the person they believe is responsible for her disappearance. Attorney Natalie Kawham stated one of the suspects died by suicide after authorities announced human remains were found during the search for Guillen. Kawham identified one of the suspects as Aaron Robinson, who died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, but has not been officially named by authorities as of yet. The family believes Robinson is the same man who walked in on Guillen while she was in the shower. Special Agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, along with the Killeen Police Department, U.S. Marshalls, and the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force attempted to locate the Junior Soldier from Fort Hood, who had managed to leave the post late Tuesday after authorities announced remains were found. Several law enforcement agencies attempted to make contact with the suspect, but he reportedly displayed a weapon and took his own life. The suspect in custody, according to the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, identified her as “the estranged wife of a former Fort Hood Soldier” and is currently in custody in the Bell County Jail awaiting charges by civilian authorities. The Army CID did not release the names of the suspect. The Texas Rangers, with the help of Army CID and other agencies, are processing the scene at the Leon River in Bell County, Texas, where partial human remains were discovered. Positive identification of the remains is pending but Guillen’s sister stated, “at this point, everything points to” it being the young girl. The 20-year-old, who was a private first class in the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, was last seen on the morning of April 22nd in the parking lot of her barracks in Fort Hood. Her barracks room key, wallet, car keys, and identification card were later found in the armory room where she had been working earlier in the day. Before her disappearance, Guillen’s family told authorities that a male sergeant had walked in while she was in the shower in the women’s locker room. Khawam stated Guillen did not report the allegations to her supervisor due to fear of retaliation. Army officials began to investigate the sexual harassment allegations on June 18th.
A 1-year-old boy from Pocatello, Idaho was accidentally given a sippy cup of antifreeze by his mother, who accidentally mistook it for juice. According to his mother, she and the boy were at a family member’s house before the boy headed off to visit his father. It was only after the mom poured herself a glass of the highly toxic liquid an hour after the boy left, which was his sippy cup, that she realized the mistake she had made. The 1-year-old’s mom, who has yet to be named, took the juice container on the table thinking it was safe and filled it up not knowing that someone at the relative’s house had been doing car repairs and filled the empty container with antifreeze. According to the Idaho State Journal, police stated the antifreeze was in an empty Mountain Dew bottle. Which if I’m putting my two cents here… soda and toddlers should mix, but that’s just my opinion. Oftentimes, antifreeze is known to be green, but according to Titan Auto & Tire, it can come in an array of colors. The website stated, “Antifreeze or coolant can be yellow, pink or red, blue, and green. The color of the antifreeze/coolant is really based on the formula.” This is why the mother most likely didn’t notice the liquid wasn’t juice. She immediately called 911 after she saw the liquid and was taken to Portneuf Medical Center to be treated for antifreeze poisoning. After calling the boy’s father, and not being able to reach him, police quickly started a search for the 1-year-old boy. After a few hours, the father’s car was found along Yellowstone Avenue. Luckily, the father said he had quickly dumped the liquid from the cup before his son could drink it. Authorities decided to still take the two boys to the Portneuf Medical center to be examined as a precaution, and luckily, both brothers were fine. Their mother has since been released from the hospital and is back home with her sons. So, if this goes to show us anything, it’s that we can never be too careful, especially if there are children involved. Time to keep both eyes open, parents. Also, maybe don’t feed your kids soda?
The Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd has brought forth a wave of activism, both substantive and performative. These celebrities likely freaked out their publicists with their poorly-received posts. Terry Crews faced backlash for implying that the goal of Black Lives Matter wasn't equality but "black supremacy."
As the Black Lives Matter movement inspires actions around the world, many churches with prime sign real estate are using their platform to voice their support. Like Allendale United Methodist Church here in Florida for example...
You know, if I had a TARDIS I would try to meet as many of the U.S. Presidents as I can and would probably end up at Nixon's funeral...
Here is another sad food item that people are skipping over even as they panic-buy everything else. There's no love for the carrot spirals...
Do you kids like Hot Pockets? A brand new flavor just came out...
Yum! We all know the wedding is supposed to be the bride's day and anyone who upstages her will burn in the fiery depths of hell, blah blah blah. One woman is asking for advice because her sister has banned the woman's famous boyfriend from attending, for fear of him "stealing her thunder." Here's her conundrum. She specifies that he's not an A-lister, but he's famous...
"My boyfriend is a 'famous' guy. Not like, Brad Pitt famous or anything, but someone that my particular small town family would recognize, let's just say. Think like... country singer famous? Anyway." She thinks her "small town" won't be able to handle the excitement of her semi-famous beau. "So my sister is sending out RSVPs for her wedding (which is like, months away, and we don't even know if it's going to get postponed because of corona). Boyfriend and I have been dating 8ish months, and we live in a big city. Here, no one cares or bothers him much. But I understand that in a small town, any excitement is... exciting?" And that's why her sister doesn't want him there. "Basically my sister is upset that I would even think of bringing my boyfriend, because it's going to steal her thunder. Part of me gets it, but part of me is just annoyed. She and my parents have already met him, he's been to our home town before. And sure, like, our cousins and extended family haven't met him. And yes, it would be the first large family gathering that he's a part of." Now there's a big fight in the family. "The conversation then turned into an argument about how famous he is or isn't (they're acting like I'm bringing Justin Bieber home), and even if I was... I guess famous people aren't allowed to date...? My mom says I'm being unfair, but I don't think so? Am I wrong here?" I think there's nothing wrong with wanting to bring the boyfriend... but that the bride's position is understandable, too. It seems a shame you can't bring him... but I also understand the bride not wanting to feel she's being upstaged. It’s her wedding, she gets to set the invite list. I think it’s messed up she wouldn’t let him come but it’s her choice. On the other hand, you’ve every right to be annoyed at her to the point of not even going (though I don’t recommend that). You have every right to want your boyfriend with you at the wedding, no matter how "famous" or not. At the same time, a wedding day is all about the couple (especially the bride), and if there is even a remote chance that his attendance will cause excitement then it's natural for her to want to avoid being upstaged by a guest. This is an unfortunate and unique situation. I feel conflicted about this one. Normally I roll my eyes at the bride worrying about being "upstaged." But if people are going to make a huge deal about him being there and, like, ask for pictures and autographs and freak out and squeal about him being there, I could see you being frustrated. She would probably feel like her wedding became an event about your famous boyfriend, not her. So if you have a famous boyfriend, don't be surprised if he gets left out of events. Not everyone can handle sharing the spotlight.
Florida banned alcohol consumption at its bars Friday as its daily confirmed coronavirus cases neared 9,000, a new record that is almost double the previous mark set just two days ago. The Florida agency that governs bars announced the ban on Twitter just minutes after the Department of Health reported 8,942 new confirmed cases, topping the previous record of 5,500 set Wednesday. State officials have attributed much of the new outbreak to young adults flocking to bars after they reopened in most of the state three weeks ago, with many of them ignoring social distancing restrictions aimed at lowering the virus’s spread. Bars, like restaurants, were supposed to limit patrons to 50% of their normal capacity, under the state’s emergency orders. Patrons had to sit at tables, with groups 6 feet (2 meters) apart. No congregating at the bar or on the dance floor was permitted. The new order prohibits any establishment that makes more than 50% of its revenue from alcohol sales from serving alcohol for consumption on site. Bars are still permitted to sell alcohol in sealed containers for consumption offsite. Restaurants that primarily sell food can still serve alcohol to customers seated at tables. The state suspended the license of a popular Orlando bar near the University of Central Florida earlier this week after at least 13 employees and 28 patrons tested positive. The bar may have been linked to 150 cases, state health officials said at the time. Gov. Ron DeSantis promised widespread bar inspections and invoked the “Grim Reaper,” saying violators’ liquor licenses would be revoked. He has scheduled a news conference for later Friday. Tampa bartender Colleen Corbett said she is worried about being unemployed again, but thinks the state’s action is “the right move since no one could follow the guidelines and everyone was getting sick.” Most of her bartender friends have been infected and she is awaiting test results. Corbett, 30, said the two bars where she works have been packed. She said staff weren’t required to wear masks and almost no customers did. “It was like they forgot there was a pandemic or just stopped caring,” Corbett said. More than 24,000 new cases have been reported statewide since Saturday, more than a fifth of the 111,724 cases confirmed since March 1st. The department hadn’t updated its death toll since Thursday, when it stood at 3,327. The seven-day average for positive tests in the state dropped slightly to 13.4%, down 1 percentage point from Thursday but still triple the rate of 3.8% reported on June 1st.
You need to "studied" how to spell "immune." Okay, so, you know Chuck E. Cheese, the kiddie restaurant is going out of business. On Monday I had Chuck on the Phile to tell some behind the scenes stuff that happened at the restaurant. Well, Chuck wanted to come back and tell us something else. So, please welcome back to the Phile...
Chuck: Hiya, Jason, it's great to be back.
Me: So, what do you miss about the restaurant business?
Chuck: Tons of unhinged, hyper children running around with tired, beer-sipping parents watching them beg for more tokens to cash in for cheap prizes that will break on the ride back.
Me: Ummm... okay. So, any behind the scenes story you can tell us?
Chuck: I would stay late on the weekends after close and when they took off the suits of the animatronics for "cleaning" and there was a time we were playing in the show room and one of the employees thought it would be funny to turn everything on. So they burst to life, all raw robot parts and furless, bulging eyes and bared teeth; terrifying! Recently I couldn't even play "Fight Nights at Freddies" due to deep rooted trauma from unexpected robot action. No thank you.
Me: Yeah, that would be creepy.
Chuck: It was.
Me: Well, thanks for stopping by. Come back when you want.
Chuck: I sure will. Bye, friends.
“Go to bed, you’ll feel better in the morning” is the human version of “Did you turn it off and turn it back on again?”
President Donald Trump is vowing to veto a massive defense bill to keep military bases such as Fort Bragg named after Confederate officers, swimming against sentiment in his own party and imperiling a 3% pay raise for the troops. Trump took to Twitter late Tuesday to threaten a veto of a $741 billion annual Pentagon authorization bill because it would require a host of military bases named after Confederate figures to be renamed within three years. Trump rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren, won a bipartisan vote in a GOP-controlled panel to force the bases to be renamed, and it’s clear that opponents of the idea don’t have the votes to remove it during floor debate. “I will Veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren (of all people!) Amendment, which will lead to the renaming (plus other bad things!) of Fort Bragg, Fort Robert E. Lee, and many other Military Bases from which we won Two World Wars, is in the Bill!” Trump wrote on Twitter. Trump’s threat comes as he is increasingly appealing to his core supporters as his troubled reelection campaign has fallen behind former Vice President Joe Biden in opinion polls. The response by top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer? Make my day. “I dare President Trump to veto the bill over Confederate base naming. It’s in the bill. It has bipartisan support. It will stay in the bill,” Schumer said Tuesday. The annual measure has passed every year for almost six decades and typically enjoys veto-proof support, though various controversies often mean that it does not pass until late in the year. Trump’s salvo probably ensures that the issue won’t come to a head until after the November election. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved Warren’s measure to force the bases to be renamed within three years by a voice vote last month. A commission would be set up to oversee the process. Since the Senate’s 45 Democrats and two Democratic-aligned Independents are behind the provision, GOP opponents of the idea would have to... at a minimum... summon 50 of the chamber’s 53 Republicans to replace it if everyone votes and Vice President Mike Pence is available to break a tie. As a practical matter it would take 60 votes under filibuster rules. That means that opponents of Warren’s provision like Sens. Tom Cotton, a top Trump acolyte, and Thom Tillis, face impossible odds during floor debate. The chamber is debating the bill now but won’t finish it until later this month. “Instead of mandating the renaming of military bases, including Fort Bragg, we need a thoughtful and constructive process that includes the input of our military communities,” Tillis said. Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky says that he won’t fight the Warren amendments and that he is “okay” with whatever negotiators on the measure ultimately decide on the issue. That’s a view generally shared by top House Republican Kevin McCarthy of California. Yesterday morning, Schumer eagerly returned to the topic. “Let me predict, President Trump will not veto a bill that contains pay raises for our troops and crucial support for our military,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “This is typical bluster from President Trump. The (defense bill) will pass, and we will scrub from our military bases the names of men who fought for the Confederacy and took up arms against our country.”
The 130th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...
Robert De Niro, Jr. will be on the Phile to talk about the book and his dad. Yes, that Robert De Niro. You talking' to me? Haha. Hey, it's Thursday... guess what that means?
Ouch! Ack! Hey, lets's take a live look at Port Jeff, shall we?
Looks like a pretty day in Port Jeff. Speaking of... Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York here is...
Top Phive Odd Things Said In June 2020
5. Why are all the people I've pushed away acting so distant?
4. No, my tattoos do not have any meaning. I am simply a child putting permanent stickers all over myself. Stop asking, please.
3. When you mouth the words "olive juice" with a mask on, you're less likely to transmit a deadly illness!
2. I knew I was gay when I liked other men. I knew I was queen when I used a strand of my ponytail to wrap around the hair tie hiding it and creating a gorgeous evening look.
And the number one odd thing said in June 2020 was...
1. Why post mate person never wanna come inside and chill, maybe watch Disney Coco movie with me.
Carl Reiner
March 22nd, 1922 — June 29th, 2020
It looks like his autobiography Too Busy To Die will need to be published posthumously.
Today's guest is an American comedian, screenwriter, director, actor, and producer. He was a staff writer for the sitcom "Seinfeld" for its first five seasons, contributing some of the show's darkest and most absurd storylines. He has also directed the documentary film Religulous and the mockumentary comedy films Borat, Brüno, and The Dictator. His Netflix documentary series "Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy" is available on Netflix right now. Please welcome to the Phile... Larry Charles.
Me: Hey there, Larry, welcome to the Phile. How are you?
Larry: I am fine, Jason.
Me: I was looking at your bio and I was like holy shit, you have done so many great things and worked with so many people. If there's a Hollywood writer or performer out there who wants to explore the dark side of comedy, you are probably the first person they call. You have worked with Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David and Sacha Baron-Cohen, as well as a list of eccentric genius types, like Andy Kaufman, Bob Dylan and Kanye West. Now you have a four-part Netlfix show called "Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy," What is that show about?
Larry: I look for the cultural meaning of comedy in places you might not think to look for it. I meet stand-up comics in Iraq and Somalia, and visit American war vets and Indigenous women who are bringing new voices to comedy in the U.S.
Me: I think that's crazy. With all your success I would think you'd just sit on a beach somewhere and drink margaritas in this time in your life.
Larry: Well, the problem is I don't like the beach and I don't like margaritas. So my choices were limited in terms off that kind of stuff. More accurately really what my choice in life was to do pilots and to do comedy's and do movies and I get offered all kind of cool stuff and I felt none of it really had any stakes in it to a certain point. I have been disillusioned by a couple of feature film experiences as well. I was looking for something to strip away all the artifice from the process as much as possible as I did on Borat to a large degree where it was a crew that could just not into a van or Religulous where again where we had a crew that could fit in a van, I wanted to do something like that again back to our filmmaking no questions, no notes, no discussions let's just do it. We see something interesting pull over to the side of the road and start shooting, start talking to people, just make it up as we go along. Have some kind of plan but be flexible. When we have an army of people we have to be obligated too we cannot be very flexible, we cannot be very spontaneous. So I wanted to do that. That was important to me.
Me: You don't just talk to comedians in this show, do you?
Larry: No. I talk to people who have done some legitimately terrifying things. Not movie terrifying things, but legitimately human terrifying things. An alleged member of ISIS, a former Libyan warlord for example and I talk to them about what humor means to them, what they find funny.
Me: What was it you were trying to figure out? Why do you care what makes these people laugh?
Larry: Well, I've come to the conclusion that humor and laughter is one of the primal forces in life. People get deprived of it and it hurts them and it's like breathing or eating, we need to laugh. When we're standing on the precipice, when we're standing on the edge of that cliff we have two choices. We could jump off or we could back up a little bit and recognize the certainty of the situation and laugh at it. And that's the two choices in life. These people are under these war torn conditions, they're living in a living trauma really. And so humor becomes a very poor resource, so for me when we see terrorism, we're seeing the end result of terrorism. I was curious about the beginning of terrorism, how it begins, where are they from, what was their upbringing like, what was the thing that sent them in this direction instead of this direction and did humor end up playing some kind of role? Would humor have defused the situation? Would humor have changed their direction if they had been exposed to it? So I was very curious. And these were people I assumed were not filled with any great sense of humor. I wrote to Ted Kaczynski, I was curious. We don't think of Ted Kaczynski smiling. What does he find funny? What did he find funny? Did he have a favorite TV show when he was a kid? I think we might learn a lot about extremist behavior by getting into conversations with people like this rather than locking them away and never learn from them.
Me: What did you learn from talking to people who have done unspeakable evil things?
Larry: Well, I don't want to generalize to much because in the case of the ISIS prisoner I saw him as a sort of strangely enough a victim of as well as a perpetrator. And I also talked to an Al-Shabaab defector and both cases they were kind of brainwashed to going based on falsehoods. One they were in the middle of it, they also had people come in and destroy their villages, they really had no choice but to join or die. As a very young person in that situation they have a choice to join or die or saving their family or killing their family they may go ahead and join these groups. Then not realize what they've gotten themselves into, they're a farmer, they don't have western media at their disposal so they've been brainwashed very easily by people who know what they're doing or know how to do that affectively. So I lensed there's a lot that could be done in te early stages of life to defuse what eventually becomes the horrific acts of terrorism.
Me: There's a moment where you are talking to General Butt Naked, the former warlord in Libya and in the conversation he goes from talking about what human flesh tastes like when he would eat it raw or when he would cook it, then the next minute he said he likes "Kids Say the Darndest Things" by Bill Cosby. What went through your head when you heard that?
Larry: I almost screamed out loud in joy because I was looking for those moments. I didn't manipulate that moment, he just volunteered that. That's all coming out in his cookbook by the way, General Butt Naked's Flesh Cook Book. He opposed to the ISIS prisoner and the Al-Shabaab defector. General Butt Naked is more of a charismatic sociopath, like a lot of world leaders are. He sort of mythologized his cannibalism and his war exploits and used it for redemption in Libya where he's now a preacher and very popular.
Me: Were you ever scared talking to these people?
Larry: Oh, yes, quite often.
Me: What was one of the situations where you were scared?
Larry: We had just gotten to Libya, we literally just gotten there and we were told that Butt Naked would talk to us then. We had to go out in the middle of town which was dark, there wasn't a lot of electricity and this was a street a lot of the war was fought on and there I am, plunged into this and talking to General Butt Naked and it was very nerve wracking and we had to be very aware and conscious of our surrounding. However something comes over me, get more upset and more stressed out when I know I have to get to the airport. On a line I might be more freaked out then I was in Somalia or Iraq or Libya. For some reason I get calm in those situations. Like in Borat, it was very stressful, every scene was so stressful and somehow or another I found calm in the midst of it and was able to have clarity because of that. So that must be some weird sociopathic trait that I have.
Me: When you did Borat and Brüno, did that ever feel like danger when you were doing those films?
Larry: It was strangely perverse fun. It felt like we were robbing banks and every time we got back in the van without consequences, when we got sway with something we would laugh so giddily that fear was not a big part of it. I think I felt a sort of above fear somehow. I somehow have this calm that comes over me and it was fun to be running away actually. I'm a grown man, I don't get that much of a chance to run way anymore.
Me: I would be fucked. I can't run at all. Can you give me a moment where that happened?
Larry: Oh my goodness, we were in Jerusalem and we wanted to film Brüno, this is in Brüno, we want to film Brüno just walking down the street in Jerusalem in Hasidic hot pants, and a kind of jaunty Hasidic cap. We just wanted him to walk down the street to just get a part of a montage. We wanted it to be just a kind of orthodox street if possible and we tried to find a street and there's two really hardcore orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem, and when we said we wanted to do it, our security said we could do it but they're not going to come with us. We're on our own. I was like fine, we'll do it without them, whatever. We went to the street in Jerusalem and it was a simple thing, Sacha was at one of the street, we had the van waiting at the other end of the street and all he has to do was to get from point A to point B and get in the van and drive away. But after a few steps in that outfit people started coming out of the woodwork scraping, yelling and grabbing stones off the street and hurling them at him and when they relaxed it was being filmed hurling them at us. There was no security, the van had disappeared and now we were running through the streets of Jerusalem being chased by stone wielding angry Hasidic men. So that was kind of memorable running away experience.
Me: In this new series you talk about comedians who could get murdered. One comedian said he was really to me a martyr for his country. What was it like to hear these stories face to face as an American comedian?
Larry: It was very illuminating to me. I had many epiphanies on this on this journey which was the great thing about it. As opposed to western comedy, which has a severe career trajectory, they're successful as a stand-up, they maybe will do a stand-up special, maybe they'll do a pilot for a sitcom, maybe they'll go into movies, these countries don't have that option at all. There is no ecumenic ladder for stand-up comedy, it is not an economic option for people. So when they decide to do comedy they are doing it because it is some kind of religious call. They're not thinking they're going to get a pilot out of this, no, they're fixing they are going to fix the country, heal the country. They're going to shine a light on the corruption of the government. They're going to shine a light on the lies of ISIS and they feel a much higher calling than American comedians, or western comedians because they don't have the economic incentive to follow that path. They are following some sort of conscience in what they do and it's a big difference.
Me: Is there anything over in the western world that would be compared to what is going on over there in the other countries? Probably not, right?
Larry: I think "The Daily Show" is a prime example of the economics of comedy around the world, "The Daily Show" is a show that could be recreated in virtually any country no matter what the economics status is. They'll need a desk, a couple of cameras and a host who can pull of the jokes that Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah do so well in this country. Though yes, there are versions of "The Daily Show" around the world, the one in Iraq is hosted by a guy named Ahmad Al-Basheer who is a very extraordinary person, a very unique individual. Again who I talk about this idea of a calling he's one of these people who could wind up being the President of Iraq. And because he cares so much about what's going on he recognizes all the complications of what's going around which we don't know. We hear very little about the actual intricacies about what goes on in Iraq or Somalia or those war torn countries even Saudi Arabia, on what issues they have. We get an artificial sort of coverage for the most part. What we learn when we're there is way more complicated than ISIS and the government and America. There's all kind of factions in all these countries, many, many factions fighting against each other, In Somalia we would see 17 different camo-colors, everyone had a machine gun or automatic rifle and they'd be in camo but not the same camo so we'd never see whose side and who was who. It was very confusing and very confounding.
Me: In the show some guy named Baked Alaska said Borat was his greatest influence. First of all, who is this Baked Alaska guy?
Larry: He's a far-Right anti-Semitic racist comedian. He's the guy best known for live seaming the Charlotteville riots, getting kicked off Twitter for making hateful statements.
Me: Ugh. Did it shake you up at all when he said Borat was one of his greatest influences?
Larry: It didn't shake me up because I had known that occurred a lot at the time of the movie. I saw it occurring a lot of time at the movie when people sort of saw the movie differently than it was intended. I realized at the time, and that's been true with all my work, all art really if you will because I can't really impose the meaning of what I'm doing on people. They have to interpret it themselves and see it for themselves. The poet doesn't tell the audience was the poem is about. It's about studying that poem, figuring that poem out and taking away what they're going to. The same thing is true about Borat ironically. People took away a very different thing than what we intended but it' a valid thing what they took away because look at the impact.
Me: What did they get wrong?
Larry: I don't think they saw the hypocrisy. I don't think they understood that we were targeting those people and trying to make them look foolish by being funny about it. I'm not endorsing those things in any way but Borat himself, even though he's very three dimensional and that's completely Sacha's very incredible groundbreaking performance that's been overlooked. But that's a big part of it, he is doing a satire. He is exploiting people's cultural ignorance, their global knowledge. He's using Kazakhstan and Borat as a vehicle to explore all these issues. I think for a lot of people they just see a naked fight, or they see making jokes about Jews and rape and they think it's being endorsed and it's really, really funny and they believe the same thing.
Me: Don't they look at the fact that you guys are Jewish yourselves?
Larry: I don't know why by the way. That's very public knowledge too at this point.
Me: Does it piss you off that they miss your work entirely?
Larry: As I said I don't go in... I want people to laugh. I want people to walk way provoked and disturbed in some way but beyond that I don't want to force anyone to think of anything basically. I believe in free speech and free thought. I have to let people do what they're going to do with the work I put out there. Once it's out there I lose control of it in that respect.
Me: Sometimes I wonder if this blog is worthwhile, Larry. What makes your work worthwhile?
Larry: I want to help basically. That's what I was thinking about before I did this show. What could I do? I see the world going in many directions I don't agree with. And like most people I don't have that much power to change things. I thought what can I do that could be a sort of contrast to this surge that's going around in the wrong direction and I thought maybe I could do a show that represents the other point of view. That's what really this was about.
Me: Do you think comedians over here in the states could learn from the comedians you have on the show? If so, what?
Larry: Well, I think they could see the stakes that people willing to live under to practice their comedy. There's no complacency to the comedy around the world. Its very urgent and I think we have a lot of humor in this country hat is based on the way that our country is, and that is we're more easy, much more secure, much more safe, and thus much more complacent. I think what they'll see is from these other comedians is a thing other comedians were in touch with when they started, that fire and they will see that these people will never let that fire go out.
Me: Larry, I want to ask you about some people you have worked with. When did you work with Andy Kaufman?
Larry: I worked with Andy on a show called "Fridays" early on in my career. In my new show I said that was a formative experience for me.
Me: Is that time working with Andy that when you think about him it pops into your head?
Larry: Well, the thing that pops into my head is the TV show "Fridays" that I was a writer on and that he appeared on and he distrubted a sketch. I remember thinking there's so much planning put into this show. I knew he was going to do something like that, the other writers knew, but we had no idea. He was a courageous person.
Me: What did he do?
Larry: He, in the middle of a sketch, said, "I can't do this. I can't read these lines, I can't pretend to be this character. This is ridiculous." He threw the other actors for a loop and kept pushing it until they got angry at him and a little tussle broke out, then the crew jumped in and they were going to lynch him and eventually he was pulled away and saved. It was almost semi-planned, but we couldn't like Borat, we couldn't really plan every part of that event.
Me: Did you take something from that?
Larry: I did. I saw that someone can break the rules and it actually makes it better.
Me: Do you have a guiding principal that you get the best out of the people you worked with?
Larry: Well, these people are fools and I tricked them all. I think I am just really open to the collaboration. I am happy to slow in any direction that I find interesting. I don't come in, or try to come in with a preconceived notion of what anything should be. I want to sort of discovery it myself. I want to be excited. These are all people whose minds, thoughts, language excited me. So I feel very lucky. I have to say the greatest theme in my life these days is how lucky I am. I really appreciate where I was born, at the time I was born, all things, all the advantages I just have being a caucasian American, born at a certain time, growing up in the Jamaican/Jewish community in Brighton Beach, those are all just lucky breaks. I couldn't control any of that so when I find myself with Bob Dylan or Larry David or Jerry Seinfeld, or whoever I feel I am lucky. I could get in touch with the excitement I would have as a kid if that had become a reality.
Me: Is Bob Dylan funny?
Larry: Bob Dylan is very funny, very dry, so you may not know he's being funny at the time he's being funny.
Me: Has he ever caught you like that?
Larry: I saw him catch other people a few times, but no, he never caught me. But I saw he was all about putting people on so sort of being serious when he wasn't. He's very conscience who he is.
Me: That's cool. Larry, thanks so much for being on the Phile. Please come back on the Phile again soon. Take care.
Larry: Thank you.
That was cool. That about does it or this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Larry Charles. The Phile will be back tomorrow with movie legend Robert De Niro! Spread the word, not the turd... or the virus. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Mask it or casket. Bye, love you, bye.
I don't want you, cook my bread, I don't want you, make my bed, I don't want your money too, I just want to make love to you. - Willie Dixon
No comments:
Post a Comment