-I do love walking in Paris. [chuckles] -Oh, my God.
Do you remember we used to tell so many knock-knock jokes?
We told a million knock-knock jokes.
I was, like, endlessly amused by, "Knock-knock. Who's there?
-Banana. Banana, who?" -[laughing]
"Knock, knock. Who's there? Orange. Orange, who?
Orange you glad I didn't say banana?"
-I thought that was the funniest joke. -Well, your kids do too.
You and Grandma were very patient
with my repeated telling of that joke as a child.
-Oh, hello. Whoa. [laughs] -Look at this one. Very brave.
That one is very determined.
Totally unfair thing to say, but the little head is so menacing.
Yeah, but the head movement is like
one of the exercises we did at clown school.
You know, back and forth--
[class] Front and back, and front and back, and front and back.
-Circles. -[class] And circles.
[Chelsea] We traveled from Paris to Philadelphia
to meet with some of the funniest gutsy women we could find
and discover the unexpected ways in which laughter can change the lives of women.
[vocalizing]
[class vocalizing]
[vocalizing continues]
[instructor] Madam Clinton, you're doing great.
Call me Hillary. [Hillary chuckles]
[instructor] Hillary, your nose.
I thought it was gonna be women… [screams] You know?
When it's a dick-mergency, they've got it covered, so…
-Keep it classy. Keep it classy. -I mean, you know.
Namaste, New York City!
[audience cheering, whistling]
A little about me. I'm an immigrant.
I came to America with $9 in my pocket.
10,000 in the bank, but nine in the pocket.
[laughing]
No, I'm not gonna be poignant.
That's not the point for me tonight. Just this outfit is why I came out here.
[audience laughing]
I'm from Jersey. My town is super diverse.
33,000 Italian Catholics and six Muslims who are all my family.
'Cause they've lived in both worlds.
Trans women know stuff that we cis women don't know.
Like, they know how much we're supposed to get paid.
[laughing]
When we first get on stage, a lot of times, as women,
what I've noticed is-- The men don't have this as much.
You'll have a bunch of guys who are like this.
And the energy just drops.
-[Saunders] So I already gotta come on… -Yeah.
"What's going on? What's wrong with your hands?
You don't wanna clap? All right."
So then, now, I'll do my set here.
A woman gets on the stage and they're like… [gasps] "Whoa."
And they-- they just watch you for, like, a minute.
You don't think they're listening to you. They're sort of watching you.
Yeah. It's almost like your first joke is wasted
-because they're just like, "A female." -[Saunders] Everything. But--
And this is why a lot of women, even with their outfits--
I used to wear blazers all the time 'cause I was like,
"I don't want anybody to see my breasts.
I don't want other women in the audience to think I'm trying to entice their man.
-I don't want this guy to be like--" -All that stuff, yeah.
We think about all these things,
and guys literally just pick whatever they got in their closet,
-"If we have time." Yeah. -Yeah. Mustard-stained T-shirts. Yeah.
[Zayid] And when I started doing comedy,
you had the rule of, like, one woman on every show. [chuckles]
I-I'm surprised we even know each other.
There's so many female comics.
I would see their headshots at clubs and go,
"Why can't I know you?" [laughs]
[laughs] We're not allowed.
[Hillary] How many times have each of you done this comedy club?
-I can't even count. -At least 200.
-Holy moly. -Oh, wow.
Yeah.
I love that my mother still says "Holy moly."
[all laugh]
[Chelsea] Why do you think there's so few knock-knock jokes about America?
I have no idea.
Because freedom rings.
[both laugh]
That is kind of clever once I had a think about it. [laughs]
Would you ever do stand-up?
You know, I had a different experience with comedy in some ways
-than, um, I think than a lot of people… -[gasps] Oh, no.
…'cause I was made fun of so much as a child
by people who were professional comics.
-[Hillary] Yeah. -Oh, yeah.
And also horrible political talkers, like Rush Limbaugh and that.
But that was different, right? 'Cause Rush Limbaugh already hated us,
and, like, hated everything that you and Dad stood for.
So that was actually quite easy to be like, "That's not about me." Right?
But when SNL made fun of me,
I was like, "Wow. Like, a group of adults sat in a room…"
[Kilmartin] Right. Mm-hmm.
"…all decided that this was a good idea."
Nobody thought, like, maybe we shouldn't make fun of children.
I was, like, "Oh, I just don't think I think that's funny or okay,
so I just don't think comedy's funny or okay."
-That's totally understandable. -Yeah. I make fun of kids all the time.
I've had parents take offense.
I talk about peanut allergy. I had a woman get very upset with me.
And I had to say to her, "Listen, this is my truth."
You know, about the peanut allergies.
-It's-- It's nuts, but it's my truth. -[all laugh]
You just made the crew laugh.
What comics do you love?
-I don't really know the answer to that. -Ah. I'm gonna take you to Comedy Club.
Totally. This is now an intervention I didn't know I needed.
[all laugh]
Chelsea, do you know what happens if you drink too much tea in Paris?
-[Chelsea] No. -European. [laughing]
[Chelsea] That is beneath you. No pun intended.
[water pouring]
[Chelsea] Some comedians are using comedy
to shine a light on previously taboo topics,
such as the normal operation of women's bodies.
[Hillary] Kenya, I wanna try some tea that I have never tried before.
-[Kenya] Do you like caffeine? -I love caffeine.
My personal favorite is gonna be the Indian chai.
Oh, you got it.
-I would love to get the Alice's tea. -Amazing.
Could I get some coffee?
-Wow. How dare you? -I know. I'm sorry. [chuckles]
-I'm with you. I'm with you. -Thank you, Kenya.
I have to tell you how great it is to see you,
-and how healthy and happy you are… -Yes!
…after getting through this incredible experience with endometriosis.
And, I mean, look, we wanna talk about comedy,
and we wanna talk about what it is to be a comic,
and all that you've gone through--
Let's not pretend you're not a woman too.
I also, on stage, I bring my ovaries with me whenever I perform,
so it's good that we're talking about this.
I don't drop them at the door, right? No.
I've always had, from my first period, debilitating cramps.
Like, I'd be vomiting from the pain.
And I was kind of just to--
Said to me, like, "Women get cramps. Suck it up." Yeah.
And then later in life, they're like, "Go on birth control. That should help."
Like, these-- these little Band-Aids.
And it's tough to diagnose endometriosis unless you have surgery.
You know, my joke about it is like, when I was like,
"Oh, I'm-- I got a diagnosis, so what do we do?"
They go, "Oh, we're so sorry, we haven't been able to study it,
because it only happens to women."
-Yes. -But there is chewable Viagra.
So, yeah. Yeah.
If it's a dick-mergency, they've got it covered.
Sometimes it's hard to take a pill.
They don't want men to ha-- You know, what if they choke on it?
So, it tastes good, it's chewable. Isn't it sick?
-Hey, Wanda. -Hi.
-Oh, my gosh. -Look how great we look.
-Do I call you Madam Secretary? -How about Hillary?
-I'd love that. -Do you see? Like, look at her shirt.
In case you forget our names, they're written right there.
-These are hilarious. -Purple Laverne and Shirley-ish.
-I like it. -I love that about it.
-You ready to-- Let's do some bowling. -Yeah.
-[Sykes] You have to pick out a ball. -Pick out a ball. All right.
-Did you bring your own ball? -I have my own ball. Yes.
-Oh, that is, like, way serious. -Yes. Chelsea, I have disposable income.
-[Sykes] My shoes. -You what?
[Hillary] I think we are here under false pretenses.
Oh, my gosh, Wanda.
I'll tell you something you did that I thought was really wonderful,
and that's when you talked about what it's like to be postmenopausal.
-Oh, yes. -Because nobody talks about it.
You're living in the body you had for, you know, 40, 50 years,
and all of a sudden,
-it's like, out of your control. -Right.
-You named your belly, I think? -This is Esther. Esther Roll.
Esther Roll. She's near and dear to you. I know that.
She is, yep.
I knew what I was experiencing and it's like,
there should be a whole conversation about this.
I think when it really hit me, was when I went to my doctor,
and I was like, "This-- These hot flashes are unbearable.
I'm trying to work and all of a sudden, I have to shut down filming for a minute
'cause I'm, like, sweating like crazy. You have to give me something."
And then she said, "Okay, well, right now
they're giving, uh, like, a Xanax or-or something."
But it says a lot about women's health care and how they value us
if the only thing that they can come up with
is like, "Give these bitches a crazy pill."
-We're back to the hysterical women trope. -It's-- [stammers] Exactly.
As a comedian, you can sort of pierce the darkness
and say, "You know what? We're gonna talk about it."
That helps women not to feel alone.
I'd love for you to do more on that.
I will, 'cause I'm still going through it.
[Hillary] Okay. Let's bowl a little.
-Get, like, a bowling name. -A bowling name?
-Yeah. I'm gonna go with "Sprinkles." -"Storm."
-Ooh. -I like the weather.
I'll be "Whisper."
-Quiet, but-- but potentially deadly. -"The Whisper." Okay. "The Whisper." Okay.
We have for you a little Mad Hatter stand.
-Amazing. Thank you. -Wow.
You keep bringing delicious-looking things.
-Oh, wow. -And then we got some scones for you guys.
Look at the size of that. Those scones are illegal.
[Hillary] Hold that. That is, like, really a special--
And now that my hands have been all over it, probably it's mine?
When I told somebody that I was going to see you today,
the response was,
"I admire her so much for being so honest about how difficult pregnancy can be."
In movies, you just see a woman pee on a stick
and then she's, like, in overalls painting a barn,
like, you know, like, laughing, like, so happy, and that's it.
And then in my experience, like, a living hell.
[retching]
Help. [retches]
Fucking love being pregnant.
It's the shit.
[retches]
No one listens to women.
Serena Williams almost died during her childbirth.
You're not gonna listen to Serena telling you she knows something's wrong?
-It never stops, does it? -Right? All the time.
I know. I can't believe these women who are now out there
protesting for their reproductive rights.
They must be like, "You gotta be fucking kidding me."
[Chelsea] And you see some of the older women
who have been at the marches with these signs.
"I was here, like, in the 1970s."
Yeah, I know. I thought we handled that. I thought that was over.
I passed this big dude walking around in circles
with a picket sign, talking about, "Stop abortion."
I said, "Motherfucker, when was the last time you was pregnant?"
I grew up loving Whoopi…
There are other people there that got this funny…
[Schumer] …and Gilda…
…or it's like a hole or it curls around,
or it's like a little knob on it like a door.
-Voilà. -[audience cheers]
…and Joan.
Any of you that are flat-chested out here.
This is called the push-up shove-over bra. It--
No, it-it pushes from here. Everything.
And it just push, push, push.
All the skin has just been moved up. My belly button is right here going--
Margaret Cho was, like, such a huge influence.
I'm not really allowed to say the word "vagina"
because I don't even use mine, so…
[audience cheering, laughing]
Does anybody want it?
[cheering, laughing continue]
You could put, like, books in it, or something. I don't know.
-Use it like a planter. -[audience cheering]
[announcer] Moms Mabley.
[Sykes] …Jackie "Moms" Mabley.
She would dress in an old house coat, and no teeth and a dust rag on her head.
As a young girl seeing this Black woman just, "Here I am." Really stuck with me.
You should remember, I did you a favor.
I gave you my name.
I said, "Yes, and I've got some names for you."
[audience laughing, cheering]
[Zayid] From the age of five, I wanted to be on General Hospital,
like most Muslim girls in Jersey. [laughs]
And Hollywood shuns disabled people.
So, like, where I saw people who looked like me was stand-up comedy,
especially Richard Pryor.
So, I was like, "Ah, I'll take a comedy class,
I'll become a super famous comic and then I'll be on TV."
Now, to be fair, if this makes it to TV, it'll be the first time that worked.
-Um-- [chuckles] -[Hillary, Kilmartin laugh]
Please make so much noise for Maysoon!
[audience cheering, whistling]
[microphone feedback whines]
[Zayid] Okay. For those of you who don't know me,
I am not drunk.
But the doctor who delivered me was, so my brain is damaged, but it's okay.
I got 99 problems and palsy is just one.
[audience laughs]
In the Oppression Olympics, I'd win a gold medal.
I'm Palestinian, I'm Muslim, I'm a woman of color,
I am-- [chuckles] I am divorced, I am disabled,
and, are you ready?
I'm from Jersey.
-[Hillary laughs] -[audience cheering, laughing]
Richard Pryor was a filthy, filthy man.
And so, like, I went on stage, and I was, like, "How offensive can I be?
Okay. I'll be a Muslim girl that tells Virgin Mary jokes."
I didn't realize at the time at all,
people with disabilities are so infantilized and asexualized,
so when I got on stage and talked about sex,
people were like… [gasps]
"It's a Muslim talking about sex,
and it's a disabled Muslim talking about sex."
And it kind of, like, blew their minds.
Single people, nobody ever warns you about the fact
that your spouse's habits get annoying super quick.
The habit that he had that just drove me bonkers,
and it was, like, the end, was the constant breathing.
It was like, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.
I was like, "Can you just stop for five minutes?
I did at birth, and I'm totally fine."
[laughing]
[bell chiming]
You know, I love all these old storefronts.
[Hillary] Oh, you know,
this fromagerie had a terrible explosion.
[Chelsea] How did you know that?
All that was left was debris. [laughs]
Was I supposed to laugh? Sorry, I didn't think that was very funny.
[Hillary] But Chelsea and I didn't just come to Paris to make cheesy jokes.
Paris is renowned as the home of clowning.
And we came to meet with the master clown, Philippe Gaulier.
[Chelsea] Philippe's been training clowns for over 50 years.
His students include Emma Thompson and Sacha Baron Cohen.
It was a disaster.
Nobody was laughing.
Disaster.
Philippe, how did you come from a family of a pharmacist
to end up as being one of the premier comedy clowning experts?
People, they never know why someone is idiot
-and crazy in a family. -[Chelsea] And that was you?
-Yeah. -No.
Yes. I was very, very bad boy.
You were a bad boy.
It's good to remember clown is a mistake.
-Yeah. -[Chelsea] A beautiful mistake.
Beautiful mistake.
Many mistakes are not beautiful, but this one is beautiful.
[Chelsea] To get a taste of the Clown School experience,
we took a class with Lee Delong,
who has taken clowning all over the world, including to war zones.
[Delong] Isn't it very fitting that here we are,
on the stage of the Moulin Rouge,
where some of the first female clowns ever performed?
Cha-U-Kao, La Goulue, La Môme Fromage. They were here.
All of those women, who ended in poverty, neglected and forgotten,
they were the forerunners of what is clown in France for women today.
We are about to embark on a voyage.
This is a voyage into our authenticity, our naïveté, our vulnerability.
Where we learn that our weaknesses are strength.
It's the world of the clown.
And we are going to do that little journey with the aid of this.
The tiniest mask in the world.
Put your noses on.
Hillary, your nose.
What a bunch of clowns.
[indistinct dialogue]
She's taking notes.
[Delong whispering] Hillary.
That was bad. Oh, yeah.
If you're doing stand-up, you are out there all by yourself.
It's you.
And the audience is not always on your side.
No.
And in fact, some people are rooting for you to fail.
So, being a comic, in general,
but certainly being a woman, who is putting herself out there,
-I just think that's gutsy. -It-It-It does take courage.
-That is gutsy. -It is gutsy.
That's how I got on this show, I think.
-Almost. Um-- [laughs] -Yeah. You got it. [laughs]
'Cause I did go through ten years of being, like, majorly trolled.
You won't be able to relate to this.
-No, not at all. -Majorly trolled on the Internet.
And you just-- I just got so numb to it.
[Hillary stammers] You had no right to be a funny woman.
-No, I really used to think-- -And certainly not in public.
You guys know this more than anyone.
It's like, we want this other version of women.
We want you to be pretty and quiet, and effusive, and you--
And only a supporting cast member.
-Absolutely. -[Hillary] Yeah. Absolutely.
Lucille Ball had some quote, like, "If you're alone out there,
there's no way to take it except for highly personally." [chuckles]
[audience laughing, cheering]
[Palamides] People always think of birthday clowns
-and, like, the white face paint and-- -[Hillary] Yeah.
So I think people don't really know what clown is,
but when they're watching it, they'll enjoy it.
Well, fine. You're doing splendidly.
Speed it up a little!
[audience laughs]
[Palamides] Like Lucille Ball, she's a clown.
When she's shoving a bunch of chocolates in her mouth,
like, that's a clown bit.
-Wouldn't you say? -[Gaulier] No, no. I am okay.
Yeah. Yeah. [laughs]
Philippe, what's the difference for a woman in comedy
than a man in comedy?
Can they do the same thing?
Comedy is okay but clown is more difficult.
Yes.
Because if you are, uh, young boy,
you come home, your costume is completely dirty, your--
Your mother still love you.
-Yeah. -[Hillary] Mmm.
If you are a girl, it's not sure your father still love you.
Uh, so, for a woman,
it's more dangerous to be idiot like for a man.
And we can see when you teach,
woman wants to be charming clown.
Mmm.
But I knew some women. A monster. [growls]
Fantastic, but not so many.
I think I'm more of a monster.
-[screaming] -[audience cheering]
[groans, screams]
When my mom watches my shows, she's always upset that I'm not ladylike.
-[Chelsea] Still? -Yeah, yeah.
You-you are a naughty girl, no?
-I'm a bad girl. Very ba-- Very bad. -[Gaulier] Yeah? Yeah.
[audience cheers]
[Hillary] Your latest piece is called Nate,
which is the masculine version of your name, right?
[Palamides] Yeah. I'm in drag.
I use discomfort with the audience to create tensions.
I'm playing with the idea of consent.
-I reach out towards somebody's breasts. -Don't scare me.
-[laughing] -I-- [laughs]
-Are you scared? -I'm sure-- I'm not scared of you.
-You can reach toward me. -I'll reach for it.
-I reach toward somebody's breasts… -Yeah.
-…very slowly. -I feel like I've met you.
-Yeah. -[Hillary laughing]
-What happens? -This is a moment.
-And then I say… -We're having a moment.
-May I? -[audience laughs]
-May I? -Sure.
Oh. And then…
You little twap.
-And then I grab her breasts. -[chuckles]
First person since my husband to touch me there.
-We just had this moment. -We did.
All you gotta do is ask. Thank you for letting me.
-[in deep voice] Solid. [chuckles] -[audience laughs]
-All you gotta do is ask. -[audience laughs]
When you create tension with stillness,
or people are scared they don't know what you're gonna do,
it's easy to break it.
But you know the person?
-No. -No, I know nobody.
-[Chelsea] We met yesterday. -But people is laughing,
or are scared?
People laugh. And then this gets a laugh too.
So, I'm like this for the boobs, and then I go like this for…
[Hillary laughs]
-Yeah, [stammers] I would be scared. -You know.
[audience laughing and cheering]
[Kilmartin] My son, when he was ten, I decided I was going to read him
The Diary of Anne Frank.
Because I was like, I want a female protagonist.
I want him to learn some history.
And as it turns out, ten years old is way too young for that book.
[audience chuckling]
A lot happens in that book. First of all, she gets her period.
And my son goes, "What's a period?"
And I go, "Oh, well, you know, when girls are Anne's age,
they start to menstruate.
And that means once a month, blood flows uncontrollably
out of their vaginas for four to 15 days…"
[audience laughing]
"…depending on the girl."
To watch someone hear that information for the very first time-- [kisses]
Um, he went into a panic,
one hand right to the crotch,
'cause he thought it would start bleeding uncontrollably.
And the other hand went up to block more information.
So, it was like a two-handed dance for, like, a minute, right?
And then he calms down and I pick up the book again,
and he goes, "Wow, I hope no more bad things happen to Anne Frank."
[audience laughing]
You're breaking barriers with race. You're breaking barriers with disability.
-And you're breaking barriers with death. -Mmm.
-[laughs] -I mean, how funny is that?
-Well, people kept dying on me, so… -[chuckles]
…I didn't-- [stammers] Believe me. I don't want that to be my specialty.
-But, uh-- -[all laughing]
My mom died from COVID, and I tell the audience, "Look…"
'Cause they all kind of gasp a little bit. And I'm like, "My mom, ha-ha."
-And, uh-- -[laughing]
-[audience laughs] -Yeah. You like the Anne Frank stuff.
I think you can handle it.
So I say, "Look, my mom died of COVID. I'm a stand-up comic.
I'm telling jokes about it. Buckle up, pussies."
And they go, "Okay."
And it may be comedy has moved a little bit.
I think people are more comfortable with edgy topics,
maybe a little bit more than they were, like, five or seven years ago.
My mom was a Trump supporter who died of COVID,
so the coroner ruled her death a suicide.
[audience laughing]
-[Palamides] Ah. -[chuckling]
-Ah. -[chuckles]
[sucks teeth]
Excuse me, did I laugh?
There was a moment where you realized,
"What I'm doing is a failure." [chuckles]
"Nobody's la--" And that is where you need to go.
The flop.
In clowning, unlike any other art form
that I'm aware of, the flop is necessary.
The flop is really important.
You do something, you think it's funny, nobody laugh.
-[Hillary] Mm-hmm. -Nobody. It's a silence.
Either you commit a suicide, or you save the situation
and you do another thing you think is funny.
If people laugh, you save the flop.
Everybody love you again.
-[Palamides] Yeah. -They applaud, and you carry on the show.
-Poof, another flop. -Mm-hmm.
Clown is like finding the gold in the failures.
That's a part of why clown is so difficult for some people to break into,
because they have to allow themselves to fail in order to get to the part
where you have to save-- to save it.
'Cause if you don't flop, there's nothing to save.
-Such a metaphor for life. -It really is.
-More? -[chuckles] You tell me.
[chuckles]
Is this what you-- This what you want?
[laughing]
-Okay. -[laughing continues]
A lot of people, and especially women, you get knocked down.
-You fail, but in public, right? -Yeah.
You wanna just never do that again.
And we are afflicted with what I call the perfectionist gene.
[Palamides] Mm-hmm.
-Too many women… -I have that, yeah.
-…young women, particularly, -So do I.
they have to be perfect. They have to look perfect.
They have to act perfect. They have to speak perfect.
[Gaulier] But when you teach clown, you learn, "Don't be perfect."
-[Hillary] That's right. -Never.
-[Chelsea] That was terrible. -Okay. That-- That's not good.
[laughing] That was not good.
[Sykes] You're bowling under Sprinkles.
Sprinkles should not have to carry that terrible performance.
Trust me, I will change that.
-I got-- I gotta get closer-- -You have this.
Does she? It's unclear to me.
[Hillary] Don't fall in the gutter, please!
-[Sykes] Hell, I got-- Ah, ah, ah. -Oh. It got further down.
I'ma help you out.
-Show us what you've got. -I need you to focus.
I'm not promising anything. I haven't bowled in a while.
[Hillary] Oh, come on. Look at her.
-[Sykes] Oh. -[Chelsea] Oh, come on.
Even your, like, foot is in good posture.
Always look like you know what you're doing.
That is true. I got to work on that.
-Wanda, when you write comedy… -Uh-huh.
…are you at all thinking about whether you can use comedy
to make a change about something you really care about?
It's more about can I start a dialogue, you know?
-Which could lead to change? -Exactly.
I don't believe that I'm gonna say something
and it's gonna lightbulb go off, and people go, "Oh, she's right."
It's just more about,
-"Let me think about that." -Yeah.
[Schumer] I love that I can advocate for something through a joke,
but people don't want to feel like they're being taught.
So it's, you know, shaved carrots in the brownies.
I mean, some stuff is just silly.
Like I'm talking on stage about how it's stupid to have a pet bird.
That's not helping anybody. That's not saving a life.
But then, everything I say is
trying to mostly make people, but women, laugh and feel better.
I'm gonna drink to that. Here you go, my dear.
Cheers.
I like the idea of going in where I think there's potential backlash waiting for me.
I think for American women, the best decade was the '70s, you know?
Like in 1974, we got the right to have a credit card in our own name.
And a lot of people don't know that-- this is-- the reason we got that in '74,
is in '73 we got the right to have an abortion.
And women in '73 started having abortions, and they were like,
"You know what? I'd like to start putting these on a card."
[audience laughing]
It's the challenge of a comic to try to convert people, you know?
And when you go up and you get this, it's like,
I want the arms down by the end of my set
and get people to laugh at stuff that I think they wouldn't normally.
We are already fighting enough battles just being women.
Mm-hmm.
I don't want to add anything else.
If you don't get it, you don't get it. If I can't change you, I can't change you.
'Cause, guess what? For the most part,
a lot of people who are ignorant on race or disability, they've been taught that.
They gotta unlearn that shit themselves.
-Hello? -[audience laughing]
Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty.
[audience laughing]
Shit, he can grab me in the pussy, 'cause my pussy grab back. Okay?
[laughing continues]
He'd have put his hands down here, I be, "Cuckoo." [chuckles]
I'd have crab-walked that nigga all the way to the White House.
"You together with me now, nigga. We got four years."
[audience laughing]
I'm doing a lot of, like, Trump material, and they're in places where I'm like,
-"Okay, maybe I shouldn't be doing it." -Yeah.
But it's also just fun.
When I tell the crowd, I'm like,
"Well, we allow white men to be in spaces that they don't deserve,
so this is how he became president,
but everybody's shocked."
Like, this is the first time you're identifying
that a white man can do whatever he wants in this country?
"Hello. Welcome to our world."
-[laughs] -Right. Where have you been?
It's also for the Black people that are in the audience
that are tired of all the shit.
And it's like somebody's finally saying something to them
without worrying about a barrier.
When I tell white people about themselves, they get uncomfortable.
It's gonna be okay.
This is not the first time
we've elected a racist, sexist, homophobic president.
This-- He ain't the first one. He's just the first confirmed one.
We were at the Garden right after the election.
You followed other comedians who were making jokes about Trump,
and the audience responded to the others.
-Well… -Right?
-…the straight white males… -Yeah.
…who were making the jokes. Uh-huh.
-And you got up and, basically… -Yeah.
-…also made some jokes. -It was nuts.
-[audience clamoring] -How can you say he's not sexist?
-How can you say he's not racist? -[clamoring continues]
How can you say he's not homophobic?
The crowd just divided.
Like, half were booing me.
The other half was telling the other half to, you know, to shut up.
And there was, like, physical fights broke out…
-You're kidding. Oh, my gosh. -…in the audience. Yeah.
I mean, some were shouting the N-word at me.
-I mean, it was ugly. -Oh, my gosh!
I was like, "Okay, I got to bring this back together somehow."
I knew I wasn't gonna walk off the stage.
-No way in the world. Like, screw it. -No, never walk off the stage.
-And said some few choice words. -Mm-hmm.
And I even started calling out sections.
-"F you, section 220!" -[laughs]
-[audience clamoring] -F you, you, you, you, you. All of y'all.
Then I was like, okay, let me bring it back together.
And so I was like, "Hey, look, we're here for an amazing cause."
-"Hopefully we all agree on that still." -Yeah, right.
And then I shared with them of my breast cancer survivor story,
and then I-- And I had jokes about that.
And we kinda got back together and then said good night.
My wife runs out on stage, which she never does,
and gives me a big kiss. And she throws up the peace sign.
-Of course, I'm a little less classy. -[chuckles]
I didn't seen the peace. I only saw one finger.
-I'm like, "Yeah, baby. Let's--" -[laughing]
And I was like, "Oh. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah."
But, of course, the front page was me, you know…
-Uh, keep it classy. Keep it classy. -[chuckles] I mean, you know.
-[laughing] -Keep it classy.
But sometimes, you gotta fight fire with fire.
[Sykes] Yeah.
[Hillary] You know who I think has made great use of humor?
Her work at the highest levels, who you know very well,
is former Secretary Madeleine Albright, our dear friend.
I must have done fairly well as the first woman Secretary of State
because these days they hardly even consider men for that job.
[audience laughing]
She mastered the art
of literally speaking and making points, often humorous ones,
with the pins that she wore.
This started after the first Gulf War,
when one of Saddam Hussein's henchmen called her a serpent.
And so the next time she went to see Saddam Hussein,
she wore a big serpent pin,
which was an elegant but smart way of making the point.
"Look, I'm listening and I'm watching."
Going to negotiate with the Russians over an anti-ballistic missile treaty,
she found a pin in her collection that looked like a missile.
[Chelsea] Which she just happened to have lying around.
-[chuckles] She had so many pins. -As one does.
She used to wear pins just--
What do I have that looks like a nuclear warhead?
[Hillary] One of the Russians said,
"Oh, so, that one of the missiles you have aimed at us?"
-[Chelsea chuckles] Rather pointy. -[chuckles] Exactly.
She goes, "Yeah, well, you just better watch it."
I like to think, kind of, that gave other people comfort
in figuring how to take something that maybe was meant as an insult…
-Mmm, right. -…and turn it around…
-Right. Right. -…to maybe something beautiful,
maybe something provocative, maybe something funny.
To kind of reflect and deflect.
[chuckles] That's exactly right.
I have one question. It's the debate.
It was a surreal experience,
as he's stalking me…
-Yeah. -…and leering and looming over me,
do I turn around and say, "Back off, you creep"?
Or if I try to make a joke out of it, I could just see the pundits
-who are predominantly men, all saying… -Yes.
"How can she stand up against fill-in-the-blank leader?
Can't take somebody stalking her on a stage."
It's like what you were describing from Boston.
It becomes your responsibility to try to bring everybody back together.
Right. And it's just so tiring,
the mental hoops that we have to jump through
to say what we feel instead of having to think about,
"Wait a minute, how is this gonna go over? I'm a woman. How is this gonna go?"
Where men never have to do that.
[Hillary] Was there a good joke I should have come up with?
I think a joke would have worked.
'Cause you're right. If I turn around and tell him he's being creepy,
they would've jumped all over you.
-Like, "Yes, Donald, it is all mine." -[laughs]
"I know you're back here, trying to see what's happening with my hair. But…"
"But, unlike your hair--"
"…unlike yours, Donald, this is all mine."
Oh, to turn the clock back. That would have been good.
[chuckles]
White women love me 'cause they think I'm their spirit animal and also Lizzo.
[audience laughing]
My daughter's a freshman at Stanford University.
[audience cheers]
So I told my mother not to flex, and she said to me,
"How good can the college be if it's taking so many girls?"
[audience laughing]
If I catch my son watching porn, how I will handle it is
I will sit down and watch it with him.
-[audience laughing] -[Chelsea] Not a bad idea.
What better way to deter him from ever watching porn again…
[audience laughing]
…than the memory of me commenting on it?
My mother likes Lifetime.
[audience laughing]
How many women watch Lifetime, by round of applau-- Okay.
[audience cheers]
I just want you to know,
y'all are the reason why women can't move forward, okay?
[audience laughing]
[Saunders] A joke that I thought was very important to do here,
it started from my mother and I watching television together,
and my mother loves The Bachelor and Lifetime.
I just feel like I'm adopted 'cause we just don't like the same things.
And my mother is so absorbed in it as a real woman.
I look at my mother. My mother is a real woman.
I'm watching every part of this, like-- This is why women are failing.
This is wrong.
So, I really talk to women. Like, yeah, what he said is wrong,
but also what are we doing?
What do we hold important?
Why do we need to be validated in these ways?
"Oh, a network for women."
Right, it sounds good in the air, right?
I thought it was gonna be a lot of women empowerment movies on there.
You know what I'm saying? Like women free-bleeding on the grass.
[audience laughing]
You know, chopping niggas' dicks off and shit.
Like, I thought it was gonna be women that-- [screams] You know?
-[audience laughing] -I didn't know it was gonna be
the same goofy bitch over and over again, acting confused.
[audience laughing]
Ah. Please be careful, anyone in the way of this ball.
Okay, okay, okay. One, two, three, four, five, six!
Oh!
[Sykes] Wait a minute. Did you really do this?
-I did. Honest to goodness. -She did. Very impressive.
You sure Secret Service didn't shoot 'em down?
-No, she was great. All her. -[laughing]
-But I did wait till your back was turned. -Good job.
I think it's harder to do comedy now.
All of the things that you can't tell jokes about
or you shouldn't joke about, or you get in trouble if you joke about.
As someone who, you know, was the brunt of a lot of jokes as a child,
-I'm thrilled there are things… -No, I'm all f--
…that are off limits.
Call me politically correct.
This is my take.
I know what's right for me and what I'll do,
and what makes me feel good, and what's off limits for me.
But I am not gonna tell another comic, "Hey, you can't do this or can't do that."
But for me, I do have a line.
-But your line has shifted, hasn't it? -Oh, yeah. It's-- Yeah.
-I used to be out there a bit. Now… -Mm-hmm.
I forgot the-- Which comic, but they'd said something about,
"Hey, if my kid was gay,
I would bash him in the head with a dollhouse" or something.
And I took offense to that because I've worked with LGBTQ kids
who have been abused,
who have been kicked out of their house for being gay.
And I'm like, "Hey, man. That's not-- That's not cool," you know?
"It's not even funny.
You're giving permission to so many people who would do that."
And I said, "So let's just think about that," you know?
I grew up watching Dice and Eddie Murphy,
so my early comedy was all, like, slurs, misogyny, fat jokes, whore jokes.
Like, that's what I did,
and it wasn't me trying to be a man. It was me trying to be a comic.
-Mmm, interesting. -Like, that's what I watched.
Then one day, this chick came up to me and she said,
"You know, I came to laugh today, and your pedophilia joke was so dark,
it invoked the worst moment of my life."
And I changed everything I did because of that.
The comedians that I look up to and love, like the George Carlins and all,
you're supposed to attack up, you know?
-That's a really good point. -That's the thing. [stutters]
Speak truth to power.
-Why am I gonna pick on someone-- -Some with problems.
Some poor person who's just struggling?
It's not-- That's not what comedy is supposed to do.
-You're supposed to uplift. -Yeah.
Give people who don't have a voice--
-Give them the voice. -Yeah.
-And point out hypocrisy. -Hmm.
That's-- To me, that's the comedy that I love.
-You gotta puncture it. -That's what I do. Yeah.
-When I throw rocks, I'm throwing them up. -Yeah.
[no audible dialogue]
[Chelsea] So often, unfortunately, what people laugh at
is when the comedian is making fun of someone else.
[Hillary] Right.
[Chelsea] I think clowning, at least as I now understand it,
at its funniest, is when clowns are the ones being vulnerable
-and making fun of themselves. -Mm-hmm.
-Inviting you in to laugh with them… -Right.
…instead of provoking laughter towards someone else.
Probably this would be helpful to almost anyone.
[Hillary] Okay, I gotta-- Okay.
I gotta tell you, this is some of the worst bowling I've ever experienced.
[laughs] It's above par for me.
Okay, come on. We're losing all of middle America and Chicago right now.
-Come on. -Yeah, well, yeah, that does happen.
-Okay. Here we go. All right, you two. -Come on. [laughs]
[both laughing]
Explaining jokes is like dissecting a frog.
You may learn something from it, but the frog dies in the process.
[audience laughs]
I just was on the train coming up from Washington.
-[Stephen Colbert] Okay. -And the conductor asked me
if I wanted a wheelchair,
and I said, "No, I'm going on Colbert to kick ass."
[audience laughing, cheering]