No. And you know, for these things I don’t feel comfortable commenting on it if I don’t know the full context. You gave me some context, but before I give any official comment I should really read and watch those clips and stuff. Because, I don’t know, I heard he had said some slurs and people were really disturbed by it and that S.N.L. had rescinded its offer. I was just really excited about Bowen [Yang] because I know Bowen. I just want to make sure to take the time to celebrate Bowen and not focus on this too much because it’s a bigass deal that Bowen is going to be in the main cast. He’s a smart guy who’s hilarious and is such a fresh voice in comedy and on top of that he’s this Asian-American man. I love it. I’m sorry I can’t give you more.

One thing the Shane Gillis controversy highlights is this ongoing debate in the comedy world about sensitivity and what lines shouldn’t be crossed. In your comedy you talk about racial stereotypes, sometimes invoking a stereotype to disarm it or other times pointing out truth in a cliché. What’s your view, should some material be avoided because it’s insensitive and offensive?

People can get away with doing really offensive things as long as it’s funny. Because if it’s funny, then the laughter wins over the feelings of hurt and then you’re doing something right. It comes down to writing and instinct. Also, when you know different people from all different walks of life and you’re a compassionate person, then you’re probably more capable of writing something that’s really offensive that’s funny, because there’s truth in it and it’s something that you haven’t heard before. Come up with something that’s fresh and true and unexpected.

In the book you tell your daughters “you can be whatever you want to be, but not a vlogger. Never a vlogger. Videoing yourself and putting on makeup or unboxing candles is not a job.” You also tell them, “you can be whatever you want to be, but I’ll be worried if you want to do stand-up.” Why would you discourage them from pursuing stand-up?

It’s the safety thing. I stayed in so many shady-ass motels by myself. You have to put yourself in those situations. Even now I’ll go to dive bars and I always ask some other comics to walk me back to my car.

So you’d rather have your daughters grow up to be vloggers than stand-ups?

I guess so, because then they’d be safe. But not from my ridicule.

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