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W. Kamau Bell names charger his most indispensable tool, wants AI to go away

Comedian W. Kamau Bell tells The Verge his charger is indispensable, thanks Elon Musk for ending his Twitter addiction, and calls AI the trend he wants gone.

AI News Feed · 2026-08-23 00:44

Bell, known for shows including Totally Biased, United Shades of America and We Need to Talk About Cosby, has won a Peabody Award and four Emmys. He answered The Verge's weekly questionnaire between episodes of his podcast Who's With Me, his comedy tour, his Substack, promoting his upcoming children's book Rock Paper Scissors Cheese, out Oct. 27, and being a dad.

Asked about his most indispensable tool, Bell said: "A charger. All of this is just shiny paperweights without a charger." He named map apps as the most underappreciated, saying he uses one daily, but wishes MapQuest's app were better so he would not have to use what he called the "Trump Billionaire guys' apps," which he said list the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. On a clean phone, his first app install would be YouTube: "What do you expect me to do? Just think my own thoughts all day?"

Bell said he wishes phones came in a hard case with a screen protector already installed. He reported 17 open windows across two browser windows, a number that can rise to 30 when he is writing a Substack article; he closes them only when he hits "publish." On social media, he said he now uses Instagram and Threads, and thanked Elon Musk for breaking his Twitter addiction. "Not that Zuckerberg is significantly better than Elon," he said, but as a public-facing person he needs the platforms. He warned Zuckerberg that his generation left MySpace and Friendster just as he left Twitter.

His happy place online is watching the latest Japanese videos on YouTube or Lionfield videos with his 8-year-old. His favorite gadget ever owned is an Afro pick with extra-long metal teeth and a fist as the handle. The most disappointing was a brush claiming to effectively comb Afros, bought because of Shark Tank, or the X-ray specs sold in comic books. His fondest game memories are a tie between Civilization on PC and NBA Live '95 on Sega Genesis.

Bell said his proudest creation is his three daughters, describing it as a "collab project." The best advice he ever received, from Kevin Kataoka, was: "Don't think you are going to make it just by doing stand-up comedy. You need to learn how to write other things." His current obsession is the NBA off-season. To focus, he needs coffee and extreme quiet, often working in the middle of the night, though he cannot do that as often because his children like both parents awake at the same time. When feeling stuck, he changes the song or plays a silly cellphone game for four hours.