Anthony Jeselnik on Trump, SNL, and Why He’s ‘Uncancelable’

The Last Laugh

The Daily Beast

Comedy Interviews, Comedy, Interviews, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Tv, Movies, Film

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2024

⏱️ 61 minutes

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Summary

Self-described comedy “villain” Anthony Jeselnik has made a career out of telling expertly crafted, extremely dark one-liners, from his breakthrough set at the Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump in 2011 to his newest Netflix special ‘Bones and All,’ which marks his 20th year in comedy. In this episode, he talks about crafting his Comedy Central interview show ‘Good Talk,’ how he thinks his comic persona will continue to evolve as he ages, how getting fan mail from a white supremacist made him rethink one of his darkest jokes, what “surprises” him about Louis C.K.’s attempt at a comeback, his failed audition to anchor SNL’s “Weekend Update,” how Lorne Michaels “helped Trump get elected,” why he considers himself “uncancelable,” and a lot more.

This episode was originally published on September 3, 2019.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Last Laugh. I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast. I hope you are all having a good Thanksgiving week so far.
0:13.3	We have a lot of very exciting guests coming up on this podcast for the rest of the year.
0:17.8	But this week, we are revisiting my interview with a man who considers himself
0:21.4	to be one of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time, and, you know, I happen to agree, Anthony Jesselnik.
0:28.4	Anthony and I talked in studio all the way back in September of 2019, right around the release of
0:34.9	his last Netflix special, Fire in the Maternity Ward,
0:38.4	as well as a short-lived interview show he hosted on Peacock called Good Talk, which was a personal favorite of mine.
0:45.3	Five years later, Anthony has a new special called Bones and All that just started streaming on Netflix
0:51.4	and marks his 20th year in stand-up comedy. It's also arguably
0:55.8	the best hour he has ever put out. Especially in this moment right now where everyone is
1:00.9	searching for the liberal Joe Rogan, I think there's a good case to be made that Anthony
1:05.2	Juselnik could fill that void, if he wanted to, but it seems like he is perfectly satisfied remaining stand-up comedy's
1:12.4	greatest villain. Before we get into the interview, let's listen to the trailer for Anthony's
1:17.4	new special, Bones and All, which consists of a single super dark one-liner, and then a full
1:23.6	30 seconds of laughter and applause.
1:29.7	One of my friends just asked me,
1:32.3	thought it would be the sperm donor for her baby.
1:33.8	I said, I don't know.
1:35.8	That's a pretty big decision.
1:38.1	How old's your baby? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Are you based out here or you in New York?
2:08.6	I live out here.
2:09.6	For a while, you've been out here?
	...

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