YouSaid · the spoken record

Ben Collins

lines on the record: 68
first: 2026-02-02
most recent: 2026-02-02
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I've seen some of the funniest shit in my life over the last couple of years. The people who are like who can't seem to find humor and who seem to be upset all the time about not being able to say like one specific word, they even found the new words. They're much funnier. We're living in a golden age and you'll see it once you look back on it, you'll figure that out comedy-wise. We're not living in a golden age of anything else.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's like soilant or like hot dogs or something. It's just like this amalgamation. It's calories, but like it's not everything.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I think a lot of this can be accomplished and will be accomplished on the actual internet. I think like it's smaller communities in the internet doing stuff separate of scale, but it's about talking to each other and making art for the sake of art, like not for the sake of anything else. I just want to make one thing clear, by the way. The onion does not use AI. Our AI is a guy named Carl, who does awesome Photoshops. He's great. He's wearing beanies on the other side of the store right now. You can use your”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Immediately, some people just stay in it forever. And that's the thing that I've realized is that some people like to be upset and they like to complain about shit. It's fine. But I hope when the people who like to be upset complain about shit can start complaining about the guy next door who sucks like the fictitious thing that we all have to kill. I kind of already think this happening. Young people are a nerd to this. Young people have lived through this entirely of all they know is people blaming a fictitious thing and their life not getting better. My hope is, and I know I can see it everywhere, they're rediscovering community. They're rediscovering each other. I'm not one of those people who is a touch grass person who thinks that like, I'm not a crunch eager Nola guy.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There you go. Yep. They're going to Sprinkle, right? Like turning them into moral panics and then trying to punish these fake things. They're trying to punish things that don't exist. And now we're on the other side of this, where the dog caught the car. Apparently the dogs that we were eating caught the car. And we're doing Gestapo shit to every immigrant in this country and everybody who stands in their way. And guess what? The economy's not fixed. Your life's not better. You don't feel any better. All these people who thought the world was going to get fixed once they got all the brown people out of their line of sight. Turns out everything's worse. Everything's still cost way too much. Culture got worse. You are not respected and you're a fucking asshole. So I am hopeful since the dog caught the car that people will just like, I don't think everybody comes to this conclusion.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So cool Yeah, I hate to keep bringing back into this, but it really is community and all that stuff in living in the real. We've worked ourselves into a froth in this country over the last 10 years, blaming immigrants for everything, taking videos that turns out largely aren't real. Like they're eating the cats and dogs kind of stuff.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I think in the next five years You can see where it's all headed. People are starting to come back together to be like, ah, I want a funny person to say a funny sentence to me”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A world where people don't seek out like gossip and information in the funniest sentence and connection, there's just never, that's never going to exist. And I actually think that that's a fundamental problem that's going on is that the world's richest people think that they don't need that. Like they're building humanoid robots and they're building all these complement machines that tell them exactly what they want to feel and how they want to act. Everyone else is like, I don't I have no desire for that. I want to hang out with my friends. I want them to yell at me and, you know, tell me I'm stupid. And then like, and then hug me and go to my funeral. Like, that's what I want to happen. And they don't care about that. And that's all of the money, all like the big amounts of like seemingly fake money seems to be going towards this disconnect stuff that people don't want. People really want this connection.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think a big change for me personally is over the last couple of years, I went from all of my childhood media dreams are gone and my, you know, my dreams are dead to all of my childhood media dreams are gone and my dreams are dead. I get to live in this new cool functional thing that is like that allows me a lot more agency and everything's a little bit better. I'm okay with this and I'm so much happier. Like we are allowed to say what we want to say and you know, Kara, there's never like there's never going to be.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, there are the two economies. It's sort of like what we were talking about with the theater shane earlier. I keep talking about the two economies. It's the economy of the real and then the economy of gambling and speculation and all this extra shit. And I want this company in the economy of the real. I want people to give us dollars for goods and services. I don't want to tie up our fate in like a shitcoin. I don't want to come up with the perfect onion AI generator. I don't want any of the shit. Like I just want people to, I want to live in the human world with us. And trust me, Kara, that's clearly what's going on right now. There is a split right now between real money and a real economy and human connection. And then whatever the fuck this other thing is, which is much bigger but much worse.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like, Kara, do you even want the Washington Post anymore? Because, like, you would have to call five rich guys and, like, I don't even know, why would you want to put?”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a pamphlet. It feels like the Civil War, baby. We get to send these things out to people's mailboxes and it feels like a secret. And that will help us endure. And we are very big into archiving our old archive. We want to make sure that what we do is enduring and like totally separate of these pipelines that are being eaten alive by rich people.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We have a woman on staff who is an engineering degree from Brown, and she at any moment could have left. And she was making like probably like $50,000 a year. And she said she believed in this thing. Those people are the onion and we're going to make sure they're protected. We're going to make sure that the process that feeds into this makes it so it remains that way forever and can update and do all those things. And the second thing is you own your own thing. That's why we have a newspaper. I don't think they'll go after the U.S. Postal Service. Isn't it like in the Constitution? But they could try. And it's...”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There are two major things that I did, I think. And I didn't do it. My staff did. My team did everybody here did this. That includes our chief project officer Daniel Sturle and our chief marketing officer, Leila Brilson, and our whole editorial team. One we really stealed up, this is the process and the onion is its process. So if you come in and break the process, it's not the onion anymore. And the onion's process is you go in, you have 15 joke writers that come. That process has to remain in place. And if we deviate from that, we're no longer the onion, just the way it is. So that's one very major thing is making sure editorially it remains the same and you can't mess with that thing. Our editor-in-chief has been here for three years. There are people on our staff who, when it was going through the private equity phase,”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It all happened so fast that maybe a situation like this where a man was executed on the street, the administration came out and said he was going to do a mass shooting or something and everyone knew it was like you could not justify the two realities. People might be waking up to the fact that like, oh, maybe the entire maybe the pipes are broken.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, and newspeople are not a nerd to this, and it's like just because they're a little bit more aware of the dynamics that's the case. But I don't think they realize how fundamentally from a structural standpoint, it's designed to help the oppressor here.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think there's been a sea change, and I think that people are starting to realize that a whole entire city of people cannot be paid protesters. It can't be the case. And all of the Abject disinformation they see going through their feeds is just not aligning with their realities. I also realize it's more difficult, by the way, because news people are human and they wake up and they go on Twitter or they go on TikTok and they see stuff that isn't or whatever. I don't want to blame TikTok specifically. I do want to blame Twitter, but whatever feed they have. And they see stuff that is deliberately designed to make them at least upset.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Agree. People don't like what's happening. People understand that both sides of this stuff when people are getting executed on the street is repugnant. If you just stand up and just report information objectively as it's going on, you're going to be in a good spot.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Both sides literally every single issue. It is not a sustainable model. I will say the first place to be brave and step up and be like, no, actually, we're covering this as a fascist administration because we've talked to enough history professors to know that's what's going on. And like we're going to view this through the lens of history. Guess what? You're going to be rich as shit. Like I know it sounds heavy and hard and they might harass you and they might. I get why you wouldn't do it. You might have a kid at literally the FEA, it's a Little League, and like your life is going to be harder, but you're doing the right thing. And business will be better. I'm telling you.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, first of all, I would be like, no, thank you. Second of all, that would be one big thing. Look, they have dismantled so much, and I don't know if you just hire those people back and be like, trust me, I'm not going to do what just happened. I don't think you can do that. I also like, I'm, you know, when I was in NBC News, I was a good reporter on my section of the world that I knew nothing about immigration reporting. And they had incredible immigration reporters. I knew nothing about they had a this woman in Adielle who worked there who was able to effectively make it so UPS. I don't know if you know this, but UPS drivers didn't used to have AC in their cars and they used to drive through the desert. She outlined how brave people were getting heat stroke and then got them and made sure there was legislation that made sure these people that happened. Incredible work at these big places if you're given that if you're given some leeway and time to do those sorts of things. All of that stuff is going to go away if you hire the three Stephen Millers in a big bucket of gravy to talk about.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There are more of us than there are of them. There just are. And that doesn't mean necessarily politically or emotionally. I'm not saying that for you to get through the day. I'm saying that if you're marketing a product, if you're trying to start a business, there are more people who don't like this shit than the opposite. And there's fertile ground. There's a reason the Washington Post is going to die before the onion becomes one of the best newspapers in the country. It's because they licked the boot And we kick back.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I am not going to tell this staff to change what they're doing at all. Like they are going as hard as they want. And if they come to me with a 50-50 ball, I say go for it. And if they come to me with a big idea, I'm like, let's find funding. Let's find a sponsor. Let's find a thing to make sure that this thing can happen. And I just want to, if people get one thing out of this.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, she is, and she's the coolest person I know. But just because you're scared doesn't mean you stop doing the thing you're good at. I think it's especially important now where the people who have caved since the start of this universities, news organizations, everybody who is like, okay, sir, what do you need? They just kept stepping on them afterwards. They just kept going.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Look, I'm not saying we're immune to this. In fact, I think we're explicitly targeted. You know, my girlfriend's been indicted for protesting. Federally indated. She's like one of the only people who've been federally indicted for protesting.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, exactly. So at some point, by the way, we're going to do this. We can't leave this whole terrain unmade fun of. So we're going to press Doe at some point.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I sound like Donald Trump talking about healthcare. I'm like, oh, it's gonna be two weeks, but like, I've been saying that to my staff for like six months, and they're like, dude, fucking, what are you talking about? Like, they think I'm insane. So I just like at this point, I'm just like, if it happens, it happens. And if it does, we are ready to go. Like, we have had a game plan for everyone.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, everybody who gets involved in the process like Jesus Christ, why did I do this? Look, Kara, like a couple weeks ago, I turned it on, turned on Inforz after, because he's still going just as is. To Renee Good Bushard. And he had Kyle Rittenhouse on saying that Renee Good had lost custody of her kids because she was putting cigarettes out in her kids and that he had read that on X. And I was like, these motherfuckers are just going to keep doing this forever, aren't they? Like, and they're gonna make so much money. They make so much money doing it.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It comes down to a bunch of court decisions, but the Supreme Court has already ruled, like, dude, you have no outs. It's just that everyone's afraid to deal with him because he is the guy who's abused the justice system in every step and he has anyone who walks in his path, he harasses and harangues. So we're basically purchasing a permanent harassment campaign.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Make fun of how people get their information. And right now, people get their information in the most base and stupid ways possible. Like we're all competing when people who seem to drink paint for a living. So nobody has done the widespread take on that. It's not just obviously Alex Jones is not the only guy who does that. So we're going to be playing in that space. And there are professionals who are kind of doing it, kind of seem around on your feeds already. We just want to give them a more centralized hub.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, there are plenty of people worth mocking that aren't straight news things. The onion was invented to sort of like be a take on the New York Times. The onion news network, which is incredible. And we brought that back too. Was a take on CNN and more traditional news. Then we have Clickhole, which we eventually sold, but that was supposed to be like BuzzFeed news stuff. We tend to try to”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The comedy world in Hollywood has been really hollowed out. They had several repeated disasters over the last few years between the writer strike and the pandemic and then the fires. And then they came back and the situation wasn't the same. People who are, you know, the world's best comedy writers are out of work. And the way that we satirize stuff also has kind of updated itself. I don't want to blow too many things, but if we end up with this thing, which we're hopeful we do, like we're kind of at the mercy of the court, but we're hopeful we do. We're going to make it as big a deal as we possibly can. We think this is like a very big opportunity.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure. I don't recommend trying to buy the world's most famous Segopaths website. I think it's a bad idea. However, it's been the fight of our life, I guess. So the Sandy Oak families will basically only sell this thing to us. And that's the only way they're ever going to get money. The lawyers around this case have made lots of money. Auctions lawyers made a lot of money, a lot of money in the four plus years after it was decided that he owes these families $1.5 billion, but they haven't seen. They literally have not seen a penny. So we're trying to get them a penny. And maybe, you know, some recurring pennies over time. I will say we have grand designs if we end up with this thing. Like we really.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure, it's top of funnel, like we try as much as we can to get as many people know what the onion is. And we have this weird gap where every teenager knows what it is and every 35 plus person does, but there's this gap in the middle trying to bridge that gap. And also, to me, it's important that People look to us in these moments, in these like big national crises for the right, like for us to threaten evil, like after Charlie Kirk was shot and everyone kept getting fired, people were like, when are you going to say something about this? We had a headline that was report you to be fired for reading this headline about Charlie Kirk.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, people pay $100 a year. And we don't have the world's biggest staff. I mean, I think in our LORA, I think we have like 500,000 employees, but I think we actually have like 30. And then, like, the other way we make money is brands come to us because no one can speak normal anymore. Everyone relies on AI too much. So they come to us to get their brands to like, we have a copy agency. We get them to talk normal or be funny or whatever. Business is good, but we really, we need people to buy the paper and the paper's great. People are very happy with it.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We didn't think they were going to not be a newspaper anymore. So, like, that was maybe a different goal. But look, another thing we didn't expect is your kid, is it onion subscriber? We didn't know. It's being used as like contraband in schools and we love it. We keep hearing people stealing it from their kids.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like if you, I know, but if you just keep scrolling through headlines all day and you pop up and where obviously the funniest thing you see on Instagram, you're still going to forget about it. If it's like a physical object, it works better. So we thought it was going to be successful. We didn't think it was going to be this successful. It's like it is most of our business. We have around 65,000 subscribers now. And we are close to having more than the Washington Post in terms of print subscribers. That's our goal for this year.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so we brought back the print because we just thought it was, I grew up with the onion imprint and getting it on the side of the road felt like stealing something. It felt very cool to have that around. And it's been a miracle. Like jokes are supposed to be read in this way. I'm not trying to be like one of those like weird vinyl guys who's like actually you're supposed to listen to music. I'm not trying to be like that.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, yeah. By the way, I think that's an archive pool. I think that one is like 10 years ago. But we'll go for it when the situation demands it.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I guess we didn't open until he started running for president. We were just sort of like in an envelope somewhere. Now it's framed, obviously.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It really depends. There are We were really cruel to Donald Trump when everyone was really cruel to Donald Trump, right? And I have no problem with it. I'm just going to look up the exact headline. It's a little long. Okay, we wrote this on January 23rd of 2013. And it says when you're feeling low, just remember I'll be dead in about 15 or 20 years by Donald Trump. And we, yeah, Michael Cohen sent us like a season desist letter for that that we didn't.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's shit talking. Right, exactly. And I think now that's what you see as well is that the shit talking, the Trump people are in the box now, right? They find themselves in the last few weeks with the Alex Predi murder being like, you can't walk around with a gun and you can't stand in the street, but the Second Amendment is the most important thing. But all these, like they are just like, they're in the box.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I actually think it's like who is least in a box, right? It's not like who's funniest. It's like who is most willing to call a spade a spade in the moment, even if the calling a spade a spade is just fucking wrong, right? Like Donald Trump will Donald Trump will call immigrants whatever he wants to call them and it's incorrect and it's based on shit that he read on his weird little racist Facebook knockoff, but he will say it as plainly as he can. Again, I don't know if that's humor. I think that's just like other people are tying themselves in knots to like make sure they don't offend specific things.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But it gets tiresome. And look, I have no doubt that there is some base humor in him. And I do think that he's much funnier. Well, he'll say things that are attempts at comedy, and most politicians simply will not do this, right? They are talking about farm bills and stupid shit like that. That's what's set him apart. But he's actually funny. Like if a genuinely funny person ran for office and was able to keep that lightness, I think they would do probably even better than him.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, same ending though. Jeffrey Epstein comes back to life in both moves. So yeah, look, the traditional mainstream power structures here are just going to capitulate. They're just going to fail repeatedly. You can't count on them. But then the people you actually want to hang out with are going to step up. You're seeing it in Minneapolis. You're kind of seeing it nationwide. Once you start to embrace this thing, and we have, we've had a lot more fun. It's just been a lot easier to live like this.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But then we're like, okay, so what do we do? So then we told everyone that we were going to put in theaters ever in a few weeks and we don't have any place to put it. But if you want to put it in your independent cinema throughout the country, we'll just give you the movie and you can keep the gate. And within literally six days, we had many, many more than that theater chain. That theater chain was going to be a 2030 cities nationwide. We were in 50, 60 throughout the United States and Canada. And people had to add extra screenings. People were making whole nights out of it.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's true. Yeah, we had a distribution deal for that, and then they pulled out. But here's the thing that just keeps happening in American life that I'm just like genuinely proud of. And I think that once people start to embrace it, that you'll start to realize like, oh, this is actually what is good about this country. So we made this documentary called Jeffrey Epstein Bad Pedophile. We were going to release it with a theater chain throughout the country. Charlie Kirk gets shot and we get an email the next day saying, we're not doing this anymore. And initially we were pissed off and we were like, this is just straight capitulation. The fact that Charlie Kirk gets shot means we can't make fun of Jeffrey Epstein. Like, what the fuck? How does this like, what is the chain of command here?”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The boundaries through which we can play and humor right now, they're the furthest they've ever been. We are very lucky to be able to say literally whatever we want all the time. It's part of like acceptable American adult society. Yeah.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's called Jeffrey Epstein Bad Pedophile. We still can't get this off the wall. We had this gigantic cock gun that was filled with fake cum in it. Sorry to be weird. That's okay.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I actually think people keep saying this as if it's like this horrific burden, and it is like it's harder to be funny now, but it's actually easier to push the lines and think about this. We made a 22-minute documentary where Jeffrey Epstein rises from the dead like a horror movie figure at the end of it.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think we're lucky in a sense that The press has capitulated so much because they're splitting hairs with people who are actively lying. And we're just like, no, this is the thing that's taking place. And we get to be funny about it. So it's like, we're in this like really interesting and prized position. So yeah, look, it's gotten harder because everything's so stupid.”
2026-02-02 · On with Kara Swisher · The Onion’s Ben Collins on Political Satire & Why Trump Isn’t Funny · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT