947 - Laugh Now, Cry Later feat. Larry Charles (6/30/25)

Chapo Trap House

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4.6 • 9.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2025

⏱️ 96 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Comedy legend Larry Charles (Fridays, Seinfeld, Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm & much more) returns to the show to discuss his new book Comedy Samurai: Forty Years of Blood, Guts, and Laughter. We have a wide ranging discussion of Larry’s life in comedy including post-war Brooklyn as a comedy incubator, grinding out avant-garde sketch comedy with Andy Kaufman, the prevalence of coke and other drugs in the comedy writing scene, getting tackled by the Secret Service trying to get a joint to Jimmy Carter’s sister, and the difficulties in comedic creative relationships. Larry also gets candid about his disappointment with the prevalence of zionism among his erstwhile comedy partners, and we talk about the humanizing force of humor in the face tragedy and despair. Pick up Comedy Samurai here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/larry-charles/comedy-samurai/9781538771549/?lens=grand-central-publishing AND: get your pre-order in for YEAR ZERO: A CHAPO TRAP HOUSE COMICS ANTHOLOGY starting today at www.badegg.co

Transcript

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0:00.0	I have to start this show with getting something off of my chest. I usually let these things slide,
0:05.8	but this was pissing me off all last week, and we're often accused of using our platform to be
0:10.8	petty little assholes, so I'm going to use this platform to be a petty little asshole.
0:16.0	Last Monday, Derek Thompson of Abundance fame called out Will for a very tepid joke and complained
0:22.6	about our supposed unwillingness to engage in good faith with their whole project saying,
0:27.2	quote, they were pitched several times to our show. Now, I personally try to make it a point
0:33.2	to read all good faith pitches we get and try to respond with and at least let me check with
0:37.8	the team. And I have gone through my own email and the Chapo email account and we received
0:43.3	zero official solicitations from either Derek and Ezra themselves or any PR firm on their behalf.
0:50.8	The only thing I got was in a DM from that Armand D.M.
0:54.5	Damoluski guy saying, you should have them on.
0:57.2	I could put you in touch, which I took as essentially a listener suggestion and politely declined.
1:01.7	And even then, I provided him with some contact info for other left media that might be more amenable.
1:07.2	But like, abundance guys, are you paying Armand or is he just freelancing abundance PR for the love of
1:13.3	the game and either way that's hardly a professional pitch let alone we were pitched several times
1:19.4	and furthermore derrick and i went to college together we've met several times we have had
1:26.2	more than one conversation over solo cups of old
1:29.2	style. If he doesn't remember me, I remember him. We have many mutuals. I have a hundred mutual
1:36.7	friends with him on Facebook, just as an example of how in-network we are. I am not hard to get in
1:43.4	touch with. I'm nice.
1:45.6	If he really wanted to be on the show a quick,
1:47.7	hey man, it's been a minute.
	...

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