Chuck Lorre pulls no punches in politically charged speech at Los Angeles gala

When Chuck Lorre’s daughter Nikki answered a phone call from her famous father asking if she would be willing to present him with a Founders’ Award at a Project Angel Food fundraiser, she was “obviously beyond honored and humbled.”

Then the man responsible for countless laughs and thousands of hours of television comedy began offering jokes to his daughter for the tribute. However, she ultimately gave up on accepting any of his punchlines. “I’m not really going to come here and be his warm-up act. His speech is going to be hilarious. He’s going to kill, and I don’t really want to compete with that,” Nikki Lorre explained Saturday night as she stood on a stage set up in a parking lot at Project Angel Food’s Los Angeles headquarters, now known as the Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Campus after her large donation to the organization.

It was the first indication that the words Chuck Lorre delivered would not be those of a typically serious gala speech. When the super producer and prolific philanthropist took the stage moments later, he began with a “preamble” during which he thanked some important people in his life, including his television director daughter by saying “nepo baby, my ass, she’s the real deal.” He then launched into the meaty part that quickly proved politically charged and aimed at multiple targets on both sides of the aisle, from President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump to the “suicidal madness of far-left woke culture.” It also took a slight hit at Warner Bros., the prominent Hollywood studio that has been its home for decades.

“In writing and producing comedy, there is an unspoken expectation that any speech I give will be funny, or at least try to be funny. As you can imagine, that puts a lot of pressure on me. Your laughter or lack thereof becomes inextricably linked to my self-esteem,” Lorre, 73, explained to an audience that included his UTA ​​agent, Jay Sures, senior Warner Bros. executives. and HBO, and the creatives of its current shows. George and Mandy’s first marriage And Stuart fails to save the universe. “Of course, I would love to stand here and speak about my deep desire for a more compassionate government, one that prioritizes the health and well-being of its citizens. But the burden of my profession demands that I take this opportunity to say a few words about this bloated orange shit in the White House.”

Once he found out about the Trump affair, the audience burst into laughter and Lorre expressed relief. “OK, I have the right crowd,” he said, scanning the crowd. “I’d like to express my gratitude to all the people who have dedicated their lives to making Project Angel Food an oasis for those in need. That would be my preference. But because I’m a comedy writer, I have no choice but to explain how I wake up every morning to listen to CNN and see if the President of the United States has had a heart attack while he’s trying to drain himself.”

He continued, “I’d like to encourage you to pull out your wallet and contribute to this incredible organization, but my need to make people laugh forces me to wonder how a country can accommodate a smart, educated, warm, funny first lady like Michelle Obama and somehow be okay with a cold-hearted, surgically enhanced Yugoslav escort who clearly hates her husband.”

Then came the far left comment. “I would implore the (Democratic National Committee) to flee the suicidal madness of far-left woke culture in the next election, (and) urge them to seek the middle ground that emanates from the hearts and souls of America’s blue-collar workers. You bet I would. But again, that’s not funny. So I’ll just point out that these hard workers will probably die of measles because Bobby Kennedy told them not to get vaccinated.”

When Lorre delivered that final punchline, he lowered his tone and made his voice as deep as possible to mock Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. “I actually practiced that,” Lorre joked.

Earlier in his speech, he highlighted the late Bob Broder, who worked as an agent, lawyer and executive at Chuck Lorre Productions. “Bob made it so Warner Bros. only stole a little money from me, allowing me to give away a lot. I shouldn’t say stolen. That’s not fair. I should say overhead and distribution bullshit,” he said, standing a few feet from a table occupied by top WB studio executives Brett Paul, Channing Dungey and Clancy Collins White.

Event attendees received a copy of Lorre’s new memoir, Situation comedya few weeks before its release from Dey Street Books (an imprint of HarperCollins) on October 13. “If you are mentioned in the book and you dispute my recollection of events, I recommend you write your own fucking book,” Lorre also said.

He ended this exciting speech with a new interpretation, or as he called it “a little punch,” of the Serenity Prayer, an essential mantra of 12-step recovery programs. (Lorre is sober and open about his decades-long recovery.) “God, grant me the serenity to no longer care about all the stupid people in this country, the courage to say that Donald Trump is a Russian asset who traded teenagers to Jeffrey Epstein, and the wisdom to end with a cheap laugh,” he said. “Thank you so much.”

After that, Lorre then said he had the honor of introducing the grand finale – an electric set from Barenaked Ladies, an iconic band whose fame reached new heights after being recruited by Lorre to write the theme song for The Big Bang Theorya sitcom that became a smash hit. Vocalist Ed Robertson explained the enviable 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.”

Lorre also changed the trajectory of Project Angel Food as he was credited with the largest gift in the organization’s history, which helped create the $55.5 million Chuck Lorre Family Foundation kitchen and campus, which is preparing to break ground on a second building. His support also allowed Project Angel Food to triple its annual meal production capacity, from 1.5 million to more than 4.5 million medically tailored meals. Find out more about Saturday’s fundraiser below.