Uncle Hack, the oil patch-turned-comedy provocateur behind The Danger Cats, reveals how his Alberta-based brand—videos, memes, and merchandise mocking politicians like Rachel Notley, Gen Z, and environmentalists—started as a risky hobby in his work truck. At 35, he flaunts outrageous stunts (e.g., posting the N-word 52 times) to defy cancel culture, criticizing Bill C-36’s censorship as a threat to free speech, even comparing it to suppression in Syria. His U.S. success, especially in Texas, contrasts with Alberta’s divided reactions, but he pivots toward live comedy—like his August roast battle—to bypass online restrictions, arguing his audience, not critics, shapes his legacy. [Automatically generated summary]
Oh, hey rebels, it's me, Sheila Gunread, and you're listening to a free audio-only recording of my weekly Wednesday paywalled show, aptly called The Gun Show.
Tonight, my guest is someone that I think if you're from Alberta or if you are in the oil patch anywhere across the prairies, then you probably know who my guest is tonight.
My guest is Uncle Hack from the Danger Cats.
And friends, if you don't know who the Danger Cats are, then you are in for some rough language.
So just consider that your advanced warning.
Consider yourself sufficiently warned that there will be some rough language in the show tonight.
Now, we are talking about everything, how he decided to turn blue-collar Albertan humor into a career for himself.
We're talking about cancel culture and how political correctness makes comedy boring and how he thinks getting back to regular in-person fun is the way around cancel culture.
Now, if you like listening to the show, then I promise you're going to love watching it.
But in order to watch, you need to be a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
That's what we call our long-form TV-style shows here on Rebel News.
Subscribers get access to my show, which, you know, kind of think that's pretty good.
But you also get access to Ezra's nightly Ezra Levant show, David Menzies' fun Friday night show, Rebel Roundup, and Andrew Chapados' new show, which really isn't all that new anymore.
Andrew says it's only eight bucks a month to subscribe.
And just for my podcast listeners, you can save an extra 10% on a new Rebel News Plus subscription by using the coupon code podcast when you subscribe.
Just go to rebelnewsplus.com to become a member.
And now please enjoy this free audio-only version of my show.
And once again, once again, rough language warning.
Thanks.
Censorship, cancel culture, and poking good fun at Alberta's Blue Collar Workforce I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
Right off the top, let's get this out of the way so that we can go on.
In today's show, you will hear things and ideas and hear language used that might offend you.
But you know what?
That's okay because now you know and you can listen or watch or not because I think you're smart enough to make that decision for yourself.
You don't need big daddy Justin Trudeau and his right-hand censorship wingman Stephen Gilbo taking down my video to spare your feelings or asking one of the platforms that host us to take down our work because we triggered someone or we could trigger someone someday.
That will be what Bill C-36 does if it's passed to dangerous political ideas, but it could also do something else.
And that's make comedy even more woke and more boring too, as though what passes for funny these days could get even worse.
Now, today's guest, he's not for the faint of heart, but if you're from Alberta, you know exactly who he is.
And you can relate because you know at least one guy in your life that's just like him or his internet persona.
A hard-partying, hard-spending, but hard-working blue-collar guy who says exactly what he wants to, exactly how he wants to, feelings of some absolute woke scold he's never met, be damned.
Boy, it is sure so hot out here with all this global warming going on.
I wish there was such a resourceful and logical way I could just have a drink of water.
like, drink box water bottles sort of thing.
Oh, I feel the hotness of global warming just leaving my body.
Yes, friends, it's Uncle Hack from The Danger Cats.
Now, how do you even describe The Danger Cats, a blue-collar lifestyle brand, media ecosystem?
How do you describe what they do?
They do a lot of everything.
It's podcasts, videos, memes, and merchandise that you see everywhere.
They say what they want and they make fun of everybody, including themselves.
They poke fun at the hard-partying, hard-spending oil patch lifestyle, at politicians, at Gen Z, at Gen Y, at their parents, at environmentalists, at everyone.
It's crass and it's vulgar, but it's also authentic and really popular here in Alberta.
And I don't know, frankly, how Uncle Hack and the guys are still on the internet at all.
It's a mystery, frankly.
I met Uncle Hack at his Edmonton offices for a sit-down on Tuesday afternoon about where this all started for him, where he thinks it's going, and how he plans to weather the cancel culture mob that is surely coming to get him.
Again, definitely not for the faint of heart.
Listen and watch at your own risk.
And special thanks again to my editors.
Ready?
Absolutely.
Okay, so I'm someplace that I never imagined that I would be, and my husband's friends are going to freak out.
I'm at the studios of The Danger Cats, and I'm here with Uncle Hack.
And you were someone I wanted to have on the show for a very long time, and then the pandemic popped off.
And then, so that sort of became our focus.
But then, as it turns out, we have a mutual friend who made the connection for us.
Yeah.
Which was kind of fun.
I guess I want to ask you, like, how did you get into being a bit of a vulgar loudmouth on the internet, I guess?
Well, it started, I had an idea of just like shooting all this kind of silly stuff while I was in my work truck.
And I guess I took a massive risk by possibly losing my job while doing so.
It worked out in the end because now it's got me to here.
But in the beginning, it was just kind of someone like an acquaintance kind of was like, hey, you should do some of these videos.
And I've always like fucked around on the internet sending things to like my friends that I think's funny and stupid videos and shit.
So it just started going.
And we've always had a knack for behind cameras or in front of them when we were teenagers and stuff, just filming skateboard videos or like mimicking everything from like CKY to jackass and like that skateboard culture was always something.
Same with humor and like stand-up comedy and like sketch comedy, like Chappelle Show SNL and all these guys that are like willing to push the narrative.
So it was like, I don't know, maybe it was just written in the sky that this was what I was supposed to do.
Now, I think a part of the success of The Danger Cats is it feels really authentic.
Like even if people don't know you, they know exactly a guy just like you who works in the oil patch and drives around saying stupid stuff in his work truck.
And I think for me, I work with a lot of people from Toronto.
And one of your biggest fans was one of the people who worked in our office.
And she was like an older lady, but she's like, he's the best.
And I think a lot of what you do is, what's the right word?
Authentic cultural outreach to the rest of the country.
But people who don't understand Albertans, I think you're a pretty good example of just your run-of-the-mill regular Alberta guy.
Yeah, that's probably the most glittery way you could possibly say.
I churched it up a little bit.
Yeah, yeah.
It was very Christian or Catholic of you.
But yeah, it's just, I took everything that I like.
And I get shit on a lot for being like a foobar ripoff or you took all this and the name came from foobar.
And it actually came from my cousin came back from Big Valley Jamboree and some guy at a campsite asked him if he wanted to play Danger Cats.
And he's like, what the fuck is that?
And then this guy shook a beer in front of him and smashed it on his head while yelling Danger Cats over and over.
And my cousin came back home and did this in front of me.
And I'm like, that was awesome.
So then like, fast forward to when I moved to Edmonton, one of my best friends who's up here is currently in the UFC, Tanner Bozer.
We had a mutual friend and never quite got to meet one another.
The mutual friend was his roommate.
And I'd always call Tanner a danger cat.
Like, that guy's just a danger cat.
And like, nobody knew what I was talking about, but knew what I was talking about.
And then it just like, yeah, me and him did a few videos together.
And then it just kept going and going and going.
So it's, it's essentially like everything that I like.
Like I like going to strip clubs.
I like going to, you know, hair metal concerts.
I love 90s rap.
And it's like, it's easy to do because it's everything that I like.
Yeah, you're like the ambassador to Red Deer or from Red Deer to the rest of the country.
Whoa, whoa, Tabor, Alberta.
Okay.
Right.
More and more South and we hammer home that southern style, the deep south.
Well, that scratches a question off my list.
Why Danger Cats?
Like, why did you call it Danger Cats?
Where did you come from?
Like, how did you end up here?
In Edmonton.
Yeah, like, what's your background?
Like, what did you do before you were a YouTube celebrity with a t-shirt company?
How far am I rewinding this?
As far as I guess it like started like into my youth, my early teens to like early 20s.
I always wanted to get into MMA, so I just did it.
And I didn't care about money or any of that.
I just went, I found a job, I worked that job, and I would train every evening.
And just that like consumed my life.
And I really didn't enjoy having something there.
And then I knew that that wasn't like a career path for me.
I just liked it as a hobby, which is kind of a stupid hobby if you think about it.
Yeah, right.
And then when I stopped that, I went back to my hometown.
I was working in the oil patch and got a job offer to come up here to Edmonton.
And I started, I became a pipeline operator.
And as that was going on, I trained and fought a couple more times.
I got injured and the fighting was done again.
And this was all popping off.
This kind of like sketch comedy, I guess.
I don't know.
In the beginning, I can't watch the older stuff because it's so cringe and I don't know, poorly written.
Yeah, my first video is just a shit show.
Right?
Like, you look at it, you're happy about the progress and that you're in everything, but I watch it now and be like, you're just like, you're almost trying too hard to be funny.
And it wasn't just, I get like, I get that it made people laugh and at the time, maybe it was needed.
And nobody was really saying the things that I was saying publicly.
So it really hit home.
And a lot of it was like how I was feeling at the time.
So I was just like, I'll just try and do it in a funny way and like really Alberta it up.
And yeah, here we are today and now I'm doing all the things that I've wanted to do in life.
That's great.
I wanted to ask you, because when I met you on Friday for the very first time, you were sort of talking about cancel culture.
And for some of the things that you say on the internet, frankly, I'm surprised you guys are still on YouTube.
I am.
But you have sort of walked right into the fire of cancel culture and you're just you're fine.
Like you're doing fine.
And I think, I guess, for a lot of people, they're scared, but you don't really seem to be scared at all.
You don't care.
No, I like I genuinely don't give a fuck about any of that.
Like none of it affects me.
It's never going to, like, if it comes from me, I'm asking for it because that's just more publicity for me at the end of the day.
So I'm deliberately doing some things at times that will trigger people to have them pissed off and come from me because at the end of the day, I'm not worried about it.
I don't give a shit like what these people, they're not going to be people that come to a comedy event or any of this.
They're never going to show up and have a good time with anything we do with the brand or even have a laugh at it.
So I always jokingly tell people that I got drunk one night and I was in the parking lot of a Home Depot saying the N-word 52 times on a Facebook account that I don't know the password to.
And it's scheduled to be released on my birthday when I turn 35.
So I got five years of this career path before I'm torched.
I've canceled myself.
It is funny, but I'm so glad to hear it because not that you have a ticking time bomb on your career, but for so many conservatives, and I'm trying to remain like not turn this into a political talk, but for so many conservatives, and we see this all the time, I think this is the great failing of conservatives, is wanting to be liked by people who hate them and who will never vote for them.
Five Years Before Torchings00:06:22
And we see that constantly.
And, you know, there's no pleasing people who hate you anyway.
The thing is, a lot of people who are probably outraged at you have likely never watched an entire video of anything you've ever said.
They just heard somebody say something about you and that's good enough for them.
Yeah.
And like, even like for me politically, I don't really, I don't really cater to a party or anything.
Like, I'll take shots at anybody.
I don't, you know, at the end of the day, my big thing is like, I think we should be able to say what we want, what's inside your head, and not have to worry about going to a supervisor or have some HR guy down your throat because you made a joke with a guy that was intended for that guy and someone 15 feet over overheard it and they're offended.
So you risk the possible chance of getting fired or canceled, whatever it is.
I think it's ridiculous that you can't express yourself.
And I hear all the time that just dudes that listen to my podcast and shit is just like, oh yeah, it's refreshing to hear somebody do this.
You know, like some sort of shock jock radio, whatever you want to call it, Opie and Anthony, they're like the Black Phillips show, whatever it is.
And somebody is pushing the narrative and going for it.
And generally not.
Even Joe Rogan, you know?
Yeah, like a Rogan.
And like the guys I really respect are, I don't know if I can.
Okay, well, their podcast name is town.
And the other one that I, like, there's the other one is The Legion of Skanks.
And these guys are very dark comics.
And they're always attacked, but none of them care.
So it's like, I really respect those guys and what they do and what they do for the art form.
And to have the balls to say what they say.
You know, they deliberately say shit that are get them a community strike or, you know, like they're proving a point that what they say is okay.
As long as the intent is, you know, none of them are doing this for malicious intent and looking to hurt your feel sorry, feelings.
It's a joke that they written and they thought was funny and their friends laughed at it.
So then they say the joke again and work the bit out.
Now, I guess the trade-off, though, there is that you almost have to be boring and sanitized to be commercially successful.
A lot of venues won't book you.
If you're edgy or even the slightest bit conservative, you're not going to get a Netflix deal.
You know, with the exception of Rogan, you probably won't get picked up by Spotify or even allowed on the platform if you post from somewhere else or create from somewhere else.
So I guess my question is, is it possible to be commercially successful now?
I mean, I think with Rogan, he created a juggernaut years ago that's carrying through today that sort of makes him council proof.
What about everybody else?
I think so.
I mean, you know, I had a veteran comic, Jason Rouse, invite me down.
I haven't been doing comedy for that long.
I've only, I started November of 2019.
I did my first open mic, and then I just kept going.
And even throughout the pandemic, just did it as much as I possibly could.
And when he sat down with me and I got a chance to interview him, afterwards we're chatting and he goes, you did this the most smartest fucking way possible.
You built an audience online.
You have your merchandise or whatever.
You've monetized what you have.
And then on top of it, like you can create your own events.
A lot of comics have to play in between these rules or club owners or all this shit where I can just basically say, fuck you, I'll rent the hall next door if you don't want to have me.
And I'll throw my own event and I'll market it and I'll do all the necessary steps to try and promote the event as best as I possibly can.
Where I think a lot of guys don't want to tiptoe on that line or they're scared because, you know, one guy here in the city, I won't say his name, but he went up and they told him, you can't do this type of joke on stage.
He went and did five minutes of that type of joke.
And they kicked him out of the club for, you know, I think it was like two months.
And that's like two months that this guy doesn't get stage time, which is crucial.
But again, it's him proving a point.
But it sucks that, you know, these comics don't get an opportunity to perform or work out bits because there's some asshole that, you know, is a club owner or manager just doesn't like his style and all that.
I'm happy I went this way.
So to answer your question, I think yes.
You have to really focus on what you want.
You have to be all or fuck all.
Yeah.
Essentially.
Yeah, I think that's it.
I think you have to build your own infrastructure from the ground up because you can't rely on somebody else's because somebody else's is subject to, I guess, the council mob.
Yeah.
And you know what?
And if you put the time and effort in, like, it's, I'm coming on five years of like doing this now.
And that's a like, I didn't, I thought it was going to last one.
I thought for sure I was like, oh, this isn't going to be anything.
And so we were treating it like it was a Motley Crew music video and partying hard and doing all the extracurricular activities that come with all that lifestyle.
And finally, like one day I woke up and be like, you're pissing this opportunity away and you're going to let this something so great and you'll look at this five, ten years down the road and be like, you fucking idiot.
As you're, you know, not shitting on anybody's job or anything, but it's just like there's jobs out there I don't want to do.
I'd rather do.
For sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't want to work for the CBC.
Right.
I don't think I'll ever be there.
So.
That's true.
Yeah.
Wasting Great Opportunities00:02:07
They can have boring Rick Mercer and this hour has 22 minutes.
You just came back from Texas.
Yeah.
What was that like?
A lot freer?
Yeah, it was intense.
It was like, well, we've been in lockdown for Christ, I don't even know how long.
And it was like complete isolation.
I've only talked and seen four people consistently throughout it to going off a plane to 6th Street, Texas, no masks, people everywhere, live bands, live music, comedies happening.
There's restaurants open.
Like life was normal there.
It was just such sensory overload.
Like I felt like a walking down the street.
Excuse my language, but that's about it.
But yeah, it was just, it was like so nice.
It was so great, you know, to see crowds of people being able to perform for that many people was unreal.
It was like a unique experience.
I'm like, I was so grateful to have the opportunity to go down there and feel that.
And it was full-blown freedom.
Like the people there were great.
They don't take it for granted.
That's for damn sure.
And they were awesome.
They couldn't believe every comic that we talked to about it, like what's happening in Canada.
They're like, yeah, it's a shithole up there.
It's like, no shit.
That's why we're here.
So what was the reception to your style of comedy from the Texans?
They loved it.
I've never in my life thought 20-year-old college girls would be laughing at the things that come out of my mouth, but they like, they were dying.
And like, I poke fun at racial humor, sexuality, all that stuff.
Like, nothing's off the table.
And everybody laughed.
I couldn't believe it.
Where up here is like, it's hit and miss.
Like, I've, my style doesn't really, you know, I'm an edgier type person, obviously, I guess, when it comes to like the online stuff or trying my hand at stand-up.
Live Events Over Online Censorship00:06:39
So up here, unless it's like, I guess, somebody that follows the brand or follows like what we do, outside of that, I usually get like some noses in the air.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it was great.
You know, college students were laughing at me making gay jokes.
It was great.
That's not something that would happen here, especially since the university is over in Rachel Notley's riding.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I've had a few, I don't know who or what, where they were, but I could definitely, I'll leave it at that.
The purple haired girl didn't really like what I had to say that day.
Now, I wanted to ask you about, and again, I'm trying not to be political, but I guess that's the nature of the job, about the, I guess, looming internet censorship coming from Justin Trudeau.
That could serve to completely crack your business model with regard to Canada.
I mean, you're seeing some commercial success in the United States.
But I guess, what does that mean for you if Trudeau brings in those sorts of laws?
Because under C-36, you can be brought to court if somebody feels like eventually you're going to trigger them and say something hateful.
And a lot of the things that you say, the left might consider them hate speech because you hurt their feelings.
Yeah.
You know what?
We had a little powwow with a couple of the dudes that I went down to Texas with, and we talked about it.
And it is a bit terrifying because it's like you can't, there's nothing, I can't do nothing.
I'm not a tech oligarch that can create my own platform tomorrow and have everybody come over there.
I mean, we've seen it happen with Parlor.
They flex their muscle pretty heavy there on what they're capable of doing.
But one thing you'll never be able to take away is live events.
And that's why getting more into the live events and throwing, doing shows and having people come together rather than having this complete divide online.
It's like, why don't you just come out to a show, see it, watch people laugh, have fun.
If you want to come out, come out.
And we'll dance and play by the rules as best as we possibly can to make sure we don't get accounts lost and everything.
But as far as that, I think the live face-to-face interactions, that's what's missing.
And that's just getting together, have a beer, have a laugh at somebody's expense, and whether it be mine or yours or who's ever, you know, like that's, I think we're missing that entirely.
Yeah.
You know, and like this internet censorship is only going to create a bigger divide between everybody because one voice is going to feel like it's clamped down on.
And that's, I think that's scarier than allowing somebody to, you know, tweet a trans joke, you know?
Yeah, and I think it also serves to amplify things that actually aren't normal that people aren't feeling like, you know, when you censor everybody else who's dissenting, all that leaves is the, you know, the liberals and the crazy people shouting at the clouds.
And, you know, I think it also, to be compassionate, I think it also seems unkind to those people because it protects them from dangerous ideas and other opinions.
It doesn't build for very resilient people when they can't just shrug off a joke and walk away.
I have this theory that over in Syria, you're not really worried about words.
You're worried about bullets over there.
Yeah, I've been to northern Iraq and you come home and you're like, what is wrong with everybody here?
What is wrong with everybody here?
Exactly.
And the fact that we're walking around, you can't say this, you can't say that.
Well, over there, you get your head cut off.
So what do you like?
What do we deem a dangerous idea over what?
Somebody making a joke, voicing their opinion?
I thought our grandfathers fought the one guy that had the most dangerous idea, so that way we could be free over here, but apparently I'm wrong.
Yeah, how far we've come.
I wanted to ask you, what's next for you?
So more live events, more stand-up?
Yeah.
else um i think it's just i just want to go full-blown comedy now and and write funny shit and just find the holes that we kind of overlook and and uh you just the way humans are I find it so funny.
I tried being political.
I'm not good at it.
I don't care enough, you know?
Like, I just look at it through a quick peek and I'm like, oh, that's funny.
And I'll take that.
And I run with it.
Where like some of my friends are like, they follow it and they're able to, oh, this happened in foreign policy.
And I'm like, fuck, dude, I'm lost.
So for me, I think it's just more so pointing out the faults of like us as humans and making it really funny.
And like, yeah, getting up and doing more live events.
I really like going out and I like being around people and I like having fun on stage and making people laugh.
Like it's the best gift I've ever had.
You know, like I feel, it's a talent, I guess to say, to like go up and do that.
And, you know, it's, it's, uh, it's so much fun.
Like, I really thoroughly enjoy doing it.
So if I can do that, there's like no money that could ever cover the feeling that that gives me.
So I found what I want to do.
And like moving forward is just as much as I can get out there.
And granted, we don't lock down or any of that shit.
But if we do, I'm fucking off back to Texas.
I'm going back.
Yeah, it's already, yeah, we've discussed it and it's definitely in the cards to go down there.
Obviously, I can't work down there, but I can do the YouTube and all that shit down there.
So, I mean, if this place isn't going to allow me to do the things that I'm going to do, there's like, there's places that will.
Now, in closing, I'm sure everybody from Merit BC to Swift Current knows exactly who you are.
Support Us: Patreon Dangercat6900:02:51
But for people outside of that, or for people who are just seeing you as a new face and they're kind of interested in what you're up to, where can they find you?
And more importantly, I guess, where can they support you?
Because you're sort of, I think every day that you're online, you're staring down the potential for a complete cancellation and a mob of pitchforks at your door.
So how do people do that?
Well, we have a Patreon that we do.
It's patreon.com slash dangercat69.
There is female nudity on there just in case if you don't like that.
And yeah, I guess like our merch, dangercatshop.com, we just do some silly t-shirts and shit.
They're fun.
They're great.
Your t-shirt guy is great.
Ride the liquor.
We got this one paying homage to the great Metallica.
Yeah, and you can follow us, DangerCat69 on all platforms.
And then myself, I'm UncleHack69 on all platforms.
And if you're in Edmonton, August 20th, we're doing a roast battle here in the city.
Okay.
And if you're in Fort McMurray, we have a stand-up show August 21st the following day.
Great.
Glad.
Thanks so much for your time.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, we'll have you back on again very soon.
And I am, I think I'm going to go to that August 20th show because I feel like you're going to be protested a little bit.
I hope so.
I encourage it.
Yeah, it'll be a lot of fun.
We got a lot of good comedians coming out.
And if you really enjoy filthy, dirty comedy and people shitting on one another, we got a four-man tournament.
And yeah, it should get gruesome in there.
It should get gruesome.
Great.
Thanks.
Friends, you made it to the end.
Maybe you learned some new swear words.
Who knows?
You know, there's something to be said for the, I guess, steely-eyed way that Uncle Hack is staring down and even welcoming the mob, embracing the mob, knowing that the people who like him, the people who support him, and the people who buy what he's selling and come out to his shows and spend money there, they're the ones that really matter, not the ones who would need, I don't know, a therapy animal after sitting through a three-minute danger cat video.
Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I'll see everybody back here at the same time in the same place next week.