Daniel Tosh, comedian and host of Comedy Central’s Tosh.0, talked to the Voice’s Leigh Finnegan and other college newspapers this week about the new season of his show and the response he gets for his scathing brand of humor.
According to your Wikipedia page, you were born in Germany. Is that true?
I got in a lot of trouble by announcing on the show to encourage people to go to my Wikipedia page and change things, ‘cause I thought it was funny … [But] people have found every aspect of my life! Like even if you go to my high school Wikipedia page now they’ve written … that I used to go back to Germany to get these hormone treatments because I was trying to have a sex change to compete in female athletics … [But] yes, I was born in Germany.
What are your favorite things to do on Tosh.0?
Next Wednesday I do, I probably do the most unthinkable thing in the world with a new iPad, so … how that’s received in the internet world … I think the most memorable thing is just how silly television is. Like for our show … [we] think of an idea, we grab a foot camera, we run outside and do it, and like a few days later it’s on television. [Laughs] I laugh because it’s so silly … I guess when I hear James Cameron talk about the process for Avatar I’m like, “Oh, that seems a lot harder than what we’re trying.”
How do you deal with the censoring on the show?
You never know what they’re going to censor, it’s not just like “oh you can’t say swear words” … Like if I ever hint that John Travolta may like the company of men, holy cow that’d immediately get cut out of the show … It’s basically everybody covering their asses from being sued.
Have you ever received any negative feedback?
Yeah, are you kidding me? … [Once] I made fun of some rapper from the south in a video where he was flaunting all of his money, he put a video up almost immediately of what he was going to do to me when he saw me … people don’t like when jokes are directed towards them.
Has anyone ever come up to you to complain?
Yes, all the time. If I hang out after I perform a show, people always tell me what jokes they didn’t like or the jokes they thought went too far. The truth is people only get offended by jokes that personally impact them … it makes me the bad guy. (https://driventheatre.com/) It’s really not fair.
The Tosh Company
What do your parents think of your sense of humor?
My parents turn a blind eye to my behavior … But the day that my parents are gone, not that I’m looking forward to that day, but there will be a great standup album that comes out immediately after.
Which celeb do you wish would make a video for you to feature?
Maybe Rush Limbaugh, if I could catch him in one of his horrible drunken or drug-induced stupors that’d be cool. Jay Leno I guess would be good now. Yeah, let’s go Jay Leno.
Have any celebs contacted you in response to seeing themselves on your show?
I don’t hang out in any celeb circles, so there’s been zero aftermath … I’m a little worried about it to be honest, because confrontation is certainly something that I don’t do well with, onstage I’m comfortable but face to face it would be very awkward … I feel bad for making fun of Kelly Clarkson’s ass … we [also] made fun of somebody’s busted face, and she did like nothing wrong … that reminds me, I should make fun of Maggie Gyllenhaal more.
If you had to pick any internet star to be your roommate, which one would it be?
Christian Bale. Because I like my house very dark and he seems to be very upset when lights are turned on. And if I ever get kidnapped, who better than Batman to find me?
Thirty years from now what do you want your legacy to be?
I would like to be dead. And I would like people to be like, ‘Oh yeah that guy was really funny,’ … I’d hate being alive though … Give me fifty, sixty years of life and I think that’s plenty … Like, do you really want Kurt Cobain to still be alive? Not really, he’d be making horrible music with some super group with the remaining members of Alice in Chains. It’s better, go out sooner.
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