Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.
The subject of violence was raised during the morning TCA panel for the weekly FX late-night talk show Totally Biased
With W. Kamau Bell, as it has been during every panel of TCA thus far. Not that there’s any violence in Bell’s show, per se. But exec producer Chris Rock has famously riffed on gun control in his own stand-up comedy act, ranting that there should be no restriction on guns, but bullets ought to cost $5,000 apiece. “The gun lobby also says people need to be able to protect their property,” Rock said, “but every mass shooting is done by guys who live with their mother. So I believe you should need to have a mortgage to buy a
gun. A mortgage is a real background check. Even if you go to jail for 30 years, you’ve still got to pay your fucking mortgage.”
Related: FX’s John Landgraf Calls For Studies On Entertainment And Real-Life Violence Links: TCA
Rock was asked if he’d maybe like to get back into the talk show game himself. “Well, a part of me would want to do it,” he said. “I just don’t know if I could do it all the time. Michael Jordan could play one game and score 50, but he couldn’t do it the next night. I just don’t care about Lindsay Lohan. Maybe if this show is successful, I can be like Barbara Walters on The View and just step up and be funny and then leave.” And if Rock were to do his own scripted comedy series, he would want the same do-everything-yourself model that Louis C.K. has at FX. “I’d want nothing less than that,” he said.
Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell returns to FX from its original six-episode run on January 17. It features young comedian-turned-talker Bell, whom Rock plucked from the club world and took under his wing. Bell explained what the “W” in front of his name means (Walter), why he doesn’t use it (“‘Totally Biased with Walter Bell sounds like an insurance program,” he quipped) and his orientation (“I grew up in the era where black people felt the revolution was coming; we just didn’t realize it was the tech revolution”). When the 11 PM show returns next week, guests will include George Takai, Whoopi Goldberg, and journalist Matt Taibbi. Not your typical group. “I try to get Kamau out of his young comic head,” Rock explained. “I try to get him to embrace comedy as a whole. It’s like being a CEO of your own company.”
Bell admits that the learning curve for the job has been fairly steep. “No one is born knowing how to be a talk show host,” he reasoned. Actually, pointed out Rock, Regis Philbin was. “Well, yes, Regis,” he acknowledged. Bell didn’t have the advantage of a horrid childhood to draw from in his comedy. “Sometimes I wish I was raised in a whorehouse like Richard Pryor,” he admitted. “Instead, my mom thought everything I did was totally awesome, so I grew up with a skewed sense of myself.”


So next in line to thank for the mantra “Do as I say not as I do” is the guy that played “Pookie” in NEW JACK CITY?!?! The guy that occasionally rolls with bodyguards the size of your average NFL O-Line that are also ARMED?!?!
I believe Chris Rock not only has a mortgage but can also afford the $5000 bullet price. Your attempt at being clever, insightful or interesting has failed.
How is Rock’s statement “do as I say?” I would assume he’s got a mortgage and pays it. He’s saying that should be the requirement for gun ownership. He’s not saying that no one should have any guns. But I appreciate your need to over-simplify his statement and scream about Hollywood hypocrites, etc. Makes everyone feel better.
Chris Rock — along with all these other celebrities — has every right to speak out against guns whether it be tighter restrictions (which I’m all for) or all out banishment (which is both categorically absurd and feasibly impossible).
I, however, have the equal right to claim that I couldn’t think of a worse voice for that argument than those that have made so much glorifying the very things they claim to be against but have fed them so well.
It’s like Michael Moore (who I happen to like) railing against “Capitalism” despite the FACT that the guy’s made millions after millions thanks to the very Capitalism he hates. HUH???
As long as we’re having a free for all about restricting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans, I propose a financial requirement for voting. If you don’t pay income tax, you don’t get to vote. How’s that?
Yes, but it must be your full tax liability, minus loopholes, offsets, offshore accounts, etc.
So…no actor who ever plays a drug addict can ever speak out against drug abuse? No actor who ever plays a rapist can ever speak out against rape? Also, bodyguards are licensed to carry weapons…and probably have mortgages (or at least rent to pay). I’m not quite sure what point you were trying to make.
The point, in a word, is “hypocrisy”.
IT IS OF MY OPINION that these celebrities may not be the best voice for this argument. Just because you have access to a microphone does not necessarily mean you should use it. That logic is lost on Hollywood — I’ve worked in this business long enough to know.
I want Chris Rock’s opinion on Gun Control like I’d want Snoop Dogg’s opinion on Marijuana Control. And I neither own a gun or smoke weed.
You send Gabrielle Giffords or the family of one of these Newton victims out to talk Gun Control and you have an audience — you send Jamie Foxx out and you have a rebuttal.
Rock never said anything about, “gun control” – he only joked about “bullet control” – man, learn how to read.
Only angry old white men and women are not hypocrites and should have access to a microphone. You know, like Alex Jones on Piers Morgan.
pookie and them.
Chris Rock makes sense. A lot more sense than the NRA and Capitol Hill.
Straw man, Indrid. But great echo-chamber!
Good thing Chris hasn’t played ‘Oedipus’ because then you’d also have him for incest and patricide. (Look ‘em up…)
Get a sense of humor. He’s HILARIOUS!
Totally Biased is a really funny show. Looking forward to the new season.
Don’t “shoot” the messenger folks. He’s got a point.
No one, lawmaker or celebrity, will ever create a law that will keep guns away from criminals. Instead, they want to restrict the rights of law abiding people from obtaining guns for whatever legal use they see fit. I wish we lived in a society in which we didn’t need to protect ourselves with guns but it will always be necessary in some areas of the U.S.
On a side note, the laws that banned weapons from school zones didn’t stop Sandy Hook or Columbine. Those laws are useless.
Yeah, because we definitely need assault rifles for legal usage. Bambi’s tough to gun down, so I want to make sure I get ‘im.
“So…no actor who ever plays a drug addict can ever speak out against drug abuse? No actor who ever plays a rapist can ever speak out against rape?”
Not if they portray drugs or rape in a positive or entertaining light, no.
uhhh, you all do understand that Chris Rock is saying that only rich people should own guns, right? I can only imagine what people would say if this came from the mouth of a Republican.
@Special Kay – He’s not saying that “all rich ppl should have guns”. There are ppl that make 30K a year with a mortgage, and if you think that’s rich, just realize this is 2013 and not 1913.
He was just making a point that most mass shootings are coming from Young, irresponsible kids that have nothing else better to do with their lives except turning their video game fantasy into a reality.
@Josh First of all, if you’re going to quote me, do it correctly. I didn’t say “ALL rich ppl” I said “ONLY rich people.” Furthermore, if, as Rock suggests, bullets should cost 5 thousand dollars each, it would strike any reasonable person that only the very rich could afford to purchase them. This is 2013 not 1913, after all, and a person making 30K a year probably can’t afford to put 1/6 of their income toward the purchase of a single bullet to arm their gun. If you don’t think this is true, perhaps you don’t know what “poor” is.
In any case, I DO understand his point, but I find it curious that he’d frame it in such an awkwardly elitist fashion, be it in jest or not. It’s funny how forgiving we are of people who pay lip service to the feel-good agenda du-jour, and crucify those who do not, but in this case, it strikes me as wholly cynical to give Chris a pass. And I’m a big fan.
You should need to have a mortgage to have a kid as well. What’s hurting his community more: guns, or deadbeat dads and moms with three kids from three different men?
Assuming this doesn’t happen in “your” community? It does and in higher numbers than in “his” if for no other reason than there are more of “you” than there are of “him.”
It’s not “his” community. It’s all of ours. Until we get that straight there will always be an “other” to hate.