Podcast: The newest episode of Kind of a Lot with Matt Ruby is out now. Ep 39 // The boy who cried "Wow!" is about wows, the power of music, plant medicine, and autism.
Matt Ruby delves into the enchanting story of Ronan Mattin, a young boy whose spontaneous expression of joy—an exuberant “Wow!”—at a symphonic performance ignites a deeper conversation about authenticity and expression.
You can stream video version above, watch at YouTube, listen to the audio, or read the original essay this episode was based on.
Behind the Bill Burr backlash
He’s an angry, bald, middle-aged white guy who constantly rants about how feminism is dumb. Can’t get much more MAGAsphere than that, right? Yet many conservatives are furious with Burr for going “full woke.”
Burr’s sins? He (sorta) defended Luigi and pointed out “the incredible lack of empathy from the general public about [the killing] because of how these insurance companies treat people when they at their most vulnerable, after we’ve all given them our money every f*cking month, and now we finally need you and all you do is deny us.”
He also refuses to blame the LA wildfires on mismanagement, hates on greedy CEOs, and keeps beefing with Elon Musk. All that is def no bueno to the Charlie Kirks of the world.
And perhaps worst of all, Burr is married to a “DEI wife” 🙄…
…who flipped off 🍊 at a UFC fight.
Burr’s take on that:
“They’re always going, ‘Ah, you’re snowflakes, eff your feelings,’ and all of that. And then you make fun of Trump, and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, it’s so disrespectful!’ You’re saying ’Eff Joe Biden!’ It’s like, you can’t have it both ways! The guy walked in the arena. Everybody cheered. She gave him the finger. Nobody got arrested. That’s why this country’s great. Everybody expressed themselves. Can we all be adults?”
A: No.
The weird thing is Burr routinely mocks liberals for their lameness too. He said this to Terry Gross:
This is why I hate liberals. It's like liberals have no teeth whatsoever. They just go, oh, my God. Can you believe - I'm getting out of the country. I'm just like, you're going to leave the country 'cause of [Musk, a] guy with dyed hair plugs and a laminated face who runs - who makes a bad car and has an obsolete social media platform? You're going to leave this - why doesn't he leave? Why isn't he stopped? What are we so afraid of this guy who can't fight his way out of a wet paper bag?
So what gives? The real problem these guys have is Burr doesn’t play by the rules of the algorithm. Tribal politics may get these guys clicks/subscribers, but it’s a yawn. We all know where guys like Kirk and Shapiro are going. Burr’s mission is to be funny, interesting, and surprising. It’s the opposite of partisan hackery and audience capture.
Great comedians aim to point out BS wherever they see it. It ain’t about acting like a tribalist sheep who strictly follows party lines. We shouldn’t already know exactly where you’re going. That’s why preach-to-the-choir political comedy ain’t funny. There’s no twist.
Online pundits may profit from telling fans exactly what they want to hear, but Burr’s bread and butter is surprising his fans. He makes art while these pundits churn out clickbait.
And that’s what much of the criticism is: clickbait. Lashing out at Burr for going “woke” is catnip to the “own the libs” crowd.
“All he knew is if he put ‘woke’ on what I said, he would make more money,” Burr now said of [Ben] Shapiro’s claim. “I don’t know who he is, but that guy is a jerk-off.”
And then there’s the even deeper reason these guys hate Burr so much: He’s evolved from manchild to grown adult. (Similar to Howard Stern.)
Burr’s gone to therapy, takes psychedelics, makes art, married a confident woman who speaks her mind, and continually works to manage his anger issues. It’s no wonder so many of these hateful bros have turned on him. His path is the antidote to the toxic masculinity they embody.
Burr:
I try to make sure that my kids see - that they know how much I love my wife and how beautiful I think she is and how amazing I think she is, and it's something that I feel like I've really advanced the ball, so to speak, with my kids because they're really happy kids, and they know that they're loved. This is what I've finally gotten to with all my demons is I can't fix it. All right, it happened. There's nothing I can do about it to make it not have happened. I just look at all of that stuff. My job is that that stuff dies with me. It doesn't get passed on.
They’re not mad because he’s “woke.” They’re mad because he got out.
Burr’s gone to therapy, takes psychedelics, makes art, married a confident woman who speaks her mind, and continually works to manage his anger issues. It’s no wonder so many of these hateful bros have turned on him. His path is the antidote to the toxic masculinity they embody.
Surrounded
Finally realized what that “surrounded” debate framework reminds me of and it’s every Bruce Lee movie where the bad guys wait their turn so they can get their butts kicked by Bruce.
Talked all about it in this 1min clip:
Related: Crazy how everything online is someone getting either DESTROYED or EVISCERATED. It's nonsense. Whatever happened to a good old fashion disembowelment??
dis·em·bow·el
/ˌdisəmˈbou(ə)l/
verb
cut open and remove the internal organs of.
"the dinosaur used its claw to disembowel prey"
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Comedy
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Quickies
🎯 There should be a bar called Moderation. That way, alcoholics could say, “I only drink in Moderation.”
🎯 Buddhism: Taking care of is-ness.
🎯 Purim is the rare story in the Bible where a woman is the hero. It was really the Barbie movie of its day.
🎯 Poppers are either recreational drugs or jalapenos. Either way, your rectum gonna get loose.
🎯 There will never be a revolution from a bunch of people obsessed with self-care.
🎯 "Self-care" is frequently just narcissism wearing the mask of wellness.
🎯 Learning requires humility. That's why the dumbest people are so confident they're right.
🎯 “Crush all anti-semitism” vs. “free speech absolutism” is a real irresistible force meets immovable object paradox for the Free Press.
🎯 We have an obesity epidemic and that we've decided the cure is to jab ourselves with needles filled with a Big Pharma fix instead of going for a jog actually feels more symptom than solution.
🎯 If the sushi involves dry ice or a blow torch, I’m out. Save that crap for IG. I came for fish, not a maki-nical Whitesnake video.
🎯 Showers should be like a dishwasher or car wash. Why am I still having to do so much work to bathe? Just put me on a conveyor belt or in a box, lather me up, and spray me down.
Portnoy’s complaint
Hoops talk is getting catty!
Stephen A. went off on Bronny…so then Lebron gave him a Will Smith-esque “keep my son’s name out yo mouth” talking to courtside…which made Dave Portnoy rant that the King is actually a trés “sensitive baby”…and it’s all giving the most dramatic bros ceremony yet.
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