Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: Hey, there's NOI Chang. The Daily Show is off this week,
Speaker 2: but don't worry. We put together some of our favorite
Speaker 2: moments from the show in case you miss them. We'll
Speaker 2: be back with brand new shows on September tenth. Until then,
Speaker 2: enjoyed today's episode.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back to Russia.
Speaker 3: My guest tonight was an actor, writer, producer who hosts
Speaker 3: a podcast about history's greatest screw ups called Snaffu.
Speaker 1: Please welcome back, Ed Helms. All right, all right, I.
Speaker 4: Have to say, John Stewart, you looking crazy.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for that. I'll think it's a compliment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I watched John Stewart my whole life, and
Speaker 3: now I'm sitting in the chair that he sits on
Speaker 3: occasionally on Mondays. Yeah, let's talk about your podcast and
Speaker 3: then we'll get into the Daily Show cause I got
Speaker 3: to ask you.
Speaker 1: About working here at the Daily Show.
Speaker 3: But your podcast second season is called snaff Fou. Yes,
Speaker 3: and it's about the break in of the FBI offices. Yes,
Speaker 3: and the Washington reporter who reported on it. Yes, what
Speaker 3: the are you doing? I thought I thought you worked
Speaker 3: in comedy.
Speaker 4: I just say yes, Yes, that's all I do in interviews. Yes, so, okay,
Speaker 4: it is a podcast about it's called Snafoo.
Speaker 1: It's about history's greatest screw ups. Yeah. Season one we
Speaker 1: talked about.
Speaker 4: This incredible story about a NATO military exercise that almost
Speaker 4: in nineteen eighty three that almost turned into a nuclear holocaust, a.
Speaker 1: Big deal.
Speaker 4: And it's really kind of actually darkly funny. Season two
Speaker 4: that's out now, we talk about these incredible actctivists in
Speaker 4: nineteen seventy one who felt like the FBI was getting
Speaker 4: a little out of hand and starting to harass people
Speaker 4: and surveyal people. And they were right, but they didn't
Speaker 4: have any way to prove it. So they broke into
Speaker 4: an office, an FBI office. They just broke into the FBI,
Speaker 4: and it's as hard as it sounds, and they stole
Speaker 4: a bunch of documents and then they started to leak
Speaker 4: them to a reporter at the Washington Post named Betty Metzger,
Speaker 4: who was very courageous and published them.
Speaker 1: And then years later.
Speaker 4: By the way, this all led to lots of fallout
Speaker 4: the Church Committee hearings, which then led to congressional oversight
Speaker 4: of the FBI and the CIA in the NSA and
Speaker 4: all these things. So it's a very very big deal
Speaker 4: what these people did. It's largely forgotten, sadly. But Betty
Speaker 4: Metzger then wrote a book in twenty fourteen and that's
Speaker 4: what that is the Burglary, and it's an incredible story.
Speaker 3: Forty percent of the case files that the Crew stole
Speaker 3: dealt with surveillance of legal political activity.
Speaker 1: Correct.
Speaker 3: One percent covered organized crime. Right, It's like, what I
Speaker 3: don't and by the way, I don't. I don't really know,
Speaker 3: but I feel like that could also pertain to today's date.
Speaker 4: Well, it's just it's like that was when Jager can't read.
Speaker 3: You another one, even though it's your podcast.
Speaker 1: Yes, my boy.
Speaker 3: The document revealed that every black student at Swarthmore College
Speaker 3: was under FBI surveillance.
Speaker 1: I mean, what the is going on? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Basically, if if jaigar Hoover thought that you were like
Speaker 4: some hooligan, which was anyone who opposed the Vietnam War,
Speaker 4: anyone involved in the Civil rights movement, and anyone with long.
Speaker 1: Hair, Yeah, that one I get sure.
Speaker 4: Of course, if Jayed gar Hoover thought you were like
Speaker 4: a problem for society, he was going to surveil and
Speaker 4: harass you, and the entire FBI apparatus was going to
Speaker 4: do that too, and thankfully these burglars proved that was happening,
Speaker 4: and it was fixed for a little while, and then
Speaker 4: there was the Patriot Act and all kinds of the
Speaker 4: Cold War and lots of other complicating factors. But it
Speaker 4: is still it's a it's an important question to always
Speaker 4: be asking, like, are we protecting our civil civil liberties enough?
Speaker 4: Does law enforcement have enough power?
Speaker 1: Probably? What is the where's the line? But ed? But ed,
Speaker 1: I don't do anything wrong. I don't care if they
Speaker 1: tap into my computer. Same here ahead, Ed, what's the
Speaker 1: big d you put.
Speaker 3: A piece of scotch tape over my webcam when I'm masturbated?
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. What does it matter you masturbate? Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, let's talk about this. I'm just I'm just doing.
Speaker 1: I'm just doing.
Speaker 3: First of all, I want to go on the record
Speaker 3: and say I do not masturbate, and that was but.
Speaker 1: That is a kickback response.
Speaker 3: I can envision someone saying, I don't have anything to
Speaker 3: hide with the big deal about So what is the
Speaker 3: big deal about?
Speaker 1: Surveill?
Speaker 4: And you're right, I think a lot of people ask
Speaker 4: that with it, just when it comes up, when law
Speaker 4: enforcement power comes up, like, yeah, I'm not doing anything wrong,
Speaker 4: But what the problem with surveillance? When it's done on
Speaker 4: such a huge scale and you're surveilling people who are
Speaker 4: not doing anything wrong, it then becomes leverage over you
Speaker 4: that you have no control over it. And so if
Speaker 4: for any reason, the FBI or some institution wants to
Speaker 4: implicate you, for any reason, they suddenly have the leverage
Speaker 4: to do so, whether or not you've done something wrong.
Speaker 3: And that's very scary and it's not okay talk about
Speaker 3: because this was fascinating to me. They burglarized the FBI
Speaker 3: office and they sent these copies of files out to
Speaker 3: a lot of different people, but only one of them,
Speaker 3: this woman was courageous enough to report.
Speaker 1: I mean, what was that like for her? That's a
Speaker 1: great question.
Speaker 4: So Betty Medsker was a very young reporter at the
Speaker 4: Washington Post. She receives this envelope, It's full of FBI files.
Speaker 1: She's like, what the hell with this?
Speaker 4: Meanwhile, the burglars also sent copies of the files, as
Speaker 4: you mentioned, to some senators and some other reporters. The
Speaker 4: senators immediately turned them over to the FBI. The other
Speaker 4: reporters chickened out, but Betty Medsker and the sort of
Speaker 4: brass at the Washington Post which later, of course, you know,
Speaker 4: Woodward Burnstein, Watergate and and the Pentagon papers that all
Speaker 4: came after this. But but they they were courageous enough
Speaker 4: to put this out here. And I'm really and really
Speaker 4: Betty Medsker is a force of nature. She's in the
Speaker 4: podcast she she worked with us to tell.
Speaker 1: This stories great. In the podcast, she tells the story of.
Speaker 3: After this this got published, the article, not the book.
Speaker 3: She picked up the phone to call her friend, and
Speaker 3: the FBI is just on the line, say what are
Speaker 3: you doing?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's okay. This is this is exactly what
Speaker 4: the burglars were trying.
Speaker 1: This is why I put scotch tape on my computer?
Speaker 1: Is this why you master?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: They so they yeah, So she put this article gets
Speaker 4: published in the New York Times.
Speaker 1: She picks up her phone like the next day, and
Speaker 1: so there's a voice on her phone that says, who
Speaker 1: are you trying to call?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So messed up? What?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's great, it's a great. Listen, it's fun. You're
Speaker 3: somehow funny in it even though it's a serious topic.
Speaker 3: Thank you, so good job. Speaking of funny, the office,
Speaker 3: the hangover, the daily show, what is that?
Speaker 1: What is what is that evoke? What is that evoke?
Speaker 1: Those images?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, do you remember the State the Los
Speaker 3: Angeles green screen?
Speaker 4: Well, sorry, I mean on location. I was in a
Speaker 4: cocaine fever dream the whole time. I don't know I
Speaker 4: have It's so fun to come back here. I just
Speaker 4: love I have such fond memories. It's been like eighteen
Speaker 4: years since I worked here, which is incredible. But I
Speaker 4: have to say I've watched the show ever since I left.
Speaker 4: I still love it. And you guys, this crop of correspondence,
Speaker 4: you guys are crushing it.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
Speaker 3: It is if you, if you had to pick one. Oftentimes,
Speaker 3: when I'm out in the field doing something that is hard,
Speaker 3: doing a piece on the desk, being here, I always
Speaker 3: wondering is this helping me somehow? Is this gonna help
Speaker 3: me later? And should I be focused in the present moment? Yes, sure,
Speaker 3: But you come to me from the future, yes, right,
Speaker 3: And you've gone on to do all these great comedy
Speaker 3: things and now this season two of the podcast. But
Speaker 3: what has helped you from the Daily Show as you moved.
Speaker 1: On nothing nothing.
Speaker 4: I will say I have a good answer to that
Speaker 4: quod answer, and it is the The Daily Show is
Speaker 4: was my first like real comedy job, and it taught
Speaker 4: me really through through John's example, like the discipline and
Speaker 4: the focus and the hard work that it takes and
Speaker 4: and some of the like the real like sweat that
Speaker 4: it takes to create good comedy or just good product,
Speaker 4: like it's hard work and that I've carried that with
Speaker 4: me for for years since since then, and uh, this.
Speaker 1: Is where I started. Here we are. That's great, that's awesome.
Speaker 3: Are there any are there any field pieces you did
Speaker 3: that now would be considered an HR nightmare?
Speaker 1: Is there anything that anything that comes to mind? Yes,
Speaker 1: an HR nightmare?
Speaker 4: I think, yeah, well we actually have HR different, we
Speaker 4: actually have HR now, Okay, well there you go.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there were no HR nightmares twenty years ago because
Speaker 4: of you.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the reason that they have. But yeah, what comes
Speaker 3: to mind? Anything that's like, you know, conventions?
Speaker 4: Should I should I create a fresh HR nightmare? But no,
Speaker 4: I have Gosh, I have so many great memories. I
Speaker 4: really loved going to the conventions, right, the are you
Speaker 4: guys headed to this? We are We're going to cargo
Speaker 4: so exciting, and I had, like, we had real press credentials.
Speaker 1: I remember, this is this is this is really funny.
Speaker 4: We got to the the Republican Convention, which was at
Speaker 4: Madison Square Garden just down the street, and we get
Speaker 4: to the security checkpoint and Rob Quadrey forgot his driver's
Speaker 4: license and everyone had to have a picture.
Speaker 2: I D.
Speaker 4: So we're like, oh god, and then he looks up
Speaker 4: and Rob goes, does that count as a picture?
Speaker 2: I D?
Speaker 4: And Comedy Central had bought a giant billboard with all
Speaker 4: over our faces and our names right next to Madison
Speaker 4: Square Garden. It was the Indecision two thousand and two.
Speaker 1: Or four or whatever.
Speaker 4: And the security guard was like, yeah, yeah, I guess
Speaker 4: that's it at different times.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 3: That's amazing that Comedy Central bought a billboard.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for sitting down with it. This is
Speaker 1: You're one of my favorites. That's right, Eye welcome bat
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