[MUSIC]
>> Some might argue that white boys should probably never rap but,
in the case of Alex stein, someone who likes to engage in satire,
he did make this Plano, Texas City Council meeting a lot more interesting.
Now, he wanted people to think a little harder about what's
going on in Ukraine through his satirical performance here,
which I don't know if I really buy that, but nonetheless fun, let's watch.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Okay, okay.
What I love about this, my favorite thing about all of it,
>> Awesome.
>> Is that they didn't stop it because it's literally the most exciting thing
that's ever happened at a city council meeting in Plano, Texas.
>> I mean, this town is called Plano [LAUGH].
That was the most exciting thing that's ever happened in that town, period,
let alone at any city council meeting anywhere in America.
Have you ever been to a city council meeting, until the crazy republican
started showing up, they were the dullest things in the world, right?
So, >> Hey,
a lot of important matters get adjudicated during.
>> That's true, to be fair [CROSSTALK].
>> But it's true, it is true,
you should get involved in local politics [CROSSTALK].
>> Both are true, [CROSSTALK] both are true, both are true, okay.
And the other reason is because at those city council meetings,
everything is so bureaucratic, he had time left.
So, since his time hadn't run out, they gotta let him rap.
>> Is that true?
>> I think so, yeah.
>> So they can't silence him?
They can't [CROSSTALK].
>> Well, if he was threatening and cursing like crazy.
>> Like republican moms at school board meetings.
>> And even then they don't cut their mics, we've shown it, right?
>> Yes >> So,
as long as he's not doing anything that is over the top outrageous and
in there he didn't really curse, he didn't do it, he's just rapping, right?
>> Yeah.
He says, Putin is a bad racist but put him in the ground, by the way, obviously
puts a bad guy, the calls to assassinate him make me very uncomfortable.
>> Yeah, I hear you, so if that were to happen inside Russia and
because things like that do happen inside Russia, it is what it is.
But we ain't got nothing to do with it and we shouldn't encourage that kind of talk
because, if anyone outside of Russia assassinates Putin and
then he becomes a martyr and then it's an insanity and it risks further war.
So, be careful what you wish for.
>> Right.
>> But back to fun cuz this guy is just [CROSSTALK] goofing around.
>> And remember, again, I wanna reiterate, it's satire and I think he's referencing
someone very specific here and I'll get to that in a second.
But back to the lyric, he says Putin is a bad racist, put him in the ground,
wider brown, when I'm in Plano town, Zelensky is a VIP Ukraine and I go insane.
Put a bullet in Putin's brain, you know that that's the plan,
I'm a Zelensky stand, do it for Ukraine before I go insane.
Okay, so, I think he's referring to Lindsey Graham,
cuz Lindsey Graham just put it out there on Twitter.
>> Okay, I think we know.
>> Yeah, let's go to the tweet.
You can go ahead and read it Cenk, there it is.
>> Yeah, is there a Brutus in Russia?
Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military?
The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out.
You would be doing your country and the world a great service.
But not just that, but at the very end, this guy,
once he was done rapping, said Lindsey Graham is right.
So, there's no question he was referencing Lindsey Graham.
>> Okay, so, then, some are questioning, does this do more harm than good?
So apparently, he's a satirist and he has this Youtube channel and
he does conspiracy theories on it that are ridiculous.
Stein's channel, Conspiracy Corner, features videos about a bug-based diet,
fun, child gender reassignment surgery, which isn't a thing.
>> Yeah, and not fun.
Yeah, the occultic rituals of 9/11 and more.
One of Stein's schticks involves delivering satirical public comments at
government meetings like we just viewed.
>> So, listen, I don't wanna get heavy and
get into this guy's history and did you know he did something bad.
I guess, whatever, okay, I love that rap, okay?
So, I pardon him and certainly for this rap and I had a sense he was gonna throw
down the jacket and I swear to you as I'm watching I'm like, throw it down brother.
You got to throw it down and then when he threw it and
I was like, yes, I knew it, I knew it, okay?
And he had some moves there, I mean, he's doing the Zeke, he's eating it.
Okay, eating it up, I mean, [CROSSTALK] no I got I say something.
>> Say it.
>> The woman in the back.
>> Yeah, she's loving it.
>> She might leave with [LAUGH].
>> She's stealing your wife, [CROSSTALK] he's stealing your wife.
>> Now look, the guy is laughing at that point, the guy with the tie in the back.
>> I wouldn't be laughing tie guy.
No, no, no, but for a long time he wasn't.
She was.
>> Look at his face, look at his face he's like, no, he's [CROSSTALK].
>> He looks at her, you see the guy in the back and looks at his girlfriend,
now he's nervous.
>> Do you like what you see?
[CROSSTALK] Now he's nervous because she can't stop smiling,
she can't stop smiling [LAUGH], now the other guy's nervous, okay.
She's loving it, they're on a date right now I'm telling you right now, okay.
It happened, okay, it happened in a town named Plano [LAUGH], okay.
You can't say no, no, [LAUGH] here we go, no, no, I'm not gonna do it, alright.
But he didn't miss one opportunity for a ride, he said Putin's got to die and
then started with put a bullet and I thought put a bullet in his eye and
he didn't go and I was very disappointed in that.
But, Zelensky stand [LAUGH], okay, win, win.
So, thank you for lightening the mood a little bit, [LAUGH] right?
And and making this a little bit more fun.
I am not making a comment on any other thing that he has done,
he is a known troll, I don't, I'm not advocating for it, [LAUGH] I don't
sanction anything else because that's what people do like, that was a fun rap.
Did you know that at another time, he had done this?
No.
>> The thing is though, some of his stunts, they're hilarious, but
I think in today's political climate it's easy to mistake it for sincerity, right?
So, I wanna give you examples of other things he's done.
Stein, who said he wants to carry the torch of Andy Kaufman, started going
to in-person and virtual community meetings when the pandemic began.
He decided to prank meetings all over the United States virtually.
In one recent video, he plays a concerned dad who tells school board members
about how there needs to be a terrarium in his daughter's classroom.
Why?
Because she identifies as a lizard.
But this one, I think, I don't know.
In a virtual meeting on voting rights in the New York City Council,
he pretends to be a guy with a mail order bride who was upset that his swindling
wife now gets to vote in America.
The council lets him speak for a while and then ultimately mutes him,
I see that as something that could totally happen in real life.
>> Yeah, and so, I don't know if that's a reference to Trump and his immigrant
wife and obviously he's trolling the left on the earlier one, right?
>> Yeah.
But he's a comedian, let him go, let him go, okay?
And so, but Anna's right, the problem here is that republicans are such a self
parody that you don't know if he's kidding or serious about the conspiracy theories.
Cuz a giant percentage of republicans actually believe those conspiracy
theories.
>> Yeah.
So when he goes out there and he says things, people are like, yeah,
here's the Republican speaking, that makes sense.
And he's, in favor of this and that, so, that's the problem with parody these days.
The Republicans have done it so well to themselves, but it's hard to outdo them.