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Ben Palmer's Brain: Why the comedian made a fake deportation tip line — and why so many people are laughing

25:28
Photo by Sam Wiseman, courtesy of Ben Palmer
Photo by Sam Wiseman, courtesy of Ben Palmer

Comedian Ben Palmer set up a fake tip line for reporting immigrants in the United States suspected of not having legal status. He recorded the conversations, and things... got uncomfortable and, in some cases, disturbing. But for a lot of viewers, these calls were surprisingly funny. How does Ben Palmer withstand the awkwardness and maintain his deadpan delivery as he trolls unsuspecting Americans trying to get their neighbors deported? And how did he go from being your average stand-up comic, doing sets after his day job, to creating viral social commentary full-time?

Show notes:

  • He made a fake ICE deportation tip line. Then a kindergarten teacher called. (Washington Post)
  • God, Country, Family (YouTube)
  • Ben Palmer's YouTube Channel (YouTube)

This content was originally created for audio. An auto-generated transcript is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Heads up that some elements (i.e. music, sound effects, tone) are harder to translate to text.

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