Performers are afraid of being judged. Hollywood doesn’t want to work with people who offend. Some lose friends.
Adam Carolla doesn’t care. That’s why he’s the subject of my video this week.
Carolla is one America’s most popular performers.
His books are bestsellers. His comedy shows are a huge success. He hosts one of America’s most-listened-to-podcasts.
Recently, Carolla dismissed the intellect of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., cracking that “If AOC was fat and in her 60s, would anyone listen to another thing she ever said?”
This angered leftists.
“Predatory!” said Majority Report’s Emma Vigeland.
“Projects his sexism onto others,” said Young Turks host Cenk Uygur.
Carolla’s statement is true. House freshmen are not often given much attention. Ocasio-Cortez is a political celebrity simply because she’s pretty, and also, she speaks without constantly saying “uh.”
“If she was in her 60s and husky,” adds Carolla, “nobody would listen to a word she ever said!”
He won’t apologize for saying that. Or anything else.
“No Apologies” is on the cover of his new book, “Everything Reminds Me of Something.”
“They want you to apologize because they want dominion over you. And once you apologize, they just keep coming back,” Carolla says.
I get upset when people criticize my work.
But Carolla says, “I just happen to be wired not to care, as long as I’m right.”
He says he was right for criticizing the government’s COVID-19 pronouncements.
“They didn’t give the ages of the people who died at the very beginning,” Carolla tells me. “I immediately got suspicious because it was a bunch of 90-year-olds.”
Carolla was ridiculed for saying this, and was condemned by his celebrity pals.
Radio show host Howard Stern said Carolla was “making fun of people for taking COVID seriously.”
“Adam doesn’t believe in shampoo or soap,” added Jimmy Kimmel. “It’s disturbing.”
Carolla is a “right-wing troll,” said actor David Alan Grier.
Carolla laughs at these attacks.
He’s unusual in Hollywood because he’s still friends with leftists who disagree with him.
He performs stand-up comedy alongside Sarah Silverman. He joins Bill Maher’s podcast. This type of political mixing is rare nowadays. Usually, the left and right just don’t talk to each other.
Carolla says that’s not surprising.
“If you’re a Steelers fan in a bar, you want to sit next to a guy who’s a Steelers fan.” But, he says, “occasionally … you have to invite somebody over from the Patriots bar and have a robust debate.”
I have had many arguments throughout my career. These arguments taught me a lot. Today, Stossel TV still hosts debates, but that’s rare in today’s political media. Most people don’t care about the other side and spend their time with those who support their positions.
On college campuses, it’s worse. The left silences the opposing side.
I first encountered it years ago, covering a rape accusation at Brown University for ABC’s “20/20.” A student had sex with a woman who was drunk; weeks later, she accused him of rape. The school newspaper put the boy’s photo on its front page but kept his accuser anonymous. Officials from the university suspended the boy.
I asked Brown students, who held up signs saying, “Break the silence, stop sexual assault,” to explain Brown’s new definition of rape. The group screamed at me, chanting, “Rape is not TV hype!” so loudly that I couldn’t interview anyone else.
They don’t want the other side to be heard.
“They would let the other side speak if they thought they could beat them in a debate,” says Carolla. “They don’t.”
Carolla is eager to debate, partly because he’s confident about his ideas.
“I think if you’re intellectually honest or I gave you two beers, you would agree with me,” he says.
?Agreeing isn’t the point.
?If his ideas are bad, they’ll go away. But it’s important that people be free to speak.
“I don’t really have a choice as to what I say,” says Carolla. “It has to be the truth all the time. I’m a comedian. It’s a sacred oath I took.”
He is doing well.
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