In this special live episode from the Edinburgh Fringe, recorded on 07/08/24, Nish and Coco are joined by comedians Adam Hills and Kemah Bob to talk about how political comedy offers relief in dark times, while still holding power to account.

 

The gang reflect on political flashpoints and what they learned from it, from dropping a spoonful of sugar to the unique lens that comedy can lend while reporting devastating events. Once again, Nish is confounded by Brat Summer.

 

Later, in a special Q&A session with our live audience, we resurrect Pod Shag the UK and hear about some of the things bringing hope to our listeners, with a special appearance from Nish’s mum.

 

Guests: 

Adam Hills – Comedian

Kemah Bob – Comedian

 

Pod Save the UK is a Reduced Listening production for Crooked Media.

Contact us via email: PSUK@reducedlistening.co.uk

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TRANSCRIPT

 

[AD]

 

Nish Kumar Welcome to Pod Save the UK. Thanks very much for coming. Everybody okay? *crowd screams* how are you, Coco?

 

Coco Khan I’m good. So I had a lovely moment earlier. So this is our closing night. I believe that we can say that.

 

Nish Kumar Night two of two.

 

Coco Khan I’m on.

 

Nish Kumar This is the end of the run, guys. Weirdly, it was a sprint, not a marathon.

 

Coco Khan I’m really getting into it, though, because, you know, as a journalist, you don’t normally get to stand up on stage and talk to 150 inebriated people. Although I do hear that that’s what happens in comments.

 

Nish Kumar Yeah, you were to the Guardian. You spent every Monday speaking to 150 inebriated people at the morning meeting.

 

Coco Khan How dare you? It’s a mentee organization.

 

Nish Kumar Mentee my ass.

 

Coco Khan But I’ve really gotten into it. I found myself talking to my, earlier today, and he was saying something that I bought me, so I said. I said, I’m sorry. I have to rest my voice.

 

Nish Kumar So you couldn’t listen to what he was saying. I’ve heard people say they need to rest their voice. I’ve never heard anyone go. I have to perform tonight. I have to rest my ass. I’ve had some great texts from people today at counter-protests. And. It’s a weird feeling being here because Edinburgh people performance here at the Edinburgh Fringe often referred to it as a kind of bubble. And they mean that in a sort of in a negative connotations. They mean that people come up here, they get very isolate, they get in their own head, they lose track of reality. And the bubble I’ve found in the last couple of days is actually been quite protective of me. But at the same time, I think I felt a tremendous amount of guilt at not being actually out of the sight of some of these counter-protests with friends of mine. It’s been an odd and strange couple of days, but I was very heartened by a lot of the messages that I was receiving that the fact that crawl back Under the Filthy rocket came out. So like.

 

Coco Khan Oh, by the way, can I just tell you one interesting fact I learned today?

 

Nish Kumar You can tell me anything you want about.

 

Coco Khan All the people that fought the flash in their great numbers, who we love and respect, and like you, I wish I could have been there, but there was a phrase I talked about with that group and they said they were passive but massive.

 

Nish Kumar Yeah.

 

Coco Khan Don’t you love that?

 

Nish Kumar Yeah.

 

Coco Khan Passive, but massive.

 

Nish Kumar Yeah. Massive is a great phrase. And, we are very heartened we send out I love to the people who turned up to the counter-protest today. It was amazing stuff. Very good.

 

Coco Khan So in tonight’s show, we have some fantastic guests. We’re going to be talking about the strange ways we all came into politics. I don’t know about you guys, but I didn’t wake up at five. And you don’t wake up at five, do you?

 

Nish Kumar I did today because I had diarrhea. Anyway. That again, that’s just too much information. Okay? I think my stomach is allergic to nonalcoholic beer because I had one yesterday, and I woke up at 6:00, and I’ll tell my God, the gates of hell opened up.

 

Coco Khan Okay. So. So what I meant was five years old.

 

Nish Kumar Oh, sorry. Okay, fine. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I should have let you finish.

 

Coco Khan Yeah. I feel like I got into politics reluctantly. I didn’t want to know about all this bullshit. I just wanted to focus on other things. Nature, the arts. They made me do it. And now I’m here. So in a way, we’re all reluctant. I don’t know, activists, reluctant, politically engaged. We’re sort of true. You know, that’s. So I’m excited to talk about our strange, weird roots into getting here and how we resent the Tories for it.

 

Nish Kumar Yeah.

 

Coco Khan Yeah.

 

Nish Kumar And with that, let’s bring out our first fantastic guest. We have two of them tonight. Let’s make them both feel very welcome. Please. Welcome to the stage. Incredible comedian and one of my favorite people on the planet. Please welcome Kemah Bob. *audience screams* Yeah boy.

 

Kemah Bob Thank you for saying nice things. Incredible comedian. Favorite person. You heard it here first, people. Um before we get into anything political, I just want to say that, I am, tremendously single. I’m looking for, the one or the two, and my only request is that they be passive, but massive. That’s what I’m looking for. So has someone said that phrase tonight? That’s that’s my thing.

 

Nish Kumar This is actually a problem that we are trying to move away from because, a couple of about six months ago, somebody sent in a suggestion to the podcast that we set up a dating service.

 

Kemah Bob Yeah.

 

Nish Kumar Yeah, that that we called Pod Shag the UK. Yeah. And somebody sent it in and said, I just think, like, if you listen to this podcast, that’s like, you probably got some things in common. I’d say it might be an interesting way. It was someone who was sort of thoroughly fed up with the kind of dating market. I was sort of like, I think it would be an interesting experience to do this.

 

Kemah Bob Yeah.

 

Nish Kumar And then we sort of made it like, oh, we should do this as a joke. And then people started sending in dating profiles. And we started getting into, what one of our producers referred to as a GDPR tight spot. It was a real. It was a it was a day. It was a database, minefield. And so we sort of abandoned the project. But Kemah you are now volunteering yourself?

 

Kemah Bob Yeah. I love just, stop myself from making a joke using GDPR tight spot, but, yeah. You’re welcome. Just trying to keep it together.

 

Coco Khan So I only learned today that you guys know each other from before.

 

Kemah Bob Yeah. We, we rock, we roll, we go way back, a few years. Yeah.

 

Nish Kumar Kemah, I met Kemah a number of years ago, and Kemah supported me on tour. And going to support me going on tour.

 

Kemah Bob Hell Yeah, brother. Mostly emotionally.

 

Nish Kumar Yeah, there’s a lot of emotional support, but Kemah and I also work together. So Kemah, you’re a politically engaged individual. Your comedy has a political tinge to it, but it’s not necessarily the primary focus of it. Yeah. And yet I forced you to work on two different political shows as a writer.

 

Kemah Bob Look, you know, this, I think, it was it was an honor. Okay. Yeah, it was an honor to have to read away too much. It’s too much. Then this happens too fast, too frequently, and it’s always so bad. It’s a really. You rarely get a story coming through that’s like, oh, House of Parliament has, puppy day. You know, like, everybody should have rights. And by the way, we love puppies. Like, it’s it’s never that. So I was like, the worst shit. And then you have to, like, chew it up, swallow it and regurgitate it so people can take it in. But you’re stuck with all the skin. I don’t know how birds. I don’t know how it works. Yeah.

 

Nish Kumar Stuck with all the skin. Sounds like another bad line from your dating profile.

 

Kemah Bob It’s weird because there’s, like, there’s so many, different, formats, you know, we got the Daily Show, got, these, like, shows, like, there’s so many different formats, that people use to kind of inform folks using comedy as, you know, not to not to quote Mary P, but that little spoonful of sugar, like, people need, it’s hard to keep up, man.

 

Coco Khan Yeah. No for sure.

 

Kemah Bob You know what I’m talking about. Yeah, you on that Poppins dog? You trying to get poppin tonight? Yo, I don’t know about you, but I’m on that Poppins. I like to crack them up.

 

Nish Kumar The history of this is so I had met Kemah. I was friends with her. I thought she was an incredible comedian. And then we got a contract to do.

 

Kemah Bob You gotta stop saying such nice stuff, man.

 

Nish Kumar We that. Well, I believe I said I thought she was that incredible. But then when we were coming to do this show, we did a show that was from here about American politics for an app called Quibi. R.I.P forever in our hearts. Pull one out for the Quibi stairs if you haven’t heard of Quibi. The business model was what if YouTube wasn’t free but was worse? And it was a show written from here that about the American elections. And it was the idea was it would give us sort of external perspective, but I still felt it was important that we had an American in the room. And I also thought that comedic rhythms would do something interesting to mine. And when you’re putting together a writing room, you don’t want the same type of joke. You want 4 or 5 different types of jokes. Otherwise it feels like it gets repetitive. So I brought Kemah in, you know, largely comedically. But then also, I thought would be interesting to have an American perspective. And it’s the only time I’ve ever opened up with a job. Have them go, I don’t know, man. Maybe you should get someone else.

 

Kemah Bob Are they? Okay. The thing is, like, it’s it’s it was tough because we were, it was right before the 2020 election. And that was fuckin. That was a terrifying time. I’ve lived in the UK since 2016. Like I got in this country right before Donald Trump got in that office. And boy, oh, boy, great timing for mama. But I did have to watch, like, everyone that I know and love, be super freaked out. As you know, America got very Trumpy. And, like, so we were writing about the 2020 election. The stakes were so high, and it was so creepy. So scary. Supreme Court. Meow meow meow meow. So many things.

 

Nish Kumar Yeah.

 

Kemah Bob That’s a that’s what I would do in the writers group. The guys supreme climate man. There’s like so much and we’re trying to like joke ify it. But I’m like, this is terrifying. You know, and it’s it’s so hard to take because you want to you want, take it and you want to tone it quickly so that you can inform people, in a way that they can stomach, but it means that you have to stomach it. And it made my tummy hurt.

 

Nish Kumar Yeah.

 

Coco Khan I mean, like, you know, I don’t want to gas either of you up too much. But I do think there is a there is obviously a public good in political comedy because it’s particularly these days where there are so many. What is the phrase perma crises.

 

Nish Kumar Perma crisis? Yeah.

 

Coco Khan It’s completely natural that people will tune out and zone out, but then as soon as they do that, they’re disempowered because you know.

 

Kemah Bob What the fuck is going on?

 

Coco Khan Yeah, exactly. And then you can be pushed around, manipulated, have your rights taken away. And so, you know, you tell the jokes, you do a good thing. One thing I always wanted to know is, is satire in this society a sign of one that is really healthy, a one that’s doing really badly. Like, is the need for satire showing that something’s gone wrong? Or does it show that that society’s really comfortable with itself and it can laugh at itself? I mean, you guys work in political satire. What do you think?

 

Nish Kumar I mean.

 

Kemah Bob I love that question.

 

Nish Kumar Yeah. I mean, you would talk about like, the kind of spikes in, like, satire, like the spikes in interest in something like The Daily Show was around the Bush presidency, the war in Iraq. That doesn’t suggest it was positive. And then post 2016 again, Brexit Trump brought is the far right in Europe. There’s another kind of burst of satire. It doesn’t it feels like you’re committing an act of disaster capitalism when you do jokes about in the news, because it feels like people like, I remember trying to do comedy, like in standup clubs about the news in like 2014, people barely knew who the chancellor was, like, people knew the pyramid and it wasn’t. People were just shut off. It wasn’t because they were angry, they were bored. And the idea of talking about policy that, what. The. Fuck are I fucking listen to this shit? And I will say, after 2016, for better or worse, for worse. People definitely knew that politics had an impact on them, and there was definitely more of a readiness, even in kind of comedy clubs where people just buy tickets to see random comedians. There was more of a readiness, I think, to hear that kind of thing. I wanted to ask you what it’s like to be outside of your country as you watch it kind of lurch from crisis to crisis because like, there’s a 2016 to 2020 period.

 

Kemah Bob What are you talking about, man, we’re doing great.

 

Nish Kumar I, I like I feel like I think about this a lot with my dad because my dad. But my dad left India a long time ago. But he watches the kind of situation in India unfold with kind of rising sense of horror. I mean, if people are not, kind of conversant with what’s happening in India, it’s ruled by a kind of Hindu nationalist party, the BJP. Narendra modi has been accused of perpetrating various kind of, crimes against democracy, especially in regards to like minority groups in India. And, you know, he watches it with a kind of strange sense of horror. And I do think sometimes with a strange sense of like, oh, I don’t know, like I wish I was there to sort of participate in this somehow. Do you, do you feel like that or is there or is there also what I think is the most understandable human thing to be like, fuck, I am relieved I’m not in the middle of this every fucking day.

 

Kemah Bob It’s a mix. It’s giving, survivor’s guilt. Like, it’s it’s weird because I know a lot of people. I know a lot of people in the States at the moment who are like, how do I get out of here? Yeah. And in a way, I’m like, whoa, was I ahead of the curve? But then also I’m just like, I know so many people like, like being able to, leave where you are out of, like, choice and not out of, like, fear, right? Like, that’s that’s such a privilege, you know, and even now, as we like, approach this upcoming election, like, both of my grandmother are really religious, in different ways. And both of them are praying for the Harris, presidency, like, you know. And a man that put in the best foot forward because it’s fucking terrifying. This idea, this guy getting back in office and like, I’m here, but like, I don’t feel, I don’t feel safe. I don’t feel exempt, you know? Yeah.

 

Nish Kumar Do you feel optimistic about the Harris Walz ticket?

 

Kemah Bob Oh, my God, it’s so juicy, isn’t it? You didn’t fall out of a coconut tree.

 

Nish Kumar Can I can I insert a little clarification here? Because I’m sort of obsessed with. I think there’s this idea. Are you familiar with this? That Kamala Harris said something like my mom used to say to us “You didn’t fall out of a coconut tree.”

 

Kemah Bob Which is so cool.

 

Nish Kumar It’s like you weren’t. You know, it’s basically you were born in a specific context, people made sacrifices to allow you to be born. You didn’t just fall out of thin air.

 

Kemah Bob Beautiful.

 

Nish Kumar And people keep saying it’s a weird expression. Now, here’s the thing that I really need to clarify for everyone. Kamala Harris heard that from her mother. Now her mother is South Indian. I was raised by South Indians. That is the kind of shit they just say. Like, I cannot stress this enough. They. It is the kind of shit. My mom is here. Ask her on the way out. She will tell you five of the most unfathomable expressions you have ever heard in your life. If someone is trying to rip off my grandfather, he would generally say. He would genuinely say, what is this cucumber town?

 

Kemah Bob Hahahahahahahaha. What is this? Cucumber town?

 

Nish Kumar To this day, we don’t know what it means. When I was a kid, I won a cricket award because everyone was shit and I was less shit. My grandmother said, well, in the kingdom of no nose’s, the man with half a nose is king. And then just left the room.

 

Coco Khan Oh that’s beautiful. That’s poetry.

 

Nish Kumar And then just left the room and I’m like 11 being like, what?

 

Coco Khan Admittedly, I’ve only seen that clip through various memes.

 

Kemah Bob Yeah. Brat ex the the brat Kamala collab.

 

Coco Khan I know, I know, I know. I mean.

 

What is brat Summer? Why will no one tell me?

 

Kemah Bob We are all brat summer.

 

Coco Khan You are living a Brat summer.

 

Nish Kumar Every time I ask someone what it is, they go, it’s brat and I go, what is going on?

 

Coco Khan Hahahahaha! But just quickly, like, you know, you see those clips of Kamala and I think that couldn’t happen in the UK. Obviously she’s now announced her new running mate again. Very memey.

 

Kemah Bob Go Tim.

 

Coco Khan Very memey guy, do you think that kind of like, you know, personality gets people fired up? We are missing that in the UK.

 

Kemah Bob I was just, I literally I was just thinking this like she’s so human and I love it. Like it’s just seeping out of her. And I think it’s such a beautiful thing. Her little laugh. So fun. And I think like that kind of humanity, I think I think people need it because Donald Trump is so human. It’s just the worst kind.

 

Coco Khan Donald Trump is human.

 

Kemah Bob Yeah. Oh, yeah. That’s a real guy.

 

Coco Khan Oh, right. Yeah.

 

Kemah Bob You know what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. He’s not like, buttoned up trying to be like or toe the line of a politically correct. And that’s what, that’s what people seem to like enjoy about him. They’re like, oh man, I know that guy. I wish I didn’t, but like, I know that guy. And I feel like for so long, like, politicians have been like, I am a robot who does legislation. And it’s like, shut the fuck up. No, like you’re kooky. You hang out with Megan Thee Stallion and America Ferrera and Lance bass. That’s what Kamala has been up to. I love it.

 

Coco Khan Apparently. Walz, in his role in Minnesota, he named a street after Prince and signed it in purple ink.

 

Kemah Bob That is so cool. Do you see what I mean? That’s so cool. That’s how you get the fucking Gen Z’s fired up, bruh.

 

Coco Khan Can you can you imagine Keir Starmer doing that something? Can you imagine it.

 

Kemah Bob It? I don’t know if I can imagine Keir Starmer doing anything.

 

Nish Kumar I feel like he’d call it a butt summer. That’s what I feel. I’m just right in the middle of my Bart summer. It is now time to bring on our second guest, someone else who fell into political comedy out of a coconut tree. Please welcome the legend of the Edinburgh Festival and the host of the last leg, the incredible Adam Hills.

 

Adam Hills Hi. Can I put my can I put my iron brew there?.

 

Kemah Bob Welcome to the stool.

 

Adam Hills It’s an iron brew for me. It’s not alcohol, it’s just iron. Iron brew gets me through this festival.

 

Nish Kumar Pandering to the Scots.

 

Adam Hills Oh it’s not. Oh, no.

 

Adam Hills I love it.

 

Adam Hills I’ll show you. Pandering to the Scots. If anyone can see my prosthetic leg right now.

 

Coco Khan Oh wow.

 

Adam Hills That’s how you pander to the Scots.

 

Nish Kumar For the benefit of people listening to the podcast. Adam brandishes prosthetic leg and it was simply festooned with a William Wallace says worth of Scotland’s ties.

 

Adam Hills I like the William Wallace reference as well, because I think the phrase would be they may take my.

 

Adam Hills Leg, but I never take my freedom.

 

Coco Khan So, Adam, you and I were talking in the green room. Yes. About, strange journeys into politics. Yeah, but do you do you enjoy. I mean, you started life not doing this sort of stuff. Yeah.

 

Adam Hills No, no, no, I always wanted to get into politics, and I thought, you know, what’s the best way to do that? Do a show about the Paralympics?

 

Adam Hills Yeah.

 

Nish Kumar We should, until everybody here is more than familiar with the last leg. But the last leg, started life as a show in the 2012 Paralympic Games that it’s supposed to be sort of funny and lighthearted. Round up of the day’s events. In the Paralympics, hosted by Adam, with Alex Brooker and little Joshy Whitaker and. But then it sort of it it became successful.

 

Adam Hills Well, so what happened was, after the Paralympics, channel four called me in for meeting and said, look, we like the chemistry that you guys have. Do you think this could be a regular show? And I was like, yeah. And I said, what would you like it to be about? And I said, well, do you know what disability sport is the type of thing that no one’s covering. What if we did a show that was about disability sport every week and we could branch out into topical events? But let’s start with disability sport. And they said, yes, we love it and they commissioned it. We got to the first episode and they went, so it’s about politics. They get I say, I say, and in all honesty, the two things they didn’t want us to talk about when we started making the last leg were disability and sport, because they. We need to set you aside. We need people to know that it’s not a disability sports show anymore. You need to only talk about the news. And then three weeks into our first ever season, Oscar Pistorius made the headlines. And suddenly we were talking about disability sport all over again. But weirdly, that was the perfect way of getting into politics, because the Paralympics is such a joyous event, but it’s also live. So you have to talk about what’s just happened, and you can’t be cynical because it’s people with disabilities winning gold medals. So you have to be genuine and honest and speak from the heart. So then and bear with me. Then you have Oscar Pistorius shooting his girlfriend through the door of a bathroom, and most other comedy shows would probably have gone, well, we can’t talk about this. But we went well, no, we did the Paralympics and we talked genuinely and we talk from the heart. So let’s talk genuinely about this and let’s open by going. There are no jokes to be made, but let’s have a discussion about this. And I think the Paralympics weirdly set us up for being able to be honest and not necessarily funny at all times. So in a way, it weirdly paved the way for us to then talk about the news.

 

Nish Kumar And because because it does go out live, it does mean that there are points where you do just have to let the audience sit with something, right? You can’t edit out a moment where the audience is sat with some heavy piece of information you have to keep that goes out, but I think that’s part of the appeal of the show.

 

Adam Hills I think the way we look at it is in, well, we look at it in two ways. We’re kind of like The Daily Show for a pub culture. Do you know what I mean? Like America has The Daily Show. They have a guy in a suit telling you what’s what. No one in Britain wants that. They want three blokes on a couch who kind of get together once a week and go, fuck, that was mad. But if something serious happens, like we were on air after, you know, Jo Cox was was was murdered. Then you want those blokes on a couch to to be genuine and to go, this is awful. This is genuinely awful. And I think unfortunately, we’ve been doing it for so long, we’ve almost got a routine. Now when a horrific thing happens, we go, right, this is the way we deal with it and we talk about it genuinely, and we let the audience know that there’s going to be some light later in the show, and then eventually we get around to it.

 

Coco Khan I mean, the genuineness, I think is what’s amazing about it. And like, definitely in my life, you know, I was an arts and culture journalist and just a general human interest journalist, and you start finding that politics is everywhere. Politics is in sport, politics is in dating. Politics is in what you eat. And actually when you look at politics, politics, sometimes it’s other things. It’s actually more soap opera, actually, more like, you know, vendettas and revenge and backstabbing.

 

Kemah Bob Camp is so boring.

 

Adam Hills Haha, yeah. oh.

 

Adam Hills Okay, here’s a question for you. Let’s have a sweepstakes. Who’s going to be the first politician in the next month to use the word bribe?

 

Nish Kumar Well, they’ve it’s already happened. Unfortunately, a ship has sailed, and it is full of people. Embarrassingly old. Amusing it slightly incorrectly, because obviously the Kamala Charlie Brat collab happened immediately because Charlie XCX described it as being brat. So then the Kamala Harris official campaign socials team turned everything into the brat green. And then I heard somebody described Priti Patel, who it was.

 

Kemah Bob Noooooo.

 

Nish Kumar Every Asian kids, least favorite aunt. But then somebody people, various, people close to Priti Patel, started describing her anonymously to, reporters as being that pretty was the brat candidate. So which does not make. And he. I don’t even know what brat is.

 

Adam Hills Unless it’s an acronyn.

 

Nish Kumar It doesn’t make any sense.

 

Adam Hills It only works if it’s an acronym for something.

 

Nish Kumar Yeah, yeah. Big racist asshole. Twat. Allegedly.

 

Coco Khan But I did want to ask you. So, so sorry to go to go back to my serious questions, but I did want to ask you, do you enjoy it? Do you two do you enjoy it? Do you enjoy commenting on politics?

 

Adam Hills Oh, I mean, there’s a great old quote, isn’t it, that. Isn’t it the. To the philosopher, all news is gossip. So it’s all a little bit of bullshit at the end of the day. But I do love it. Yeah, there’s something vital and something really urgent about it.

 

Coco Khan And I guess it’s a bit like sport in that way.

 

Adam Hills Yeah, absolutely. I think one of my favorite days ever at the last leg was when Theresa may was prime minister, and she was making an announcement to the 1922 committee. And our office was in Oxford Circus at the time. And I remember it coming up on the screen. And so we’re only a 15 minute walk away from the Houses of Parliament, and we have a journalist on that works on staff with us at the last leg. To make sure, you know, we’re actually factual. And we were watching it and they said there’s going to be an announcement in the 1922 committee in about, you know, 25 minutes time. And he went, oh, I’ve still got my press pass. Does anyone want to come with me? And our producer went, Holy shit, I want to be part of this. And so 25 minutes later, we turn on the TV and our journalist and producer are in the background of the press conference like we are. So in the middle of what’s going on right now that they’re actually literally on the screen while we’re watching it. So just being a part of it, being able to talk and as you say, being live for us, shit happens at 5:00 on a Friday and all of a sudden we’re on a few hours later and we’re just going, oh my God, you’re not going to believe what I remember reading out Matt Hancock’s messages about the whole, like during the ad break, they were coming in and I was coming back from the edge going, we’ve got more. That’s when you feel like you’re part of something. Can I just say something, though? And I’d like to say so. There’s a weird thing now because, you know, I’ve become known for the last leg, but I’ve never been that political when I do stand up comedy and certainly not topical. I don’t think there’s any point during a show for two years that you’re gonna have to.

 

Adam Hills Really?

 

Kemah Bob Yeah. My God.

 

Adam Hills So once.

 

Kemah Bob That’s too much.

 

Nish Kumar Nish don’t kill my vibe. Tickets are available now.

 

Adam Hills No. Politics was never. It’s not. And it’s certainly not my thing when I’m doing stand up comedy.

 

Kemah Bob It’s weird because it’s like it’s not. My thing is, but I think, like, we, inherently political, like, our identities are inherently political. And then anytime you really talk about anything you care about, like, it does kind of become that.

 

Adam Hills Yeah, yeah.

 

Kemah Bob You know what I mean? So it’s it’s weird because there’s, I like how you put it. Politics. Politics. Right. Which I guess is like here, here, the gentleman across the aisle is a bit of a cunt. That’s so fiery that, like I’ve heard enough, is like, oh, go off.

 

Coco Khan Okay. I mean, I’ll, I’ll be honest. Sometimes I get annoyed with it because I’m like, this isn’t a game. The Yankees lives. It’s not a circus. It can annoy me. But I do accept that sometimes when there’s a good dis, the person I am known to quietly nod yes. Do you think it’s going to be harder to make jokes under the Labor Party?

 

Kemah Bob Man. Well, it’s fucking the West Streeting. That guy’s a fucking clown. Jokes. Jokes are already happening, man. Yeah, some of these people are jokes. It’s so weird because they’re like, yes, this is better, but how much?

 

Adam Hills It’s definitely gonna be different. Yeah. Part of me thinks it’s, in a weird way, going to be easier because it’s easier to have a have a playful joke with the people that you love. The people in your own family are you idiot? Why have you done that? When it’s the neighbors next door that you hate? It’s really hard to be funny about them.

 

Coco Khan You know Nish is like.

 

Nish Kumar No, no, no, no. I listen, I think, I definitely think there’s there’s definitely some truth to that. I also think in some regards, there is at least an attempt at professionalism with the Labor Party. And that puts us back at a position where if you’re making jokes about the news, you’re dealing with people who are trying to be serious, which is obviously inherently funny. Also, I would always remind people that, you know, I came of age, in the late 90s and early 2000.

 

Kemah Bob Noooo

 

Nish Kumar I know I’m so brat. He came of age. I just as I realized this, I realize I’m now gonna have to explain to my mother what brat is, and I don’t know, I would say that, in that period of time, the thick of It is, like, truly, like one of the most enduring classic political comedies of all time. If you haven’t seen The Thick of It, it’s great. And it was specifically a satire targeted at the Labor Party and the Labor Party’s kind of obsession with image and spin. And it really got under the hood of what was funny about that iteration, the Labor Party. And I would also always recommend people that they watch, in the loop, which is the filmed version of The Thick of It. And that, I think, is still one of the best films that engages with the lead up to the Iraq War. And it is extremely funny, but pitch black and furious satire about the lead up to the Iraq War and the kind of appalling decision making that led to that war that brought so much kind of misery and death to that region. And it’s something that I would always check out. So that’s the thing that I always come back to. I’m like, you can still do it. There’s still going to be fuck ups.

 

Kemah Bob I think satire at its finest is, is a mirror. And I think you’ve got to hold it up no matter who you’re holding it up to. Like, it’s it’s about self-awareness and, like, nobody gets off easy, you know, like, oh, I can’t wait to Rebecca miller. Please, please let it become. And I think even like when Biden was in office, he still is technically. But like, it’s a wrap. The movie, like, it was tough because people didn’t want to, like, go at him too hard because, there was this big energy that Trump would come back around. And so it’s like, you don’t want to, like, tell him a new one, just in case we needed to do him to tear it again.

 

Adam Hills Yeah.

 

Kemah Bob And that I think that puts people in a kind of compromising place when you have to pretend that this guy isn’t melting in front of us all.

 

Adam Hills Yeah.

 

Nish Kumar I think we’ve identified something that’s really probably interesting and important because perhaps there was a scrutiny deficit of Biden because of the fear of Trump. And maybe one of the things that we’re learning, like as progressive people, certainly in the last 20 to 25 years of politics, is that it is as important that we scrutinize the people we have more in common with than we’re very happy scrutinizing, the, the right when they’re in power. We’re very happy doing it aggressively. And, you know, again, as someone growing up in the late 90s and early 2000, maybe there was a scrutiny deficit of Tony Blair, maybe that scrutiny deficit is what led him to make the absolutely unfathomable decision to take us into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Maybe the scrutiny deficit of Biden meant that we weren’t pushing him hard enough. Maybe that meant that it was only when it was sort of exposed to national television that he was what I believe the quote is melting in front of.

 

Kemah Bob My God.

 

Nish Kumar That, you know, maybe what you’ve identified there is something that’s important, both for satire and for the kind of liberal or leftist media that is actually really, really significant that we scrutinize our friends as much as our enemies.

 

Adam Hills Absolutely. But do you think anyone after Hitler was going, oh, yeah, how are we going to make fun of the next guy?

 

Nish Kumar Yeah, yeah.

 

Adam Hills Maybe just give the next guy a bit of a free pass for a while.

 

Nish Kumar Yeah. That’s definitely the energy that I think because, like, I, I, I just to be clear, I don’t blame anyone, especially in America. And to be honest, I sort of don’t blame people right now who, you know, sometimes when we go at the Labor Party on the podcast, we do sometimes get feedback from people like plate. Just please give us a month. Yeah. Just please fucking give us a month. But but, you know, but at the same time, I do think there might be sorts of lessons to be learned here. And, I mean, I do think we are in a demonstrably different position, at the moment than America was in 2020, where it was like, Trump has been defeated. But, this is like one of those movies where they’ve definitely set up the sequel in the price credit sequence. The only thing I will say positively about the Conservative Party is they have had the decency to fully share the bed they have. The bed is so shattered that at the moment you can’t even tell it’s a bad. You’re looking at it going, that’s a pile of shit. The disarray, just at the media is is pretty, is pretty thorough and spectacular.

 

Coco Khan The next thing I wanted to ask everyone is do you feel hopeful?

 

Adam Hills What’s giving me some real hope? And especially watching everything that’s gone on in England over the last couple of weeks? And there’s I have a big section in my show about, Islamophobia. And I have to tell a specific story about a moment that I saw of of someone feeling, you know, worried about, the color of their skin in England. And it didn’t get much of a response on the first night here in Edinburgh. And I was wondering why. And then the second night I said, sorry, are you more accepting of Muslims in Edinburgh in Scotland than in England? And the whole audience went, I. I was like Oh my God. And then I went home and did some research. And there is a general feeling that north of the border there is way more acceptance, of of people of all ethnicities, but particularly Muslims. And, and to be honest, I’ve tried to work out why and I thought, is it a is it because Scotland don’t cling on to that outdated sense of empire that English people have, or is it because they integrate Muslims better? And then I realize, no, no, no. The reason that Muslims are accepted here in Scotland is because they’re not in England. And this is a whole country of people going, what do they do? We’ll do the opposite. And you talk about this bubble, okay. And you said, what a lovely feeling it was being in the bubble, but also how you feel guilty about it. But this bubble. Look, I’m sure I’m being Mr. Positive Pants, but that has given me a sense of hope because I’ve thought, hang on, it’s not. It’s not just written in law that this this island, bearing in mind I’m from the other side of the world and completely different island, that everyone on this island is going to act a particularly horrific way. And so, if anything, Scotland in this particular last week has given me a little bit of hope. And that’s how you pander to a nation. Starts with a foot and ends with the ha ha ha.

 

Nish Kumar Ha ha ha ha! I believe we’ve just live heard Adam title his nex tour.

 

Coco Khan Yeah. That’s that’s the, the fundamental, hopeful aspect of politics, right, is that nothing is ever certain. There is always possibility and that’s worth fighting for. So if you’ll all indulge me, audience, I’d like to ask you, hands up, what are you hopeful for? And let’s share it. All right. Because an Edinburgh Fringe show wouldn’t be complete without a little bit of therapy at the end, I think.

 

Kemah Bob Yeah. Before we get into the questions, just to save us time. Just a reminder that I am a single. Just. Yeah, that’s one less question. Yeah. I was wondering, everyone’s thinking.

 

Nish Kumar That one was thinking it. It was the first bag you said, my friend. What is your question?

 

Audience Member So for the LGBTQ plus community, it’s been about the last, like, fuck knows how long at this point? Yeah.

 

Nish Kumar Couple of thousand years.

 

Audience Member Yeah.

 

Nish Kumar That’s what that’s what the people of color around to get up to at the moment. It’s been pretty shit for a couple of thousand years.

 

Audience Member I feel like that’s the vibe, the moment for everyone. But for folks who are sitting there going like, oh, it’s been like, is there any hope? Is there any change? There was a small mining village in the northwest of England, which I’m from originally, and they just held their first pride ever. Like the weekend. Just go. It was one of those things where, like, my aunties took a photo with a drag queen for the first time they’ve ever done this. They were so enthused, and they took a photo and sent it to me. And we’re like, look, we’re allies. And I was like, that’s so cute like. They were just so happy about it. And it was the cutest shit you’ve ever seen. But yeah, so if you’re sitting, then you’re thinking everything is shit and people do change and nothing changes. It takes a while, but it can change. Like, even in a small way.

 

Nish Kumar Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. That was very. That was lovely. Also, I think Coco’s always very good at saying, reminding people that hopelessness and despair is the kind of thing that’s going to keep us from actually progressing forward. It’s good to remind ourselves of the hopeful things. Yes.

 

Audience Member Hello. Hello.

 

Nish Kumar What an opening.

 

Audience Member I, so I’ve been trying to get more into news and politics over the last year. So I’ve listened to your podcast and listened to James O’Brien as well. And sometimes I just feel like there’s too much bad news. So just like a question for all of you is, how do you cope when it feels like it’s just a never ending sludge of Manila being pumped into your house?

 

Coco Khan It’s very poetic.

 

Adam Hills Thank you. Alcohol.

 

Kemah Bob I’m not, like, a big drinker, but I find that a good wank.

 

Coco Khan Self-care.

 

Kemah Bob Yeah. Get that. Get that weight off your shoulders.

 

Adam Hills So single you say?

 

Kemah Bob Independent modern woman.

 

Nish Kumar Coco? Hills any specific thing?

 

Adam Hills All right. Okay. Can I answer that with a story, then? Working at the last leg. The day of the Westminster attacks, which were again, clearly. Westminster is like a ten minute walk from our offices. Horrific. Watching it on the TV and I went straight into work mode, which is how on earth we’re going to cover this. This is horrific. And there’s one little quote popped into my head from Mr. Rogers, the American kids TV host, which is always when someone has said, what do I say to my kids when there’s a horrible tragedy or a disaster on the news? And he said, tell them to look for the helpers. Always look for the helpers, because there was one asshole in the Westminster attacks and there were dozens and dozens of helpers. So in that respect, when there’s when there’s news and there’s a, you know, a pile of manure being pumped in, look for the good, but look for the helpers, because if we look at what’s going on in England right now with the race riots, how many? I don’t know if you’ve seen tonight, but in places like Bristol and Brighton and Walthamstow, thousands of people in Brighton and this is God. What a beautiful piece of irony. Some of the far right assholes, because they’re not protesters. We know that we’re being protected by the police, the people who’ve been throwing shit at the police all week and now depending on them to save their lives because there’s thousands, thousands of people now coming out. So you went look for the helpers, and in this case, look for the thousands of people around England who have stood up and gone, no, we’re not going to stand for this shit anymore. And look for the thousands of people in Scotland who go and we don’t already like Jeremy. So for me it would be look for the helpers.

 

Coco Khan I mean, I yeah, I completely agree. You know, every story that, you know, as a, as a journalist myself. Okay, fine. Sometimes you get stories out because someone’s read some data that got released by a government department, but most of the time stories gets out because citizens told you that’s why there are we there are plenty of people with good senses of right and wrong in this country. I’d say they were the majority. And the problem is, is that they are constantly made voiceless and are constantly made powerless. So yeah, that’s always what gives me hope. Because for every sad story and bad story and yeah, sometimes those stories, you do feel like that problem is not going to be fixed immediately. And that really hurt. But the fact that, you know, that story is because people know that was wrong and they’re not having it. And so I think that’s something to cling to and something to fight for and keep pushing on. Yeah. And even just when you were talking about the shit, as in like the manure of life.

 

Adam Hills Not not the bed of shit.

 

Coco Khan Not the bed of shit.

 

But the manure of life. Got it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

Coco Khan When I was thinking of the manure of life. I then started thinking about our sewage system. Sorry this has gotten weird. But I people have been talking about, members of the public have been going out and measuring shit for, like, a decade. Like, it’s just citizen journalism. Citizen activism. I don’t know their names, but whoever you are, wherever you are, you literally put your hands in shit so we one day can swim. And I respect it. So yeah, that’s that’s what keeps me going.

 

Nish Kumar So we’ve got a range of answers there. We’ve got citizen journalists. Look to the helpers. Alcohol and masturbation. I feel like as often with all of these things, everyone contributes something to that.

 

Kemah Bob 1000%, yeah.

 

Nish Kumar Does anyone have another question or another thing that they’re hopeful about?

 

Audience Member I have two quick questions. So one is, having seen a longer course of history, I’m curious, is your mom hopeful about the future or the current? And what is she hopeful about?

 

Nish Kumar And what’s your second question?

 

Adam Hills Kemah, can I have your number?

 

Coco Khan Pod Shag the UK.

 

Kemah Bob Shag the UK. Turn Up

 

Adam Hills He was so quiet about that. He was so unassuming.

 

Kemah Bob Quiet confidence. Quiet confidence.

 

Coco Khan That was brat. That was brat.

 

Adam Hills No, that was passive.

 

Kemah Bob But massive I fuck with it. I fuck with the vibes.

 

Nish Kumar Was going to well, I was going to say was where we can I see almost my mum was she’s hopeful about one of the most polite ways you’ve ever been called out in your life Bina was by a man saying, having seen a longer span of history.

 

Coco Khan I love that the last word is going to your mom. Thats right.

 

Nish Kumar I mean, I feel like that’s going to be I’ve set you up with quite difficult to follow because that man is also somehow managed to ask, became a bubs number and get a comment from I mean, this show is ending in the most enthralling fashion possible. Like I cannot believe we have lucked out on quite the conclusion here. So I guess we’ll resolve the Kemah plotline. Off mic. For the last word now, and with quite the eye to follow, we turn, to my mother for what she feels hopeful about. Please Don’t fucking ask became his number as well. Like we in all manner of difficulty.

 

Kemah Bob I’ll give it to you girl.

 

Nish’s Mother I’m too old for that, so.

 

Nish Kumar No, no, you’re not too old. You’ve just seen a longer span of history. What are you hopeful about, mother?

 

Nish’s Mother I’ve been living in this country for 52 years now.

 

Nish Kumar That’s a long span of  history.

 

Nish’s Mother Most people are nice people.  So I’m hopeful that they’ll stand up and say, you know. stand up for what’s right. I think they will.

 

Nish Kumar That’s the last word. That’s my mum. We call her killer B. She does not like it. What a hopeful and wonderful way. To end the podcast from the woman who brought me into this world. And I would say reminds me of that on a day to day basis. Including copious uses of the word stretchmarks. But, thank you so much, to all of you for coming to these shows. It was a genuine privilege to do this. We’re so happy that people came. We’re so happy that people knew what it was. We’re so happy the people stayed energetic even though it’s fucking one in the morning. oh. Just before we go, can we just have a huge and massive round of applause for our two guests, the brilliant Adam Hills and the incredible Kemah Bob. You can catch Kemah’s show Misfortunate here at the fringe until the 25th of August. Check it out. It is an absolutely amazing show and you can catch Adam Hills on the last legs coverage of the Paralympics in just a few weeks, and his new documentary, footfall on the 26th of August on Sky. To our listeners at home. Thank you so much for joining us. We’re taking a break for a few weeks, but we will catch you in early September. This was a Reduced Listening production for Crooked Media. Thank you and good night.