Reheat: Why Roy Wood Jr. Sees Pros To Bad Service And Confederate Flags (2024)

Dan Pashman: Hey, it's Dan here. This week’s Reheat is my conversation with the comedian Roy Wood Jr., one of my very favorite comedians on the planet. We first aired this episode back in 2019, when he was still a correspondent for The Daily Show. Last year, he left the show. He was hoping to be the permanent host of The Daily Show, but when he wasn’t selected for the job, he moved on. And, by the way, not that anyone asked me, but they should have picked him. He was the perfect choice.

Dan Pashman: Anyway, he’s now hosting a new podcast, called Road to Rickwood. It’s about the oldest professional baseball stadium in the country, which is in Roy’s home state of Alabama. The stadium has deep ties to the Negro leagues, women’s suffrage, and the civil rights movement. The podcast launches on May 28th, so I hope you'll check it out. Now, if you have an episode you’d like us to reheat in the future, send me a message at hello@sporkful.com.

Dan Pashman: One more quick note, here are only two spots left on my Culinary Backstreets trip to Italy. This pasta trip is gonna take you to many of the same places that I went to on my research trip. You're gonna eat pasta in Rome with Katie Parla, eat spaghetti all'assassina in Bari with me! It's gonna be delicious, you're gonna learn a lot. Come and hang out with me in Italy and eat pasta together. It's gonna be great. Get more info and sign up at CulinaryBackstreets.com/Sporkful. Okay, here’s my 2019 conversation with Roy Wood Jr.

Dan Pashman: This episode contains explicit language.

Dan Pashman: There's something I want to ask you about as we get warmed up here. You instagram the photo of chicken wings ...

Roy Wood Jr.: Hmm.

Dan Pashman: And you wrote, “You can find everything you need to know about a man with one question: Ranch or blue cheese?

Roy Wood Jr.: That's it.

Dan Pashman: So what can you tell me? Break down these two personality types for me.

Roy Wood Jr.: Anyone who likes chicken wings with ranch is a more calm person. You're a considerate person. Blue cheese is a selfish person that only thinks about themselves and does not care about the discomfort that their breath is bringing to everyone else at the party or said function.

Dan Pashman: Right. So it's a breath issue though. That's why those two ...

Roy Wood Jr.: But that's a power move.

Dan Pashman: Right.

Roy Wood Jr.: It's a power move. I'm going to a party and I'm a funk up my breath ...

Dan Pashman: And who wants blue cheese breath in their face?

Roy Wood Jr.: Exactly. But I eat blue cheese.

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]

Roy Wood Jr.: You know why? because I don't care about your comfort.

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]

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Dan Pashman: Today on The Sporkful, I sit down with Roy Wood Jr. He’s a correspondent on The Daily Show and a comic known for his thoughtful and pointed observations on race. And sometimes, he uses food to get at deeper issues

CLIP (ROY WOOD JR.): America is basically a restaurant. America is a restaurant that sales equality. That's all it is. They serve equality. And some of y'all had some delicious equality. It was good. You had great service. And some of us need to speak to a manager.

[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]

Dan Pashman: Coming up, Roy talks about why he hates friendly service, and why he thinks the confederate flag has its advantages. Stick around.

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Dan Pashman: This is The Sporkful, it’s not for foodies, it’s for eaters. I’m Dan Pashman. Each week on our show we obsess about food to learn more about people. I am really excited for this one. Roy Wood Jr. might be my favorite comedian in the world right now. His work is in the same vein as comics like George Carlin and Dick Gregory. He’s a social critic, a keen observer of people, and the country.

Dan Pashman: He brings this same sensibility to his pieces on The Daily Show. Like the one where he looked into why Boston is perceived as such a racist city. He went to a Red Sox game and spoke with a group of white fans …

[CLIP FROM THE DAILY SHOW]

CLIP (SPORTS ANNOUNCEMENT): Sports .... Sports .... Sports ...

CLIP (PERSON): We're winners, it's what we do.

CLIP (ROY WOOD JR.): I just need to get this city of champions hyped about finally winning at the one thing they suck at. We're about treating people with respect.

[PEOPLE CHEERING]

CLIP (ROY WOOD JR.):Which city treats Black people the people?

CLIP (GROUP OF PEOPLE): Boston!

CLIP (ROY WOOD JR.):It's Atlanta, actually, and then New York, and then San Francisco, and then Charlotte, and Tampa. And then, at the bottom, is Boston.

Dan Pashman: Roy grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. He spent a decade touring the south and midwest, cutting his comedy teeth. Now, he lives in New York with his girlfriend and their three-year-old son. As I said, Roy talks a lot about race in his work, we’ll get to that part of the conversation, but he also talks a lot about food. In his new stand up special, No One Loves You, one restaurant figures prominently ...

[CLIP FROM NO ONE LOVES YOU]

CLIP (ROY WOOD JR.): McDonald's is delicious. I'm sorry. I know some of y'all got money now. You eat hummus so, you've got bread. Whatever. But don't act like McDonald's blessed the sustenance of your childhood, you ungrateful asshole.

[AUDIENCE APPLAUDS]

CLIP (ROY WOOD JR.): Like Ronald McDonald might have your back. McDonald's is delicious!

Roy Wood Jr.: I went to McDonald's at 10:00 or so whatever,10:30 and they started the lunch menu while I was there. So at 10:25, I ordered a McGriddle and then I ordered a McRib. Then I went patiently over to my table and I took the McGriddle patties and then I put the McGriff between the McGriddle patties ..

Dan Pashman: Did you keep them a griddle sausage in there?

Roy Wood Jr.: No. I took the sausage out, strip it down just to the onions and the meat, and then the McGriddle bread, and I call the McRibel. It was not tasty.

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] Really?

Roy Wood Jr.: It was okay. The sweet ...

Dan Pashman: Too sweet. Too much sweet.

Roy Wood Jr.: The sweet and the bread works against the sweet in the barbecue sauce ... [Dan Pashman: Right, yeah.] It's conflicting sugars and they just — it didn't quite ... Hmm, not quite.

Dan Pashman: But there's something there.

Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah. I see what they have to like beta test all these sandwiches in a factory for two years.

Dan Pashman: I actually interviewed the guy who invented them a griddle.

Roy Wood Jr.: [LAUGHS] Really?

Dan Pashman: Yeah. Yeah, he's this flavor chemist. He's also same guy invented the stuff crust pizza.

Roy Wood Jr.: Who is this man?? Why does he not have his own holiday?

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] The McRib used to be on the menu all the time.

Roy Wood Jr.: Correct.

Dan Pashman: Now it comes and goes.

Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah.

Dan Pashman: There are different theories out there, Roy, for why it's not a permanent menu item. I want to read the leading theories to you and I want you to tell me which one you think is right.

Roy Wood Jr.: I've heard one.

Dan Pashman: Okay. Which one of you heard?

Roy Wood Jr.: I've heard the price of pork ... Or whatever.

Dan Pashman: Right, the price of pork goes up and down. It's unreliable so they don't — they can't make money on it all the time. They wait for the price to drop and they move in and buy a bunch. And in the McRib ...

Roy Wood Jr.: Quick, we're make these McRibs real quick while they're ...

Dan Pashman: Right, right. So that's one theory.

Roy Wood Jr.: Okay.

Dan Pashman: The other ... The next theory is kind of an obvious one, like that it's just artificial scarcity. They're just doing it for marketing. They could do it all the time but they don't.

Roy Wood Jr.: So like Christmas season, or something.

Dan Pashman: Right, or like the pumpkin spice lattes or whatever.

Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, you could do pumpkin spice all the time.

Dan Pashman: Right. It's mostly just sugar.

Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah.

Dan Pashman: And then the other theory, which is the one I hadn't heard, I think is interesting, is that it's not actually that popular. That it was on the menu [Roy Wood Jr.: Hmm.] full time from '81 to '85 — four years. It was on the menu full time again from '94 to 2005 — 11 years ...

Roy Wood Jr.: Really?

Dan Pashman: And you would think if it was that popular, they would have found a way to keep it on the menu. And so maybe it's that it's not that popular but that it has an intense — a small but intense following, so by doing it this way they maximize profit.

Roy Wood Jr.: [LAUGHS] The McRib is The Arrested Development of sandwiches.

Dan Pashman: Yes. Yes, exactly right. That's the leading theory.

Roy Wood Jr.: Everyone loves — they're critically acclaimed, but the ratings just never quite did what they needed.

Dan Pashman: Exactly, exactly.

[LAUGHING]

Roy Wood Jr.: I think it's that.

Dan Pashman: For the record, McDonald’s official explanation for the McRib’s elusiveness is just, hey, that's just how we roll. We like to change up the menu with limited time offerings. But that answer hasn’t stopped many of us from speculating. Another fast food issue that gets Roy very worked up — in recent years, a lot of the chains have started charging extra for sauces. You want more than one sauce with your chicken nuggets? Well, that’ll be an extra 25 cents.

Dan Pashman: I wanna tell you a story.

Roy Wood Jr.: Okay.

Dan Pashman: Because you talk in your special about how, you know, they only give you one sauce. They charge for extras.

Roy Wood Jr.: Mm-hmm. Didn't always do that.

Dan Pashman: Today, as a test, I went into McDonald's. I ordered a 10-piece McNugget and I tried to see how many sauce I can get.

Roy Wood Jr.: [LAUGHS]

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] I convinced them to give me three sauces for free ...

Roy Wood Jr.: Woah!

Dan Pashman: And then after I got after I had paid, and I had the bag, I said, "Oh I'm so sorry ...," I was very nice in asking of course, but I said "Oh, I'm so sorry. Can I also ... I also want to try this one and that one ..."

Roy Wood Jr.: No!

Dan Pashman: I walked out of there, Roy, with six sauces.

Roy Wood Jr.: You robbed a bank!

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]

Roy Wood Jr.: That's $48 worth the sauce and you got away with it.

Dan Pashman: That's right. For free.

Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah. It's one of those things that's always struck me as funny because I really think sauce enforcement boils down to how happy that employee is with their job.

Dan Pashman: Hmm.

Roy Wood Jr.: You're gonna get more sauces on nightshift because they don't care. Day shift is where the career people are.

CLIP (ROY WOOD JR.): I like fast food employees. I appreciate the fact that fast food employees are rude. I like it. At least it's from the heart, cause people too nice now. You go out to these stores, everybody — hey, how you doing? Are you good? Thank you for choosing us. [AUDIENCE LAUGHS] You think them people want to be your friend or they'll get fired for not speaking? Which one do you think it is? Because 10,15 years ago, nobody spoke to you when you went to the store, now all of a sudden everybody want to kick it with your ass? No! That's a corporate mandate and I'd rather you not do it. I get to the grocery store, it's just too many questions at the register. Just ring up the sh*t that's on the belt.

[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]

CLIP (ROY WOOD JR.): We ain't got to be friends. I'm here. I'm spending money. You won. What else do you want? Why I got to be your friend too, man?

[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]

Roy Wood Jr.: I know that my annoyance with polite service is rooted in my own inequities and my own inabilities to trust people and to question people's intentions constantly, and that's a probably — I don't want to get too deep, but ..

Dan Pashman: No, please.

Roy Wood Jr.: But seriously, like people I thought were cool turned out to not be cool on various different stages of my life going all the way back to my childhood.

Dan Pashman: And it sounds like some of the reason why you like stores and restaurants where the services that are more brusk is that you like honesty. You like knowing where you stand with people.

Roy Wood Jr.: Yes.

Dan Pashman: That's also why you may have made an argument that there may be certain advantages to having Confederate flags around.

Roy Wood Jr.: [LAUGHS] Yeah. Yes, like that was in one of those beds where I talked about like everybody wants to get the Confederate flag down and take it down and get rid of the flag. Okay, that's fine. I agree with all that sentiment. But now, how are you going to know who the dangerous white people are? What's the symbol like this — say all you want about the Confederate flag, but when I see it hanging at a gas station I know that's not the place to get gas.

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]

Roy Wood Jr.: Which is the base — that was the base of the joke.

Dan Pashman: Yeah.

Roy Wood Jr.: But it's true. It's about knowing — I want to know as quickly as possible what ideals you represent and who you are as a person, whether we're working together, whether we're drinking partners, or we're good friends, or whether it's just you bringing me a soda. Because, you know, I've performed on stages where a confederate flags chillin right off the end of the cut, and you don't know it until you pull up to the venue. And you got to go, hey ... Oh yeah, sorry. Sorry, man. We'll take that down real quick. You know?

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] Right. That doesn't exactly solve the problem.

Roy Wood Jr.: No, it doesn't. But you're here to do a job. Your job is to tell these jokes for $75. Now, you can decline doing it but the person who books this room, that's racist, books 70 percent of your work on the road because they're the biggest southern road booker in comedy. So do you want to take a stand or do you want to make your money and build your career and just deal with this and keep it moving? And so, that's the constant choice you're always having to make as a Black comic or Black — I would imagine a Black performer in the south.

Roy Wood Jr.: Like, I remember doing a gig in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It was, like, a biker bar. And it was all white bikers, and they're doing, like, a comedy night or whatever. And I instantly felt novelty-ish when I was there. And then they had a Black — there was one Black biker in the group, and he's like playing the piano — it was just a weird Get Out vibes type situation. And so after the show, after they paid me, they kept at —like, they had booked us at some motor lodge or whatever. All right, man. Well, you all are staying at the hotel, right? And this motherf*cker — this guy, he asked me one time that I — he kept confirming that I'm going to be at the hotel. Then he started asking times and you're asking me about where I'm going to be and when. Strike one, strike two. I got my f*cking car and drove to Memphis and I stayed in Memphis and spent half of my $75 on a hotel room because I just don't know, and it ain't worth saving $40 to find out.

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Coming up, Roy’s dad was a famous journalist and radio host in Alabama. He covered Dr. King’s marches, he was a big deal. But at home ...

CLIP (ROY WOOD JR.):Great father, terrible husband.

Dan Pashman: Roy’s dad passed away when Roy was a teenager. When we come back, Roy tells us what he learned from his father about food, and how it affects his own approach to parenting today. Stick around.

MUSIC

+++BREAK +++

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Welcome back to another Sporkful Reheat. I'm Dan Pashman. Hey, if you want to hear what I'm eating and reading everyweek, you should sign up for The Sporkful newsletter. I'll give you my weekly reccomendations and so do our producers and the whole rest of our team. We also share announcements about exciting things happening with the show. When there's special discounts on my pastas ... And on top of all of that, if you subscribe to the newsletter, you're automatically entered into giveaways for cookbooks featured on the show — as long as you live in the U.S. or Canada. There's literally no downside. Sign up right now at sporkful.com/newsletter. I promise we won't spam you. We're only gonna send you really good stuff. Again, that's sporkful.com/newsletter. Thanks!

Dan Pashman: Now, back to this week's Reheat.

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Now, back to Roy Wood, Jr.

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Before we return to our conversation, I wanna give you a bit more of a taste of Roy’s new standup special, No One Loves You …

[COMEDY CLIP NO ONE LOVES YOU]

CLIP (ROY WOOD JR.): To accept somebody else's truth, you got to be open to learning their perspective on their walk through this country and people don't want .... [BLEEP] We ain't got time.

[AUDIENCE APPLAUDS]

CLIP (ROY WOOD JR.): And we don't like learning. That's what's really — that's what it really boils down to in America. We don't like learning. That means you get to sit and read, especially if you ain't in school no more, you got to force yourself to learn what somebody else is going through and we don't like learning. We hate learning new stuff. We don't even like updating our cell phones. That's how much we hate learning new stuff. You got a damn thousand dollar phone in your pocket right now. Every week, your phone sends you a message and be like, hey, man. If you hit this button, I'll be a better phone.And what we do? [BLEEP] that. Maybe later.

[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]

Dan Pashman: As I said, Roy lives in New York now, with his girlfriend and their 3-year-old son. But he grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and still considers that home. His Twitter profile says, “Bury me in Alabama, NYC until then.” Here in our studio, we ask guests to sign the table in our studio when they come in. Roy drew a picture of Alabama, with a big star where Birmingham is.

Dan Pashman: You did a thing for a local Alabama website or the paper there where you tick through some of your favorite spots to eat when you're back in Birmingham.

Roy Wood Jr.: Correct.

Dan Pashman: And we can do this kind of rapid fire style here.

Roy Wood Jr.: OK.

Dan Pashman: Milo's burger. You said, "Milo's gives you extra meat at random inside the burger."

Roy Wood Jr.: Yes.

Dan Pashman: What does that mean, "extra meat at random"?

Roy Wood Jr.: There's an inconsistent amount of extra meat that they give you.

Dan Pashman: What? Like there's bumps?

Roy Wood Jr.: Like their patty. Yeah. There's a patty. And then on top of that patty is like half of another patty or a quarter of patty or a third of patty but broken up evenly spread out on top of the patty. So it's like ... It's a great ... It's like .. It's an almost double cheeseburger. It's the only way I can describe it.

Dan Pashman: And so different bites have different thicknesses ...

Roy Wood Jr.: There you go. Exactly.

Dan Pashman: Well, that's interesting because one of things I think a lot about is like in any food — like bite consistency versus bite variety?

Roy Wood Jr.: Mm-hmm.

Dan Pashman: Like some foods you want every bite have the exact same ratios [Roy Wood Jr.: The even ...] the same whatever. Other foood, you kind of want a surprise, you know?

Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, this is for sure variety. You always feel lik, ooh, like they snuck in gave you a little extra meat. I wonder if they didn't know ... They know.

Dan Pashman: Right. [LAUGHS] Next one on your list that I want to ask about, fried chicken at Publix — which Publix is known as a supermarket.

Roy Wood Jr.: Yes, it's a Southern grocery store chain.

Dan Pashman: Right. But you eat the fried chicken while you shop.

Roy Wood Jr.: There's days.

Dan Pashman: I'm not judging, Roy.

Roy Wood Jr.: There's days.

Dan Pashman: I want to be clear, the reason why I picked this one out and was curious to talk to you is because when I lived in Chicago, the Jewel Osco Supermarket near me [Roy Wood Jr.: Mm-hmm.] had “Fried Chicken Mondays” and they would give away free fried chicken.

Roy Wood Jr.: [LAUGHS]

Dan Pashman: They had a woman with a platter of fried chicken, going up and down the aisles giving away drumsticks.

Roy Wood Jr.: What??

Dan Pashman: So I always did my grocery shopping on Monday. You can believe it.

Roy Wood Jr.: [LAUGHS]

Dan Pashman: And I would — and what I learned though is that it is very hard to drive a shopping cart and eat fried chicken at the same time.

Roy Wood Jr.: Oh, absolutely. Oh, absolutely.

Dan Pashman: Because half of those carts already have a busted wheel or something ...

Roy Wood Jr.: Oh, bro, I'm eating wings, too.

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] Oh my ...

Roy Wood Jr.: This isn't some easy to eat drumstick.

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]

Roy Wood Jr.: You take the wing, you break it off into a branch and a flat [Dan Pashman: Right.] and then you just work that flat with one hand. And then the trick — you have to lean down and you put your forearm on the cart.

Dan Pashman: Ohh.

Roy Wood Jr.: And you drive with your forearm. So from your elbow to your wrist, it's actually making contact with the cart, and that's the proper fried chicken and shopping technique — and you use your free hand to choose your item, so that they don't all have grease prints.

Dan Pashman: That is brilliant. One more from your list: cobbler and Mrs. B's on Fourth.

Roy Wood Jr.: Yes.

Dan Pashman: What is the ideal ratio of peach to cobbler?

Roy Wood Jr.: Oh, man. I am a pro-crust person when it comes to cobbler. I honestly don't need the peaches. I just need ...

Dan Pashman: You need a little bit for moisture and flavor.

Roy Wood Jr.: Just a little bit. I would say 70-30 crust [Dan Pashman: Okay.] to peach ratio. Most cobblers don't do that. I like — it's to the point now where if I see cobbler in certain places, if the pan is too deep, I won't even order it, because I know already you're going to give me a scoop and I could see the amount of filling that I'm gonna get in relation to the crust, that's only on the top, and there's no inner dough [Dan Pashman: Right.] added bread in there ...

Dan Pashman: It's a bad ratio.

Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah.

Dan Pashman: Too much mushy stuff not enough crisp ...

Roy Wood Jr.: And I didn't tell you to scoop shallow because then somehow I'm the jerk.

Dan Pashman: Right.

Roy Wood Jr.: And then you won't say anything, and then I'll go on Twitter in three weeks — Roy Wood Jr. was in here [DAN PASHMAN LAUGHS] trying to be a diva about the cobbler. I told him to kiss my ass! Don't ever watch The Daily Show. And then I'm a jerk.

Dan Pashman: Right. Right.

Roy Wood Jr.: And all I wanted was more bread than the filling. I've also worked in food. I worked in food service. It's the only job I've ever had from 15 until I think 23, when I left Golden Corral.

Dan Pashman: Yeah, you did Baskin Robbins?

Roy Wood Jr.: That was the first one.

Dan Pashman: Shoney's?

Roy Wood Jr.: Yup.

Dan Pashman: Golden Corral.

Roy Wood Jr.: Yes sir.

Dan Pashman: Which was your favorite?

Roy Wood Jr.: Oh my favorite? My favorite to work was Golden Corral. My favorite to eat was Baskin Robbins.

Dan Pashman: Why was Golden Corral your favorite your work?

Roy Wood Jr.: The camaraderie with the co-workers. It was like — there was always like eight or nine servers. It was also around the same time I started doing standup comedy. So each table that I served, I was trying to joke out that I would eventually do it open mic. So each table became an individual focus group for my standup. So it was — I was always excited to go to work if I had a joke because I worked that joke for eight hours — eight hours straight four people at a time, work this joke, they'd tag it with their own opinions on the issue and sometimes I'd leave work and would have five new minutes of jokes.

Dan Pashman: So it sounds like when you're a customer in a store or in a restaurant you don't love the overly solicitous service.

Roy Wood Jr.: I enjoy a base level interaction. To me, that's enjoyable. It's like the Uber driver, who doesn't talk too much.

Dan Pashman: Right.

Roy Wood Jr.: Now here's what I'm going to contradict myself. If I'm out and I'm with my girl and my child and we're all out as a family and a waitress stops to interact with my son, I instantly love that. Because without — whether they know it or not, when you interact with a child, you're giving him more data and more ... more of an analysis of people in the world. Especially, when someone is nice — especially, when a stranger is nice to my son, I want to make sure that he walks through this world not knowing that everyone's not to be trusted. There are plenty of good people, so I don't want him to be leery of people.

Dan Pashman: You know want him to inherit your mistrust.

Roy Wood Jr.: Coupled with working at The Daily Show where once you hear about the death threats that some of the other correspondents have received in the past for pieces that they've done that have stirred the pot, I would be a fool to walk through this world and think that every single person on the sidewalk means me well. They do not. I've seen the tweets.

[LAUGHING]

Dan Pashman: Right.

Roy Wood Jr.: So I have to carry myself differently in this world. But I don't want — I do not want that for my child. I do not want him to have that, because you gain a lot more through trusting people and being open in this world than you ever would from being closed off.

Dan Pashman: And I get the impression that your father worked a ton. I know that he was a very well-known figure and especially in Birmingham and during the civil rights movement works as a journalist and that he worked a lot, wasn't always around [Roy Wood Jr.: Correct.] all that much for you. And I wonder how that you know how your relationship with him has translated into you not wanting a mistrust of strangers, mistrust of others for your son?

Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, I think that's — I think more importantly is my son having a trust in me. I think my father — for a quick summary for the listeners, great Father, terrible husband, is probably the best way to summate how I choose to see him. But then I look at some of the choices that he made when I was a child and I look at those choices and I go, all right, well, I would never do that for my kid. I would ... I would probably do something different. Okay, well then, let me make sure my son knows what love from a man feels like. Let me make sure he knows that first and foremost.

Dan Pashman: I know you cook for your son a lot, especially breakfast.

Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah.

Dan Pashman: Did your dad cook for you?

Roy Wood Jr.: No. No, my dad — we would — my dad's thing was groceries. You know, my dad — he's the one who taught me about doing the math on half-gallons versus gallons of milk and figuring out what's the better value, and looking at this on this date. Like write down to waiting for bread the day before — if the bread comes in on Monday, buy bread on Sunday, because in those days the grocery stores will lower the price. You know, I learned a lot of those strategies from my father, but then my father also — damn, I never thought about that.

Roy Wood Jr.: My father also, if he was on some asshole sh*t for you know a week or two or a month or two, when he finally came back to the house — like there'd be days my dad just wouldn't come home. He'd be wherever. And when he came back to the house, that first day back in the house, there was a trunk full of groceries from Piggly Wiggly, and it had all my favorite foods snacks. Trunk was filled to the brim with just junk food and that made everything okay. Like you know, in that moment, I didn't ... I didn't get that it was emotional bribery. I was bribed with food to forget what had happened. That was cool. He was the coolest person that — ya! Daddy bought the ... Root beer! Yay! And then you go, but wait a minute ...

Dan Pashman: Right.

Roy Wood Jr.: What the f*ck? You was — that was a bribe. So what's real after that?

Dan Pashman: Right.

Roy Wood Jr.: What's real — on some trust sh*t who's real? So now, as a 40-year-old father, I know that if I do something with my child and I feel bad about what happened, I will never bribe him. I'll never bribe my way back into his heart. So that's the type of stuff that I have to, like, try to make sure that I'm doing with my son. And also teach him why gallon of milk is always a better buy ... than a half gallon.

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHING]

Roy Wood Jr.: Half gallons is for suckers or for people who need the compact space. You're paying for the price of needing more real estate in your fridge. But if you can get the gallon, always get the gallon.

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Roy says in Birmingham, he’ll always be his father’s son. For a long time, he wanted to escape that shadow, to be known not just regionally, but nationally — and he’s succeeded. But as he said in one interview, “Ironically, here we are 20 years later, and I'm a Black man giving commentary to people about the state of the Black condition, which is exactly what my father did — only with no punchlines.”

Dan Pashman: In that role, the role of the commentator, the social critic, that person isn’t usually the one in the middle of the action. They’re watching the people in the middle of the action. That’s where Roy likes to be. I asked him about a tweet of his, where he wrote, “I'd love to do a personality profile on people who like working a grill during a party and see how many are introverts. Running the grill keeps you party-adjacent but away from everyone.”

Roy Wood Jr.: I'm a grill man at most parties.

Dan Pashman: It gives you something to do where you're not forced to interact too much.

Roy Wood Jr.: I'm not for — I can escape. It gives me an out, because no matter what we're talking about — hey, I got something on the grill. Let me go check this real quick on the grill. I've never been a party guy. I've never been the life of the party. I've just — that's just not my personality, like I've never been the type of person to be able to go out and just be charismatic with strangers, which is odd considering my occupation.

Dan Pashman: Right. So how do you square those two things?

Roy Wood Jr.: Like that — on stage, there's just a switch that flips and also on stage I control the conversation. If I'm at a party and a topic starts drifting into something I'm not comfortable talking about or they're not sure about, if I'm just here and I'm just standing, I have no escape. Whereas if I'm on the grill, you can just kind of hang and check in. And you kind of get to choose who you kind of want to hang — which is a big advantage that children have. Because children can just walk up in a spot and just go, "I don't like you", and just won't come around you. But as an adult, it's, "Well, that guy didn't talk to me."

Dan Pashman: Right.

Roy Wood Jr.: What's his problem.

Dan Pashman: Right. Right, right.

Roy Wood Jr.: And I'm not avoiding. You know, it's just if I had to choose, I want to be where people are but I also want to be a little bit out to the side where I can kind of just observe.

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: That’s Roy Wood Jr., his new standup special is called No One Loves You, he’s also a correspondent on The Daily Show and host of the comedy and storytelling show This Is Not Happening. Find all of those on Comedy Central.