If any comedians can be counted on to inject some bracing, no-holds-barred hilarity into the oppressively cautious times we’re living through, it’s “Truth Yeller’s” Adam Carolla and his latest guest, “Deadpool” star T.J. Miller.
In the first two episodes of his new stand-up series with The Daily Wire, Carolla brought his signature fearlessness to interviews with late-night legend Jay Leno and big-screen comedy star Rob Riggle (“The Hangover,” “Talledega Nights”). In both those outings, Leno and Riggle were happy to play along and throw out their own interjections during Carolla’s trademark tirades about the absurdity of government bureaucracy and the evils of cancel culture.
For the most part, though, the Hollywood veterans let Carolla do the heavy ranting, laughing appreciatively as he took aim at sacred cows like the insane inconsistency of mask policies and the idiocy of trans activists demanding disclaimers on Dave Chappelle’s stand-up specials.
But Carolla may have finally met his truth-telling match with the edgy, subversive Miller, who made a name in Hollywood as the wild man in blockbuster movies like “Cloverfield” and hit series like “Silicon Valley.”
Just how fearless is Miller? Enough that he’s slyly poked fun at the new idol worship surrounding medical personnel in the age of Covid.
“I’m not comparing myself to a nurse, but I was out there performing with the unmasked,” the 40-year-old quipped in a recent interview about his current club tour, “The Best Medicine: Doing It Right.”
Also like Carolla, who spent more than a few minutes in the first two episodes of “Truth Yeller” riffing on the worst excesses of California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, Miller takes particular joy in skewering San Francisco’s private-jet liberals.
His HBO series, “Silicon Valley,” won legions of fans by satirizing the massive egos and out-of-touch ideology of the insulated Bay Area. Miller told The Spokesman that the targets of that show often fail to understand how it was making fun of them.
“I can’t believe these people who live in that part of country,” he said, “They’ll see me at airports or wherever, and they’ll say, ‘It’s so cool someone finally made a show about us. We’re the funniest, most interesting people in the world.’ They really believe that.”
As Miller has pointed out, “Hollywood is the only thing more ridiculous than Silicon Valley.”
Not that either Miller or Carolla want to join the legions of today’s unfunny comedians who seem to think that stand-up means delivering thinly-veiled political screeds. For both men, it’s not about pushing an agenda, but pointing out absurdity, whether it’s coming from the left or right.
“These Truth Yeller specials are a great way to bring our country together,” Carolla has said, “not over politics, but over laughs, which we all desperately need right now.”
Miller, himself a liberal, appears to agree. “For some reason, people think it’s fun or worthwhile to crucify comedians for things that they say,” he told a Denver news outlet, adding, “I certainly would encourage people right now — at this time of all times — to take thing less seriously. Try not to be offended by stuff.”
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The episode will debut Thursday and will be available exclusively for Daily Wire members.