Chris Rock, welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
-Yes. -Good to have you here.
Um, I feel like it's-it's...
You are.. you are a human being who has...
After Tamborine, your special...
Tamborine felt like it was a turning point in your life,
and I feel like you have been on a journey
of, like, just creating, like,
-the renaissance of Chris Rock, you know? -(laughs)
Like, Tamborine was a point where you talked about family
and-and your marriage and what happened after that.
And you've been really open about going to therapy
and changing your life and changing your mind.
Now you're in Fargo, you know, in a role that, like,
I don't think any of us would ever dreamed of seeing you...
Have you ever... have you ever even played a villain before?
I've never... You know what.
I, like, did one episode of uh...
Oh, God. Empire.
Uh, and I did, uh... I did this movie Nurse Betty years ago,
with Morgan Freeman.
It was a little movie where we were kind of hit men.
But you know, when you... This is like a series.
So you got to be a, you know, a villain for ten weeks.
So, yeah, it's real easy to be exposed in this...
in this realm, but you know, I'm... I'm an old Black man.
I got anger. I got...
(Noah laughs)
Something in it.
Your-your performance is electric,
your-your... your vibe is different.
You're playing a villain who also, like, I mean, we...
we like at the same time.
I guess we like... we like the essence of the character.
We almost go like, "Well, this is the life of crime
that he was thrust into, and he just... he just lives it."
Yeah, so, you know, Black man, 1950.
So it's like, his choices weren't vast.
You know what I mean?
So, you root for him, 'cause you're like "Wow.
"This guy actually created a comfortable life
for himself and his family."
I mean, he's got the flaws of every criminal. Every crim...
Every criminal thinks they're smarter
than they think they are.
-(laughs) -You know what I mean?
They're smarter than you think they are,
but they're not as smart as they think they are.
And you know, we'll see what happens to him.
But, you know, if you watched enough Fargo,
you know where this is going.
I also like the premise.
I feel like-like just one part of the story--
I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't watched--
but one of my favorite parts
is how you have to raise each other's children
as just, like, a measure of keeping the peace,
which I think could actually be
a fantastic thing to do in America.
Like, maybe-maybe that's the solution
to how Americans care about each other
is you-you swap kids in the country.
You know, Republicans and Democrats,
-swap your babies at birth. -(laughs)
I'll take some MAGA kids.
-Yeah, I would love to. -(laughs)
(laughs) I don't know if my kids want to leave,
uh, you know,
their-their posh, uh, living conditions.
But yeah, I'll take a couple of MAGA kids.
What do you... what do you make of everything
that's going on in the country?
Is this now the craziest now,
or does it just feel like it because we're living now?
Is it the craziest?
It's ultimately like, what's gonna be the ask?
Okay, we're rioting,
and we're shutting down cities,
and we have all the attention
-of the whole world. -Right. Right.
Like, we're like, "Oh, this is gonna change everything."
-But what are we really asking for? -Yeah.
Are we asking... are we asking for things
that the powers that be
will have to make
real renovations to happen?
'Cause we... Say, we were here in the '60s,
but the ask was actually...
not that great.
Like, "Oh, we're asking
to sit at a lunch counter with you."
That's not really a big...
That doesn't really require anything
-from the powers that be. -Right. Right.
You know, and taking down "colored" signs.
I mean, so, you know,
you have a situation whatever years ago.
It's Martin Luther King. It's Andrew Young.
It's Abernathy. It's all these guys.
And they have an audience with the richest government
in the history of the world,
and they didn't ask for any money.
They didn't ask for, like... They didn't ask anything
that couldn't have been done with the snap of a finger.
It feels... Yeah, but, like, I feel like the money could...
would have been easier,
because when you think about that lunch counter
and you think about...
Think of it this way, like as comedians, right?
When we're at the Comedy Cellar, one of those places,
and you're at the comedy table,
for somebody to sit at the comedy table
when they're not a comedian is quite an ask.
You know? If an audience member was like,
"Yo, can I sit at this table?"
We'd be like, "I-I don't think that that is humanly possible,
but we would be willing to give you $100."
They don't belong at the table.
But that's how they felt about Black people
in America at the time.
Yeah, but you're talking about how they...
Who gives a (bleep) how they felt?
How do we feel about ourselves?
-Interesting. -If we felt...
If we felt about ourselves as equals,
we would have said, "(bleep) your lunch counter."
Like, do you really give a (bleep) about a lunch counter?
I would rather...
If you told me we had equal education
but had to sit at separate lunch counters,
okay, cool.
If you said we had equal, uh, access
-to capital... -Interesting.
Money to have businesses
but we had to sit at separate lunch counters, okay.
Like, who gives a... I don't give a (bleep)
about sitting with white people.
I care about opportunity for my children.
Can my kids go to school easily
and get the same education as a white man?
Uh, can my kids...
You know, if my kids wanted to start a business,
do they have that opportu...
All this other shit is cosmetic.
It's just clothes, dude.
So, now, what's the ask?
That's a good question, 'cause, I mean, like,
now it feels like... now it feels like the ask
has become a lot more than just a lunch counter.
Now the ask has been like,
"Let's look at your board of directors.
"Let's look at the people you hire.
Let's look at the police. Let's look at..."
You know what I mean? It feels like the ask...
-This is a different ask in 2020. -We got to go in there
with the mindset that we're equal.
That... You know, not only equal.
Shit, we had to live at the bottom.
We're kind of... There's-there's parts of us that are superior
because we've had to live underwater, damn near,
so we can hold our breath longer than you.
But that's the real deal. This other...
wanting to be a part of something is bullshit, you know?
Jackie Robinson got to play baseball.
Ooh, that's a great thing.
No, the mother(bleep) got to play with him.
-Hmm. -That's what I'm trying to say.
They got to play with him.
And you realize when Jackie Robinson
got to play baseball, it destroyed the Negro Leagues,
some of the only Black businessmen
that were making real capital at the time.
Right. I hear what you're s...
It's equity at the end of the day.
Yeah, yeah. It's like...
It's having-having a stake in your own future.
Having a real stake in your own future.
I mean, yeah, the-the strides
of the civil rights movement were great,
but don't get them confused with, like, real things.
The things we got were, you know...
we deserved.
Right. It's not a...
Yeah, it's not a, um...
It's not a gift, and it's not a privilege.
Yeah, it's not a privilege
to be treated humanely, you know what I mean?
When you... when you release a hostage,
it's not like... You don't have a party.
You're just like, "Oh, good."
Like, "Oh, I'm glad that shit's over."
-Right. -(chuckles) You know.
And that's... You know, Black people,
we'd be, like, basically hostages in our own land.
-"Yeah, look at us!" (whoops) -Everything that's going on...
(both laugh)
Chris Rock and Trevor Noah hashing it out.
(laughs)
Breaking it down.
I feel like, in some ways,
the journey America has been on now
is not dissimilar to the journey you've been on
over the past maybe, let's say, year and a half
where it's been a... an extreme journey
of introspection and also self-work.
I mean, maybe Chris Rock's journey has paid off sooner.
You were doing, what, like, nine, 11 hours of therapy a day?
I'm still do... I do about seven a week right now, yeah.
What... Explain to me what... like, how you even do that.
-Um... -Like, what is the pur...
Are you trying to finish yourself? What's the...
-No, no. -You sound like you're trying to finish a video game.
-What are you doing? -I do two shrinks.
I do, uh...
a group, and I do a learning specialist.
That's-that's four people.
And yeah, I do it, like...
Put it this way. If I was working on my body,
that's not a long time.
-Right. -I mean, that's...
I'm sure the Rock does that
just on, you know, just on leg day.
You know what I mean? Just on his legs.
So, I have the resources,
and, you know, and I notice certain patterns in my life
that I was tired of repeating.
-Uh-huh. -And yeah, man.
I'm just exploring a lot of things.
I'm-I'm doing... I'm doing aya-ayahuasca
Friday night with a shaman and the whole thing.
I'm, like, doing deep...
I'm diving deep, Trevor Noah.
I'm excited for you. I'm happy for you as a human being,
as a friend, as a fan.
Yeah. I'm excited to see what the next...
what the next chapter is gonna be like.
I'm excited to see what you're gonna do.
And, boy, so, you...
Are you covering this all the way to Election Day?
-Like... -Covering it all the way, sir.
Oh, man. Can't wait.
(both laugh)
-I don't know what's gonna happen. -Right?
I don't know. Neither...
-Neither outcome would shock me. -Yep.
Neither outcome would shock me.
Uh... but I'm hoping for change,
-so, you know, I'm-I'm with... -I feel like, uh...
-Yeah, man. -Yeah, I'm- I'm with Mr. Biden.
So... Yeah, I said it.
Yeah, I mean, I don't believe in celebrity endorsements anyway.
I don't believe... I mean, I do them, but it's not like...
I don't think anybody's like, "I was thinking
about voting for Trump till Chris Rock said that."
-(laughs) -No, I don't think...
I don't think one person is like, "Hey, man,
"I was just getting ready to write in Trump,
but I remembered how much I like Pootie Tang, and I said..."
Chris Rock, thank you for taking the time, my friend.
-Look after yourself. -Take care.