-Chris. -How are you?
-Thank you so much for coming on the show, bud.
It's great to see you.
-Jimmy Fallon, how's it going?
How -- How's your summer been, Jimmy?
-[ Laughing ]
I'm learning. I'm learning.
I'm always learning, man. You know I love you, buddy.
-Hey! Hey!
I love how they always say "the one and only."
Like, I know you've been duped before.
-[ Laughing ] I know.
But I say -- I know. Well, it just fits.
-I know we -- the last time, we had the fake Chris Rock on,
but tonight, it's the one and only.
-It fits. It fits with your name.
"The one and only." -Just saying.
-Yeah, I know. -If you're gonna fake
being a celebrity, why would you fake me?
You know what I mean? I'd fake being "The Rock,"
actually, more than fake me, Chris Rock.
That seems a lot more fun.
-We got to Zoom a couple times together,
and this is -- it's always interesting.
I don't know when to -- on the ones that we were on,
when to make a joke, when to come in.
You know, like -- are people waiting on us to make jokes?
-We had some epic Zooms this summer.
-Like, crazy ones, where it's just like --
I was just kind of sitting back, because like -- wow.
Just watching -- -Me, you, Leo, Matt Damon,
Kevin Hart, Sandler. -Sandler.
-I remember -- I did ones that, like --
It was, like, me, Kevin Hart, and Tom Brady.
You know, like -- I don't really know Tom Brady.
-Wow.
-But it was nice to talk with him.
-Yeah. -Get acquainted.
-It was crazy.
-Like, some epic, ridiculous zooms.
-Chappelle, I think, was on -- How was...
-Yes. -...Camp Chappelle?
'Cause I know Questlove saw you there.
-Camp Chappelle was great.
I think I may go back -- Man, who knows.
I may end up there this weekend. You never know.
-Right. -Yeah. Have you been yet?
-No, I do want to go, 'cause, honestly,
I miss performing in front of a crowd.
-You gotta go. You get off your plane,
they test you for COVID immediately.
-Really? -And once you get tested,
once your test comes back negative, you get a wristband.
And now you can enter the inner sanctum.
-Yes. -So, everybody --
You can look -- everybody's got a wristband.
So no one's got COVID. -Wow.
-And so you can actually hang out with people all week.
You know, drink, smoke, whatever.
And just have a COVID-free time.
-And what was it like going in front of an audience?
-It was kind of a cool. Remember at the comedy clubs,
I always said, like, the rain crowd was always the best,
because they really wanted to be there?
-Yeah. -Know what I mean?
-They're happy to be indoors.
-Well, the COVID crowd is even better.
Like, the COVID crowd is very happy that there's a show.
-Yeah, they want to be -- They want entertainment.
They're like, "Yes!"
-"Just give us anything!
We are -- we have watched 'Tiger King' far too many times.
Give us anything." -You said that the pandemic
has been for you like what an off-season is for an athlete.
What do you mean by that? -I've just been --
You know what? I had all this time.
It's like, "What are you going to do?"
Well, I mean, so I --
I started working out in a weird, like, obsessive way.
In like a kind of Kevin Hart, Joe Piscopo way.
Just been like -- [ Grunting ]
Working out. I learned to swim.
I've been swimming a lot.
'Cause I couldn't swim forever. -Oh, I didn't know that.
-Yeah, I grew up in the hood.
It's hard to swim with the water from a fire hydrant, you know?
[ Both laugh ]
When a fire hydrant is your ocean.
-Yeah, exactly. Just doggy pad-- yeah.
-You can work on a few strokes, but you know...
-The pressure pushes you back, yeah.
-It's really hard to really -- yeah.
It's -- yeah, that's how I -- yeah.
It's just hard to -- yeah.
-That's fun the way -- -Swim on 125th Street.
-I always think of you, Chris, 'cause I feel like you
and Bill Murray always end up in these places where I go,
"What is going on? What --
How did you end up -- Who did you...?"
And I always think about it all the time.
You were hanging out
with YouTube star David Dobrik recently.
That's what made me think of this.
-Yeah, I like David. I like David.
-How did you meet -- How do you end up --
How does David Dobrik and Chris Rock end up together?
-Well, you gotta understand, my kids are like my focus group
at this point. -Yep.
-And if they say somebody's funny, then they're funny to me.
I don't -- You know. -That's right.
-So, my kids, they've left Kevin Hart, you know?
And now they're on David Dobrik, right?
And I'm watching this stuff.
And they're like, "He lives in the Valley."
And I'm like, "Well..." We were in L.A. at the time.
"Yeah, let's go see him. Let's see what he's doing."
So, I made a couple of calls, and I talked to him,
I say, "Is it okay if I stop by?"
Never met him before, by the way.
-He's great. -And he said, "Sure."
So I just -- me and my kids, we got in the truck,
we first made a stop at In-N-Out,
'cause that's what you do when you're in L.A.
Gotta get your In-N-Out. -You have to.
-And then we went over to David's house, you know?
And we hung out for, you know, half a day or whatever.
And now me and David are like this.
-No, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know -- yeah, right.
-Like this! -[ Laughs ]
You've always been recognizing great talent in people.
Most recently, I think, Leslie Jones.
But you once tried to get -- is this true? --
Cardi B into comedy? -Well...
Yes, I've been -- When I say recognize talent --
People are so obviously funny, it's like, yes.
So, I remember I used to try to get Leslie Jones an agent
for years, and no one would listen to me.
Finally -- of course, Lorne Michaels is a genius.
And he asked me if I knew any black women for "SNL."
I said, "I might have somebody for you."
So, yeah, I knew Leslie Jones early.
I'll say J.B. Smoove premiered on "The Chris Rock Show."
-Yeah. -Hannibal.
I remember pitching Wendy Williams to HBO
for a show 20 years ago, and they didn't want to go for it.
-For a talk show? -But the latest person --
A talk show, yeah. They thought I was crazy.
-Geez. -Yeah.
-And look at her now. She's phenomenal.
Of course, Wendy Williams. -Yeah, look at her now.
God bless her. -But what happened with Cardi B?
-She's doing exactly what I knew she was gonna do.
-Yeah. -Cardi B, I saw, like,
on some YouTube thing or whatev--
Again, my kids showed me this Cardi B girl.
And she didn't have a record out or anything.
And I was like, "Okay, we should go show it."
I'm not even gonna say what network, but --
So I went -- me, Cardi B, and her management, you know,
to, like, kind of get a show going.
And it just never happened. But I thought she was --
And she told me about her rap at the time.
And I was like, "Yeah, yeah, that's good, good.
Anyway, you're a comedy star." -Yeah.
-So... -She is really funny.
-She is really -- I think Cardi B's
the funniest woman -- or, one of the funniest people, you know...
-Yeah. -It's like Chappelle, Cardi.
You know what I mean? Like...
[ Both laugh ]
Like, in the standings right now, like,
two of the funniest people in the world.
-Yeah. -Cardi's right up there.
She's neck-and-neck with Bill Burr.
You know what I mean? Like, she's good, man.
-Bill Burr. He's awesome.
-Bill puts a little more writing into it,
but Cardi can hang with anybody.
-Can you stick around? I want to talk about "Fargo."
I'm really excited about this. -Sure.
-All right, cool. -For you, I'll do it.
-More with Chris Rock when we come back, everybody.