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Chris Rock

Things Chris Says on Podcasts

Where to Find Them

Chris Rock has been a guest on The Interview .

Recently: “Chris Rock Has Been Thinking About Forgiveness” on The Interview (October 2026).

What They Said

“It's great to help those that need help. … The problem is, is when you institutionalize it. … So my half a joke: the Salem witch hunts. I'm sure, you know, the first three witches they caught were actually fucking witches. But then you open up a witch office and now you got to start lying. Now you got to fucking make shit up because you got overhead.” — Chris Rock, The Interview

Marchese asked whether the post-George Floyd "woke 1.0" era was just a crazy moment or had anything redeeming about it. Rock says helping people is good, and that the trouble starts when the effort becomes an institution that has to justify itself.

The Interview · 2026-10-03 Permalink → Listen →
The Interview Around 53:46 into the episode
Chris Rock

…have a voice. It is great to advocate for anybody that feels marginalized. This is great. But the problem with wokeness is we're in the Old Testament right now. Okay. And the Old Testament has no forgiveness. The Old Testament didn't work. So they had to write a remix called the New Testament.

David Marchese

…era, was crazy. People say, you know, Woke 1.0 was crazy and like AOC distancing herself from that and other Democratic politicians doing the same thing. And I just wonder, do you see that moment in time as just. Like that was just a crazy moment in time, or was there anything redeeming about it?

Chris Rock

I think I just answered it, you know. Again, it's great to help those that need help. That is an amazing, you know, we need more of that. The problem is, is when you institutionalize it, you know, that's the problem, you know. So my half a joke: the Salem witch hunts. I'm sure, you know, the first three witches they caught were actually fucking witches. But then you open up a witch office and now you got to start lying. Now you got to fucking make shit up because you got overhead.

David Marchese

You have to justify paying the witch hunters.

Chris Rock

Yeah, you got to justify the witch hunters' fucking pensions and shit. So, yeah, man, it's all good. I'm glad. I'm glad that all of this stuff happened. It needed to happen. You know? And because it happened, maybe I've heard some voices that I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise.

David Marchese

Let me switch gears and ask a comedy question, if that's okay. Sure.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode
“A self-destructive person is basically a person that makes six bad decisions a year. You know what I mean? … That's 359 days of being fine. But those six bad decisions a year will fuck up your whole life.” — Chris Rock, The Interview

David Marchese asked Rock about talented people he has known whose careers never took off. Rock's point is that self-destruction rarely looks like constant chaos; a handful of bad nights a year can be enough.

The Interview · 2026-10-03 Permalink → Listen →
The Interview Around 16:12 into the episode
Chris Rock

I can't say that. I wish I could say, I'd say that off camera. There's a bunch of people, the self-destructive thing, that self-destructive thing is a really sad thing,

David Marchese

or just someone who's whose ultimate level of success did not the

Chris Rock

thing about self-destructive too. Yeah, it's like people don't realize people go, okay, the year is 365 days, right? And if I want to party, who cares? If I, what I'm trying to say is a self-destructive person is basically a person that makes six bad decisions a year. You know what I mean? It seems like a little, you know what I mean? That's 359 days of being fine. But those six bad decisions a year will fuck up your whole life. So, you know,

David Marchese

how many bad decisions a year? I don't know. I

Chris Rock

don't know. I mean, you know, show business, it's like the Olympics. And in the Olympics, the difference between first and last can be less than a second sometimes. You know, less than a second. So I

David Marchese

want to ask something about the movie, another theoretic question about the movie. Misty Green in theaters. So pay 24. Do you think that there were ideas that you had about women or men and women that you had to examine or think through in order to credibly create the character of Misty Green?…

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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