🎙️ Listen to this episode:
Featured: Trevor Noah, Dave Chappelle, Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen, Mackenzie Crook, Martin Freeman, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Lucy Davis
What’s in This Episode
- Trevor Noah on FIFA World Cup corruption and US government interference
- Dave Chappelle on CNN discussing American pride and free speech
- The Office UK 25th anniversary special tensions between cast and creators
- Martin Freeman defends improvisational aspects of The Office filming
- Ricky Gervais launching YouTube channel with Office anniversary content
- David Brent statue unveiled at Premiere Inn in Slough
Questions Answered in This Episode
Why aren’t Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in The Office UK anniversary special?
Ricky Gervais is marking the 25th anniversary separately on his YouTube channel with his own special about David Brent moments and never-before-told stories, rather than appearing in the BBC Two special with the cast.
Did Martin Freeman say The Office UK was improvised?
Freeman said it was ‘nicely loose’ rather than fully improvised—the scripts were brilliant, but he had some freedom in how lines were delivered, which Ricky and Stephen have denied, claiming it was entirely scripted.
What did Dave Chappelle say about being American on CNN?
Chappelle said he doesn’t agree with everything the government does, but he’s proud of his countrymen and has faith in Americans to get through difficult times together.
What were Trevor Noah’s comments about FIFA corruption?
Noah pointed out that Americans criticized FIFA as corrupt until they needed corruption for themselves, suggesting hypocrisy when the World Cup came to America.
Is there a David Brent statue in Slough?
Yes, a clay sculpture of David Brent was unveiled at the Premiere Inn in Slough on the Trading Estate, commissioned to commemorate The Office UK’s 25th anniversary.
Full Transcript
This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.
Caloroga Shark Media. Oh man, I am so happy because the comedians are hooking it up and fighting with each other. It’s wonderful. Hello. I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News.
I’ve got two days of comedian fights. We’ll save the mega comedian aperghetti stuff for tomorrow. Today we’ll dive in on the office Wars. But first, let me tell you about Trevor Noah. He had some thoughts about the World’s Cup and the President of the United States.
Now in the video that I’m sharing the audio of, if you hear clapping sounds, that’s because Trevor Nooa keeps clapping his hands, and it is worth noting that he was wearing a Team USA jersey during this clip. Here’s Trevor Noah. Americans were very quick and proud to say FIFA is a corrupt organization, the corrupt fifas corrupt. I’m glad FIFA’s coming to America because finally they’re going to be held accountable. Until they needed some of that corruption for themselves, until Americans needed.
Some of that corruption for himself. Yes, then now they’re like, yeah, man, Bulligan needs to play belligan. I’m Glad Bullagan’s because that was a bull brinker. Yeah, until you need this happens. Welcome to the World.
Com But what do you mean, this happens all the time, yo. It doesn’t matter who you are. Welcome to the World Cup. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care what country.
You When this tournaments, thought that I had my conspiracy theories. My man, they were people who are anti Trump, and then when this thing was happened, now for the first time, they’re like, nah, but Trump did the right thing. Hey, this is government interference. Guys, send your letters to Trevor No. I’ve noticed his World Cup live streams are getting around two hundred and fifty thousand views, not a bad number at all.
Over the weekend, it was July fourth, Dave Chappelle was on CNN with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen. In the clip, Chappelle appears to be in front of a crowd, perhaps at a comedy show. But here’s Dave Chappelle and it’s for pacing and language. Hey, Dave, you’re such an You are so emblematic to the idea of the power of freeze. Tell me tonight as we look at the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this country.
Why you are proud to be an American? And how do you view our country today? For that’s a loaded question. Now, I see why Trump gets mad at y’all all the time. Why would you ask me that?
All right? No, I got an answer for that. I don’t agree with everything that our government does. But the one thing that I really consistently believe in that I love about being an American is my Countryman. If I’m overseas or around the world, anytime I see an American over there, we just give each other the fight club look, because we live in a madness that only we really understand what it’s all about.
And I have faith in my countrymen, no matter how crazy. All of this will make it feel that the sun will rise and that I feel like I’m part of a very incredible community. So God bless my countryman, and let us megas country absolutely great. Now, the big story today, the big fight is the Office, the UK Office. Guys, they’re all fighting with each other.
It had been fifteen years since Mackenzie Crook and Martin Freeman had seen each other, but it is the twenty fifth anniversary of the Office or you may know it as The Office UK and they have done a special for BBC. They share their memories of working and laughing alongside Ricky Gervais Will Get to Him, co writer Stephen Merchant, and the other leading Office colleague Lucy Davis, who played Don who is the analog to Pam for You Americans. Among the anecdotes, they tell us of how Martin Freeman initially auditioned to play Gareth Now, Mackenzie embraced one of TV’s worst ever haircuts, how Ricky came close to ruining filming on a daily basis, and what it was like to be at the heart of Office medium when the show was at its peak. You will find Mackenzie Crook and Martin Freeman Remember The Office on BBC two an I player today at ten pm. I assume that’s UK time.
They’re five hours ahead of us. You do the math. Ricky Gervas and Stephen Merchant do not appear in the one off show. Why not, well, because Ricky Gervase is marking the twenty fifth anniversary of the Office with a rundown of his favorite David Brent moments. Ricky is presenting each of the twenty five moments on his YouTube channel and said, there will be never before told stories here.
Let me let Ricky tell it to you. I have chop this up for piecing. I’ve made a special show to commemorate twenty five year anniversary of the Office, just me chatting about my memories of the show, my favorite myths, and a whole lot more. David Brent begging for his job back was the first bit of serious acting I’ve ever done. I was a little flat bloke playing him.
Let’s be honest, rick you won’t wear im Patvin waya no watch it. It’s free, so yeah, you do the math. His YouTube channel will feature plenty of David Brent and will also have other archive materials from his other shows, including Afterlife and his stand up shows, alongside content made specifically for the channel. Ricky’s YouTube channel already has Sunday evening live streams where Ricky takes audience questions. Topics have ranged from ai in comedy and creative inspiration to veganism.
Ricky Tervay said, I’m absolutely loving building my YouTube channel. It’s the best way to interact with my wonderful fans without leaving the house and actually bumping into any of those weirdos. So if you think this thing where he’s not on the BBC was about scheduling, I think differently. Martin Freeman said his recollection of Making the Office is different than that of Ricky and Stephen Merchant. Jervas and Merchant have long said The Office was entirely scripted.
Martin Freeman, who played Tim, says it was looser than they suggest. Freeman said he was left frustrated when a book of the shows scripts was released filled with transcriptions of the lines that made it into the final episode, including his own improv as part of the BBC two special Remember of the Office. Kirk Freeman, another thing people always ask you is how much was improvised? Very little bit, because it was all there on the page. Freeman responded, It was all there on the page.
However, I think my true feeling about it is what it became the monster that it did because it sounded improvised. Understandably, Ricky and Stephen went, no, none of it is improvised. What slightly annoyed me at the time, but only slightly at the time, is that when scripts were published, they weren’t the scripts, They were the transcriptions of what had been on Telly. So that annoyed me a little bit because anyone who knows any of us knows the line came from you. In that moment, the line came from me.
It was loose. That’s to Ricky and Steven’s credit, because the scripts were absolutely brilliant. It wasn’t improvised, but was what I would call loose. Freeman argued, he can understand why there’s a little bit of protection about that, because otherwise people would have gone, hey, you just rock up and make it all up, which is clearly not the case. The writing on it was brilliant.
You only need to know us a little bit or no the process of it to know we’re also in there. It doesn’t mean it’s a co credit, it doesn’t mean it’s improvised. It’s nicely loose. So what does that mean Either you read the words or you didn’t. A statue of David Brant, that is Ricky’s character on The Office UK, in case you’re not familiar with that particular program, has been unveiled at the Premiere Inn in Slough.
Yes. The clay sculpture of David Brent was commissioned by Premiere in It is displayed at the Slough Trading Estate Hotel. The Premiere inn sits on the side of the old building used in the series opening credits. Oh that makes sense. The new installation was revealed by David Brent impersonator Tim Oliver, who recreated the stance alongside some of the character’s distinctive dance routines.
The bust took one hundred and twenty hours to put together and weighs seven kilograms. It will be permanently installed off the site. A spokesperson for the hotel chain told The Daily Star, We’re thrilled to unveil this brilliant tribute to markets place in British comedy history. Ricky’s iconic character truly puts Slough on the map, and it’s only fitting to honor him with this memorable statue, which we hope will be particularly popular with some of the millions of business travelers who stay with us each year. Whilst the building itself is totally transformed, our guests are more likely to be interested in pillows than photocopiers.
Eagle eyed fans will certainly spot the similarity in the footprint of the site. The spokesperson for the Premiere in added from tech to business attire. Office life has changed drastically in the twenty five years since the show aired, but what hasn’t changed is the need for business travelers to know what they’re getting with a great night’s sleep and a comfortable room, ready to face the day, no matter how embarrassing their boss is. You know, I’m gonna make a decision on the fly. Here I got two more office stories.
Rain Wilson called out Ricky Travay’s let’s save that for tomorrow, and I’m gonna tell you a story about Kevin from the office tomorrow because we got to deal with Taylor Swift stuff. And by the way, this is way more news than I thought we were gonna have coming out of July fourth. This is all wonderful. Thank you comedians. George Stephanopoulos said Adam Sandler was funny and touching.
And not only did Adam Sandler officiate the wedding of Taylor Swift, really, he also performed an original song that was humorous and touching and was all about their love. Oh can you imagine Sandler’s been out and about. He was spoted but at Sawyer’s on the Pier, a place that serves homemade ice cream. That’s right. There was a Facebook group from Sawyer’s Daily Bar.
They shared that Adam Sandler stopped in at Sawyer’s on the Pier on July fourth for some ice cream. That was just a day after officiating Taylor Swift’s wedding. The social media post highlighted a series of selfies, all taken by Sandler, and interestingly, this article calls Saandlor the star of Uncut Gems. People are coming around to the way I think and recognizing him as a dramatic actor and of course a wedding officiator and not at all a comedian because he’s not good at comedy. But he’s a good actor and apparently a solid person to have officiate your wedding.
If you ever wanted to have him, I’m sure he’ll do it. The Uncut Gem Star and a bunch of staff members from Sawyer’s to selfies. We are told it looks like they were having a fun time. What a great article. Then on Sunday, which is July fifth, he was seen in Nantucket playing basketball at Bacchus Lane.
According to the Nantucket Current, Adam Sandler called the police department’s non emergency line to ask where he could play basketball. Personnel directed him to Backus Lane Court, which is part of Nantucket Intermediate School. Imagine Nantucket police, How may I help you? Hi, this is Adam Sandler. Oh, yes, mister Sandler, how can I help you?
Yeah? Do you guys have a basketball court? Dude? Use the internet. Why are you bothering the police with this, even if it’s the non emergency line.
Are you serious about this? Or is this a way that you have a more colorful story in the press. Is it that Johnny Mac? Of course it’s that guy’s where told Andrew Kessler and his friends normally don’t play outdoor basketball, but they coincidentally showed up at the park. Kessler told ESPN.
We see a car pull into the parking lot and there’s a guy wearing an interesting outfit. Initially they joked that it was Adam Sandler. Once the person got closer, they realized it was indeed Adam Sandler. Kessler said, Adam Sandlor has elite passing. He didn’t miss a pass.
They were all dimes. His layup game was good. I didn’t really see him shoot the ball. Really, he is a good playmaker. You can tell that he’s played a lot in his life.
Meanwhile, Amy Schumer, who likes when we talk about her, wants you to know she was not invited to the wedding of Taylor Swift. Neither was I Amy. Amy Schumer trolled the happy couple with several Instagram posts, including a spoof outfit for Thursday night’s rehearsal dinner. Schumer joked on Friday morning rehearsal dinner was sick. Who knows what she has planned for us?
Then there was a second post which also featured Life and Beth co star Michael Sarah. That one was captioned Okay, so why weren’t we allowed in? Apparently Amy has been taking shots at Taylor for some time. Back in twenty sixteen, Amy Schumer took a shot at Taylor Swift’s Grammy outfit, sharing a photo of herself and writing Taylor, that’s not a thigh gap. This is a thigh gap.
That got some backlash from the Swifties. Schumer responded, I’m a comic and should never make fun of myself at the expense of anyone else that it wasn’t making fun of in the first place. How about everybody takes a deep breath Schumer’s rep had to step in and tell people Amy loves Taylor was making a joke because she does and have a thigh gap again. I am so excited to have this much feisty content. Week of July fourth, no filler at all.
When I was looking up to Trevor Noah Numbers, I checked in on Ben Gleb. You know he’s got that late night show on YouTube of sorts. Good Night with Ben Glebe Episode six had thirty five thousand views at eleven nineteen. On Tuesday, they did split out his monologue from episode six that had three hundred and eighty eight views, John, did you say three hundred and eighty eight? I did meanwhile, competing YouTube late night show Outside Tonight, and that one is kind of more official.
An episode that had posted four days ago has eighty seven hundred views. That’s not going to cut it. An isolated clip of Caleb here on Outside Tonight’s, and Caleb has a lot of Internet followers. That clip has four hundred and seventeen views. Did you say four hundred and seventeen, John, I did four hundred and seventeen.
And a clip they pulled out from the show titled we found the Gayest Dog. How many views does that have? John Found the Gayest Dog has fifty nine views? Did you say fifty nine? I did remember like a year ago, Madonna supposedly did some stand up comedy.
Well, not supposedly she did. Will Arnett was speaking with Romesh Oranga Nathan and told Hermesh how Madonna did forty minutes of stand up. He said, we had a night where Madonna went up. Amy Schuber brought her. She said Madonna’s gonna come.
The audience went crazy. I think she did about forty minutes. She had a binder and she was reading from it. But I got to say, it takes a lot of guts, because you know, Madonna’s shy. An audience member said she did well enough, but the audience was so stunned it was Madonna that it took the entire set to warm up to her.
She didn’t do as well as she thinks she would. She got laught every time she dropped deaf bombs, because just hearing Madonna curse is funny. She elsa nailed a joke about how with all these Trump deportations, she’s not gonna have any staff left, which got some laughs. But really, everyone was just so shocked that she was there. And that is your comedy news for today.
You can follow the show on Spotify, turn notifications on so you never miss an episode, and please join us in the Facebook group. We have a really good community over there. Daily Comedy News podcast Group. See tomorrow.