Stephen Colbert and AI Psychosis
And Shit Arcade is coming back!
Hey, everyone! How are you? Do I ask how you are too much at the top of this? Who knows. I’m weeks into doing this regularly and still figuring everything out. But I love you. I love you so much that it hurts. Well, not you. The person standing behind you. Oof. Not them either. Could everyone part like the Red Sea so I could look at everyone? You know what, maybe I was wrong. Beggars can’t be choosers. I love you and the person standing behind you.
Shit Arcade Is Coming Back to Union Hall
Should I do the announcements above? Below? Anyway!
I’m bringing my live video game show Shit Arcade back to Union Hall on September 4th. That date might slide by a few days, so I’ll update when I’ve got it finalized. When I do, I’ll post the page for tickets and the list of comedians who are better than me.
If you haven’t seen it, Shit Arcade is my live show where we make fun of some of the weirdest and worst games ever made. And then, sometimes, when everyone’s very nice, I give some of the games away to the audience.
Imagine owning your own copy of Austin Powers for Game Boy Color. Or even the Mr. Evil Game Boy Color game! The possibilities are endless.
Also, if you want to learn more about those games, I was paid human money to make fun of them for a very good website you should subscribe to.
Stephen Colbert and the Curse of Mergers
I’ll be real: The news of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show getting canceled bummed me out. And not just because I’m a fan of his, although that’s true. Stephen Colbert has been incredible over the last decade at the Late Show and years before at the Colbert Report in taking down assholes. I know first hand how much shit political late night hosts deal with. I know hosts who have received daily death threats that contain way too much personal information.
Yes, they get paid a lot of money, but making fun of shitty politicians shouldn’t involve getting sent photos from outside your house, even if you get to have a big one. And they absolutely shouldn’t get punished after achieving great ratings and critical praise. Stephen Colbert has fought tooth and nail to take that same tooth and that same nail to the people wrecking the world. It’s a shame to take him down for a merger.
And, to be honest, I do think that’s what this is. I’m not entirely convinced the show was losing $40 million a year, just like I’m not sure that Men In Black never made enough money to pay its writer what he’s owed. Hollywood accounting is a tale as old as time. You can cook the numbers so a flop is a hit and so a hit is a flop. Is it possible the show was losing money? Of course! Any show is expensive. On the other hand, if he had been on the bubble, then I don’t think his network would’ve used him as the face of their lineup until very recently.
Do I think there’s a conspiracy to silence Stephen Colbert? I don’t know. I do think there was pressure to shut him down and, as he’d been recently critical of his parent company, temporarily get him out of the way. I could see him getting a new show on a streamer pretty easily, and hopefully he can take at least some of his staff and crew with him. I’ve never worked at the Late Show, but I have watched a lot of it and I’ve seen it live (both Letterman and Colbert), which was a delight. That said, every late night show employs hundreds of people. Hundreds. Not just people with “email jobs,” as some weirdos sneer. Carpenters. Camera operators. Gaffers. Caterers. Makeup artists. Security guards.
As for late night in general, I know that the refrain is that it’s dying. It’s a claim I’ve heard before I even started doing comedy. I’m not sure that’s true. I think it’s very, very ill at the moment and might go into hibernation, but as my friend pointed out, a lot of what we have as entertainment today are talk shows such as podcasts and or stuff like Hot Ones. It’s a contraction of a genre that’s existed for a long time. But we’re also still seeing strong ratings for SNL and we’ve all seen sketch shows take off on streamers, so I don’t think that the entire comedy / variety ecosystem will collapse. Or, put another way, think about just how many celebrities love interviewing other celebrities. We’ll probably lose more shows somewhere, although I really, really hope not since my friends work on all of them. But I’m not sure the genre will just pop out of existence.
Maybe that’s a little hopeful. My prediction is that, ten years from now, some hot and upcoming comic who was born in 2015 will host a late night show as a throwback that will make everyone go, “Talk shows are back, baby!” and then we’ll kick off a new cycle of inflation and reduction. Or they’ll all go away and we’ll lose out on yet another genre of comedy. I hope not. Late night is special. You can put together a show that airs that same night. You get your comedy to the audience almost instantly rather than waiting months and months for production to finish. It’s magic. At least to me and at least as long as it lasts.
Selfishly, I’m glad I got to appear on a late night show as a guest even once. Because if they’re going away, that’s not an experience people will get to have again. Fucking wild that happened. And, yes, it’s an opportunity to drop it again.
Whatever Happened to the Comedians Who Never Stopped Talking About Freedom of Speech?
Not much to say here. They just sure got really fucking quiet recently, which is weird, because there’s been far more censorship now than there was six months earlier. Just really not hearing a lot from the “free speech over everything” guys in their 50s who wear leather jackets that are three sizes too small and hit on comedians half their age. Maybe they missed the news of people getting disappeared off the streets for writing an essay or having their show suddenly canceled after criticizing the president and a business. Maybe they’re sleepy after their years of shouting at the top of their lungs that they have a God-given right to say the N-word. Who knows?
It’s just a little strange that they stopped caring about free speech in January, right?
Ah, well! I’m sure they’ll come around!
AI Psychosis and You and Your Demons
Here’s how the conversation about AI has gone each year:
2022: We’ve got a fun new technology that’s going to change your life and make your job easier!
2023: We’ve got a new technology that’s going to change your life, whether you like it or not.
2024: We’ve got a new technology that will take your job, whether you like it or not.
2025: We’ve got a new technology that will make you think the world is out to get you and you’re secretly Jason Bourne but without the physical prowess.
Chat bots such as ChatCPT are causing people to lose their minds for various reasons. Some people are falling in love with their chat bot, which is sad, since chat bots mostly just say what their algorithm predicts you’re asking them to say. Very rarely does a chatbot go, “Whoa, whoa, I’m not sure that’s a great idea, Todd.” It might refuse to answer about something illegal, but rarely does it just push back on a thought or idea the way a good partner or friend might. I kinda worry that the people falling in love with chat bots just want someone who calls them a god every day and thinks every idea and opinion is 100% spot on. Of course, there’s also a very good chance that when I’m dying, the only person I’ll be able to talk to is my AI Girlfriend, Concretia.
I think the same “you’re right boss, of course boss” is what’s causing psychosis in people up to and including an AI CEO. I mean, just take a listen at about 30 seconds of this ramble.
Some of his friends tried to give him an out by asking if it’s a performance art piece. The tone of these replies is less, “Haha, you guys don’t understand” and more “Dude, please, this is an off-ramp, just say JK and we’re good.” Which, I get. I know comedians who’ve gone off the deep end and you try your best to pull them out of the well with a frayed rope. They usually fall right back into the well.
If you’re prone to think you’re a captain of industry who’s smart about the world and knows all its secrets, AI is specially made to drive you bonkers. Any conspiracy against you is true. Any perceived threat is accurate. AI will generate an entirely imagined fantasy world of deception where your friends and family have been replaced by clones and only the machine is telling you the truth. That’s why treating AI like it’s a neutral referee is a bad fucking idea. Because if you’ve convinced yourself that AI is “trying” its best (which it isn’t, because it’s not sentient) and that AI is neutral (which it isn’t, because the people who programmed its parameters aren’t), it’s very easy to buy that AI is really putting in an effort as a friend to warn you about the dangers around every corner.
It is fascinating, however, that we’ve moved from, “Is this technology good or bad for workers?” and gone to “Is this technology going to cause millions of people to turn into hermits holding a gun whenever they answer the door?”
Ah, well. Good times.
Recommendations
Donkey Kong Bananza might be my favorite game of 2025 in a year with truly fantastic games. It’s also made by a company that I love and involves work from some of my friends, so I’m also pretty happy about that, too. If you haven’t heard of this game, you play Donkey Kong and you punch your way through mountains to find secrets. That sounds simple, but nearly everything is destructible and getting from place to place involves solving how to destroy the right things. I’ve spent hours and hours on a level before moving on just so I can explore as much as possible. It’s beautiful in a way that makes me feel like I’m playing Grand Theft Auto 3 or Breath of the Wild for the first time.
Also, you tunnel through the ground by punching your way through and then up. Did I mention that? This game is the closest I’ve ever come to a Bugs Bunny simulator. It’s that good.
COCO COPTER is the latest song from Little Big, an incredible Russian band that moved to Los Angeles after the war in Ukraine started. And like all of Little Big’s songs, it’s extremely weird with an extremely weird video. Little Big’s style is hard to describe. It’s sort of Euro Pop but intentionally funny. Their videos are also hilarious. Watching each one is absolutely mandatory. The video for the song “Go Bananas” has straight up dragged me right out of a depression.
Other Business
I’m still working on making the transition to a different blogging site. This week and last have been swallowed by work on projects that I need to pay the bills, so I apologize for not having more movement on that.
You’re all the best and I appreciate you reading this far. May your days be AI psychosis free.