Andrew Chapados dives into Ryan Long’s comedic journey, from the Johnstones’ raunchy videos to internet-driven pranks like Crown the Town and Ryan Long’s Challenge, blending CKY’s shock humor with Jackass-style antics. Long critiques modern comedy’s cancellation culture, dismissing it as overblown while noting how platforms exploit outrage—like SNL’s "trans Little Mermaid" campaign—for ad revenue. He contrasts Canada’s COVID-19 aid inconsistencies (600,000 ineligible recipients) with Alberta’s unvaccinated restrictions, mocking anti-lockdown rallies where attendees ignore rules for personal gain. Ultimately, Long argues decentralized comedy thrives despite industry pressures, offering raw creativity over manufactured controversy. [Automatically generated summary]
A lot of people will say that women are crazy, for example.
But do you think that's just a problem where we put too much stigma on the word crazy?
And if we made crazy a positive thing, it wouldn't be so bad.
I think everyone's a little crazy.
If when you're in a relationship, what are some of the techniques that you'll use to like nag the guy so we can look out for those as men?
I don't know.
Just lower his self-esteem, I guess.
Calling him names or something.
When me and Brad first met, I didn't think we'd get along, but it turns out we kind of agree on everything.
Your racial identity is the most important thing.
Everything should be looked at through the lens of race.
Jinks, you owe me a Coke.
We both have a lot of opinions about people of color, even though we barely know any.
I say colored people, but as long as we're classifying them, we both think minorities are a united group who think the same and act the same.
Monday morning, I woke up to the news that I'm being let go from my position at Vice Magazine.
And this comes after years of dedicating my life to writing articles like A Woman's Guide to Tucking in Your Dick.
Yes, there are trans animals.
Why some men choose to remove their penis?
The Kim OG app doesn't work for Grinder.
And a modest take on why men terrorize women with poop.
So my nephew, we're pretty sure that he's trans because he's always like crying and stuff like that.
What age is it okay to just start transitioning?
Wouldn't you just ask him?
Well, he can't speak yet.
Right now, he's only a week and a half old.
You should wait and ask him.
He's probably your political commentator's favorite comedian.
He's performing in Toronto on December 16th and 17th.
Go to ryanlongcomedy.com for more information.
Ryan, thanks for joining us.
How are you doing today?
Yo, just about to leave for Phoenix.
So we're doing one last day in New York.
How's it going?
And you guys are in North York, Toronto?
Yes.
I'm pumped to come back.
I haven't been back in forever.
Well, I hope we can stop by the show when you come in and see how you're doing there.
Last time I talked to you, I think a few weeks ago, you were in Texas for a couple of festivals.
How did that go?
How free was it?
Give me the download.
Yeah, I know.
I haven't been to Canada in a while, but New York's pretty much back to normal right now.
But I was in Texas, then I went to LA.
It is funny, like going.
I'll tell you one thing that makes me laugh about going to Texas and those places.
I think people like New York and LA forget how much people in other places hate New York and LA.
And I guess Toronto.
Canada doesn't have that much of that.
I guess everyone sort of hates Toronto, but you go to those places and you're like, you go, oh, we're in like New York.
They go, oh, the communist hellhole.
Like, they hate New York over there.
Well, people still think Canada's got this thing about it where we've got everything figured out.
I'm reading a bunch of stuff about Canada throwing it.
Like recently, one of our members of provincial parliament got thrown out for being, for not staying at home for 90 days after testing positive for COVID, even though she presented a negative test.
And you just read all the comments, like, good, they're doing good, good, good stuff up there.
Canada's doing it right.
And people just still have this aura about Canada where it's, you know, really sensible and everything's meticulous and done the right way.
So maybe that's a little bit different than how people see New York.
Yeah, I mean, as far as like the COVID stuff goes, I've been getting yelled at by both sides because of my opinions on this one.
But like, there's a part of me, even when they were doing the lockdowns, they'll go, oh, you're allowed to have like a gathering of four now.
And I'm like, I mean, you can make it a gathering of one because I'm not obeying any of this stuff.
So I guess, you know, the people have to get a vaccine for their job.
That's real.
But as far as most of the stuff goes, I've no, even like peak COVID in New York, they go, you know, people aren't allowed to leave your house.
And you're like, yeah, there's like nine raves happening on this street alone.
So, you know, no one was obeying any of this stuff.
I mean, I went back to Canada last winter and everyone was, you know, doing stuff.
So, I mean, you know, some people are safe and some people aren't.
But as far as the actual, a lot of this stuff probably is more of like an internet argument than it is like in real life.
Well, in Alberta, you're not supposed to, if you're unvaccinated, you're not supposed to meet together at all, only in your own household.
You're not allowed to meet privately with another unvaccinated person.
I'm guessing that a lot of people don't actually follow that and I wanted to ask you about yeah you can't That's Australia is the same thing.
Because I see on the news, it'll be always like, you know, this guy tried to go get a bucket of KFC and the cops.
You know, they put him in a headlock.
You know, he's in the hospital because he wanted to get food, right?
But then I talked to my friends who actually live there, and they're like, that's one place and like 90% of it's, I don't know.
But I don't know what to believe.
You kind of have to, unless you're there, you know, who knows?
Because I mean, I'll tell you what, even being here, there's so many things where about Canada that people will be like, oh, Canada, if you want to go to the, if you want to get like, if you break your arm, you have to wait like, you know, three and a half years to get your cast on.
Dying Trends00:10:38
And you go, I wasn't like that when I was there.
And they go, no, it's true.
I wanted to ask you about how in your videos, in your sketches, I'm guessing people sort of think they know what your views are just by based on your videos.
So either you're coming across how you really are in your videos or you're just way more clever than the rest of us and just exactly sort of know what people want to hear.
Do people tend to assume your views before they speak to you and when they meet you, is it different or how does it go?
Well, it depends on what video too, right?
Because there's, you know, I do so much videos.
Yeah, you will get both different people of all different things.
If you make fun of their thing, they go, you know, this guy's.
But I feel like that's dying down a little bit.
There was a moment where there was a real, real, you know, you got to pick a side and you got to stand up and be on part of one of these teams, right?
So I think that when the mainstream was very, very, you know, very much like on one of those teams, just saying like, hey, I'm not like participating, both these teams are lame.
Just saying that was, you know, an endorsement tacitly of the wrong team as far as like some people were concerned.
So, and then, you know, and then some people start to like you.
And then once they like you, they're like, yeah, but I want you to think all the things that I think.
So, I mean, at the end of the day, it's always going to keep changing who's telling you what you can think and what you can say.
So, I mean, the trick is to try to be funny, I think, if you're a comedian.
Yeah, and a lot of people are sort of thinking that now, I feel like that both sides are sort of failing no matter how much you give them power, no matter how much support you give them.
And I think a lot of people are sort of waking up to this theory that we just vote in the right people, you know?
Yeah, I'm like, yeah, that's, I mean, that's always like comedy is just like this tiny little part of what's actually going on in the world.
So it's like, I don't want to pretend that I'm doing something more important than it is.
But it is really, it's like, yeah, something that I feel like we were kind of saying, or me and my little crew of friends, we were saying like, you know, four or five years ago and then, you know, kind of got popular doing it in America a year and a half, two years ago, or whatever.
You're watching like everyone else say that and you're like, yeah, I mean, this is the stuff that, you know, everyone was yelling at us for saying.
And now everyone's kind of like, yeah, both sides are bad.
And you're like, yeah, no shit.
Like, you guys were all, I would say they're all, it's like a lot of people arguing over who gets to be like the teacher of a class.
And you're kind of like, dude, it doesn't, who cares?
You know what I mean?
So I think that a lot of people got really wrapped up in it.
And then now that the Trump era is over, people are like coming out of the fog and going back to their normal person, trying to be the normal person that they used to be.
And everyone's like, yeah, we got a little carried away there.
Oh, I want to ask you, what kind of inspiration are you drawing from your sketches?
Are you and the guys just in the writing room all day?
Are we watching the CNN and the Foxes to get our talking points that you want to make fun of?
I think, no, so I just write the sketches and I do one a week and then I do like a street interview most weeks and then I do a podcast every week and then I do stand-up like at least four or five nights a week.
So I don't know.
I try, I honestly just sit down and write like a lot.
So a lot of times I'll get something in my head and then I can't get it out.
So I just did another right left one that was making me laugh.
I did like a sponsor thing because if you look at the left-wing sponsors, it'll all be these like tiny podcasts and it'll be like, hey, brought to you by Netflix Studios.
And it'll be kind of like the Communist Tower brought to you by Amazon.
And they have these huge, you know, like there's, there's these huge, super, you know, essentially like communist streamers that are, you know, making these enormous deals with like ad deals with Microsoft or whatever.
And then the right-wing people, it's like these enormous podcasts that have, you know, a million listeners and they're just like selling like bunker vitamins and like Patriot water.
And it's like, it's just water for people who love America.
Coffee, too.
Oh, yeah, always it's America first coffee.
And then, and then, yeah, that was the Black Rifle thing, too.
I remember we were doing, then someone, then the coffee company, they'll denounce some of the people and they have to be like, I just want to say that Patriot Water does not in fact support free speech.
You should burn your Patriot shoes.
So I don't know.
That to me, like the difference between the right-wing, left-wing sponsors was one thing that I just had in my head forever.
And then you kind of bump it around and then you start to write.
I don't know if I have it yet.
So I have like a hundred ideas for sketches and then a bunch of ideas for street interviews of things I want to do and then a bunch of ideas for stand-up.
And I just try to actually do the work and get up and fucking write for way too long.
Is the videos relatively short on purpose?
Or do you just think that anything longer is just going to not be as funny inherently?
I don't know.
There's definitely different schools of thought on that.
When I first started doing well on the internet, there was a million people that had a lot of advice for me of like, no, this is the length that they have to be.
This is the dimensions.
You have to put this on.
You have to do that.
And I think that I've also been making videos since I was like 15 years old.
And the platforms are always changing what they like.
And people's attention spans are always changing.
And what gets pushed by YouTube is always changing.
I'm sure you guys experienced that.
So I think that for me, I just try to, even with the comedy and the formatting, I try to make what I would want to watch.
So if it feels long to me, then I keep it short.
And if it feels short to me, then I, you know, I'm like, maybe this one, you know, we didn't go deep enough into it.
So I try to stick with my own sensibilities because I feel like with most things, if you leave your own sensibilities, then what are then you're just kind of like grasping at straws?
Yeah, for a long time, it was you got to get to that 10-minute mark so you can put more commercials in it.
That's what everybody says.
Exactly.
First of all, Andrew, your videos need to be 10 minutes long so you can monetize it more.
That's what I used to hear all the time from the network channel people, whatever they were called.
I wanted to ask you a lot.
And then you started pushing shorts.
Yeah, exactly.
Like recently, they've been like, yeah, if it's under a minute, we'll push it extra hard.
Yeah, I find that on my own channel too.
Everything else shadow banned.
You put it under 30 seconds.
We're going to get you some views.
What was I going to say?
Yeah, you talk about getting hate from both sides.
Is there anybody surprising that reached out to you, whether positively or negatively, that you wouldn't have expected?
Yeah, well, the negative ones, I try not to talk about them too publicly because a part of me is like, that's giving it more.
A few times on my podcast, I'll get into feuds with people or whatever.
But for the most part, if it's something that I just try to ignore it.
But as far as people reaching out, yeah, tons of people.
There's like, I gotta, there's a lot of like big Hollywood people that'll send like DMs being like, just so you know, you know, you're saving like all these crazy things, right?
So that's kind of cool.
I want to take a deep dive with you into your past.
Having looked through your YouTube channel.
Oh, you know what?
Sorry to interrupt you again.
You know what?
What's an interesting one?
Is a lot of big musicians will be like, hey, love your stuff, but I feel like if I post it, I'll get in trouble from the music community.
I get that a lot because a lot of like punk dudes and like metal guys like this, but they're like, oh, our community doesn't, you know, like when we have nuanced opinions.
Rage Against the Machine, I'm guessing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tom Morello's low-key a huge fan.
Lara's in your DMs.
Whoa, man, I really like what you're doing.
The band you were in, speaking of bands, Ryan Long, the Johnstones.
Now, if I'm not correct, you guys are from this area.
You had the wild hair, you're often almost nude.
And I wanted to ask, how did this transition into the Ryan Long of today?
You had the B-Boy stuff, Twilight videos.
I even saw one with Russell Oliver.
And then the funniest thing I think, and we'll play this after over the top, is the purposely bad cover of Oasis on a talk show.
Oh, my God.
That's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
That's a deep cut.
That's like 15 years ago.
Yeah.
And rocky roads will lead you to where I'm winding.
And all the lights that lead you there will blind you.
There's a lot of things that I would like for you to know.
Should you never let you?
But did this evolve into what it is now?
Because you see a lot of the same elements.
A little bit.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I was like, so, yeah, when I was like, you know, 19, 20, we were in this kind of popular Canadian band.
And we were doing a ton of making these jackass kind of style videos and releasing all these DVDs.
And the band had a podcast.
And we used to do all this kind of wild stuff and release it and make these music videos.
Then we just used to do straight up comedy videos.
And then that kind of eventually led to this like cable access TV show that I was doing on Rogers called Crown the Town.
And then I had a TV show called Byte at Byte TV, which is like this small Canadian comedy network called Ryan Long's Challenge.
And I was doing all that stuff.
And then around that time, I started doing stand-up.
And then gradually kind of I was mostly just doing this stuff.
And then the band just kind of, that was the end of that.
Yeah, a lot of that stuff makes me think of like CKY back in the day.
That's what the vibes that I was getting.
I love that stuff.
I mean, I was, I really was the first thing, like, I wasn't into comedians.
I really was into that, like messing with people on the street stuff, whether that be like, you know, Jamie Kennedy, Tom Green was like the hugest for, I think, a lot of people in my generation.
And then Jackass, like Allie G show.
Like, I was just, you know, whatever.
Like, even though it sounds dorky to say, but like, I felt like I was kind of like a student of that stuff.
Like, I would watch everything.
I was trying to learn all the tricks.
And I was just so huge into that stuff.
It was like my favorite thing.
So then, yeah, I was doing that in the TV shows.
And then I was doing sketches at the hard times and CBC.
I did this show called Trontopian.
And I kind of, when I moved here, I was just said, okay, I'm going to do all this stuff I've been doing for the last 10 years kind of on my own channel.
And it kind of was like well received in America.
SNL's Decentralized Future00:14:35
A little bit more than well, Ryan.
Don't sell yourself short.
Why do you think there are so few people willing to do this type of comedy these days?
Do you think it's an actual fear of being canceled?
I've seen some news channels try to do it.
Daily Caller is one who tried to inject sketches into their YouTube feed.
It didn't really work as far as I could see.
Why do you think people are actually still afraid to offend?
I mean, I always like that one.
The obvious answer for why people don't want to do it is that their social ramifications are really high.
So especially if you're a network or whatever, these people don't want to be getting in trouble.
They don't want to be getting letters right now.
And the same as, you know, there's always going to be someone that is in charge of what you can and can't say.
And I think the social ramifications of that are very, very high.
But the second part of it is a lot of, not everyone is kind of this like troublemaker personality, right?
So I don't know if I think that some people, they don't want, they definitely don't.
Like, I mean, I have a, I know a lot of people that they're like, oh, I want to kind of make that stuff, but I'm afraid for the thing.
And I'm like, I promise you, you don't.
Like, there's, I'm like, I know these personalities and you don't want a bunch of people yelling at you on the internet.
It's like uncomfortable and it's not like for everyone to be kind of constantly like trying to push buttons.
Like, I think that's a certain type of personality.
And right now, I think it's the way the instinct of how to sort of be pushing those like energy pockets is generally like thought it's like kind of in the thought realm.
But it always changes.
I mean, there's always going to be like, you know, deconstructionalist comedy at some point was pushing boundaries.
The, you know, making fun of the church at some point was purchasing boundaries.
And I think that not everyone's that person.
So I think the best people that are the best at what they do are able to like kind of pair their personality with what also is like connecting with people to find like, you know, something that they find funny and they actually suits like what they actually think as opposed to there probably is people right now that are like, oh, let me try to be, you know, subversive just for the sake of it, but maybe it doesn't even really suit them.
As my brother would say, some people take the nice clean highway, other people take the dirt road.
What do you think is the logical progression past like political correctness and cancel culture?
There's so many comedians, actors, actresses saying we need to stop cancel culture.
Nothing has really changed.
I think to a degree, like you said, after Trump, people have stopped caring as much a little bit.
But what do you think the natural progression is in the next couple of years?
Yeah, so my prediction, like when I was about five, four, I could say, but this three or four years ago, I felt like I was already moving away from this stuff and I was kind of more talking about men and women and race and in a, in the, in a like, not, in not in relation to, you know, the culture stuff, right?
I think in COVID, it kind of bubbled back up and took it back about two years.
So I feel like now we're kind of back to where we were three years ago in a lot of ways.
But in my opinion, I don't see this, I see it more as the mainstream is sort of going to keep doing what it's going to do.
And the counterculture and like I think is growing.
I mean, there's so many people that are kind of doing their own thing outside of these kind of machines.
And I think that that decentralization of art and decentralization of comedy and music probably continues to happen.
And it's happened always.
I mean, if you look at forever ago, there was, you know, all these labels kind of missed rap and everything like that.
And then, you know, there's a lot of rappers that are billionaires now because of that.
So I think that the stakes are still pretty high for places to take big chances on anything that's going to cause real repercussions.
And you keep seeing them do it.
Whereas a lot of places will be like, oh, we'll take a chance on this guy.
And then it's like, oh, I'll hear some tweets.
He's fired.
And then all of a sudden, the amount of money in press.
So I think the ramifications for they're kind of stuck in a rock in a hard place.
So I kind of think it is like the mainstream is like falling apart a little bit.
You know, places, the big comedy networks, they're unable to star make.
They're not having big hits.
So I think that it could be a positive or a negative, depending on how you look at it.
And in a lot of ways, it's a positive because there's a lot of people that were able to sort of like create their own thing and everyone's like making money and having their little pockets of energy that the industry doesn't control.
And then on top of that, because the industry is not getting involved too soon, people actually have the right amount of time to marinate and kind of create their movements without getting big buckets of money thrown at them that are rooting what they were doing.
So it could be, so people, a lot of people say it's like bad for comedy, but it's bad for mainstream comedy.
Like it's bad for probably what's on TV and maybe it's bad for the comedy that's being made in movies, but it's like right now, it's like you might not see metal on the radio, but if you're into metal, there's a lot of good metal.
So I think there's lots of stuff if you actually, it could be better for art if you're actually into it, that it's decentralized and artists have like more power rather than less.
Well, I think that what you're talking about is what happened to, what's the comedian's name who got kicked off of SNL in his first week?
Shane.
Yeah, Shane Gillis.
Shane Gillis.
And he talks about now how they looked at all his stuff and they're like, no, don't worry.
We like how edgy you are.
And then the first week, like everybody knows, you got fired for a podcast.
So I think it is like a fire.
Podcast is how you get fired.
Podcast is the number one way to get fired.
If you want to get fired from your job, start a podcast.
Not good news for me then.
Yeah, no.
But I don't know.
Yeah, exactly.
But at the same time, like he's doing well.
It's like, you have to remember, like, those jobs, it's like people's brains are still stuck in like, oh, I want to be on SNL.
It's like, dude, I don't want to drive to Midtown Manhattan to work some job.
It's like, we're touring around selling out places and I'm running my little company and making videos and we're doing really well.
And it may be more stressful, but I like running my own thing anyway, I think, better.
And also, I'm in my 30s.
Like, that's a better 25-year-old job.
So I think, but to me, I didn't move to America to be like, oh, let me try to get an industry job.
I kind of moved here because I was like, oh, I could do my own thing here and actually make it work.
So I kind of thought that was cooler.
If I was getting offers about that, I'd be like stressful because I'm like, oh, like, especially if someone offered you like a ton of money, you're just like, ugh, do I have to take this fucking job?
Well, that's what I want to ask you.
Is there a talk, a Ryan Long talk show coming up?
Are we ever going to see you attached to a big network?
I don't know, man.
I think that everything changes, but doing like wild stuff is like a young person's game.
Even the, you know, we were talking about CKY and Tom Green, all that stuff.
I used to do a lot of that stuff, the stuff you were talking about when I was in my 20s.
Like, I'm not, I can't do that wild stuff anymore.
I think now my troublemaking comes probably more verbally, you know.
But so I think that, yeah, who knows what the industry looks like.
You know, think about how much things have changed.
You know, the fact that Netflix is a, you know, the primary place people watch television or whatever, right?
That didn't exist, what, 10 years ago?
So to predict, you know, the idea of what the decentralization that's already like rapidly happening and the industry's losing its power at the time that decentralization everywhere is happening so rapidly.
The internet's growing.
So I think that to look at it and be like, what's it going to look like in 20 years?
I mean, even five years ago, if you looked at it and you go, hey, do you know that like internet dudes like Logan Paul are making as much money as like George Clooney?
He'd be like, what?
Like, you go, yeah, some dude's YouTube channel.
He's as rich as Meg Ryan.
And you go, what?
What?
What's going on right now?
Mr. Beast, some dude, you know, making weird videos on the internet.
He's making as much as movie stars.
So, and potentially as relevant or more relevant if you're, you know, a 16-year-old.
So it's hard to look at any of this and understand where it's going to be in 10 years.
Maybe doing like VR comedy.
In the metaverse.
Instead of doing, yeah, dude, I'm just in the metaverse.
You're still bombing in the metaverse with a helmet on and some crappy open mic in the metaverse because you got kicked off of every platform.
I want the metaverse to be more like demolition, man.
Yeah.
What's the ideal metaverse for you?
What's the ideal metaverse for me?
Something with Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes, where Taco Bell is the only, I think that's Demolition Man's blood.
That's the only option, yeah.
I'm okay with Taco Bell being the only option, personally.
Well, that means KFC will be there too because they're always attached.
Right.
That's a two for that's a two for one these days.
Yeah, we're going to get way off topic here.
The metaverse stuff, but it is true.
It's, you know, there's, there's, put it this way, I don't think that if you could say that every comedian kind of have to have their own little radio show.
It's just like kind of what the situation is now.
I remember my buddy was like, yeah, I'm starting a podcast.
I guess everyone has one.
And you're like, like the way he was saying it was kind of like that, right?
And I was like, yeah, you're right.
That's correct.
Everyone has one.
That's like part of the deal.
If you want to be a comedian, unless you get lucky and booked some huge role for whatever reason on some series and you just get like gifted a like sweet gig for the next five years, you're like, yeah, you're right.
You do have to have a podcast.
That's kind of like how this works now.
You have to have, you know, the days of like the tortured artist that you're just like, I don't even want to make stuff.
I guess I just, whatever.
I'm just a super talent.
It's very hard to act like you don't care and be the apathetic artist when you also have to have employees and be like posting on a schedule and show up, have a podcast and book guests and you know what I mean?
Promote your tours properly and actually run a proper business.
So it forces everyone to just admit, like, yeah, I know we are trying hard.
Like, there's no way to do this without trying.
So you can't be like, I don't know, man, and just get up on stage and say stuff.
It's like, no, you kind of have to do this.
So, you know, not to say that you couldn't get popular without a podcast, but it's definitely a big component of if you're a fan of someone, you're like, yeah, I want to go listen to what they have to say in a long form.
And are they actually funny in that format?
I feel like there is a lot of us who've been traveling on this path silently because a lot of the stuff you say is exactly what my life has been like up until working here.
And I recognize that in a lot of the other people that I interview too, whether it's like Elijah from Slightly Offensive, for example, or, you know, maybe somebody younger than me, like a guy named like John Doyle.
It's just sort of starting on your own, doing your own thing, and then hoping you build enough momentum and viewership to actually get somewhere.
And I think the ultimate goal is to be where you are, where it's completely independent.
And then, you know, you can make video about whatever you want because there's always the person in your ear when you're at some big network.
Yeah, yeah.
And they move very slow, too.
I mean, obviously, the actual threat is being removed from YouTube and stuff like that.
But dude, when I was doing videos at the CBC, we would do a video.
And I would like, you know, I would do these eight scripts and you'd kind of give them the scripts and stuff like that.
And this is other places too, not just there.
But I've, you know, I've been making videos forever, right?
So you'd give them these scripts, and sometimes the notes would take like two, three months.
By the time you're shooting it, I remember editing a video, and then by the time I, and then by the time we got all the notes, it was like a month and a half later, and then watching the video, and I'm like, it feels slow now because I, this is maybe I'm like being crazy, but in my mind, that month and a half, like the internet sped up, and I think that was the era where everyone was starting to do crash zooms way more and stuff like that.
And I really felt like in the couple months that we had people giving notes on the edits, by the time I got those notes back, that the video felt slow because the like pace of the internet at that moment felt weird.
The same way that you can't do, talk about current things, and then three months later, you kind of hear that bit and you go, ah, this just doesn't feel on the pulse anymore.
So I think that just being able to move very quickly.
So I have like a little team of employees that I kind of, you know, we meet on Monday and we figure out what doing.
And then we're like, okay, what are we shooting this week?
Who's doing the podcast?
And we have a schedule and I just run the little business and try to keep your head down and not get too caught up doing the wrong things.
It's your own SNL, essentially.
Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously it's still a legacy program.
But even when you think of that, it's like people talk about these shows with such reverence.
It's, you know, it's like in Canada, what's like the Royal Canadian Air Force?
That's the show, right?
Or this hour is 22 minutes.
I don't think people have that reverence for those shows.
Like, you wouldn't be like, oh, man, this hour is 22 minutes.
But SNL, you're like, yeah, it's just some old sketch show for, you know, for whatever, for 55-year-old ladies that live on the Upper West Side to watch.
And you go, and everyone's like, they're the gold standard because they used to be good.
It's like, yeah, they have the odd sketch that's fine.
But it's like, why are they this like gold standard?
Like, I would never, when I'm looking at people online and being like, who's jokes, who's at the forefront of this, whose sketches?
I go, you know, they're this legacy thing that still exists and they're like a money machine, so it's not going to close down.
But I'm not looking at them to be like, oh, am I beating them?
I'm like looking at them to be like, if I'm doing the same thing as them, like, oh, am I making comedy for like 50-year-old fucking ladies?
I think you might be.
That's how I see it.
Yeah.
I don't know.
So I don't, I just don't have the reverence for those, so I don't really see them as like direct competition.
I see that as just like a different thing.
It's kind of like looking at the Foo Fighters.
Like if you look at a new band, you're not kind of like, well, are they as good as the Foo Fighters?
Like, it's all why is everything being compared to the Foo Fighters?
It's they're not, right?
But in comedy, everyone always talks about SNL.
Like it, like, I don't know.
I don't even think of it until people message you and be like, oh, SNL did some version of a sketch he did a year and a half ago.
You know what I mean?
That's like the only time you kind of even like think about them.
I'm not watching that program.
Who's watching that?
Most of the stuff now, like SNL or even CNN is based on stupid stuff they put out and people want to comment on that.
Clicks And Circles00:03:33
Maybe that's the new target for these programs.
Let's make something so ridiculous or unfunny and obscene.
That way it's going to get picked up from all these, you know, baiting right wingers, I guess.
That's my metaverse that.
Oh, you are right.
There is some of this stuff.
It's this sort of what the advertising companies do, where they're just like, hey, like your favorite toy is gay now, right?
What do you think of that?
Like, it's just like, F you conservative.
I think that's a sketch right there.
That is what they, that is, like, legitimately.
I did do kind of an advertising sketch that was kind of similar to that, but not with the toys, but it is, there is to some degree that is the same way that they're, it's like this loop of people getting pressed by trying to make people mad.
And they'll be like, the right's triggered.
And then the right will be like, you're actually, you're triggered.
And then everyone's calling everyone triggered.
And I guess their product gets more clicks.
But I don't think it's the right kind of clicks because I've even known people in advertising.
It's kind of like, do you know, You know, a lot of businesses become convoluted when lawyers get too involved.
And I don't know if it necessarily makes like it more efficient or just the lawyers make a lot of money.
There's kind of that in advertising where they hire these like 20-year-old ad firms and they're like, hey, we need to do these, you know, kind of progressive ad campaigns that kind of just, you know, get dunked on, but they also, you know, cause a stir.
And then they go and go, look, your video has 3 million views.
Yes, it made these bad people mad, but all the good people will buy your product.
And I go, I don't think any of this has a, I think it's just for ad companies to be able to go and be like, look, look how we perform.
Look at their metrics.
But I don't think it did anything.
Advertisement people just love patting themselves on the back for like a campaign that got a lot of views.
So then they can go to their they go fleece their next company for it's gonna be a million dollars.
We go look at how many clicks we got on our ad about how you know little mermaid's trans.
Well, when I was doing a lot of like commercial writing and writing for ads before I got political, a lot of it, you're exactly right.
It's just like, I feel like it's a circular motion of money.
Like we have this much money for an ad campaign.
Let's put it towards this magazine who's going to pay this much.
Then look how much reach they have, you guys.
So they're going to sell that ad to the next person.
It's just this revolving door of like $30,000 campaigns.
And it was really, really strange.
Like nobody's reading this, but somehow they're paying $30,000.
I don't know what's going on here.
No, it really is a, it's one of the biggest scams going on, especially we used to do some of this stuff back in the day.
It was like, dude, there's some places where they just straight up, their whole business model is they make videos and then pay for the like to boost the video so it gets clicks.
But they figured out how to, you know, if they every thousand views, they get, you know, $100 from the ad company and it only costs them $80, that they just pump that forever.
And their whole model is essentially forcing people to watch this thing and then, you know, taking the spread from the ad companies.
And it's just a corny business model all around.
And it's like kind of a, I don't know, it's an industry that is really based on patting itself on the back.
And then when in the 2000 post-2015 era, when you know the trick was just, oh, say something that will, you know, piss people off, I think that that just became the like golden ticket for these places to like print capital.
Government Chips and Lockdown Rallies00:06:04
And if you're on the right side of it, it's like, you know, who cares if you piss people off, I guess.
I want to do one more quick segment behind the paywall.
So we'll say goodbye to the free audience on YouTube and Rumble and everywhere else.
If you guys want to get the last segment, we're going to talk about lockdowns.
Rebelnewsplus.com, subscribe right now or else Ryan will find you.
Oh, let me tell you about my show, though.
Oh, right, right, right.
Yeah, before don't cut away.
December 1st.
When's this coming out?
Is this coming out like tomorrow?
This will come out the day before your first show.
Oh, okay.
I mean, then, okay, never mind.
It'll be sold out.
We'll clip it before then, Ryan.
Go ahead.
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Well, there's like, right now we did a show on the 17th at the Royal Theater, so we sold that out.
So we added another show on the 16th that pretty recently that there's still like a few tickets left.
So RyanLongComedy.com is where you get tickets for that in Toronto.
Very enthusiastic promo.
Hello, paywall people.
I want to ask you, Ryan, do you pay attention to any of this anti-lockdown stuff here in Canada where you're from?
And remind people from Canada that he's around.
I think you're from Toronto or Ajax around that area.
Ajax.
Yeah, Durham region.
Woo!
I mean, I was watching the Adamson's barbecue thing.
But, you know, it's kind of what I was saying before where I'm always, listen, like, I don't think that the lockdowns were, I thought, obviously, I'm not the safest person in the world.
So, I'm, if I was in charge, I don't think that I would like the way that the lockdowns are done.
I wouldn't have done it like that.
I think it was overkill.
And I think that it's probably better the way that a lot of places in America did it than Canada.
But that being said, I'm always sort of a proponent of like, I feel like you can still win.
So, there's a part of like, for example, when New York got really bad, I moved to, you know, there's you can complain about it online, but you can also move.
So, I moved to Miami where it was more open.
You know, you don't have to follow all the rules.
So, it's like, to me, there was, there's always a way that I think that you can make, you know, you can still win in the world.
You're not always going to be able to, it's, you know, whatever.
I guess stand up for what you believe in, but you're not always going to be able to change the world.
So sometimes you have to just change yourself within the world.
Have you paid attention to, have you paid attention to any of the lockdown characters?
You mentioned Adamson Barbecue.
Are you seeing any of these guys?
Chris Guy.
Who's the other guy?
Hey, that guy.
I always see Six Buzz posting that guy.
He's wild.
I have an interview with him that I think everybody's seen at this point where he makes all these predictions about what's going to happen.
And he's in his tank top that barely fits, his tattoos, his veneers.
It's really an exciting thing to see.
So what do you think is coming up?
Go ahead.
I saw one recently that they posted with him where he had like a rally, I guess like an anti-lockdown rally, and then people were kind of like partying at the rally.
And then he got mad at them.
He was like, what?
You guys are, you guys are partying and drinking.
This is serious business or whatever, right?
Did you see that one?
Yeah, and he's yelling at his support, at all of his supporters.
It's like family and children there.
You guys brought a musical guest.
Yeah, that guy's been on a wild ride.
Yeah.
Yeah, man.
I'll tell you, like, I know it's easy.
Like, people always say that it's like kind of easier said than done.
And it is.
But honestly, if I was probably there for all this stuff, I think that I would leave.
And I know people have like families and all that stuff.
But yeah, it's like a bad situation to be.
But then on the other side, I know a lot of people that don't give a shit because they're like, yeah, I get free money and then I'm working some other job.
So I'm like richer than I ever had been.
I'm literally getting an extra, whatever, 25 grand a year.
Then I'm working my like under table job that I don't even have to go into the office for or go, you know, working from home or whatever.
So I think some people are just like it's obvious, you know, it's obviously like somewhat popular because people, you know, you put them in a position where like, hey, we're going to give you tons of money to not work.
And then every and they're like, hey, do you think, want to go back to work?
And everyone's like, actually, I just thought of it and I'm like really worried about COVID all of a sudden.
Right, Ryan.
Now that I, yeah, yeah, now that I think about it, I'm very worried about COVID after I got my chip from the government.
And they said they were going to go after everybody for that and they never did.
There was something like 600,000 people that weren't eligible that they just pushed them all through because the system was failing and they just never went after them.
Oh, yeah.
I think that I think that it was pretty wishy-washy, like who was getting what and they're not going to be to do a very good job of keeping track of it.
No.
I mean, the Canadian government government's pretty bad at getting people to pay.
Like they don't, the IRS doesn't mess around.
No.
Like the Canadian government is very like they just give you a s if you get caught like cheating on your taxes, they go like, all right, come on, we caught you, pay up.
They just kind of like, you're not going to jail.
They just make you pay it.
It's decentralized, like Antifa, I believe, is what they'll tell you.
I think we're out of time here, Ryan.
I appreciate you coming on.
We'll tell everybody to push your shows.
Thank you, buddy.
Yeah, yeah.
I appreciate you guys having me on.
So it's very cool.
And yeah, if you do want to come, let me know just how many tickets you want for what show.
Oh, sweet.
I was talking about interviewing, but I'll probably take you up on this offer.