Best of The Roula Show with Eric

7a Scoop Howie Mandel Apology 04-02-26

12 min
Apr 2, 2026about 2 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

The Roula Show discusses Howie Mandel's controversial exchange with Kelly and Mark on their talk show, where he rejected a compliment about looking good for his age, followed by a non-apology apology that drew criticism. The episode also covers the successful launch of NASA's Artemis 2 moon mission and touches on unhealthy foods people consume despite knowing better.

Insights
  • Comedians often use the 'it was just a joke' defense to avoid accountability for awkward or offensive moments, even when the context wasn't comedic
  • Age-related compliments can be perceived as backhanded insults, creating tension when someone rejects the framing of their appearance relative to their age
  • Public figures' apologies can backfire if they don't genuinely acknowledge wrongdoing and instead double down on their original position
  • Space exploration achievements remain underappreciated compared to celebrity culture, with most people unable to name the 12 astronauts who walked on the moon
Trends
Celebrity controversy amplification through social media algorithms and talk show coverageGenerational shifts in how compliments about aging are received and interpretedPublic apology culture and the expectation for immediate, genuine accountability from public figuresRenewed interest in space exploration with NASA's Artemis program capturing public attentionKnowledge gaps between celebrity culture awareness and scientific achievement recognition
Topics
Howie Mandel controversy and apologyCelebrity talk show interactions and tensionComedian accountability and joke defenseAge-related compliments and social dynamicsNASA Artemis 2 moon mission launchSpace exploration history and astronaut recognitionApollo era lunar missionsUnhealthy food consumption habitsEntertainment industry social media algorithmsPublic apology authenticity
Companies
America's Got Talent
Howie Mandel is a judge on the show where the original incident occurred before the talk show appearance
ABC 13
Network where Kelly and Mark's talk show airs, mentioned as concurrent programming with The Roula Show
Cumulus Media
Parent company of 104.1 KRBE radio station where The Roula Show broadcasts
NASA
Space agency conducting the Artemis 2 mission discussed as major news story
People
Howie Mandel
Central figure in controversy over rejecting age-related compliment on talk show and subsequent apology
Reed Weissman
Commander of Artemis 2 moon mission; has personal connection to host's husband through prior meetings
Neil Armstrong
First person to walk on the moon; referenced in discussion of lunar mission history
Buzz Aldrin
Second person to walk on the moon; referenced in discussion of Apollo era achievements
Quotes
"I don't believe that somebody who's a comedian needs to apologize for a joke. It's a joke. It's meant as a joke. It's not meant to offend."
Howie MandelMid-episode discussion
"You look great for 70. I just look good. Well then you look like crap period but we're just trying to be nice because we think about your old."
Howie Mandel / Kelly and Mark exchangeControversy recap
"There's only like 14 people have ever been to the moon. And we should know all their names. Why do we know all the housewives names?"
Unnamed comedianSpace discussion
"That wasn't a comedian moment. He wasn't doing stand up. That was he apologizing right then or is it later on his Instagram."
SamAnalysis of Howie Mandel incident
Full Transcript
This is Anthony Push, your local personal injury attorney from the law firm Push and Win. Call us today. Consultations are always free. Do not hesitate. If you feel that you've been injured in a car wreck, give us a call. We take all cases big and small. So look us up online at pushwin.com. 104.1 K-R-B-E, a cumulus media station. Good morning everyone. We ready? Live from the TXU Energy Studio. The ruler show with Eric featuring special K and Sam. And we have another keyword for you to try and get to you to Harry Styles at Madison Square Garden in New York City. We've got four trips for two to give away. The national keyword is watermelon. The number you send it to is 95819. Do that to enter for a chance to win one of those New York City trips and then that can make you a finalist for the Grand Grand Prize. Go see him in London. So it is the Together Together tour and you and your guest Harry Styles, watermelon to 95819. Okay, coming up next, if you saw this, I'm so curious to know your opinion of this because it's one of these entertainment stories that kind of slides by if you don't watch this show on the regular. Kelly and Mark. Oh yeah. Kelly and Mark, by the way, they have like a million viewers a day. A million guys. They are national. They're everywhere. They're national and that's what they're getting. I think that's too too much. So maybe nobody knows this story. Howie Mandel doubles down on his half apology. Do you know what he apologized for? No. All right, we will discuss and scoop next on KRV. Celebrity scoop. I'm a ruler show with Eric. 104.1 KRV. It is brought to you by Taquiri Aran Das and I've got something fun for you. You know how much we love the Nutcracker market here at Christmas time? It's back for spring. I love that they're doing it because they did it one year, two years. Yes, and then they had to stop after COVID and bring it back. So bring it back. It is instead of red carpet and jingle bells everywhere, it's green carpet like it's spring green grass. It's all eastern spring colors and stuff. Yeah, it's turf. It's like Sam's backyard. It is. It's so cute. So it's a four-pack of tickets to the Nutcracker market for spring. It's April 17th and 19th at NRG Center. If you are caller 15, you'll have a chance to get your best spring on. Spring has sprung. And with that turf, when I had turf from the back backyard, I didn't realize how you really got to fluff it up every once in a while. Oh really? Your turf. Like when it rained, like my rainbow, I had little puddles. It wasn't slanted right or something. So I remember this guy had a weed wacker, but on the front, he had bristles. Yeah, fluff it up. And it fluffs up the turf. Do you have turf like that, Sam? Yeah, that is next level. Yeah, mine's really good. I got good quality. Stands up straight. Yes, great drainage. Can you buy that at the Nutcracker market spring? Probably you'll meet somebody to put turf down. They're actually there. I'm sure they are. They normally are. Because one of the best hose nozzles for my garden hose I ever found was at that Nutcracker market spring. You find hose? It was a hose nozzle. Like a firefighter had developed it. And it was a really cool one. And then I saw one. The big plastic, you connect to your leaf blower and it gives you like 30% more power. Oh, wow. It's like a big plastic cone. And it's like flexible. Then you like tie it with like a little bungee cord it comes with. Yeah. Around the end of your, yeah, I think it has air. So it goes through it like to, you know, it doesn't suffocate it. And then it just 20, 30% more. Yeah, that's cool. So you'll have fun at that color 15. You're gonna have four packet tickets, Nutcracker market spring. They have all kinds of cool stuff like that. All right. So this story is, I mean, I feel like it was going to go away and it's not going away because it's just not going away when it originally happened. All right. How did I get this one? This show. Okay. In your algorithm? How'd you find this? It was definitely in my algorithm. Because I didn't see it live. Right. Because we're on the air when Kelly and Mark are on ABC 13. Yeah. And we have TVs in here, but they're on mute. Yeah. So we can. And Howie Mandel being on America's Got Talent. He's one of the judges. He was there and this situation happened and it was going to go nowhere because we really watched it. And then he had to apologize and then that went somewhere. And then now there's an update to the apology where like that's how he had apologized. Here's how it breaks down. He's a guest on Kelly and Mark. He is 70 years old. 70 does not look like the 70 of our grandparents age. Like 70. You're shocked that somebody like how do you know 70? Yeah. Wow. So they talk about right. Wow. You look great. Wow. Wow. For 70. Wow. Uh-huh. But for whatever reason that did not land right with Howie Mandel to say you look great for 70. Really? Yeah. And he said here's how the exchange goes. He said I'm gonna he didn't want he he was short with them like no I don't I don't believe in that that I look good for my age. I just look good. I just look good. Well then you look like crap period but we're just trying to be nice because we think about your old. Happened on March 23rd. Then he did the apology a couple days later and then yesterday comes this still to people that wasn't really an apology. You took this too seriously. What's your take on it Sam? Absolutely. I feel like it wasn't that big of a deal. They were giving him like recognition that it was his birthday and just like yeah like it's your 70th birthday. You know congratulations. You look great for like 70. I mean granted it's a backhand compliment. That part sucks. You look great for 70. Yeah. I mean those weren't her exact words but like I'm paraphrasing what I saw from it and then he just like got so hung up on her putting his age with him to look good and I he was like he was trying to say that he's like you know a comedian and that he was just trying to play it off but it didn't come off that way. It was just like he just got so mad. I bet he wasn't really mad. I bet he's just that's how his humor is if you've watched like his podcast and stuff. I guess but he says without laughing he says to her I look great. That doesn't mean anything to me. No no no I don't like that because that's a caveat he said. Then Mark leaned into it and said I am saying that that you do look great for 70 and then Kelly realized there's tension because it was awkward and then she says we're not saying that you look great for 70. You just look great in general and then it just went from there. He's kind of like super mad. It was awkward. It was awkward. That's what I'm saying and then it just obviously got taken out of context and then he tried to apologize but it did not seem like an apology. Because he said I rarely want to apologize for a joke. You know comedians really stand strong on that. They're like I don't want to apologize for a joke. Take the joke it's a joke on a comedian but that wasn't a comedian moment. He wasn't doing stand up. That was he apologizing right then or is it later on his Instagram. After he got paid I think for it because of how awkward it was. Vince Collinaze is redefining news talk with The Vince Show. It is a reflection of your response to this program that we get to take this thing to the next level. These gigantic shows this is going to be so much fun. It's unbelievable. In-depth interviews, live-caller interactions and a front row seat to the most important conversations of the day. I've got updates. I've got big stories. We'll sort through the truth of what's really going on. So buckle up. Here it comes. The Vince Show. Following listen on your favorite platform. It's how I saw it. You're the guy that put the memory. Does that the guy that put the balloon over his nose and blew it up and it pop? I remember that actually. I remember he put his germaphobe. He is a big germaphobe. That was a stick when he had hair. He would and he'd do that voice. Come on, Kavi. You can do it. The bottles were out. There was a little cartoon with bottles. That's really amazing. How Mandel said in that first apology video philosophically I don't believe that somebody who's a comedian needs to apologize for a joke. It's a joke. It's meant as a joke. It's not meant to offend, but that wasn't a joke. That was an exchange. This is awkward. This is a joke. I know because once the cameras are on, whoa, I never saw him with hair. Oh, he never saw him. Oh, yeah. I knew him. He didn't shave his head to what? Deal or no deal? Like a few years. I believe so. I think when it was still Regis and Kathy Lee, they had how he meant down on his kind of like this fun little stunt guy type. Like they sent him on a cruise ship to see people's social reactions. Like he act like he was a server and the person would be like, oh, do you want some more coffee? And then they'd be like, yeah, and he'd put his thumb in the cup to hold it. Like your thumb is in there and then he'd pour the coffee and give it back to them. You know what Sam? Do you see their reactions or like eat their food? Sam would drink that. I would. I'd be cowered. I'd be like, oh no. I'm like, hell no, you put your finger in that. I just, I'm so much to try that. Have you ever seen Sam out? Try that. See what she does. Don't do it. I will. She isn't like confrontation. So push her to her limit. It's time for what's going down in H town. I'm a ruler show with Eric 104.1 KRBE. It is brought to you by easy fiber and there's big news in the space world. Yesterday, everyone's eyes were on the Artemis 2 as four astronauts blasted off on the moon mission. It is now officially underway. They successfully launched. Thank God in this historic deep space test flight. So cool. It's supposed to last 10 days, four days traveling to the moon, fly by around the lunar surface, then return to Earth. They will travel roughly 250,000 miles from Earth, further than any human has ever gone since the Apollo era. It marks a major milestone. Humans back on the path to the moon. The mission is focused on proving everything works before the next step, landing on the moon again. And I'm mad at your husband. Why? He could be a great, he could have helped us out as a producer for the show. I think it was until really yesterday, that much, but go ahead. Tell everybody what you just told me a few hours ago. Commander Reed Weissman of the Artemis 2 and my husband have been chatting. We met at an event and I, he's going to kill me for not remembering this again. Why? I have too much in my files. We met him years ago. I don't remember how we met him. He's probably yelled the radio right now. Rula, how do you forget that? And ever since then, he and Reed have had like a camaraderie, like they text every now and again, and Reed had wanted to come to my husband's bakery to check out the bakery, because people are fascinated by machines and dough. That's 100% the truth. People could watch that all day, like relaxing videos. So anyway, he was like, God, that's so cool. I mean, that's so crazy. Like he texted him, this is the commander of the Artemis 2. And my husband loves space stuff. And you just found out like we could have had him on before. Hopefully, at least after we got a talk. Maybe he was a little busy for us, Eric, but we could talk to him after. Yeah, after, I hope. So it's up there. It's in space now. They're doing like great yesterday. Yeah, that was a major thing. It takes four days to get up there. Yep, four days. Four days traveling to get to the moon. And they're going to go around it and then come back. They're not going to land on it, but that's the test mission to see if the next time they can land on it again. The moon around the moon. Going around the world around the death bunk. And there was a comedian. I don't know which one I was listening to. Sometimes I just, you know, they have the comedian channel. This guy was like, you know, there's only like 14 people have ever been to the moon. And we should know all their names. Why do we know all the housewives names? And we don't know those guys' names. That's sad. Well, you only remember the first ones. The first ones, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, but was it Mike Collins, was the one that couldn't get out of the car? Oh, had to stay on the ship. We're going to go to the moon and we're going to jump around and shoot gymnastics, but you can't get out of the car, Mike. So how many times did we go in total? And that must have been expensive. I know. I was like, how many? Yeah. Was there 14? You keep going back. I mean, I'm just pointing with the comic. Is it true that 14 people have gone to the moon? 14 people on the moon is like two at a time. Well, no, there's a crew of three every time, wasn't it? Yeah, but I mean two on the moon, you said. Yeah, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. We know that there's 14 guys on the moon. Oh, it's a 12. 12 have walked the moon. Okay. So how many times do we go up there? Between 1969 and 1972, 12 humans have walked on the moon, while 24 American astronauts have traveled to the vicinity of the moon during this era. Only 12 landed and walked on the surface. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Gene Cernan, I hope I'm saying his name right, and Harrison Schmidt. Six times we've landed on it. Six times. That's all. We should know all their names, but more people can read up. It's not like we have to do this. You figure we can just go there and land right now if we've done it before. I don't know, y'all. I have anxiety about going on a four-hour flight to the east coast if there's delays. Can you imagine you got into Artemis II and they're like, okay, for four days now, I mean, we don't know if this thing gets lost. So you're out there. You're just hanging out. It's like gravity. It's scary. It's cloney and sandro bullets. So those people are heroes. They are. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's big, big, big news and great for the space program. All right. Coming up next, the garbage foods that you know are horrible for your body, but you just can't stop eating them. It just smells so dang good. I'll tell you right out the gate, that fake butter liquid that you're putting all over that popcorn. Oh, oh, imagine if they got rid of that. You're like, can you order that fake plastic liquid? Liquid plastic. April Fool's joke, dude. Oh, we're getting rid of that stuff. What other garbage foods? See if one of your favorite foods on the list of garbage foods we're putting our bodies in. We just keep doing it because it tastes so good. Next on the Rula Show there. Next roll with Vernon Davis. I'm your host, Vernon Davis. Okay, y'all. Thank you. Today we have Dietrich Wise. Through my example on the field, off the field, during game day in practice, that was one way that I led because then it led to success. Next roll isn't about what's next. It's about why they do it. My man, Bobby Bones. Like I've had a lot of stuff happen, bad and good. And so I don't have any fear of mixing it up. That's powerful, man. Next roll with Vernon Davis. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.