Chuck Lorre has spent decades turning TV audiences into a cheering section. On Saturday night at the Project Angel Food fundraiser in Los Angeles, he turned that crowd into a political foil.
The producer, known for creating countless hours of comedy, opened his speech with a joke about his own anxiety. “In writing and producing comedy, there’s an unspoken expectation that any speech I give will be funny, or at least try to be funny,” he said. “As you can imagine, that puts a lot of pressure on me. Your laughter or lack thereof becomes inextricably tied up with my self-esteem.”
Then he stopped pretending the room was full of friends.
“Sure, I’d love to stand here and talk about my deep yearning for a more compassionate government, one that prioritizes the health and welfare of its citizens. But the burden of my profession demands that I take this opportunity to say a few words about that bloated orange piece of shit in the White House.”
The crowd erupted, and Lorre smiled. “OK, I do have the right audience,” he said.
From Trump to Melania
He kept the target moving. Lorre described waking up each morning to check CNN for “if the President of the United States had a heart attack while straining to take a dump.”
He then pivoted to the First Lady. “I’d love to encourage you to pull out your wallets and contribute to this amazing organization, but my need to cause laughter forces me to question how a country can embrace a smart, educated, warm, funny first lady like Michelle Obama and somehow be OK with a surgically-enhanced, cold-hearted Yugoslavian escort who clearly hates her husband.”
The applause was warm, and the dig landed.
The Far-Left and the Vaccine Comment
Lorre then moved onto the Democrats. “I’d like to beg the [Democratic National Committee] to run from the suicidal insanity of the far-left woke culture in the coming election, [and] urge them to seek the common sense middle ground that emanates from the hard-working, blue-collar heart and soul of America.”
He paused before the final line. “But once again, it’s not funny. So, I’ll just point out those hard workers will likely die of measles because Bobby Kennedy told them not to get vaccinated.”
At that moment, he dropped his tone and made his voice sound as gravelly as possible, poking fun at Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. “I actually practiced that,” Lorre quipped.
Warner Bros., Old Friends and a Book
Earlier in his remarks, he singled out Bob Broder, who worked as an agent, attorney and executive at Chuck Lorre Productions. “Bob made sure that Warner Bros. only stole a little money from me, thus allowing me to give a lot away. I shouldn’t say stole. That’s not fair. I should say bullshit overhead and distribution charges,” he said, standing near a table occupied by top WB studio executives Brett Paul, Channing Dungey and Clancy Collins White.
Attendees received a copy of Lorre’s new memoir, Sitcom, weeks ahead of its Oct. 13 release from Dey Street Books (an imprint of HarperCollins). “If you happen to be mentioned in the book and you take issue with my recall of events, I recommend you write your own fucking book,” Lorre also said.
Barenaked Ladies Close the Show
Lorre ended the speech with a new rendition of the Serenity Prayer, a vital mantra of 12-step recovery programs. “God, grant me the serenity to no longer give a shit about all the stupid people in this country, the courage to say Donald Trump is a Russian asset who traded teenagers with Jeffrey Epstein, and the wisdom to end on a cheap laugh,” he said. “Thank you very much.”
After that, he introduced the big finale — an electric set from Barenaked Ladies, the band whose fame grew after being drafted by Lorre to pen the theme song for The Big Bang Theory. Lead singer Ed Robertson explained the gig during their set: “We had sold a lot of records, we had hits all over the world, we built a fan base and worked really hard and then I wrote a 28-second song that changed the entire trajectory of our career. Thank you Chuck and Bill [Prady] for changing our lives.”
What This Speech Shows
Lorre’s speech was a masterclass in political comedy. He traded jabs at Trump, Melania Trump, the far-left, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Warner Bros. while delivering lines like “bloated orange piece of shit” and “surgically-enhanced, cold-hearted Yugoslavian escort.”
The humor worked because Lorre knew the crowd. He pitched himself as a reluctant comedian forced into politics by his profession, then delivered exactly what they wanted — sharp, pointed, and funny.
It was a performance designed for a room full of people who agree with him. Whether it changes minds is unclear. What is clear is that Lorre knows how to fill a room with laughter, even when he’s talking about things that aren’t funny at all.
Source material: “Chuck Lorre Pulls No Punches in Politically Charged Speech Aimed at President Trump, “Far-Left Woke Culture” and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” The Hollywood Reporter.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.