Name: Spike Lee Is Tired Of Being Called Controversial | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-06-19T15:19:37.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Spike Lee Is Tired Of Being Called Controversial | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-06-19. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Spike Lee Is Tired Of Being Called Controversial | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-06-19. Transcript available.

our next guest is a talented filmmaker whose latest motion picture the very
provocative bamboozled
is in theaters now here he is spike lee spike how you doing good welcome back
to the show yeah i'm
wearing my mother steward underwear uh hey we got a lot to talk about here
first of all baseball
what do you think what are you looking at what do you like subway series yeah
you think the
yankees will get by seattle yeah yeah that's finally came alive so everything's
fine well i mean they're
not gonna roll over but uh i think it'll be seven games yankees beat the mets
oh good that looks like
you yeah that'd be great new york city will be insane have you always been a
yankees fan i started
i grew up in brooklyn so i was a mets fan that's when the yankees suck were you
just a front runner is
that what you are no i mean it's been going back and forth but since reggie
jackson yeah
reggie and thurman munson and everybody you got everybody's attention didn't he
he was uh stick that stirred the drink that's right and what about uh the knicks
patrick ewing i've
looked and looked and looked he ain't here anymore what what is that all about
well i think it's criminal
that patrick couldn't end his career in a nick uniform and uh something could
have worked out and
uh he's still one of the best players in the game he's going to hall of famer
and uh what we got in
return doesn't doesn't add up in my estimation so so you're so and what about
uh where'd he go he went to
seattle and what does it look like for them has he got a chance there now to
get a ring well
they they're in the western division they got to play shock oh yeah and dia robinson
a lot more
time so but now let's talk about my indiana pacers how about those guys they're
done
bird retired mark jackson toronto you trade dale davis you're done yeah reggie
reggie had a great
uh championship series against the lakers but you guys are done oh smith's
retired yeah rick smiths
yeah so forget about it they'll be hanging out with the knicks don't even
bother opening the arena is
what you're saying no that can be competitive but i understand how they got rid
of dale davis and mark
jackson i mean i felt bad larry bird left i thought that was too bad but you
know he's a man of his
word he said i'll do it for three years he did it for three years it came very
very close didn't want
to coach anymore didn't want to coach anymore what about that series with la
wasn't that just didn't
it just make you crazy i mean it looked like if they had just won that one game
in indianapolis they
might have had a shot shack is too much yeah that's right he's really come into
his own hasn't he what's
made the difference there i think phil jackson really do you think so is he
that good a coach
or has he just got a great team around him seven rings yeah i know i know well
what are you gonna do
uh let's talk about the motion picture bamboozled now and i've seen this movie
i thought it was a good
film i and i i don't know if i should say i enjoyed the film but i did enjoy
the film but is it the
kind of film people should enjoy really i think there i think there are parts
of it that you can
enjoy and i think there are things in it that make you reflect and say man
things are messed up are
people uh already going crazy about this movie are you getting a lot of uh is
there a lot of controversy
about this well number one i'm really tired of that word controversy i think
that it's so easy today
dave the the label people and i think it's just an act of laziness where you
don't want to spend the
time to say who these people are describe something just put one word to it and
for me spike lee film
controversy right away i think that's this film is a very thought-provoking
film you know excuse me for
a second i can't i can't believe how dumb i am i'm asking you who you think you're
going to win the
world series and you're wearing the yankees hat i just noticed it i i'm sorry i
just i don't know what's
the matter with me i'm drilling you about who do you think did they have a
chance he's got the hat on
uh so so anyway the but the motion picture is up is about exploitation well i
think it's about many
things but what we try to do in satirical light is show look back on the
history of american films and
television and then try to juxtapose that with today and then see the
differences and where we might be
going in the future and the story of of the film uh a group of people working
for a television network
get the idea to put on it's like a minstrel well it's now it's damon wayne's
character he wants to be
fired he wants to get out of there the only way he can be fired and get his
money is come without like
the plot from the producers and mel brooks right he thinks of the most
offensive racist show he can
think of they gotta fire me turns out they love it they shoot the pilot becomes
another one show in
america blackface becomes a rage and he's become dr frankenstein and has to
deal with it yeah and what
is it when when people watch this uh what do you want to what should they take
away from the theater
what what do you want them to be thinking about like a day or two later when
they're well there's so
many things in it that uh it really depends what you bring to the theater so i
really try not to
dictate what people should think coming out but i hope they'll be thinking
about something that they
just saw yeah and uh but forget what other people should think what do you
think what is what is when
you look at your film what what do you take from it what do you what do you get
back from your work here
i think that is uh a very interesting look at pop culture today and how it
affects everything we do
and the damage the stereotypes have done to america as a whole is is it is it
fair uh that a person
like me uh or people who are not black people are not african americans is it a
fair statement to say
that that we really don't understand uh certainly the the the bad part of the
black experience or maybe
not even the good part of the black experience is that fair to say we you know
we can think about it
and we can conjure about it and conjecture but we really will never know what
that is no i i don't
i don't agree with that i think that number one you can't make blanket
statements like that i think
that if you're open to it you can understand it but if if if you think that the
last piece of the last
racist film in history in america was birth to the nation back in 1900 and they
can look at some of the
stuff that's on television now and see that you know some of the stuff is still
related and i think that
what this film what i'm trying to show with this film also is that in the 21st
century you don't have
to put on blackface necessarily be doing the minstrel act i think a lot of
these gangster videos are a
modern day form of a minstrel show so so you're talking about uh television
current television situation
comedies uh that i think that too yeah and some of those you you have uh you
would object to you think
that i mean in my opinion i'm not trying to stand me like like i'm god i'm just
saying i just find
interesting that the majority of african americans are working television today
everybody's in the sitcom
if you if you contrast that with hour-long episodic episodic episodic dramas
you know we're not even there
uh i know uh brower has a new thing get it gideon's cross i know it's not on cbs
but that looks to be
interesting yeah i don't know anything about that i mean i don't andre brower
andre brower right
getting this thing takes place at a hospital and and the movie has opened now
in in selected cities
around the country right it opened this past week in new york ellen chicago october
20th uh a lot more
the united states america is doing business now people going to yeah yeah it's
a and again i feel
odd saying i enjoyed it but i thought it was there's nothing wrong with that
all right then i enjoyed
the film and it was very nicely nicely made in some great performances in there
also great damon yeah
jada pinkett tommy david and sideline glover the great tap dancer and and michael
rapaport and and and
most deaf and and and and paul mooney that's right that's right paul mooney one
of the great
comedians who wrote a lot of richard prize material he's terrific yeah been
around a long time long
time yeah uh and and who do you want to win the world series i'm the dumbest
man on television
the film opens
october 20. yes nationwide it goes week from friday yeah good to see you have a
great season my friend
we'll see you in indiana thank you spike lee we'll be right back