Hey, what's going on, everybody? I'm Trevor Noah,
and this is The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Today is February 1, which means
it's the start of Black History Month.
Yes, my friends,
it's that time of the year when white people
who are true allies gift their black friends a PS5.
Do the right thing, guys. Don't be racist.
Anyway, on tonight's show--
reddit traders are high on silver,
anti-vaxxers are ruining things for everyone,
and we introduce you to an insane Georgia woman
who makes laws for the country now.
Plus, Jeremy O. Harris of Slave Play is joining us on the show.
So let's do this, people.
Welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
ANNOUNCER: From Trevor's couch in New York City
to your couch somewhere in the world, this is
The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah.
All right, let's kick things off
with the big snowstorm that slammed
into the Northeast United States today,
where some places will be getting up to 24 inches of snow.
In fact, there was so much snow in New York
that we couldn't go anywhere,
and we had to stay home all day.
It was crazy! But while the sunny West Coast doesn't have
to worry about snow, California is having some scary,
weather-related problems of its own.
Amazing new drone video shows where a chunk
of California's scenic Highway 1 collapsed
after heavy rainstorms last week.
Both lanes near Big Sur washed down
-into the Pacific Ocean. -NEWSWOMAN 2: Wow.
HODA KOTB: That landslide left a massive gap in the highway
and a deep ravine littered with fallen trees.
Thankfully, nobody was hurt there.
Transportation officials have no estimate
of how long it might take to actually fix that.
Merchants say that collapse, just another major blow
to the area's tourism industry.
Nah, man. If anything, I think
a big hole like that is gonna help the tourism industry.
I mean, just look at the Grand Canyon.
They were gonna patch that up years ago,
but it's so popular that they've never even bothered.
Now, luckily, nobody was on this road when it collapsed,
but they do have to fix this road ASAP
because since we all have GPS now,
I don't know how obvious that hole is gonna be, right?
People are just gonna be like...
I mean, yeah, it looks like a hole,
but Google says we should just go straight,
so, I mean, what's the worst that could ha...?!
And this does look scary, but you know who did enjoy it?
That panda from the National Zoo.
Oh. If only we all looked that adorable plunging to our deaths.
Let's move on now to the coronavirus pandemic,
the only thing with more mutations than Rudy Giuliani.
The big issue right now is getting people vaccinated
as quickly as possible.
And now, there's yet another thing
making that harder than it should be-- assholes.
NEWSWOMAN: The Los Angeles Times says
dozens of anti-vaccination protesters disrupted operations
at one of the largest vaccine sites in the country.
They blocked entrances and forced the inoculation center
at Dodger Stadium to close for about an hour Saturday.
Hundreds of people waited in their cars to get shots.
Some city officials are calling for increased security
at testing and vaccination locations.
Whoa!
These people in L.A. had to sit
in their cars for an hour!
How did they notice?
But on the real, though, what the (bleep), anti-vaxxers?!
If you don't want a vaccine, then don't get one.
I don't agree with you, but don't ruin it for everyone else.
Like, we don't come interrupt you
when you're busy dying of measles.
'Cause here's what I don't understand.
Why does it always have to be the most ridiculous people
who are the most fired up?
Like, why can't anti-vaxxers be
like those Instagram models were last summer, you know?
Where they just post a black square on Instagram for one day,
and then never bring up vaccines again.
But let's move on now to international news.
Ten years ago, the country of Myanmar emerged
from a half-century of military rule
to transition to civilian government.
But, yesterday, the military apparently decided
that they liked it better the old way.
Breaking overnight-- developments in Myanmar,
the country formerly known as Burma.
This morning, the military there announced
that it took control of the country in a coup against
the democratically-elected government.
It detained several politicians,
including the country's civilian leader,
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The raids came hours before a new session
of parliament was scheduled to open,
and members who won the November elections
were set to take their seats.
The military alleges voter fraud in the November election.
Oh, man. Trump must be kicking himself right now.
I don't know why I didn't think about using the military.
Can I have a coup-over?
And here's the thing. I know it's sometimes hard
to get Americans to care about another country's politics.
So if Myanmar wants to get the U.S. to pay attention,
they should change the country's name again,
this time to "The Capitol Building."
Yeah, because if Americans heard that there was a coup
at the Capitol building, then they'd at least
care about that for, like, two weeks.
But I am hoping for the best for the people of Myanmar.
And what this shows us is
that maintaining a civilian-led democracy isn't easy
and can't be taken for granted.
When you think about it,
civilians controlling the military
is an amazing accomplishment in the first place.
'Cause the military has way more power.
You know, it's like the political equivalent
of having a pet T. rex.
What did I say about jumping on the couch?
-Bad rex! Bad rex! -(growling)
And finally, let's move on from the coup in Myanmar
to the ongoing coup on Wall Street.
Last week-- you probably remember--
day traders on reddit shocked the markets by driving stocks
in GameStop and AMC Movie Theatres higher
than the queen's hair in Bridgerton.
But now, reddit has its eye on something even more shiny.
NEWSWOMAN: The GameStop saga continues to grow.
NEWSMAN: It's not just stocks anymore, though.
Reddit users are buying up silver,
pushing up the value of the precious metal.
Silver has now hit a five-month high
at nearly 30 bucks an ounce.
NEWSWOMAN 2: That reddit group says that they're doing it
because big banks, specifically JPMorgan Chase,
have been "suppressing metals for a long time."
NEWSMAN 2: Over the weekend, retail sites
that sell silver coins and silver bars said
they were getting hit by unprecedented demand,
and they couldn't meet it.
TYLER WALL: The demand has been incredible.
Pretty much physical silver is almost all gone
in terms of live inventory.
We typically have about a thousand silver products
in inventory available for purchase.
We're getting so cleaned out right now that we're actually,
last I checked, down to about 80 items in stock,
which is a number I've never seen before
and never thought we would ever see.
The entire industry is, frankly, wiped out.
In terms of actually finding live silver
that you can purchase and receive today,
it's becoming impossible.
(evil cackling)
I'm rich! Rich, I tell you!
(cackling)
That's right, people. Now silver prices are skyrocketing.
Which is gonna cause confusion at the next Olympics.
I mean, if silver's more valuable than gold,
everyone's gonna try and get second place.
Sprinters will be at the finish line like...
After you, man. After you.
No, I insist, brother. After you. No, you go.
-Yeah, you go. -I'm always going first.
Bro, I'm always going first. You go ahead of me.
Why don't you go ahead of me now?
This time, you can go first, right?
Now, while some reddit users say
that driving silver higher will cripple banks like JPMorgan,
others claim that this movement is secretly being coordinated
by big Wall Street firms because it would help the banks.
And I believe this,
because Of course Wall Street will do that.
When Wall Street sees a scam going,
it doesn't try to stop it. It tries to joins in.
If Wall Street caught you robbing its mom,
it would be like, "Hey!
"Hold her legs down while I take off her shoes.
"Sometimes she hides cash in there.
Let me get in there. Let me get in there!"
But whether it's coordinated by the banks themselves or not,
the fact is, the reddit surge is now spreading
from game stock to silver to all sorts of stocks.
And one of our correspondents has a pitch
for where it should go next.
LYDIC: Are you a redditor looking
to stick it to the hedge funds?
Well, forget about GameStop and silver.
You've got to invest... in kiwis.
I'm Desi Lydic, and kiwis are the investment opportunity
that Wall Street doesn't want you to know about.
They're portable, they hold their intrinsic value,
and it's easy to think you're ordering ten from Amazon
and miraculously wind up with ten crates.
Here's a fact. As far as we know,
every single hedge fund is shorting kiwis.
And are we gonna let them do that
to America's national fruit?
I don't think so.
But if we all buy kiwis, then...
Rocket ship!
And kiwis are more than an investment.
They go great in fruit salads.
They can be organic truck nuts.
And they're the only fruit covered in fur.
So if you ever wonder what it's like
to take a bite out of a hamster,
now you can... with kiwis.
And the best part is, you don't even have to go
through those Wall Street fat cats to get your kiwis.
Just call me and let me know how many you want,
whether five or 5,000.
(buzzer sounding)
But this opportunity will not last forever.
You've got maybe two days tops before it smells so bad in here
that my landlord kicks me out.
So, order now, and remember-- the more kiwis we all buy,
the more the hedge funds suffer.
It's just economics.
So call today...
please.
(door opens)
MAN: Honey, what did you do!
I'm handling it!
All right, when we come back, we'll look at one of the newest
and most terrifying stars of the Republican Party.
You don't want to miss it.
Welcome back to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Last year's election brought a lot of new faces
to Washington, D.C.
But just like that kid at sleepaway camp
who keeps wetting the bed,
one of them may be going home early.
NEWSMAN: Tonight, growing outrage
at newly elected representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The noted conspiracy theorist and ardent Trump supporter
from Georgia is facing calls to resign
in a long-shot bid to expel her from Congress
after a review of her social media found in 2018 and '19
she repeatedly indicated support
for executing prominent Democrats,
including Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
NEWSWOMAN: In a widely shared video from 2019,
Greene declaring Pelosi a traitor,
implying she should be executed.
GREENE: It's a crime punishable by death,
-is what treason is. -MAN: Yeah!
Nancy Pelosi is guilty of treason.
She's called for the hanging of Barack Obama.
She's called for the hanging of Hillary Clinton.
Right now they're trying to expel me from Congress.
Yep, they don't like...
they don't like a lot of the things I say and do.
Um, they're-they're... you know, it's a witch hunt.
Yeah. They don't like the things you said
because you called for their execution.
They're not looking for a witch hunt.
They're looking to stay alive.
I mean, people, what kind of psychopath
calls for the execution of America's leaders
on Facebook?
I mean, at least if you did it on Snapchat,
it would be harder to find.
Also, the puppy nose makes you seem less crazy.
And here's why I take this assassination talk seriously
from Marjorie Taylor Greene.
She's got three names.
Assassins always have three names.
Lee Harvey Oswald.
John Wilkes Booth.
Neil Patrick Harris.
That guy kills at every awards show.
So who is this person that might get expelled from Congress
after less than a month?
Well, let's get to know her in our brand-new segment,
Fringe Watching.
? ?
Meet Marjorie Taylor Greene.
In Congress, she represents Georgia's 14th District,
right outside Atlanta.
And in life she represents some views
right outside of reality.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, she won her House race
for a district in Northwest Georgia.
She has, in the past, promoted the QAnon conspiracy theories.
Q is a patriot. We know that for sure.
But we do not know who Q is.
People believe that Q is someone very close to President Trump.
According to him, many in our government
are actively worshipping Satan.
Or they call Moloch.
I mean, is it gonna be true that the child pedophilia
in the elites and the Washington D.C.?
Is that what we're really gonna see come out?
Is it gonna be Satanic worship?
Q is in the House...
of Representatives!
Now, Marjorie Taylor Greene
is hardly the first member of Congress
to hold some out-there beliefs.
I mean, Ted Cruz believes that beard is working for him.
But QAnon is not just extreme, it's delusional, people.
How are you gonna be in the government
and believe that the government is full of Satan-worshipping
sex predators?
I mean, it must be exhausting to be walking around
the halls of Congress just constantly opening doors like,
"Aha!
No. Just a supply closet."
"Gotcha!
No. Just a copy room."
"Bam!
No. That's my office. Man, I'm so lost."
And it's not just QAnon.
In fact, it seems like Greene has a conspiracy theory
for every letter of the alphabet.
NEWSWOMAN: The Trump-backing Republican embraces
completely false QAnon conspiracy theories,
and in a newly uncovered video from 2018,
claimed former president Obama is Muslim,
the Clintons had JFK Jr. killed,
and even questioned whether a plane crashed into the Pentagon
on 9/11.
GREENE: It's odd, there's never any evidence shown for a plane
in the Pentagon.
NEWSWOMAN: Facebook posts have surfaced in which Greene
called the deadly Parkland high school shooting fake,
along with video showing her harassing
Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg.
GREENE: Why are you supporting red flag gun laws
that attack our 2nd Amendment rights?
How do you get avid gun owners
and people that support the 2nd Amendment
to give up their guns and go along with anti-gun legislation?
How do you do that?
Maybe you accomplish that by performing a mass shooting
into a crowd that is very likely to be conservative.
Is that what happened in Las Vegas?
WOMAN: Have you seen the picture of Ruth Bader Gingridge
walking to the airport?
Yeah, like the body double for Hillary Clinton, so...
-Yeah. -It's interesting, so...
I do not believe that was Ruth, no.
-I don't think so. -Yeah. -I don't, either.
Wow. Okay, so RBG has a body double,
Hillary Clinton has a body double...
This woman makes it sound like
everyone has their own body double.
(chuckles): I mean, that's such a silly thing to believe.
Yo, The Weekend, they're onto us.
Get out of there man. Run!
But the big question is, how did Osama bin Karen
get elected to Congress in the first place?
Well, it turns out she was lucky to be one of nine Republicans
running for the seat, so everyone's attention
was spread around instead of focused all on her.
Kind of like how there are so many different kinds
of Oreo now that you hardly even noticed
that one of the flavors is human flesh.
And while some of the QAnon stuff did come out,
mostly what voters knew about her
was that she was a hard-core Trump supporter.
And yeah, she sometimes sounded like a crazy person,
but only in a comforting, familiar way.
NEWSMAN: She's a former CrossFit gym owner
who has had a few rolls at her father's construction company,
but really has no political background at all.
We need conservatives in Washington
that will keep it that way.
The Democrat Party is no longer an American party.
They are now the party of socialism.
They want to rip our borders wide open.
They want to kill babies up until birth,
and maybe even afterwards.
I have a message for Antifa terrorists.
Stay the hell out of Northwest Georgia.
Goddamn!
I know which house I'm skipping on Halloween.
And by the way, everyone's freaking out
about Greene's QAnon beliefs, but if you ask me,
the scarier cult she's involved in
is CrossFit.
I mean, that shit's just Scientology with jumping jacks.
But yes, aside from the cult stuff,
a lot of Greene's beliefs are pretty typical
for today's Republicans.
But she also has a little extra something
that makes the far right love her even more.
It's racism.
Marjorie Taylor Greene also has a track record
of incendiary and racist rhetoric.
There is an Islamic invasion
into our government offices right now.
If you want Islam and Sharia law,
you stay over there in the Middle East.
You stay there, and you go to Mecca
and do all your thing and, you know what,
you can have a whole bunch of wives or goats
or sheep or whatever you want.
But that doesn't make me a racist,
because I... just because I say leave the statue up there.
The most mistreated group of people
in the United States today are white males.
NEWSMAN: On a now-deleted Facebook post,
Greene questioned whether California's deadly Camp Fire
in 2018 was started by lasers beamed down from outer space.
Lasers, she says, somehow connected to the Rothschilds,
the Jewish European banking family,
the target of some of the oldest, laziest,
most dangerous anti-Semitic tropes on the books.
Jewish space lasers.
Hold on, hold on, hold on. Jewish space lasers?
What, is this lady just playing conspiracy slot machine
and going with whatever comes up?
? ?
'Cause here's my question. If you were secretly starting
a forest fire, why would you use a space laser
when you could just use, I don't know, matches?
It's such a waste of a Jewish space laser.
It's like using the Death Star to make s'mores.
(imitating radio transmission): Yes, make sure they're toasty.
And honestly, guys, if you're anti-Semitic,
this is a weird way to try and get people on your side.
Because when I hear someone saying,
"Jews have a space laser!"
I'm like, "Awesome. Can I join?"
I will say, though, it is impressive
that Greene has some wild, racist theory for every group.
I mean, no wonder she got elected.
'Cause she's like, "I want to be a congresswoman for everyone.
"Whether you hate Jews,
"Blacks, Muslims or filthy Canadians,
I'm on your side."
So, that's who Marjorie Taylor Greene was
before she started threatening to kill Democrats.
And her calls for violence are nothing new.
While some Republicans only came around
to supporting an insurrection
after Donald Trump lost the election,
Greene was rallying the troops
even before November 2020.
If this generation doesn't stand up and defend freedom,
-it's gone. -Yeah.
And once it's gone,
freedom doesn't come back by itself.
The only way you get your freedoms back
is it's-it's earned with the price of blood.
When we rise up,
we can end all of this.
We can end it.
We can do it peacefully.
We can. I hope it doesn't ha...
we don't have to do it the other way. I hope not.
But we should feel like we will if we have to.
Okay, no, guys. I'm sorry,
but calls for a violent revolution
just don't have the same weight
when you're streaming it from your hotel room.
"It's time for the people to rise up
"and take back their freedoms!
"Excuse me, can I get another towel, please?
"'Cause I'm going to the pool. Yeah, thank you so much.
"Let's spill some blood!
No, the cabana will be fine. Thank you."
So, now that all these death threats
and conspiracy theories have come to light,
Congress is trying to figure out how to deal with Greene.
Do you censure her?
Do you expel her?
Do you use a secret Jewish space laser
to distract her like a cat?
I mean, one thing's for sure.
While Congress tries to decide what to do with her,
she's out there getting stuff done herself.
NEWSMAN: Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene
calling on President Biden to be impeached.
Just filed articles of impeachment
on President Joe Biden.
We'll see how this goes.
What a letdown.
Marjorie Taylor Greene came to Washington
calling for executions,
and a few weeks later,
she's already settling for impeachment?
Man, I guess Congress will turn anyone into a moderate.
But you know what?
I have a conspiracy theory of my own.
I think Marjorie Taylor Greene
is secretly a Democrat.
Yeah, no. Think about it.
She's making Republicans look unhinged,
she's from Georgia,
which we all know is a blue state,
and she's a member of Congress,
which she herself believes
is a satanic, demonic cult.
Now, if I'm correct
and Marjorie Taylor Greene is a Democrat,
well, that's great news for everyone,
because that would be the only way
that Republicans would actually want to hold her accountable
for anything she's done.
All right, when we come back, playwright Jeremy O. Harris
will talk to us about his groundbreaking play,
Slave Play. You don't want to miss it.
Welcome back to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Earlier today, I had the privilege
of speaking with award-winning playwright Jeremy O. Harris.
His Broadway production, Slave Play,
was recently nominated
for a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards.
So, we talked about that,
how he's trying to help keep the theater industry alive,
what he's doing during the coronavirus pandemic
and so much more.
Jeremy O. Harris, welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
(chuckles) Thank you for having me.
Had I known you were gonna challenge my 'fro,
I would have blown out my 'fro,
but I feel like you... you-you snuck up on me.
This is not cool, what you've just done here.
'Cause I can do that. But I was like,
I don't like doing that to people,
'cause then they feel intimidated.
And I didn't think you were gonna do this.
Well, I mean, I did know that I was
on an African man's television show.
-(laughs) -This is, like, vaguely political.
And, so, I wanted to, like, you know, walk in the step
of, like, you know, past African liberationists,
past Pan-Africanists
and, like, live in a full '70s 'fro moment for you.
-I like that. I appreciate that. -I switched it up.
You know, they also gave... They also told me
that you've been wearing sweatshirts on the show.
-Yeah. I wear my hoodies. -And they...
"Wear, like, just a hoodie. You're..."
And I was like, "I'm not gonna do that."
-(laughing) -I c... I can't do that.
That's... For me, that felt like utter, like...
utter, like, beautiful privilege.
Like, you have beauty privilege.
You have light skin privilege. You have, like...
(laughing)
I'm like, my mom in Virginia is gonna be like,
"What the hell is Jeremy doing with-with unwa...
"with, like, natural hair and, like, a (bleep), um...
-a hoodie on in the show?" -(laughs)
I think... I think you look fantastic, Jeremy.
I-I... That's... You know what? You know what it is for me
is, like, people often ask me.
They go like, "Why are you wearing the hoodies?
What is the hoodie about"? I go,
"This is how I dress when I'm at home,
"and I'm not in the mood
to act like I have not been at home for a year."
Yes, I get to pop outside now and again,
but we're all at home, so I'm not gonna now live
in a world where I'm gonna be uncom...
Like, I'll wear a suit outside because I'm outside,
but I won't wear the suit inside because I'm inside.
Do you know what I mean?
So, I-I will make my pandemic experience
as comfortable as possible,
and I hope you would do the same.
You look fabulous, though. I will s...
That's-that's a stunning jacket.
Like, that's a nice collar, that's a nice shirt.
It feels like you.
So, what are you doing now? Before we talk about the play
and all the accolades, what are you up to?
I've been sitting at home,
wondering if I even know how to write a play, one.
'Cause I think that, like, you know, a big thing for me
is that, like, I-I think about theater
-as, like, community building in a way. -Uh-huh.
Like, I... Like, I think everyone's always like,
"Slave Play. Like, you made it to Broadway.
Like, how did you do that?" Or like, "(bleep) you.
You wanted to go to Broadway."
And I'm like, I didn't want to do any of this.
I wanted to make a play for, like,
my small group of friends in... at Yale.
-Wow. -So, I wrote this play in my second year in grad school.
There's three years there.
My second year, I read it to my classmates,
um, and then third year was off-Broadway.
Like, it was just, like, a really random,
um, series of occurrences.
And, um... Oh, God.
Oh, God. Um... Sorry. I got calls.
-(laughing) -My-my friend
is calling me over and over and over again,
and I didn't know that that was gonna happen.
(laughs): Um, that's really funny.
-Um... -So, that's freezing up our picture right now.
Hold on. We'll-we'll get it back.
We'll wait a second. It'll come back.
I'm honestly just gonna tell her that I'm, um...
Wait.
(laughs): "I'll call you back.
I'm on The Daily Show."
-(laughing) -My apologies.
(laughs) Um, that would be a fun thing.
Um, I wonder how many times that's happened to your guests.
I don't think it's ever happened, actually.
I've completely lost you.
This is so weird. I didn't take the call.
I think it's just because...
Um...
-Is it... Am I back now? -Oh, there you are.
-There you are. You're back. -Great.
-You're back. You're back. -Great. Okay, I'm gonna do this
and make sure that FaceTime doesn't come back,
'cause that's the issue.
Turn FaceTime off.
You see, this is fun. This is what I love about this.
Now, now, imagine... You see, now,
if I was wearing a suit for this moment right now,
I would feel like something had gone wrong.
But because I'm wearing a hoodie,
I'm like, we're just... It's just happening.
Life is just happening right now.
You know, Broadway's one of the hardest, hardest, hardest places
to get anything on.
You didn't just break into it, Jeremy.
You broke into it with a play that many would argue
would never make it onto Broadway.
It is one of the most risqué things.
So, I went to watch Slave Play,
and I-I remember sitting there.
And I won't spoil it for people, but I remember
for the first, like, ten minutes, 15 minutes, I was like,
"This is the worst thing I've ever experienced in my life.
-This is horrible." -(laughs)
And-and what was happening around me was...
There were a lot of, like, racist jokes being said.
There were a lot of... And I was just like...
And people were laughing around me,
and I was... I was really uncomfortable.
I was like, "Wow." I was like, "So, clearly,
"this is not for me.
"This is for some of these old white folk.
They're having a great time right now."
And then the play switches,
and then I started laughing,
and then people around me didn't laugh anymore.
And I-I remember the entire time...
I walked out of it going, "This..."
It-It's, like, similar to the experiences I've had
with, like, The Matrix or Devil's Advocate
or just an experience that takes you through a story
that warps how you're seeing the world around you.
It seems like a play about interracial relationships,
but then when the George Floyd protests happened,
people were using the play
and using, you know, quotes from the play
and ideas from the plays
in the streets while they were protesting.
Talk me through some of that.
Like, it seems like it's one thing,
but it feels like it's so many other things.
What was Slave Play meant for you?
What were you... what were you trying to do?
Because it seems like it achieved everything.
Yeah, I mean, I-I was a Black kid
who had been in white schools for most of my life, right?
And, like, you know, when you are that--
one of those few Black kids who are in, like,
predominantly white spaces, you tend to either be attracted
to all of the-- these-these groups of white people
that will always make you feel like an other
and never make you feel like you have as much worth
or you'll find the other Black people
that are in those programs and, like, form little pods
and find little ways to embolden yourself
outside of the sort of, like, psychic terror
of being around white folks every time
that you enter a classroom or walk down the street
and, um, having people always be like, "Can I touch your hair?
Can I do this?" And then, like, when the minute you say, like,
"I feel like everyone's racist here,"
be like, "I-I'm not racist."
So, like, I wanted to make a play
that ostensibly told all of those kids
who feel gaslit by the systems
and the institutions that they are a part of
that, like, hey, you're not wrong.
Um, the people around you are racist,
even if they say they aren't.
Um, or the people around you, like, are-are dealing
with years and years and years of systems
in the same way that you are,
even if they feel, like, separate from those systems.
-Right, right, right. -And-and you're not wrong
to want to call it out.
And, for me, because Broadway was never the goal
or never the option,
I feel ver-very emboldened to talk to the producers
who want to take it there and be like,
"If you're gonna take this to Broadway,
it has to be for the same people that I wrote it for."
-Right. -Like, you can't take this play to Broadway
and then be like, "Okay, now only white people
"who have American Expresses
and can afford $400 tickets can come see it."
I was like, "The tickets have to be affordable.
"It has to be privilege-- We have to privilege Black people,
young people, et cetera."
And, luckily, we were able to do that, which was amazing.
I'm not shocked that your play
has been nominated for a record 12 awards.
Congratulations. Like, to have 12 nominations is unheard of
and it's amazing and I hope you win every single one of them.
Because, oftentimes, when we talk about racism
and systemic racism in society,
we-we speak about it through the lens of,
like, overt hatred, you know?
But it is really hard to have these conversations
with the nuance that it deserves
when you're talking about it through the lens of love.
The whole of Slave Play is about love.
It's about how couples love each other.
It's about how people love each other.
It's about how families, how friends love each other
and how race either adds a complexity
or an added dynamic to that love.
S... (stammers) Was that a big part of it?
Or-or why was love so crucial for you?
'Cause, when you're watching the play,
at no point do you think that any of those white people
does not love the Black people that they're interacting with.
You don't even not like them.
You understand that everybody is being subject to the system.
Well, I mean, it's because-- I mean, I grew up in the South.
Right? And so, in the South, there are certain things
that are, like, very plainspoken, right?
And that's why I like the South,
um, because, like, in the South,
um, I had friends who I knew for a fact, like-like, adored me.
I don't know if love was what happened, but they adored me.
They were obsessed with me. But they'd be in a car
and their da-- and we'd be on a carpool.
We'd be talking about, you know, Pokémon
or whatever we were talking about
and then their dad would start whistling "Dixie"
in the carpool. This is a real story.
And they would whistle along.
And I didn't know what "Dixie" was.
Then I'd learn the song and I'd come home
and then, like, I'd sing the song to my mom
and she'd be like, "What the (bleep) are you doing?
That's-that's a racist song."
I'd be like, "What are you talking about, Mom?"
And then my mom's like, "You go back
and you tell them that's racist."
So I go back. I tell them it's racist.
They're like, "Oh, my God. Well, yeah,
"you know, my-my grand-- my grandpappy did,
"like, fight for, uh, the Confederacy,
"and I guess I am a little bit racist.
I'm sorry if that makes you feel weird." Anyway, you go on.
When I moved to the North,
I would be in situations
with hyperambitious other, like-like, students,
many of whom were white, who would say things
or do things that were based on race.
They'll-they'll be based on race. So they'd be like,
"Well, yeah, Jeremy might be one of the smartest people here,
"but, you know, he got in because--
-"like, the reason he could get in... -Right, right, right.
is because he's Black. Or the reason is..."
It's like no one knows what my SAT scores are.
It's like, "Bitch, I'm-I'm sure I out-tested you."
You know? But, like, they would say these little things,
and then when you'd say, like, "That's racist,"
they'd be like, "No, it's funny. I'm learn--
I learned this from Tina Fey. Or I learned this from..."
You know, and they'd say all these jokes that you know.
The-the-- In the mid-2000s,
in the Obama years, when everyone felt safe,
Comedy Central, NBC, all these places were, like,
built up around liberal comedians
saying, like, racist things
that made Black and brown people feel weird
but they were told they couldn't because they were--
they all voted for Obama.
And so I started to think a lot about how
the most insidious form of racism
is the kind of racism that we see, uh, perpetrated by people
that, um-- like, in their voting--
like, that are liberals who, like, vote against policies
-that, like, protect young Black and brown people. -Yes. Yes.
And so I became really obsessed with this sort of entanglement,
right, a sort of, like, entanglement
that is based around, uh, mutual respect,
mutual love but, like,
wherein, like, that respect is hampered
by, um, being blind
to the ways in which being socialized white...
(chuckles) has, like, um, challenged--
has made it almost impossible for you to, like, understand
the complexities of any-anybody that's not your own.
I really do appreciate how you've created a conversation
that is honest, that is heartbreaking, that is funny.
It's funny as shit, man.
It's one of the funniest things you will ever watch.
And it leaves people, in my opinion, walking out, going,
"Man, I see the world in a slightly different way
"and I see the way I participate in the world
in a slightly different way."
And so, um, yeah, man,
I would add even more nominations to your 12.
I could talk to you for hours, but maybe-maybe we'll catch up
on another day. Thank you for joining me.
Thank you for being here, and thank you for creating, Jeremy.
-I appreciate you, man. -Can I just say one thing before we go?
-Oh, of course. -I know we have to go. The thing that--
the thing that I really want to say is that if-if we really want
more people to see this, right, we want as many people
as possible to see this, we have to think about the fact
that, in America, theater is on its last legs.
All of the arts are on their last legs.
I want everyone to look into Be An Arts Hero
and the work that they are doing
and also to research the Federal Theatre Project
and the Federal Arts Project,
which is one of FDR's, like, plans inside of the New Deal,
where he made Federal One and put money into the art--
the hands of artists not just in New York,
not just on Broadway but everywhere,
because the bil-- the-the multiple billions of dollars
that arts bring to the economy are nec-- are necessary.
And I know it's fun to think about theater as, like,
that bad musical your son or daughter was in
that you, like, suffered through.
But, like, you know, theater is what made Fleabag,
is what made, uh, I May Destroy You,
is what, like, helped make the-the foundational principles
of all of the shows you watch on Netflix, Hulu,
-all of these other places. -Yes.
And if you want to make sure that there's a new generation
of people who are still able to do that,
who didn't starve while they were trying to do that,
please, please, please ask your representatives
to bail them out. Bail all of them out.
Because, like, I'm a lucky artist. I'm fine.
I'm sitting in, like, a gorgeous apartment right now.
But there are plenty of people who are my peers,
plenty of people who are above me,
who have been an inspiration to me who are struggling
to figure out how they're gonna get their next meal
because we've thought more about Wall Street bailouts
than we've thought about the art-- the art sector bailouts.
And those are important, 'cause they feed our soul
and they also help reshape how we think about America
in significant ways.
Well, you know what, we'll-we'll make sure we do that then.
Thank you, man. Don't be a stranger. Look after yourself.
I won't. I won't. Thanks, man.
All right. Thanks again, Jeremy.
Now, in case you're wondering, Jeremy himself
has curated a collection of plays by Black writers
called The Golden Collection.
For more information about The Golden Collection,
including how to buy it, please check out the link below.
We're gonna take a quick break,
but we'll be right back after this.
Well, that's our show for tonight. But before we go,
today is the first day of Black History Month,
so, please, consider supporting Color of Change.
They move decision-makers in corporations and government
to create a more humane and less hostile world
for Black people in America.
If you are able to, then go to the link below
and donate whatever you can.
Until tomorrow, stay safe out there,
wear a mask, and if you're in an area
that's getting slammed by snow,
just remember there are kids in Miami who never get any snow.
So do a good deed
and mail some of it to them.
Now, here it is, Your Moment of Zen.
Let's-let's be truthful about Charlottesville.
There was every type of-of racist group,
and it came in every disgusting level.
So we had all the idiots there.
I don't even know why we put the idiots on the news.
Why do we put those idiots from the far-left
and the far-right, why do we even give them
a microphone or a camera?
Because they're the idiots of our nation.