Munya Chawawa: Why Comedy Matters Right Now | GREAT MOMENTS

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2:11Jamie Laing: Hello everyone, I'm Jamie Lang and this is Great Moments. Hey guys, welcome back to our Great Moments. Who do we have today? we have Munya Chihuahua. Munya is the satirist and social media creator behind some of the sharpest and funniest social media content out there. He's a genius. He's the best. We also did Gogglebox together. So if you saw Gogglebox, you'd see us doing that together. Now in this great moment, we chat about how comedy can be one of the most powerful forms of communication. He certainly proves that and how humor helps us tackle difficult topics, challenge politics, question the society we live in, all those kinds of things.

2:48Jamie Laing: It's a great episode and we hope you like it. And if you really like this little great moment, you can click on the full episode, which is in the show description. Just click on the link. Okay, you ready? Here we go. Enjoy this great moments with Munya Chihuahua.

3:10Jamie Laing: Do you know what's so amazing about your career? You leave Sheffield, stunning psychology. You decide that you want to go into this industry. But you were told, unless you had 30 ,000 followers, you probably wouldn't get an agent. So you went, right, I'm going to go and post a video twice a week on my social media. So you made a video twice a week. I think it was four years or something until one of them really popped off. Yes. So first of all, to get in that room, I would lie to agents saying that I was Idris Alba's son in the email, in the email. And then oftentimes either they would figure out it was a joke and go, okay, you got me like, this is quite interesting.

3:46Jamie Laing: Come in. I want to meet you. or they'll be like you know they would believe I was his son so I get in there on this one occasion and they're like look we really liked your email it was very smart what you did watched your show reel it was good you got you know you got charisma you got what it takes but how many followers do you have and I was like oh I don't know like 2 ,000 they went no no no if you had 30 ,000 followers maybe we would have connected you to someone in the digital team so I mentioned this because it's It's very important within the dissection of what the term influencer means, for example.

4:22Jamie Laing: I slightly have beef with the term because I think in many cases it disguises a person's actual talent or skill. This is less in reference to me. It's more in terms of my peers even. What do you mean by that? What I mean by it is this. uh in press you know so okay so thus far in when i have been reviewed in the press or whatever oftentimes journalists will steer away from calling me a comedian or a satirist even though that's predominantly what i do you know i've been called a youtuber despite the fact that i rarely put anything on youtuber on youtube when i went on bake off they described me as a podcaster i don't even have a podcast jamie you know how mad that is i don't even have a podcast I've been called a rapper, even though rap is sometimes what I do within my satire.

5:11Jamie Laing: And I think, okay, and of course I've been called an influencer, which is interesting to me. Influencer, in people's minds, is somebody whose only skill is being popular, right? That's what the term is used to imply. It's like, oh, you're just a popular person. However, to gain popularity, especially now, surely requires oftentimes some sort of skill. to be amazing at cooking or music or dancing or something to actually entice an audience to go, oh my God, that's amazing. I want to, I want to invest in that. I want to follow in that. And so, you know, what we're really, what we're really talking about is what does a person do beneath the label of influencer that we are not calling them?

5:48So, you know, for example, there's a,

5:51Jamie Laing: there's a girl called, I think Poppy Cooks who, you know, her specialism is recipes involving potatoes and she is sick. She could do a million and one things, but people call an influencer, She's a chef. She was a chef before she would make potatoes as well. She's a chef now. Call her a chef. Ditto with a musician, ditto with a dancer, with whatever. Just because oftentimes the only reason people want followers is so that they are then afforded the opportunities to do the things they want to do. The only thing that ever made me want followers is an agent saying, you can't present until you have followers.

6:22Jamie Laing: If she had said to me in that moment, you can present, I would have done it without followers. See what I'm saying? The only thing that gave me a desire to be popular is being told it is a prerequisite to do the thing you want to do and love to do. So the term is slightly reductionist in that it actually buries the talent that somebody has used to acquire their audience. And also, you know, we have to say that if anyone had, if someone said to you, I'm going to do a show in a minute and there's going to be 10 ,000 people there, you'd be like, bloody hell, like, who are you? That's incredible. Those are the kind of numbers that people are building every day behind their talent.

6:57Jamie Laing: And so it's worth actually giving it its dues and saying, cool, what is it you do? And I want to acknowledge you for that. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes total sense. But again, it goes back to that same sort of thing that we like to put people in some sort of box because it's easier for us to articulate it then. You know, you are a comedian and your videos are so smart. When I first did Radio 1, I don't think you even know this, but I can't wait to tell you. In Radio 1, because it's a very live show, as you know, it's every day. People are constantly thinking on their toes of what to talk about and what to do.

7:25Jamie Laing: the producer at the time would say, right, let's go and check out Munya's social media. He'll tell us what's going on. He's like, guys. So they would go and check out what you were talking about. Right, right. To use that kind of vibe to help with what kind of conversations we should have on Radio 1. Oh, that's crazy. Without you realizing, I think, you're influencing so many people because you're spreading information in an entertaining way, which is actually what people really want to engage with. That's why podcasting is quite a good thing. If you can make it entertaining and informational at the same time, you kind of got this great blend of something going on and that's what you do so well how long does it take you to write and create and direct those videos well first of all you know i really appreciate the compliment you know especially it you know i really appreciate it and also when i meet people and they say you know they they say to me look i know you don't want to hear this but i think your videos are i always i'm so grateful for anyone who watches a video because you know it's you know it's just my dream so I I take every compliment at face value full value so I appreciate that um in terms of how long it takes me to make a video um some days you just wake up and you just know you know you just know exactly that the idea just carries you straight to where it wants to go and you and you execute it and it's just seamless other days you really have to wrestle with ideas you know they will torment you and they will torture you what's also really interesting to me or what I value most about creating satire is sometimes I go on a streak of videos where they're not really related to anything.

8:54Jamie Laing: You know, it might be about what happens when you skip leg day or whatever. And it's like just fun. And I remember, oh my God, you can make things just because they're fun and like, there's no consequence to you. There's no danger, but that doesn't really bring me satisfaction. If I do it long-term, I like to do something that really holds up a mirror and makes people ask about us as a society for instance two videos which you know had a real discourse in the comments and to a degree not even well for some people backlash one i made about andrew tate right this is really early on in his conception where i just knew this is not a good man he's not a good person and i did a video expressing a search via the medium of the Andrew Tate mod.

9:39Jamie Laing: And I think it was like this fake museum I'd invented. And, you know, people were like, I loved you up until now, but Andrew's spreading a good message. This is before all the human trafficking investigations, by the way. It was that thick in the comments. That's what people were saying. They were like, you know, this is how we know you've sold out to the Western media or whatever. I'm thinking, bro, about Western media, I can't even get into Soho House. What do you want about your nutcase? Then similarly, I made a video very recently about you know russell brandon and what felt like to me a convenient conversion in the face of some very serious allegations and you know lo and behold in the comments it was like you know uh you people were were getting into it and fighting each other and stuff talking about whether you know religion should be used as like a veil and all of these kind of things and in those situations my job is not to go and slog it out in the comment section i'm just providing a stimulus upon which to have a conversation.

10:35Jamie Laing: And that is very valuable to me. It's encouraging us to think about these kinds of things. You know, it's encouraging us to discuss some of the institutions which previously we have just been told, you know, just allow them to exist and don't ask any questions. I want people to ask questions. I want people to ask questions about politics and to question their beliefs and what they stand for, because ultimately through discourse, you'll either change them or you'll strengthen them. And I think that's to the benefit of society. So I like to provoke conversation more than I like to be popular, if that makes sense.

11:08Jamie Laing: If you were to do this kind of satire and these kind of things on, I don't know, let's SNL, or you kind of separate it. Oh, SNL are going to get the sort of comments. Not you as the comedian or individual, it's SNL. Because it's on your own personal page, it's about you. So there has to be a slight combination between, okay, I've got this big following. Am I worried now I'm going to alienate some people because then maybe people stop liking me. But also I want to produce content that sparks this conversation and I want to do stuff that I think is right. So it must be a hard kind of road to follow.

11:43Jamie Laing: It's a very good point about the SNL thing. You know, maybe I would, if there was an SNL here, maybe I would have never started to make my own things. But in relation to what you're saying if I make a video and people unfollow me because they don't like what I am you know what I'm the message I'm putting in the video there's a few things to consider first of all as a innate psychologist and also as a satirist what I believe my role is is to often reflect how we are feeling together how we are how most of us are feeling same way as a political cartoonist will often do you know I love Ben Jennings who you know if you've not seen him check him out he's like sort of similar age to me he just really bang on the money political cartoons and his job is even harder than mine because he needs to in a single image capture everything and i just think he's he's just totally incredible but i'm i'm i'm studying constantly how people feel before i i load up the bone arrow right so when i take the shot i already know by and large i'm trying to encapsulate how many people are feeling right as opposed to just putting out something that I know is going to alienate people, if that makes sense.

12:53Jamie Laing: So that's the first thing. Number two, I check every video I send to my manager and I send to the same group of friends to number one, ask, is this funny? Number two, is this, you know, is this inoffensive? And when I say inoffensive, what I mean is I don't want to, I don't want to hurt anyone. I'm not a malicious person. It's not in my interest to cause any form of harm to anyone. And I care more about not harming people than I do being liked, if that makes sense. And that translates as, I could have a video that I think is hilarious and I don't care if people are hurt by it and I just put it out.

13:23Jamie Laing: I'm never going to do that. I'm always going to check first. That's the second layer of defense. Thirdly, if a video goes out and someone goes, look, I'm going to follow you because I don't like what you're saying about Rishi Sunak and I don't like what you're saying about Russell Brand and I really like Andrew Tate, that's fine. I'm not in a race to become the most followed person. All I want to do is leave a body of work that was challenging and that meant something and that inspired some sort of change. That's all that matters to me. Do you think humor and satire is a good vehicle to land a message?

13:54Jamie Laing: Of course. It's like this phrase, I think I must have invented it by now. It's like putting the medicine in the lasagna, right? If I said, do you want lasagna? Nine out of 10 people in this room, bar the psychopaths, would say yes, right? So if I need you to eat lasagna, if you're a kid and I need you to eat medicine or vitamins, whatever i'm just going to put it in the lasagna this is a trojan horse some people might refer to it as but if you want people to understand very good analogy if you want people to understand something humor is a language we all speak and enjoy speaking right and that's why in something as intensive as you know a documentary about north korea and kim jong-un which are extremely ominous topics you're talking about people you know depressed under a suppressed or a dictatorship relationship somebody who could literally end the world with the press of a button i have to put sketches and songs in there because otherwise why was a british person scrolling their tv guide if they even watch tv gonna go let me watch a documentary about a group of people who are having a much harder life than i am how do you get them to care how do you get a person to care who has everything so it's like cool if i can communicate through song and through satire and make you laugh hopefully through that you will absorb some of the other messages so in my own experience comedy is a great communicator.

15:31Munya Chawawa: This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Shifting a little money here, a little there, and hoping it all works out? Well, with the Name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can be a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll help you find options within your budget. Try it today at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. There's one place for the newest drops in wellness and performance, and the biggest sale of the year.

16:05Munya Chawawa: It's the drop by GNC, curating the best of what's new, handpicked by the pros who know what works. And right now, get it all, buy one, get one 50 % off during the semi-annual LiveWell sale. From crushing workouts to leveling up to nutrition and everything in between, get the best deals on the latest innovations. All the newness is all on sale right now during the LiveWell sale on the drop by GNC.

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17:13Munya Chawawa: Why? Because compromised passwords are the number one way bad actors attack companies, and small businesses are their favorite targets. But unlike a lot of security challenges, passwords actually have a pretty simple solution. One password lets you manage all your business's credentials, so you can feel confident that your data stays secure as your company grows. Find out more at 1password.com slash special offer and start securing every login.