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Comedy does have power.
Yet it can shine light on an issue.
It can say, Hey, look at this thing thats incorrect.
It can give us the vocabulary necessary to discuss a topic.
Its about Guy Fieri.
Even beyond that, he was a dyed-hair symbol for a person people hate.
But in walked Shane Torres and one of the great jokes of the past ten years.
When Torres performed the joke onConana few weeks later, it went viral again.
By October 2017, the perception of Fieri had forever been changed.
you might read some excerpts from the transcript or listen to the full episode below.
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And there was this chuckle.
And the line was As far as I can tell, all he ever did was follow his dreams.
And it got a huge pop.
I remember when I was working on it, my buddy was like, No, he sucks!
I was like, What do you mean?
He showed me this video, and you cant even see him.
Guy is sitting in a car, and someone was attacking him and hes shoving them off of him.
I was like, Oh, you mean he defended himself?
I didnt even know it was him.
But I was like,This is fucking obscene that people are this ready to not like this guy.
Being negative, at some point, became a valid opinion without having any support for it.
I think Ive said that before.
But culturally, there was this time where it was just fashionable to shit on stuff.
And it was weak writing, and it wasnt even criticism.
So I really hated that.
On Joke Stealing
Im very proud of the joke, and Im happy I wrote it.
He was drunk, laying in a door jamb on the ground.
He doesnt lip-sync it.
He does the whole bit, and his friends are laughing, like, Dougs the funniest!
And Im like,Fuck Doug.
Hes literally doing my shit.
And these people are laughing and losing their fucking minds.
And Im like,Goddamn it!I think I kicked my chair over.
On Wanting His Comedy to Be Art
I want to make comedy that people call art.
I think very few comics do that.
Theres a few people I could list.
I think Chappelle makes art with his comedy.
I think Maria [Bamford] does that as well.
I really think Louis [C.K.]
I want to be able to do that too.
Theres some bands that are great, but theyre only a one-hit wonder.
Like, You know who Shane Torres is?
Yeah, hes the guy who did the Guy Fieri joke.
I know thats the first thing.
Theres more to it.
Im a fan of one-hit-wonder bands who happened to be amazing and they just never made a second splash.
I think thats part of it too.
On Truth in Comedy
Early on in my career, maybe I was trying to be dark.
Now I hope its truthful in a way thats not cheesy.
Like, fuckin here we go.
I sincerely believe people pick up on that.
Truth is just the thing you did.
You might as well just watch a black-and-white video cameras security footage.
Its not truthful to me if there is no emotional weight in it.
Sometimes that can lead to being darker.
