When comedian and Big Bang Theory cast member Brian Posehn last came to Nashville in 2016, Barack Obama was still president. Star Wars nerds may have been raging over this or that, naturally, but it was probably mostly innocuous. But, oh, how things have changed. Since then, we’ve seen a year-and-a-half of news fatigue courtesy of the Trump administration, not to mention certain particularly toxic Star Wars fans chasing The Last Jedi actor Kelly Marie Tran off social media with their racist and sexist comments.
Ahead of a three-night stand at Zanies, Posehn opened up to the Scene about toxic Star Wars fandom, how comedy is evolving beyond self-loathing, and how current events have inspired him to break out of his comfortable niche of fart jokes and rants about metal bands. Not that there’s anything wrong with a good fart joke in 2018, of course.
A lot has changed since the last time I talked to you — you were in Nashville the weekend before the 2016 election. What are you talking about? [Laughs] I haven’t watched the news since then, it’s weird. What’s everybody bugged about?
Has what has been going on in the past 18 months or so inspired your comedy? Yeah. I don’t want to scare people off, but yes. I’m like most of my friends, fellow comedians — we’re all talking about what’s going on. I’ve been writing comedy for 30 years, and I always purposely stayed away from religion and politics, for the simple reason that nothing divides a crowd faster than those two topics. But what I’ve always done is, if I had the right joke, if I had something that I felt was in my voice, I’m gonna do it. I’m definitely doing that now, and I know that some fans of mine might support [Trump] — I don’t see how that works, but I also don’t wanna scare them off. And I know Big Bang Theory and some of the more mainstream things I do might appeal to people, so it’s a line that you gotta walk down that we didn’t have two years ago. I don’t wanna send anybody screaming from the club like, “Go Trump!” And I have.
That has happened? Oh yeah. A guy’s final words were, “Go Trump!” And he’s out of the club. I also had, this was great, in Phoenix, during my last joke — I save the politics for the last joke — a woman was really unhappy and leaving, and then her husband, shuffling behind her, gave me the thumbs-up as they were leaving. But she was so pissed off! She didn’t see him do it — I loved that.
Another thing in the news lately is Star Wars. I have a lot of friends who are self-proclaimed Star Wars nerds like you and are protective of the franchise, but are also so disgusted by the current state of the fandom. It has gotten toxic. It has. I really hate the ugly side of it — that poor girl [Kelly Marie Tran] from the latest movie, who I thought was awesome. That kind of stuff makes me sick. … Guys are getting personal. And I’m saying “guys,” I’m making a generalization, but it seems like the most toxic nerds happen to be white males. That’s just what it looks like to me from the outside. It’s really funny because I was butt-hurt about Star Wars for 15 years [laughs], you know with the special editions and then the prequels, and these new ones that these people hate — however corporate and however Disney they are — I actually really enjoy them. I dug Solo, and I dug Rogue One — I like the four new Star Wars movies. I kinda find it funny — I’ve talked to an old friend who loved the prequels the whole time I was hating the prequels, and now he’s super mad about the current movies, and it makes my old nerd heart happy that these guys are knowing the anguish that I felt. But I think they’re wrong! I think I’m right. I like the good stuff and I hate the bad stuff, and I think it’s good again, and I think these guys are not only toxic but off-base.
Have you watched Nanette, the comedy special that Hannah Gadsby just released on Netflix? I kinda don’t want to because what I’m hearing from friends of mine that are like-minded, it might make me wanna quit or rethink what I’m doing. It sounds really smart. My buddy Derek Sheen, a comic who I bring with me on the road most of the time, he’s a great dude and he was like, “Oh man, it’s amazing.” I wanna check it out. I kinda get the gist of what the bit is about, but I wanna see it for myself, for sure. There are those specials, there are certain people where you’re just like — John Mulaney did it [in his recent special Kid Gorgeous], where he had a joke about Trump and I was just like, “Well, why write another Trump joke after that?” His horse-in-a-hospital thing — I was like, “Oh my God, that is just the perfect thing,” and it makes you wanna put your pencil down and not try to craft any more fart jokes.
Gadsby talks about how, if you’re self-deprecating as a comic, what are you telling people who identify with you? Which I think is fair, but as somebody who likes self-deprecating humor, I like using humor when figuring out who I am as a person. It does ask a lot of questions that I think are really interesting — I’m just curious how that’s going to affect the comedy world. Yeah, well, I personally have done a lot of self-deprecating jokes over the years, and I like it, and it’s a well I go to. For me, I do not like myself a lot of time, and I feel like there are a lot of people like that, and can identify with that. But then I’ve seen the other side. I’ve had fans, female fans who — which is so weird for me, I can’t believe I’m talking about this — but I’ve had a couple in the last several years where I get too mean for them. Like, they like me so much that they’re like, “No, no!” I’ll talk about how ugly and how troll-like my features are, and I’ll have girls in the audience go, “No, no, no!” And I’m like, “It’s a joke! I’m not crying in a room alone, I’m actually OK with it!” But I’m also making fun of myself, and I feel like if anybody can, it should be me. When I’ve done roasts and people talk about how, “Oh, the villagers are chasing you!” and things like that, I’m like, “Hahaha — I could do better.” If anybody is gonna come up with a mean thing about myself, it’s me.
