Ask A Genius 1272: Naked at Night, Redux
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/02/15
Rick Rosner: We missed our session last night because I was busy with our show, which is now called Naked at Night—although it’s really “Lance versus Rick.” We’ve been doing it since mid-2017—around eight years now, with a couple hundred episodes under our belt.
I’m a liberal, while Lance is fully MAGA. I started the show because I thought it would be interesting and funny: I’d be standing there naked, and Lance would paint me while we had political arguments. I was never completely naked—I’ve only taken my shirt off in one or two episodes because I just couldn’t manage to go fully naked at night. At first, I thought it would be hilarious, but it eventually stopped being funny, and then it just felt sad. After reflecting on last night’s session, I’ve decided that the show could be considered the darkest form of comedy—and here’s my reasoning.
I like to think I’m smart and reasonably well-informed. I hold mainstream views—views that, according to various polls, 70 to 90 percent of Americans share on many issues, though the exact percentage depends on the topic. We might disagree, but most of my opinions aren’t unreasonable. In contrast, Lance’s perspective is very different. As an artist who works with his hands, he reportedly spends a significant amount of time listening to conservative podcasts and broadcasts, immersing himself in Trump’s apologetics—even though the exact hours aren’t verified by public data. Whenever Trump does something or says something, the MAGA and GOP messaging machine spins talking points that present his actions favorably. I don’t subject myself to that kind of constant messaging—and even if I did, the Democrats do have their own communication apparatus, albeit less relentlessly packaged.
Lance usually outdebates me—not because his views are more reasonable or truthful or because they represent the majority—but simply because he has more talking points and bullshit ready to throw my way. Our show becomes a microcosm of our broader American political reality: mainstream, reasonable views are often out-argued by those who peddle more extreme, unsubstantiated claims. For now, and perhaps for the foreseeable future—maybe even for two years—the bullshitters seem to be winning.
And things are moving fast. Trump is doing whatever he wants: he has dismissed federal prosecutors involved in the prosecutions following the January 6 events, and he issued sweeping pardons for nearly all of the roughly 1,500 individuals prosecuted for the Capitol attack. Now he’s also dismissing some of the FBI agents who took part in the search of Mar-a-Lago for classified documents. I’d guess that about a dozen FBI agents from the Miami office—likely part of a larger team of 50 to 100 covering Florida and neighboring regions—were involved. They followed orders, and now Trump claims they should have defied them. Public records indicate that while some agents are being targeted for dismissal, not everyone involved has been let go.
I asked Lance, who used to sculpt toys for Mattel.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: He is, without a doubt, a talented artist. His time at Mattel as a toy sculptor is part of his backstory, even if detailed records aren’t widely available.
Rosner: He is. If you were working at Mattel and someone told you to “work on a bus to Biden,” would you just obey? He said he’d tell his bosses to “fuck off”—arguing that the FBI agents deserve to be fired because they should have defied their superiors. A lot of unsettling things are happening.
It makes you question the solidity of our democratic rights. There’s been a lot of talk comparing the current situation to Germany in the 1930s. In November 1932, Hitler received 33 percent of the vote—not a majority, but more than any other party—and then bullied the government into appointing him Chancellor. He didn’t immediately seize total power, but within 53 days, he had taken over the government. Now, many are tweeting about what Trump might accomplish in his first 53 days in office. The situation seems both absurd and frightening. The historical facts about the 1932 election and Hitler’s rapid rise are well documented.
It’s absurd in part because, for example, there are claims that Trump wanted to demonstrate that there’s water in Northern California that could have been used to fight wildfires. According to that narrative, blaming Democrats and DEI for diverting the water, he ordered two dams in Northern California to be opened. However, no verifiable reports confirm that this incident occurred or that the water ended up flooding farmland as claimed. The story appears to be unsubstantiated, yet it still underscores the nonsensical nature of some of these actions.
Some of these actions seem downright stupid, while others are downright scary. However, in the end, Trump effectively controls the government. Lance versus Rick—or Naked at Night—illustrates how senseless nonsense can dominate the political landscape.
Jacobsen: I’ve talked to Lance extensively about art. He’s a knowledgeable, reasonable guy when it comes to subjects he understands and is far from a lunatic in that realm. I find him to be a decent conversationalist. Generally, if you approach him respectfully and honestly, he will reciprocate.
Rosner: Unless the topic is Trump. Then, you have to choose your topic carefully and stick to it.
Jacobsen: Our original goal was to focus on the history of realist art through time. However, your discussions with me have tended to wander. Other projects are more focused—sometimes a single interview, sometimes a couple of interviews—where we zero in on someone’s area of expertise. I try to adopt a strengths-based interviewing style. For example, it doesn’t make sense to interview a politician about both quantum mechanics and some esoteric topic in equestrianism. I tailor the approach to each guest’s particular area of knowledge. You have to gauge.
Rosner: Yes. What was I going to say—oh, shit—I lost my fucking tweet on Twitter. When I look online, I block a lot of small MAGA accounts that just parrot the standard talking points because they annoy me—I’m not going to learn anything new from them. But before I mute someone, I check their profile and feed to see if they’re spouting bullshit and wasting my time. I see many people who claim to be professionals—doctors, engineers, nurses. In some cases, maybe they are bullshitting. But often, these individuals—who once could be thoughtful and exercise real critical judgment—are now just cranky old folks. They watch Fox News all day; they’re in their late seventies or early eighties. They might have been engineers or something once, but now they’re essentially Fox News retirees. The problem is that these people, who once demonstrated a “do your own research” mentality, have instead filled their heads with right-wing, cherry-picked, dishonest nonsense. As a result, their political opinions have become utterly unreasonable, based on a steady diet of lies.
And so, in the context of our “Lance versus Rick” discussions, I try to be reasonable—yet Lance calls me brainwashed. He gets out more of his talking points than I do. Last night, I tried to keep things moving quickly—I hate it when we go around and around because it’s fucking boring. So I just said, “Fine, that’s bullshit. Let’s move on.” If this were a formal debate, Lance would probably score more points.
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