Do you guys celebrate the NFL?
-(crew laughing) -Yeah? Somebody?
Nobody? I...
So, here's the thing. I don't...
obviously, I haven't watched American football my whole life.
I don't really understand American football
and, like, its rules.
Because I saw that Aaron Rodgers got fined,
like, for his... for violating COVID protocols.
It was, like, $15,000 or something.
But then I also saw another player got fined, like,
for not tucking in his shirt, and his fine was, like,
20-something thousand dollars.
Did you see this? What is it, 26?
Thought it was... Yeah, either way,
$15,000 and $20,000, the one guy violated COVID,
The other guy didn't tuck in his shirt.
Like, I thought that CTE was just an issue with the players,
but now I feel like even in leadership
there are some guys are just like, "Aw, my head."
"Yeah, $20,000 for that guy."
I mean...
What's that? I just got fined by the NFL?
ANNOUNCER: Coming to you from the heart of Times Square,
in New York City, the only city in America,
it's The Daily Show.
Tonight-- Santa Claus isn't coming to town,
officers who aren't gentlemen,
and Will Smith!
This is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
Hey! What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to The Daily Show. I am Trevor Noah,
Let's jump straight into today's headlines.
♪ ♪
We kick things off with YouTube, the place to go
if you want to be radicalized but are too lazy to read.
They're about to make a big change to the site,
and if you don't like it, there's no way to tell them.
YouTube is going to start hiding the dislike count below videos.
That means when you hit the thumbs-down button below a video
the person who made that video will still be able to see that,
but the total number of dislikes
won't be displayed to the public.
YouTube says this is all in an effort to promote
a more respectful relationship between creators and viewers.
Apparently, groups of viewers are targeting
a video's dislike button to drive up the count,
turning it into something like a game with a visible scoreboard.
And it's usually just because they don't like
the creator or what they stand for.
Yeah, finally.
This is a great move from YouTube.
You shouldn't be able to bully people on YouTube
with the dislike button.
That's what the comments are for.
You know? I like the comments.
You can't just click a button, you've got to make an effort.
You've got to open up the comment box
and you've got to type something, you know?
You've got to tell the creator to stab themselves
with a rusty screwdriver. Effort!
And by the way, I like that YouTube is doing this,
but you know what's going to happen here, right?
I mean, getting rid of the thumbs-down button
isn't going to solve anything.
Trolls are too creative.
What's going to happen now is, the first comment on every video
is just going to say, "Thumbs down,"
and then that's going to get 10,000 thumbs-up.
If you ask me, I don't even know why they ever had
a dislike button on YouTube.
Like, how are you going to dislike a free video?
It's free, you asshole!
The only response you should be able to leave on a free thing is
"Thank you for this free thing."
Don't be like, "I don't like it." It's free!
Don't tell me your opinions on free shit.
Oh, speaking of the dislike button,
let's move on to politics.
As various high-profile Republicans
begin to think about running for president in 2024,
one of their biggest considerations is what to do
about the man who thinks he won the election in 2020,
Donald J. Trump.
Because that's basically what Trump is gonna be running on.
You realize that, right? He was cheated the last time,
so that means he deserves another four years
or maybe 30 years as president.
But it turns out there is one Republican
who is brave or stupid enough
to stand in his way.
Political blows from Chris Christie
and former President Donald Trump.
It started with comments the ex-New Jersey governor
made over the weekend
at the Republican Jewish Coalitions conference.
Christie called on Republicans
to move past Trump's baseless claim
that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
We can no longer talk about the past
and the past elections. It is over.
NEWSMAN: And now former President Trump
is slapping back.
"Chris Christie was just absolutely massacred
"by his statements that Republicans have to move on
"from the past, meaning the 2020 election fraud.
"Everybody remembers that Chris left New Jersey
"with a less than nine percent approval rating, a record low.
They didn't want to hear this from him."
NEWSMAN 2: Chris Christie then responded
in an interview with Axios.
Look, I-I'm not gonna get into a back-and-forth
with Donald Trump, but what I will say is this.
When I ran for reelection in 2013,
I got 60% of the vote.
When he ran for reelection, he lost to Joe Biden.
Uh, something tells me you are going
to get into a back-and-forth with Donald Trump.
I like how he's like, "I'm not going gonna
get into a back-and-forth, but let me tell you my shit."
This dude is taking a rock
to a hornet's nest and being like,
"I don't want to get in a thing here, but..." (grunts)
And, look, I do get Chris Christie's point, right?
He wants the party
to talk about Joe Biden's current failures,
not about how China used mind control
to delete Trump votes in Georgia or whatever the new story is.
But telling Donald Trump to stop obsessing
over the 2020 results
is like telling Gollum to maybe try a necklace
or a bracelet or something. It's not gonna happen.
Here's the thing. If Christie wants to play this smart,
this is what he's got to do.
He shouldn't tell Trump that he lost the election.
He should agree with Trump that he won the election.
Yeah. Because then he can say,
"Look, Donald, I would love to support you,
but you've already served two terms."
And then Trump's mind would be blown. He'd be like,
"Wait, I won? Then I'm the president now.
"That means... I'm Joe Biden?
But that's a bunch of malarkey." (gasps)
All right, let's move on because there's one story
that is dominating our lives today and probably forever:
coronavirus.
And we've got all the latest updates
in another installment of Keeping Up with Corona.
♪ ♪
For over a year now, everyone has been asking
two questions about the corona pandemic.
One:
do masks make everyone's breath smell like shit or just mine?
And two:
if those thermometer guns really work,
then why did we take our temperature
up our butts all those years?
Oh, and there's-there's actually another question
that everyone has been wondering.
When is the pandemic finally going to be over?
Well, with COVID cases now stalling
at a pretty high level,
it is looking more and more likely
that COVID may stay with us forever.
Yeah. Like that uncle
who said he was just passing through town
and then 20 years later still has your room.
Now, luckily for America,
the pandemic will probably never be as deadly as it was
thanks to vaccines.
So you still have COVID but not the deaths.
'Cause America has more than enough vaccines
for every man, woman and child who doesn't listen to Joe Rogan.
In fact, the United States has so many vaccines
that they finally decided to make it rain
on the rest of the world.
NEWSWOMAN: Now the U.S. is aiming to send more doses
of the COVID vaccine to people living
in conflict zones around the world.
They include the Democratic Republic of Congo,
South Sudan and Yemen.
Reports say Secretary of State Antony Blinken
announced a deal between Johnson & Johnson
and the COVAX vaccine sharing program.
Blinken says that less than 2% of the population
living in conflict zones are vaccinated.
America is sending the Johnson & Johnson vaccine
to conflict zones?
Hasn't Yemen been through enough?
I mean, it's-it's bad enough that poor countries get T-shirts
from the losing Super Bowl team,
but now, now they have to get the third-place vaccine?
By the way,
you-you know how MAGA people are always at their rallies
with the T-shirts that say "Trump won"?
Do you ever wonder, did they get the T-shirts
that were supposed to go to Africa?
(man chuckles)
(laughs)
Maybe they were like, "No, no, keep them here."
Maybe when the shipping shut down, they were like,
"We can't send them to Africa," and they were like,
"All right, we'll wear them. It's fine. We'll wear them.
We got this."
And people in Africa were like, "Aw!
So no one won and nobody lost."
Anyway, look, I know there are a lot of reasons
why it's better to send J&J to conflict zones
than Moderna or Pfizer, right?
It's easier to transport,
and you don't need to depend on people being able
to come back for a second shot.
But I wouldn't be surprised
if there were some American officials who were like,
"Well, we're not gonna waste the good vaccines
"on someone who's just gonna step on a landmine tomorrow.
Am I right, fellas?"
And, look, it is a good thing. Don't get me wrong.
I mean, the last thing a conflict zone needs
is corona on top of that.
The only downside of this
is that now you might get people who are incentivized
to come to the conflict zone just to get a vaccine.
I hope that doesn't happen.
'Cause, next thing you know, there's gonna be people
from Nigeria interviewing to join the Taliban.
"So, tell me, why do you want to join our glorious cause?"
"Oh, predominantly for the health benefits
"and, uh, oh, also, death to America, of course, huh?
"If that helps my application,
you can put that in as well."
So, it's good that more and more people around the world
are getting vaccinated.
But the problem is it might not be enough.
Because it turns out
people aren't the only ones who are spreading the 'rona.
NEWSWOMAN: There's a study that reveals
that deer are a widespread carrier of COVID-19.
A study researched the North American population
of white-tailed deer,
and researchers say as much as 80%
of the 445,000 Iowa population may carry the virus.
NEWSWOMAN 2: Potentially bigger problems loom down the road.
Questions still remain about COVID's effect
on deer populations, and we don't know yet
if the virus could survive with the deer
and then mutate and infect people then, too.
I knew it.
I knew that, one day, the deer would get their revenge
for what we did to Bambi's mom.
And I don't know about you, but I was shocked when I heard this.
'Cause I didn't think that deer could get COVID.
I mean, I thought they had herd immunity.
(scatting)
Ha-ha! Ha-ha!
My man.
But now scientists are worried
that corona might mutate in the deer
and jump back into us humans.
And you might be thinking, "Trevor, come on.
"It's not like humans are hanging out with the deer.
We'll be fine." Yeah, yeah.
That's what we said before that guy banged a bat.
Look at us now.
And we all agree- it was Batman who did that, right?
It was probably Batman.
I mean, who else has a thing for bats?
He's doing things in that cave.
And I know we don't want to talk about this
because he's our hero, but think about it, people.
Think about it.
If you want the crime-fighting Batman,
you got to take the bat (bleep) Batman.
It's a package deal.
All right, and, finally, we've talked a lot
about how the pandemic is causing labor shortages
around the country.
I mean, it's the reason why these days,
when you go to the drive-through,
you have to spit in your own food.
But now, labor shortages are even threatening
the Jeff Bezos of The North Pole: Santa.
NEWSMAN: And staff shortages are hitting The North Pole.
Department store Santas are in short supply this season
due to COVID concerns. One report found
the number of available Santas is down 15%.
NEWSWOMAN: Hire Santa helps people find and hire
Santa's Helpers around the world for parties,
mall appearances and more.
It is a, uh, dramatic shortage.
And we are already, uh, sold out
across the country on several dates in December.
NEWSWOMAN: Before the pandemic,
Hire Santa said demand was already tight,
but after losing some Santas to COVID-19,
some retiring, and some concerned about COVID-19,
it's led to a pinch on Santas this holiday season.
Yeah, people, this is not surprising.
Of course Santa got COVID.
He spends half his time around unvaccinated children,
and the other half around deer.
I mean, the solution to this problem is pretty obvious.
If you want more Santas,
then you've got to offer them more money.
Hell, if you raise the pay enough,
you may even get the real Santa to sign up.
I mean, that man has spent a thousand years getting paid
in cookies and milk.
A job at the mall-- that's a huge step up.
For more on this, I want to bring in
our very own Ronny Chieng,
who's looking into this story at a local mall.
Ronny, when you look at...
Wait. Why are you in a Santa suit, Ronny?
Uh, because I'm applying to be a mall Santa.
There's a shortage right now.
Don't you listen to your own show?
Yeah, I know there's a shortage.
And that's why I sent you to the mall.
I just didn't think you would want to be a mall Santa.
Yeah, why not?
You get to sit down all day, you get a free winter jacket,
you can buy oxy from the girl at the Hot Topic.
It's a great job.
Yeah, Ronny, Ronny, like, here's what I'm saying.
I just don't think that you would be right
-as a mall Santa, you know? -Why not?
Well, I don't know. Like, Santa has a certain...
Like, how do I put this?
Like, when you think of Santa,
you don't think of a guy like you.
Uh-huh, uh-huh. Oh. Oh, what-what are you saying?
I can't be Santa because I'm Asian?
Because I'm a handsome Asian man?
That's racist, man. In 2021?
But thank you for the compliment. (clears throat)
No, no, Ronny. I'm... No, no, I didn't say that.
I said, you can't be Santa, like...
Because you're a dick, Ronny.
All right, Santa needs to be nice to kids,
and you're not nice to... people of any age.
What are you talking about, man?
I'm fine with kids! I'll prove it.
Look, look, act like you're a kid, okay? Let's...
Let's just role-play for a second, okay?
Tell-tell me what you want for Christmas.
-Um... -Tell me what you want. Come on!
Oh, okay. Um...
(as child): Oh, Santa, I want a fire truck
and a Nintendo Switch.
(sputters) Man, (bleep) you, kid.
I don't even have a Nintendo Switch!
Ask your parents. They're the ones getting you all this shit.
You see? Ronny, this is the shit I'm talking about.
Okay, okay, okay, yeah, you know what?
Uh, actually a good point.
But, uh, while I'm here, I'm just gonna go eat free samples
at the food court until they call security. So, peace out.
All right, well, good luck with that, but don't talk to kids.
And bring me back some of those little Cinnabons, please.
-Oh. (mumbles) -Yeah.
Don't complain about the stuff, as well. It's free.
All right, when we come back, Desi Lydic will take a look
at the veterans America should never forget.
You don't want to miss it.
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
Women's contributions in history often get overlooked.
So to solve the problem, we turn to Desi Lydic
for a special Veterans Day edition
of not His-tory,
but of Hist-Her-y.
♪ ♪
A lot of people think America's first female soldier
was Demi Moore in G.I. Jane, which is not true.
Although she was the first Marine
to strip her way through West Point.
The truth is, there have been women fighting wars
since the beginning of America.
During the Revolutionary War, Deborah Sampson was
the first known woman to enlist.
And to do so, she had to pose as a man,
which had its ups and downs.
On the one hand, she had to put herself in grave danger.
On the other hand, she didn't have to wear a corset anymore,
which, if you ask me, is worth risking your life for.
And Sampson didn't just fight in the war.
She kicked ass.
She led a raid that captured 15 men.
That's right, a woman took down 15 men
without the help of Ronan Farrow.
In the Civil War, another woman named Malinda Blalock
also posed as a man to enlist.
It's weird that America doesn't know her story,
because she fought for the Confederacy.
You'd think there'd be statues of her all over.
But Blalock was secretly a Union sympathizer
trying to desert the Confederates
and escape up north.
But before she could, she was shot in the shoulder
and discovered as a woman by an army doctor.
That's a huge sacrifice, because as soon as your doctor
realizes you're a woman, all your premiums go up.
After Blalock was discharged
for the crime of having a vagina,
she escaped to Tennessee
and joined up with the Union army,
helping it to win the Civil War, end slavery
and defeat racism in America once and for all.
At least, that's what my nephew's textbook says.
He goes to school in Texas.
By World War I, woman didn't have
to Drag Race their way into service.
They were actually allowed to enlist.
In 1918, Opha May Johnson was the first woman
to join the Unite States Marine Corps
along with 300 other women.
And they came to be known as the marinettes.
Although, to their credit,
Marine officials distanced themselves from that nickname.
Probably because "marinette" sounds less like soldiers
and more like a dance troupe
that does high kicks on the battlefield,
which is really just giving the enemy
unrealistic expectations of what their legs should look like.
By World War II, women weren't just fighting on the ground.
They were taking to the skies.
America had a shortage of pilots,
so women were trained to fly military aircrafts.
These women were known as WASPs,
which stood for Women Air Force Service Pilots
and not, as many believe, Wet Ass Service Pilots.
This is just another example
of women getting to step up during the war
to do jobs previously reserved for men.
Flying planes. Playing baseball.
Women even had to fill in for mansplainers.
See, the reason they call it World War II
is because it's the second one.
It's a math thing. You wouldn't understand.
I got to go hammer some shit.
World War II saw another first for women
when Charity Adams Earley became
the first African American female Army officer
and led the first battalion of Black women
to be stationed overseas.
Which means, without her inspiration,
we never would have had
Beyoncé's Super Bowl halftime show.
Earley was given the daunting task
of delivering airplane hangars full of undelivered mail
to the soldiers fighting in Europe.
And she did such an amazing job
that she was eventually promoted to lieutenant colonel,
which, back then, was the highest rank
a woman was allowed to have,
just above HBIC and girlboss.
But not every woman fighting in World War II
was as visible as Army officers and Air Force pilots,
and, in one case,
that was on purpose.
Virginia Hall was one of the Allies' most important spies.
She recruited resistance fighters,
directed them to the Allied invasion,
rescued 12 fellow agents out of an internment camp,
and she did it all with a peg leg.
You kidding me? I take a sick day when I stub my toe.
The Nazis called Hall "the enemies' most dangerous spy."
But she was more affectionately known
as the Limping Lady of Lyon.
And she gathered intelligence from everywhere--
from nuns to brothel owners--
basically anyone who spanks men with a ruler.
Hall was truly a master of espionage,
like James Bond without all the pouting and STDs.
But it wasn't all sunshine and jet fuel for women veterans.
The families of the women who died while serving
didn't get any survivor benefits or burial expenses.
And the women who made it through the war
didn't even get veteran status until the late '70s.
Which is so messed up.
Also, if you're not an official veteran, your dog
doesn't get excited when you surprise him by coming home.
-(dog whines) -Barely even looks up.
So this Veterans Day, we salute the women
who have kept America safe.
They paved the way for all the brave women fighting today.
And the ones who will fight in the future
once the robot apocalypse kicks off.
And they also inspired me...
to avoid the line for the women's bathroom.
♪ ♪
Thank you so much, Desi. When we come back,
the legendary Will Smith will be joining me
right here on the show. You don't want to miss it.
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My guest tonight is an Academy Award-nominated actor,
producer and musician.
He goes by the name Will Smith, and he is here to talk
about his new film King Richard
and his highly anticipated memoir.
-Oh, okay, okay. -WOMAN: Yeah.
Y-You all need to look around?
You can check on in the cupboards.
Maybe you can go check under the beds
to make sure there's no monsters.
It's a little wet for practice, don't you think?
Don't the girls have schoolwork to do?
They do their homework. Tunde's first in her class.
Lyn and Isha are, too.
RICHARD: That's right. Girls, spell "civilization."
GIRLS: C-I-V-I-L-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N.
-Oh, Mr. Williams, this is really not necessary. -Hold on.
Hold on. You want to check on the kids?
Let's check on the kids.
Will Smith, welcome to the show.
Oh, good to... good to be here, man.
-Appreciate y'all. -Do you enjoy watching that?
Oh, my goodness. It's, like, Richard Williams, man.
You know, he is such a unique,
um, and-and powerful man.
He is... he is, uh, so many different things,
-Right. -and you love him or hate him, you know.
But his-his daughters and his family just,
they-they revere this man.
And, you know, that was the thing
that was so interesting to me, because he's been vilified
-and villainized publicly. -Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
But the love in his family is spectacular.
There is something to playing somebody
in a way that doesn't provide a caricature of them,
-Mm-hmm. -but shows you their character.
-Yes, yes. -and that's what I really enjoyed about this film
is, you know, we often hear about dads
who are, like, you know, ultracompetitive,
they want their kids to succeed at all costs or whatever.
But I know, before I watched the movie,
I didn't know the full extent of Richard Williams.
I knew Venus and Serena. I was, like, I know their dad,
but I was like, oh, he's one of those dads.
-But he wasn't one of those dads. -He really is not.
No, he was a dad who was trying to create excellence,
-but he did it in a unique way. -He did it in a very unique way,
and it was so different from what I expected him to be.
You know, I have hundreds of hours
-of film and audio on him. -Oh, wow, wow, wow.
So I was able to track him over, you know, almost two decades
of interviews and things like that, and his book,
and his entire family was involved with the process.
And I asked Venus, I was like, "What did... what did he do?"
And she said it was almost like a Jedi mind trick, right?
Because he never pushed them to play tennis.
When they were in trouble, their punishment was
-that they couldn't play tennis. -Right.
And they would be itching and scratching and clawing,
"Please, Daddy, let us play, please let us practice."
And he had figured out a way that, you know,
tennis was fourth or fifth
on the list of their family priorities.
-Wow. -They were using tennis to cultivate family
and to cultivate, um,
you know, human beings to go into the world and serve.
We've seen you play real people in films.
-Yeah. -You know, we've watched you on these journeys, you know,
whether it's Ali, whether it's Pursuit of Happyness,
you know, we see you inhabit people's lives.
-Yeah. -We see you inhabit who they are.
And I wonder how much of them now sticks with you.
Do you feel like you're part of the family now?
Yeah, absolutely. It's, uh...
You know, Serena walked onto the set, you know,
and I was fully in character,
and she was like, "Dad?"
-(laughing) -You know I was, like... (gasps)
(laughing)
Um, but, you know, it's...
you know, when you... when you do these types of things
-that are about people's lives, -Yeah.
and... it wipes away every other desire
other than wanting to please the family.
-Oh, okay. -If you make a movie about somebody's life
and they don't like it, it is horrific.
-Has that ever happened to you? -Uh, no.
-Well, you-you know, I mean... -(laughs)
-Oh, you're saying theoretically. -I'm saying,
-you know, theoretically. -You're like, "Theoretically,
-for these other actors..." -Hypothetically. Right. Yeah.
-(laughs) -"If you mess it up, it's bad for you.
I'm Will Smith. I mean..." (laughs)
No, but I felt like... Uh, you know, I felt like that
-every time I-I go into this. -Right. You feel the weight.
You feel the weight of it. It's, like, somebody's life,
and you're going to, you know, commit it to screen.
And, uh, Venus and Serena,
they agreed to be executive producers,
and they were with the project all the way through,
but they were withholding
whether or not they were gonna put their name on the film
-until after they saw it. -Wow.
-You know. -That's pressure.
Yeah, that was a lot of pressure,
-you know. -Yeah, that's pressure.
I feel like this story was amplified
by your experience with your father,
-and I say that having read your book now. -Oh, for sure.
-Yeah. -You get what I'm saying? Congratulations, by the way.
-Thank you, thank you. Thank you. -Congratulations.
Um, many people can live a-a really fantastic life.
Many people can write a great book.
There are few people who I think can translate
a fantastic life into a fantastic book.
-I think that's what you've done here. -Oh, thank you, man.
-For real. Because it's-it's... -I love that.
It's raw. It's-it's confusing to many because...
You say it in the book.
-Mm-hmm. -Will Smith consists of two people.
-Yeah. -The Will Smith that we all know and love
and then the Will Smith that that character
-was created to protect. Right. -Protect. Absolutely.
And yet what I find
is people are reading excerpts from the book,
and they're like, "Will Smith wanted to kill his father?
-Will Smith..." -(laughing)
"Will Smith and Jada were gonna break up?
Will Smith thought his kids were disappointed in him?"
And I'm like, "Are you reading the book? Are you...?"
So, let-let's start at the beginning.
You know what it's like to be raised by a father
who's not perfect but also pushes you towards perfection.
-Absolutely. -When you were portraying Richard Williams,
were there aspects of you
that were maybe even understanding your dad more?
-Yeah. -Was there compassion that was building
that goes with that-that disappointment
that you sometimes felt in him?
You know, I was working on the memoir
while I was doing King Richard.
-Oh, I didn't know that. Okay. -And the, you know...
So, the picture of myself and my father
and Richard Williams was all blending
into, you know, a process of growth
-and evolution and revelation. -Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Um, and a big part
of being able to understand Richard Williams
was in my understanding of my father.
You know, that, you know,
-post-World War II generation Black man. -Yes.
You know, that knows how to do everything with their hands.
You know, they got the toolbox, and they can fix the...
-fix the refrigerator. -You're building that wall.
-Yeah, right. Exactly. -You're building that wall.
You know, that was the thing with-with my father.
Wanted us to be able to do things with our hands.
-Yes. -Richard Williams was very, uh, similar in that way.
Um, and then the process, for me,
of questioning my own parenting
-and developing and growing with my own parenting. -Huh.
What I learned and grew into,
which was a transformation for me with Richard Williams,
is Richard Williams was aligned
with what his daughters wanted to do.
He was following them where they wanted to go,
and he was pushing them where they already wanted to go.
And that was a very subtle but very critical difference
that I was able to, you know,
make that adjustment in-in my parenting.
The book Will, I would say,
is one of the most anticipated and yet unexpected memoirs
-that has... that has ever come out. -Mm-hmm.
Because for so long, you've been an enigma.
-Yeah. -You know?
Wait, man, you can't say that on TV.
(laughing)
Are you crazy?
-You-You've been... -You an enigma, too.
(laughing)
(laughs)
But-but, for real, you've been-- you've been the guy
who's, like-like...
-It's-it's Will Smith, but it's like... -Mm-hmm.
We see you in the black suit.
-We see you flashing the eyes, you know? -Yeah. (laughs)
We see you running down that-- screaming down the bridge
with the shirt open.
-You-You're running. -In slo-mo.
-In slo-mo, too, with the... -I mean, you...
-...with the cape billowing. -The shirt and the thing.
-Do you know what I mean? -Yeah.
-Like, we-we know that Will Smith. -Yeah.
And then we see you at the premiere, and it's you and Jada.
You know? And it's-it's the kids and it's everything.
It feels like there's been a...
like a-- literally a, you know, A.D.
-and B.C. period in your life, you know? -Mm-hmm.
There's-there's before Will reveals himself...
-Mm-hmm. -...and there's everything we're living in now.
-Yeah, yeah. -And-and the book feels like that.
You know? It-it feels like you've gone,
"All right, I'm gonna-- I'm gonna take you
-behind the scenes." -I'll tell you behind the scenes.
-Right. Absolutely. -Which we've done in movies.
-We've never done with your life. -Yes. Yeah.
A big part of my motivation
was I felt like I have, um...
experienced enough and reflected enough
um, you know, suffered enough
that my, uh, advice could be valuable.
-Okay, okay. -Right? You know?
So the-the things that I now understand
were, you know, cultivated
in-in the battlefield.
-Right. Right. Survival. -You know? It's-- Yeah, survival.
Yeah, we're not-- You know, when-when I'm talking
about something, I'm not talking about theory.
-I'm talking about tested, um, experience. -Right.
So, I-I feel like...
And-and not that who I was w-wasn't true.
It's-- You know, that i-- that is true.
It's just not the whole story.
-Yeah. -And so, for me, I just wanted
to take the filter off for...
I guess, two reasons.
-Uh, one, I thought it's more helpful. -Right.
You know, for somebody who wants to,
uh, build their life, for somebody who wants to follow,
um, and do some of the things that-that I've done,
it's more helpful if I tell you the truth.
-Right? -I like that. Okay.
You know? And then the other part of it is...
I-I get to be more free.
It's like a-a whole weight is lifted
that I don't have to be perfect,
that I'm allowed to be imperfect.
I'm allowed to put on 30 pounds
-during the pandemic, you know? -(laughs)
I'm allowed to do all of that.
Um, and, you know,
there-there's a certain, um...
-emotional invincibility... -Mm-hmm.
...that is being cultivated
that, uh, I just love.
I love not being swayed by people's opinions.
When you talk in the book, I-I love that you've been careful
to tell your stories.
-I know this from writing my book. I made sure. -Yes.
I was like-- I talked to my mom. I was like,
-"Hey, are you cool with me writing this?" -"Are you--" Yes.
-Absolutely. -And I was like, "These are my stories
or the stories that you can find in the press." I'm not--
-I'm not telling anybody else's story in that way. -Absolutely.
-Which is really hard. -You-- Yeah. You-You've been
-really good with that, respecting Jada in this. -Yes.
-Yes. Absolutely. -And-and Jada's got Red Table Talk,
and then you've got-- Do you guys ever, like,
fight about it that way? Do you ever go like,
"Hey, you can't say that there"
or "You-- How can you say that there?"
Or do you ever feel like you have to negotiate
where the boundary exists?
So what I did was a, uh...
a two-week book camp
right before I finished the book.
So I had written it.
And I called everybody I talk about in the book
and brought them down to Miami.
And, for two weeks, I read everybody every word
that I said about 'em.
And it was a--
an extremely powerful, uh,
therapy session, going through this stuff.
-Wow. -My mother and I had never talked
about my-my father's abuse.
-Wow. -And it was the first time...
-You guys had never talked... -We had never talked about it.
We had never... Not one time.
-So... -And I'm-I'm fifty...
-I was 52 at the time. -This is wild, Will.
And I read her the chapter, and that was the first time
that we ever... we ever discussed it.
-And she said, "Go ahead." -And yeah, she was... You know.
First of all, she was shocked. She couldn't believe
that my young mind had processed it.
-Oh, wow. -In-in... in that way.
But it was so cathartic,
and reading everything.
And, you know, I got through a couple of chapters
with-with Jada, and, you know, she...
she said, "I want you to tell your story.
I don't want to dilute what your experience was."
-Mm-hmm. -And she said... Well, you know,
of course I was having a completely
-different experience. -Right, right, right.
But she said, "I want you to be free
to-to tell your story."
This relates to, like, everything
-that the media consumes. -Yup.
There's an element of like, um,
it's almost like a piranha fish syndrome
-that happens online, you know? -Yup. Mm-hmm.
Once there's blood in the water, they want to... they want
to keep eating at a thing until they gnaw it
-to the bone. -Yeah. Exactly.
Sometimes it'll feel like people are trying to make it, like,
"Oh, Jada's coming for Will. You see what she said about Will?"
-Right. -They take her words out of context.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -They write headlines that don't match
-what the people are saying. -Absolutely.
I get angry 'cause I watch, and then I'm like,
"That's not what you said." You know what I mean?
As a couple, you have to protect yourselves
-because you are a couple. Any family unit does. -Right.
But-but is there a part of you that goes like,
"You know what? We're going to shut this down.
-We're not going to say anything"? -Mm-hmm.
Or-or have you taken a different approach? Do you go like,
"No, this is what we're doing and how we're going to do it"?
So, there-there's...
there's nothing to really protect ourselves from.
-Mm. -Right? It's like...
-The malice. -The malice.
None of that, you don't?
So, that only speaks
to other people's level
of consciousness
and a lack of loving kindness
-on their part that doesn't say anything about us. -Okay.
-Right? So our job as a couple... -Mm-hmm.
and our job as individuals is to purify our hearts
as much as we possibly can
to never do that to other human beings.
-I hear you. -To not add to the chaos,
and to not add to the darkness
and to figure out as much as possible
to only add, uh, love,
and hopefully, understanding to the pot.
I embrace it as a part of my job in this world
to provide whatever medicine, whatever elixir I possibly can.
And not even thinking about that person as somehow beneath me.
No, I got... You'll see in these pages.
I got some purifying to do myself.
-All right, before I let you go, this is a book. -Yup.
-Yes, that's a book. -A book. A book means a movie's coming.
-Ooh. -I mean, that's how it works.
-That's how it works. -You make a good book,
-people want to make a movie. -Since when? Since when?
Hold on. You're making up things now.
That's how it's always works. That's how it always...
it's always worked. That means
somebody has to play Will in the movie.
-Yes. -Who's playing will?
If you're willing to get a fade, it's you.
Don't tempt me, Will Smith.
-If you're willing to cut it into fade. -Yo.
-Your hair is pretty right now. -Will,
-I've already got some of the ears. -(laughing): Right.
You can't see it behind the 'fro.
This man's playing with my emotions again.
This man's playing... Thank you so much for joining me.
-I appreciate you man, as always. -Good to see you again.
-Thank you. Bye-bye. -Always, man.
King Richard will be in theaters
and HBO Max November 19,
and this memoir, Will, is available right now.
We're going to take a quick break,
but we'll be right back after this.
Well, that's our show for tonight, but before we go,
consider supporting K9s For Warriors.
This is a really great organization that is focused
on providing highly-trained service dogs
to veterans who are suffering from service-connected traumas.
Now, with the majority of the dogs coming
from high-kill rescue shelters,
this innovative program allows both veteran
and dog to heal together.
So if you want to support them in this work,
then please donate at the link below.
Until next time, stay safe out there, get your vaccine
and remember, if you see a deer with a red nose,
that's not Rudolph.
That (bleep) got COVID.
Now, here it is-- Your Moment of Zen.
Just this week, Big Bird from Sesame Street
indoctrinating our five-year-olds.
Then the giant pigeon took to Twitter to announce
to everyone how it felt about getting the shot.
Not the first time these little felt communists have tried
to infect the minds of our youngest
and most vulnerable children.
Decade ago, I called out Kermit,
that cute little, green monster commie.
The invite's still open, Miss Piggy,
if you or your emasculated frog boyfriend, Kermit,
ever wanted to join this desk. It's free.