🎙️ Listen to this episode:
Featured: Ricky Gerzais, Kat Williams, Marcelo Hernandez, Kevin Hart, Mike Epps, Dave Chappelle, Stephen Wright, Howie Mandel
What’s in This Episode
- Ricky Gervais on free speech and cancel culture
- Netflix comedy special viewership rankings for 2026
- Kevin Hart’s movie ‘Seventy Two Hours’ release
- The Office UK rewatch comparison
- Stephen Wright on his comedy writing process
Questions Answered in This Episode
What did Ricky Gervais say about offensive comedy and cancel culture?
Gervais stated he doesn’t care if people are offended and that he no longer feels obligated to address cancel culture, focusing instead on the paying audience rather than the millions who see it on Netflix.
What Netflix comedy special got the most views in 2026?
Kat Williams’ ‘The Last Report’ topped the list with 11.3 million views for the first half of 2026.
When is Kevin Hart’s movie ‘Seventy Two Hours’ coming out?
The movie is releasing July 24, 2026, two days after this episode aired.
How many views did Kevin Hart’s ‘Funny AF’ get on Netflix?
Kevin Hart’s ‘Funny AF’ received 41.8 million views in its first season.
What did Dave Chappelle’s special ‘The Unstoppable’ get for viewership?
It earned 14 million views from July to December 2025 and 4.8 million views since the beginning of 2026.
Who is Stephen Wright and what was he discussing?
Stephen Wright, a 70-year-old comedian active since the 1980s, appeared on Howie Mandel’s podcast to discuss his comedy writing process and how it evolved organically without formal planning.
Full Transcript
This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.
Caloroga Shark Media. From Poolside with a cicadasm Johnny Mac with Your Daily Comedy News. Ricky Gervais did an interview with BBC two. He doubled down on his long held defensive free speech. Ricky said, I don’t tell people not to be offended.
I tell them I don’t care if they are be offended. If you want it makes it funnier for me. You can’t help by what you’re offended by, but don’t expect me to care. It’s a myth that I go out to offend. I never go out to offend.
I just know that it’s probably gonna happen because everyone’s different. There’s nothing you can say, particularly anything that’s mildly interesting or contentious at your viewpoint, that somebody’s somewhere won’t find offensive. And times have changed. Twenty years ago, if someone said I was offended by that, I probably would go why Now I go, I know you are everyone is, that’s funny. Ricky said, I’ve dealt with it too much.
Actually, I think the last couple of tours I’ve dealt with cancel culture and free speech because I felt like I had to. Now I don’t have to I’m ignoring it all. I shouldn’t even bring it into the room. Those people there have paid hundreds of pounds. They’re not offended.
I can play a million people, not one complaint. As soon as it goes on Netflix, fifty million people. Of course it’s gonna be someone who doesn’t like it. What am I gonna do? It’s too late, I’ve been paid.
I love how brigage just doesn’t care. I finished my rewatch of The Office UK again. There’s only fourteen episodes. It goes pretty quick, it is. It’s better than the American version.
You know, they’re different. You’re comparing one hundred something episodes to fourteen. But the David Brent character is so cringe, Like like Steve Krell’s Michael Scott, they quickly softened and you know, you could see yourself actually hanging out with Michael Scott. But the David Brent character is so cringe. There were times where I was talking back to the TV like, oh my goodness, like it’s it’s unbelievable.
If you haven’t watched The UK Office in a while, it’s on Hulu, go back and watch it. Especially. You know, if I say The Office, you picture Michael Jim and Pam. But go back to the original. It’s really good.
I do have to scold the audience today. May now, maybe not you particular listener who I’m in your ears right now because you are smart, but just in general, I have to scold everybody. What are you people doing? Netflix released the top comedy specials for the first half of twenty twenty six. These are the ones that are the most watched.
Now. The top special for people with brains was Kat Williams the last Report that got eleven point three million views. So good job there, But that’s not why I’m here to scold you. You know what’s number two? Marcelo Hernandez American Boy.
You’re watching Marcelo Hernandez attempt to do stand up comedy. He does one thing. Marcelo Hernandez American Boy premiere January seventh, and got nine point two million views. Now, hopefully I’ll give you the benefit of doubt here. Netflix might count anything is few.
Hopefully. What they accounted here was he watched four seconds of it and went, oh my god, this is unbelievably unfunny, and he had stopped and they were like, nope, that’s a view. Hopefully, that’s what happened. Hopefully you listen to this podcast and you’re like, how unfunny could Marcelo Hernandez be this guy? Johnny Mac goes on and on about it.
I got to see how unfunny this is, and you watched three seconds of it, you were like, oh, yeah, Johnny Mac is right, this is horribly unfunny. You have to dance or you have to find a new family. That’s the rule. I had to dance ever since I was a kid. I had to dance.
That’s how I had to enter my house. If people came to my house, my mom would be like, Marcello, and I’m six years old and I have to leave my room like this, and I’m like, Mommy, I don’t want to dance, and my mom is like yeah, and I didn’t want to escape Cuba, so dance, okay. I’m sorry. I don’t know what that’s like. I’m sorry, and I would think that I’m doing a good job, and then out of nowhere, my mom would be like, no, Marcello, not like that.
Do what I taught you. And I’m like, mommy, please. Don’t make me get nasty. So it’s got to be that right, like, you watched like that much and you’re like, oh my god, this is not funny at all. I have to hit stop on this.
But Netflix was like, nope, gotcha, that’s a play, all right. So I apologize, listener, I see what happened there. You sampled it because you couldn’t believe how horrible it was, and then you watched it and you’re like, Johnny Mac is right, Okay. I apologize. I shouldn’t have taken a shot at you.
Sorry about that. I’m very sensitive about these things. I’m here to promote good comedy. We’ll be hearing a lot about Marcelo Hernandez in the next few weeks because he’s part of the Kevin Hart movie Want’s That Thing Out Again? Seventy two hours is out July twenty fourth, that’s two days from now.
To save his career, a forty year old executive, Kevin Hart is playing a forty year old dude. Just own it. You look good, Kevin, but you’re forty seven. You’re not forty. Like I’m fifty six.
I’m gonna be fifty seven. I’m not fifty. I wish I was fifty. I wish I were forty. I like to pretend I’m young, but I’m not forty.
You’re not forty. I’m not fifty, You’re not forty. To save his career, a forty year old played by a forty seven year old Kevin Hart joins a crew of twenty somethings for a wild Miami bachelor party after they mistakenly add him to a group chat. Marcelo Hernandez, one of those wild Miami twenty year olds. The dude is good looking.
I just feel like the illuminati decided, you know what, let’s make Marcello Hernandez a star, and they’re not gonna stop now. While I was looking that up, I saw that Netflix is saying that Kevin Hart’s Funny af got forty one point eight million views in its first season. That is a great number. Mike EPP’s special Delusional third six point six million views. I thought Dylan and the Facebook group was the only person who watched that one.
Ricky gervais Is late twenty twenty five hour Mortality has pulled six point four million views since the beginning of the year. Dave Chappelle’s The Unstoppable four point eight million. Again, that was left over from December. Lest do you think Chappelle had a bad number. He topped the chart for July to December of twenty twenty five with fourteen million views.
This is funny. Okay, I’m gonna specifically call out one of the listeners to the show. You know who you are. You just texted me right now and you are listening to your take on Sunday’s Pot about Marcello or Hernandez Savage. I am writing you back.
We are time traveling and I’m writing him back saying I’m killing Marcelo right now. And just read your text on the show. Hilarious. Okay, So for all the people I scolded, not you, sir, you know who you are. I’m not gonna say it is private text.
You’re reading the private text on the air anyway, John, I know. Wait, and the same person is saying I’m wrong about my take about reclining on airplanes. No, I’m not. There’s no reason to recline. The seat is perfectly fine.
You recline now. I have about half an inch from my laptop, which forces me to recline, and now we’re all reclining. They need to disable that button and everyone just sit comfortably. It’s fine. What they need to do is improve the headrests.
Never mind the reclining nonsense. All right, so this guy’s one for two. He’s right about marcell Ernan as he’s wrong about reclining. I, of course am right about everything. Stephen right back in the spotlight.
Stephen right now seventy years old, which makes sense because he’s been around since the eighties and forty years went by. None of us are getting any younger. Stephen Wright was on Howie Mendel’s podcast, Howie Mendel Does Stuff. Stephen talked about his writing process. He says, I go on the road and write more stuff.
I don’t think things like that’s what I should do. I’ve never had a plan about it. It all just happened. Tim Dillon has some thoughts about politics. Let’s listen.
They’re in the White House. They have the Congress, they have the Senate, they have the Supreme Court. It is them. It is now them. I don’t want to hear about the deep state anymore.
You’re playing me for a fool. You’re playing everyone for a fool. I’m sick of hearing about this deep state. All of these people. You have to be one of the stupidest people in the world to fall for this at this point, this is you are peddling the dumbest most like by the way, I hate to use this word, but cringe.
It’s literally cringe. You watch this and you go I feel so. Disgusted by the fact that they think people are still gonna believe this. Send your letters to Tim Dillon. Ryan Hamilton was on WRIF Radio with a very DJ sounding DJ.
The DJ asked Ryan about the comparisons to Jerry Seinfeld, and I think if you listen to this clip, you’ll hear it in Ryan Hamilton’s speech pattern. It’s not at all an absurd notion. It’s definitely there in the speech pattern of Ryan Hamilton here on WRIF radio. I’ve been compared to him my whole career. I think maybe people here in my voice a little bit his tenor and a little bit of my natural rhythm, yeah, the way I talk.
So I’ve been compared to him my whole career really in a way. But starting out, no, I was trying to be It’s interesting you find your path. I mean, I grew up with his show. I revered him, I watched the show, I saw his lifestyle in New York and his comedic mind. I always but I was trying to be in the very beginning more absurdist one liner like Mitch Hedberg was a really heavy influence to me.
I would watch him when I first started on Letterman, and he was one of the first live shows that I ever saw, Mitch Hedberg, and I just thought, I love the way his mind thinks. And I was trying to be that because when you first start, you don’t know what you’re doing, and you experiment with something and it’s almost like your essence and your voice is decided for you. You don’t really decide it as much. So I started there and eventually I became in this place where I am and I’m always evolving. Kelsey Cook getting a Netflix special.
It’s called Happy Hour. It’ll be out Tuesday, August eighteenth. In Happy Hour, Kelsey Cook explores anxiety, relives a plain bathroom nightmare, and breaks down dating and a literal chad filmed at the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with Eric Abrams directing. Cook’s most recent special, Mark Your Territory, was released on both Hulu and YouTube and made the top fifteen most stream specials for twenty twenty five. That special has been streamed over one point six million times on YouTube.
As for the Hula number, asked the Hulu publicist in Montreal tonight, it is New Faces. Now. I usually go, and I kinda I feel guilty that I’m not going this year. When they first announced festival, I reached out to the people. I was like, oh, I gotta go, and they’re like, yeah, I get back to us a little closer, and then it got a little close, and I was like, I don’t know, I don’t feel like going, and I don’t know why I don’t feel like going this year.
I just don’t feel like going. I haven’t looked at the list yet. We will do that together right now. Deadline has spotlighted Englishman Read Richardson, who made their list of the Comics to keep an Eye on in twenty twenty six, and Mario Adriann, a German American comic spotlighted in their Comedy Means Business newsletter. Since its inception in nineteen ninety four, New Faces has been regarded as premier launch pad.
It has launched the careers of people like Kevin Hart, Amy Schumer, who loves when we talk about her, Colin Joe Stali Wong, Gerrod Carmichael, Jack Whitehall, of course, friend of the show, Gianmarco Soresi. Nick Berzo is the VP of Programming and Talent, and he said this year’s performers are sharp, original, and hilarious, I hope, so we’re proud to offer this platform. Blah blah blah. Okay, new faces stand ups. These are new faces, so don’t be surprised if neither you nor I know the names yet.
Ainsley Baily, Aylon Ellion, Andrew Packer, Carolina Montesquie, Chris Renoir, Christine Mariani, David Drake, Elijah Nevills, Ellie Orlando, Elouise f Dos. She’s been around, Estebund Gast, Fiona Couley, Freddie Chanell, Gary Simons, Gus Tate, Hannah Veldowen Hassan, Phil’s Helen Bauer, Jack Hirshfield, Jackson Banks, Joe Maurice, Joey Dardano, Jonas, Joseph, Kenny Lee, Mario, Adrion, Mark Thompson, Mitchell Doren, Nicky, Paris Peyton, Ruddy Red Richardson, and Tessa Bell. Good luck to all of those folks, Your new Faces Characters. That’s a fun show as well, Annie Sullivan, Caitlin Freen, Claire McConnell, George c Owens, Jesse Kendall, John Blair, Russell Daniels and Tijonda Again great show if you’re up that way. I don’t know.
I just didn’t feel I can’t explain it because I usually am like all up to go, and I just didn’t feel like going this year. All right. Tonight in Montreal at the Comedy Festival. Some of the shows include Jordan Jensen at seven o’clock, British at seven, French New Faces at seven, English New Faces at seven at Club Soda, Timmy No Breaks at Ley Studio seven o’clock, and Midnight Surprise at eleven fifty nine pm. Now, why is Midnight Surprise at eleven fifty nine pm?
Johnny Mac? Because when you schedule a show at twelve and you write am, people get confused and think that’s noon, and it gets very confusing. So that’s why you just schedule things at eleven fifty nine. You’ll notice planes that do the same things. Otherwise people get confused.
That’s actually a pretty light Wednesday. So if I were up there tonight, I would hit the New Faces one and two at seven and nine thirty, but they’ll eventually post them online and we will cover it then. Chris rock is heading to Canada. He’ll be at the Toronto Film Festival. He is the director of hal Misty Green, about a talented actress whose career has been stifled by her vices, also at the Toronto Film Festival.
I Play Rocky? Did you see the trailer if I Play Rocky? Stop listening to me right now and go watch the trailer for I Play Rocky. This guy that they got playing Sylvester Stallone is uncanny. Like now, I want to make Rocky Zero, which I’ve wanted to make for fifty years.
So what’s Rocky zero? Johnny Mac Well, it would take place in early nineteen seventy five, and it would follow a guy who collects debts for the local mob boss. The debt collector is also a part time boxer, so it’d be a prequel to Rocky. Rocky Zero, you’ll watch People in Mobile, Alabama are all upset that the first entertainment act announced for their new arena is comedian Matt Matthews. Matt rose to social media fame with a series of videos about life on his farm he shares with his husband.
The videos offer feature him yelling at form animals while wearing a bathrobe. After earning millions of followers on TikTok yelling at farm animals and at bathrobe, at least on poolside today, I’m not in a basement. At least I’m sitting by a pool. I’ve got some money. Matt Matthews made the jump to stand up in twenty twenty TiO and now the Not What I Ordered World Tour will be at the Mobile Arena.
Some people on Facebook wrote who. Somebody else wrote never heard of him? Others said it didn’t look the most family friendly thing. What do you want? Then book Maga comedian Aprigazzy.
Then Matt Matthews post that it’s been brought to my attention that some people in Mobile aren’t too happy with Is it mobile or mobile? Wait? I’m looking this up. Some people say mobile, some people say it’s mobile. Now you’re all going to be mad at me.
I don’t know. I’m from New York City. I’m just gonna say Alabama. Matt Matthews posted, it’s been brought to my attention that some people in Alabama aren’t too happy that I was the first artist announced for the new Region’s arena. Well stay mad, because I can’t wait to bring all this gay and raunchy comedy straight to your city.
The good news is, since I’m apparently such a nobody who won’t sell it out, there should be plenty of parking. See you there. He then posted a thank you to his supporters, saying I joke a lot, but this one is real. Thank you Alabama. You all have already pushed the show at Region’s Arena too, over half sold before the general public on sale even starts.
Thank you doesn’t even begin to cover it. Growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, I never imagined my life would look anything like this. I started out making videos and telling jokes online, and now I’m getting the opportunity to perform for people not just across the US, but in Australia, New Zealand, the UK. Blah blah blah, I meaning Connor Ratliffe is on Blue Sky. He is currently presenting one Roadrunner cartoon.
Each day, he posts a link to the full cartoon, then post the cartoon again in segments with his oral commentary. Connor Ratcliffe says many people think the Roadrunner cartoons are repetitive, but he maintains that watching them in the order they were made as movie audiences would have in the nineteen fifties reveals that the gags and tropes actually satisfyingly build on each other.
Meanwhile, there’s a new trailer for Daffy Season, a soccer theme short.
You might have wanted to release the actual short during the World Cup, but nope, they decided to wait until November. It’ll be attached to the new CGI Cat in a Hat movie. It will not be attached to the Coyote Versus ACME movie coming out in August. Why John, Because remember that they were they made that and then like Warner decided we’re not releasing it. It off and now it’s being released via Ketchup Entertainment.
So Wrights Lawyer is something something something. Anyway, we’ll get a Daffy Duck short five months after the World Cup ends. There is a trailer. Let’s listen, boy, you I watch Soccer Season’s supposed to. Be Dug cleven Socker Season, Duck Cleveland Soccer season, Watch up Black.
Walk Em Molly. It’s just the offense on Now we’re talking all, that’s the way to play. Time to pull the plug on this so called soccer. Cleeven And that is your pool side comedy news for today. Have an awesome day.