Andrew Santino likes to push the envelope.
He opens “White Noise,” his third comedy special and first for Hulu, by asking, “Is it racist …?”
It’s a question viewers might well ask about some of his jokes, as Santino casually picks apart stereotypes with a provocative wink. The title of the special, which premieres on Sept. 12, is borrowed from the set’s most riotous bit — and, perhaps, also a self-deprecating reference to his comedy. “People are going to feel a little uncomfortable or confused if they’re supposed to laugh, or if that’s OK to say. That, to me, is kind of the point of comedy,” Santino says. “If you string the audience along with love and they know they’re in on the joke with you, they’ll find nothing hateful.”
The Chicago-born comic has spent years walking the line between acceptable and outrageous with his podcasts “Whiskey Ginger” and “Bad Friends” with Bobby Lee. While those shows have turned Santino into one of comedy’s most recognizable voices, he urges fans to take out the AirPods and laugh alongside a live audience.
“Get out of your house and go enjoy people making stuff in front of your face,” he says. “It’s the best experience in the world.”
The special drops the viewer right into a joke. Why did you opt out of the big walk-out entrance?
I didn’t want to do the traditional “kill time up top” thing, which I’ve done in the past. I did probably 10 minutes [of material] before what you see. I just wanted to start the special with something fun and quick and snappy, and the phrase “Is it racist?” is a great hook.
Where did you film the special?
I shot at the Pantages Theater in Minneapolis, Minn., a great city for comedy and a great city for drinking. It’s a good mix of socioeconomic statuses and political viewpoints. You get all sides of the coin, which I love.
Does the drinking culture factor into the decision of where to film? Obviously you want the audience to be a little loose.
I just like it for me so I can go get hammered after the show. No — I like a city that doesn’t take itself that seriously when it comes to going out and having a good time. Minneapolis is a great eating and drinking town with good people, and they’ve gone through a lot recently, unfortunately, and I’m proud to have shot it there.
Bill Burr told me he prefers when the audience is “hostile.” Do you enjoy that?
No, Bill Burr is a lunatic. He’s insane. I don’t want to get into a gunfight with the audience. I just want it to be comedy fans who are ready to let loose and disappear in the room with me. We keep the lights low so they can laugh at stuff they shouldn’t and just have a good time. I’m not up there to battle them, but Bill is the best at it. That’s why he loves it.
You hilariously rant about Disney adults in the special, which streams on Hulu, which is owned by Disney. How soon after you sent in the cut did you get a phone call from the Mouse House?
Immediately. They couldn’t wait to trim the fat on those jokes. Candidly, we went back and forth, and they didn’t really enjoy having that stuff in there. We found a happy medium, and I was able to keep the jokes in there, but [the jokes] were manipulated. I’m not going to lie: They definitely changed the jokes. I was not stoked about that. We got into a little bit of a war. They did not want those jokes in there. My argument was: I joke about a lot of other stuff in the special that’s controversial. I don’t think joking about people who like Disney as grown-ups is a controversial take, but they disagreed.
You’re saying the joke was harsher before?
Yeah. It was funnier. It peeled open a little bit more than what you saw, on people going to Disney without kids and adults who wear Disney clothing. But Disney is a massive corporate conglomerate, and they were like: “If you want it on here, this is how we want it. Otherwise we won’t be able to air the special. We have to cut the jokes.” So we found a medium. We said we’d find a way to manipulate the jokes in a way that works for everybody. [Disney] got kind of what they wanted, and I tried to get the best of what I wanted. This is compromise in the modern world of media.
Have you experienced that before, being told not to joke about something?
Typically, we get free rein. This is the first time I’ve experienced this in making specials, where they were afraid of the narrative I was putting out because it was a reflection on their company. I reminded them multiple times that it was comedy, and I was kidding, and it’s not real. And that’s the point of comedy: You’re just mocking reality. But they weren’t interested in it. So, again, we found a happy medium, but most of the time comedians are unfiltered. That’s why we love the podcast world and why we’ve kind of gone away from traditional forms of media. We got sick of being told, “You’re not supposed to say that.”
Quite frankly, it’s bullshit, because that’s not how people think and talk in the real world. Nobody cares. People speak their mind all the time, and they love when comics are able to say the things people don’t talk about much because they’re afraid to. That’s our job, to bring up the uncomfortable and talk about the topics people wince at. That’s the best part of the business. We get to live in the podcast land and live stand-up, which will never be filtered. So, this was a challenge for me, but I made it work. I still love the special, and I hope people enjoy it, regardless of the tussling in my mind.
This corporate mindset you bring up, is that why we aren’t seeing the top comedians of today in a lot of TV and film?
A lot of us want to feel more free, so we are doing our own thing. A lot of people are making significantly more money doing their own thing than going down the traditional studio route. It took us a long time to realize these guys were robbing us! They were getting all of the money, and we were working really hard, and they were giving us what they thought we deserved. We realized if we just made our own world, not beholden to someone else’s idea over what we deserved, we can build our own audience and make our own future.
I still love television and film. I hope to act again. I don’t see it in my future. In my near future, I’m focusing on stand-up and podcasting and creating my own world in the digital space. A lot of people you don’t see in TV and film anymore because not a lot of stuff is being made in the comedy circuit, in terms of big commercial comedy films. Comedy television shows have kind of slid into the unknown. There’s not a lot of opportunity, unless you’re one of Seth Rogen’s friends, and then you can get in one of his 50 TV shows. Outside of that, it’s a little different. It’s a little bit harder. A lot of comedians in particular were tired of playing this weird “please love me” game to the business. Instead, they were like, “We’ll just go right to our audience and try to connect with them.”
Some comedians are making TV and film independently. For example, Theo Von and David Spade wrote and self-financed a buddy comedy starring the two of them. Is that a route that interests you?
Working with my friends interests me. But I work with my best friend, Bobby Lee, every week doing “Bad Friends.” It’s the most fun I’ve ever had, without restriction and without everyone trying to grab at us and make money off of us. I don’t know what my future is in television and film. It doesn’t feel like I’ll have anything in that world anytime soon.
The title of the special comes from a joke about “white noise machines” versus “Black noise machines” versus “Mexican noise machines,” et cetera. It feels risky in a way that you seem to find very fun.
It’s tongue-in-cheek wordplay. You’re aware that I’m aware that it’s bad. We’re all laughing at it because we know there’s no vitriol behind it. It’s just me teasing this idea. It was fun workshopping the joke because I knew it was going to elicit a reaction that’s not just laughter. People are going to feel a little uncomfortable or confused if they’re supposed to laugh, or if that’s OK to say. That, to me, is kind of the point of comedy.
Throughout the joke, as you make quips about different racial stereotypes, you do this performative “Oh stop it, Andrew, that’s not funny” thing. You’re signaling to the audience that you know it feels wrong. Does the joke work without that?
Yeah, it does. It depends on the audience. If you string the audience along with love, and they know they’re in on the joke with you, they’ll find nothing hateful.
It seems to put to bed the idea that some comedians have parroted in recent years which is: “You can’t say anything anymore.”
A lot of people say that comedians say you can’t say anything, but I don’t know anybody that says that. I feel like this is a narrative that gets put out by the media, where they’re like, “What can comedians even say anymore?” We don’t say that. We don’t give a shit. We go out every night and say whatever we want. You can go to any club, and you’ll hear an array of different levels of stuff that is questionable, unsavory, touchy, racy. That’s every night at every club in the country. So, I don’t buy into that narrative. But I do think, as a society, we are becoming more comfortable with the idea that [a comedian can joke about anything] as long as it’s funny and done with love. It shouldn’t come from this awful place.
America, now more than ever, wants to have fun. They’re tired of being sad or scared. As the world continues to change rapidly and people are confused about what’s happening, we’re supposed to be the ones that joke about what’s happening.
You end the special on a heartfelt thank you to your fans, rather than a closing joke. Why did you make that decision?
Comedians sometimes put on this rock star persona, and I think it’s bullshit. We’re just entertainers, and a little bit of gratitude goes a long way. I thank them because they’ve helped me change my life and allowed me to entertain people for a living. I’m just staying cognizant of that. It’s like a big, warm hug after a funny special.
How did you end up in “Happy Gilmore 2”?
Kyle Newacheck directed it, and he’s an old buddy of ours. I complained pretty heavily to Adam Sandler’s team through my agents because I’m, like, one of four comedians that golf — and I’m actually good. I was like, “I can’t believe I’m not in this movie.” Meanwhile, my agent got Eric André to golf in the movie, and he doesn’t even golf in real life. I actually golf. So I gave my agent a lot of shit about that. They asked Bobby and me if we’d do an appearance as “Bad Friends.” If that movie had been in theaters, 15 years ago, it would have helped the “Bad Friends” podcast explode. We’d be even bigger. But, for us, it was just a cheeky moment we got to sneak in, and we had a great time.
You started a golf podcast, right?
Yeah, it’s called “No Bad Lies.” It’s a one- or two-hole walk-and-talk with celebrity athletes and golf pros. I give them deliberately bad lies, or poor shots, and they have to tell me about a time that life gave them a “bad lie.” We’ve had Bryson DeChambeau come on with Bobby Lee. We’ve had Charlie Day, Steve Gerben from “Tires”… By the way, I’m in none of the new golf shows, and I’m one of the only stand-ups that actually can play golf. I’m not in “Stick.” I’m not in the Will Ferrell one [at Netflix]. I didn’t get an actual golfing role in “Happy.” So that’s it. I’m done with the business.
You starred on “Dave” alongside Lil Dicky, which last year was put on “pause” with no plans for a Season 4. Will that ever happen?
That’s not on pause. That thing is gone. I don’t even know why that narrative is out there, that’s not true. We’re not doing the show. I think people said it was on pause to protect the relationship of the show, but that’s all nonsense. The show is done. We are all going our own way and doing our own thing. It was a great run, and we all enjoyed it very much. It ran its beautiful little course, and that was a wonderful moment in time. I’m happy I was a part of it, but in no world do I think the show would ever come back.
Was that FX’s decision to end it?
I was a hired gun. That was between Dave Burd, Jeff Schaffer and FX. I had no power over what was happening. I kind of found out when everybody else found out that it wasn’t coming back. But people saying, “Perhaps we’ll pause it and come back”… I know better. Dad left to get cigarettes. He’s not coming home.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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