Roy Wood Jr.: "People Just Want to Feel Good."
The Gist
Mike Pesca
4.4 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 25 December 2025
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this special Christmas Day edition, Mike gives the gift of Roy Wood Jr., a comedian who embodies the "profundities in punchlines" ethos. Wood joins to discuss his CNN show Have I Got News for You, his upbringing as the son of a pioneering radio journalist, and the central thesis of his comedy: that in a fractured world, people prioritize dopamine over truth. They debate whether political comedy has devolved into mere applause lines, why comedians are the new op-ed writers, and the delicate art of crafting a joke about police reform that actually lands with everyone. Plus, Mike explains why you need a "Christmas Eve" song if you want your novelty hit to last.
Produced by Corey Wara
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Thursday, December 25th, 2025 from Peach Fish Productions. |
| 0:08.0 | It's the Gist. |
| 0:09.1 | I'm Mike Peske. |
| 0:09.9 | You know, it's been 100 years since December 25th showed up on a year that also ended in 25, |
| 0:17.1 | and it will be in 100 years hence. |
| 0:19.4 | Fun fact. |
| 0:23.6 | We have, and we have been playing some of my favorite interviews, interesting, fascinating people. Roy Wood Jr. is the guest. He was on funny |
| 0:31.3 | you should mention at the end of season one. He exemplifies the raisindetra, which is not a word you |
| 0:37.2 | should use on a comedy stage. The raisin detra of funny you detra, which is not a word you should use on a comedy stage. |
| 0:38.8 | The raisin detra, a funny you should mention, which is all these comedians so often are or have conferred upon them the status of Sears or op-ed writers or people who argue in the public realm. |
| 0:50.2 | And Roy Wood Jr. actually hosts a CNN show. |
| 0:52.9 | So I wanted to ask him, not just about how he |
| 0:55.2 | crafted the punchline, and I do, but I wanted to ask him about why he's arguing the point. Can he |
| 1:00.7 | argue the point? Does he wish to argue the point in a non-cometic setting? He was great. He was very |
| 1:05.0 | game. A lot of times the comedians I have on don't necessarily lend themselves to this kind of setup where I'm, one of the taglines is unpacking the profundities and punchline. |
| 1:14.8 | Also, not something you should say on a comedy stage. |
| 1:17.2 | Put it next to Razan Detra. |
| 1:18.8 | And you've definitely established yourself as more of a spoken word act than a comedian. |
| 1:24.9 | But some of the comedians I have on, they're not really making arguments. |
| 1:28.2 | They're making us laugh. |
| 1:29.3 | And, you know, a good interviewer will go where the interview wants to go. |
| 1:33.2 | And so I think you maybe heard a recent interview I did with Mohanid El Shiki, the Libyan |
... |
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