Roy Wood Jr. Talks Cancel Culture, Interviewing Barack Obama and Playing Legos With His Son
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“The stuff that I like to swim in is the scabby stuff, people already feel something.”
Our Man of Kolor for January/February 2023 isn’t afraid to ruffle a few feathers on his rise to the top. In our interview with Roy Wood Jr., The Daily Show correspondent, Comedian and father of a 6 year old black boy talks telling stories on race in America, why he’s not afraid of cancel culture and what he enjoys most about being a dad, so far.
So, your father was a journalist who covered the civil rights movement. You have a resume with a lot of work that ties in with race in America. Is it important for you to have the freedom to create those kinds of stories at a job or opportunity that you take?
I wouldn't say it's important. I think it's a part of my fabric, so it's what I naturally gravitate toward sometimes. I do other stories at The Daily Show right now. I did a story about genetically modified chicken nuggets. I did a story about some Army Corps of Engineers bullshit that's happening along the Mississippi River, but the stuff that really resonates and speaks to me is race. And, you know, that was my father's beat, but I wouldn't say I came up like that. Even my stand-up, my first 10 to 15 years of stand-up, I really didn't get deep into race. I would skate the surface, but it's probably the last ten years where I don't know if it's maturity, and you start thinking about having a kid now, but I really started trying to dig into that and break it down. But you know, I try to find stories, jokes, or issues that people are divided on, and that people have real emotion about and start there. Like, are people already emotional about this? Cool. Let me talk about it, and sometimes its race and the rest of the time, its crime.
Your second comedy special, "No One Loves You," is still Comedy Central's highest rated original stand-up premiere. Do those accolades mean anything to you, or is it part of the job?
It’s part of the job for me. I'm thankful people watch the shit, though. I'm more appreciative that now it's all on Paramount Plus, where it's easier to find. It's cool when people care about your thoughts and opinions and the things you have to say, that I appreciate.
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What or who inspired you to get into comedy in general?
That's two parts. The people I grew up watching who I would say inspire me. I became curious about comedy from watching Sinbad and George Carlin. Like those two are like ground zero. And then from that I would watch more stand up on Comedy Central. At the time, in the 90s, all Comedy Central shows was stand up comedy and Saturday Night Live reruns, so I watched. Sinbad and George Carlin were kind of the patient zeros for me in terms of being curious about comedy. Actually doing it and trying it and believing that I, this kid from Alabama, could be on TV, it was Rickey Smiley. Rickey Smiley is from Birmingham as well. He's the first one I saw that was black, from the crib, on TV. So seeing who was once a local comedian become a national comedian, and he's from three exits up the freeway. Once I saw that, I was like, Oh, I can do it. Oh ya'll let motherfuckers from the north side of Birmingham get it then a Westside motherfucker can get in too. Yeah, so I'd say Rickey Smiley was the one that really confirmed that what I thought I wasn't good enough to do, there is a way to do it.
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As a comedian, are you ever worried or nervous about cancel culture?
No, I'm not worried about cancel culture as a comedian. You know, I don't think any comedian has been canceled. I don't think we have a cancel culture. I think we have a commentary culture. Some might say a complaint culture. But at the end of the day, anybody that wants to come to see me live can still buy a ticket as they can for every other comedian that people are angry about. To me, that's not, "cancel culture". Now, can a network take away your show? Can they fire you for whatever from something because of your opinions? Absolutely! They got a right to do that. I think there are comedians out there that want opinions that are free of consequence. That's not realistic. You know, maybe it's a consequence culture that we live in, and I think consequences are fair. I think in a way, both sides are kind of one and the same. Comedians want no consequences, and the public at large wants extreme consequences for saying things that may have pissed off a particular group. But I think both sides are short-sighted, in that they think corporations give a fuck about either of them. Corporations care about profit. So you saying something is bad for my profits? I'm gonna side with the people that are bringing me profits because that's what I care about. Most companies are not going to care about what is right. For everything that everybody said about Chappelle, for everything that everybody protested about Chappelle, Netflix turned around and gave that man that four deal re-up to do more specials because it's good for business. Sometimes that controversy in and of itself feeds into the thing that you’re wanting to get rid of, you know. I wonder how much outrage only helps to put certain things front and center whereas if it had been ignored or not acknowledged as much, maybe it would have gone away. And it's hard to say, depending on, you know, the different case studies, but for me, myself, I have no fear of anything that I'm saying that's going to piss people off, it's going to. Something will piss somebody off at some point, and when it does, you can either apologize and be educated and try and come at the subject in different way or keep doing what you do. But I don't think either choice is wrong. I just think that what we've lost in cancel culture is the nuance of the honest mistake. I'd say that's the biggest problem to me. The biggest issue with cancel culture is that we've lost the nuance of people who honestly don't know something making a mistake, and then having them attempted to be banished to the third depths of Hell for whatever new faux pas they broke. I don't think we've been gracious in giving people an opportunity to learn and grow. You know, there's this expectation of behavioral flawlessness. I don't think that's realistic. I don't think that's sustainable.
I know you interviewed Barack Obama for Fatherly. How easy or how hard was it to prepare for the interview?
Terrified! Interviewing the President is weird because he's aware of his charisma. He could turn the interview into an interview of you. Also, the other thing when you're dealing with the President, especially for something about Father's Day, and for Fatherly for Father's Day, you have to make sure that you were talking about fatherhood. This is what we're going to talk about. Don't break off into no questions about foreign policy because they are going to end the interview. So the whole Obama interview, I was more paranoid about saying something that would make the White House cut the feed. That was my fear. And I didn't want to be the person to fuck up the interview. You know, folks over at Fatherly and the dads, they've worked hard to get Obama booked for this shit and then. First question, 'Yeah, Mr. President what do you think about Joe Biden and now's Joe's *click*.' But no, it was a dope conversation, man and it's interesting that even someone as high as President, listening to him deliver stories of just how dismissive his children are of him. Made me feel like oh, okay, everybody goes through this. At some point, your kid just doesn't care who you are and what you do. My son could care less that I‘m on cable every day.
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How old is your son?
He's six. I mean, he's not really watching a lot of cable television. But when we past the Daily Show building in Hell's Kitchen, for a couple of years, my picture was on the side of the building with all the other correspondents. For a minute, that was cool to him. Then just one day we're just walking past the building, "when are they gonna take that down, that's been there forever." I'm like, kiss my ass man that's ya, Daddy!
As a father, to date, what has been the most rewarding part about being a dad?
That's the most rewarding part of being a dad is getting to relearn the world through your kids' eyes, which helps you remember the simplicity of how your life used to be which helps you get back to that. This idea of being able to prepare him for the world. I'm more educated than my parents ever were at the same mile marker to give him the tools he needs not just on the educational side but the emotional side, and I think that's the thing that I feel because I'm armed with that knowledge now. I just think we're better off than our parents were. I'm more educated on even something as simple as mental health. So here's how to deal with anger, here's how to deal with your emotions. You know, we build Legos together, which has also been very interesting because that's taught me a lot about leadership in a weird way how we both approach just buildings Legos with no instructions. What are we doing? We're building an airplane. Okay. Well, then you start learning about delegation, you start learning about conceding one idea for another to try and get the task completed. That part of it has been fucking fascinating. Because the interesting thing about kids is that you interact with them and then you end up applying the lessons you told them back to you. They become refresher lessons for you. Building Legos, freehand with a child, and learning how to work collaboratively to create a final product is no different than writing the script with somebody is no different than creating a television show or writing a sketch with someone. You have to be able to give and get. So that was a nice lesson to have reinforced. You know, for me, especially at this time in my career, it's right on time.
Photographer & Art Director: Ammar Thomas @iam.ammarjamal
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Location: The 9 Studios
Special Thanks: Sechel PR