Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Hey, here's edition listener. It's
Speaker 1: Roy Wood Junior, correspondent for The Daily Show. You're about
Speaker 1: to hear an episode of one of our original Daily
Speaker 1: Show podcasts, Beyond the Scenes. It's the show where we
Speaker 1: dive deeper into segments and topics that originally aired on
Speaker 1: The Daily Show and we chat with the show's writers, producers,
Speaker 1: and experts. In this episode, I sit down with Daily
Speaker 1: Show correspondent Michael Costa, segment director Stacy Angelis, and producer
Speaker 1: Pierre Adrian Early to discuss how Switzerland's approach to military
Speaker 1: service and common sense laws have created a safe gun culture.
Speaker 1: We also want to offer our deepest condolences to those
Speaker 1: affected by the recent tragedy at the Covenant School in Nashville. Hey,
Speaker 1: what's up. I'm Roy Wood Junior. Now, have you ever
Speaker 1: gone to the music store to buy a CD? Remember CDs?
Speaker 1: Young people? Back in the day, you have to show
Speaker 1: up to a building to buy music. Well, they used
Speaker 1: to have something called bonus tracks. You would have a
Speaker 1: CD and then at the end of the CD would
Speaker 1: be music that you didn't even know was on the CD.
Speaker 1: Bonus tracks. That's what this podcast is. This podcast is
Speaker 1: the bonus track to what is the Daily Show. We're
Speaker 1: talking about correspondence, writers, producers, and past guests who've been
Speaker 1: on the show to go a little deeper into topics
Speaker 1: that we've already seen explored on the show, and to
Speaker 1: also see where we are today on those issues. We
Speaker 1: go beyond beyond the scenes. So this week we want
Speaker 1: to talk about a two part segment where Michael Costa
Speaker 1: went over to Switzerland to explore the gun laws and
Speaker 1: so you know, they don't really have a lot of
Speaker 1: mass shootings in Switzerland, but everybody owns a gun. Here's
Speaker 1: a little piece from that segment. When it comes to
Speaker 1: gun culture, Switzerland has a few more regulations than America.
Speaker 1: And thanks to these gun regulations and strict ammunition control,
Speaker 1: Switzerland has a murder rate of nearly zero. Sure that's
Speaker 1: a great statistic, but how safe can it really be?
Speaker 1: How many school shootings have there been? No? What about malls? Everybody? People? No?
Speaker 1: What about like major holidays? People get shot up in
Speaker 1: major holidays. Here love it. This is the dream, shooting
Speaker 1: guns without the fear of getting shot. This is where
Speaker 1: America should be. All we need to do is keep
Speaker 1: AMMO separate and have universal criminal and mental background checks,
Speaker 1: have extremely strict open carry laws, justification for ownerships, send
Speaker 1: written request authorities, and basically just change our entire gun culture.
Speaker 1: We can do that right, all right? So to help
Speaker 1: us go beyond the scenes, we have correspondent and stand
Speaker 1: up comedian and you know what, just an all around
Speaker 1: good damn guy, Michael Costa. That's nice. I was wondering
Speaker 1: what you were going to say, but thank you, Roy.
Speaker 1: You know, we we go way back to our Los
Speaker 1: Angeles to day pre day we should. I don't have
Speaker 1: a lot of friends in that building that predate my
Speaker 1: employment there, so it's always only a long time. And
Speaker 1: you've always been supportive of my comedy and I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Now here we are in the beyond the scenes bonus
Speaker 1: track going beyond the seat. Did you ever think when
Speaker 1: we were at In and out Burger after bombing somewhere
Speaker 1: on Milrose, No? I not think that. Also joining us
Speaker 1: our feel producer Stacy Angeli, Stacy, how are you doing good?
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me and for that depressing intro about CDs, oh,
Speaker 1: because you remember CDs as well. Now I want to
Speaker 1: also introduce our guests he was one of our producers,
Speaker 1: kind of a slash fix it. Look, when we do
Speaker 1: international episodes and we travel abroad, we need somebody over
Speaker 1: there to make sure that the ship don't go south,
Speaker 1: and we need someone to make sure that we know
Speaker 1: what the hill we're doing while we're in the country.
Speaker 1: And they can also help us connect the dots because
Speaker 1: they have a deep and even deeper understanding of the
Speaker 1: issue because they're actually boots on the ground. Pierre Adrian Early,
Speaker 1: Welcome to us from Switzerland, Sir, how are you good?
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me, So let's just jump right
Speaker 1: into it. Costa, what was the genesis of this piece?
Speaker 1: Besides you really wanting to go out of the country
Speaker 1: for free on that's true. Well, you know, I would
Speaker 1: love to claim that this piece originated from the mind
Speaker 1: of Michael Costa, but as can happen at the Daily Show,
Speaker 1: I got to the office late, probably, and I saw
Speaker 1: an email that Stacy had pitched to the field department
Speaker 1: about how Switzerland owns more guns per capita than America
Speaker 1: and has so few, if any, mass shooting. So I
Speaker 1: read Stacy's email and was excited and hoped that I
Speaker 1: would be the correspondent that could do this piece and
Speaker 1: it turned out to be true. But Stacy is really
Speaker 1: the one that I think fired the first shot if
Speaker 1: you will. Yes, I see a lot of guns, nicely done.
Speaker 1: Where where did this come from, Stacy? Well, it was
Speaker 1: after the Parkland shooting and um, I mean I'm from
Speaker 1: Texas also, where there's a lot of guns. So I
Speaker 1: have my opinion about guns where And then I remembered, Um,
Speaker 1: I wanted to do a piece because it just felt
Speaker 1: like it was getting worse and worse. And I loved
Speaker 1: the John Oliver Old Daily showpiece in Australia. It was
Speaker 1: like a great example of you know, successful gun control legislation.
Speaker 1: But I was like, there's no way in hell America's
Speaker 1: going to get rid of all their guns. That's just
Speaker 1: not going to happen. So I started like googling countries
Speaker 1: that had a lot of guns, but you know, no
Speaker 1: mass shootings or very minimal you know, gun violence. You
Speaker 1: hear that listeners, she did some goddamn research. I googled, oh, okay, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's still research. And then at the time the top
Speaker 1: three um places that had gun well that had guns
Speaker 1: was I forgot what number one was, oh, it's America,
Speaker 1: and then number two is Yemen, and then three was Switzerland,
Speaker 1: and I was like, well, Yemen's in a civil war,
Speaker 1: and I did, I too wanted a free trip to
Speaker 1: another country if it got to prove. So that's how
Speaker 1: it happens. But really, like if you would have picked,
Speaker 1: if you would have picked countries that didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of gun violence, the easy answer would have been, yeah,
Speaker 1: but they don't have any guns. The beauty of this
Speaker 1: pitch and story is that Switzerland has a lot of
Speaker 1: guns and a lot of assault rifles. And that surprised
Speaker 1: me too because it's obviously a very depressing topic. But
Speaker 1: I was like, when you think of Switzerland, you think
Speaker 1: of like, you know, neutral, Sorry Pierre if I'm insulting
Speaker 1: you know, but you think of like, you know, chocolate
Speaker 1: and fun. You just you don't think of guns. And
Speaker 1: so I was like, maybe this is the best way
Speaker 1: to approach a dark topic by putting it in and
Speaker 1: a vehicle that has like that is known for like
Speaker 1: you know, publiss Welcome to Switzerland, a neutral country most
Speaker 1: known for its cobblestone streets perfect for skipping. It's clocks,
Speaker 1: sophisticated pocket knives and guns even from a place of conflict,
Speaker 1: Switzerland is like, it's it's almost like a euphemism for
Speaker 1: just I'm not in it. I'm not involved whatever you
Speaker 1: all arguing about over there, I'm over here. I'm Switzerland.
Speaker 1: Like that was always the perception Pierre. Before we get
Speaker 1: into you know, kind of your role and you know,
Speaker 1: in helping to produce this piece and your thoughts on it. First,
Speaker 1: what is the perception of America in Switzerland when it
Speaker 1: comes to violence, just in general, I think it's it's
Speaker 1: it's the perception is that it's kind of the jungle
Speaker 1: law when it comes to gun ownership and how people
Speaker 1: can actually go to the supermarket and buy a gun,
Speaker 1: and that seems a little bit shocking from Europe, not
Speaker 1: only from Switzerland, but from European perspective, because there is
Speaker 1: so many of these what so called common sense rules
Speaker 1: that you have to provide background check and so on
Speaker 1: and so forth. So I think that's that's the main
Speaker 1: perception and maybe also misunderstanding of the culture of guns
Speaker 1: in the US is how the hell can you go
Speaker 1: in a supermarket and buy a gun and then do
Speaker 1: whatever you want. You can also buy groceries at that
Speaker 1: same supermarket, Pierre, and I don't appreciate you generalize. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't see tomatoes getting regulated here. I mean it's crazy.
Speaker 1: I remember I told you I have a friend in
Speaker 1: Texas that has over thirty guns, like we counted them.
Speaker 1: He has over thirty, and I just think that's the
Speaker 1: most like that wouldn't happen in Switzerland. You know how
Speaker 1: easy it is to get a gun in the US.
Speaker 1: I just go to Walmart, given them money gun. I
Speaker 1: know my uncle Paul out of his truck, he's got
Speaker 1: a bunch of guns. My brother Todd is a gun.
Speaker 1: You want to use it, borrow for the weekend. That's nice.
Speaker 1: Not really. In Switzerland, you can get a gun from
Speaker 1: your grandparents or from your father, but you still have
Speaker 1: to do the paperwork. Even if I get a gun
Speaker 1: for my grandpa, I still got to tell the cops
Speaker 1: about him. Yeah, that's crazy because in most states in
Speaker 1: America you can buy a gun almost immediately without any
Speaker 1: background check, but not in Switzerland. You applied the permit
Speaker 1: from the police, You provide clearance of your criminal record
Speaker 1: that you don't have any convictions, wait for two weeks.
Speaker 1: What if it's a small crime. What if you got
Speaker 1: caught urinating in public, You got caught for sleeping with
Speaker 1: your cousin because you didn't know it was a cousin
Speaker 1: because it was at your family reunion and she looked
Speaker 1: like she worked to catering. What if it's like assaulting
Speaker 1: a police officer, but really you were just tickling them.
Speaker 1: She can't be responsible of following some other simple rules
Speaker 1: in society to behave Why should you have a gun?
Speaker 1: All right? So Cossa for the people who haven't seen
Speaker 1: the guns in Switzerland piece, just walk us through some
Speaker 1: of the beats of it, because I know that Switzerland
Speaker 1: has these wild gun laws and everybody has a gun,
Speaker 1: but there are no shootings. What were you all exactly
Speaker 1: unpacking in the piece? Yeah, you know, there's there's compulsory
Speaker 1: military involvement and when you turn eighteen in Switzerland you
Speaker 1: are assigned assault rifle. And just as an American listened
Speaker 1: to that and just and think about that. So wait,
Speaker 1: goss So everybody, just you're eighteen, here's your gun? Gun?
Speaker 1: I think that go Pierre? Is that right? Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 1: Every man at eighteen years old gets get sent rolled
Speaker 1: in the army. It's a militia army and basically, whether
Speaker 1: you're in the office or on the ground or in
Speaker 1: the air force, you you receive this assault rifle to
Speaker 1: six five fifty. We call it fast ninety and it's
Speaker 1: a pretty badass gun actually. And so to meet and
Speaker 1: go to a culture that has so many weapons of war,
Speaker 1: we're not talking about a little, tiny handgun. We're talking
Speaker 1: about assault rifles right, pretty much the same guns that
Speaker 1: are used in such the tragic events of in America.
Speaker 1: To go to a country that has that same passion
Speaker 1: but doesn't have the murder, doesn't have the tragedy, doesn't
Speaker 1: have the elementary school of deaths was something that I
Speaker 1: was genuinely very interested in learning and hope that we
Speaker 1: can all learn from. So I think what's interesting to
Speaker 1: say about the gun laws and culture in Switzerland is
Speaker 1: you basically you can carry your gun. And what's interesting
Speaker 1: also is that the army, once you're done with the army,
Speaker 1: you can keep your gun for the rest of your
Speaker 1: life as a souvenir actually, but you cannot carry the
Speaker 1: AMMO with you, So your AMMO has to stay at
Speaker 1: the base. And so that's just so for you when
Speaker 1: when if if shit hits the fan, you have your gun,
Speaker 1: you go to the base and then you get the AMMO.
Speaker 1: That's in theory, but in practice we all have those
Speaker 1: guns under the bed without the AMMO. And that is
Speaker 1: um you cannot buy AMMO easily in a way that
Speaker 1: you go just to the shop and say, hey, I
Speaker 1: want that that AMMO and you have to register, They
Speaker 1: will ask for your name. Look if if you're basically
Speaker 1: a low allowed to buy ammunition. Um. So I think
Speaker 1: that's also interesting when it comes to a gun is
Speaker 1: nothing without the AMMO, and it's all about how do
Speaker 1: you separate the two things in a way that that yeah,
Speaker 1: you have guns everywhere, but you don't have AMMO and
Speaker 1: guns everywhere. That's a big difference. Another interesting thing for
Speaker 1: me that I discovered in the piece is is the
Speaker 1: entire popular gun culture. Because when you're in the army,
Speaker 1: you have to shoot once a year for training. That's compulsory,
Speaker 1: and so you have all these little clubs in the
Speaker 1: regions where you go and shoot, and um those clubs
Speaker 1: have developed into introducing shooting but sports shooting to young people,
Speaker 1: to teenagers and so on. So you go there and
Speaker 1: you actually see those twelve year old teenager shooting. But
Speaker 1: there's no relationship to violence. It's all about precision. And
Speaker 1: the interesting thing is as soon as they can use
Speaker 1: a compressed air rifle, they'll do it because it's just
Speaker 1: it's just more precise. And so it just shows that
Speaker 1: it's it's all about the sports, the precision um rather
Speaker 1: than the violence and the relationship to violence. So that
Speaker 1: that I discovered during during during the segment in the
Speaker 1: prep and it was super interesting for me as well.
Speaker 1: I decided to embrace this culture and hang with the
Speaker 1: only group that would let me in. Wow. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: guys got er fifteens here? Huh, meet the Shooting Society
Speaker 1: of Press. It was time to show these Swiss fondues
Speaker 1: how Americans shoot guns. I missed you missed yet? Can
Speaker 1: you ever take your gun to school? No? No, we don't.
Speaker 1: You're not American? No? Okay, well I can say that,
Speaker 1: but he can't Swiss kids. Uh, even if it is true,
Speaker 1: because the fact is, for Swiss kids life with guns
Speaker 1: is very different. It's not like like in the US
Speaker 1: where you have those last shootings. When he goes to school,
Speaker 1: he just has to worry about school. Yeah, catching the
Speaker 1: bath sometime. What's the distance that they shoot as a
Speaker 1: three hundred meters? Yeah, okay, so Roy, we're in the
Speaker 1: Swiss country starts bro keep talking. I know, it's like
Speaker 1: it's like three football fields so to speak. Away it's
Speaker 1: long thousands thousand feet. So we are in the Swiss countryside.
Speaker 1: I'm with these like twelve thirteen year old boys and
Speaker 1: girls and they are shooting assault rifles three hundred meters
Speaker 1: away at targets. Now there's cows just chilling close to
Speaker 1: the targets. Okay, real big Swiss cows with bells on.
Speaker 1: So I say, as a dumb thirty nine year old American,
Speaker 1: I go, hey, kids, you ever like take a couple
Speaker 1: of shots at the cows? And they looked at me
Speaker 1: like I was insane. They looked at me like, one
Speaker 1: they never even thought of that. Two, that wouldn't be right. Three.
Speaker 1: You know, It's just like my dumb American culture was like, yo,
Speaker 1: what can you wipe out with this gun? And these
Speaker 1: kids were like, I'm trying to hit the target. I'm
Speaker 1: not even thinking about you know why you don't get
Speaker 1: a gun cut That's why exactly. But that is the
Speaker 1: epitome of this American mentality of fun or guns. And
Speaker 1: you know, there was a mass shooting in Switzerland in
Speaker 1: two thousand and one and they immediately made a new regulation.
Speaker 1: And I think that was the separate AMMO one is
Speaker 1: that it here. Okay, So, and the reason I bring
Speaker 1: that up is regulations work, they are successful, and I
Speaker 1: just wish we no one's trying to take away Americans guns.
Speaker 1: I wish we I put myself in this would do
Speaker 1: a much better job at regulating them. It's like the
Speaker 1: old Chris Rock joke. The least America could do it
Speaker 1: started charging like five hundred dollars for a bullet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so if you shoot somebody, it's really you gotta really
Speaker 1: mean it. Yes, it's expensive. Yeah. You know, we sat
Speaker 1: down in the second part, we sat down at a
Speaker 1: shooting festival with the former Prime Minister of Switzerland and
Speaker 1: he said something that was so simple but so powerful,
Speaker 1: and it was that here in Switzerland we respect guns
Speaker 1: and you can we can talk in and out hours
Speaker 1: and hours about these pieces. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: that is what it comes down to. You give an
Speaker 1: eighteen year old mail nassault rifle and they have the
Speaker 1: respect to not use it. Against their fellow man, a
Speaker 1: woman Costa. As you're unpacking this, you know, because this
Speaker 1: is a two part piece, which isn't the norm on
Speaker 1: the Daily Show, so it's a lot to bite off.
Speaker 1: But this is also one of your first pieces. Dude.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna be honest. When I first started here,
Speaker 1: I feel pressure every day. It was, oh my god,
Speaker 1: they're gonna fire me. Oh he looked at me funny.
Speaker 1: The first week I was at the Daily Show, two
Speaker 1: of the dogs barked at me. We have dogs in
Speaker 1: the office, and I was like, they're gonna fire me.
Speaker 1: The fucking dog take me. I think I'm not doing
Speaker 1: a good job. So was there a lot of pressure?
Speaker 1: Did you feel a lot of pressure rather well? And
Speaker 1: you know, Roy as a stand up comic, like you're
Speaker 1: only as good as your last job, so there is
Speaker 1: always this feeling of I better deliver. This was an
Speaker 1: earlier piece of mind. It was international. I probably being knew,
Speaker 1: didn't realize kind of how big that was. The flight
Speaker 1: is more expensive at the hotel. This is also Switzerland,
Speaker 1: where a chicken sandwich is like fifty three dollars, So
Speaker 1: you know, I feel more pressure doing pieces that I
Speaker 1: am not so interested in This was truly fascinating to me,
Speaker 1: and so I was genuinely interested. And I do think
Speaker 1: that that comes off in the piece as someone who
Speaker 1: I believe is pretty American and for the most part,
Speaker 1: understands our passion for guns. I'm not saying I agree
Speaker 1: with how we executed, but I understand maybe how we
Speaker 1: got here. Well, after the break, I want to talk
Speaker 1: with you a little bit more, Pierre, about the people
Speaker 1: of Switzerland, what it was like being on the ground
Speaker 1: helping to produce this piece, and I want to hear
Speaker 1: more about this fifty five dollar chicken sandwich, because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a connoisseur of chicken. That's that's a separate episode
Speaker 1: of the podcast. We'll be right back, Pierre. You do
Speaker 1: a lot of production work, and you are a person
Speaker 1: that is on the ground in Switzerland, you know, connecting
Speaker 1: the dots on a lot of different journalistic issues. What
Speaker 1: was it like working in an international capacity. The thing
Speaker 1: that I'm always curious about is how our brand of
Speaker 1: humor will translate in another country. So let's just start
Speaker 1: with that. What did you think of Costa, What did
Speaker 1: you think of Stacy, What did you think of the piece?
Speaker 1: First of all, I think we had we had a
Speaker 1: lot of prep work with Stacy and we worked very
Speaker 1: well together and prepping this this segment, and it was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. Actually, we were a really good
Speaker 1: group and traveling in a little van across the country
Speaker 1: and we have so much fun that it was really
Speaker 1: hard to handle. But overall, I think that we're working
Speaker 1: working with an American production is it's fairly easy in
Speaker 1: a way that we share the same humor. I think
Speaker 1: sort of the same sense of humor. Would probably be
Speaker 1: more difficult with a Japanese or Chinese production, which doesn't
Speaker 1: have the same humoristic standards at all. And what was
Speaker 1: really interesting for me is I'm not a gun specialist
Speaker 1: at all, so I had to learn a lot and
Speaker 1: it was the opportunity for me really to dig into
Speaker 1: that culture of guns in Switzerland, and I was fascinating
Speaker 1: to really understand how opposite is it from from the
Speaker 1: US gun culture. And we can say a little bit
Speaker 1: more about that later. Can I step into brag about
Speaker 1: Pierre for a second too, because I didn't know where
Speaker 1: to begin, and I would just be like, you know, Pierre,
Speaker 1: I read this this, this is this true? Can like
Speaker 1: that kid start training at twelve, that gun shooting schools
Speaker 1: after school And then the next day like we became
Speaker 1: like BFFs. We were like skyping all the time. The
Speaker 1: next day he actually went to a place scouted it,
Speaker 1: met the students, met and like gave me pictures and
Speaker 1: videos and was like you want their releases? They already
Speaker 1: said yes, And I was just like, can be hot?
Speaker 1: Can you move to America? Can? He was just so
Speaker 1: great and on top of everything. And then I was like,
Speaker 1: who are people who think American gun culture is great?
Speaker 1: And he would have a list ready, So I just
Speaker 1: wanted to brag about how great he was towards because
Speaker 1: and that's the thing that's very that I think goes
Speaker 1: understated about the Daily Show in our productions, and how
Speaker 1: will you show up somewhere to try to film people
Speaker 1: to have a legitimate conversation. Yes, there's going to be humor,
Speaker 1: but we're not out to make you look like an idiot.
Speaker 1: That's a very delicate conversation because the only the only
Speaker 1: scary thing to point at someone than a gun as
Speaker 1: a camera. So you're coming in with all of this
Speaker 1: equipment like, hey, they're cool, that so pasta I was
Speaker 1: gonna talk to you about this a little later, but
Speaker 1: since we're on it, what was it like? Just what
Speaker 1: you're a father, I assume your child is not a
Speaker 1: gun owner at what two? Now? Yeah, my child is
Speaker 1: not a gun owner. I didn't have a kid then,
Speaker 1: you know. Now, if someone said you're going to Switzerland
Speaker 1: for a week, I go. Can I go for a month?
Speaker 1: You know? I haven't slept, you know, but look, there
Speaker 1: was a there's a very wonderful, comedic, poignant half a
Speaker 1: second shot in this piece of a man or woman.
Speaker 1: I forget pushing a baby in a baby stroller and
Speaker 1: their assault rifle is underneath the baby in that little
Speaker 1: part of the stroller where the diaper back, when the
Speaker 1: diaper bag goes. When I in the second part, When
Speaker 1: I walked into the shooting festival and I saw people
Speaker 1: holding a beer in a left hand and an assault
Speaker 1: rifle over there shoulder, I stopped and I said, what
Speaker 1: am I doing here? Do I want to walk into this?
Speaker 1: The feeling of assault, rifle and violence are tied together,
Speaker 1: and I didn't feel super warm. Now it takes about
Speaker 1: two minutes for the Swiss to be nice to you
Speaker 1: and welcome you and say come on in here, and
Speaker 1: they called me a pussy because I was wearing a
Speaker 1: bulletproof vest. And I liked him immediately, but yeah, it
Speaker 1: was it was jarring to learn more about their gun culture.
Speaker 1: I attended Ian chosen the world's largest annual shooting festival
Speaker 1: right here, and Holly, that's a lot of guns. Even
Speaker 1: that baby has a gun. There's not enough training in
Speaker 1: the world to prepare me for this. So I brought
Speaker 1: my two secret weapons, my translator Pierre and my supermanly
Speaker 1: rock hard American vest. Why are you wearing a pussy West?
Speaker 1: What are you said here? Because he Oh that's that's funny,
Speaker 1: pussy best, Why aren't you wearing a pussy best? People
Speaker 1: are walking around with guns because it's safe. Oh god,
Speaker 1: what is that? What is that they shouldn't? Yeah. Now,
Speaker 1: I will also say this real quick about um preproduction.
Speaker 1: Stacy was telling me back in the office, there's this
Speaker 1: guy Pierre. He's really he's setting us up. He's really smart.
Speaker 1: So we knew it was going to be a good piece.
Speaker 1: There's also been a piece. There was a fiser factory
Speaker 1: in Ireland and the locals were claiming that they would
Speaker 1: get extra strong erections because viagra was seeping into their
Speaker 1: drinking water. So we hired a fixer in Ireland to
Speaker 1: go check it out, and it was all bullshit. It
Speaker 1: wasn't a real story. So then we don't fly to Ireland,
Speaker 1: we don't spend the time and the money and the
Speaker 1: energy shooting that piece. But he really wanted to do
Speaker 1: that piece. I thought that piece was hilarious. But thankfully
Speaker 1: the person we hired in Ireland was like, this is
Speaker 1: all just a joke. But when you hire Pierre and
Speaker 1: you see, oh there is something here, it's that knowledge.
Speaker 1: It's that local knowledge that makes you go, okay, we
Speaker 1: can do a piece. And Pierre was like a fluffer
Speaker 1: because people were hesitant to have us, you know, they're like,
Speaker 1: who are these Americans? And they all have this view
Speaker 1: of us, and Pierre was also good with it. He
Speaker 1: was right when we had the same since ever, he
Speaker 1: knew American gun culture was like shitty, and he knew
Speaker 1: that theirs was better. He knew he was better than us.
Speaker 1: But he also made it like acceptable for people to
Speaker 1: talk to us, because there's always that barrier, that wall,
Speaker 1: and he helped make us look you know, legit and acceptable.
Speaker 1: We would never have spoken to the Prime Minister of
Speaker 1: Switzerland if it weren't for Pierre, also because we wouldn't
Speaker 1: have known he was sitting there. How did that happen, Pierre?
Speaker 1: Because I know in America our politicians fade into the
Speaker 1: moment they're out of office. They're like, fuck you, I'm
Speaker 1: not sitting here answering more questions about the world. I
Speaker 1: quit my job. So how did you get the prime
Speaker 1: minister on board? So we were at this this um
Speaker 1: this kind of shooting. Party would say, it's called this
Speaker 1: countryside shooting. I've heard of a gun range. I've heard
Speaker 1: of a gun club, which is more exclusive. It's sort
Speaker 1: of an outdoor skey shooting. Do you believe you will
Speaker 1: exactly guns and beers? This was an American wet dream,
Speaker 1: but something was different in this country. Career respect duns,
Speaker 1: and if you respect it, it's not the problem. Why
Speaker 1: should I listen to this drunk Swiss roll guy was
Speaker 1: president for five years. You're telling me I'm having beer
Speaker 1: with the former president of Switzerland. Yes, cheer. Nowhere else
Speaker 1: could a former president be surrounded by thousands of firearms
Speaker 1: with no security. How can we get America to feel
Speaker 1: this safe. That's your problem, that's my problem. Well, that's
Speaker 1: as neutral as it gets. It's kind of this yearly
Speaker 1: event where every region in Switzerland organizes it's its own
Speaker 1: kind of shooting um event outdoors in the fields, and uh,
Speaker 1: it's sort of important forever region. And that Prime minister
Speaker 1: character was was there because it's it's his hometown or
Speaker 1: is her region basically, so he was there and probably
Speaker 1: has still some some activity in in you know, um
Speaker 1: associations and stuff, and it's important for him to be there,
Speaker 1: I guess, with a group of people and show up.
Speaker 1: So he was sitting there, and I was also a
Speaker 1: little bit impressed that we just came across him. Um,
Speaker 1: no bodyguard, nothing, he was just sitting there and actually
Speaker 1: having a couple of beers with the Staunds. But do
Speaker 1: you remember Pierre I go, he goes, You go, oh
Speaker 1: my god, there's the president of socially and I go,
Speaker 1: what now, And You're like, no, I said something like
Speaker 1: president of what I was thinking he was president of
Speaker 1: a club, president of something else. He guess, no, president
Speaker 1: of our country And I go what former former president?
Speaker 1: Former president? Yeah, Like but I was just like that's
Speaker 1: absurd because even former presidents of our country. I mean, granted,
Speaker 1: you know, America is a lot bigger than Switzerland, but
Speaker 1: it was just that's that's the thing. Also, you mentioned, Stacy,
Speaker 1: the the whole challenge of this piece, at least for
Speaker 1: me on as a producer, was to um make sure
Speaker 1: that we had access to all the clubs and the people,
Speaker 1: and because it's it still is a sensitive topic. I mean,
Speaker 1: gun culture everywhere, even in Switzerland is a very sensitive topic.
Speaker 1: And when you go in a shooting range with cameras
Speaker 1: and Americans, the first thing they'll think is, oh, they're
Speaker 1: going to show basically show us shooting, and we don't
Speaker 1: control what they're going to say about us and so on.
Speaker 1: So that that was a little bit of a challenge
Speaker 1: to take a lot of time in prep to to
Speaker 1: to introduce the show to those people and make them
Speaker 1: sure that we're gonna be friendly and not making fun
Speaker 1: of them, but actually doing something good and worked out
Speaker 1: a little bit the same when when we meet like
Speaker 1: the former president of Switzerland, we have just to introduce
Speaker 1: ourself in a certain way, so we make sure that
Speaker 1: that it works out. And that's the magic of producing.
Speaker 1: I guess it's the magic of Pierre. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: what you're saying, Pierre, is it essentially setting up these
Speaker 1: segments in a country as an unknown foreign outlet. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like buying cocaine from someone you never met before,
Speaker 1: and you've got to earn the trust. Yeah, although you
Speaker 1: know we'll never done that, But I guess so. I
Speaker 1: mean neither, of course, of course, I mean neither. After
Speaker 1: the break, Pierre, I want to ask you and a
Speaker 1: Costa as well, what do you think Americans stand to
Speaker 1: learn from the gun culture in Switzerland. It's beyond the scenes.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back, Pierre. Now, first of all, I
Speaker 1: did some googling during the break, and apparently Switzerland has
Speaker 1: a president, not a prime minister. My apologies if I've
Speaker 1: disrespected the honor of your country by calling that dude
Speaker 1: a prime minister. Apologies accepted. What do you think Americans
Speaker 1: could learn from the Swiss on just gun safety and
Speaker 1: how do y'all not murder and help us not murder?
Speaker 1: I think, with costas said before, it's all about respect
Speaker 1: the gun. And why do this Swiss respect the guns?
Speaker 1: I think is ingrained in the culture, because when you
Speaker 1: receive a gun from the army, so basically from the
Speaker 1: States when you're eighteen years old, this is quite impressive.
Speaker 1: It's probably the first time someone trusts you in your
Speaker 1: life with something so important, and in return you you
Speaker 1: owe that respect, I guess. And there is in the
Speaker 1: entire organization around I mean, even the idea alone that
Speaker 1: the military is who provides you the weapon is interesting
Speaker 1: and it sends a very clear message that this is
Speaker 1: a weapon of war. This isn't a hunting device, this
Speaker 1: isn't a recreational toy. I mean, I know this would
Speaker 1: be crazy in America, but if you want an assault
Speaker 1: rifle in America, that's fine. The United States military will
Speaker 1: present it to you. That might change things a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I think that's really interesting costa, because the big
Speaker 1: difference between the two cultures is in Switzerland, the States
Speaker 1: gives you that gun to protect the state, and I
Speaker 1: think in the US the individual buys that gun to
Speaker 1: protect himself against the States. And that's the complete opposite. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And look, we're different countries, right, with different histories, and
Speaker 1: this country, United States is founded on rebelling against the
Speaker 1: English and having in defending itself against the state, so
Speaker 1: it is different. And that's one thing that would be
Speaker 1: dumb if I didn't mention these are entirely different countries
Speaker 1: of entirely different histories. And I'm not saying America has
Speaker 1: to copy Switzerland, but there's things we can learn from them.
Speaker 1: That's fair. That's very fair. Now, was there anything I
Speaker 1: forgot to ask you all this earlier? Was there anything
Speaker 1: that didn't make it into the piece that you wish had?
Speaker 1: Because I know when you go shoot overseas, and I've
Speaker 1: been on shoots with Stacy, there's always so much to
Speaker 1: see and get that. Yeah, you guys are good sports.
Speaker 1: We did have an interview, and actually this is a
Speaker 1: good time to chat with Pierre's mediator because he didn't
Speaker 1: speak any English. His name was Jean Luke, and from
Speaker 1: my understanding, he loved American gun culture and wanted this
Speaker 1: gun culture to be more like America, more gun freedom.
Speaker 1: But we ended up cutting that. I don't remember why.
Speaker 1: I think it's because we already know that point of view,
Speaker 1: because he kind of had an American point of view.
Speaker 1: But Pierre can clarify that, because again we didn't understand
Speaker 1: one thing. You said. Well, Jean, he's a he's a
Speaker 1: right like right wing point like far right wing politician
Speaker 1: and lobbist for for an more open gun culture than
Speaker 1: it is even um and that what's interesting is we
Speaker 1: got to interview his opponent, so Liza Matzona, who's actually
Speaker 1: in in in the in the segment, and um, and
Speaker 1: I think the arguments we all know them, right, Uh,
Speaker 1: they're pretty much the same, uh with with with this
Speaker 1: that you have in the US. It's self defense, it's freedom,
Speaker 1: it's this and that. Um. But overall, I think even
Speaker 1: the far right wing politician uh wants to have proper
Speaker 1: gun laws. It's not like, uh, completely out in the wild.
Speaker 1: So Roy, you know, I don't know if you can
Speaker 1: relate to this, but I got steamrolled in that interview.
Speaker 1: I mean I came in wanting to hear his point
Speaker 1: of view so I could have something to respond to.
Speaker 1: But like any well seasoned, successful politician, this motherfucker did
Speaker 1: not stop talking. Okay, and I'm trying to get in there.
Speaker 1: But we're also waiting on Pierre, who is not a
Speaker 1: un translator. Okay, he just happens to speak French, so
Speaker 1: he's trying to translate this guy who won't stop talking.
Speaker 1: He's then to explain, you know, Yeah, it was it
Speaker 1: was very hard. I think if I would love to
Speaker 1: go back into that interview again because I would literally
Speaker 1: put my hand over his mouth and say stop talking
Speaker 1: for a second and let me so So as a correspondent,
Speaker 1: I learned from that interview and I think that more
Speaker 1: experience on the job would have been helpful. But that
Speaker 1: didn't make it also because he didn't shut the fuck up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was actually super, super calculated, and he baby gave us.
Speaker 1: He made us wait for a long time like he
Speaker 1: was prince or something, and then he made us. He
Speaker 1: gave us maybe like fifteen minutes, and his answers were
Speaker 1: so long, so by the time it came for Pierre
Speaker 1: to translate, it was like he knew he was eating
Speaker 1: up more time. But that was like, whatever, screw that
Speaker 1: guy not being in it. But I did want to
Speaker 1: give Costa a shout out for being a good sport
Speaker 1: because there were stunt things that were cut out that
Speaker 1: he really put his body through, because we made Costa
Speaker 1: do a lot of stuff to a show off Switzerland
Speaker 1: stereotypes in the beginning, before we introduced the idea that
Speaker 1: they had a lot of guns, and so there was
Speaker 1: one part where it's like you know, Switzerland known for
Speaker 1: cobblestone streets, chocolate fondue, whatever, And then like there are
Speaker 1: many rivers and there's a river, what's it called Pierre,
Speaker 1: the Burne River La. It's in the city of burn Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I wasn't too far off. But it's basically like a
Speaker 1: natural you know six flags. How they have the Lazy
Speaker 1: River that like that has a natural flow that you
Speaker 1: can just float in it. It's like a one that
Speaker 1: goes around the city. No urine, but it has like
Speaker 1: a really And so the joke was for Costa to
Speaker 1: flow through the frame and be like it's many rivers
Speaker 1: as he was centered, and then like float away. But
Speaker 1: the current ended up being super strong, so he would
Speaker 1: always be a little bit off camera when he like
Speaker 1: shouted or whatever. So he jumped in there like so
Speaker 1: many times, and it kept getting messed up and he's
Speaker 1: like ruh, and I was like, I'm sorry, you gotta
Speaker 1: do it again, And people's spectators started gathering and like
Speaker 1: really rooting for Costa, and then he would just start
Speaker 1: like improvised to be like what the fuck helped me? Mom?
Speaker 1: Somebody called my mom? And he just kept missing the mark.
Speaker 1: I mean it was a really really hard shot to do,
Speaker 1: and then at the end he finally nailed it and
Speaker 1: he had a crowd and they all cheered him on.
Speaker 1: Never made never made the piece, and afterwards we all
Speaker 1: jumped in in solidarity. And it was hard because you
Speaker 1: have to swim back against the current to redo the shot.
Speaker 1: And I think we also had goach chasing you. We
Speaker 1: had to be like running away from It was a
Speaker 1: cool moment at the end of a long day where
Speaker 1: the whole crew stripped down and we all jumped in
Speaker 1: the river burn together. It was fun, It was a
Speaker 1: cool It was a cool thing that you don't get
Speaker 1: to do it too often. So, Pierre, I'll end with
Speaker 1: this question to you, since you are our foreign correspondent,
Speaker 1: which is more likely to happen Americans influencing Swiss gun
Speaker 1: culture or vice versa. Sadly, probably the first, because it's
Speaker 1: it's always easier to get a little bit yeah, more
Speaker 1: populists than the other way around, especially when it comes
Speaker 1: to that those very controversial things. But I think there
Speaker 1: is only a certain amount of freedom you will. I mean,
Speaker 1: our political system or laws are made in a way
Speaker 1: that you can't just have a situation like like like
Speaker 1: in the US, and I think sadly the other way around,
Speaker 1: you probably won't be able to have the exact same
Speaker 1: thing we have in Switzerland because you're the culture. The
Speaker 1: root cause is so different, and so what we what
Speaker 1: we can't imagine is that in the US we just
Speaker 1: get inspired by a few best practices so as to
Speaker 1: put put put yourself back in the right track when
Speaker 1: it comes to having less mass shootings, having less people
Speaker 1: dying in the street for nothing, because it's just unacceptable.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, thank you all for kicking back and
Speaker 1: going beyond the scenes. But we Stacey, I love you, Pierre.
Speaker 1: When I get over to Switzerland too, have one of
Speaker 1: those fifty dollars chicken sandwiches that are now thinking about
Speaker 1: trying to see what that's your only takeaway from this
Speaker 1: all podcast isn't the expensive sandwiches somewhere overseas is actually
Speaker 1: not true? Shut up here. Listen to The Daily Show
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