The Lou Perez Podcast
The Lou Perez Podcast
Podcast Description
Lou Perez is a comedian, producer, and author of That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore. You may have seen him on FOX's Gutfeld! and Open to Debate (with Michael Ian Black). Lou was the head writer and producer of the Webby Award-winning comedy channel We the Internet TV and produces Comedy Is Murder, a sketch comedy series with Free the People. Lou is a FAIR-in-the Arts fellow, on the advisory board of Heresy Press, and hosts the live debate series The Wrong Take and The Lou Perez Podcast.
During my tenure at We the Internet, I made the kind of comedy that gets you put on lists and your words in the Wall Street Journal: “How I Became a ‘Far-Right Radical.”
How’d I start out?
I began doing improv and sketch comedy while an undergrad at New York University, where I was part of the comedy group the Wicked Wicked Hammerkatz.
For years, I performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (both in NYC and L.A.) in sketch shows with the Hammerkatz and my comedy duo, Greg and Lou. G&L are probably best known for our sketch "Wolverine's Claws Suck," which has over 20 million views across online platforms.
I was a writer for Fox Sports' @TheBuzzer; produced The Attendants with the Above Average Network; produced pilots for FOX Digital and MSN Games; and was a comedy producer on TruTV's Impractical Jokers.
I hosted the stand-up show Uncle Lou's Safe Place in Los Angeles, performed at the Big Pine Comedy Festival, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, and co-created the political comedy podcast Unsafe Space. I’ve opened for Jimmy Dore, Rich Vos, Dave Smith, and Rob Schneider. I’m currently on tour with Scott Thompson.
I taught creative writing at the City College of New York, "writing the web series" for Writing Pad, and comedy writing workshops for the Moving Picture Institute.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast covers a wide range of themes including comedy, free speech, social issues, and personal anecdotes, with episodes discussing topics such as 'quiet quitting,' political satire, societal trends, and personal resilience through comedy and storytelling.
Lou Perez is a comedian, producer, and author of That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore. You may have seen him on FOX’s Gutfeld! and Open to Debate (with Michael Ian Black). Lou was the head writer and producer of the Webby Award-winning comedy channel We the Internet TV and produces Comedy Is Murder, a sketch comedy series with Free the People. Lou is a FAIR-in-the Arts fellow, on the advisory board of Heresy Press, and hosts the live debate series The Wrong Take and The Lou Perez Podcast.
During my tenure at We the Internet, I made the kind of comedy that gets you put on lists and your words in the Wall Street Journal: “How I Became a ‘Far-Right Radical.”
How’d I start out?
I began doing improv and sketch comedy while an undergrad at New York University, where I was part of the comedy group the Wicked Wicked Hammerkatz.
For years, I performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (both in NYC and L.A.) in sketch shows with the Hammerkatz and my comedy duo, Greg and Lou. G&L are probably best known for our sketch “Wolverine’s Claws Suck,” which has over 20 million views across online platforms.
I was a writer for Fox Sports’ @TheBuzzer; produced The Attendants with the Above Average Network; produced pilots for FOX Digital and MSN Games; and was a comedy producer on TruTV’s Impractical Jokers.
I hosted the stand-up show Uncle Lou’s Safe Place in Los Angeles, performed at the Big Pine Comedy Festival, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, and co-created the political comedy podcast Unsafe Space. I’ve opened for Jimmy Dore, Rich Vos, Dave Smith, and Rob Schneider. I’m currently on tour with Scott Thompson.
I taught creative writing at the City College of New York, “writing the web series” for Writing Pad, and comedy writing workshops for the Moving Picture Institute.
Aidan Grogan is a researcher at the Manhattan Institute. He went undercover at Socialism 2026 — the annual conference sponsored by Haymarket Books, held in Chicago over Labor Day weekend — and sat in on panels that weren’t being livestreamed to see what they were saying behind closed doors. In some cases, they were saying considerably more radical things than what made it onto the stream.
We talked about: how he got in (registered as Aidan G. with a burner email, wore Marxist pins, didn’t iron his shirt, gave up on the disguise by day four); masks required at all times, COVID still surging, it felt like 2020 all over again; the family abolition session — two Yale-affiliated researchers sitting in a circle with Crayola markers on the table, advocating to dismantle the family as an oppressive capitalist institution; Sophie Lewis, Oxford graduate, family abolitionist, currently married; the audience describing the “most culturally celebrated family” as white people, private property, and heteronormativity; the fat genocide panel and the presenter who was herself relatively fit; Sophie Lewis denying any biological basis to sex; the mismatch between revolutionary rhetoric and people with too much anxiety to fire a gun; the old macho Marxists vs. today’s conference-goers; Bill Ayers and the career path of a left-wing terrorist (hint: it ends in a tenured professorship); Robert Nisbet’s The Quest for Community and why radical politics is a substitute religion for the socially alienated; and the DSA platform calling for abolishing the Senate, the Electoral College, and the checks and balances of the American constitutional order.
Read Aidan’s coverage → City Journal: cityjournal.org Follow Aidan → Manhattan Institute: manhattan-institute.org
TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — Intro — Aidan Grogan, Manhattan Institute and City Journal 0:43 — What is Socialism 2026? Haymarket Books, Labor Day, Chicago 1:27 — Going undercover — livestreams vs. behind closed doors 3:51 — The viral clip: pronouns, jazz hands, anxiety about clapping 4:11 — Armed revolution calls — “I have too much anxiety to use a gun” 5:35 — How he got in: Aidan G, burner email, Marxist pins, bad clothes 7:20 — Day one vs. day four — what happens when you dress normally 8:20 — Masks required the entire time — felt like 2020 all over again 10:00 — His cover story: “I’m new to socialist ideas and just exploring” 10:54 — The family abolition session — Crayola markers, Yale researchers 12:29 — What does abolishing the family actually mean? 14:17 — The audience answers: white people, private property, heteronormative 16:41 — Sophie Lewis: family abolitionist, Oxford graduate, currently married 17:49 — Do they ever actually live by the ideas they preach? 18:49 — “It takes a village” — and why they mean the government 21:09 — The data: two married biological parents produce the best outcomes for children 23:45 — Low birth rates — opportunity cost, not money cost 26:06 — At war with biology — the left’s rejection of reality 27:24 — Queer theory, family abolition, and the roots of the movement 28:27 — Sophie Lewis denies any biological or natural basis to sex 31:38 — The fat genocide panel — presenter was relatively fit 33:29 — The old macho Marxists vs. today’s conference-goers 34:15 — Luigi the musical, political violence, and LARPing revolutionaries 36:48 — Champagne socialism — why these people won’t actually risk anything 38:48 — Robert Nisbet and radical politics as substitute religion 39:01 — People who want communes nobody would want to be on 43:05 — Bill Ayers, the Weather Underground, and the career path of a left-wing terrorist 45:18 — Should we be worried? Lone wolves vs. organized violence 46:52 — DSA platform: abolish the Senate, Electoral College, and checks and balances 47:50 — Mayor Mamdani and the low bar for praising elected officials 49:59 — American institutions are more robust than the radicals think
Watch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJ Listen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081 Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU
🍺 Co-host of Happy Hour Econ → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-hour-econ/id1863476697 📖 Lou’s book — That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r 🌐 TheLouPerez.com | 📧 [email protected] ✉️ Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez
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