Chris Rock has made a name for himself for being one of the funniest comedians in Hollywood, but on his current press tour to promote his new film Top Five, Rock has been having some surprisingly serious interviews. When the New York Times, New York magazine and Today host Matt Lauer asked him for his opinions regarding Bill Cosby, Barack Obama and even parenting tips, Rock proved that no subject is off-limits and responded with several impressive and profound answers.

“People want me to be funny all the time. People want me to be funny even at funerals, people are like, ‘why are you so sad?’ Well, because my aunt just died,” Rock explained to Lauer, inviting interviewers on the Top Five star’s press tour to ask him serious questions he’d be allowed to answer in ways that fans would consider atypical of the comedian.

New York magazine asked Rock for his opinions of income disparity, and he immediately proved that he’s ready to dial down the humor for interviews.

“Oh, people don’t even know. If poor people knew how rich rich people are, there would be riots in the streets,” said Rock, whose successful comedy and film career has given him insider knowledge on the lifestyles of the rich and famous. “If the average person could see the Virgin Airlines first-class lounge1, they’d go, “What? What? This is food, and it’s free, and they… what? Massage? Are you kidding me?”

The magazine then asked him for his opinion of Bill Cosby, whose reputation has plummeted in recent weeks as more and more women have stepped forward claiming Cosby raped or sexually assaulted them.

“I love Cosby, and I just hope it’s not true. It’s a weird year for comedy. We lost Robin, we lost Joan, and we kind of lost Cosby.”

In the same interview, Rock went on to discuss his approval of the first black president’s performance, and even suggested that Obama should have “let the country flatline” and neglected to bail anything out so people would learn to appreciate his contributions.

“Everybody wanted Michael Jordan, right? We got Shaq. That’s not a disappointment. It’s still a Hall of Fame career. People thinking you’re dumb is an advantage. Obama started as a genius. It’s like, What? I’ve got to keep doing that? That’s hard to do! So it’s not that Obama’s disappointing. It’s just his best album might have been his first album,” said Rock. “We’ve all been on planes that had tremendous turbulence, but we forget all about it. Now, if you live through a plane crash, you’ll never forget that. Maybe Obama should have let the plane crash. You get credit for bringing somebody back from the dead. You don’t really get credit for helping a sick person by administering antibiotics.”

“Obama’s, like, cool compared to other politicians… but not as cool as actual cool people,” Rock told the New Yorker, continuing his praise for the president before clarifying that Obama is not, however, “as cool as actual cool people.”

The New York Times then increased the press tour’s seriousness factor by asking the comedian for his opinion on whether or not parents should spank their children – a topic which is always considered to be incredibly controversial and is rarely discussed in celebrity interviews – and Rock explained his thoughts on the matter calmly and concisely.

“The consequences of them not listening to you are so much greater than the consequences to kids in a middle-class background. So something as little as: ‘Hey, don’t go to the corner. I don’t want you hanging out on the corner’. . . But if you’re a black boy on the wrong corner of Gary, Ind., or Chicago or Bed-Stuy, you can get shot.”