This Is Crazy
"I fabricated that."
Do you remember when Mark Normand said on his podcast that Netflix asked him to remove an Islamophobic joke from his new special, and that he told the execs he’d do it if they admitted Muslims are dangerous, which he said they did, a story Netflix denied the next day?
Well, Normand just went on Maury Povich’s podcast and said that yeah, it was all a lie, he made it up:
Povich: But here's the thing, you and Netflix have had problems.
Normand: Oh, yeah?
Povich: Yeah.
Normand: What do you mean?
Povich: Didn't they ask you to take out a bit?
Normand: No, I fabricated that.
Povich: You fabricated the Muslim bit?
Normand: Well, they said, "Hey, could you..." I picked a bunch of jokes that I wanted to use to promote. They said, "Give us a few jokes you like and we'll prom—you know, we'll put them out on the internet."
Povich: Right.
Normand: And they said, "Let's not do that one because the internet is crazy and people get worked up." And so I made it up in This whole story. So that, that was on me. I lied. They didn't do anything wrong. I did.
Povich: You admit that.
Normand: Yes. You got an exclusive, see?
I almost can’t believe what I’m watching. He admits so breezily that he smeared the people releasing his special for no reason other than to tell an Islamophobic… joke? Does that count as a joke? Is it comedy to tell a bald lie about yourself manipulating Netflix into saying Muslims are dangerous? Is it comedy to say the story you made up is "kind of a microcosm" of phony progressivism? Gosh, I just don't know if it is.
Seth Simons
In other news, Theo Von came back from his trip to Guadalajara for the World Cup and said he enjoyed his time in Mexico so much, he’d love it if Claudia Sheinbaum came on his podcast and told him what the deal is down there:
Von: Oh, I do wanna get the president of Mexico on here. Ms. Claudia Sheinbaum. I will come to Mexico City. I wanna come down there. I would love, I would love to get the president of Mexico on. Just to learn, I wanna learn like about the Mexican-American relationship from a Mexican point of view, from a leader there point of view. Not, you know, I just wanna learn more. I think it would be exciting. So this is my beacon for that. You know, I'm trying to speak what I would like.
Yeah, I would love to know, like, how do our laws, like the laws that we make here, how does that affect things that happen in Mexico? What are the truths about cartel stuff in Mexico? I would love to know about, like, what are some of like the big long-term goals of Mexico? Just things like that. It's interesting because I don't ever, I don't ever learn about it. I probably could, but it would be nice to learn in person.
So that is something I would like to—I'd like to have that opportunity if you would grant it to me.
I think it’s such a perfect encapsulation of the particular form of brain rot comedy podcasters have. I’d like to learn about a country; maybe the president could come teach me!
Seth Simons
No podcast this week—I'm inundated with other work and can't make time to record. Stay tuned for my interview with John Reynolds about his new movie, which should land in your inbox in a day or two. Thanks as always for reading, and please upgrade your subscription if you can:
