(upbeat music)
- Jerrod, curious I mean, after having the experience
of writing for your own character
now you are working with someone
who's sort of telling his story,
and it's a world that's different from your world.
What has that process been like for you?
- A lot of times it's as simple as
if something's based on reality, hear the story,
and then see what's being written on the page.
And see where we've lost the honesty.
Like see where we've lost tension,
see where we've lost like, the things
that makes the situation interesting to begin with.
A lot of times we, even as creators,
have a tendency to protect stories,
and in that protection we lose a lot
of the interesting elements that make it
a worthwhile story to begin with.
Conceptually. - Like in what sense
protective?
- Protective where, you know, oh, my mom did this to me
but that makes her look a little too rough
so we'll make it, you know, she hit me with,
you know, a pillow instead of an ashtray.
(laughs)
I had a show that I did, I don't know,
I like talked about my dad's illegitimate kids and stuff.
- [Lacey] Where you nervous?
- Not really.
I feel like you should just be honest.
- Did your dad react well?
- Oh, yeah, I mean reacted like a dad, you know
- Which means what? - My dad's illegitimate kids,
I mean, you know.
(laughing)
The suppressed violence that manifests itself
through Cowboys games.
(laughing)
- That's a deal. - You know, dads.
(upbeat music)
- You guys have talked about some representation
or underepresentation.
I'm curious, what are the worst cases of misrepresentation
that you guys have encountered on television?
That maybe they inspired you to do what you're doing
or maybe they just made you wanna bang your head
against a wall.
- I feel like misrepresentation is any time
you do representation for the sake of representation.
You know, if you just start putting
the United Colors of Benetton in your show,
it doesn't reflect real life a lot of times.
Like we have this tendency to paint this utopia
that just doesn't exist.
In Los Angeles, if you drive by any school,
like high school being let out,
you know what you usually see?
The Asian kids with the Asian kids,
the Latino kids with the you know, Latin kids,
and the Black kids with the Black kids,
and everyone kind of sticks in groups.
And look, while I would like there
to be a meshing of all these cultures,
that doesn't necessarily happen
and it's not true to a lot of people's experiences,
and so when I see it on television it just
feels forced- - Cosmetic, yeah.
- And contrived most of the time.
Feels very cosmetic and I would much rather,
like, I did a show with an all black family,
and there were all black people in the pilot, right.
I'm doing a show with Nate Bargatze and,
you know, it'll be a surprise to ABC,
there should be all white people in the show.
That's what, it's in Tennessee, in a certain,
that it makes sense for the show.
Like, Roseanne adding like the black kid,
I'm like, what're you doing?
(laughing)
Make another show about a black family
and Roseanne is a, that's not the existence.
That's not the truth of her existence.
It's like, so anytime people lie
for the sake of the trend it bothers me.
(upbeat music)
- Jerrod, I remember a few years ago when you were working
on your show, you talked about,
sort of your frustration with the sort
of network notes of wanting characters
to be likable. - Yeah.
- [Lacey] I am curious now that you are
on a streaming platform, what've you been able to do
with the Ramy character or others in the show
that you wouldn't've been able
to get away with on network television?
- What I realize, it's not necessarily just network notes,
it's also like within like, writer's rooms,
I love a lot of the writers I work with,
I don't like writer's rooms, like at all.
It's like terrible for comedy.
Like in both film and television,
like the round table punch ups, like, ruin movies.
I've seen happen like dozens of times.
And it's, 'cause everyone starts telling jokes
to each other, and then you get called away, like-
- The emotion can go away, yeah.
- Not saying I didn't, I love them all as individuals
but as a concept it's terrible.
- Is there any scenes, characters,
things that were unexpected in the audience's response?
- Like, it's dangerous like listening
to Twitter and writing. - Oh yeah.
- And people shouldn't do that.
I mean, good luck to anyone who wants to bear the cross
of keeping Twitter happy, and like representing like-
- Well Twitter 24-hour a day audience testing.
That's what it is. - Because we talk,
and when we talk about culture,
and people talk, we're talking about Twitter.
Specifically, Twitter.
Like we make it seem like, "It's in the air," no it's
- [Jerrod And Lacey] on Twitter.
- Everyone's terrified of trending negatively.
Everyone is afraid of like, their at symbol
and what people are saying, and why did, everyone has notes.
One time I sent my mom, like a pilot and I was like,
tell me what you think she said,
"Well, you know, first I thought the lighting".
I was like, I'm gonna stop you right there.
(laughing)
You don't make television.
- You don't get to weigh in on lighting.
- What are you doing?
That's not your like, how did it make you feel?
That's very important.
Did it give you the experience,
- Yeah. - the intended experience,
that's very important, like- - No, because the lighting.
(laughing)
Couldn't see anything.
(laughing)
(upbeat music)