Andrew Yang sits down with comedian Shane Gillis

I taught English in Spain for a little, and so I still had these Spanish teachers that I was friends with. And then I didn't talk to them for like three years. Then I got SNL, and I was on the news in Madrid. They were like, racist, comical, like, and they all started hitting me on WhatsApp like, Shane, what the hell, what happened? Like, you're racist? I was like, lo siento, lo siento, amigos. This week on Forward, one of the funniest people on the internet, one half of Gillian Keeves, and someone I have a little bit of shared history with, Shane Gillis. Welcome, Shane. I'm happy we finally got to actually sit down. Yeah, me too. So you and I spoke back in 2019. And so, you know, I was like, if people are like, Shane Gillis, that sounds vaguely familiar, and you're an Andrew Yang fan. So to recast this, September, 2019, some very exciting announcements are made about the new cast of Saturday Night Live. It includes Bowen Yang, Chloe Fineman, and Shane Gillis. And so you are exultant for approximately how many hours? I probably had 24 hours, because I knew I was going to get, I got the call that I was going to be on the show a day before. And then, yeah, once it got announced, I probably had about six hours. Didn't take them all. Okay, so then six hours later, news came out that you had made some offensive comments on a podcast, maybe like X months earlier, about me personally, I was on there, and then other groups. I think Asians were certainly on there, maybe some others. I think all of them, for sure. Yeah, I mean. Every group. Every group, so. They got me on Asians, though. Seems like I just heard about the Asian thing. Yeah, which is, it's a funny thing to get me particularly for one thing, because then it seems like that's something I'm actually like, you know what I mean? Now it looks like I just am a guy going around, like, *******, I hate Asians. It's like, no, dude. You know what I mean? Does that make sense? It does make sense, because that's the way I remember the news coverage, and that's obviously how it came to my attention. So I see this, and then I'm like, okay, who the heck is this guy? And my wife's like, who the heck is this guy? So we sit down and watch some of your comedy, and pretty quickly conclude that you're not some, you know, malignant, rancid, like ranting type, that you seemed like a comedian. And at that time, I made a statement saying, look, I don't like some of this humor, but no one should lose their job over making comments on a podcast. You know, and I didn't say this at the time, but it was a podcast that practically no one ******* heard. Like, you know, it's like that. No one listened. No, no one listened, and so someone took the time to be like, okay, here are these things. You're an up-and-coming comedian. I thought that in this case, it was like, look, and at the time, even when I made this statement, I didn't think that they would listen, but I said, as someone who is personally slurred, I don't think that this is something that someone should lose a job over. Yeah. And then, so during this time, what's happening to you? Oh, yeah, just getting canceled. And so what is it like? Just getting crushed. What do you say, being crushed? So the news stories start coming out, and then what happens? You just start getting like every tweet ever. Like, I mean, I was number one on Twitter for like three days, just getting, because there was a debate. That was the hard part, was like, there was, I understood both sides of the argument. Like, I think everyone did. Like, he should be fired, or he was just joking. So you go from the highest of highs, probably calling your parents, being like, hey, guess what? Like, you know. Yeah, that was the first thing I was ever able to like tell my parents in comedy, that they understood. You know, normally they'd be like, oh, I'm featuring this weekend for so-and-so to do it. Who cares? This was the first one. I was like, I'm gonna be on Saturday Night Live. They were like, wow. Wow. We're proud of you. Yeah. And it must have been a number of years to lead up to that point. And there were probably times when your parents were not exactly pumped about your career choices. So to rewind a little bit, you played high school football. You attended West Point on a football scholarship, is that right? Yeah, I mean, they give you full rides, no matter what, at West Point. But yeah, I was there to play football. So at this point, and the reason I'm casting this is that your parents are probably pretty proud of you. Well, they were proud. No, they were proud then. And then I got there, quit, cried, did the whole, you know, you can't cry in boot camp. They don't like it. I was a big baby. And I went home. So yeah, they were pretty disappointed. So how many years was it before, between you saying, hey, I'm gonna give comedy a try, and then you being able to call your parents and say, hey, mom and dad, guess what? I'm gonna be on SNL. Eight or nine years. Yeah, so I mean, that's a tough stretch, I'm sure. And then when the negative coverage started coming out, you probably read that article, and you're like, okay. And then you start trending on Twitter. So I went to go do standup that night. And I was like, oh, this is gonna be the coolest night ever. All the comedians are gonna be like, hey, there he is. So I'm on the train from Queens going into the city. And my agent calls and is like, did you say Dexler? And I was like, no. Like, I was like, I wouldn't say that. I genuinely, I was like, no, I don't even, why would I say that? And then she was like, here's a video of you saying it. I was like, holy ----. And then, so you know how it is riding the train. You lose service. So I would lose service for like five minutes. And then at the next stop, get a million texts that are like, holy ----, you're fucked. Yeah, so I got like gradually canceled every stop. It was crazy. It was surreal. It was totally surreal. I don't know how to really describe it. I'm not like, by the way, I'm not, I want it to be clear, I'm not a victim. Like, I'm not like sitting here like, oh, I can't believe what they did to me. It's like, there's a video of me using a slur. It's like, there's gonna be some backlash. Yeah. Oh, so, and it's one of the things I've appreciated about your time since, and a lot of people might not know this, but you haven't frankly responded in the way a lot of people do if they are the recipient of like a lot of energy, which is to go to whatever the opposite of that energy is. Yeah, I try to make sure that, because that's how it really, like getting canceled or however you want, consequence, whatever. That's how I think it really gets you, is if you let it become who you are, you know? And if you like start fighting against it, being a *******. Did you have that perspective immediately, or what was that process? Yeah, I think so. I think I always had that. It's also just not who I am. Like, if I was a closeted alt-right dude and they outed me, then it'd be hard to fake, you know? But I was just, I don't know. Yeah, if anything, your humor, I mean, I'd call it middle of the road, but a lot of your stuff, you're kind of a high-level Trump impersonator. I got that good, yeah. Which obviously is poking fun at Trump like an awful lot. And I think a lot of your humor is actually poking fun at yourself. It's something that if someone decides to check you out, they can see that's one of the running themes. So around this time, my team puts me in touch with you and I have a call with you. During our phone conversation, I was like, okay, like I felt good about the statement I made, saying like, look, I don't think this guy should lose his job. Yeah, I really, really appreciated that, for real. Like that was like, I was like, damn, this guy's awesome. Social media is attacking you. Like, are you getting updates from your agent in a particular way? Yeah, it was non-stop. Just on the phone for like four days straight, just taking phone, SNL, NBC, my agents, my management, people trying to do interviews, all that. So I don't remember you doing interviews. I didn't, I didn't, because I think, I mean, it was never gonna be good at the time. It was never gonna be good. I didn't want to talk about comedy. Like, I'm too new at it still. So for me to like pontificate about comedy makes me feel uncomfortable. You know, to just try to like quote Patrice O'Neill and be like, every good joke is born from a bad attempt. Something like that. The thing is that, that sucks with mine was it was a podcast. So it wasn't like a well thought out, smart joke. It was just talking, and I said the wrong thing. And then when did you start having the sense, okay, they're going to rescind this offer, slash I'm going to. I kind of knew from the start. Like right away, I was like, there's no way they're going to let this go. This is, especially SNL. SNL is, it's one of the few jobs where they'll definitely fire you for that. And it's one of the few jobs that people will look into your past when you get it. I could have been hired for most places and no one would have cared. Is there anyone on your team saying, hey, maybe if we do X, Y, Z. Oh yeah, everybody was coming up with, you should do this, do this, try this. So what were those ideas? It'd be like, let's do a, this guy from the New York Times wants to write an article or a profile or something. And it's like, I don't know, I'm just going to put my life in this guy's hands. It'd be like, hopefully he writes something good. But did the people close to you advise you to do it? Everybody had different ideas. No one knew what to do. It was a sinking ship. There was no, I was the only one that was like, it's over. You know what I find myself thinking, because it did seem like the attention was primarily on your comments about Asians. I wonder if there was like an equivalent, because periodically people screw up with particular groups and then they go and be like, look, I insulted this group. I'm now going to get like absolution slash understanding slash educated. But did anyone say to you, it's like, hey, is there like, you know, can we do something that's gonna? Yeah, but that seems, I don't know. I don't like when people do that. I don't know. It seems weird to me. Like Bill Maher said the N word on his show. And then the next week I think had Ice Cube on. Now Ice Cube's got to enlighten me in front of the whole world. It's like a weird, I don't know. It seems phony to me. You know, I know I didn't mean it. So it's hard for me to be like, now I need to reeducate myself. It's like, no, dude, it's. That's probably very genuine and often the case in a lot of these instances where the person, like, you know, what it is when you say it seems phony. For a lot of these people, it's like, look, the team says like, this is how you get out of this. This is the PR move, like that. Yeah, they'll give you an apology to tweet. Like a company will or your agent or somebody will be like, here, tweet this. And it's like, no, I'm not. That's crazy. So you were given that sort of thing anyway. I was given an apology like template. And they're like, tweet this. And I was like, I can't. So this is actually in a way like extraordinarily principled of you in a way. It's like you have people who are meant to be minding your professional interests being like, look, this is gonna be best for your professional interests. Yeah. And then you looked at it and say like, I can't genuinely put my name to this because that's not actually what I am thinking at this moment. Yeah, it was hard. It was hard. And also the thing that hurt me was I had no, no one knew who I was. There was no previous thing to like look back and be like, no, he's funny. No one had any idea. That was the only clip anybody had ever seen. So it was like. That is unfortunately probably accurate. Yeah. You built up a body of work since then. Yeah. That I do recommend people check out because it's genuinely smart and funny. Thank you. Like you're talented. So SNL, it may be one of the highest watermarks in comedy and they thought you were funny enough to be there. Yeah. And so that has to feel good. Yeah, that was cool. That was cool to go straight to cast. That was cool. It was cool, yeah. A great six hours apparently. It was a good six hours. And now a word from our sponsor, BetterHelp. Ever since I was a kid, I was kind of into my brain. Like I wanted to do good things for it. One of the best things we can do is exercise. You can get some outdoor time but some of us need a lot more than that. Some of us need genuine therapy and now there's BetterHelp online therapy that can lend us a hand from the comfort of our own home just the way that we need it. I saw a therapist when I was a teenager in school and have been a huge believer ever since. BetterHelp is online therapy that offers video, phone and even live chat online therapy sessions. So you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to and you can be matched with a therapist of your own in under 48 hours. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash yang. That's betterhelp.com slash yang. Get BetterHelp today. You'll be glad you did. You grew up in Pennsylvania, is that right? Were there a lot of Asians around where you grew up? Like do you remember any in your school? Yeah, there were a couple. So I went to a school like that where I was one of the couple. There was like one per year. So growing up in that environment for me and this was, I'm older than you. So this was like the 80s when there were only like three TV networks and the rest of it. So there were very, very few images of Asians of any kind. Like the most prominent ones that anyone would know would be Bruce Lee. Jackie Chan wasn't even a thing at that point. This was like pre-Rumble in the Bronx. I remember when Rumble in the Bronx came out. Went to a movie theater and I was like, Jackie Chan's made it to the States. So I got teased about being Asian like all the time as a kid. And as a kid, it was difficult and I'd skipped a grade. So I was like scrawny and smaller. And so there was like a lot of this like anger that built up in me, honestly. So the thing that happened to me growing up was like, I thought to myself, okay, I can be the Chinese guy that takes it or I can be the Chinese guy that ******* fights over it. And so I chose the latter and I lost most all of those fights because I was the scrawny Asian guy. But the teachers and administrators tended to punish whoever I was fighting with because they just assumed that, like, oh, it must be the other kid's fault. And it actually got to a point sometimes when it was not the other kid's fault. Like sometimes I would just be like- You were just like, it's time to fight. Oh yeah, it was like, or I would be, it was not, I mean, I'm not happy or proud of it, but part of it is that I was very conscious of being one of the only Asian kids growing up. It gave me a chip on my shoulder. And then I went to both a prep school in my case and a college that had a much higher number of Asians, probably higher than normal. And you live in Queens now, right? Yeah. Which is like, I mean- It's very diverse. Yeah, it's extremely diverse. Literally where you live might be the most diverse place in the entire country. Yeah, it's crazy. So I've got two boys who are nine and six and sometimes I look at them to try and figure out what their experience is like and how similar or dissimilar it is to mine. And it turns out it's completely dissimilar. Like they don't seem conscious of their race in the least. My perception or response to it has evolved over my lifetime, but also the times have changed a little bit. I mean, times might have even changed since 2019 when we're having this conversation. 2020 when COVID happened, then like anti-Asian stuff did start getting more dark and venomous and even violent in some cases. Here in New York where I've been most of the time, you did have a different energy. It's like the first time in my life where I felt like being Asian actually made you more of a target for more than just like, you know, snide comments or whatever the heck. I mean, I know Asian women in particular who literally try and make themselves look less Asian when they leave the house. They're like putting on sunglasses and like wrapping themselves. Yeah, it's really dark. It's pretty disgusting. Growing up Asian in this country, like you don't expect, at least the way I grew up, like you don't expect people not to see that you're Asian because it's like obvious. And you don't even expect necessarily for them to not make certain associations. Like I'm not someone who gets hyper-reactive to people's statements in large part because I grew up in an environment where people were just saying ---- to each other all the time. And I think about the kids I grew up with and like would I run to them now and be like, you're a racist? Be like, no. There were, would friends give each other ---- about, you know, something about their background or identity all the time? Yeah, it makes sense. If you've been around white dudes talking ----, you've heard of, I don't know, I guess that's what you're trying to say, right? A little bit. It's like you're a little more accustomed to it than, because I remember my high school, yeah, we did. Almost no minorities. But when they were, people, I mean, people definitely said ----. And I don't think, it sounds ridiculous, but it wasn't like hateful. You know what I mean? Oh, I do know. Looking back at it, it's like, Jesus Christ. That was crazy. This is one of the things that I genuinely don't know, Shane, and I'm trying to figure this out. If you and I went to a high school today, like, does this stuff still go on? I don't know. I think they're, no, I think they're very serious about it. Maybe, I have no idea. I haven't been in school. Well, again, it's one of the reasons why I look at my kids' experience trying to figure it out. Because there are times when I feel like I had an experience and be like, oh, like I'm out of date. And one of the things that certainly I stand for is that people can make a mistake and then they should be allowed to move on, acknowledge that mistake, or sometimes maybe say like, look, maybe I'm not going to do the pro forma things. Other than, yeah, social media doesn't help. Social media is the worst. I mean, right now, if someone wanted to make either of us look like ----, they could produce like a 60 second long montage of us doing very unfortunate seeming things. Out of context. No, I've done stupid things for sure. In their defense too, I am sitting in front of a camera recording it and doing it. So that's another aspect of it. Where it's like, I am putting it out there. So there is, it's like, oh, I said something stupid, so what? It's like, well, I did record it and post it on the internet. I mean, this is obviously going to be a byproduct of the age we're in. But I think that there are going to be a lot of people that are going to have a hard time transitioning to, let's say, running for political office because there's all sorts of digital history of them doing things where like, hey, I can build this. I know people I'm trying to get to run for president right now. Some of whom are comedians, some of whom are not. Can you get a comedian to run for president? I mean, there are a couple that are at least looking at it. Actually, I've been asking comedians this. Who would be your number one draft pick as a comedian to run for president? I think, overall, you'd probably say somebody like Jon Stewart. Jon Stewart's very, very high on people's lists. Yeah, it's gotta be him, right? So that's one of the most popular. Who else did people say? People say Chappelle, but they know he won't do it, and I know he won't do it. Yeah, Chappelle would do it. Well, he won't do it. Someone said Al Franken the other week, and that one actually makes sense because he's been a senator. He probably, he was close. I think he would have probably run, right? He probably would have run. Yeah. Or would have run. And he would have done well. And when I talk about this sense of forgiveness and understanding, Al Franken would probably be at the top of most people's list because that dude got drummed down to the Senate during a very emotionally charged time, and there was no due process. It was like, hey, guys, let's have a hearing and investigate it, and people were like, no, you out, and then he was like, he was left with very little choice. I think there are a lot of people that would have done that well. It would have been nice to have him against Trump on the debate stage. He would have been able to handle that. Okay, so I was on a panel a number of days ago with Chris Christie, who now people are down on for various reasons, but sitting with him, he was both talented and funny, and he made a case to the folks that were there. It was like, hey, you put me on a debate stage with Donald Trump, I can really do some damage. And listening to Christie talk about this, I was like, he actually could because he's been around him a lot, he's kind of comfortable, and he's got that kind of manner. So when you say Al Franken would have done the same, I think that there's some real merit to having someone with comedic experience and abilities, particularly if you're running against someone like Trump. Trump actually has a lot of those. He's very funny. He's undeniably funny. Yeah. Honestly, I think he's undeniably funny. Oh, I mean, he's entertaining, for sure. He's also an incredibly experienced performer. The proportion of politics that is performative is now sky high. And so if you have these performers, you have these political performers, and a lot of people are tuning out that sort of performance now. There was a theory I had that we were in a post-inspiration age, where if you come out and you're inspirational, like Obama, now that stuff doesn't work as well. Well, that's because they used it up. They did it so often with everything. Everybody was trying to be inspirational. Like, it'd be like, is that inspirational? Like, you know, it'd be like, oh, great. A significant proportion of them almost seem like they're imitating Obama, too. Yeah, for sure. Because that's the template, for sure. And it doesn't seem to work. No. And now there's gonna be probably a wave of dudes imitating Trump, which, that's tough to pull off. He's one of the only guys, I think, that can do that, which is get away with everything. Oh, I 1,000% agree with you that Trump is going to spawn a whole legion of- Which will be fun to watch, for me. Imitators. It'll be funny to see guys try to be mean on the debate stage. That'll be fun. Well, there was a moment in 2016 when Marco Rubio tried to imitate Trump, and it was just, it fell so flat, and you're just like, oh, it doesn't work. You have to be able to pull it off in a certain way. Jeb tried. Jeb started chirping back when he got crossed. He was like, you're high energy tonight, Jeb. I like that. I was like, oh, so ******* good at talking ----. And everybody else had to play by the political rules. Everybody else had to, don't be rude. Be a politician. Be good. And he's up there just bullying people. Overrunning them. Yeah. Here at Forward, we recommend ExpressVPN to safeguard your data, give you control, and anonymity. Why let these big tech companies follow you around wherever you go? 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You have the Democratic Party establishment who are like, hey, you gotta play by these rules, like we're gonna act a certain way, we're like buttoned up, and we have a certain way of presenting. By the way, I ran for president in this crew. And then you have the Republican Party under Trump that's become this anti-institutional, **** everything, burn it down kind of energy. And there's a Republican establishment within that that fought Trump and lost, and now Trump's influence is- You know, there has to be a kind of this positive ex-institutional energy that comes up and ends up being this third force in American politics. So my paragon example of this is someone like Matthew McConaughey. So McConaughey is from outside the institutions, but he's not an asshole in the same way Trump is. And so I look at someone like that and think, yeah, that's the kind of figure that we need to get us out of this mess. Now, there are certain people over here that think- I can't believe that's where we're at. Can you imagine, as a country? Oh, I can imagine. 10 years ago, 10 years ago. Oh, 10 years ago, probably not. Hopefully Matthew McConaughey can get us out of this mess. It's like, oh man, what are we doing? So you can fill in figures for Matthew McConaughey. Mark Cuban's in this category. The Rock is in this category. Some would say Oprah. Oh wait, so you're laughing. Yeah, I'm laughing, I know, I know. It's just, it is funny that this is where we're at. Hopefully the Rock can team up with Matthew McConaughey and defeat Trump and save America. It's like, damn. I mean, I certainly think the odds of that are much higher than Joe Biden defeating Trump. Joe Biden's gone. He's gone. Right, there's no chance. I mean, I think there's a likelihood he ends up the nominee. If they do that, again, they're trying to lose. I think they might be trying to lose. You should know, Ben, I've gone through this logic. So you and I can- If they ran today again, Trump versus Biden, Trump would win. I agree. And if they do DeSantis or whatever, he'll win. If you're going against Biden. Where this very strange, like, A versus B versus C, like, you know, Prisoner's Dilemma type thing, where it's like, okay. And so when I was on this panel with Chris Christie, Chris Christie said, look, generic Republican beats Joe Biden. And then I looked at Chris and I said, I may agree with you, but a generic Republican cannot win your primary. Yeah. So this is like the order of operations, is that if you get Trump, then Joe says only I can defeat Trump. And then, like, meanwhile, in both cases- He'll be 82 running. Yeah. It's like, we can't. He'll be 82 in 2024. Trump will be 77. Yeah, Trump's, we gotta figure that out too. I mean, DeSantis is in his 40s, so- He's pretty likable. Well, I mean, he's well liked. He's popular. Yeah, he's very popular. He's popular. I'd say he's probably Republican's strongest- Yeah, non-Trump. Non-Trump candidate. I just am of the opinion that if Trump runs- No one will run. Yeah, you know, it's like you have- Who'll end their career. Yeah. That's what'll happen. Yeah, it's much more prudent and intelligent for them just to be like, look, I'm gonna sit the cycle out and like say the Trump thing. He could be VP. He could be VP and just fly back in. And then he can be the next president. That would be the smart one. I said the exact same freaking thing, Shane. For comedians too, and this is maybe one reason I naturally sympathize. I've been on camera hundreds of hours over the last number of years. So the odds of my ******* up are 100%. I fucked up yesterday. Last night. And it's killing me. The anxiety. Tell me about that. I did a dumb drinking podcast at Barstool last night. And I think I might've come off like a jerk. So that's killing me. So tell me about this anxiety you feel after the fact. Well, seeing myself on camera, I'm like, jeez, and especially if I was drunk on camera, like, ah, shut up. Yeah, **** you, you know. That's not a good look. That's, the funny thing is too, is I knew that's what I was doing. I signed up to do that. I was like, this'll be funny to get drunk on camera. Well, do you know you're a pissed off asshole drunk? No, I'm not. Usually I'm not, usually I'm not. Something happened last night, I was chirping. Okay, I got it. So you still don't understand. But it's also just a hangover anxiety today. You know how that is. But you've seen the footage? I'm not much of a drinker. No. I saw some of the footage on the way here. That's not a good feeling. No. No, it's the worst feeling in the world. When I've seen footage that I regret it, I'm like, oh no. And then the comments. Joe Rogan actually gave me some of the best advice I've ever gotten. Don't look at the comments. That was literally Joe Rogan's advice. Everyone's like, don't read the comments. It's hard not to. They might've been right. The comments might've been right yesterday. I'll give them that. Oh wait, the comments are right. Look at this. Again, man, it's like you just, you're like unusually self-critiquing. Yeah, I hate myself. What proportion of comedians hate themselves? I think all of them. It's pretty high. But then also, the other side of it is you love your ego, crazy, and also you don't like yourself. I've been grappling with this a little bit because I'm a fairly serious figure, I suppose. I've written some serious books about technology and the economy and our dysfunctional political system. So there are people on my team that say, look man, you gotta toe a careful line in terms of the humor because the last thing you wanna do is become the ha-ha, can't take him seriously joke figure. But then there's part of me that's like, look, at this point, comedians are the most trusted figures in American life and that there's almost no way out of this that doesn't involve channeling that energy and humor into something that's both honest and positive. Don't listen to your team. Do whatever you want. That's what people want is someone genuine. That's why Trump gets away with everything. Everyone's like, I feel like he's being honest, though. Well, the word is authentic. That's what people say. It's like that he's himself. He seems to be authentically phony, which is at least somewhat honest compared to most politicians. And that is what most Americans have concluded is I'd rather the authentic asshole than the phony good person. And we do such a bad job of pushing each other to the other side. I say all the time, man, the biggest recruitment arm for the Republicans is Democrats. I don't know what, yeah, it's a bummer. We need McConaughey. We need it. We need the rock. We need Cuban. All I do is travel the whole country. That's another reason why comedians get ---- is because you've been all over the place. Red state, blue state, small town, college town, big city. And it turns out everyone's pretty good as a person. In person. That's where you find out. In person, they're good. Yeah, like I was in Mississippi two days ago. Great. What are we talking about? They're great. I don't know. Individually, everyone's pretty cool. And it doesn't matter where you are. I had the same experience running for president. I went small towns, Midwest, South, Northeast. I'll actually say a quote to you, someone. I was in Alabama. And then this. Here's a quote from Alabama. And I saw that, and then. It's what got me in trouble last time. This guy comes up to me and he's like, Mr. Yang, I don't agree with you on a whole hell of a lot. But you got a set of balls on you, sir. And I respect that a great deal. He puts his head out. I was like, well, thank you, sir. It's actually like a really positive set of it, right? You know, talking to you, Shane, I mean, you had an extraordinary perspective even when it was happening to you. But now, you seem to have the healthiest perspective on it ever. I mean, most people would still be harboring something. But you don't feel like you have any of that. No, I don't. There's a couple people. There's a couple people I don't. I'd still be upset with. But even people that trashed me. I've had people come up and say sorry. And it's like, immediately, I'm like, great, thank you. I get it. I've talked ---- on everyone. So when people talk ---- on me, I'm like, yeah, probably. I have that coming a little bit. I've kind of taken on this sort of Jedi, like ---- just rolls off my back kind of thing. Would've been funny if you talked ---- on me. You would've killed me. That would've killed me. That would've been funny. Maybe I would've done it had it been, if I'd known it was gonna be funny enough. Yeah, no, it would've. Everyone would've been like, you might've won. Are there people I see as malignant and destructive? Like, please, please, go away? Like, yes. Yeah, they exist. Yeah, of course. And I think their ranks are multiplying. And this is one of the destructive things, too, is that if you start treating everyone like, hey, you get offstage, you get offstage, you get offstage, as people are multiplying, it's like, no, we have to distinguish between people who are genuinely awful, toxic, destructive, hateful. Yeah, you have to. Because otherwise, you keep kicking everyone offstage. They're gonna start, they link up. Now all of a sudden, you've got actually somewhat reasonable people that you executed for no reason. Yes. Teamed up with Trump. Not, you know, Trump's a, I'm not trying to throw, I don't wanna ruin my boy Trump's good name. Do you imitate him on the regular? Yeah. Part of it, too, is like, you know, it's like these social media platforms have become just like natural homes for people's negative sentiments. So if someone saw your thing and were like, okay, that's fine, they're not gonna be like, love this. Yeah, of course. And someone's gonna sledge you. So just, you know, let this be like the, you know, one of the things is like, pretty much everyone still loves you. Thanks, man. I needed this today. And I have also had this experience too, a million times. It's like, most people have no idea that whatever you're upset about is happening. Now, that time when like the entire Western civilization turned on you, yeah, people noticed that. They got me. People noticed that. You know what's funny? I lived in Spain for, I taught English in Spain for a little. And so I still had these Spanish teachers that I was friends with. And then I didn't talk to them for like three years. Then I got SNL. I was on the news in Madrid. They were like, racist, comical, like, and they all started hitting me on WhatsApp like, Shane, what the hell, what happened? Like, you're racist? I was like, lo siento, lo siento, amigos. The important thing, man, is that, you know, you're thriving, you're a human being, you're moving on, you're still making people laugh. Yes, and everybody, people forget. People forget? They forgot the next week. Yes! And I had to live with it, you know? That's how it goes. But, thankfully I do stand-up, so I can every night do something. Get another rap. Yeah. Awesome. Hey, thank you for real. Like, when you called back then, meant a lot to me. Hey, thanks a lot, man. Thank you.