Comic and Daily Show Correspondent Roy Wood Jr.

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2019

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Another favorite from the Bullseye archives this week. This time: Roy Wood Jr.! He's a comedian. You've probably seen him as a correspondent on "The Daily Show." He's done comedy pretty much his entire life, but he majored in broadcast journalism and for a while, it was looking like that was gonna be his career. He was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama and first got his start in radio, working at a handful of stations. Sometimes he wrote, sometimes he produced or reported, but at heart, Roy's always been a standup, doing his act whenever he found the time. Roy talks with Jesse about the difficulty of writing original jokes, gang colors, and how being on the Daily Show has given him an opportunity to share some of his bolder takes on politics and race.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:13.5	I'm Jesse Thorn. It's Bullseye.
0:23.3	My guest is comic Roy Wood Jr. Roy was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama.
0:28.9	He got his start in radio, working at a handful of stations. Sometimes he wrote, sometimes he produced, or reported, but at heart, he's always been a stand-up.
0:38.9	Doing his act wherever his radio career brought him.
0:41.9	In 2010, he finished third on last comic standing, which is when his career took off. He got his own radio show, got acting roles, started getting booked in bigger venues.
0:51.9	As a comic, he is a truth teller, but he is also self-deprecating and weird. In 2017, he released his album Father Figure, which made a bunch of top 10 lists.
1:21.9	The name of the movie was Adjutives in the Name, but it was not for the fruit.
1:24.9	Okay, you had a mango sunset peach tranquility.
1:29.9	I don't drink tranquility out. Hold it tranquility.
1:38.9	That should knock it down in the 350s.
1:43.9	Smoothie is so expensive. I'm surprised rappers don't talk about him in a song.
1:49.9	And earlier this year, he did an hour long special for a comedy central called No One Loves You.
1:54.9	Roy's got a pretty good day job too. He's a correspondent on the Daily Show. His official title is Black Correspondent.
2:00.9	Here's a classic bit of his from the Daily Show. This is from 2018. He called it The State of Black Stuff for 2018. It was basically a response to President Trump's State of the Union.
2:13.9	Outlook my friends is bright. The Oscars are looking blacker than ever.
2:17.9	Black Panther is set in box office records for the first time. An African American woman will be speeding
2:23.9	that the White Oli-Winter Olympics and in 2018, in 2018, there are over 400 Black women running for public office.
2:43.9	The Black Future is so promising, oh my God, I need some cocoa butter. I gotta get rid of it.
2:48.9	Gotta get rid of all this blackness. So black citizens, you ask where we is.
2:54.9	The answer is on our way to a place where the State of Black is stronger than ever. God bless Black people. God bless Gayle King.
3:02.9	And God bless Season 2 of Atlanta.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.