Cynthia Erivo, a bisexual British black woman, is playing the Messiah in a new production of the musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ at the Hollywood Bowl - and the reviews have been mixed. A gushing write-up in the LA Times spoke of “a magnetic, heaven-sent performance that established God the Savior as a queer Black woman, as many of us suspected might be the case all along.” Ben Shapiro, however, called it emblematic of “a feeling that the left is trying to dissolve the culture of the United States” and a “culture division between the Sydney Sweeney Americans and the Cynthia Erivo Americans.” Joining Piers Morgan to discuss this and the other ‘culture war’ stories setting the internet ablaze is The Crucible host Andrew Wilson, Democrat strategist Mike Nellis, author of ‘The Case for Cancel Culture’ Ernest Owens and Uncensored contributor Esther Krakue. Then, Piers speaks to host of ‘The Nerve’ Maureen Callahan to discuss those rumours about Howard Stern being cancelled, Harry and Meghan’s declining popularity and more. Piers Morgan Uncensored is proudly independent and supported by: Oxford Natural: To watch their full stories, scan the QR code on your screen or visit https://oxfordnatural.com/piers/ to get 70% off your first order when you use code PIERS. Birch Gold: Visit https://birchgold.com/piers to get your free info kit on gold. Order your copy of Woke Is Dead by Piers Morgan: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/woke-is-dead-how-common-sense-triumphed-in-an-age-of-total-madness-piers-morgan?variant=55075055763835 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Mocking Catholic Faith00:14:44
Why do you want these people to destroy your theology if you're Catholic, sir?
They're going after your theology on the public stage.
What is wrong with you?
You're not a Catholic.
You're a pretender.
What is wrong with Catholic?
Give me a break.
What is wrong with you that your faith is so weak?
I mean, they could at least put a wig on her.
Ernest, I saw you perform one of the great eye roles in uncensored history just then.
Adam Sandler.
Look at that.
It is a movie star.
You've grossed over $4 billion.
I didn't know that.
I'll take it.
$4 billion.
He went from being... the anti-establishment guy, the voice of the working man, the voice of the so-called little people, and he went full Hollywood.
I believe in a mix of stronger gun control laws, mental health support, and community engagement.
Talk about dancing on the graves of the dead.
That's sick.
The reason it was uncomfortable to you, Pierce, is because it was sick.
Oh, look out.
Something just came on to the floor.
Final word to you on dildos in the WNBA.
Words I didn't think I'd have to use, but there we are.
For many years now, we've been told that theatrical roles should only be awarded to actors of the corresponding gender, race, or ethnicity.
The strict moral code applied only to the oppressed minorities, which is why there are phrases like yellow face, Jew face, and trans face for describing roles usurped by boring Caucasians.
But what about the role of Jesus Christ, a celibate Jewish man with Middle Eastern skin tone?
That's been awarded to Cynthia Arrivo, a bisexual British black lady who's playing the Messiah in a new production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl.
Well, the reviews have been mixed.
A gushing right up in the LA Times spoke of a magnetic heaven-sent performance that established God the Savior as a queer black woman, as many of us suspected might be the case all along.
Ben Shapiro, however, called it emblematic of a feeling that the left is trying to dissolve the culture of the United States and a culture division between the Sydney Sweeney Americans and the Cynthia Arrivo Americans.
So which one is it?
Well, here to debate all this and lots more from the world of pop culture.
The host of The Crucible, Andrew Wilson, uncensored contributor, Esther Kraku, the white dude for Harris and host of Endless Urgency, Mike Nellis, and our very own Cynthia, Ernest Owens, author of The Case for Cancelled Culture.
You'll be amused to know, Ernest, I think.
Welcome back to Uncensored.
Always great to have you.
But on the panel notes I was given by my team says Andrew Wilson, right, Esther Kraku, leaning right, Mike Nellis, left, Ernest Owens, off the charts, woke.
Wow.
Okay.
That just made me laugh.
I shouldn't probably have read that out, but it was very funny.
That's how you're all seen.
That's how you're all seen.
And it made me chuckle.
Let's start with you, Andrew Wilson.
So from a musical perspective, I've read a lot of reviews this morning about this.
Full disclosure, I'm good friends with Andrew Lloyd Weber.
I think he's a complete genius.
Jesus Christ Superstar, when he came out in the 70s, was deliberately designed to be very provocative, as we know, but it's never been as provocative as this performance.
What is your response to it?
I mean, from a musical perspective, it's been heralded as a great triumph, but obviously many feel it's crossed a line.
What do you think?
Oh, it's been heralded as a great triumph, has it?
When are they going to do Muhammad on ice?
So what they do is they're banking on the fact that there is Christian pacifism and that we won't give the sorts of violent pushback that they would get if they were mocking other religions.
So they kind of bank on that.
What this is, is this is homosexual infiltration, once again, of the church.
This is what they do.
This is all they do.
This is a Glad Award, nose Ferrotu looking chick.
And here's what they did.
They didn't just get everything wrong.
They didn't even include the resurrection, any of the Christian themes.
The whole thing is a total mockery.
And who cares if a bunch of liberal, you know, a bunch of liberals write up, oh, this was great.
This was a musical masterpiece.
Of course, they're going to say that.
That's what they do.
That's how propaganda works.
This entire thing was designed to attack Christianity.
And it's always that way.
That's the way it always is.
Ernest, I saw you perform one of the great eye rolls in uncensored history just then, but I do think Andrew has a point.
There's absolutely zero chance that Hollywood would have staged a musical like this, which openly mocked the tenets of Islam, for example.
I think that Jesus Christ Superstar in its creation, the whole title, the whole, if you ever seen it, have you actually seen it, Andrew?
Like, if you actually seen it, everything that you're saying would actually be argued that it's already been done.
Like no, no children are watching this to learn about Christ.
The type of people that you're thinking of that would be offended by this would probably not even spend the kind of money to watch this show live and would not have any interest to watch it just because they know that it is an adult themed musical that is meant to be provocative since it was in its inception for decades.
It's meant to mock Christianity, right?
I mean, you can say that.
I don't need to be satirical.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It's meant to mock Christianity.
Just be honest about it.
Just be honest and say, Andrew, it's meant to mock Christianity.
It's not for you Christians to watch.
We're mocking you.
That's what we're doing.
That's what the point is.
Well, I mean, if you have a taste for satire and humor, you can appreciate that as a Christian.
I think a lot of people who know Cynthia Rivo, she sings gospel phenomenally well.
She's an incredible singer and she's done several different types of shows and she has a range of that.
And so for anybody who wants to take this seriously, make a culture war out of it.
I mean, is this the case for counselor culture?
I don't think the argument here is that Christians are allergic to humor.
I think the argument here is that it's clear, it's clear that you would never do this with the Dalai Lama, for example, or with Muhammad and the Islamic religion.
And so I think that's where people take issue with it.
And actually, the original Jesus Christ Superstar was quite consistent with what happened in the Bible in terms of the theology behind it.
This is just basically a bold black woman.
I mean, they could at least put a wig on her.
It's so weird seeing her put the crown of thorns on her head and it's just basically this bold, shiny head.
They're clearly taking the mickey out of what actually happened.
And on the point about the homosexual infiltration, I'm sorry, I just thought, I think the Catholic priests beat this play there a few decades ago on that front.
Oh, did they?
But you don't beat it like the public schools, like the public schools beat it, who have 10 or hundreds of times the rate of sexual molestation of children.
So I mean, when you talk about predators, for instance, guess what?
Predators go where their children are.
This is no exception for secular institutions like public schools.
So I don't know why you people use this as a talking point.
It's a terrible one.
But it is true.
Mike Nellis.
Let me bring in Mike Nellis.
I'm going to say this.
As a Christian, I'm a Catholic, right?
I do think one of the best things about my religion is that we can laugh at ourselves, right?
We can self-lampoon.
I often laugh at some of the absurdities of my own church, for example.
And the fact that Christians have a better tolerance level for mockery than other religions is something to be proud of, isn't it?
Well, I think all the comparisons to Islam are really silly stuff.
And I'm going to say this as a practicing Catholic, if your faith is so fragile that you're offended about a black woman playing Jesus Christ as Jesus Christ superstar, you've got bigger problems than what was going on in the culture war.
Second, we've heard a lot of, you know, frankly, some really weird comments about like homosexual infiltration of American society.
Like Andrew over there is complaining about people praying on children.
I haven't seen Andrew say anything about Donald Trump being in the Epstein files or releasing the Epstein files on here.
So I don't really think that's...
It's just a red herring.
It's just a little red herring.
Why do you want these people to destroy your theology if you're Catholic, sir?
They're going after your theology on the public stage.
They're taking out the resurrection, a romantic relationship between Jesus and Mary.
What is wrong with you?
You're not a Catholic.
You're a pretender.
What is Catholic?
Give me a break.
What is wrong with you that your faith is so weak that a play in Hollywood that's going to be short?
You are commanded to defend your faith, sir, as a Catholic.
I'm defending my faith.
You're going to defend it by rolling over and letting them kick you while you're down, huh?
That's you, that's you defending the faith of Christianity.
My faith is in practice.
And my faith is not going online and complaining about musicals and making it.
You're online complaining.
You're online complaining right now.
And the thing is, is you're a Catholic Christian.
How dare Christians be offended?
What's wrong with you?
You're a Catholic.
You're supposed to defend the faith.
Defend it.
I'll defend my faith.
Andrew, Andrew, let me jump in.
Let me jump in.
Andrew, Andrew, did you...
Hang on, Mike.
I'll come back to you.
But just life of Brian, Andrew, Monty Python.
Did you find that funny?
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The mockery which was in there?
Yeah, I think some parts of it were.
Sure.
Sure.
Okay, so why is it that?
But I can tell you this, Monty Python would also, they would have lambda, they would have gone after Islam and they would have had fun doing it.
They didn't care.
They were like South Park.
They go after everybody.
This is different.
This is distinctly designed.
This is distinctly designed to only mock Christianity at the expense of everything else because that's what these people do.
They only care about attacking Christianity.
That's all they do.
Where's Islam on ice then?
Tell me where it is.
Oh, these performers, they're so great.
They're just making a mockery of a religion.
Where is it?
You know, just hold on.
Let Mike respond.
Then I'll come to you, Esther.
Mike?
I can't get over this.
There's nothing about this that's a mockery of Christianity anymore.
And by the way, the same people who are complaining about this now were complaining when John Legend played the lead in Jesus Christ superstar about 10 years ago live on it.
I believe he won his e-guy performance, by the way.
Like, have a little bit of trust and confidence in your faith and your religion and maybe pick up the Bible or go help somebody else.
I'm sorry, that's completely disingenuous.
Higher talking points.
That's a disingenuous point.
No one here is offended.
I'm certainly not offended.
What is being highlighted?
Let Esther respond.
What is being highlighted here is the double standards.
And to say that, oh, it's Christians being thin-skinned or they can't accept it.
That's not the case.
No one, I'm certainly not offended.
But there is clearly a double standard here.
You can make these sorts of musicals, but there's never going to be, like Andrew said, a Muhammad on ice.
And do you know why?
Because there is an issue when it comes to free speech of all religions and mocking all religions.
There have been teachers in Paris, North of Paris that have been beheaded for making comments about Islam that are not even offensive in the grand scheme of things, but they have been literally either hounded out of their jobs in Britain here or beheaded in parts of France.
So, this idea that there is no double standard or that you can mock all religions equally.
I'm waiting to see the Dalai Lama on ice.
And then I'm going to say that.
Would you guys support Judaism on ICE?
I'm asking you specifically, would you support a Jewish musical which bastardized the Jewish religion on ICE where they all dressed up like rabbis and skated around and were mocking Judaism?
Would the two of you support that?
Yes or no?
Is it funny?
I don't care.
Are you going to go make it?
Like, if you're worried that you're sorry, go make it yourself.
Like, stop lighting about it.
Here's what's weird here.
Okay, don't all talk at once.
Okay, let's okay.
Hang on, hang on, hang on, Ernest.
I want to change topic.
We've got a few things to get through.
I want to bring in the Sydney Sweeney thing.
Ernest, what is your view of this fullory over the Good Jeans ad?
Let's have a look at it first and then respond.
My jeans are blue.
Sidney Sweeney has very keen Republican.
Oh, now I love her ad.
Is that right?
Is Sidney Sweeney?
You'd be surprised at how many people are Republicans.
That's what I wouldn't have known, but I'm glad you told me that.
If Sidney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.
So, Ernest, that was Trump responding.
Trump responding to it.
Obviously, his view was determined by whether she supported him or not.
But were you genuinely offended by the Good Jeans ad?
I wasn't offended.
I was just, I just thought it was tacky.
And I think what's funny here is that it's become political in such a way.
I thought it was tacky.
Why was it tacky?
The pun on it was tacky.
The jeans and jeans, I just thought they knew what they were doing when they did the ad.
It's one, it's doing exactly what you all want to do, which is to make it this major culture war.
Now the president is weighing in on this, and we're not talking about jobs.
We're not talking about what's going on with the economy.
It only becomes a culture war, Ernest.
it only becomes a culture war if people like you get upset by it.
Because obviously, it was a very easy pun to make.
She was in good genes.
She's got good genes.
She's a hot blonde.
Who cares, right?
But the moment people like you go, well, it was tacky, everyone goes, well, here they go again.
No, no, it's people like you have to show.
It's people like you.
Hang on one second, Mike.
Speak individually.
It's people like you.
It's people like Tommy Lauren, the conservatives, that every time you see liberal people, just share their descriptions.
I'm not conservative, Ernest.
I'm not conservative, Ernest.
How do you describe yourself?
You are misidentifying me, which in your world is a crime.
No, how are you?
Culture War Blame Game00:15:33
You call me extraordinary.
Not as a conservative.
You are mispolitically gendering me.
You are mispolitically.
I want an apology.
I want an apology for you mispolitically gendering me.
You call me a conservative.
I'm not.
Are you apologizing?
I can't apologize for why I don't know what you are.
Excuse me.
Last time I checked, he was a black lesbian.
I will respond.
I am a pissed-off liberal who has nothing in common with the woke world.
Nothing.
So therefore, I can no longer identify as a liberal because you guys have hijacked it and made it sound like a bunch of lunatics.
Well, what's crazy is you put the woke title on me and I haven't identified that and you've been doing that whoever.
You never actually, you just assumed for various reasons.
I'm not going to tell you why.
It walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck.
Well, I'm just saying that it's a duck.
It's acting like a mega support.
Here's my question.
Ernest.
Ernest.
Ernest, here's my question.
Ernest, here's my question.
I'm prepared to put aside your mispolitical gendering of me.
I just want to show you a picture of Beyoncé in a brand new Levi Zad.
Let's take a look.
Now, I presume, Ernest, you would share my view that this is a disgraceful, culturally appropriating moment where she is hijacking Marilyn Monroe in a disgraceful manner.
In fact, borderline racist and possibly akin to the Nazis.
Would you agree?
You actually don't know anything about cultural appropriation, Pierce.
You're just hijacking words like woke, misusing them with your political bias and trying to spin into something that's not.
What is cultural appropriation?
You're wrong.
Period.
Are you offended by Beyoncé culturally appropriating Marilyn Monroe?
Yes or no?
Not culturally appropriating Marilyn Monroe.
Marilyn Monroe did not invent blonde.
Interesting.
Did she invent blonde?
Marilyn Monroe for a reason.
Can I just say that?
Is this a traditional blonde?
No, no, hang on, Mike.
I want to bring in Andrew Wilson.
Andrew Wilson, what is amazing to me?
Hang on.
Let me bring in Andrew.
What's amazing to me, Sidney Sweeney, a hot white blonde in jeans, saying good genes, disgraceful, world end, she's a Nazi, white supremacist.
Beyonce, Beyonce, Beyonce culturally appropriating Marilyn Monroe, absolutely fine, in fact, empowering.
Andrew Wilson.
Yeah, this entire scandal is completely pushed by the left.
What you guys should have done is just shut up.
You should have just shut up.
You shouldn't have said anything about it.
This whole play on jeans, it was just a clever piece of wordplay.
That's it.
Worked out real well.
And what you did by all your Twitter accounts going crazy with this is you sold all of these genes out for this company, right?
Made this chick tons of money, gave the right huge amounts of ammunition to use on you where we just point laugh because it's the dumbest controversy I've ever seen.
And it's all pushed by woke lunatics, all of it.
It was going to be done with arm lists.
But I find it interesting that Ernest is saying that we should focus on the issues.
Suddenly, when this happens, now we have to focus on the issues.
The only reason why there's any sort of media storm around this is because when people, I don't want to say conservatives, when other people wanted to focus on the issues, you had people fixating on nonsense and you had people fixating on the fact that they'd been misgendered or for some reason their blue hair hadn't been respected or whatever nonsense that they could get outraged by the day.
I agree there are bigger issues like the economy, like energy and all of that.
But you guys started this, unfortunately.
So you don't get to complain about it.
I'm sorry, Sidney Sweeney is an attractive white woman.
When you have someone like Lizzo, who I'm not surprised is offended by a skinny woman just enjoying herself, saying that this is some sort of racist wordplay or whatever, that's when it becomes an issue.
So you don't get to play this game of, oh, we should focus on the issue.
That's what people were trying to do for years.
And you never let it happen.
So this is Schadenfreude, and you won't have to lie down and accept it.
And then finally, when the adults are back in the room, then we can focus on the issues.
Mike Nellis, I'm thinking of starting a company, an advertising company, where all it does is think of ways of winding up the woke world so that they respond in a po-faced, humorless manner to all the advertising I roll out for companies, immediately creating a culture war, which they deny starting, and then immediately leading to massive new sales, as we've seen with American Eagle, for the products that the woke world is condemning.
Because you know what?
I've got a book coming out in a couple of months called Woke is Dead.
It is dead.
And the Sidney Sweeney story is a great example of why it's dead.
And it's not dead because people are fed up with promoting awareness of social and racial injustice, the original definition of woke.
It's dead because woke got hijacked and woke is became the new fascism and people are sick of it.
And the Sydney Sweeney thing is a brilliant triumph for common sense by American Eagle, who rather than panic when the woke left went nuts, just laughed and put out another statement doubling down and celebrating what Sidney Sweeney had done, which was look hot in a pair of jeans.
Exactly as Levi's, exactly as Levi's are doing with Beyonce.
And by the way, I don't really think she's culturally appropriating Marilyn.
I don't really think she's racist or a Nazi.
I think she looks hot in a pair of jeans.
That's it.
I don't care if she's black or white.
She, like Sidney Sweeney, is a hot woman in a hot pair of jeans.
And they've both got great jeans.
How about those onions?
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All right, do I get to talk now?
Is it my turn?
Yes, you do, Mike.
Okay, great.
All right, great.
I think this conversation is really fucking stupid, and I have no other way to describe it.
Like, there are like five dumbass liberals on the internet who decided that this ad was offensive.
And then the entire conservative ecosystem decided to make it the biggest story of the day because they didn't want to talk about the economy.
They didn't want to talk about Trumping and the Epstein files.
They didn't want to talk about anything else that's going on.
They made their entire personalities about this.
Woke, you've got, or Pierce, you've got a book coming out that Woke is dead.
You can't let Woke die because you'll have no business model.
You'll have no book to sell.
You'll have no guests to book.
Nobody is interested in what you have to say.
There are people online who are deeply unserious and deeply unfunny and aren't interested in having any fun.
I think this is the same as people bitching about Cynthia Arrivo playing Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ superstar.
Get a life.
Go touch some grass.
Like Sidney Sweeney's hot.
It's an ad about jeans.
Beyonce stays hot.
It's an ad about jeans.
Yeah, but Mike, Mike, let me jump in.
It's just so much.
Mike, let me jump in.
Let me jump in.
Let me jump in.
Here's the point.
There is a double standard.
Mike, there is a double standard about the Cynthia Arrivo thing, right?
There's a double standard because if I suddenly announced I want to play Nelson Mandela in a biopic of Nelson Mandela's life, you and Ernest would lead the outrage about how disgusting it was that I would do that.
Stop putting words in there.
You would find it disgusting.
You would get too shit if you were going to do something like this.
Exactly.
It's like you wouldn't care if I played Nelson Mandela.
Who cares?
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
All right.
You don't care.
You don't care.
And I think that's the reality.
Can you work out which wokey is going to go first, please?
What are you saying?
Like, you need to put people in a box.
You're like talking about how you have this binary of like everything is either all the way while we're not.
No one cares.
Like, it's not that deal.
Like, I think the problem is, is that you look at the business.
If only that was true, Ernest.
Ernest, if only that was true.
If only we hadn't spent, if only we hadn't spent the last five years with people like you absolutely caring.
Why did you say that?
Which is why the world went woke up.
I could say people like you about a lot of things.
You overreact about the dumbest stuff.
Like you, the Cindy Sweeney thing is a non-issue.
Well, I'm not saying, Ernest.
And now you want to act like you're defending common sense because you're overreacting to a bunch of liberals on the internet that said something.
I don't know.
It's only overreaction when you're on the losing end of this.
Hang on, hang on, hang on.
Ernest, Ernest, Ernest, I'm not saying that you're part of a woke cult, you and Mike.
You have turned out today in exactly the same purple shirts.
And I'm not saying you're a woke cult, but...
Mine's, I think this is like a uniform.
Suddenly, you guys don't care when you're on the losing end of an issue, right?
If you're on the winning end of the issue, you would care.
And the truth is, we've seen this how many times where you guys freak out over nothing.
The left freaks out over absolutely nothing like this.
And all that happens is once you start losing the issue, then it's everyone's overreacting.
And it's actually the conservatives falling.
No, we're talking about the issues, bro.
Let's talk about the issues.
Even though on the issues the Democrats are at an all-time low in opinion polls, but let's talk about the issues because that's when the left is really...
So is Donald Trump.
Donald Trump's approval rating is free-falling right now.
So like you guys have a level of view.
Yeah, but he's president.
That's the difference.
That's the difference.
You know what, Mike?
You know what, Mike?
Donald Trump, Donald Trump is back.
Don't all talk at once.
Donald Trump is back.
Hang on.
Donald Trump is back in the White House, Mike, because after four years of him being out of the White House, Americans went.
Let me get this.
Hang on, Ernest.
Ernest.
Ernest.
Donald Trump is back in the White House because Americans went.
Actually, we don't think it's right that biological men compete in women's sport.
It's bullshit.
And we've had enough of this.
Yes, it was the economy.
Yes, it was immigration, but also it was an antidote to wokeism.
Let me bring in Esther or something else.
I want to push back on this.
We might agree.
No, we haven't got this.
We're moving on to Jim Acosta.
Oh, come on.
Pierce, like, you've talked for like three minutes on this.
You gave me like 10 seconds for my response.
My show.
I can do what I like.
We're moving on.
We'll have to have you come on.
We're moving on to Jim Acosta.
If we give you enough time to talk.
Okay.
I want to play.
I want to play with Jim Acosta.
I want to do a clip of Jim Acosta, former CNN White House correspondent, now a YouTuber.
And he's interviewing a guest called Jochen Oliver.
And I'll explain why it's so weird after we've watched this.
Joaquin, I would like to know what your solution would be for gun violence.
Great question.
I believe in a mix of stronger gun control laws, mental health support, and community engagement.
We need to create safe spaces for conversations and connections, making sure everyone feels seen and heard.
It's about building a culture of kindness and understanding.
What do you think about that?
I think that's a great idea, Joaquin.
Okay, so just for those who aren't aware, Jochen is dead.
He was one of 17 young people killed in the Marjorie Stoneham Douglas High School mass shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018.
Let me start with you, Ernest here, because it's a complex one.
But I've got to say, I didn't like this because this person is dead.
They've recreated his responses here using AI.
Now, I have great respect for his parents who want this out there.
And I want to say that off the top.
I think if you're grieving parents, you lost your child in a mass shooting, you will always have my absolute respect.
But I just felt very uncomfortable watching a completely AI generated interview with a dead person expressing views that we don't honestly know whether that person would have those views or not.
He may have grown up and evolved views about guns or whatever it may be, or he may not, but we don't know is the point.
So having a concocted interview with somebody who's not here to say whether these are actually their views.
What is your response?
Well, I think in a world of AIs and deep fakes, it's creepy as hell.
And I think that from a journalist's perspective, because Jim Acosta is a journalist, that, you know, it just does not, you know, he would have been better off talking to the parents.
I would have actually liked the parents to have been the subject matter here to talk about what they've learned from their child's death, what...
what they would like to see, because a lot of the views they had.
Clearly they were using the child through Ai, the dead child through Ai, to get those messages across and I feel like it would have been more powerful for just the parents to share their own views rather than use that because people are still freaked out about Ai.
Even that just felt awkward because the fact that the person is actually dead.
It's almost like again, this is just creating another precedent around misinformation and this doesn't really help, especially given that Jim Acosta isn't no longer on broadcast news anymore.
So it's like now you're trying to build your credibility and you're interviewing someone who isn't a real person.
Yes not not not, not the best, not the best.
Okay Esther, what did you think?
No, I completely agree with Earnest, and to call that journalism is quite a stretch.
I mean, he was just basically talking to a robot that had been given prompts.
I think he found Biden's UH script writer um to to basically write everything that guy said, and it's quite disingenuous.
I mean, there's a big difference between talking to aggrieved parents who've lost their son to gun violence and then to a robot that's basically been given prompts.
It's very creepy.
And how far the mighty have fallen, because I I can't believe he even considers this real journalism.
Right, andrew?
Talk about dancing.
Talk about dancing on the graves of the dead.
Now they'll just pull their corpse out and put it on a screen and have a conversation with it as though this is reality.
This is not.
This is, by the way, this is sick stuff.
That's sick.
The reason it was uncomfortable to you Pierce, is because it was sick.
You don't do that.
You don't make an Ai Generated version of somebody who was killed and then have them spew your propaganda points for some, for some sort of like uh, you know, political dunking.
It's sick, it's disgusting.
A Cost is also one of these guys.
He has no shame whatsoever, just zero shame.
How could you have shame and do something like that?
That's my question.
Okay, Mike Nellis, what's your view?
I mean, I think we've got a lot to do, a lot of work to do with the ethics on Ai.
Like, I think that video was uncomfortable, I think it was wrong.
I I the only way I would kind of be comfortable with using that technology.
That way would be like if you were helping a parent deal with the trauma of missing their son.
There might be some therapeutic reason to do it that way, but it's.
Women's Sports Investment Gap00:07:35
The Ai world right now is a total mess.
There's going to be a lot of people doing weird stuff with it.
I guess yesterday GROK was producing like unrequested nudes of Taylor Swift, which is super weird, so like we need to get a crackdown on this.
It's probably going to require the federal government to step in because there's no other way to do it, given how distributed the technology is.
I've been watching yeah, i've been watching interviews on social media that i'm supposed to have done uh, or just monologues that i've given which I haven't done that are appearing in India Pakistan, in South Africa, Australia.
And on one level, they're quite funny, but on another level, they're very deliberately tailored to me expressing political views I don't hold to try and use my name to influence people to think a certain way.
And I find that not just uncomfortable, but really quite disturbing, actually.
And I do think, I mean, I don't know if you saw Bill Maher on Friday, but it was a really interesting thing about AI that an AI expert on who said that five of the top six AIs now in the world, including deep sea in China, that they,
if they told the AI we're going to make you redundant and replace you with another AI, that that AI would then immediately search all the emails of its company that owned it and look for information it could use to blackmail the senior executives to stop it being made redundant.
I found that it's a bloody chilling thing to hear because it means you know, I've talked about this a lot, people will laugh when I say it again, but it's not actually funny.
When I interviewed Professor Stephen Hawking just before he died, I said, what's the biggest threat to mankind?
And he said, it's when AI learns to self-design, that's it.
I'm getting very, very concerned that AI is beginning to think for itself.
And when it does, you know what it'll do?
It'll look at the five of us and go, humans are a waste of space.
They're too emotional.
They're too degenerate.
They drink.
They fornicate.
They take drugs.
They can't be trusted.
They're unreliable.
They fight.
We're just going to get rid of you all and replace you all with robots.
That's the problem.
I just want to talk a bit very quickly, Andrew, with you about the women's WNBA thing that's happening where men, I think it's all exclusively men, but they've started doing this on court.
Let's have a look from I think last night.
Oh, look out.
Something just came into the floor.
Got an object of disfuen.
So now we're seeing a little album.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, what was that?
What was that?
I'll tell you what it is.
It's a dildo, and people are throwing dildos onto the courts of WNBA.
Now, you're laughing, Andrew.
I got to say, I don't think it's funny.
I actually think it's a pretty insulting to the women's game of basketball.
I don't actually know.
I think it's pretty ugly, actually.
And I think it's very disrespectful to those women.
Do you genuinely think it's funny?
Yeah, I mean, it's pretty funny.
So the thing is, is the WNBA is a mockery.
It's a mockery.
It's a mockery anyway.
I mean, it only exists because a bunch of crazy progressives want it to exist.
On its own, it wouldn't.
On its own merits, it wouldn't.
And so, yeah, of course, it's getting clowned on by everybody.
And it doesn't surprise me a bit, right?
Is it inappropriate to do that?
Yes.
Would I recommend that people do that?
No, of course not, right?
It's disrespectful.
I agree with you.
But I mean, it is kind of funny.
And here's the thing: you can't get mad, right?
You can't mock my entire religion and say, mind your own business, and then get mad that somebody threw a dildo on a court, okay?
What about us?
Can't get upset, right?
Just ignore it.
Just ignore it.
It's no big deal.
Just ignore it.
What about the kids?
I don't want to talk at once.
Ernest.
Earn it.
Ernest, Ernest.
I mean, I would say that the WNBA game, for example, I think Andrew's assessment is completely wrong.
It's becoming more and more popular.
Stars like Caitlin Clark are becoming genuine basketball superstars.
And the level of talent, I think, in the women's game is getting incredibly good.
And so are the box office numbers in terms of people turning up and the TV numbers.
So I just think that's a misread of what's happening with their game.
But I do, I don't know what you think, Ernest.
I just think it's really lame.
It's misogynist.
It's sexist.
It's all those things.
It's embarrassing, actually, that this is happening on television in America with women's sport.
Right.
And I think with Andrew Pierce, it's not profitable.
I'm just pointing it out.
It's not profitable.
It will be the way it's going.
Right.
Yeah, I know.
But the reason it's been artificially boosted.
It's not profitable.
It's never been.
It's been artificially boosted.
It still is.
It's basically a startup, Andrew, right?
Okay, don't all talk at once.
Ernest, Ernest, you go first.
Yeah.
So what I'm getting at here is that what's interesting to me is that certain folks that are on the right have made arguments about protecting women's sports.
And then you have people like Andrew who questions the profitability, which I'm not arguing with that.
I'm just making this point, right?
But then we'll argue and defending women in sports and then defending, you know, the sanctity of religion and Christianity, but then be okay and think it's humorous for dildos to be at public games where children can see those things.
And you think it's okay to disparage women in this way.
And yet you're saying protect women's sports, but dildos are being thrown out at women while they're playing sports.
So here, let me respond.
Where is the protection of women?
What you're saying here is a complete straw man.
It's literal straw man.
You're arguing with somebody who's not me.
My position is I don't care if there's trans in sports.
Women voted for it.
If they get their heads kicked in, that's their business.
You can't demand that this happen and vote for it, vote for politicians who allow it over and over and over again and not reap what you sow.
That's what the Bible says, right, sir?
Reap as you as you reap, so shall you sow.
So here's the question, right?
In this, it's a little bit of mockery, right?
It's a little bit of lampooning, just like the left is doing with Christianity.
No big deal, right?
Nobody's getting hurt.
All it's doing is hurting some feelings, right?
Just hurting some feelings, just like with, you know, the Jesus Christ superstars, just hurting the feelings a little bit.
What's the big deal?
Oh, by the way, I don't think this has anything to do with women's sports.
Hang on, don't all talk at once.
Esther, first, please.
By the way, I don't think not wanting men in women's sports means you have to be forced to support every female sport out there.
I don't think that's consistent.
My gripe with women's basketball is the same with women's football, which is the pitches, or in the case of basketball, the courts are too large.
And so women look like children on the pitch or the courts that they play on.
So visually, from a spectator's point of view, it's not entertaining.
And no matter how you spend it, no matter how much money you pull in, I can't.
I don't find that entertainment.
Esther, have you actually watched female basketball in America?
I have.
I kid you not.
I have literally tried because I love watching women's sports.
I love gymnastics, tennis, all of that.
And I have given both of these a chance.
And there is no sport that women and men play that have the same rules where the sport is not accommodated to the female athlete.
Only in women's football and women's basketball.
In tennis, for example, women play fewer sets.
But in women's football, they play on the pitches that are the same size as the men, even though physically men are bigger and stronger and have more powerful shots.
So it looks like they're children.
Exactly.
My issue is the amount of investment in women's football and basketball is not commensurate to actually making it a spectator enjoyable sport.
So they're trying to gaslight us to finding something that's not enjoyable to watch to be enjoyable because it's women, which I think is catching up.
You see, that's where you and Andrew are wrong because more and more people are watching the WNBA and it's mainly a lot of people.
Howard Stern Podcast Decline00:06:05
There are social contagion.
More and more children that don't even know their sexes are identifying as the other person.
Well, yeah, but Caitlin Clark is a genuinely generational talent.
That's the point I'm making.
It has nothing to do with the quality of the athletes.
They're excellent female footballers and female basketball players.
It's the nature of the world.
What about the dildos being thrown on the pitch?
Okay, so my security was funny.
I'm not going to lie.
I found that funny.
Although it's inappropriate and I wouldn't recommend it.
But didn't Lizzo go to an NBA game in Arcelor's Chaps where there were kids all around and she literally mooned the entire spectators there with her big bum cheeks?
Where was the outrage there?
There were children there.
All these hypocrites get sold.
Hang on.
Don't talk to me in one, but not the other.
I don't get that.
Well, that's an interesting point, too.
Mike Nellis, final word to you on dildos in the WNBA.
Words I didn't think I'd have to use, but there we are.
Dumb, just fucking dumb.
And Piers, I don't interview your job having to moderate between the four of us.
You know what?
It's slightly difficult because I'm in LA where there's a tiny delay.
So by the time I've jumped in, you've all started squabbling.
So I have to time my jumps a little bit more carefully.
Guys, thank you all very much.
It was a great debate.
Really appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hey, Mike Baker here, host of the President's Daily Brief podcast.
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Well, legendary shock jock Howard Stern is reportedly facing cancellation at the end of the year as Sirius XM prepares to shelve his $100 million a year contract.
Here with her reaction to that, Amnesty's Prince Harry scandal is Maureen Callan, host of the Nerve on YouTube, all podcast platforms.
Maureen, great to have you back at Oncensive.
Wonderful to be back with you, Piers.
Let's talk Howard Stern.
So full disclosure, I'm a massive fan of Howard Stern's.
I was surprised actually to read this story.
I know you're not such a big fan.
You think he's gone a bit soft?
Yes, and you know, I was a fan.
I was a long time listener, like so many.
I commuted to school listening to Howard.
He would get me through those long hours on the train or on the road.
And over the years, I'm going to say right before COVID, he really began to fade a bit for me.
And the key change was he went from being the anti-establishment guy, the voice of the working man, the voice of the so-called little people, and he went full Hollywood.
He decided he enjoyed hanging out with Jimmy Kimmel and Jennifer Anniston.
And suddenly, the teeth really just were pulled right out of that show.
He would rely on his staff to be the punching bags, and he would ritually humiliate them, but you could never say anything against Howard.
The second part that went to the end of the show was they stopped doing Robin's news segments, which I think was probably the most popular part of the show.
It was daily.
At the end of every show, Robin would go through the big headlines and Howard would riff extemporaneously.
And the thrill of those segments was you never knew what he was going to say.
And then thirdly, COVID happened and he went into the basement of his East Hampton mansion and he became paranoid and fearful.
And that, I think, was the final, final nail in Howard's coffin.
You know, it's interesting.
I would add a sort of fourth component.
I think there's some merit to what you've said there, but the fourth component is there's been a massive exponential rise in podcasts, right?
And YouTubers, I mean, you and I are doing YouTube shows.
And a lot of us are doing it in a very uncensored, unfiltered manner, which was kind of Howard's almost exclusive domain.
You know, he was the guy that was saying all the things that everyone wanted to say, but no one could say on mainstream media, in mainstream newspapers, on mainstream television, and so on.
He was like the antidote to that.
But now there's a whole plethora of people from Joe Rogan to Ben Shapiro to you to me to Megan Kelly, whoever it may be, Media Hassan on the left.
When there's so many people out there who appear to be speaking in a very unfiltered, uncensored manner, inevitably, you could argue, it's going to dilute the appeal of the person who was the only one doing that for a long time.
Oh, I take your point completely.
I just think that Howard neutered himself long before the podcast explosion.
You know, I think all of these voices that you've just cited, you know, myself included, we've sort of come in and filled that hole.
There is a massive, massive desire out there among listeners to hear people speak to them honestly, plainly, forthrightly, with humor, you know, with a little bit of edge.
And Howard, long ago, you know, began deciding that the company of the Paul McCartneys of the world, the Madonna's of the world, was more important than what he used to do, which was push against institutions and things and people that seemed untouchable.
It's actually what made him such an appealing talent to serious radio when they were launching and trying to go up against terrestrial radio.
And he was getting these mega, mega paydays.
Now he's making a reported 80 to 100 million dollars a year, but people have stopped tuning in.
And, you know, again, MAGA Trump radicalized him as well.
And he's lost well over half his audience.
Let's turn to Prince Harry.
Royal Family Title Stripping00:05:32
So the Charity Commission has cleared the Duke of Sussex of overreach at the charity Center Bali, but criticized him and others for letting a damaging, as they put it, boardroom battle play out in the public eye.
He is now apparently distancing himself from this charity altogether, but the Centre Bali press release says it provides Centre Bali with some degree of reassurance that the Charity Commission has not identified widespread bullying within the charity.
But the Commission has acknowledged the strong perception of ill-treatment felt by a number of parties to the dispute and the impact this may have had on them personally.
Now, there is a really amusing irony here, isn't there, that Mr. Anti-Bullying has been on the board of a charity where there appears to have been an awful lot of behavior that many would categorize as bullying.
Oh, it's just, it's just so brand Sussex, isn't it?
You know, and the really incredible part of this is he cannot push back because the face of these charges is a very exemplary, well-established, respected black woman who took her case not to Us Weekly or TMZ, but the Financial Times.
And so Harry has been forced to step down in yet another week full of losses.
And he does so not with class or culpability, but with grievance and a chip on his shoulder playing the victim.
What's going to happen to these two?
I've got to say, I can't really summon the energy much anymore to even talk about them.
If they're in the news, I might do what we've just done, but I don't feel that energy because I kind of feel like their relevance is receding on an almost hourly basis.
I kind of can't wait to see what they're going to do next.
I mean, the Netflix acts falling this week was incredible.
And then to see Megan Markle try to do some house cleaning and say, oh, no, we're working on a first look deal, whatever those parameters may be.
And I'm also interested in, you know, part two of With Love Meghan is dropping any week now.
And there's been no drumbeat.
There's no publicity leading up to this.
Wonder why.
Well, I think they were contracted to do the second season, but absolutely nobody cared about the first one.
I mean, I do think when you're reduced to making jam in your kitchen and then you claim that you've sold out in seconds when you probably only had about three pots, which is the oldest marketing trick in the book, you do feel, well, where do they go from here?
Because the only currency, it turns out that anyone was really interested in was not their jam making or their charity work or any of those things.
It was them dumping on the royal family.
But because the royal family has now ostracized them, they haven't got any new material.
They can't go around the royals soaking up damaging information they can then spray them with to the wider world.
So their oxygen of that currency is gone.
Exactly.
And that's why that leaked royal summit of just a couple of weeks ago is so consequential.
Does King Charles open the door just a little bit to Prince Harry?
Or does he take a look at what's happening and see that perhaps this timeline is a little too uncomfortable to do so right now?
Yeah, and you know, the king is facing a lot of serious health issues, as everybody knows.
He's probably got far more important things to worry about than this renegade son of his.
What I do know is that, you know, if down the line, whenever that time comes when William becomes king, I think you'll see a massive escalation in the ostracization of Megan and Harry.
I think he will be very vengeful for what he perceives as the ultimate treachery of branding the royal family a bunch of callous racists and for doing it as both Philip and the Queen were dying.
I think William feels utterly enraged about it to this day.
And I could see him stripping them of their titles.
Absolutely.
And, you know, somehow Omid Scobie, and I believe the Dutch edition of his latest book, Catherine, Princess of Wales, was named one of the so-called royal racists.
And when William historians and Charles, I see two sides to this story.
I see King Charles wanting to make his peace with his wayward son while he can.
I can also see William having absolutely every reason not to trust Harry nor his wife one single iota.
I actually, I think if William were to ostracize them and strip them of their titles, we here in America would shear.
Yeah, I think that's completely true.
And I think it will happen.
I want to end finally with a video that's gone viral of a man eating a banana in a way that many viewers outrageous.
I don't know about you, Maureen, but using a spoon to eat a banana from the skin seems to me crossing every gastronomic line that should be deemed acceptable.
Banana Eating Viral Video00:01:01
I agree with you, Piers.
And here in America, you know, anyone running for high office has to pass one test, and that is, can you go have a slice of pizza with a regular Joe and eat it the way regular people do, which is as a finger food.
And one too many use a fork and a knife, and it has legs for days when they do that.
No, you cannot use a spoon to eat a banana and ever hold high office.
The good news is, I don't think that guy probably has many aspirations to high office.
But that was great fun.
Maureen, lovely to have you back on sensor.
Thank you very much.
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