Aaron McGruder: And I'm not so in love with making people mad that I w...

One, I push my deadlines closer than anybody else, or let's say it this way: I'm really late.

Aaron McGruder

deadline late way

The American people have no control over what the military does. We have no say in American foreign policy.

Aaron McGruder

military doe people

Anyone with a gun can go out and commit an act of terrorism, even without a political affiliation.

Aaron McGruder

terrorism political gun

I think people were a little bit too concerned about what I would or would not be allowed to say. So let me just get that out of the way and get on to the business of telling, you know, a story, or two, or three, or 15. And also to say, "Okay, look. Here it is, don't worry about it. The restrictions and the watered-down and all the stuff that you thought was gonna happen really isn't the case." So we done got that out the way, and now we can just kind of move on.

Aaron McGruder

people moving thinking

We did our best to do a Fox show, frankly, I don't think the difficulties we had at Fox would be exclusive to Fox. It's tough to be funny, because there's so many eyeballs and there's so much money at stake that I think everything is just kind of over-thought. And it's tough to be daring and do something different, either with regards to content or even structure.

Aaron McGruder

tough different thinking

At least when I was young, in high school: "Eh, voting doesn't mean nothing." You don't really know that to be true, you just say it. Then you get older, and responsible, and you go, "Oh heck, let me vote." And then you vote and you go away. I was actually right when I was 16.

Aaron McGruder

voting mean school

Once I heard about the electronic voting machines, and how they weren't gonna be audited, and no one would be able to go in and verify what the votes were. And then the exit poll thing - wasn't that kind of weird? How the exit polls didn't match up to the voting... I feel like, you know, they dropped a couple lines of code in here and there, and swung a couple states in their direction.

Aaron McGruder

vote voting couple

I guess I was a conspiracy theorist when I said "no weapons in Iraq." Now they call that history.

Aaron McGruder

conspiracy

Don't get me wrong, it definitely ain't the Democratic Party either. They're so bad, I mean I'm actually starting to believe that John Kerry was just token resistance, that he literally was down with George W.Bush. It was just such a horrible, horrible, horrible thing to see, that campaign. So, you know, I don't know what's going on.

Aaron McGruder

party mean believe

I think you have to play the game on every level. If you need a friendly, charismatic, good-looking guy to be the mouthpiece, then so be it. And maybe Ralph Nader should just be behind the scenes telling that guy what to say.

Aaron McGruder

guy friendly thinking

I saw Nader shortly before the election and - I voted him the time before, because I liked the sort of long-term strategy of building a viable third party. So, okay, we'll get enough votes, you get a little bit more money, and maybe, if there's continued growth, then maybe eventually there's hope for a viable, legitimate third party. I think the reason why I didn't vote for him last time was because we tried that and it didn't work. Ralph Nader is a very smart guy, and I think he's got a lot of good ideas.

Aaron McGruder

smart party thinking

I don't know what the future holds. It seems to be going in a really bad, bad place really quickly, and I don't have the answers and I don't have the solutions and I don't know what's gonna happen to change it. But the continued apathy will only lead to a worse situation for everybody.

Aaron McGruder

solutions situation apathy

I think revolution is always a little bit possible. I think it won't look or sound anything like what we would expect. But I think revolution is very difficult, and I'm not optimistic for any kind of dramatic change.

Aaron McGruder

optimistic revolution thinking

Perhaps it's time to start examining countries that have made democracy work while still having some kind of the same relationship in covenant with their population. Perhaps we need to look at the Scandinavian countries, or Canada, or something else, but whatever we have now, I think we just have to acknowledge, ain't workin.

Aaron McGruder

democracy country thinking

Voting really doesn't mean anything. I wish I could say something different, but I think it's kind of a sham.

Aaron McGruder

voting mean thinking

I think the people should demand accountability on the voting. I think there's no point in voting if you're not gonna demand fairness and be able to verify each vote. And other countries can do this fairly easily. So I don't think you really want democracy if you're not willing to take that first step.

Aaron McGruder

country people thinking

I think, being a public figure - which, I have to admit, I guess I'm largely responsible for, in terms of going out and putting myself out there - comes with its own burdens, and its own things that cause you stress, and its own worries.

Aaron McGruder

stress worry thinking

You collapse a few times, and you put your head in your hands, and you say, "Oh my god, how am I gonna get through this?" You have a few of those nights, and then you get over it and you keep it moving. And those nights... As you get more used to the strain, I guess those nights are fewer and farther between. So that's the best you can hope for. It's a tough job and it's a lot to pull out of your brain.

Aaron McGruder

brain night moving

Fame is not your friend. It ain't necessarily your enemy. It is what it is.

Aaron McGruder

fame enemy

When the news is slow, or when there's just so many other responsibilities bearing down on me that I don't have the time to do it right, that's when it gets frustrating. As an artist, you just don't wanna put bad work out. So when you have to do it seven days a week, you're just gonna have some bad days and bad weeks and bad months and bad years.

Aaron McGruder

bad-day artist responsibility

And I'm not so in love with making people mad that I want to live my life around it.