Rob Riggle isn't a household name, but his face has been in our homes for decades.
"Modern Family." "Saturday Night Live." "The Daily Show." "Step Brothers." "The Hangover."
The role that likely shaped his life more than any other? His time in the U.S. Military as a decorated Marine. So when Riggle talks about politics and culture, he doesn't sound like, well, Mark Ruffalo or a certain Boss.
Riggle proved it during his new "Club Random" interview with host Bill Maher. The two opened by discussing Riggle's military service and why even a "brave" comedian like Maher is no match for a real war veteran. It's one of many reasons why conservatives appreciate the clarity Maher brings to the culture, even if some of his positions drive them to distraction.
Hitting "send" on an incendiary Tweet doesn't make one brave, Maher noted.
Riggle's life experiences and travels have taught him something simple yet profound in our increasingly surreal world. Capitalism rocks. So does America.
He isn't a MAGA-hat type, but Riggle understands what America stands for and the opportunities it gives citizens. He's living proof of it. And he's not ashamed to say it in an entertainment culture that won't take kindly to those hard truths.
The two compared how the military finds the best of the best to be Marines, a process similar to our capitalistic system. Maher is a fan, and so is Riggle.
Who isn't? New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. If the Mayor was watching the Riggle episode, he'd probably be booing his YouTube screen, Maher noted with a smile.
"Yeah, it's terrible, but [capitalism] still better than the reverse," Maher noted. "Soviet people died at 38 from being drunk all the time because they couldn't take their life under Communism."
Riggle has a personal reason to steer cleer of the new, socialist agenda cropping up across America.
"My girlfriend is Polish, and she was born into Communism," Riggle said. "She lived under it for a little while, and she shakes her head. 'They don't know what they're asking for. They don't know what they're talking about.'"
"They" likely refers to recent polling that says an alarmingly large number of young Americans are warming up to socialism. That comes as a number of big-city mayors are not only on the Left but identify as socialists. Think Mamdani and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, and more may be on the way.
"It wasn't like [Communism] happened a thousand years ago," Maher noted about recent government debacles like Cuba, Venezuela and the Soviet Union.
Riggle went back to his partner's memories of life in a Communist country. What she described to him could be repeating itself stateside if Mayor Mamdani's "government-run" grocery story plans come to fruition.
"She would explain to me the grocery card they got ... you're a family of four, you get x amount of milk per week and x amount of eggs per week," Riggle said, recalling her stories. "Sometimes, [the store] didn't have any of the things on your card ... 'come back tomorrow, and maybe we'll have what's on your list.'"
"It doesn't work. Humans need to be incentivized by selfishness," Maher said.
