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Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

90. Scott Aukerman (Comedy Writer) – The Buttons You Push

Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

Big Think / Panoply

Arts, Society & Culture

4.6594 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2017

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with unexpected conversation starters from Big Think’s interview archives. Scott Aukerman is a comedy writer, director, and producer who started out on HBO’s Mr. Show with Bob and David. He’s the creator of Comedy Bang Bang - the podcast and the long running IFC show, and he co-created and directs Between Two Ferns with Zach Galafanakis, for which he’s won two Emmys. In this episode, Scott and Jason talk Michael Bolton, transgression in comedy, and a United States in cultural turmoil. Surprise conversation starter interview clips: Jelani Cobb on military vs. moral power and Chris Gethard on comedy and political correctness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey there, I'm Jason Gots, and you're listening to Think Again a Big Think podcast.

0:08.0

Started in 2008, Big Think is a kind of online think tank of big ideas from some of the most creative thinkers on the planet.

0:16.0

On the podcast, we revisit these ideas in new and different ways.

0:21.2

Our producers surprised me and my guests

0:23.1

with short interview clips from Big Fink's Archives,

0:25.8

ideas that we didn't necessarily come here,

0:27.9

prepared or expecting to discuss.

0:30.2

I'm very happy to be here today

0:31.8

in the middle of a New York City snowstorm

0:34.2

with Scott Ackerman.

0:35.8

He's a comedy writer, director, and producer who started out on HBO's Mr. Show with Bob and David.

0:41.3

He's the creator of Comedy Bang Bang, the podcast and the long-running IFC show,

0:46.3

and he co-created and directs between two ferns with Zach Galafinakis, for which he's won two Emmys.

0:52.3

Scott is also a self-taught Nobel laureate physicist who has invented a device for time travel which he's brought with him into the studio today. Is that correct? Oh yeah definitely. I mean I have it right here. It's what people don't really know is it's so small. I mean they don't expect that. Usually when you see a time machine, you know... Is that it on your lapel?

1:11.6

Yeah, this is it. Yeah, this is right here.

1:13.6

I mean, it's just, yeah, it's very small. I'm talking into it right now, actually. Oh, oh my God, it looks exactly like I wouldn't have no... It looks just like a microphone. a microphone. Oh, it is a microphone. Yeah, what it's doing is it's projecting my voice through time into the future so people are going to hear

1:28.2

this in the future rather than right now oh I see I thought you were talking to us from the

1:32.5

past I thought that meant you were in some other I mean people who are listening to this

1:36.5

certainly are listening to me in the past yes I see yeah so it's a time machine so you but

1:41.5

your present is 2017 yeah obviously but I, people could be listening to this in, you know, 2018,

1:50.0

2034, 2192, you know, that's what this time machine I've invented really allows.

1:57.0

That is amazing.

...

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