Tim Dillon (Comedian): "The Boomers Are A Selfish Generation!". "Gen Z Has Exposed Society's Scam!". "Bosses Are Being Threatened By Mental Illnesses!"

Tim Dillon (0:00)

The Zoomers, some of them have figured out that the country is a scam. They invent mental health ailments they don't have. They take days off on end. They terrify their superiors. They found the flaw in the system. They go, why are you late? They go, I'm gay. You go, don't worry about it. Are we still on YouTube? Tim Dillon, he's a comic icon, a master of improv, one of the best in the world. I like making people laugh at stuff that is inherently maybe a little darker because from 13 to 25, I was a closeted, gay, cocaine addict. But some of our best qualities don't come about because of the best reasons. There's no one better at those random rants.

Steven Bartlett (0:41)

Tim, there's a lot of topics I want to go through with you. And the first is the future of AI.

Tim Dillon (0:45)

We've bred some of the least interesting people on the planet, influencers. These generic barcodes with feet, those people don't need to exist. They need to be replaced by an AI version of that.

Steven Bartlett (0:57)

What's your assessment of different generations?

Tim Dillon (0:59)

Well, we've given up on the children. They're being raised by algorithms. The boomers, they are the funniest generation because to be funny, you kind of have to just not care. And there's no generation of people that have cared less about the future of this planet, about their children. And then the millennials were this very shitty generation of like want to constantly be patted on the back and told how great they are. I believe the right things. I tweeted the right thing. I am good. I know that's unpopular maybe to say, but I'll just keep going.

Steven Bartlett (1:38)

Tim, I've watched you for many a year. Now, and I think you're one of the most exceptional, interesting, provocative, talented comedians because you have a remarkable ability to improvise, it seems.

Tim Dillon (1:58)

Well, thank you.

Steven Bartlett (1:59)

And I wonder how someone learns to do that. Where does that talent come from?

Tim Dillon (2:06)

I was a closeted, gay, cocaine addict for many years.

You really have to be good on your feet. When you are a closeted, gay, cocaine addict from like 13 to 25, you're going to run into situations where you're going to need to lie, and you're going to need to be able to kind of, you know, filibuster. And I guess I got good at it then. I was always good at talking, but I think that was good. That kind of allowed me to think on my feet. More than other people would have to, perhaps. Not always for the best reasons. Some of our best qualities don't come about because of the best reasons. But it's good that I have that quality now, I guess.

Steven Bartlett (2:59)

Do you know Jimmy Carr?

Tim Dillon (3:00)

I don't know him personally. I adore his comedy and he's like an amazing comedian. But I don't know if we've met.

Steven Bartlett (3:06)

I was sat here with him two weeks ago and he said to me, he says, Steve, when you meet a comedian, you don't ask a comedian if they're depressed. You ask them which one of their parents is depressed.

Tim Dillon (3:15)

That's a good way to say it. Sure. Well, my mother was a schizophrenic. So I tend to think on the mental illness hierarchy. She was kind of the gold standard. Whereas depression, older respect, is slightly less. And then I think my father might have been on and off depressed. But schizophrenia was the... That was the, you know, central challenge in her life.

Steven Bartlett (3:42)

For people that don't know what that is or haven't experienced it, what is... How does it sort of manifest being schizophrenic? Especially for you as a, you know, 10-year-old, when you have a schizophrenic past.

Tim Dillon (3:50)

Yeah. It started to really come out when I was about 13, and 12 or 13 It's a lot of paranoia. It's a lot of confusion that as a child, you're trying to contextualize. You don't really understand why your mother is talking about people following her or these grand, elaborate stories that aren't true. And even at 12 or 13, you know they're not true. And you're worried for her because physical illness is very easy to kind of understand as a child because, you know, somebody gets sick. As a child, you get sick. So you get it. Mental illness is much tougher to understand. As a child, you only really start to understand it as you go through life. And when you become more of an adult, you start to look back at it because you've had your own mental struggles, you know people that have had mental struggles at 12, you really don't, for most 12-year-olds. So it's something that I've understood more as I got older. And then it was kind of just very disorienting and confusing.