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This interview originally ran in October 2018.
We are rerunning it in anticipation of Nikki Glasers appearance onthe Comedy Central Roast of Alec Baldwin.
Roast jokes are deceptive little things.
They tend to be very short, very to the point.
But theyre often weeks and weeks in the making.
Tune in toGood Oneevery Monday onApple Podcasts,Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I wanted to go hard on Ann Coulter.
Amy [Schumer] was the one that was really like, Hey, you have a chance here.
Just say what everyone wants to.
Just go hard on her.
Go harder than you want to go.
If I want to stand out, thats a great way to stand out.
Mike really believed in it and I trust Mike.
And everyone in my trailer at the time was like, Oh, my God, that joke.
It didnt need to be a Mexican.
It couldve just been the person who digs your grave and it wouldve still been a good joke.
I didnt like that sentiment of it.
Its not my favorite joke, but Im grateful for it.
Im grateful for it.
Its not like I dont like the joke.
I dont want to insult Mike Lawrence, who wrote the joke, but its not my favorite joke.
Its just the meanest thing to say, and sometimes you better say that to Ann Coulter.
I just wish it didnt throw Mexicans under the bus.
Kevin Pollak is here.
Such an amazing actor …
I know Kevin as one of the greatest impressionists of all time.
Im a huge fan.
My favorite of his is, umm … he does an amazing Robin Williams.
I just wish you would finish it … That was my favorite joke.
Man, it had a longer ending, too, that I had to chop off.
I was like, No, but seriously, your loved ones will miss you.
And by your loved ones, I mean your assortment of hats.
I go, Dont leave a note.
Just print off your IMDb page.
Like, it just went on and on.
It was so mean.
Someone had written a joke that hes an impressionist and he does a Robin Williams impression.
They didnt write [this] joke, but [theirs] had mentioned it.
Just its so insane to tell someone to kill themselves.
Really lean into it.
I wanted to acknowledge it.
This is the thing.
Anthony Bourdain had just killed himself.
Kate Spade had just killed herself.
It was in the zeitgeist.
I was like,I know this is going to get a huge groan.
But I talk a lot about suicide in my act.
I think a lot about suicide.
Im a depressed person.
I have dark thoughts about it.
I want to acknowledge it more.
I go, Oh, have you lost someone to suicide?
Shes like, Yeah.
I go, So has everyone.
None of those people are here tonight, so shut up.
I have lost loved ones.
Ive struggled with suicidal thoughts.
I really feel, like, more entitled to that joke than any joke.
I probably should feel less entitled to it, to be honest, because its the meanest one.
Im a huge fan and my mom is an even bigger fan.
My mom has learned everything from Martha Stewart, including cooking, cleaning, and withholding affection.
I didnt even plan on doing that joke.
That was not in the prompter, but I had been working on it all week.
It just was one of the ones cut right before.
Then she wasnt that nice to me backstage right before we went on.
Like I could just tell she was as cold as I thought she was.
Im just not a big fan of action movies.
Ive never seen one of your films … consensually.
Like its always something a guy puts on when hes trying to finger me on his roommates couch.
Maybe I didnt understandTheFifth Element.
And it isnt because Im a dumb girl.
But its hard to follow that plot when youre fighting off a roofie and theres a knuckle inside you.
I wanted to write to women who have been fingered on a couch to his movies.
That joke was really written aboutThe Usual Suspects.
I was like,Theres something there.
The more I talked to women, Im like, Yeah, this is a thing.
Its a movie the guy puts on.
The thing is, the sex act is consensual.
Theyre still movies I see all the time, for men.
That just was one of those jokes.
I was like,Oh, is that funny?
I didnt even know.
Sometimes you write a joke as a comedian and you go,Why is that funny?
This interview has been edited and condensed.
