 Before we start, I have a lot of candy for people, which has been my primary diet for the last several days. I just learned that John does not eat chocolate, which we will be discussing, but I hope that is not true for any of you. So I'm going to open these and then pass them around. Why aren't you going to throw them in the air? I was thinking about that, but in terms of liability, also people will have to clean that up. Right. Exactly. You can actually think about the people who have to clean that up, especially today. So I think we have enough for like a full meal for everyone of candy. This is all a pre-show, right? Yes. We're just setting the stage. If for some reason anyone wants vegetables, in my rider, which I did not realize MIT would be receiving. Okay, so what do you want to start with? I am supposed to receive hummus and a plate of crudite, which I learned traveling on the road. It was not sealed. Many, many artist services people in theaters do not know what crudite means. We do here at MIT. I know because we live in the liberal northeast, we're here among the elites. But out in the real world, so many young men and women would come up to me going, what's crudites? I'm like, I'm sorry, I should have just chopped up garbage, which is what this is. We'll pass that around, too, in case you don't like candy like me. And then I'm also supposed to have a bottle of rye whiskey, and we'll pass that around as well if you have ID. And I had no idea that any of this would be here, but then Seth said, do you really want all this hummus and vegetables and rye whiskey? And I'm like, oh, my instinct was to say, oh, no, no, that's just if I'm doing a theater show or a club show at 11 o'clock at night when we're going to party, the classic hummus and whiskey party. But then I was like, you know what? Actually, I do want that whiskey. It's been a hard couple of days and sleepless nights. If I only had asked him pre-Tuesday, then he would have said no, and we would have saved some money. That's true, I'll pay you back. All right, we're going to move this back because this is very good. Oh, maybe we're not. Wow. Hang on. It may be, oh, it's on casters. Couple of engineers in the audience spotted that one real quick. All right, no, you can't move that. It's on casters. The wheels are in the wrong direction. Here, will you bring the Jolly Ranchers up halfway, actually? OK. Bring those up somewhere around that area. You guys amaze? OK. You guys amaze. I know how to do this. We'll be starting in about half an hour? 35 to 75 minutes. All right, Seth, watch out. Coming back. You did it. Wow. That one's going to be some trouble. There we go. OK. Is this, we just want to keep more space between us and the? I just want to be up here. I don't want to be behind the table. Oh, no, I was banking on being behind the table. No, no, no, no. Got to be out there. There's an extra lav mic here in case anyone needs it. Now, if you don't like comments, we also have some ranch dip. I'll open that up. What? Are we waiting on anyone specific? No. We're just getting the most-isly tavern set up. Help yourself. If you wish. Not you. Does anyone know what this is called? A do-back. Yes, I thought someone was going to say a bantha, and then I could have shamed you. But a do-back. Do you know why it's called a do-back? Just raise your hand if you want me to come to you with crew. Does anyone know why it's called a do-back? Oh, no. Yeah, all right. See, everyone was being really shy until I said, raise your hand. It was like, mm-hmm, thank you very much. That's right. Did you all get what you needed? All right, good, OK. Very good. Yeah, all right, what's your name? Mara is going to take over on the crew today service. Associate Director of the Communications Forum, thank you very much. Oh, thank you very much, Mara. I think that. Is this the side you're going to sit on? And that sets your better side. It's good. Now we have, can everyone hear me OK? We have what are called lab mics on. It's a little peek behind the scenes of glamorous university auditorium talking. Sometimes we wear cordless mics called lab mics. This is the lab mic. This is it here. The young man who is in the AV department here was very respectful. And he did not do what every sound person on a TV show does, which is make me hide this cord, or force me to hide it by opening my shirt and running it through my shirt. This is in case anyone didn't know John's on TV. Here we go. John Adrien, everyone. Morris, premium streaming internet now. But occasionally still on TV. Everyone check out Red Oaks on Amazon Prime starting tomorrow. So this will go in the back, and you're going to see some of the magic of premium streaming internet. This now goes inside my shirt. So I don't have a dumb cord hanging out like some people I know. Seth, are you going to hide your cord? I am not, but I am going to ask you about the lack of undershirts, for sure. Well, I have an answer for that. And it's a good one whenever you're ready to ask your question. I can wait. So while John is undressing, I'm done. I'm ready to go. I'm in wardrobe. Let's go. I will introduce this tonight. My name is Seth Manukin. I am the director of the communications forum. I know most of you are here to see me. And I thank you for that. I ran into, on the way over, John Hodgman, who I believe is primarily known for having been born and raised in Brookline. How do you do? A graduate of the Heath School? I was an eighth grade graduate of the Heath School in Brookline, Massachusetts. That ended my formal education. And then I was a shipwright, and a scrim shander, and a boat stamper, and a thing monger. A thing monger, OK. I also want to thank the De Flores Fund for Humor, which you got me too. Very, very generously provided the $800,000 that John requires for this event. He said that that was higher because it was in his hometown. Yeah, I don't like to come back. And also, Chris, do we have a sign up sheet? OK, so before you go, please maybe put your email on the sign up sheet, and then you will learn about other upcoming communications forums events, including Aparna Nancharla, who will be here next semester, the delightful and wonderful Sarah Vowell, who will be here in the spring. We got her just before the second Incredibles movie was announced. Thank goodness. And many other exciting things. We will not spam you about information other than these six events we do a year. And we will not sell your email addresses asterisk unless you are a celebrity. So thank you all very much for coming. And should we get started? Yes, all right. I'll go over here and wait for my introduction. OK, so ladies and gentlemen, the host of Judge John Hodgman. Is that the name of the part? OK, of Judge John Hodgman and other things. A minor television personality. A fake internet justice. A regular on the new show, John Glazer Loves Gear. And the auteur of Vacationland. OK, OK, don't fuck this up. Don't fuck this up. Don't fuck this up. Currently occurring at theaters across the country. Oh, uh-oh. There was an asterisk next to that that said you might want to double check if he's currently doing this. His website says he is, but there are only two more shows listed after this one, including tomorrow in Seattle. So if any of you are really dedicated fans, you will get the nigh to Seattle for tomorrow. So a big warm MIT welcome to Judge John Hodgman. How do you do? How do you do? Can you hear me? Yes? OK, good. I'm sorry that I messed it up. Maybe I'll just hold it. I found this hat backstage just now. And I realized I haven't had lice in a while. Maybe I should give this a try. I actually thought, so Leslie Jones's rider, who she's also going to be here next semester. Really? Yeah. Fantastic. Stipulates that she get merch from the institute that she's performing. So I thought that perhaps that was what was going on here as well. But maybe I got Leslie's hat. Now discover that you are just a hobo. Why do you say that? Just because I made you give me whiskey and food the hat? Do you have your own hobo name? Yes, it's Mr. John Hodgman. OK. You're making a reference to, for those of you who are under the age of 70, you're making a reference to my first book of fake trivia, which came out 11 years ago. Can you imagine were we ever that young? In which I listed 700 hobo nicknames, which was 699 too many. And yet you've written books since then? I have. Well, this has become a real interview all of a sudden. Well, the first thing I want to ask you about actually is your middle name, OK, is Kellogg? Kellogg, is that correct? Is that due to a love of cereal? No, it's a family name. That was my second guess, actually. I do not believe that we are related to the Battle Creek, Michigan Kellogg's. There's no cornflake fortune for me in my future, I'm afraid. But we might, maybe, right? I can make a claim. No, I'm talking about a legal claim. A claim here means nothing. But no, that's just my middle name. OK, we can move on. What's your middle name, Seth? My only name. I read your Wikipedia page as well, but I didn't catch your middle name. Did you notice the most exciting thing about me? Well, you wrote three best-selling books. No, only one, alas, best-seller. I did write three books. Oh, OK, good. Well, let's. So you could say best-selling author of three books. Let me guess, the best-selling one was about sports? Yes, that is true about Boston sports. You're about Boston sports. And you should know that because having formerly been a literary agent, my publisher then made, for them, the very unfortunate economic mistake of thinking that that was a best-seller due to some fault of mine, as opposed to the fact that it was about a regional sports team that is popular in New England. I see. And so for my next book, they let me write about whatever I wanted and then found that vaccines and autism were not as good a seller as baseball. Not quite as mainstream appeal. Unfortunately. As the Boston Red Sox. For them, yes. So we are, this is going to be a full. Let's say that was good and important work. Yes, thank you very much. We don't. The Red Sox. Yes. Yes. No, the vaccine, the vaccine. Right. Both of us have been fathers. That's right. And having children not inflicted with vaccine preventable diseases. Well, that's because I keep my children in a box. It's got serious. It's got serious much more quickly than I was. No, I believe in, just so it's clear, I believe in vaccines. I believe in science, just so you know. That is now something up for debate, unfortunately. But we are going to wait a little bit before we get into the weepy and serious part of the conversation. Wait a minute. I don't know why we're going to wait. I just want to know, how's everyone doing? Thumbs down up there. Thumbs down. All right. Thumbs down. Everyone's feeling bad, right? Yeah, it's terrible. I mean, I don't know. And I ask genuinely, and I'm not going to yell at anybody, is there anyone here who voted for Donald Trump? A single person in this room? I mean, statistically speaking, someone should have because you're all white. It's not true. That's not true. Excuse me. I understand. I know. It was just a little exaggeration. And speaking of all. It's just that I know my audience very well. Brookline, there were actually 2,000 people that voted for Trump in Brookline. I discovered today in the Brookline tab. Sure, Brookline has some white people in it. I would say most. But I think 23,000 people that did not vote for him. Here's why. So I mean, there's nothing else to talk about, right? We'll just talk about this. Well, let me see what you got. That is the big thing. Number one on the list, Caddyshack, question mark. You're right. You know what? We'll alternate. OK, that's fine. We'll start with Caddyshack. Then Trump. Then the next thing I know is then Trump. I have a series of questions. So Caddyshack. Well, I don't want to take you off of your set list. Well, I learned. I mean, we've never met before today. Although, we just had a great time in your office. And my wife did see you after a dentist appointment once, walking through Coolidge Corner. Oh, really? Yeah. My dentist appointment? No, her. Well, I have no. Her dentist appointment, which I think is why she was somewhat. Whenever I come home to see my dad here in Brookline, I go and have a root canal. I believe he was wearing shorts. I think that also threw her off. Wait, where's your what? She's right there. Well, how do you do? Where? Who's your dentist? Reeves has changed. Yeah, so let's mute that on the recording. Why did you have problems with your dentist? He was in Brookline and was quite pricey. Oh, I thought you were going to say, he put you under and did something wrong. No, so now I believe we go to determine student dentists. Is that right? Sure. Yeah. Now we go to dentist and training. Yeah, like Barber School of Dentistry. Exactly. Yes. So I went to a student psychotherapist. And how did that work out, John? It was fantastic. OK. I was 20. What are you doing? Taking my picture? I don't show up on film. Are you authorized? That's fine. She's also Sarah. Most of the people here, I believe, are named Sarah. That is also a Sarah. When I was 23 or so and I moved to New York, having been graduated from college, and I didn't know what I was going to do with my life, I've talked about this before, so have you heard it before? Shut up. And I was sad and living with a friend in a basement and eating salt and pepper sandwiches and wondering if I had stopped that part of my life where I was becoming something and started the part of my life where I was ending up as something. And I decided I should get some therapy. And luckily, NYU, New York University, offered sliding-scale therapy, pay-as-you-can-afford therapy because all of the therapists were students. And the thing that I could not tolerate was the ambiguity of what was going to happen in my life. Because growing up in Brookline and then going to BHS and then going to Yale, I had a very clear sense of like, here's the next step, here's the next step, here's the next step. BHS is Business Harvard School? Business High School of Brookline. I had no business going there. And now all of a sudden, I was set loose in the world and all there was for me was ambiguity and it was terrifying because I had no idea what was going to happen. So I would go to this therapist and it helped that she was a beautiful woman. Okay. And I mean, look at me. I'm a, at that time, 23-year-old only child, Whovian Weirdo, did not have a mustache but had all kinds of other affectations. The opportunity to sit in a room and talk to a woman and she had to listen to me. Had never occurred to me before. Had never happened in my life. And therapy is fantastic if you haven't had it and I honestly feel that it was just the opportunity to have permission to talk about yourself. Wait, I'm sorry. I just, you grew up in Brookline and the first time you had therapy was when you were 23? Yeah. Well, my, my parents- I found it statistically- My parents were, my parents were Catholics. They didn't send me to therapy. We had, and they'd stopped being Catholics so I didn't even have confession. Right. I heard about, I heard about it and it sounded nice. Confession. Yeah. Oh, it sounded interesting. You can pay women to spend time with them. Yeah, but I'm shy. No, I'm not a creep. I wasn't talking about that. Oh, then I guess I am a creep. Go on, go on. Anyway, it was this incredibly liberating moment to just be able to talk about myself in silence and truly she didn't even need to be there. I mean, if you've not had talk therapy, it's been, to have permission to talk is an amazing thing that not everyone gets to experience and she might as well have been a cardboard cutout of Captain Kirk and it would have been the greatest thing in my mental health. But the fact that she was a beautiful woman, I enjoyed talking to her and I enjoyed her having to listen to me. It was a very unhealthy situation, ultimately. And then, from my point of view, it was all going well and then I got just maybe four or five weeks into treatment. I got this letter in the mail that was an insurance statement that I had to send to my health insurance to get reimbursed for this. And it had my name and address and date of birth and all this information and then there was a line that said diagnosis. I can't remember the number, but it was like 649.2. I'm like, what the fuck is 649.2? Like they figured it out already. Why am I still going? And I went into the office and I, in the next meeting, and she said, well, would you like to sit down and I'm talking like, what is diagnosis 649.2? And she said, what are you talking about? I said, you wrote down 649.2. You've diagnosed me. What is it? I have a right to know. She said, it's not, that's just, we have to put something down for insurance purposes that has nothing to do with your ongoing therapy. I'm like, I think it does. I really think it does. She said, no, it's not gonna therapeutically help you to know what I put down. And I'm like, well, that's a bad sign. I'll be the judge of that. And she said, well, it's a code in the diagnostic statistical manual. And I'm like, get it down. You're telling me there's a rulebook for my therapy? A Dungeon Manual? A Dungeon Master's Manual for my therapy? Right, the DSM-2. What's that? I think it was the DSM-2 in the 90s, or three, maybe. I don't remember exactly which one it was. And so she pulls it down and she looks it up and she says, okay, here it is. Change of life, inability to tolerate ambiguity. And I'm like, shit, you're a good therapist. That's sad, I never had to see her again. Our therapy bills are very different because mine usually have eight or 10 numbers, different sets of numbers. Different sets of numbers, yeah. Sort of like a grab bag, like choose your own diagnosis. Yeah, we'll just put down everything. Right, yes, exactly. You cross out what you don't think. Hopefully the insurance will pay for something. So getting back to what's important. So Caddyshack. Yes, I recently was very saddened to discover that you have not seen Caddyshack. Oh no, I've seen Caddyshack. Then you lied on your podcast. Well, maybe I've seen it since then. You said, almost quote, golf movies are bad. I will not watch golf movies. That is why I have never seen Caddyshack. Oh, I think I've been the legend of Beggar Vance. You know how you get those two confused by the time? Yes. I think that I was leading up to a distortion of the Mark Twain quote. You were, yes, in which you said. Golf is a good walk spoiled. And I said Caddyshack is a good comedy movie spoiled by golf. I think Caddyshack is a good Bill Murray movie spoiled by golf was the Mark Twain quote, I believe. But I've seen, I don't know, I think it's one of those that you've seen almost all of it, but in parts over the years. I'm just now birthday parties and on cable and what have you. This whole meeting out justice thing now that I find there, that may not all be on the up and up. I'm all of a sudden looking at that canoe. People have decided whether to have barren or witch like lawn. So like I told, I told a slight exaggeration on a podcast one time and now I'm disqualified from being president of the United States. I mean, give me a break. You really want to get back there. Everything's acceptable now. Okay, Touche. But is that your favorite movie? No. It is not. Well, it's an interesting hill to die on. But I do feel like, well, Stripes. So Stripes is one of my favorite movies. Right. It is the first time I saw a partially unclothed moving naked woman. Blair Brown, I believe. You obviously have delving way more into that than I have. But I saw it very uncomfortably with a friend's mother. What's that? PJ Souls from Rock and Roll High School. Is the which one? In the mud wrestling scene? Oh, I don't remember the mud wrestling scene. Wait, what is that scene? Now I need to watch it again. Oh, yes, right. Right, right, right. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then she sits on the stove and he pretends to flip her like a pancake. She was also in Rock and Roll High School. Boy, wasn't that fun when sexism was a laugh? So that's PJ Souls, not Blair Brown. No, but I think you're right. PJ Souls is the lead player. Let me get another laugh, Mike, for our IMDB expert. John Candy, with John Candy, right? Is that right? John Candy was in the mud wrestling scene. You have to understand, some of these people are younger than we are. Yes, I thought you were gonna say, you have to understand, some of these people are dead. That may also be true. Right, yes. We should have thought about learning the Stripes theme song when we were... What is the Stripes theme song, I don't know. Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Right, da, da, da, da, da. No? That went south quickly. Isn't that the... I'm thinking, now I'm thinking of the 1941 theme song. Ah yes, with John Volushi. Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Okay. The only good thing about that movie. Have you seen that movie? That's insane. Wait, no one here has seen 1941? No, of course not. Okay, that's pretty cool. No, no, put your hands down. No. So, what is your favorite Bill Murray movie? Quick! Me personally, or one? You! Well, Stripes for Sentimental and Perverted Reasons and Ghostbusters Otherwise. Whoa. Wow. Someone said what? I mean, Groundhog Day fights with Ghostbusters sometimes? Groundhog Day is a perfect movie. And you know what's not a perfect movie? Ghostbusters? Ghostbusters, yeah. But Ghostbusters is a very lovable movie. You know what is a perfect movie with Bill Murray in it? Groundhog Day? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. One at a time. Everyone. Scrooge is not the groundhog day. Scrooge is not the answer. Not the answer I'm looking for. Raise your hand please. Here. Rushmore? Close. Not the answer I'm looking for. Razor's Edge. Ah! I've never actually seen it. You have to remember, there's an audience here. It's not just me and you all just need more. Not two 44, 45-year-old guys. My dad took me to see Razor's Edge. W. Summers said, Mom, I was pretentious. Yes? At Cleveland Circle? Moonrise Kingdom was the answer I was looking for. A perfect movie. Well done. You're breaking into Rocky Top early. You win a tub of hummus. Can that back to her please? Although Rushmore is also a perfect movie that was close with a bullet. Rushmore was, I'm beginning to rethink starting this sentence, but I have not seen Moonrise Kingdom. Oh no, that's fine. I mean, I agree with you insofar as it's a wonderful movie. She's now gonna quit. But it's not like you had said, I have not seen Caddyshack or whatever. Right, exactly. Really upset. It's not part of the canon to my dismay. Outside of Razor's Edge, are there any bad Bill Murray movies? Space Jam. I'm not sure I would even call that a Bill Murray movie. A starring Bill Murray movie that is bad. Hands up, I'm kind of blanking, but I know that it exists. What? Garfield. Garfield. Garfield. And then there was that one with an elephant. Where the buffalo roam? Oh, that's Hunter S. Thompson. Yeah, yeah, let's back off Hunter. He's a big Hunter S. Thompson fan. Yeah. Would you like that? What? Nothing. Sir? Yes. I thought that Hunter is a difficult person to capture on film and he actually portrayed him quite accurately. I think what it possibly showed is that it is not fun spending two hours watching Hunter Thompson. Did you know Hunter Thompson in life? I did know Hunter and I can confirm that it was not fun watching him. I can tell you that you knew him because you keep calling him Hunter. Were you best friends? We, no. Were you enemies? No, he would occasionally call me at three in the morning and inevitably I would pick up the phone and he would say, Shut up. Are you doing anything weird? And I would have to explain that I was asleep as I always was at three o'clock in the morning and the only one of us who might be doing something weird was him. How did you come to know him? I came to know him because I was dating his editor and I found- You're not anymore, I hope. I discovered, no. And I discovered that editor had a dual role as babysitter at that point in his life and so ended up out there- His editor would babysit him. Yeah, sort of writing. I sometimes feel like I could use this but getting him to write would mean literally sitting with him in a room while he'd bet on sports and then getting him to try and give a sentence at a time for days on end. You can see why- That sounds like a great way to be a writer except for the betting on sports parts. Such good friends. Yeah, he would, yeah. So she would sit there and he would talk and she would write it down? Yes. It's hardly even writing. Yes. Do you still know her by any chance? I do still know her, yes. I do still know her, yeah. So you were dating his editor and were you a big Hunter Thompson fan? I was, previous to that. Yes. Right. Yeah. Well, then are you no longer- Well, no. So I think the other- And I also ended up writing a piece about him in which I said that it was too bad he had squandered all of his talent. And he liked that- You were counting on the fact that he couldn't read? No, but I think he, at that point in his life in the early aughts, late 90s, early aughts- When did he die? 2004? Probably some best friend you are. Ish. Okay. And he was mainly surrounded by sycophants and toadies. So I think that the fact that I wrote a piece saying, wow, it really sucks what he's done for the last 15 or 20 years, which was, I think, undeniably true, he, for some reason, appreciated. He appreciated it? Yeah. Oh, so he reached out to you after you had- He started calling me at three in the morning and asking me if I was doing anything weird. Right. Yeah. What do you think he was hoping to hear? I do not know. I do not know. I think he was trying to be- Did you ever do anything weird with him? I did not. I mean, I rode, I got in a car with him driving. That's, that sounds bad. In the Red Shark, the car made famous. And then we drove down an unlit mountain road in Woody Creek, Colorado to a burger joint. And I thought, I've had a decent life. If this all ends right now. Yeah. But we made it there and back. But no, I did not do anything weird. But you survived. I did. In this timeline. In this timeline. And on Earth One. Yeah. On Earth Two, where we now have the first- In that timeline. The first female- In that timeline, you died, but Hillary Clinton- But Hillary Clinton was elected resident. Which is a sacrifice I will make. That's a lot, Seth. I will make. I'm sure your wife and children- I know, I was gonna say. I might need to finagle that a little bit. All right, we did Candy Shack. On Earth Three, I survived and Hillary Clinton was president. So let's go there. I'd like to go there. Can you open a portal right away? Well, we are, we're gonna explore that later through music. That's true. Oh yeah, I thought we were gonna just have a hoedown the entire time. We could, do you wanna do Rocky Top? No, that's the closer, dude. We're not starting with should I say or should I go. No, no. I know three other songs. Okay. All right. I thought that exhausted the songs were together. But- Oh no, those are the two songs we're gonna do together. Okay, so you're just gonna- If you have a couple of solo songs, you can do those. You should play and I should tune. So, do you know a mandolin player? Usually I tell this joke about mandolin players. A mandolin player and a ukulele player jump on the cliff. Who lands first? Mandolin player and a banjo player jump off the cliff. Ukulele. Oh ukulele, mandolin player and a ukulele player. A mandolin player is necessary for the joke. Got it. All right. That gives me a clue. I'm gonna go to the blackboard. I'll figure this out. Do we have- We must have some engineers in the audience. What's the relative air displacement of a banjo versus a mandolin versus a ukulele? Gosh, Seth, I don't know. Which- Who lands first? The ukulele player because the mandolin player is still tuning his instrument. Ah. Mandolin humor, folks. Thank you very much. Yeah, so I'm going to Seattle tomorrow to perform a show in which I sing a song. And so I had it with me and I walked into the office and Seth said, I play the mandolin. I'm like, let's just have a ho-down. Let's just sing songs, because everything is terrible. And I don't know a lot of songs. And then I said, I don't really play the mandolin, unfortunately. Right. And then he's like, can you wanna play Uncle John's Band? And I said, I am getting on the next train home. Thank you very much. I think that the Grateful Dead is slotted for later in the discussion. All right. Right? You're not a fan. Uh, I'm not. Everyone likes what they like. It's not for me. I'm used to being alone on that hill. It's a- With lots of patchouli, drenched hippies. It's a smelly hill to be on. It's a smelly white hill to be on. Yes, I did. I brought my six-year-old son to a dead show this summer. Well, but it couldn't have been a dead show. It was a dead and company show. Yes. What does that mean? It is starring John Mayer in the role of Jerry Garcia. Which is not as bad as it sounds. I didn't know it could get worse. Truly, truly not as bad as it sounds. But he stayed. John Mayer. He stayed for the whole thing. We can, we can, What are you doing? Oh, you're playing a song. I'm playing the instrumental interlude in Uncle John's Band. Yeah, do Uncle John's Band and we'll come right back after the break. But, but yes. John, all right, here's, all right, so. My wife can also attest. John Mayer was much better. First of all, he wore polka dots checks. Modrus checks, which a Modrus jumpsuit, shorts jumpsuit, which I felt like he should get credit for that. What kind of credit? Credit, like it is the most ridiculous thing any human being could wear. And also very auspiciously on the two nights, I went to both nights. He dressed like an overdressed baby. Were like distinct, but very gaudy and visible, like $80,000 watches. With his, with his baby sims. With his baby sims. No, he only wore the baby sims one night. Is his grateful dead personality. I'm a rich baby. Uh, no comment. Are you gonna, are you gonna play this? No, that, no, I'm not. Yeah, why don't you do your song? All right. So it's a bummer. Everything's a bummer. Come here. And yet I'm glad to be here. And I only know a few ukulele songs. And it's, and sometimes you don't feel like talking about what's going on. It hurts. The reason that it hurts is not merely that it's a disappointment, but not merely because like a death of a loved when it breaks time in half, such that forever after there will be the before and the after of this election, the after of this election is terrifying and unbearable seeming. And we don't know how we will possibly go on and we don't know what this person is going to do because he never meaningfully spoke about policy. And I think we all intuited that his head is a writhing bag of snakes and we don't, he simply, he simply says what comes into his mind at that time, whatever it'll take to get the faceless mannequins around him to cheer him and. Comedian John Hodgman, everyone. It's a terrifying, it's a terrifying moment and it hurts not because of him to me anyway, but because we know on some level that it was meant to hurt, that there are a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump because they were very, very angry at some amorphous collection of enemies that Donald Trump conjured up for them. And we are among those enemies. You know, whether we are non straight white dudes or people who hang around prestigious universities in the Northeast or immigrants or anything, this or women, this was designed to hurt us. They didn't care about what happened today or yesterday, they cared about what happened when he won and we felt that. And that, you know, we were asked to feel a lot of empathy by the news media for Trump voters and I do feel a lot of empathy. A lot of people have been left behind by this economy and by malfeasance on both sides of the aisle, but I know, we know because they bragged about it that a lot of the Trump voters were not voting for Trump because they were hurting, they were voting for Trump because they wanted to hurt people. And I felt hurt, my daughter felt hurt, probably people you know felt hurt and we're looking forward to a future where maybe people don't just feel hurt, but are hurt and displaced as a real drag. And the only way I know how to get through it is because I grew up in Massachusetts, the birthplace of rage and spite. I have experienced this before. A total disregard for policy or the long-term view. Can I make that person mad? Can I hurt that person? And you may know that the mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh wanted, even before he was mayor, to make a particular song, the official rock song of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Road Runner by Jonathan Richmond and the Modern Lovers. And that's a perfect, it's a great song, and you know, let's just put it this way, it was the most qualified song to become the official rock song of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. If that had been the only thing he ran on, I would have voted for him. And you know, it's a great song, it's a beautiful song, it's got Massachusetts in it. Stop and Shop. It's got Stop and Shop in it, Route 128 in it. 1,000 miles an hour. And what happened was it was gonna speed through the legislature and become the official rock song of the Commonwealth. And then someone else in Massachusetts heard that another person in Massachusetts wanted something. And that was not allowed to stand. And so those other legislators in Massachusetts, when they heard that Marty Walsh wanted this, for no reason other than to spite him. Introduced another song in competition to be the official rock song of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And they got into a legislative debt battle and both songs died in committee. What was the other song? That song was Dream On by Eris. Oh yeah. And that is definitely a song. And it's a pretty good song, but it is not a rock song. That is a power ballot. This is a rock song. We can't have some nice things though, because in Massachusetts, because the Red Sox do still have Dirty Water is their victory song, which I think is a clear win for the forces of good in the universe. Any song that celebrates I think muggers, lovers, and thieves in the chorus is a song I'll take any day. And that celebrates a polluted river as opposed to New York, New York. One question though. What are the Red Sox? Road runner, road runner Going faster miles an hour Gonna drive to the stop and shop with my radio on I'm in love with Massachusetts and the neon when it's cold outside and the highway when it's late at night I got my radio on I'm the road runner I'm in love with modern moonlight Route 128 when it's dark outside I'm in love with Massachusetts I'm in love with the radio on How can you not be so lonely late at night? How can you not feel so lonely late at night? Don't feel so bad now I'm in the car Don't feel so lonely I got my radio on I'm the road runner That's right. Welcome to the spirit of 1956 Patient in the bushes next to 57 The highway's your girlfriend as you go by quick Suburban trees, suburban speed And it smells like heaven I said road runner once Road runner twice I'm in love with rock and roll, y'all And I'll be out Not all night, I got a plane to catch in Seattle tomorrow Gonna drive right to the stop and shop Gonna drive with my radio on I'm in love with modern moonlight I'm in love with modern rock and roll Modern girls and modern rock and roll I'm gonna drive with my radio on I'm the road runner Now you sing modern lovers Radio All have to be singing Don't you understand this is the Sing-along portion Do you not know the song? You might not know the song Cause some of you are young Some of you are old All you have to do is shout, sing Radio on, radio on Radio on Radio on Radio off? No, always radio on Even when I'm singing something different Then that's what you sing Radio Good but louder From Massachusetts now I got the power of Massachusetts now I have the power of Cambridge, Massachusetts I have the power of Western, Massachusetts I have the power of Keats school Radio on I have the power of the Pioneer Valley now Radio on I have the power of Greenfield, Massachusetts Radio on Greenfield is not a shithole Radio on Just an ordinary town with some economic problems Radio on I have the power of the Mohawk Trail Radio on Also known as Route 2 That's the first song of our ho-down What chords are they? What chords are they? What are the two chords? I'm never going to tell you All right D and A I should have told you that And you could have done it with me This is like Massachusetts dueling man-just All right All right So we talked about Trump We talked about Taddy Shack Yes Let's talk about your Action figures Okay I like them all Where do you want to sit? Well, how about Why don't we start in Mos Eisley? Over here More wretched hive of scum and villainy Words, words, words What's the rest of the quote? You will never find Even Obi-Wan was talking to Yoda to talk to him Never found you Object for Subject So First of all, does anyone have this Lego set? Oh my fucking god So you guys No one here owns Mos Eisley? I don't Wow Is it a collector's item set? Well Funny you should ask When I started buying Lego Several years ago I did it by accident Because I purchased a set But I thought I was going to build with my two year old And it was for ages 16 and up Which I did I did not realize By the way There are no Lego sets for two year olds Unless they're those eating Lego sets There are duplos There are duplos Yeah No, we're not going to talk about duplos No, I would prefer No So A bunch of garbage You know, you use a duplo for it You use that to make a jetty You throw it in the sea You can also If you need to make very oversight Let's move on from duplos I'm glad you've had some use for duplo But so I This was a Yay big model I'll mail you all the duplo I have left See You should be careful because we have We have already asked everyone we know To donate their Lego to us And now I would say Yeah, Lego is good Duplo, no good You want a duplo? No, we don't Also, if you ask them to speak duplo I'm not going to I'm not going to brag But But it never captured Our children's attention Do you know that And my wife did not believe me when I said this That duplo also attached to Lego I'm with you I think your husband's gone mad How do they attach You can put a Lego on a duplo Yes Yeah They do attach Lego on a duplo Remember So Anyway, so I built this R2D2 And discovered that Lego R2D2 Lego R2D2 Lie yourself Yay big While your son was screaming Pay attention to me, daddy You have to finish I did this I don't think any of my Former thesis students were here But I did this solely While I was having meetings With my thesis students And I told them I told them it was a way To gauge their progress And they How so? They did not ask How so Because there's no scenario On which that actually makes sense But What I discovered All right Was that For people with acute anxiety Lego can be quite meditative Sure Because you take things And you stick them In places they're supposed to go And they click together Very satisfyingly Yeah So I started spending A frightening amount of money on Lego And you slowly You slowly build a model Of a whole healthy person Yes Exactly Over time I'm still filling that hole Inside I am with you I am with you 100% But then I The amount I started to spend Became a little bit frightening So I Told myself And My wife And actually got my father to invest In this scheme But that's your father Yes How do you do, sir? That It made sense If I bought two of every Lego set We could keep one in the attic And then when they stopped making it We could sell it And I would get the money back For the one that I built So it would be like having Lego for free It's a hobby that would pay for itself Yes Because Lego discontinues Over time Over time And they do have a high resale That R2-D2 Which initially sold for $120 Now sells for $500 Well, that's You could have had quite a return I did not buy two of that Oh, I see Yes You got burned in the original The ones that I have so far bought two of Have not had that same Return But I do have a very large Sydney Opera House If anyone is in the market for one Unopened What's that going for now? Well, they have not stopped making it So it is going for I believe The $320 that Lego sells it for But if you get in now Once they stop making it I will sell it to you for $380 How many Duplicate sets of Lego do you have Unopened duplicate sets of Lego do you have In your Storage Well, let's talk money Monetary value I don't want to talk about money I have a duplicate Death Star I don't want to hear about each one I would say probably There have been a lot of Death Stars No There have not There have been three You know what? When you're talking Lego Three is a lot to me Well, until recently there were only two One of them goes for $5,000 I do not have the duplicate of that one Which one do you have? I have the one that they only stopped Making last month The new dupe The what? Your duplicate is the newest one Yes, yes, yes The one that goes for a lot of money Is the one that is being reconstructed From Empire In return of the Jedi Empire? Nope Jedi? Oh, fuck Good lord Oh, man This, this tide is going to shit Anyway I thought I was on firm ground here I am clearly not No I do not What I want to talk about Your Death Star is not completed What I want to Your shields are not fully functional But when, when they show that When they show it like with pieces Falling off of it That's the Jedi? Yes Damn, all right Have you seen these movies? I've seen them I've, I've, I've made my My wife and I rewatched all of them Multiple times before The one that fixed it all came out last year Yeah, if I did it again This, this should make things right The opening line of the most Yes, I know Very controversial Not controversial The prequels were awful And that fixed it Well, not controversial among audiences That was the thing That line at the beginning of The Force Awakens Is what pissed off George Lucas Yes, that is true And yes Ruber has it That caused a rift A rift in the Force It caused a rift And a, well How far down the Star Wars rabbit hole are we going to go? Well, so let's, I'm going to pull us back a little bit Not to cross fantasy properties And, but I would like to talk about the So talk to me about your Maasai's Lee set About, about this scene Right here Okay, actually, I'm sorry Yeah, yeah, I thought For those who are not On stage Seth is making reference to the scene where Han Solo and Greedo are having just a little get-together There are various versions of what happens During this get-together Sometimes Greedo shoots first Sometimes Han shoots first Well I saw a version where they just really Kind of opened up to each other So what do you want to tell me about that? I want to talk about the Han shot first So clearly Han shot first Yes It established his character as an amoral criminal Who had to go on an arc of redemption During that first movie In the face of tyranny and death Is it appropriate ever to meet tyranny with tyranny Or meet the threat of death with preemptive death? We just went back to Trump all the time Yes Does everyone know this scene? So Greedo is explaining that he Yeah, these people all knew what Return of the Jedi was I think they were like Radio on Yes, and Han shot first There are versions where that has been edited But Han shot first And so you think that establishes him as amoral? Well, it establishes it Okay, so there are two ways to talk about this Was it an intrinsically moral act? That is to say would I ever shoot Greedo first? Probably that guy was weird And then there is a contextual argument As to, or I should say narrative argument As to whether it made sense that Han shot first That Han murdered a Greedo in cold blood There are more than you think it's a race of clones? No, he's a rodent Greedo is a rodent Greedo is his name Right, but you said agreato I was making a deep cut joke By mistating what it was So whether it was fair, whether it was moral For Han to shoot Greedo first Was Greedo necessarily going to kill him? I would say yes Well, I'm not sure that that's true Because I've never had this conversation before And I'm really into it I would say I don't blame you for walking out, sir Have a good night Good luck to you Do me a favor before you go Shut and lock the doors He's going to join the resistance If Greedo was trying to collect a bounty That was set on Han's head And to justify murdering Greedo Han would have to believe that Greedo That the bounty was on Han's head Dead or alive And that Greedo was intending to kill him And that Greedo might kill him at any moment And therefore Han would have to shoot him But if Greedo was going to kill Han at any moment He would never have ever said a word to Han So he would have come up behind him And shot him in the back of the head Because when Han shoots Greedo Everyone turns around for a second And then they go back to Chantina's song number one And no one gives a No one gives a Banthapoodoo of actions So we have to conclude that Greedo's intent Was to take Han alive under threat of death And Han didn't want to do that And therefore murdered Greedo Is there a flaw in my argument? Does anyone feel... Sir, go ahead I had a feeling This is about to happen Everything is happening according to my plan Returns him to people that have put the bounty on him He will not be killed there Well There is a flaw in that logic in that he was not killed Thank you, Seth Minookin Yes It may be... What is your name, sir? Isaac Lowe Isaac Lowe It may be... And it may be in Han's mind That he believes that when he is taken back To see Jabba the Hutt That he will be instantly murdered But we know that that isn't what happened And moreover... In the original script And in the original cut After Han murders Greedo Jabba meets him in the hangar Before they take off Before Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi get there And in the recut version And in the unmentionable recut version And does not murder him again And simply says, please pay me the money sometime Now Han has been working for Jabba the Hutt before So I don't think... I think that it is... I think that Han commits a heinous act In murdering Greedo But intrinsically, morally In the context of the narrative It is important that he do that Because he's not a hero at the beginning of the movie He's a mercenary And what you see is Han gradually Finding a moral compass by the end of the movie And that's what makes his return to bail out Luke In the battle of Yavin IV So important to his growth as a character So from a writerly point of view It's absurd that Greedo would have shot first Han needs to be a murderer at the beginning And needs to be a savior at the end The end. Next question Other questions about Mos Eisley? Well, I would... We're gonna open to a formal Q&A But I don't mind if you jump in at any time The question was, how do we know Greedo dies? If you see... You think Han shot to wound? He falls over. I mean, he's shot point blank Maybe he said... You know what? What is your name? Sean Maybe Han set for stun But that would make for a worse story if it were true Greedo is murdered by Han Han is a murderer We all have to deal with reality now Do you understand? Donald Trump is not a normal candidate He's a bigot He harnessed bigotry to get the presidency We cannot treat his presidency as normal We cannot... We cannot offer to unify the country by accepting him Because a line must be drawn A moral line must be drawn And bigotry is on the other side of that line As a country And even though... Whatever I mean, you know Our country was founded on exclusion And genocide And racism But as a matter of principle That we have been working towards We've been trying to not do that And we cannot simply say Oh yeah, Donald Trump is just another president Normalizing Donald Trump is normalizing evil And I don't even think he's evil I think he's just a sociopath That evil people used as their weapon And so that's what I have to say Yes? This better be about Greedo She's talking about me Who are you talking about, me? She's definitely talking about me Okay, I'm going to tell you to attack Are you the other person? Who's the other person? I'm not worried about bigots choosing the other side of the line That's their choice I mean, you know I think that they're going to have to reckon With their consciences and history and time I'm more worried about People ostensibly on our side of the line Who take Donald Trump's conciliatory message In his victory speech at face value And we can't And I don't say this to say That Donald Trump is an evil liar He's simply something who will say Whatever comes into his mind at that moment In order to make the people around him applaud And, you know, to me I feel It's like those of us who choose to not be bigots And to stand on the side of the most vulnerable people Or any vulnerable people in our society Have to stay on this side of the line And I include Democratic politicians And media in that You know what I mean? I would just encourage people to not normalize what's happened There's a huge... I mean, you know, I don't feel... I was of mixed mind about President Obama Who's my hero Meeting with Trump today Because I want to say you're letting down The people, your daughters, you know? Because I know how my daughter felt When an intensely qualified woman Lost to a fatuous, dilettante, creepy man Because he felt like running that year He's monstrous The only thing that made it better Was someone on Twitter today Floated the idea And I've really taken it to heart That Obama Everyone said Obama's reaching out to Trump Because if he doesn't If we don't keep the line of communication open with Trump He'll only be surrounded by Breitbart Not Breitbart, but, you know, what's his name? From Breitbart And Pence and Gingrich and Giuliani And the reality of Trump is He's incredibly susceptible to other points of view If you flatter him Oh, I didn't think about that Maybe Barack Obama's idea Is to become Donald Trump's best friend And to control him And I'm like Barack Obama could do that He totally could do that Maybe that's the ninth-dimensional chess Barack Obama is playing And you know what? I bet you on some level He's like, yeah, I want to keep a channel of communication open to this guy So he can hear from the person who was president before What this is really all about I pity Donald Trump I feel like he is I mean, what we haven't talked about And it sounds like a slur And I don't mean it that way That he is mentally ill And we can't talk about it Because it's a huge accusation to make Especially since we don't want to be in a world Where being mentally ill is an accusation Do you know what I mean? But he's got a different perception of reality than we have And I feel like it's almost our job to remind him As much as anyone else That bigotry of any kind Is not acceptable in the American conversation And I hope I don't know if it's possible But if he were to atone In some meaningful way For unleashing what he has unleashed Then I would normalize his presidency But until then I'm just like, no You're still not okay in my book But I'm not certainly not telling anyone what to do And I'm certainly not a celebrity You know, I couldn't even fill up this all I mean, I love you all But where are your friends, you guys? So, I mean, this is something I've been thinking a lot about And... Oh, but here's what I think you should do Now I'm going to tell you what to do I'm sorry, Seth Yeah, no If you don't agree with me, fine If you do agree with me Then, you know, Elizabeth Warren My dad just sent me an email that she sent out Where she really, you know, after saying I'm going to work with the new president To, you know, reform banking Which is her crusade And she's an incredibly impressive And wonderful person But I was still like, no, don't No, no, no, don't work with her She sent out an email that was very reassuring That she was going to hold his feet to the fire On these issues And I would just say, right to your congresspeople And say to them, don't, please don't Please oppose the president Please treat this president with all due skepticism And suspicion And remember who you're representing I think that actually is a meaningful thing to do And then obviously prepare for the midterms Because we have to take back the senate And the house if we can Now, what did you want to say, Seth? Both are whiskey I picked the wrong You're to stop drinking It was actually 19 years ago If you had followed me then I would have said wrong year, Seth I think you don't know what's going to happen in 19 years Pretty confident it was the right decision, actually I'm glad for you I've been thinking about this a lot And it's incredibly difficult, obviously To feel powerless Especially in the face of something that threatens The values that you hold dear Or the values that I hold dear And what I thought I knew and understood About this country And I've been struggling with how to Find a way forward that does not involve Just sobbing every day Which I think is first of all Not a great thing to do if you're a parent Because that conveys anxiety to your children Which I'm also trying not to do And so there are a couple of things I've done In the last couple of days including reaching out To Republicans that I know Republicans who were very opposed to Trump But the reason I've been reaching out to them Is on the theory that he has the power And he has both houses of Congress now And he is someone who has shown that When he feels threatened or pushed into a corner He will lash out and strike back In ways that now that he is president Can be really, really dangerous And so I would rather have people I don't expect Obama and Trump to be BFFs But I would rather have people that While I may disagree with them on some things I agree with on basic values involving respect And a belief in humanity and a belief in science And climate change because the prospects For what could happen in four years Or in two years are too frightening to consider What are the conversations that you're having With these, when you say Republicans Are you talking about friends who are Republican voters Or Republican lawmakers? Like campaign managers for presidential candidates Primarily and campaign strategists And I've been talking to them I mean I reached out to them and said We're on the different sides of the political aisle And we disagree about a lot of things But I think there are more basic things that we agree about And I would be interested in talking to you about ways That we can work together to mitigate the effects Of the Trump presidency You know I've had a huge shift just over the past 12 hours About like you shouldn't talk to those people The, you know, I'm not your friends I'm sure, I mean you know I was like They're not, every citizen is my neighbor As far as I'm concerned And I greet them with love Even if they're not my friends You know what I mean And what the Republican, they're For those of you who don't like a two party system Doesn't exist anymore Because the Republican party doesn't exist anymore There is a Trumpist movement That Trump activated That like a parasite Like that fungus that takes over the brain of an ant Has invaded the Republican party And the remaining Republicans You know, I mean but that's what it is They're fungus fans Sure, sure But I mean you know like The remaining Republicans are left wondering What happened to their party And the principles of that party Because Trump flouts all social conservatism And he flouts, you know If he seems hardcore On certain, you know traditionally Republican issues now He was exactly the opposite 15 years ago Not even 15 years ago You know, or not even that, right? So he's this completely unpredictable parasite Who has activated a core of angry People largely in rural America Which is a place that I love, you know And they don't know how to deal with it They don't know what to do They are torn whether to disavow it In order to maintain Some sort of mainstream respectability Or to throw mainstream respectability away Because these people ride them to power And you watch them go back and forth Back and forth, back and forth Between whether to embrace or disavow Trump And right now they feel like Well, those who stuck with him Christie, Giuliani, Gingrich And even McConnell and a weird degree, Ryan Like they feel like they've won But they still don't know What's going, none of us know what's going to happen He has no, you know, it's like He's complete, by definition he's completely unpredictable The Republican Party is going to dance At his whim And if they think that they're going to be able to get in there And control the policy the way Dick Cheney controlled the Bush presidency I don't know that that's, maybe But I don't know that that's going to happen either But my change of thinking has been Like, initially I was like What's been revealed is that the Republican Party And I've never said this, but I've never felt this Even in the darkest years of the Bush presidency Where I felt the triumphal wing Of the Republican Party Loved to dance on the grave of liberal Democrats And say that we weren't American You know, like even then I was I'd never felt that they weren't My neighbors and friends and the Republican Party Should be done with But now I feel like how can you Support a party that clearly sold out Every one of its principles for power That's absurd, you know Yeah, and so But it was that one tweet It was on the train here Where that person said we need to keep a line Of communication open to Donald Trump From a pragmatic point of view Because that's the, he is influenceable Yeah And I was like, yeah, you know, we do need to keep We need to keep those lines of communication open And I think it's, you know, between High powered university elites And Republican strategists That line needs to stay open From soon to be former presidents And soon to be future presidents That line needs to stay open And then individual to individual Family to family, like if you know it If you're related to a Trump voter Keep the line open As much as it feels so Satisfying to suggest that you Close that window shade The more that you talk to people The more that your point of view Becomes normal to them And I can't remember the person on Twitter Who, the name of the person on Twitter Who had written a very powerful series of tweets About having grown up in the Midwest And his thesis was like we talk about Having to reach out to voters In rural communities who supported Trump As a mode of empathy And sure, we do We need to know what these people Are thinking and feeling We can't ignore their experience But at the same time They need to reach out to us People who live in towns in the country Don't have the same experience With the outside, with the world The world that we do Cities exist because trade happened here Trade happened in Boston Trade happened in New York, in Philadelphia In Chicago, in Los Angeles They exist on oceans, they exist on rivers They exist because people were coming And buying and selling stuff And that introduced people Within the cities to other points of view There's a reason we call city people Cosmopolitan, we are people of the world There was no way for us to imagine a world In which there weren't people of other faiths Beliefs, orientations It just was obvious And that one-on-one contact With other people of the world Taught us over centuries And this goes back forever Cities have always been more liberal And open and tolerant Because we see other people all the time And we know they're human Whereas people who live in the interior Who farm or mine Or live in small closed communities I mean, these are wonderful communities But they're defined by the fact That they rely on each other to survive And not a lot of people come in or leave And so it is baked into the DNA Of those communities to rely on each other To survive and to be suspicious of outsiders Well, I don't need to look at polling data But the polling data I think backs me up That those are the people who voted for Donald Trump They're suspicious of everything that's happening As the world becomes more and more a city And less and less a small country town It's a lot, I mean, if those were the only people Who voted for Donald Trump Then there wouldn't be a Trump presidency I mean, that's not... I disagree with you Just numerically, there are not enough... Numerically, most people in the United States Voted for Hillary Clinton I mean... Right, most... Less than half of the people who are registered to vote voted And less than half of those people voted for Donald Trump And most of those people voted in the... I'm sorry to say, but in the rural white communities That voted for Republican presidents in the past two elections I mean, I'm not saying this to diminish those people I'm only saying it to say This is a completely classic divide in civilization That goes back to Rome People who live in cities are more tolerant People who live in the country are more skeptical I've lived in both places And I appreciate the values and the virtues of both But because of air travel and internet And everything else We are becoming a global community It's not a coincidence That the guiding conspiracy theory among the alt-right Is that certain probably Jewish elites Want to make a one-world government That is the anxiety that fuels so much If not all of the revolution That we just saw two days ago I mean, I'm sorry to take such a hard stance on it But it's like, I don't... People say, what's wrong with us as a country That Donald Trump is elected It's not what's wrong with us as a country Less than a quarter of us voted for him But they are our neighbors as well And it's on us and it's on them To find common ground in the future And what I really... In a weird way And perhaps this is the bargaining stage of grief Like, I kind of feel like the key is Who has the ear of Donald Trump? I mean, who? Who has the ear? Who has the ear of Donald Trump Because I absolutely think Donald Trump is the kind of guy Who will be really excited That Barack Obama wants to be friends with him He's the guy who's like, hey, guess what I'm friends with the former president of the United States It doesn't matter to him that he's the president of the United States He's like, hey, guess what I actually have a black friend now I have no idea if that's the game that's being played right now And maybe that's the only thing that gives me a little bit of cheer In the moment, but I kind of feel like From a purely practical point of view We know what we're dealing with with Donald Trump In that we don't... He is utterly unpredictable And completely susceptible to flattery And yeah, you know what? If that's the game that Barack Obama is playing Go for it Like, maybe that'll keep us from... Maybe reaching out in all kinds of different ways That will keep us from the outcome that we're most afraid of Right Anyone want to jump in? I mean, yeah You're from Denmark? Well, good for you Can we move in with you? Can we move in with you? Yeah Look at... Hey, hang on What is your name? Adam And you're from Denmark And you have those awesome clear frame glasses They're like Bernie Sanders' dream I wish it had come true This is happening all over the world So what do you mean by that? So it's about the city and the country side And there was anxiety We had a kind of vibration that caused anxiety And that led to the rise of a far away human body But they were populists And they had the same rhetoric as Trump And all of a sudden they were in parliament And under liberal last power And they all of a sudden They made it their policy to stop the conversation And the minute they did that Rage doubled And it influenced the far right Double So now they're the second largest By any means But that won't happen So please, just keep the conversation going And keep those meetings happening Between Barack Obama and Donald Trump That's your only hope Barack Obama came to office With the power that he was going to reach across With the promise I should say To reach across the aisle And that there was not two Americas That there was one United States of America And it really bothered a lot of people on the left That he meant it And of course he was rejected For eight years But at the same time I think there's something magical About the fact that even the person who Spent years denying His legitimacy as president That Barack Obama would meet him In friendship and I dare say love And I think that that's That's something I only came to appreciate On the train here So I'm just saying It took me hours to get to where I am today You can't hear the gentleman said He shares my gall We share a gallbladder I always wanted to meet you Your fears is a person that has said In an interview You know I can't use tactical nuclear weapons Which is like just Vacuous and unthinkable and dangerous Somebody with factual power I think about it It's thinking outside the box I live in that box It's a good box It's not radiating it yet Democratic self-governance When he gives them back And I wonder what would be Accomplished by withdrawal Or pure obstructionist Because we've had that under divided government For several years And it's what's enabled This history of shutdowns And team first over country Or institution or democratic norm Or habit of mind That's what's to me Set the stage The Republican party Is reaping that harvest now With a sort of white nationalist Embodied Trump presidency But the table has been set by They're reaping the harvest of their Eight-year obstructionism With a nominally Republican president But also with a president They can't control Who does not share their values Who does not share their agenda Who has no agenda of his own And an electorate that he alone controls And that they have no influence over So it's a bitter victory for them Even if they feel triumphal in this moment But according to the machine of government Does not necessarily play into people Who are trying to use it to help We need the machine of government We like the machine of government Right But it's also not possible right now I mean the Republicans have a majority In both houses of Congress So I don't know Yeah, no, I know Yeah, but I mean just That's another I'm supporting you That's another argument against obstructionism Because you know The Republicans want to do away with The filibuster They can do away with the filibuster So yeah, I mean, yeah Yeah, I agree with you The gentleman said isn't it about Keeping the conversation open And not becoming I'm extrapolating from what you're saying But you know Not choosing obstructionism As a goal unto itself And a strategy unto itself While also not normalizing what happened And I think that there is a delicate way To thread that particular needle I mean, yeah You know, the Republican Party The faction of the Republican Party Is offended and opposes Trump I think has not yet had a reckoning With the racism that it allowed That helped fuel Trump Within the Republican Party And that's a difficult It's, you know, that's a difficult For me, that's a difficult needle to thread Because you know I am glad Mitt Romney Is taking the stance he is And has against Trump And I also am aware that he Was the person who had Donald Trump During the height of birtherism On stage with him Asking for his nomination And it is that type of behavior That helped normalize Trump But I guess I believe that Yeah, I believe that There is a way to reach those That group of people And that it is going to be better For the country and better For the people living in the country If Elizabeth Warren and Mitt Romney Are working together Because he can do that He can have more than one Yes, sir What's happening? Oh, I know to edit that out Before this Does that work? So what is your name? Leo Say again? Leo Yeah And by the way, Leo was the first to find The microphones in the audience So, Leo There's one, there's another one here A bag of mini candy Alright I've been toying with the question For the past, feels like a year And it's whether Trump voters Are going to be, and if yes, when Disappointed with Trump and realize that He's not working for them But working for himself Do you have more to say? No I, we've been encouraged by the news media To feel empathy for Trump voters No one has ever I love the fact that you're breaking into that Yeah, go for it, I love that That's literally a mixed bag I would not You don't need to share that, that's all yours Sorry, no, no, that's I should have taken that opportunity To have some more whiskey then And We've been encouraged by the news media a lot Recently, especially Once we, once we presumed There were all going to be a bunch of losers And we had to feel sorry for them To feel empathy for the Trump voter Even though almost by definition The Trump voter was not feeling any empathy for us The Trump voter was instead fantasizing About electrocuting Hillary Clinton And attacking protesters in their midst Not all Trump voters, certainly I think what we saw that surprised everyone Was the amount of silent, quiet Trump voters Who did not go to rallies And just voted for Trump for their own reasons But it was definitely a part of the Trump campaign To advertise their anger And their desire to strike out At the people that they felt In establishment would let them down And outside of establishment That they were taking away their opportunities and power I do feel empathy for the Trump voter And I never felt it more I mean, I felt, I feel for them There are people I know who are my neighbors And I would imagine my family members Who are, well, yes, but I also In case you doubted my white privilege I also have a home in western Massachusetts And in coastal Maine And we saw a lot of Trump signs around there And within, and you know Both of my parents' families come from Working-class backgrounds whose fathers Worked in manufacturing industries That don't exist anymore And their wives didn't work at all It's a world that existed That doesn't exist anymore And if I were a son or a daughter Living in that world And did not have the benefit of My parents moving to Boston I'd be probably pretty pissed off And confused and desperate as well Yeah But, so I have tremendous empathy But I don't think I've had more empathy Than while listening to the victory speech That Donald Trump gave In which he thanked Hillary Clinton For her campaign and for her service The public service over many years And the debt of gratitude that he owed her And I felt two intense feelings I was in my car at that moment I own a car, that's just how incredibly wealthy I am One was, oh shit I almost bought it I was like, oh he's gonna be fine He wants to learn from us And then I realized, oh no wait a minute How can he possibly, how can anyone Have you heard what he said five days ago Like he promised to appoint a special prosecutor To investigate her and hopefully put her in jail And now he's going thank you for your service It's impossible, and in that moment I was like There are a bunch of Trump supporters, not all I think a lot of them were very happy To deal with the cognitive dissonance Of knowing that he couldn't build a fucking wall And that he couldn't form a deportation force And he wasn't gonna put Hillary Clinton in jail A lot of them who sincerely believed that that might happen And now they're, the betrayal began Not even a full 24 hours after he won Like he's gonna break a lot, a lot of hearts And I'm gonna fucking enjoy it But he's also gonna appoint a Supreme Court justice So that's kind of good We're gonna go here How are you? I'm good Good to see you Maybe just angle the mic down a little bit Because it's a I'm short It's like most of America, it's built for tall white men That wasn't funny Actually, it was really funny Sure, good luck Apparently you have a different definition of comedy Very difficult for me And thank you for being here I was thinking about lines We talked about lines that we cross And I was just remembering When Trump was on Jimmy Fallon And how there was just this very dangerous normalization Of this bigot lunatic That we now have to deal with for four years Is there a kind of approach That you believe as a comedian That we, as funny people and as comedians Have to take in order to prevent Further normalization of this person Because I feel that laughter can hide a lot And I don't want jokes to disguise What this person really is Right So, well first I would just say I personally agree with the term Bigot lunatic But I would point out That if he is a lunatic If he is mentally ill That's not his choice That's just something that he is We should be aware of it And we should maybe be Careful about electing him president But Bigot is a choice Like he made a choice And I don't know that he's a bigot Like I don't know that he's a racist I believe that he's a racist in the sense That he believes that there is a human Named Donald Trump And then the world is full of Something less than humans who are not him That he has to manipulate in order to please him But that's, to me that would be evidence Of sociopathy and mental illness But he did, I think, make an active choice To court Bigotry in this campaign Even if he himself, and even worse If he himself does not personally feel Well, we know he hates women We know that he hates, it's on record That he thinks of women as less than human We can't deny that But he convinces himself that he doesn't feel that way He personally doesn't feel that he has racial Or animus or misogyny But I think he's confused No one has more respect for human I mean, for women That was the craziest That was like, you are beyond crazy at that But he did, there's no question that he made A strategic choice to align with Bigotry Within the extreme right wing And people who are susceptible to those messages And I think that that's the part that's sort of Unforgivable and why you can't bring him on a show And pat his head like he's some kind of funny uncle You know For me, it's the thing that always I remember listening to it in Brookline When I was a teenager on They Might Be Giant's Flood You know, like your racist friend That song was like, if you have a racist friend He's not your friend You know, you can't treat him like your friend Or the specials If you have a racist friend, now is the time For that friendship to end I've met Jimmy Fallon I think he's a very sweet dude He's the son of Boston I think he means well But I think that was a misjudgment on his part Like that was not an okay thing to do You know, how do you deal with it comedically? I mean, I'm not on the Daily Show And the reason I'm not on the Daily Show I mean, I loved the show last night The Daily Show with Trevor Noah You know, it's the... A part You know, I love Stephen Do you need me to get that? Anybody? I think it's utter shame that The Nightly Show was canceled Because I felt that Larry had a really important voice In what was going on this year In the world But there is no question that the Daily Show Is offering, you know, non-white points of view Young non-white points of view And non-male points of view That need to be heard And both Michelle Wolf and Hassan Had incredible pieces last night And yet I still don't feel that anyone's Figured out how to deal comedically with this I'm not on the Daily Show Because my job on the Daily Show Was to be a parody of Donald Trump I mean, in 2011 I suggested a pivot From my sort of generic Expert sociopath point of view To specifically deranged millionaire sociopath point of view Because Donald Trump was On CNN and Fox All the time peddling Berthard nonsense I was like, we need to have... Why is this... A millionaire or a claimed billionaire Allowed to go on news television To spout nonsense all the time We need to have that character And also tied in with a book That I was promoting at the time But, you know, like... It's a good book And so, you know, I did that character And by the time that Trevor came in In 2015 I really didn't want to do it anymore And in part because I... I didn't feel that I could come up with comedy That would rival the long-form Improv entertainment product That Donald Trump was presenting Like, there was... Comedy is so much about exaggeration And there is no exaggerating upon him I couldn't... I consider it my failing Like, I couldn't figure out how to make fun of that I think I'm still... So you're asked the question I'm not sure I have the answer You know, like how to make fun of what's happening There is a way... We'll find someone who can do it It's not me But there is comedy I think in the best tradition of the Daily Show Which I think continues in its best tradition Where it's both legit funny But also a critique And also illuminating and not ponderous And dumb Does that help? A little That's enough I'm supposed to solve it for you Just tweet it when you come up with the full answer Okay, I'll let you just... Boil it down to 140 anchors You've had your say, white man Over here Hello I... something that's... It's 8 o'clock, so are we putting a stop on this? Yeah, we can... Gosh, so sorry We'll just take two more comments from white men Welcome to my life We can go for it a little while I mean, we aren't... Okay I'm going nowhere, so... So one thing that's been occurring to me Is we're talking a lot about Trump's presidency But there is Trump's America So you're talking about Talking to Republicans And bridging that conversation But how are you going to talk to People who are marginalized And making sure that you're not Just promoting your agenda Or protecting them Well, go ahead, Seth Well, that's... That's something I've been thinking about A lot also And I really do believe That finding some Way to be active And be... To add yourself To fight against what's going on Is both ennobling and Can be an effective Bull work against desperation And so... And what I hope in myself Is that I continue to act On the despair that I'm feeling So I called up the ACLU Yesterday And had a conversation With someone there and told them What my... The areas that I could be Potentially helpful in And essentially said Let's figure out how you can Put me to work And, you know I called up the reporters committee On freedom of the press Because I think it's going to be really important To make sure that Journalists can continue to report To me And I did this same thing there I am Someone who grew up Outside of Boston And not the most racially Diverse suburb And I've tried Since I was here to Reach out to people who are very Different than me And so last year One of the communications forums That we did was about How Muslims are being treated At MIT and around the world And so I called up the people Some of the people that I met Through that And that was not my first instinct My first instinct was to Kind of roll up into a ball And then my second instinct Was to figure out how to make Sure I was going to be okay And I'm going to be okay Things have to really go south Before I'm on a cattle car But that's I know that's not true For everyone And So I would really Support people Finding ways that they can be Active And use what's going on now There were times when I was really depressed During the Bush presidency And then I went on and continued to do what I was doing And I I'm sure like a lot of people And In huge despair Or the fact that I did not do everything I could To make sure that Trump wasn't president I didn't make calls You know, when Obama Ran my Very elderly grandmother Perhaps not very Effectively berated people on the phone From a call center For hours And hours and hours every week And So You know, to everyone I think if we can take this moment And make decisions About what we're going to do with our lives And then not forget that next week When it's not quite so Doesn't feel quite so scary And the wound isn't quite so fresh Yeah But I'm very aware Is Learn From And about and spend time More time with people who will be more effective Than I am because For me a lot of this is Is somewhat Notional So Yeah I've mostly been tweeting and retweeting With regard to Helping people who are Marginalized My Instinct right or wrong At this moment is to And this Is about retweeting Is to retweet the testimony Of people who are Having a Being attacked To listen Rather than prescribe And to be available To the people I know In marginalized and vulnerable communities Personally And through the internet And to Help in the way that I'm asked to help And I feel Yeah I mean that's If there was something More than I could do I invite You or anyone to encourage me To do it and I will happily do it But I don't know That it is Helpful For me To tell People how to feel or act at this point Outside of my Community of Relatively affluent white dudes Like I'll tell those people like Get active You know press your Representatives don't forget Exactly as Seth said You know don't Like my Mission I think is for Is to help and force the people Who are in the best Position To forget that this is real and meaningful In people's lives to not forget And to Not just sort of go along As normal and to keep the To keep the wound open And hurting Is there people who are hurting And to monitor the people who are hurting Amplify their voices And offer them help In the way that they need and want And ask to be helped So that's my answer For what it's worth Hi my name is Serge Well looking through history You see well Trump If he manages to work Together with the houses All the other Republicans In government Who will have more power The Republican party will have more power Him himself as well Than any other president Since 1928 And we all know what happened in 1929 You know the great oppression I don't know Alright so I wonder what You know Obama was Probably surprised this all happened And have a plan I don't know But in two months what you think he can accomplish Hide the nukes maybe You know Well I So I Go ahead Seth Well in all seriousness there are A lot of He is undertaking efforts to build Walls around as much as he can And there are Not a small number of Obama or Trump Obama Obama To build walls around To build walls around To put in safeguards In as many ways that he can And there are lots of Republicans Who agree with that There are It's possible that if congress doesn't act What is he building walls around Well so there There are potential Safeguards and policies that he can enact Involving nuclear weapons If he leaves office if he has the support Of congress which he may Be able to get It's possible that if congress doesn't act He actually Can appoint a supreme You know push a sort of constitutional Issue and appoint a supreme court justice Appoint garland And it's also Possible That there are enough Republicans to sort of Go along with that So yeah But from like the tiny miniscule Amount that I know That is the Overwhelming preoccupation of What his administration Well let me do my point of view with no data And having spoken to nobody at all There's no way Merrick garland is getting Confirmed as a supreme court justice Before the end of the year For the end of the Obama administration Trump will nominate A supreme court nominee That he'll get his person through And there's no way no one's going to hide The nuclear bombs from him This is the cost of the election He's the president Sorry I mean I know that I'm not cynical And I'm not fatalistic But it's like I'm going to call shenanigans on that First one Well I mean if If the Republican congress Were to Move swiftly To confirm Merrick garland As a supreme court justice There would be a huge Outcry Among the far right And Breitbart About robbing Donald Trump Of his Cthulhu given right To Appoint a supreme court Nominate Their fault because they didn't Confirm the dude when he was put forward But it would be a huge Public relations Disaster that would demonize The republican congress and We know That they are too terrified Of bad PR to stand up against The creep who is now their president They're not going to do it They'll talk about it I'm sorry Seth I mean I know you know these people Have insights that I'm just saying From where I sit on this Side of the stage I mean I think I would love it But this is Republicans were as surprised That Trump got elected as Trump was And as Hillary was And there were a lot of Republicans Who gave a sort of grudging Like you know try to Dance on that line Or say that they weren't endorsing Who Did not think That he had a chance at winning But however surprised They were That he got elected He got elected And guess what Republicans are going to get over Their surprise They're going to be like okay We're in control now We're going to do our thing No way I think it's more like Because they're What was your name again sir Oh right My name's Chris What was your name again Serge that's right I knew it was a foreign name I want my country back by the way Serge I'll leave it to you Let's meet here again in a year And we'll see if Merrick Garland Can speak for the Supreme Court We just got two for the price of one With John Hodgman everyone You heard it here first Another $800,000 Lightning round My name's Julian I just want to speak briefly to The comments that young lady just made And to yours about keeping the wound open And feeling that I just had an interaction Today with a friend Around my age And we hear this often Democrats at law's for being so childish And having protests And unable to All this grief that was coming from adults on facebook With the election And I pointed out to him You're not I know How old are you How old am I What are you talking about adults on facebook Non-college age people Was who professional working adults Who my friend was addressing Got it But I pointed out to him You're not the homosexual Who's getting beat up Because folks claim Trump's president this is allowed You're not someone who's marginalized And feeling uncomfortable in the classroom You're not the son or daughter of an immigrant That doesn't know If your family's going to be able to stay together And his response back was Well that can't be true I haven't seen those things reported And obviously we all live in our individual bubbles But that's why Even though that's exactly what Trump promised would happen Exactly, that's what he advocated for In a way and that is what's happening So I just want to underscore that To Keep that wound open And publicize when these things happen Because there's a good portion Of folks that don't believe These things are happening and that's part of the outcome Of what we've had That to happen Which this individual did The other thing about I see you're raising your hand Right, you'll see it happening See it happening A lot of people choose not to see it happening But I think that Here's the hard part You need to remind people That it's happening And you also need to Appreciate that sometimes they won't believe it And that's okay That's okay We have a A kind of Non-functional Rule in our household With regard to our children Where we will tell them That they have to do their homework Or they have to get dressed And it was more of an issue When they were younger And prone to throw a tantrum And they didn't want to do What they had to do They didn't want to see What they had to see They didn't want to acknowledge That it was time to Turn off the TV Or get out of bed And do what they had to do They didn't want to acknowledge reality And we would yell and yell and yell And it wouldn't work Finally realized it doesn't help to yell And we would say to them I know you understand The language I'm saying to you It is time for you To get out of bed and get dressed I don't mean to infantilize Trump supporters Maybe a little bit But there were times when our kids Would absolutely continue With the tantrum But we knew that they heard us Even so And I think it's the same thing You keep saying to them I am human No, this is happening And when they say That guy disappeared When they say it's not happening Just say Okay, I'm telling you it's happening And then over time I'm confident They will see That it's happening It will be up to them To accept it We can't make them Accept it But we can show it to them And we'll get some of them And we'll never get some of them And that's what That's all we can do You know, a lot of people have said We need to reach out to Trump supporters To show them The humanity that we all share It's not our job It's their job To wake up to the humanity We all share We can help them Bring them there And I'm not saying this is all Trump supporters From my point of view Anyone who voted for Trump If they're not a bigot Is bigot-adjacent because they have Agreed to a campaign That traded on bigotry But we can show them The world And they can either accept it Or not But if we don't show it to them That's my point of view We only have 45 to 59 more minutes Can you do a 30-second question? Yeah, it's actually I wanted to say thanks For being here I really like your books And your audio books And I was thinking of One of the reasons I do is the I can only talk about the podcast so many times Maybe they'll understand Maybe they won't You talk about their absurdities But they're a lie that holds a greater truth And one of the things that I get in that Is your heart Your humanity That you tell in all these stories The sadness, the bleakness, the hope And I Kind of almost didn't want to come here Tonight Because this is a very scary time And it's a time when many of our hearts are breaking And I have the privilege of being able To forget that for moments And I was worried to come here And experience someone else's heart Broken or breaking As I knew you would be able to tap in so powerfully So thank you for being here And thank you for talking about this in a way that I think Gives us something to work with Well, it's an awkward time for me to Say to you that I am not only A robot, but a hologram I left this world A long time ago But thank you And Yale hat behind you You have a thing you want to say? Yeah, super quickly There's a way that you talk on your podcast I forget what it's called But what arts do now Hilarographic design Amazing All forces in entertainment Amazing for Clinton Still Comics for Clinton Amazing art for Clinton Still Trump win No good art for Trump What art do now I honestly did not know what you were doing for a second Oh no, I'm so sorry I appreciate that You were talking In a bizarro talk I was trying to go really fast Because I do appreciate it I was concerned you were having a stroke That's really embarrassing Yale like a skull and bone Secret language that you two were speaking You understand? What question again? What is the role of arts now? Because I think we had our best Our best forces The art that was coming out in favor of Clinton Was incredible in this campaign You mentioned the Daily Show It was so good, everything was so good The entertainment industry was entirely behind her Her graphic design The logo was made by Pentagram Everything was perfect Every art that I loved Good graphic design doesn't solve the world Yeah, absolutely But it does What is the role of What should the arts do And what does entertainment have to do Now that it's all failed Because So many people work for Clinton This is the same thing that Another person asked earlier Amelia asked what's comedy Supposed to do And it's an issue That we all face After 9-11 When the world broke into Before and after In a very different way People had horrible losses You know All we can do Is find our way You know We are all in a moment of processing What this means Even if we're winning Even if we were on the other side We're like holy shit Now we have this The thing that struck me was The video Of the kids in Royal Oak, Michigan The middle school Where Kids were chanting build that wall Build that wall And I was tweeting about that And I was like What are you gonna do President Obama For the kids who are scared in that room And only in that moment did I realize It's not just the kids Who aren't chanting Although I think they deserve our greatest protection But the kids who are chanting that Are also scared Because they're being raised In households of hate And they're processing that as best they can You know it's a real, it's a lot To take in And I don't think we need to rush As artists to figure out how to process this Or make fun of it Obviously I'm not Entirely comfortable Making jokes Even though that's ostensibly my job Let's take a moment to not make jokes Think about it, talk about it And then we'll find our bead on it And I hope give people what art Is always given Which is a little bit of moral instruction A little bit of history And a little bit of distraction You know, from Whatever is behind us As we sit around the fire and the darkness Also There's no rush to it anyway Subscribe to newspapers and magazines Also that's another thing Well that's where Seth and I disagree The mainstream media has to be brought down Rock it up Sure Or should I stay or should I go Yeah, let's do that one Let's do rock it up because you're You sing lead on rock it up So I'm going to do this, I'm going to do a different one And then we'll do that one Okay You want to perform without me Yeah, that's fine But I'm going to perform with you on that one Because I don't feel like And then we're done, two songs And then we're done, stop giving me that one So we rehearsed Rocky Top which is a song From Tennessee which is a beautiful state Went for Trump And I can't, I was thinking about it It's like I Was on a plane With a guy from Chattanooga, Tennessee Where they have the fastest Broadband in the United States Because They as a community invested In the fastest broadband and got it And this older gentleman Who was Very fun to talk to for a while About Maine and Tennessee Where he was from Brought out A bottle of clear liquid That I thought was going to be moonshine And then it turned out to be Water from a lake in Maine That he was bringing to his Rotarian club So they could pray over it For water security And I realized he does not believe in science And then he said Donald Trump is going to save this country And I was put in a very awkward position Of sharing a seat On a plane with a probably 85-year-old man From Tennessee Who Was never going to be convinced To vote for anyone but Donald Trump And I felt very Sadly in my heart That the only hope that I could have Was that he'd die Before I left Thanks for coming out folks Alright So I'm not going to sing that Tennessee song Oh, you got, we got to get out of here Yeah, yeah, alright So let's just do your song No, no, no, your song Things fall apart Everything tends to decay Oh, shit, I can't remember the song You know it takes So much time So much time You know it takes A lot to combine Adams in such a way That they Resist The lure of that darkness That lurks around The edges Of every day So I'm inviting you To join me In this fight To go down To the river And come up all three Times Hank Williams was right No one gets Out of line All we have to do Is try to have A really good time Resist the tide Stand In the water That's baptism That's making light Electricity Is proof that we can be A little bit of light In all of this darkness So I'm inviting you To join me in this fight Resist against the tide Of the light You know you have a voice You can call So just clear your throat And start singing this song Resist the tide Stand That's baptism That's making light Electricity Is proof that there can be It takes a lot of work But oh That's songs by Cynthia Hopkins What are the chords again? The Rocky Top? Not Rocky Top You're going to sing with me? You're going to do it? You don't want to do Rocky Top? I want to do Rocky Top. You know that one of that guy to die? Well there's a lot of other good people to see. Just the chorus or should I say or should I go after that? They're both in D. Okay good. Very quickly This is a song from eastern Tennessee called Rocky Top It's a song founded on nostalgia Which is the most toxic impulse It is exactly what Trump has been promising his followers That the past was better We know it wasn't And that it is We can travel back in time to it Which we can't This song is a profoundly nostalgic song But it's still pretty good It's a pretty great song I wish that I was on Old Rocky Top Down in the Tennessee hills Ain't no smoggy Smoke on Rocky Top Ain't no telephone bills So this is describing Utopia On top of a hill In eastern Tennessee Where there are no telephone bills Which is the greatest thing Apparently Once had a girl A pop half bear Wild as a mink But sweet as soda pop I still dream about that Alright so it's already It's already dehumanizing women We should have gone over this before Yeah it's a virgin and horde dynamic One part mink One part soda pop I still dream about that It was wild as a mink Wild as a mink Rocky Top There'll always be Home sweet home to me Sorry let's do the chorus again Rocky Top There'll always be Home sweet home to me Rocky Top Tennessee Rocky Top Tennessee Wants to strangers climb You can't stop singing now Oh yeah First of all Listen, Seth Mnookin plays a mandolin Round of applause for that Alright here we go Once to strangers Went up Rocky Top Looking for moonshines Strangers never Come down from Rocky Top Reckon they never will They were murdered Rock up on old Rocky Top grounds to Rocky By far we are That's why all the folks Get their corn from a jar That's bourbon Rocky Top There'll always be Home sweet home to me Good Rocky Top Tennessee Rocky Top Tennessee Worst lyrics in music I've had years Of cramped up city life Trapped like a duck In a pen All life Can't be simpler Rocky Top You'll always be Home sweet Rocky Top Tennessee Because it's the question on everyone's minds Yeah, this was prompted By someone with dual With dual citizenship American husband It's you two It's you two, but you have the weird name Yeah You do It's Peter Schleim That's what I just said You seem destined to confuse me Your last name is like Is Peter Schleim or something Yeah And also you talk like this And that's coming So your question was should you stay Or should you go to Iceland And what is your feeling right now That's an important criteria Where in Iceland are you from That's where everyone's from No other humans live elsewhere Do you have room For us? Not just us Alright, when is your lease in? In July Well, you'll know by then What's A7? We're not doing that anyway What are we not doing? The A7 We're starting the song We just learned it, and we've never done it before Yes, yeah But let's just do the first verse Let's do it until they stop singing Should I stay or should I go Here till the end of time So you gotta let Should I stay or should I go Next verse Next verse, keep going No, no Come on, come on It's always T's T's T's My knees I forgot I know it's Next is black We should've switched to G A7 Let me know Should I stay or should I go Should I stay or should I go now Should I go now Should I stay or should I go I think we all need to go Seth Mnookin ladies and gentlemen Judge John Hodgman So much for coming out Please stay involved And we'll see you all down the line Thank you