--- title: 10 Questions for Chris Rock | TIME description: Comedian and provocateur Chris Rock talks about race, presidential politics and being funny in the age of YouTube canonical: https://time.com/video/zDf2gZYF/ og:title: 10 Questions for Chris Rock og:description: Comedian and provocateur Chris Rock talks about race, presidential politics and being funny in the age of YouTube og:url: https://time.com/video/zDf2gZYF/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zDf2gZYF/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Questions for Chris Rock twitter:description: Comedian and provocateur Chris Rock talks about race, presidential politics and being funny in the age of YouTube twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zDf2gZYF/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 10 Questions for Chris Rock > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 10 Questions for Chris Rock [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Chris Rock](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zDf2gZYF.m3u8) (6:18)  _Published 2012-06-06. Comedian and provocateur Chris Rock talks about race, presidential politics and being funny in the age of YouTube_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:25 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Chris Rock Agrees to Record-Breaking Deal](/video/ESec2pRE/) ### Chris Rock Agrees to Record-Breaking Deal [Chris Rock And Prince Try To Shake Up ‘SNL’](/video/vjdasXxx/) ### Chris Rock And Prince Try To Shake Up ‘SNL’ [10 Questions with American Sniper Chris Kyle](/video/PpZTJML8/) ### 10 Questions with American Sniper Chris Kyle --- ## Transcript Chris Rock has four Emmys, three Grammys and an Oscar hosting stint. I was like, Do I have enough. Under his belt? He's made movies about all the big subjects politics, race, family and hair. But today, we're here to discuss the role he's explored perhaps most deeply, that of a zebra that better than that circus. Type, that da da da da da da. Afro circus Afro pop, polka dot afro. When I play an animal, everybody better look out. When the filmmakers talk about this movie. They liken it to a sort of a Ralph Waldo Emerson. It's not the the destination. It's the journey. And when you talk about this movie, you compare it to MacDonald's. Is there a difference? Well, I. Have compared it to McDonald's. Just because you can rely on McDonald's. It's always good. So in Quarter Pounder, you get in Chicago, you can get in Saint Louis. And the Madagascar movies are very dependable. I got no beef with McDonald's. McDonald's has no beef. Initially, you resisted playing Mardy. What about you? Did they have a DVD about, you know what it was? Jeffrey had offered me some animated movie. I think were horses. Or maybe I was Elephant with Morgan Freeman. I forget what it was and I didn't see the why. But then, you know, Shrek comes out and everybody's making all this money and you're like, Hey. So it was Eddie Murphy. Maybe I can get in on that. You're a campaign correspondent for the presidential election. I was. 1996. When I was back when white men were President. Clinton, you know. So if you were doing that job again, what stories do you think you'd go after? I don't know. I mean, I'm I'm into the whole Romney Mormon. Mormons think black people are the devil thing. So this is an odd choice for the Republicans to pick against a black you know, four years after a black president. It's like, let's get the guy whose religion thought black people were the devil till 1978. That ought to do it. What kind of a captain do you think Obama has been? I think he's been pretty good. I mean, clearly, Obama got into office. It's great. We're in a hotel room. Perfect place to explain this. And the country was in a shambles and he had a big cleanup job, i.e., this hotel room we have here to order in order to really clean it. He had to pull the rug back. You got to move the couch. And if you come in before the maid's done, you're like, What the hell's going on here? So the guy's doing a real cleaning and yeah, look, it's a little bumpy, but when it's over, it's going to be spotless. Who doesn't understand cleaning? Rich people don't understand cleaning. And who understands cleaning the most? Black people. About five years ago in the pages of Time magazine, this is what Jerry Seinfeld wrote about racism to Chris Rock is just a hacky sack on his foot. The tension release he offers is available nowhere else from no one else. Is that an accurate description of what you think you do? Oh, no. I just joke about what happened in my life and, you know, unfortunately spit a lot of racism. And it comes up. I don't, you know, for what it does to American society. That's your job. For me to sit here and go I do this to American society would really make me and all my black friends have a bunch of white friends and all my white friends have one black friend. Is race still an interesting subject comedically for you then? Sometimes, yeah. Yeah. I mean, sometimes I'm bored with it, to tell you the truth. Some of it Roberts jokes aren't like songs. I always envy singers like Sting and just, you know, he's always going to sing Roxanne. No one wants to hear me do jokes for 20 years. They want to hear new jokes. Is it harder to be funny when you're famous? No, I don't think so. If anything, the era we're in, in this time of YouTube and cell phone cameras and, you know, TMZ makes it harder for a person to prepare. It's like any time you tell a joke, it's like somebody has got a camera and it's immediately out there. The beauty of jokes is the surprise of the joke. That's there's no bigger laughed and the first time you hear it. So you have that problem. But B, when you think you're being watched like that, you're less likely to take chances. Now, are they watching your social media stream and you take a lot of pictures of yourself, like at Cannes and in places. Do you still it seems like you still get a kick out of the kind of. Oh, I take none of this for granted at all. Every step of this run, I want to document and make sure I appreciate it and knock on wood and hug it and taste it and, you know, say, hey, even now it's like Time magazine's interviewing me. Like, I. Really need to feed you lots of time. Yeah, but still, it doesn't make any sense. There is a theme of that that runs through your work, in a way, this kind of alienation theme. You know, everybody hates Chris and this this idea of, you know, not quite fitting in. Do you still feel like you don't belong? You still feel like you're auditioning? I mean, do imagine I want you to go through a day, a normal showbiz day, and you're the only white person. Because, I mean, you have to work where you still feel like you have to work really, really hard. You feel like you have to work harder than everybody else. You've compensated Some 47.60 5 a.m. probably born in a segregated hospital. Okay. I was raised by my parents that black people do not wait for the judge's decision. You knock you out. If you wait to be judged, you're going to lose. Chris Rock, thanks very much. Thank you. 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