Sexism, obscenity, vomit and nudity are all part of the job for Joe Borden, who graduated from The University of Alabama in 2002 with a degree in telecommunication and film. Borden currently writes for the popular comedy show “Tosh.0.”
The Crimson White recently sat down with Borden and discussed working in the “Tosh.0” office and how it can take a toll on both the mind and body.
Can you walk me through a regular day in the “Tosh.0” office for you?
Come in at 10. Daniel asks inappropriate questions about our personal lives and makes fun of what we’re wearing. Lunch at 1. Watch videos and write jokes for an hour. Shoot a bit where we are all either injured physically and/or emotionally. Go home at 7.
Your Twitter bio says you “escaped Alabama to write for ‘Tosh.0,’” so was “Tosh.0” the dream job?
It is a dream job in a way because it is a very fun place to work. We are all very close. My best friend, Jim Patton, shares an office with me, and we get to make this crazy, sexist, racist, horribly offensive product that is somehow popular.
Do your family members watch the show?
My parents watch the show, and they kind of laugh it off, but I think they are just charmed by Daniel. My grandmother does not care for it. She actually will not tell her friends what show I write for. When it comes up, she’ll say, “Yes, I have a grandson who writes in Hollywood,” and if they ask what show, she says, “Oh, I don’t recall.” But I think she’s secretly in love with Daniel.
How many times have you seen Daniel Tosh naked?
I’ve never seen him wearing clothes. He is most comfortable wearing no stitches on his body.
What was the best joke you wrote for the show?
Jim Patton, the other Bama guy, had an idea to do a tribute to vomit. I had the idea that we do some sort of a roller coaster where everybody is throwing up the whole time. When that went through the Daniel filter, that became a scrambler ride. That was the perfect joke. We rented a scrambler ride and then we all did the banana and Sprite challenge … sure enough we were able to get really good GoPro footage of a crazy vomit-a-thon.
I probably had the best puke, and here’s why: I had some cream of potato soup, just a big heaping bowl of it at lunch that day, and other people weren’t thinking in those terms. When I went, it was just a glorious stream of hi-def barf. Pinnacle of my career.
Daniel Tosh makes a lot of jokes at Alabama’s expense. Why?
There are two reasons. The first reason is because Daniel is a huge Miami Dolphins fan, and he feels that Nick Saban victimized that team and basically Urban Meyer-ed their whole operation, without the success part. The second reason is because he likes to see Jim and I get our panties in a wad, so he’ll say these horrible things about our state, our football team, our coach, who we worship, just because he loves to see us get truly upset.
