Tom Brady Saves Comedy (5-6-24)

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

Three internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. And we're on a Monday drive.

It is WSJS, News Talk Sports for the Triad, where we have a big show announcement for later this week that will make when a related friend of the show drops by, drops by in about 15 minutes. It's Monday, already off to a slamming start. Make sure you're here for that announcement, but putting a pin in that for a second. There's plenty of news to dig into.

So let's do that right now. There's some Carolina Panthers news to start the week with. According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, Carolina will sign running back Rashad Penny, adding him to a stable of backs that they've already put together this offseason. You should consider this the final straw for Miles Sanders. This is the final nail in his proverbial Panthers coffin.

Sometime between now and mid-July, Miles Sanders likely will no longer be a Carolina Panther. Why? Relationships matter. We know this. If you have a relationship with somebody, odds are, you're more likely to be looked on more favorably.

Relationships with decision makers, relationships with people within organizations. We know this. That's why Miles was picked up by the Panthers in the first place. He played for Frank Reich. He played for Deuce Staley in Philadelphia.

There were relationships there. Neither Frank Reich nor Deuce Staley are in Charlotte anymore. Conversely, Dave Canales is. And Rashad Penny, a former first-round pick, played for Canales in Seattle. Carolina, you might remember a week and a half ago, just added a running back in round two of the draft.

That's not the round that you take flyers. Ah, we'll just take a chance on a guy. No, you draft people in the second round if you expect them to play immediately. You expect them to help your football team right away. Plus, they've got Chuba Hubbard on a contract year. Carolina has Raheem Blackshear, too, who a lot of people in that building like a lot. If you add Miles Sanders to that, let me put my East Carolina education to test. Real quickly, that's five running backs? You don't need five. Who needs five running backs?

Let's do this. We got Jonathan Brooks, Chuba Hubbard, Miles Sanders, Raheem Blackshear, Rashad Penny. Five running backs?

Somebody's got to go. It's going to be Miles Sanders. Now, let's set expectations here. You shouldn't expect Carolina to get anything in exchange.

anything in exchange for Miles. That contract he has stinks. Worst contract handed out all last off-season for any position. Four years, 25 million. No free agent running back got more.

And he was outperformed by a fourth-round draft pick at Chuba Hubbard. You might even expect Carolina to eat some of that contract just to get rid of it. Carolina, they've taken on some dead cap this year. They've shed contracts for older players in favor of younger guys who are going to help them in the future. The goal for Dan Morgan and company should be... We have fun. Yes, to foster a fun environment, but to get Miles Sanders' contract off the books for 2025. Even if it means you eat a ton of dead cap this year and you eat a ton of the contract this season, that's fine. If you're building for the long haul with Canalis and Dan Morgan and Bryce Young and building for the future, you want that money off the books for 2025.

But signing Rashad Penny today, that's the final straw for Miles Sanders' tenure in Charlotte. On X at WSJS Radio, if you want in, that's where we're streaming video. In addition to YouTube and Twitch, Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show. WD, the number one trending topic on social media today, the Tom Brady roast last night on Netflix.

It's something we talked about when it was announced that this would happen. Did you watch any of the roasts? I did. I had the pleasure of seeing Bill Belichick up there, Kevin Hart, Kim Kardashian for some reason was up there. It felt like some of the old roasts. Oh yeah. Kim Kardashian was booed too.

Do we have this sound? Kim Kardashian, tough night for her. Here she was trying to tell a joke. Thank you. I know a lot of people make fun of your hype. All right. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. All right, Kevin. Whoa.

Other comics trying to get them to stop. Whoa. It was uncomfortable. This is what happens when you come after Taylor Swift or Taylor Swift sets her sights on you.

Did you just roll your eyes, W.D.? Tom Brady came after Taylor Swift a little bit, subtly. Taylor Swift fans.

One and the same. Saying that all the Chiefs fans are 14 year olds. That was the joke from Brady, but we'll get into the roast a little bit later on. The Carolina Hurricanes lost game one of their series.

Not gonna lie. Game one, that loss at MSG, it brought back bad memories. More specifically of the seven game series lost two years ago against the New York Rangers.

Special teams was the difference then. The Rangers in the 2022 seven game series win against the Hurricanes had seven power play goals to Carolina's two. Yesterday, the Rangers went two for two on the power play. Carolina, who had the number one PK, could not stop the Rangers in the first from getting those two power play goals, which by the way were scored in nine and 12 seconds respectively into those power plays.

And nine times. They also had the number two power play unit in the regular season. Carolina could not score on any of their five power play opportunities. So you couldn't get the Rangers power play off the ice.

You couldn't stop them. And you were given more than twice the power play opportunities and you could not score. Another reason it was reminiscent of two years ago, the Rangers had the goal tending edge. The fourth goal, which turned out to be the game winner was soft. Though if answer butts, Freddie Anderson has to stop that puck. And he did not. The third goal, that second power play marker in the first, that's a tough one to let go to when you already have allowed a power play goal and you're up to, you're only trailing two to one in the game thus far.

Here's what I know. Igor Shisterkin on the other side, he is not allowing softies. He's not. Freddie Anderson allowed a few softies and you lose by a goal. Which leads us to the one positive. This is the positive to take away from game one.

It should have been a lot worse. Carolina, again, O for five on the power play. The Rangers, two for two on the power play. Freddie Anderson allowed at least one softie, maybe two.

Igor Shisterkin didn't. Carolina hit two goalposts by my count. Freddie Shay nicked one. Marty Neches in the first period got one. Carolina scored, had 12 shots on net in the first two periods. Carolina, in the regular season, had the most shots on goal of any team. Yet, despite all of that, Carolina nearly forced overtime on the road at MSG. They were peppering shots in the final minute to try and tie that game, a game that if you would have spelled out all those variables prior to it, you think the Rangers are winning that game by two, three goals, maybe more.

Carolina, they only need to steal one on the road. If you're Rob Brind'Amour and you're going into that room, you're probably thinking, guys, we didn't play that well. We didn't do what we needed to do on special teams. We let some pucks in that we should not have. Don't have an idea what was happening in the middle of the crease, leaving Sabinijad wide open on that first goal a few minutes in. Carolina uncharacteristically played poorly yesterday in key areas.

Yet on the road, you still only lost by a goal and you had a shot to win it. You go into game two thinking, if we just sharpen up the areas that we've proven over a large sample that we're pretty good at, not allowing power play goals at will, nine, 12 seconds into a power play, and we capitalize, I think they were at a one third rate in the first round. And again, number two power play unit in the league. Hey, you convert on every one out of five or two out of five power play opportunities.

You're feeling pretty good. Be better in special teams. Don't allow softies. And you can win game two in New York. And once you win one game on the road, all you have to do at that point is take care of home ice. And you win the series, beating a team that probably is the best team in the NHL other than you.

So it brought back bad memories, but there was a positive, there was a silver lining to take from that if there was one right there. In addition to the special guests and big announcement that we have in just a few minutes, we're gonna be joined by Hayes Permar playing skips or plays with Hayes. We've got Graham's grades to do today as well.

Best bets are later this hour, got three best bets for tonight's action that we're gonna be handing out shortly. But a big fun show announcement for later this week that we will share with you with a special guest joining us. That's next on The Drive. Josh Graham loves to talk sports.

He also loves to take herbal body baths to keep his skin supple and youthful looking. You're on The Drive with Josh Graham. This is gonna be fun. Friday afternoon, we will be doing our show live from Charlotte.

Why is that? Because Friday night, it's going to be the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. And it's gonna be a great show. And it's gonna be a great show. It's gonna be a great show. It's gonna be a great show. It's gonna be a great show. And then we have another sports hall of fame induction ceremony that we can't wait to be a part of. And joining us to tell us what we might be expecting is Tripp Durham, our buddy, the executive director of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, whose voice might sound familiar to you if you are a Duke football or basketball fan.

You know him as the voice of Wallace Wade Stadium and also Cameron Indoor Stadium. Tripp, could you share with us some of the guests you're looking from when we do our show from Charlotte on Friday? Absolutely.

If you allow me to get that last bumper out of my head, herbal bath and the word supple. That's right. Now that I've heard that from the chamber. So we're looking forward to having you and the rest of the crew there. We are in the process of working to have not quite yet Hall of Fame umpire, Joe West, sit alongside of you, as well as that tight end receiver by the name of Steve Smith Sr. at some point during your broadcast live from the Charlotte Convention Center on Friday. And we're also lining up from former ACC Commissioner John Swafford as I think you may want to turn towards a little bit of conversation about racing in North Wilkesboro, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, because I've talked with Swafford off the air a number of times about his childhood growing up and what that racetrack meant to him.

And it became dormant right around the time that he became the ACC Commissioner. But we've seen that revitalization, which I'm sure he's really excited about. And hopefully we have a race at the All-Star Race a couple of weeks from now at North Wilkesboro that's as good as the race we had yesterday where Kyle Larson won by, you know, just the very front of his bumper. Photo finishes were the theme yesterday. But will there be, this is very important, will there be ice on hand on Friday in case we need to ice up sun with Steve Smith coming by the set? Oh, that's too funny. You know, I'm sure that with catering, you know, food and beverage being what it is, I'm sure we can find a $92 bag of ice to bring over to you.

Should not be an issue. How many Hall of Famers are being inducted Friday night? We have 11 that are on the slate. And they are football. They are Olympic rowing. They are administrative.

They are basketball. They are media. So I don't think that I've left a category out, coaching as well. It's gonna be a dynamic group. Our board of directors, they're the ones that put together the slate for nomination for the class.

They're the ones that vote on the class. Certainly there's a nominations link that anybody in America or even internationally could nominate somebody for this Hall of Fame. The board has done a really good job for this being our 60th induction for a class coming up on Friday. Trip Durham with us here, executive director of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame Friday night. We're gonna be at the ceremony. We'll be doing our show though from Charlotte Friday afternoon from three to six. And we're excited to be there for it. Steve Smith gonna join us. Cowboy Joe West gonna drop by.

That should be a lot of fun. We're gonna see locals like Randolph Childress and Ron Wellman go into the hall. Is it a coincidence that it's the same weekend as the Wells Fargo and Jim Nance is going in? Is CBS carrying the Wells Fargo this weekend?

They are. And part of the thought process honestly two years ago was to be able to format this in a way in which Jim Nance could be with us. So the dominoes have fallen really well into place for him to be local. A lot of Charlotte connections, a ton of Charlotte family. This is really lining up well.

And from what I understand, if you're a golf fan, the weather on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, especially Saturday is supposed to be phenomenal. Wow. What's your vision for the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame? This has been a project for you for years now. And I know there are a lot of folks in Charlotte that are very excited that you're moving it to a little bit West of Raleigh and there seems to be representation all across the state within the class that you're recognizing. Well, thank you.

You put the ball on the tee really well. There are 100 counties in our state. And because this organization in the last 59 and a half years has been either part-time led or volunteer led, there's been no real initiative from a marketing, branding, and educational programmatic standpoint to get out to all 100 counties. So we want to be able to engage kids K through 12 and then in that post-prep education as well. We want to create content for them to help us develop, which allows them their own portfolio for when they go out into the real world.

Plus, we want to develop content that we can take into the classroom either virtually or literally in the classroom to be able to use sports as the platform to talk about the virtues and the importance of family, education, sportsmanship, any of those virtues that are important when it comes to those child-rearing years. Did I read it right? This is the 60th class? It is the 60th Conduction Celebration. That is correct.

Wow. The hall was actually born in Charlotte in 1962. And through the ebbs and the flows of our country during that time, this marks the 60th celebration. That's really neat. And there's a lot of neat stuff. It's like a really cool homecoming, you know?

Yeah, no doubt. You can learn more about it at ncshof.org and learn about the Hall of Fame class, which includes Randolph Childress and Ron Wellman here locally, and Jim Nance, and the great Bob McKillip at Davidson, and Steve Smith among them, who will be visiting with us on Friday. We can't wait to be there on Friday. Tripp Durham, we appreciate you spending the time with us, and we look forward to seeing you at the Charlotte Convention Center Friday.

Thank you for having us. You call me. Call me if you have an issue with parking. I'll have you valeted. You'll be ready to go. Whoa!

Valet parking, W.D. Whoa! Game changer! And by the way, not really. See you later. There he goes. Yeah, I was about to say, Jim Nance gets the valet.

Josh Graham, probably not. And understandably so. We're just happy to be there. Two NBA series tonight, a game two and a game one. The game one is a series we've been looking forward to kind of quietly for about a week now, hoping for it to happen. Nick's Pacers, a throwback to the Reggie Miller, John Stark's 90s matchups, and we'll see if Spike Lee is courtside tonight at Madison Square Garden. Who's calling that game tonight? Is this an ESPN or a TNT broadcast? Because if it's on TNT, it would be a gigantic missed opportunity if you don't have Reggie Miller calling this game. This game's on TNT? Kevin Harlan, maybe?

Both these games tonight are on TNT. Wow! Got to look it up. Is that Will Pelagic? It was Will Pelagic. Making an appearance on the show?

Yeah, this is a weird guy. Wow! There he is. I've got the broadcast team for tonight. Uh-oh.

They got to do it. Come on. Brian Anderson, Stan Van Gundy, Chris Haynes. Oh. Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, and Allie La Force are on the Nuggets, T-Wolves series.

Do they, OK, is it possible they thought this could be a conflict of interest if they put him on the call? No. I just think it's as simple as this is our best broadcast team. Do you want them on the Nuggets, T-Wolves series, or do you want them on Knicks Pacers?

Wow! Yeah, fair enough. Because we can agree that Nuggets, T-Wolves is probably the best round two series. Oh. It might be the best series of the playoffs. Probably.

Yeah. Here's the key of that series. We'll hand out best bets a little bit later on related to tonight's games. That cash out, fam. Jamal Murray is the key for this entire series. Part of the job, I feel, of being a sportscaster is to try and take all the intricacies of sports, all the x's and o's, all the things that could easily make your eyes glaze over and talk above your head in ways that you might not understand, try to boil all of that down into a way it's consumable. The best sportscasters figure out a way to make something complicated seem very easy. And this is the best way to explain what Wolves Nuggets is likely going to come down to.

Obviously, there are other elements that could factor into this. Injuries and somebody unexpected going nuts. But at the core, at the core of what's going to decide this series is Jamal Murray.

One way or another, Jamal Murray is the key of the Wolves Nuggets series. Jokic, Edwards, they both went off Saturday. Those guys, they are variables you can account for.

They almost equal each other out. You know what you're getting from those two players. And there's great respect in saying that about Jokic and about Edwards. Murray's the third best guy in the series, is he not? Like, who else would you put above Jamal Murray for either of these two teams?

Anybody. Not Towns, not Gobert, not Michael Porter Jr., not Aaron Gordon. It's Jamal Murray. Thus, you'd think if Stars win series, you got two of them. Two of the three best guys, you should win the series. But this is where the matchup comes in. The Wolves might be best suited to giving Denver problems because they have several guys, a ton of depth, several guys who you can throw at Murray to bother him. That's what makes this a tough matchup. We didn't know how much what we saw from the Wolves in the regular season is going to translate to the postseason.

But this is what we learned on Saturday watching game one. Mike Conley, McKeel Alexander-Walker, ACC legend, shout out to Virginia Tech. Jaden McDaniel, former Hornet, am I right?

Those guys are, you could throw a ton of them, all of them at Jamal Murray to make it so he is uncomfortable throughout the game. And how many did he score Saturday? 17 points. He averages 21. So to boil this down in the most simple way I know how, when he scores above his average of 21 a game, Denver's probably going to win. When he scores beneath his average of 21, Minnesota's probably going to win.

That's not the only factor, not pretending it is, but that is probably the baseline way, best baseline way to look at this series in determining what's most important. Instead of just talking, why don't you listen? That's why you have people call in. Listen for a minute. Oh, welcome back to the Happy Circle. The Drive with Josh Graham. I've been out of the game for a minute, so I'm curious. How many Super Bowl rings have you won since I left? Maybe it's not just the guy on the sideline.

When I go to the Indy 500, I don't ask the winning driver, hey, who gassed up your car? That was Tom Brady applying some heat to Bill Belichick. The roast of Tom Brady on Netflix.

Almost no punches were pulled. Brady did go up to Robert Kraft or to Kevin Hart. Was it Kevin Hart? No, it was Jeff Ross. After Jeff Ross made a joke, a massage joke regarding Robert Kraft, who was in the room and said, hey, don't say that. Bleep again.

But aside from that, everything was fair game. Tom Brady, here's the headline. Tom Brady might have saved comedy. This is going to be a trend because last night was a success. Now, in order for it to happen, it required a star to be made fun of, willing to be made fun of, a star with plenty of things to make fun of him about, willing to take that type of scrutiny, and as a result, number one trending topic. It's blowing up.

It's all over the place. It's all anybody's talking about. I forget what lunch bet I was paying off, but I paid off a lunch bet at Putters today.

I think it was the Lakers winning a game and you having somebody they were playing early in the playoffs or the play-in tournament maybe. Oh, okay. Well, we were at Putters and I heard two or three separate conversations going on where people were discussing the Brady roast. It's the biggest thing that people were talking about today. And this is something that Netflix should do three or four times a year, frankly.

Maybe even more than that because that was a success. And my theory on why that was such a big hit, roasts are the most raw form of comedy. The point of a roast is to cross the line. And if you cross the line so much, then you don't really cross the line at all.

And if we're all kind of cool with the line being crossed, then everybody's kind of there to have a good time. W.D., Brady told a 9-11 joke yesterday. Did you hear that? I didn't catch that one, no.

I'll sum it up. I think the gist of it was, and it's a funny joke. He said he'll never forget where he was in September of 2001 when those two jets slammed into Drew Bledsoe. Oh, no.

That was the joke, which, again, completely inappropriate. Except... Let's go to the sidelines. Tony Haines.

Except, dot, dot, dot, in the context of a roast. There were George Floyd jokes told last night. Yes, there were. I heard Rodney King and Martin Luther King in the same joke. Let's go to the sidelines.

Tony Haines. Every line was crossed. And I believe roasts went out of style in the early 2010s because people felt they were too mean.

They were too mean-spirited. But given the PC cancel culture era of the last 10 years, I believe people were starved for that. People were starved for lines being crossed and it being okay because everybody in the room was kind of in on the joke. That we're just trying to have fun.

So I could see this becoming a more regular thing. And I hope it's an indicator for the rest of the decade when it comes to comedy. Quentin Tarantino was quoted a couple of years ago when talking about the PC cancel culture and how it's affected art over the last 10 years or so and said, this is nothing new. Things always, they add, they flow.

Things always bounce back in the other direction and correct themselves. The example he gave was, after the war in the 40s, art was not very good in the 50s. He said the movies were not very good in the 50s, but what did we get in the 60s?

Outstanding movies, 60s and 70s, incredible art. Then we got comfortable again as a country in the 80s, were very commercialized, the 90s and 2000s responded with very independent themed type movies. And now we've had the superhero era and PC culture, all this type of stuff. And it feels like there's gonna be another inverse to that, hopefully leading to more interesting content being created.

That's at least the optimistic view. And last night, the popularity of last night should be something that was paid close attention to. It's the way I felt with Oppenheimer and Barbie last year. How many people went out to go watch a biopic about the guy who created the atomic bomb in the 40s? That was one of the best, you know, highest grossing movies in recent memory. And it just comes to show you, people will respond to great storytelling.

It doesn't always have to be a superhero movie where a guy's wearing a cape. If this leads to a lot of interesting things in comedy, maybe we can say Tom Brady saved comedy, which is a funny thing to say out loud. Now let's get to tonight's slate. It's time for best bets. I'm not a betting duck.

Care to make it interesting? You know you do. You're on. Call me in on this. Your best bet. But my money's on the other team.

This is Josh's Best Bets. Okay, we gave out two NBA props on Friday, and we went one and one on those. One of those was Anthony Edwards, obvious over points wise, which he hit in good measure.

Cash out, fam. Paolo Bancaro was a lot better than I thought he would be in games six and seven, even though Orlando lost yesterday. So one and one, we'll take it. Now let's turn our focus to tonight. And let's start with the Indiana Knicks series, where this is where my best bet comes from. Pascal Siakam over 19 and a half points.

Give me that cash out, fam. The Knicks have had a lot of injuries inside. They don't have a lot of rim protection ever since Julius Randle got hurt.

We saw that in how Joel Embiid went off, often against the Knicks in round one. Pascal Siakam, you look at his scoring totals in recent games, he had 37 in the Bucks series. He had 36 in the Bucks series. He puts up numbers and I suspect he's gonna put up some numbers again tonight.

I was kind of on the fence, WD. I know that either Pascal Siakam or Miles Turner are gonna score well into the 20s tonight. It doesn't feel like both are going to, but I guess it's possible they could.

I'm leaning Siakam out of the two to do so. I like the Pacers, plus six and a half too, quietly. Give me that cash out, fam. Because I do think they're gonna score and I think it's gonna be a really fun game tonight.

I think that's a little bit too many points-wise. But the bet I'm handing out officially is Pascal Siakam's over 19 and a half. Getting to the Nuggets and T-Wolves, Anthony Edwards over five and a half assists.

Give me that cash out, fam. You don't think that Denver's gonna make an adjustment after the way he scored in game one? I think that's gonna lead to him passing the basketball. And when you look at the Suns series, WD, he had six assists, five assists, eight assists, six assists, four assists in that series. So I venture to say that he's gonna be passing the basketball more often and there's gonna be, he's going to exceed his regular season average of five assists per game tonight in game two for Minnesota. And to cap it, we like Jamal Murray's over 21 and a half points.

Give me that cash out, fam. Now, if you're gonna take Jamal Murray's over on points, you might as well just take the Nuggets minus five and a half too. If you put those two things together, that's plus 254. What's that mean in layman's terms? That means if you bet $10, you make 25. Jamal Murray over 21 and a half points, coupled with the Nuggets covering five points. We like that.

So we'll go with that. So in review, Pascal Siakam's over 19 and a half points. A sprinkle on Pacers plus six and a half.

Anthony Edwards over five and a half assists and Jamal Murray, parlay, over 21 and a half points, parlayed with the Nuggets minus five. Those are our best bets for tonight. Beefs are always the rage anytime there's a beef in sports or in entertainment, the internet just tends to eat that up. And you have a lot coming from the Tom Brady roast last night, there's the Kendrick Lamar, Drake beef, which leads to our theme for Skips or Plays with Haze Permar, diss tracks, that's gonna be the theme.

Hopefully WD was able to find clean versions of whatever songs he pulls in that regard. Haze Permar joins us now. But before we get to the Brady roast and before we get to the diss tracks on Skips or Plays with Haze, we need to start with our Canes. They lost yesterday. It was reminiscent of the seven game series lost two years ago where the Rangers were just a lot better in special teams than Carolina was and thus that was the difference. However, if you would have told me, Permar, that the Canes would go 0 for 5 on the power play, the Rangers would go 2 for 2 on their power plays, the Canes would be on the road and Freddy Anderson would allow at least one soft goal, maybe even two depending on how you feel about the third one and the second power play marker in the first and they'd hit two goal posts, Brady, Shea and Marty and Aches? I probably think Carolina loses that game by three or four goals. They had a shot at the end to win it.

Where are you at? How did yesterday make you feel, better or worse, about the Canes' chances in the series? Yeah, I'm a little bit with you.

I always hate agreeing with Josh Graham. Makes me question where I'm at, especially with how bad your gambling picks are. But no, I feel like the way the series, I mean, the way the game opened up and with a 3-1 disaster on the two penalty kills, like we had, we righted the ship in the second period and then basically won the third period except for the soft goal and like the chances and everything. You're gonna lose a game in New York. I don't want to go down 0-2, but it feels like with a good effort, we could survive going down 0-2 in this series. We've seen it happen in the Canes' pass. We've seen it happen in this playoffs already, going down 0-2 into the world. If we can go like 1-1, like losing that game will be forgotten very quickly. I'm not as devastated as some people were. I still thought we were going to tie it up until Svets joined the penalty right after we looked like we were gonna go 6-on-4.

6-on-4, 5-on-3, or whatever it was gonna be. Haze Permar, what did you enjoy about the Brady roast and the reaction to the Brady roast? I mean, to me, the number one moment, the number one takeaway from the Brady roast, I mean, I'm not a comedy purist, right?

I'm not gonna sit here and pretend like I've got some long link of being a stand-up and that I'm speaking on behalf of all the rights of comedians everywhere, but it seems pretty clear. The number one rule is, if you submit to being in a roast, you just gotta shut up, no matter what anybody says about you or anybody else there or any of your friends, and I feel like we're almost at a point, you know, the pendulum swings on what is allowed and what is not allowed, and I think we're coming back to, hey, comedians have a job to do and it's to make you laugh, and even if they're saying things that are uncomfortable or that wouldn't be allowed to be said or shouldn't be allowed to be said, people shouldn't say that in speaking to each other or giving a speech or running for office, this is okay because of the setting it's in, the same way of a play or a book that might have, you know, tough subjects, but they're showing you life, it's art, right? I think we're back to letting comedians do more of that stuff, and roasts are just that thing where jokes about things that seem out of bounds for a lot of people, ethnicities, culture, whatever Robert Kraft did with, you know, the ladies in that salon, that's all in bounds, and Tom Brady just looks like a huge, huge doofus being the guy asking him or telling him not to make jokes about it. To me, that speaks as loud on Tom Brady as, I think one of the top five things that I would use to define Tom Brady is a guy who's so image conscious that he's trying to agree to be in a roast, but then edit the jokes right there as they're happening. But, you know, it's an interesting touchstone because what you just reminded me of is how our perception of what happened in that spot, for example, change, I think changes just in the last two years, where two years ago you had the Will Smith slap and it was a real discourse about what you can and can't joke about. I haven't seen, it seems today though, it's universal that people were saying, come on, you're out of roasts, what are we talking about?

Tom Brady, that's it. Where I think, I brought up this example earlier, but Quentin Tarantino was on a television show a few years ago being asked about PC culture, cancel culture, this era that we've lived in in the social media age. And he said, you know, I'm a student of history. And he said that in the 50s post-war, people didn't want to cross boundaries after the war and the entertainment suffered, the art suffered in the 50s, there weren't great movies. And then what was born out of that, great movies in the 60s and the 70s. Then that got fat, we got fat and happy as a culture, things became commercialized in the 80s, content suffered, that led to a lot of indie stuff coming in the 90s and 2000s. I hope what last night represented is that after the last 10 years of being told what we can and can't say and how things have been policed, that there is, that this hunger for that type of stuff is noticed and is an indicator for what art is to come and maybe the art being more interesting and more reflective over the rest of the decade.

We'll see. I agree. I think the tough part is now the added element of social media means that it wouldn't, we feel like it'd be great if the rules were different for stand-up comedians. I mean, the rules are, they should be, that's where they perform their art. And to your point, the rules are even different when you host something like the Oscars. You know that you're in somewhat of a handcuff, not because PC culture, but just because you're not there to do your bit.

You're there to be the haha Joe Coast guy. So maybe there are some jokes that are inbound there, that are out of bounds there, but they're totally inbound for a stand-up stage. You make it the same joke, right? I'm not weighing in on whether Chris Rock's joke was inbound or out of bounds, but that is a different stage as opposed to just stand-up. So I'm getting to the point where, oh no, no, sorry, I was gonna say, the tough thing about social media is, we feel like when we, if there was a time when we allowed stand-up comedians to do their act, then that we also have to allow average chuds, losers who are not funny, who are not creating art, to use these same words or same types of jokes in their totally off-point unfunny postings on social media that then get amplified by whatever side. You know what I mean? And so I think we're trying to get back to where, yes, it is okay for this audience and this art on this stage not for you to go say these words. We're not camping PC culture. We're saying, hey, it's okay for a person to get up there and make us laugh because they're professional at it.

And there's a difference from you using those same words or jokes in your stupid Twitter account just because you're trying to get likes or clicks from the people that already like you. Let's get to skips or plays. Did we get way too deep?

No, I- Did we get way too deep there? No, I think we crushed it. Skips or plays- We're a little bit, we're pro-comedy, right? We are. We're pro-comedy, but we're good people.

We are, that's right. Haze Permar, put it up on the ESPN scroll. Haze Permar is for 9-11 jokes. Is for 9-11 jokes. There we go. Hey, hey, I'm not going to say that there were not 9-11 jokes.

When Adam Fox went down easily after some cross-checking, there may have been drafts of 9-11 jokes in a Sports Channel 8 slide about how easily things in New York sometimes fall down. I'm not going any further than that. Maybe we can get- Let's go to the sidelines, Tony Haze.

Then we should just go to skips or plays. Yeah. Haze Permar is somewhat of a Renaissance man, an expert in the finer things. But he hangs his hat on music.

Loves his God and he's the friend of Satan. Feels like 06 getting busy with his sticks. Been watching Big Mike and Lil Trinket trip.

I just need a Zion and someone he can dunk on. Today Haze will decide if this music is smash or trash, blows or blows. It's time for skips or plays with Haze. For the record, the Tom Brady 9-11 joke made me laugh more than any joke last night other than, and I'm ashamed to say that this joke made me laugh a great deal, but it did. Tony Hinchcliffe saying to Rob Gronkowski, I'm glad to see Rob Gronkowski's here taking a break from writing Santa letters.

That one made me laugh a great deal too. I don't know. All right, what do you have your first diss tracks on?

First off, Haze, do you have any idea what's happening with this Kendrick Drake beef? Because I don't. Um, yes, I'm actually an expert on it. Having listened to the Monty Jones podcast and a few others that have joined in.

Actually, I've gotten that rabbit hole more than I would have expected. You know me, I don't have to be a fan of something to be honest with you. A fan of something to recognize its cultural significance. So while I'm a 7 out of 10 Kendrick fan, more like a 3 out of 10 Drake fan. I don't hate him. I just don't know that much. I can tell this is a big deal.

I bought tickets to Dreamland to go to Dreamville to go see Drake. So yes, this is a big deal. I'm all in on it. I'm not telling you what's out of them, but I know a little bit more than an average dude who doesn't listen to that much rap should. Radio appropriate, 30 second version. Can you sum up what the root of this beef is? The root?

This is better, right? It sounds like it's the classic Drake is the more successful rap artist of the two, but Kendrick is the more respected artist of the two. And that seems to be the root of most of it. Kendrick seems to think I don't speak for other rappers. Kendrick seems, acts like he's talking for most of rap when he tells Drake that like they think he's a little bit of a sellout, a little bit of a phony. I think that's kind of the beef of it.

And then, I mean, most of it's just Drake defending himself after that. All right. What's your first diss track? Hold on, hold on, hold on. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

I don't run out of time, but I gotta tell you one more thing. Can I tell you my connection to this rap beef? No.

All right. So there's a white guy that Kendrick Lamar and Rick Ross have both used as a picture for their single because he looks like Drake as a white person. Have you seen this picture? Do you know of which I refer to?

I think I do. It's a friend of mine. It's a guy that I work with.

It's a college picture from Hampton City. And he's an average white guy who happens to look like Drake. So yes, I'm trying to implore my man Mead Stone from Virginia Beach, Virginia, who now lives in Atlanta, that he's got to respond and drop a diss track on Rick Ross who's out here using his picture and saying it's white Drake. So that's six degrees of haze for the Drake Kendrick Lamar rap beef. I don't know the white guy whose face is being thrown around as white Drake. Love it.

All right. What's the first diss track for this skips or plays with Hey? We're going to start out with some Nas throwing some shade at Jay-Z with Ether. This beat, this track is probably the one that people know the most from Nas. Are you a Nas guy, Permar? I am a Nas guy. Apparently, Illmatic has been considered black rap, really enjoyed by white people, but I don't care if I'm a stereotype. I love Illmatic. I saw Nas do Illmatic live for the 25th anniversary at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

He was wearing a tuxedo and I was smoking weed in the Kennedy Center and it was awesome. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So yes, I'm a big fan.

And Ether, I think I'll stay away from my money. Some people write diss tracks for like the audience of all their fans and some people write diss tracks for an audience of one and Ether was for an audience of one. It was like, I am writing this to you. I hate you. I do not like you.

We are not friends. Ether's a play. And as we've learned in grammar school, some overlap here, that Ether is now like a terminology.

Like, hey, you got Ether'd because of how great that was. What's the next one? The next one came out the year I was born in 96. Sheesh. Yeah. Tupac, the infamous Biggie Smalls diss.

I can predict any of these. Yeah. Is there a clean version of this that exists?

Yeah. I'm very scared. I'm not a rap rhythm.

I'm worried I can't be clean. I was thinking, I was thinking I knew he was going to go to the 90s because you have to if you're going to go classic diss tracks. But I was thinking about Notorious B.I.G.

Do I have a story to tell? A Hubert Davis diss track? No, that's not.

We can't go there. I feel like Hubert's been cleared of these charges. Yeah, I think we know it's Anthony Mason now, but is it an Anthony Mason diss? No, no, it's just a great story. That's not a diss track, not at all. That's the rap of a minute. I take it this is a play since you're singing along with it.

Oh yeah, 100%. I just want to know when I have to stop rapping or if I can keep going. Do you want to take a guess on what the third one is? Since you think you can guess all these. I don't know, but that's another one that has a reference to a member. What that song was that it sounded like he was saying Frank Reich that we want to bring up, but that's hit him up at a Frank Reich reference that we probably should have used it this time there.

Frank Reich, no doubt. What is the third one that you have? My guess for the third one is Dr. Dre and Novaseline. Oh, Novaseline. That's towards Ice Cube, right? Isn't that against NW? Oh no, maybe it's the other way around. Is it Ice Cube going to Dr. Dre or Dr. Dre going to Ice Cube?

Yes, those are the people involved. All right, what is the third one you have? The third and final is from Pusha T and it directly involves the Drake stuff. The story of Added On. This one was insane.

It's just amazing. And the picture of Drake. Let's talk about it in this segment. Can we listen to the whole thing?

Do we have three minutes? Can we listen to the whole thing? I can't, but this song might be the greatest diss track ever just because it revealed that Drake had a kid. This is just an amazing, amazing diss track.

At the very end with the... And the... It's just incredible. This is a play, huge play. Haze, I look forward to seeing you next week. Thanks for putting up with us. And, you know, I think some of the station stuff with our internet network is going to be done by next week. I think we lost him.

Did we lose him? Yeah. All right. Well, bye.