WEBVTT - And, This is Jordan Klepper 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:13.560 This is Gavin Newsom and this is the Daily Shows. 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:21.599 Jordan Klepper. Jordan, welcome, Thank you for being on the podcast. 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:23.120 Thanks for having me. 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:25.480 Jesus. So what I mean we were you know, we 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:28.800 were just commenting full disclosure right before you came on 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:31.920 the air. Just a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety, 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.080 a lot of you know, people feeling the more pessimistic. 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:38.800 We talk about doom scrolling, but just this notion like 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:43.360 feeling like things are way out of control, particularly this week. 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:45.360 So many contemporary things to talk about, and then I 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:47.680 want to talk about your career and all the extraordinary 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:50.920 things you're doing, but we'd be remiss if not talking 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:53.159 about this week in the United States, what's going on 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:58.040 in Texas and redistricting, what's happening in states like California, Illinois, 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:00.400 New York as it relates to that is subject, but 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.680 particularly on the issue that really struck a chord with 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.319 a lot of folks, and that's on stats, on labor, stats, 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:10.679 on this notion that we can fire the messenger, the 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.840 issue of truth and trust and feeling like America, as 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:19.759 Tom Freeman wrote today, is being deconstructed. I mean, where 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.000 are you as someone that you know is deeply ameshed 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:29.360 in the body politic and crosses over into points of 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:33.360 view that are not often shared, and you have a 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:35.120 deeper understanding of the world we're living in. Where are 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.679 you in terms of this you know moment we're living in. 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:39.720 Are you pessimistic or more optimist? 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.320 Well, I mean I'm looking for a big enough rock 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:47.640 to hide under. More often than not, it's hard to 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.160 get caught up in the news cycle. And when I 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:51.920 go out there and talk to people as well, not 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:54.120 only on the road and talk to people of different 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:55.880 political stripes, but I do a lot of stand up 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.320 and I do a lot of talking with an audience, and. 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.440 People are scared, and I get that you are not wrong. 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.480 It is infuriating to turn on the news and hear 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:08.359 that suddenly, you know, reporting the stats and numbers can 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:13.160 get you fired. It's not a terrible surprise, I will 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.000 tell you what. I'm out in the field and talking 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:17.120 with a lot of MAGA supporters, and numbers come out. 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.400 Everybody sort of has their own statistician at that point, 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:24.680 everybody has their own guide they can reference. And in 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:26.880 so many ways, I think this Trump administration feels like 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:29.440 a reflection of the Internet itself. And this might be 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.280 the ludite in me, but it's so easy for us 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:34.639 now to go search out the facts that make us 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.200 feel comfortable and reinforce the worldview that we have. And 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.280 the conversations I have with people on theline, which is 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.400 the worst place to have conversations with people, are often 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:49.680 footnoted with websites and numbers and data that don't check out, 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.280 because that's what you do. Now you have a conversation, 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.080 you find the thing to make you right. And I'd 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:58.280 like to have hope in the higher levels that those 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:01.280 conversations are based on fact I don't have a lot 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:03.760 of that help. And so seeing the firing that took 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.120 place this week is infuriating. It scares a lot of 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.240 people in my orbit, but it's not surprising. It feels 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:11.600 like an extension of the Internet. 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:14.000 So what I mean, what do you do in that instance? 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:15.960 I mean, it's interesting when you say it's not surprising. 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:18.720 So often I hear that, and that's infuriating as well, 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:21.359 because then it's almost a permission slip that it's sort 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:25.440 of acceptable because the normal we've allowed a normalization of deviancy, 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.920 and so nothing then becomes surprising, and then it becomes 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:30.680 we're sort of complicit in it all of a sudden 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.519 sort of manifests uh. And I think that's the great 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.800 struggle that we're all having, is that we're seeing American reverse. 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.920 We're seeing you know, we're seeing truth and trust, We're 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.960 seeing historical facts being rewritten. We're seeing the sort of 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:47.560 cultural purge happening, the shock and awe overwhelming us. Uh, 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.080 and the zig and the zag that is the distractions 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:52.360 day in and day out. So how do you I mean, 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.040 it's I love that you say, sort of manifestation of 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:59.080 what's online is becoming offline with Trump. How do you 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.560 start to navigate that? I mean, is that the work 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.640 you're doing to sort of distill the essence of that 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:09.880 in using comedy as an entry way to have that conversation, 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:12.840 or what is your diagnosis beyond that in terms of 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:14.680 what you do to address it? 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.159 Well, I think we're all living under the fire hose 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:21.160 of information and news and chaos, and some of that 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.839 can be argued as strategy from a Trump administration, some 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.960 I think as an extension of a mindset I do 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.039 think as reclient made an interesting point recently that was 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:34.080 I think a lot of people give the Trump administration 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.360 credit for their diversions and their tangents, and I think 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:41.000 there's credence in something like that. But I think also 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.039 it's a manifestation of a mindset that he has that 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.960 is constantly distracted. And he's been given the ability to 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.080 be distracted and to lose interest in Elon Musk and 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.720 to jump into something else. And so again it feels 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.000 like we're living in a world that is a manifestation 0:04:56.160 --> 0:05:01.240 of his mindset, an internet mindset, a selfish mindset, and 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:02.760 there is this fire who's. 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:03.919 Fire hose of news that. 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.159 Is politically advantageous when you want to get your own 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.960 things across that might not be popular from a comedic standpoint, 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:13.279 when we show up at work and we have this 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.039 fire hose, like, our job is not to solve it. 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:18.039 Our job is to find the chaos, see where the 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:20.920 bullshit is, try to make some sense of it and 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:23.320 some humor of it. I think, at its at its 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.719 clearest and best, satire can boil down a feeling and 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.120 a moment into something that's digestible and fast. 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:31.800 And so for us we try to. 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:35.120 Wave wade through the fire host find what is important 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:39.679 and also find what we can stick our pov onto 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.720 with something that hopefully is funny and connects. But it's 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.480 a constant conversation that we're having day in and day 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:48.960 out as to like, how do you deal with this? 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.480 And what what is a distraction? Again, we are legislating. 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.559 Our job is not to fix the solution. Our job 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:57.839 is as a media satire to look at it and 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.360 find the humor within it. But we are constantly having 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.640 to make game time calls as to like, are we 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.599 covering what happened in the Oval office? Are we covering 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:10.839 what's happening with these ice raids? Where does humors have 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:15.080 a place, where is it best utilized? And how do 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:16.560 we make that work for us at our audience. 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:19.960 It's interesting you say that because you know it's interesting 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:22.640 with the Daily Show generally, and you know John Stewart 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.279 had sort of peak and I remember being ready, and 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:27.760 I honestly I'm not. I think I told John this 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:30.440 when we sat down we did something on the death 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:32.840 penalty a few years ago, and I think I told him, 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.760 I said, I'm really pissed at you. You walked away 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:39.640 from your show with peak influence where folks were tuning 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.039 in and particularly young folks, but people like me that 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.400 were washing and everything going on in cable that wanted 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:48.799 you to distill the essence using the lens of comedy, 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.279 but also sort of guide us in a deeper understanding, 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:56.400 distill through that wit and witticism and satire where we 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.240 are and where we need to go. And I remember 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.359 he retired right when at the beginning of that election, like, no, 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:04.599 you don't get to go John, that you don't. You 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:08.840 have a responsibility. So I'm interested. You know people, I 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.080 think you know, particularly you Jordan. We're going to get 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:15.800 to you specifically. I mean your your improvisational skills, your 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:20.280 capacity and and sort of legendary capacity to go in 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:25.320 and to show empathy and compassion humanity to people you 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.240 disagree with, to go to these Trump rallies, to meet 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:32.200 with people they still feel comfort level to you. That 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:36.160 attracts folks that are looking for guidance, looking for direction. 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.000 And I wonder, you know, in a world where you 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:41.680 just you're watching the cable networks and it's just a 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:44.680 lot of noise, don't you feel And I'm curious if 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.000 you do, But do you feel that comedy and the 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.520 work you're doing actually is now more important uh in 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:55.560 terms of providing the way uh and and not just 0:07:55.760 --> 0:08:00.600 distilling a moment of understanding, but also providing a light 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:02.360 in some direction. 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:05.920 I mean that's well as a as a person in 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.160 the entertainment industry and an actor, I do have a 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.240 sense of self importance that does make me think, Yes, 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:15.679 I'm more and more important every single day. Cover reduce 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.160 him every single day. I'm more important to the general 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.640 politic of it all. Yes, I mean, I will say, 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:28.400 like going back to when I connected to The Daily Show, 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.680 I used to watch it in college. I wasn't interested 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:35.360 in politics. I wasn't connected, I wasn't locked in. Quite frankly, 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:37.560 I don't know how college students do it today. Like 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.680 I had the luxury of being naive about the world 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:45.200 around me and just focusing on improv comedy and drinking 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:47.200 a forty ounce and not throwing up like that was 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:50.560 like my journey as a twenty one year old. And 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:52.640 now a twenty one year old has to be so 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.559 connected to the world around them. But I watched John 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.960 on The Daily Show, and this guy was able to 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:03.120 distill ideas quickly. He wasn't the end of information, but 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:06.600 he was a conduit to learning more about something, and 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.280 I trusted him. I didn't think he was bullshitting. I 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:11.920 think media has bias on it. Every media has biased 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:15.000 on it. I want every person who watches television to 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:16.960 understand what bias is there. It doesn't mean there's not 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:18.840 great people who are trying to tell you the truth 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:20.839 as they know it, but like there's bias in the 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:23.400 structures and the institutions and the places that tell us 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:25.320 the things that we have. I think what a lot 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:27.360 of people get out of the Daily Show. What I 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.600 got out of the Daily Show was like, I get 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:30.280 Jon Stewart. 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:30.840 He's a comedian. 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.320 He's trying to tell us something funny, and I think 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.280 bullshit is his barometer, and when he sees something that 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.160 doesn't sit right with him, he goes at it, and 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:39.679 so you knew his bias. 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:40.960 I think a lot of people. 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.640 When they watch our stuff, they watch my stuff, they 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.320 know my bias. I'm not an unbiased journalist trying to 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:49.200 go out there and get What I want to do 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.040 is find something funny, find hypocrisy, find irony. 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.240 I care about things. I'm progressive in nature. 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.520 And I do my research when I go out there 0:09:57.760 --> 0:09:59.800 and I think people can connect to me in no 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.679 wa that about what I'm doing out in the field, 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.000 and quite frankly, when I'm doing the man on the 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:07.960 street stuff in the field, like I have the luxury 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.400 of not being a journalist in some ways pretending just 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:14.280 to be unbiased in their conversations, I can have a 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:17.760 goal and a hypocrisy that I'm trying to put forward. 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:20.520 I can be relentless in the ways in which I 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.800 go after somebody to try to find that hypocrisy there, 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:26.640 and hopefully I can be also empathetic within that that 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.400 that not only gets me something revealing about somebody, but 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.640 also has some sort of connection. So for me, that's 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:36.319 sort of how I see the work that we do there. 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:39.360 And you know, the level of import I think that 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.760 will be on an audience to decide. But where I 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.040 always get from the satirist that I love, quite frankly, 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:48.720 John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, like the people I grew up with, 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.439 the people I get to work with like, is that 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.720 you understand they're biased, you understand their tenacity, and because 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.640 of that they can cut to the quick and my 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:03.200 faith quote about humor George Saunders, the author says like 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:05.560 humor is what happens when we're told the truth more 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:08.600 swiftly and quickly than we're accustomed to. And I think 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:12.320 like at it best, like in those moments where you 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:17.160 have a fire hose of trump bs, like that quick 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:23.960 crystallized joke or revelation, like can articulate through the through the. 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:28.240 Chaos, love it? Were you, by the way you look 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:30.840 at Robin Williams, George Carlin, I may were there folks 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:33.840 in the political frame that you I mean particularly, I 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:36.320 mean you mentioned obviously Colbert and will get to that 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:39.640 in a moment, and John himself obviously. But when you 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:41.120 were growing up, when you were that twenty one year 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:43.560 old hanging out in college, it wasn't that. Were you 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:47.480 attracted to political comedy? Were you pacted to that sort 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:49.880 of wit and witticism, that capacity to distill the essence 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:51.920 of a moment I loved? 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.600 In college, I found Muddy Python, which was political in 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.280 a different sense, I think, absurdist political comedy, and that 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.080 drew me to the Second City in Chicago, which was 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:06.400 political and social satire. And so once I jumped into 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:08.360 the world of like the Second City comedy, I learned 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:10.560 about like Nichols and May who were doing such great 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:15.600 political satire in the fifties, and then Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.440 Tina Fey, the people at Second City, Like even if 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:21.240 they were overtly political at the time, like the stuff, 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.320 the work they were doing in Chicago, that they would 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:26.560 eventually go on and do it SNL in other places 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.439 like was all very much commentary on the world around them, 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.800 even if that's just social dynamics. Extending that into political 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.800 stuff like that to me was like, oh, the the 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:41.360 real marrow of this comedy thing is like use these 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:46.040 tools of absurdism and wit but go at like articulating 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:49.480 these these cultural trends. And so that was sort of 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:51.760 always my world. And then John comes in and Colbert 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:55.200 comes in, and I can see like them articulating a 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.640 worldview and speaking to what people were talking about. And 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:02.440 so I became more more a political comedian as I 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:06.040 became older, and those people also started to flourish in 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.160 ways that they hadn't when I was coming up. 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.440 What is I mean obviously would would be remissive speaking 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:14.440 of coming up, we didn't bring up the Cobert issue. 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.280 I mean that that kind of took people. I mean, 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:22.199 it took me by complete surprise, also pissed me off. 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:24.240 I think it pissed a lot of people off. And 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:25.880 back to sort of how we started this, I mean, 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.440 it was alarming beyond words. I mean, because back to 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.480 truth and trust. I mean, is are they letting this 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:35.720 guy go and eliminating this show because it costs too much? 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.320 Or is it about something else? And I know it 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.760 puts you in a tough spot, so mindful of that. Man, 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:42.400 I don't mean to put you on the spot just 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:44.600 to Comedy Central, et cetera. But I mean, how did 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.559 I'm curious, what when you first heard that news? Where 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:49.959 were you? How did you take it? And what went 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:51.840 through your mind? What was sort of the initial reaction 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:52.960 I was. 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:55.720 I was. I was hosting the Daily Show that week, 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:57.760 and we had a we had a big week, and 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.240 we had a great week of shows. And as I 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.280 walked off on our last show on Thursday, I got 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.000 the news that the Colbert was Show was ending. And 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:07.400 I have a lot of friends who work over there, 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:11.120 and Steven is a family member of the Daily Show. 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:15.880 You know, he's he lives in Lore over there and 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:18.240 was a Daily Show member for so long, and so 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.920 we love Steven and yeah, immediately it's a gut punch. 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.320 I think like his voice I think is important right 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.320 now at a time where it feels like a lot 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:29.320 of people are stepping down when they could be stepping up. 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.800 Stephen Colbert is somebody who's stepping up, and to see 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:38.200 an organization push back on that is alarming. I know 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.880 there are economic things that play here, I think where 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.160 I get frustrated beyond just not being able to see 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:47.480 Steven Colbert, and quite frankly, I think Stephen Colbert is 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:49.040 going to find ways to be part of the conversation. 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:52.520 So I think he's going to be He's going to 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.480 be around. I know that for sure. I think there 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:58.680 became such a conversation around the economics of Late Night 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:01.360 and the end of Late and I think you can 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.600 make arguments about like whether or not the advertising structure 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.680 on linear television works at eleven and thirty slot. Okay, 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:11.400 have that business conversation, but I think the effect of 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.320 Late Night of a John Stewart, of a Stephen Colbert, 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.360 of a Jimmy Kimmel, like people are interacting with this 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.160 content and this information more than they ever have before. 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.440 I know, with the daily Show, our reach online and 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:26.760 all the different spaces. I do stuff at the desk, 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.360 I do stuff at the field, I do specials that 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.240 go out across the globe. They're part of the conversation. 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.200 You have the President of the United States who's pissed 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:37.320 at the things that are being said on late night. Like, 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:41.040 to me, that is not a reflection of an industry 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:43.920 that has no connection. In fact, to feel like a 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:46.520 reflection of an industry that is part of the larger conversation. 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:50.200 And quite frankly, like a couple of days later, Steven's 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:55.840 first show back like John Colbert. John went on Colbert, 0:15:55.880 --> 0:16:01.640 so did Oliver, Seth Myers, Jimmy Fallon. What gave me 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.400 a sense of pride in this this space where we 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.680 are seeing institutions and people who have a microphone, we're 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:09.320 seeing them. 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:10.240 Take a step back. 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.960 I was really proud to see these comedians who are 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.640 in different networks, different places and have different priorities like 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:21.040 coming together and standing behind Stephen, speaking truth to power 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.760 and supporting a guy that they think should have a voice, 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:26.720 wherever that may be. And so that that to me 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:29.120 was like a little sense of pride. And also I 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:30.800 really wish they asked me to be a part of that, 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:32.280 it would be it would have been nice. 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:33.440 I'm in town. 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:36.360 It could have written a small part like I you know, 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:38.800 there's there's an it could have been slightly better. But 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.840 for the most part, I I it made me feel 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:43.840 a sense of pride for like the late night comedians 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.280 who are who are not going quietly into the night. 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.360 It's interesting just you know, sort of breaking down the 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.200 reach that it punches way above its weight outside that 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.880 time slot, and how and all of these mediums and 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:04.000 all this capacity to communicate and obviously that's you know, 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:05.600 a big part of what you've been doing. And you're 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.600 not just doing the correspondent work. You're not just hosting 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:11.880 on nights the Daily Show, but you obviously branched out 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:14.600 as well. You do these deeper sort of specials, but 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:17.760 you're also doing a bunch of podcasts as well. Is 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.040 this I mean at the end of the day, is 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:22.520 I mean? No, it seems to me even seen it 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:25.800 on MSNBC. Everybody it's on MSNBC seems to have a podcast. 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.040 Sean Hannity's always had his radio shows for years and 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:33.159 years and years. I mean, the multifacet nature, No longer 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:37.280 linear as you say, what what's what's that landscape look 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:39.119 like today and what do you sort of where do 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:40.200 you anticipate that going. 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:42.240 I mean it's wild. 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:44.680 I mean you're the governor of a state right now 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.160 and you're we're talking on your podcast. 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:54.040 Yeah enough a late night you know hosts that otherwise 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:55.560 it would have to go on your damn show to 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:59.240 have a conversation five. I mean everything about. 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.120 It, right this is this, This landscape is so strange. 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:04.320 You're like, oh, I guess I also have to have 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:09.879 a podcast. This is yeah, this is wow. I do 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.320 think from like an entertainment standpoint, you have to be 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.600 able to connect to people where they are, and so 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:17.960 like late night is a great space for that. You know. 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:19.800 What I'm proud of with the Daily Show is like 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:22.760 we have evolved and we've always been able to like 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:25.200 I can go into the field and doing those pieces 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:27.879 connect with people in a different way, and there's a 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.320 curiosity with people in their heads about like what do 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:32.760 actually people think out in the middle of America. And 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.000 a lot of this content is made on the coasts. 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:37.520 And so for me to be able to go to 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:41.200 you know, Florida, to Pennsylvania, wherever and talk to somebody 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.680 is compelling in a way that isn't seen on other 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:45.480 other venues. 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:47.400 And then you have podcasts, and then you have. 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:49.960 Other spaces that that really are the way people are 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.639 starting to get their information and have these conversations. So 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:58.080 it is important for comedians, for politicians to meet people 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:00.520 where they are to expand with those kind of conversations. 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.720 Arm Quite frankly, what I like about the podcast medium 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:09.560 is that it is it's elongated. I'm everything else is shortening, 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:12.280 and the attention span is shortening, and the context shortens, 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:14.159 and that's where I get worried in the comedy space, 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:18.120 I'm sure as well in the political space, like once 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:21.120 you shorten everything to just that clip, you lose the context, 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:23.719 You lose the ability to have any kind of depth 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:27.680 of conversation or awareness of an issue that has more 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.520 than than one easy digestible side. And in a format 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:35.120 like a podcast, at least i'm i'm, i'm, i'm. I'm 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:37.400 happy to hear that people listen to things for an 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:40.560 hour or two hours and digest that and and wherever 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.439 that space exists, I think you have to kind of 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:44.760 go to that and have those conversations. 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:47.800 You speaking of go to, I mean you and in 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:49.760 your go to has been I mean, your brand, it's 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:53.960 just next level. And I was, man, I realized, I 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:56.040 think I watched every damn clip before when I was 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:59.119 sort of anticipation of meeting with you for this. 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.879 You've got shit to governor. You know, I'm aren't you 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:05.399 trying to Aren't you trying to double Jerrymander California? Right now? 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:09.120 We're gonna get so we're gonna get to what we're doing. 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:11.480 In reaction too, I. 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:13.320 Was gonna say, like, instead of my videos, you could 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.040 take more Republican votes away? 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:15.879 Is that what's happening? 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.760 What's going on about? Hey? We all have capacity to 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:20.960 do more and be more, and that's the spirit of 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.600