Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: Everybody.
Speaker 3: This is Mark Paun, long time seasoned veteran editor at
Speaker 3: The Daily Show since way back before John Stewart, and
Speaker 3: we are here today with as If Monby, former correspondent
Speaker 3: and current star of Evil streaming on our own Paramount Plus.
Speaker 3: Has it feel to be back in the building.
Speaker 1: It's it's such a weird it's such a weird feeling,
Speaker 1: you know, because it's like it's going back to your
Speaker 1: old college campus or something, you know, and everything's like
Speaker 1: it's the same, but like new and better.
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, they added.
Speaker 1: Walls and rooms.
Speaker 2: Rooms became four, right.
Speaker 1: They've gotten right, they got another edit room, and it's
Speaker 1: just like everything just feels like shinier and cleaner. It's
Speaker 1: really not really, but it's great. It's great to be here,
Speaker 1: and it's very It's like it's like, yeah, there's an
Speaker 1: energy that I just love, you know, Like I just
Speaker 1: feel like, oh, right back into like being in this building.
Speaker 3: You were last year, like you were here as a
Speaker 3: guest with Trevor Right, yeah, seven.
Speaker 1: My last my last officially, like it was like twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: I think right when John left, I sort of I
Speaker 1: didn't like officially leave. I never got my goodbye show,
Speaker 1: which I still he still owe me.
Speaker 3: Really, oh because you you hung around for like a
Speaker 3: month or.
Speaker 1: Two, Yeah, I should like I'm leaving.
Speaker 2: Trevor was like, I don't know this guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I know. So like I was like, uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: come back, you know, just come back if I'm available,
Speaker 1: and so like I never really officially left.
Speaker 2: Oh right.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like I'm done now, I'm never I'm done.
Speaker 2: That's it busy, and they were planning and bring you back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were having me come back whatever, you know.
Speaker 1: And then Trevor was like, I don't know this guy,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, why don't you just watch the Daily Show.
Speaker 1: I did come back and do one correspondent piece with Trevor,
Speaker 1: and then I came back as a guest, yeah, with
Speaker 1: Trevor one time and then but yes, it was around
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2: So you started in two thousand and six.
Speaker 1: Two thousand and six, yeah right, yeah.
Speaker 3: Now you have the distinction of you auditioned, yeah, and
Speaker 3: then you were hired on the spot and we're in
Speaker 3: that evening's Yes show.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I may be the only correspondent had
Speaker 1: that experience, which was that. I got the call at
Speaker 1: like twelve thirty that afternoon saying the Daily Show is
Speaker 1: looking it's an audition for.
Speaker 2: The Daily Show.
Speaker 1: And I was at that moment writing a letter to
Speaker 1: my ex girlfriend, who I had found out had just
Speaker 1: gotten engaged. So I was really depressed and I was
Speaker 1: writing this letter and my manager calls and says, you
Speaker 1: have this audition for the Daily Show. And I said, listen,
Speaker 1: it's not a good day, like I don't feel like
Speaker 1: being funny right now, and so can we go? Can
Speaker 1: I go in tomorrow? And she said no, no, if
Speaker 1: you if you don't go in today, that's it. They're
Speaker 1: going to hire someone. So I was like all right.
Speaker 1: So I basically just like put They were like, go down,
Speaker 1: just go down.
Speaker 2: To three second Street in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then and then I and then I showed
Speaker 1: up here like I basically just put it on a
Speaker 1: suit and tie and I lived up just on the
Speaker 1: Upper West Side, so I just like walked down and
Speaker 1: I got here, and I remember they were like here,
Speaker 1: the here, the you know, the the grazes, the script
Speaker 1: or whatever, and I'm like I'm looking at it. And
Speaker 1: I go in and John is there and and then
Speaker 1: I did the piece and whatever it was that they
Speaker 1: had written, I think it was a piece that they
Speaker 1: had written for that evening show, and they needed a correspondent,
Speaker 1: a Middle East correspondent, and they didn't have one. So
Speaker 1: they were like, well, hire guy, So I commit to
Speaker 1: meet John. John's very nice, and you know, I remember
Speaker 1: John saying to me like, if you ever performed in
Speaker 1: front of a live audience before? And I was such
Speaker 1: a dick. I was like, I was like, yeah, I've
Speaker 1: been on Broadway, dude. She was like, oh, okay, enough.
Speaker 4: Us if thank you for joining us. Do the people
Speaker 4: of the Middle East share this administration's clearly more optimistic
Speaker 4: view of the conflict?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, John. It's not often that an entire region is
Speaker 1: given this kind of chance. Every day, the cafes and
Speaker 1: outdoor markets of the Middle East explode in anticipation. We
Speaker 1: were like children on Christmas morning. From what I'm told,
Speaker 1: it's very exciting.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 4: The violence and the instability doesn't doesn't color that view.
Speaker 1: No, no, not at all. As one gentleman told me
Speaker 1: while standing in the smoldering remains of what was once
Speaker 1: his village, you can't get hummus without mashing some chickpieas
Speaker 1: and so, uh, I do the piece and then literally
Speaker 1: John turns to me and he says, welcome to the
Speaker 1: Daily Show. You're you're hired, and but but I was
Speaker 1: on that night and then literally like everyone you know
Speaker 1: that it was like that was when everybody watched The
Speaker 1: Daily Show at eleven o'clock when it was actually on, right,
Speaker 1: and so people like my phone was blowing up that
Speaker 1: night like because yeah, no, nothing, and they were just like,
Speaker 1: were you just a guy who looks like he was
Speaker 1: just on the de Like I literally got like twenty
Speaker 1: phone calls like yeah, it looks exactly.
Speaker 2: Like you was.
Speaker 1: And then and the funny thing is I went to
Speaker 1: a bar to watch it, and the fucking guys at
Speaker 1: the bar wouldn't turn off the game and put on
Speaker 1: the Daily Show, so like and so they put one
Speaker 1: TV out and I'm like, I'm on it and they
Speaker 1: were like whatever, dude, and they were like but they
Speaker 1: were like, you can watch it, but on mute. So
Speaker 1: the first time I ever watched myself on Daily Show,
Speaker 1: it was in a bar on mute like now, and
Speaker 1: I was like with all these friends of mine and
Speaker 1: they're all like, what are you doing what are you saying?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, so this is when I say that,
Speaker 1: you know anyway, But then uh then John just I
Speaker 1: wasn't officially hired, so John would just call me back.
Speaker 1: You'd just be like, hey, you want to go next week?
Speaker 1: And didn't They just threw me in there and then
Speaker 1: they were just like do you want to come back
Speaker 1: next week? And I'm like sure. And then and then
Speaker 1: Flans would call and she'd be like, hey, you Wanna're
Speaker 1: gonna do another one? And I'm like sure. And then
Speaker 1: they just kept bringing me back and they'd be like,
Speaker 1: we got another piece, come back in And I think, honestly,
Speaker 1: it was just that John liked me and he just
Speaker 1: wanted me on the show, and he just kept calling
Speaker 1: me back. And then it was about four or five
Speaker 1: months of that, and then they offered me a contract
Speaker 1: and then I got the office next to Bacon.
Speaker 2: I love that guy. I love Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was the best, and you you had like
Speaker 3: most of the correspondence almost all of them really have
Speaker 3: come from like improv, stand up yeahgrounds, and you were
Speaker 3: like legit actor.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I was like, you know, actor like in theater.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I was like I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: it was weird because I I had an old manager
Speaker 1: once who was always like, you know, like way before
Speaker 1: he was always like you should be on the Daily Show,
Speaker 1: and I was like the Daily shows, like I'm an actor,
Speaker 1: Like like I'm not a I'm not a stand up,
Speaker 1: you know, And so it was very surprising to me
Speaker 1: that they that they wanted me. I had done improv
Speaker 1: and I had done comedy like in theater, and I'd
Speaker 1: never stand out, and so I was for the longest time,
Speaker 1: I had like this incredible imposter syndrome where I was
Speaker 1: just like, why am I here? Like I don't really
Speaker 1: belong on this show, and I was sort of like
Speaker 1: I'm and it was It was weird because it was
Speaker 1: for a number of years that I felt like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of not really supposed to be here, Like
Speaker 1: they're gonna figured this out at some point and they're
Speaker 1: gonna be like now we'k. And I remember, like I
Speaker 1: did a field piece with Miles Miles Cohn, wonderful guy
Speaker 1: at one of our all time great producers on the show,
Speaker 1: and so I remember went out and did this piece
Speaker 1: and it was that sort of a man on the
Speaker 1: street like kind of thing. And I was terrible, Like
Speaker 1: I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. Like
Speaker 1: I was just like and and you know, Miles was
Speaker 1: neurotic enough already came came back and he was just like,
Speaker 1: we got nothing, we got nothing. I don't know what
Speaker 1: we're gonna do. And and we've cobbled it together.
Speaker 3: And you know, and I cannot tell you how many
Speaker 3: times I've had people come back and go to me,
Speaker 3: we've got nothing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and and and it's like really, and I'm like.
Speaker 3: You shot for four hours and you got some three
Speaker 3: minutes of really funny stuff. You don't realize it because
Speaker 3: because you got three and a half hours of crap,
Speaker 3: but you got those three really gold men, and it's
Speaker 3: like it turns into a great piece.
Speaker 2: And then I got other you know.
Speaker 3: Other times it's like we got we killed it, we
Speaker 3: killed it. We got so much great stuff, it's so good,
Speaker 3: so amazing, and I go, there's nothing here. It's six
Speaker 3: hours of crap. We got nothing, and you know, and
Speaker 3: then the piece doesn't even air because we got nothing.
Speaker 3: You know, It's it's like people walking door. And I
Speaker 3: would never trust what you guys would say, because like.
Speaker 1: You're yeah, you know, it's true.
Speaker 2: You're out there and you're grinding through and you don't really.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, it's like that was that was one thing.
Speaker 3: I realized how much you're shooting and how many good
Speaker 3: you just and then when you start to put it together,
Speaker 3: like oh man, this is this is good.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That was the That was the learning curve. That was
Speaker 1: the learning curve for me to realize that like, oh,
Speaker 1: it doesn't all need to land, it's just that enough
Speaker 1: of it needs to land to like make that three
Speaker 1: or four minute piece, you know. And for a long
Speaker 1: time they didn't send me out in the field. I
Speaker 1: was like the in studio guy, and I didn't do
Speaker 1: field piece.
Speaker 2: I cut your first piece.
Speaker 1: You cut that first piece I did with clements.
Speaker 2: Right the University of Illinois.
Speaker 1: University of Illinois, which was which was actually a good piece.
Speaker 2: It was solid first piece.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a good piece. And then I did
Speaker 1: that you were.
Speaker 2: Good in it. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So like a lot of correspondence, it takes some the
Speaker 3: old the old the old rule around, like given three
Speaker 3: or four, given three or four pieces, like even even
Speaker 3: I remember, like Steve Carell's first piece not good, like
Speaker 3: everybody took but you're you're, you were right out of
Speaker 3: the gate.
Speaker 2: You're a pretty style.
Speaker 5: It was.
Speaker 3: And that was a good a good subject and a
Speaker 3: solid like a really good subject matter, really good people
Speaker 3: to interview, Like the guy was like a white guy
Speaker 3: in full Native American war.
Speaker 1: What we had there was a very clear premise when
Speaker 1: you had a we had a very clear good guy,
Speaker 1: bad guy, simple story. The premise was very clear. It
Speaker 1: was all like for.
Speaker 3: The listeners, it was the University of Illinois. Yeah, chief
Speaker 3: a line I.
Speaker 2: Was there was there, There was a mask, it was all.
Speaker 3: Around that, and so they decided that it was obviously offensiveness. Man,
Speaker 3: we're going to get rid of it. And so it
Speaker 3: was a whole group of people that did not want
Speaker 3: to get rid of it.
Speaker 1: Didn't want to get rid of the And so we
Speaker 1: had a kid who like sat down with us in
Speaker 1: full Native and a white kid white kids sat out
Speaker 1: with his full Native American like like paint all of
Speaker 1: his right. As in dances with wolves, it will take
Speaker 1: one brave, brave to stand up for his people.
Speaker 6: The chief was gone, and so all the spirit and
Speaker 6: all the joy and all the pride and the honor
Speaker 6: tradition and that's all been taken away from us.
Speaker 1: They're saying, we don't care about your culture.
Speaker 7: We don't care that you will hear first.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the what a trustee is who I believe is
Speaker 6: all Caucasian. Get rid of the Native American chief.
Speaker 1: Surprise, surprise, it's the white man and bullies like this
Speaker 1: couldn't care less.
Speaker 8: I am really glad that the school retired chief a linework.
Speaker 8: I feel like it was the right thing to do.
Speaker 7: Why pale faces like you trying to push Native Americans
Speaker 7: from their homes?
Speaker 8: Chief Alnawork isn't Native American. He's a race based racist stereotype.
Speaker 7: Aren't you a race based stereotype? Seriously, dude, have you
Speaker 7: looked at hi mirror lately? You look like a Wayne's
Speaker 7: brother playing a white guy.
Speaker 8: That's a new one to me. I I've never heard
Speaker 8: that one.
Speaker 1: And he was like he was like I remember, he
Speaker 1: was just like, should I wear the paint? And we
Speaker 1: were like, you, dude, with the paint, it's great?
Speaker 2: Were it the conceited the piece? Was? You were completely
Speaker 2: on his side?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well we always play that.
Speaker 3: And then you talk to the Native American just like
Speaker 3: and she was so confused.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it was great. And then uh, and
Speaker 1: then I did that and then I didn't do pieces
Speaker 1: for a while, and then I remember I did a
Speaker 1: piece with Stu Miller which was the Whammo or the Yeah.
Speaker 3: The toy factory toy was it was bringing they.
Speaker 1: Opened up a factor factory in China.
Speaker 3: And they got no, they got rid of their factory
Speaker 3: in Michigan or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was something like that, but it was it was.
Speaker 1: It was a great piece and it.
Speaker 3: Was because again it was got to do a lot
Speaker 3: of sight gags with all the toys.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and we did that and we and the
Speaker 1: guy was great. And then I remember they were like, okay,
Speaker 1: Monvi's ready now. And then I was going out all
Speaker 1: the time and they were you know, And this job
Speaker 1: is weird because you would sit around a lot, especially
Speaker 1: if you were like doing in studio stuff, and you'd
Speaker 1: wait for your opportunity to get on, you know, in
Speaker 1: the on the show. But if you weren't doing field pieces,
Speaker 1: then you were just sitting around. But then once I
Speaker 1: started doing field pieces, I was like on the road
Speaker 1: all the time. So it was crazy. The only thing
Speaker 1: I regret was I was supposed to go do the
Speaker 1: India piece, and it was right when I left, and
Speaker 1: then Jones ended up doing the India piece. And it
Speaker 1: was like because I always ended up going to like
Speaker 1: the shittiest small towns in America and doing these fucking pieces.
Speaker 1: If I remember with Burger, I went to like this
Speaker 1: place in Canada, the Asbestos Mind one. Did you cut
Speaker 1: that one? It was about the asbestos mine in this
Speaker 1: town in Canada, which was literally like a town that
Speaker 1: was on its last legs. There was no business, like
Speaker 1: all the stores and we stayed in this fucking shit
Speaker 1: ass town. It was like three degrees. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: why is every one of my field pieces involved by
Speaker 1: going to a shitty small town? And other people were
Speaker 1: like going to Hawaii and like like exotic places Iceland
Speaker 1: and stuff, and I was like, always like going to
Speaker 1: some shitty ass small town in Middle America somewhere.
Speaker 2: What was your favorite piece? I have a couple.
Speaker 1: I have a couple. So one of them is the Boise,
Speaker 1: Idaho one where I almost got.
Speaker 3: Arrested, which people remember that piece because of the two
Speaker 3: had a fish costume. Yeah, but the great thing about
Speaker 3: that piece is that it was a real legit, like
Speaker 3: sixty minutes should have done that story because it was
Speaker 3: like that company Simplot, Simplot right again for the listeners.
Speaker 3: It was this large company, Simplot who basically owned everything
Speaker 3: in Idaho. Their main business was potatoes, I.
Speaker 2: Believe, yeah.
Speaker 1: And then and then they were basically dumping all their
Speaker 1: like stuff, and I think it.
Speaker 3: Was it was like getting to the river and like,
Speaker 3: and so you interviewed an environmentalist and then you and we.
Speaker 1: Went to the e p A right and walked in
Speaker 1: to complain. But we had this great idea that like,
Speaker 1: I would be a two headed fish from the Idaho
Speaker 1: River who had come to the e PA to complain
Speaker 1: about my habitat, my natural habitat. And so I walk
Speaker 1: into the e p A office and the poor and
Speaker 1: cameras and Brennan is like, go go and we walk
Speaker 1: in and and the woman at the front desk was
Speaker 1: so because I pretended like it was just me, so
Speaker 1: she sees the guy in it too, and she's just
Speaker 1: like and so she just she buzzes me in as
Speaker 1: soon as I and she lets me in and.
Speaker 2: Then and then the guy comes out.
Speaker 1: And then so before she lets me in, she doesn't
Speaker 1: know there's a film crew so Brennan and the crew
Speaker 1: were a few feet behind. They were kind of like
Speaker 1: out of sight, and then she lets me in and
Speaker 1: then they barge it and she's just like, what the fuck.
Speaker 1: And then the guy comes out from behind from the
Speaker 1: back office and he was just like, so you have
Speaker 1: to leave, you have to leave. And I'm like, I'm like, sure,
Speaker 1: I'm a fucking two headed fish and you've ruined my river.
Speaker 1: And I started braiding this guy. It was just like
Speaker 1: he was like and finally I remember him just being
Speaker 1: like sure, you were not a fish, please, And then
Speaker 1: we left and they called home insecurity and.
Speaker 3: We and they were rolling on that we got it
Speaker 3: in the piece. I remember like the camera guy went
Speaker 3: off sort of to the side where they the cops
Speaker 3: didn't really see. Yeah, and they rolled in.
Speaker 1: They rolled in and they tried to look like a.
Speaker 2: Movie like, yes, it was crazy. SUVs come come wheeling into.
Speaker 3: The parking lot and then there's like the guys say
Speaker 3: on the side, like the guy's talking to you when
Speaker 3: you finally took the head off, the one head that
Speaker 3: was on your real head and the head was on
Speaker 3: the side, and.
Speaker 1: I was like, I Am not going to prison tonight.
Speaker 1: And the two headed fish.
Speaker 3: If you remember the other part of that piece that
Speaker 3: people forget about is when you start to go into
Speaker 3: the conspiracy. Oh yeah, when you're like digging in this
Speaker 3: this great very cinematic Yeah yeah, yeah, Brennon did. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and then you start to realize that the Simplot is
Speaker 3: everywhere in the complete control of Idaho Ida.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah. Why would the EPA call Homeland Security? I
Speaker 1: needed answers, But everywhere I went, no one would talk.
Speaker 1: What is this Simplot run this whole state? Literally every
Speaker 1: single place I went in Idaho there was Simplot. So
Speaker 1: I looked him up and they're one of the largest
Speaker 1: privately held agribusiness companies in the world. The governor of
Speaker 1: Idaho worked at Simplot for thirty years and married Jr.
Speaker 1: Simplot's daughter. Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson chairs the subcommittee that
Speaker 1: sets the EPA's budget.
Speaker 2: What the.
Speaker 1: Is this an actual conspiracy?
Speaker 9: There's certainly a conspiracy of silence.
Speaker 1: This is really dangerous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you mean?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I've received threatening phone calls from people who
Speaker 4: suggested that I don't work on this issue or come
Speaker 4: back to Cariboo County, Idaho again.
Speaker 1: Okay, are you kidding me?
Speaker 7: Next time a fake reporter comes to ask you to
Speaker 7: do an interview about simplot, you should lead with the
Speaker 7: stuff about the threats.
Speaker 2: And then you talk to Aaron Brakovic.
Speaker 1: Do you remember right she came and she did know.
Speaker 2: You had her on like zoom, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I talked to her, how do I do?
Speaker 2: What do I do?
Speaker 3: And she's like, you know, you gotta set balls, man,
Speaker 3: you gotta go in. You gotta go after these fuckers.
Speaker 3: And then at the end you have a nightmare when
Speaker 3: you wake up with two heads, like you completely go.
Speaker 3: You know, at the end, you're like all on board
Speaker 3: with simp chicking out, you chicking out at the end
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a great piece. My other favorite piece is
Speaker 1: the one UH with the North Carolina guy who Donyelton, Donnyelton,
Speaker 1: who basically that was such I mean that piece is
Speaker 1: like legendary because he got fired for it.
Speaker 3: Went yeah, it went for the listeners. The North Carolina
Speaker 3: had had UH had passed the law that like basically
Speaker 3: was anti voting rights. He is like really an illegal
Speaker 3: law like restricting.
Speaker 1: And it was basically like to keep poor people and
Speaker 1: and and African Americans from voting because they generally vote Democrats.
Speaker 3: And he said he said that it would kick Democrats
Speaker 3: in the button.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but then he went off, but he went off
Speaker 1: on this racist diatribe, right, So, uh, we had all
Speaker 1: the stuff and we didn't put it in the piece,
Speaker 1: a lot of it because we just felt like it
Speaker 1: was too much. So I remember John came in and
Speaker 1: he watched. You know, John would come in and watch
Speaker 1: the pieces before and he'd give notes on the edit.
Speaker 1: So he came in and he watched it, and and
Speaker 1: and and and we had Don Yeltons of like doing
Speaker 1: some of his racist stuff. And then we as John
Speaker 1: was walking out, he turned back and he was like,
Speaker 1: he was like, by the way, do you have any
Speaker 1: more of that of him doing all that, saying all
Speaker 1: that racist stuff. And I remember Jenna and I both
Speaker 1: looked at each other and we were like, yeah, we
Speaker 1: have a lot more of him saying that. And John
Speaker 1: was like, I just put it all in there. And
Speaker 1: so we just did like a fade ye just saying
Speaker 1: all the like it's time he's just going one racist
Speaker 1: thing after the next.
Speaker 9: The bottom line is the law is not racist.
Speaker 7: Of course, the law is not racist.
Speaker 1: And you are not racist.
Speaker 9: Well, I've been called a bigot before. Let me tell
Speaker 9: you something. You don't look like me, but I think
Speaker 9: I've treated you the same as ever anybody else. A
Speaker 9: matter of fact, one of my best friends is.
Speaker 2: Black.
Speaker 1: Some one of your best friends black.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: And there's more.
Speaker 9: When I was a young man, you didn't call her
Speaker 9: black or black. You called him a negro. I had
Speaker 9: a picture one time with Obama setting on a stuff
Speaker 9: as a witch doctor, and I posted that on Facebook.
Speaker 9: I was making fun of my white half of Obama,
Speaker 9: not the black half. And now you have a black
Speaker 9: person using the term nigger this, nigger that, and it's
Speaker 9: okay for them to do it.
Speaker 1: You know that we can hear you, right, Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 1: you know that, you know that we can hear you. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: all right. And then at the end I had this
Speaker 1: line where I said, you know we can hear you, right,
Speaker 1: which became like the tagline of the whole piece, because
Speaker 1: I just was like, you know, you know, he can
Speaker 1: hear it. And it was such a great it was
Speaker 1: a beautifully constructed piece, and it was just so diabolical,
Speaker 1: like it was just like that guy. And then he
Speaker 1: resigned and then time because basically the R and C
Speaker 1: was like, you can't say that stuff out loud, dude, like,
Speaker 1: and then the Republicans were like, you've done and then
Speaker 1: he doubled down. He was like, what what's wrong with it?
Speaker 1: Like he's like, he wouldn't.
Speaker 2: Retract anything wrong.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so they fired him and he lost his seat,
Speaker 1: and uh, yeah it was it made it made like
Speaker 1: legit news. That was the one time there was the
Speaker 1: one time I feel like The Daily Show actually like
Speaker 1: did something that actually made a difference in the world.
Speaker 1: Like so much time it felt like we were just
Speaker 1: sort of preaching to the choir.
Speaker 2: And yeah, there's been a few pieces like that that
Speaker 2: kind of.
Speaker 1: Made Yeah, occasionally I think we just we did penetrate,
Speaker 1: like you know, so much of the time it was
Speaker 1: like we were just like talking to ourselves. It felt like,
Speaker 1: you know, we're like, yeah, we this all makes sense
Speaker 1: and it's funny and you know, but like it didn't
Speaker 1: feel like we were really like changing anybody's policy. But
Speaker 1: that was one of the few times I felt like
Speaker 1: we actually so I was proud of that, Like I
Speaker 1: was proud of the fact that we actually made a
Speaker 1: real difference in the world.
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, yeah, don Yelton man Man, We'll be
Speaker 3: right back.
Speaker 2: And then there's the Rick Scott.
Speaker 1: Oh, the Rick Scott. That was a great one. That
Speaker 1: was a great So.
Speaker 3: That's another one that so Florida had passed the law
Speaker 3: that anyone getting money from the state, meaning basically they
Speaker 3: were going after welfare recipients is what it was, they
Speaker 3: had had to get drug tests.
Speaker 2: You're in tests. So so you went.
Speaker 1: No, and we did, and we were talking to, you know,
Speaker 1: the Florida legislators, and we found.
Speaker 3: Out and you talked you talked to another thing that's
Speaker 3: forgotten about that piece was I cut the pieces.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the guy you talked to. The well for
Speaker 2: a guy.
Speaker 3: It's a very funny interview with him where you were
Speaker 3: like you're trying to convince him that he should be
Speaker 3: being in a cup.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Suddenly you go all like, everybody who works
Speaker 1: for the Florida government also is money shouldn't be peeing
Speaker 1: in a cup because they're getting money from taxpayer money.
Speaker 1: Because the whole argument was if taxpayers are.
Speaker 3: Right, and you went you went into before you went
Speaker 3: to Rick Scott sort of wandered the halls of the
Speaker 3: state legislature, like.
Speaker 1: Trying to get.
Speaker 3: This flow is on constitution and it and violates the
Speaker 3: Fourth Amendment.
Speaker 1: You're poor and on drugs.
Speaker 7: What do you know about the Constitution.
Speaker 2: I served in the United States Navy.
Speaker 1: You're a veteran, Yes, I took.
Speaker 3: An oath to support and defend the Constitution.
Speaker 5: Any citizen, whether a veteran or not, should be happy
Speaker 5: to take the drug test. As a veteran, I would
Speaker 5: think that he would be concerned about the freedom of
Speaker 5: the taxpayers, the taxpayers that are working day and night,
Speaker 5: sometimes two and three jobs, and he won't even do
Speaker 5: this very simple thing to help his family. I just
Speaker 5: don't get that.
Speaker 7: So who pays your salary?
Speaker 5: The taxpayers the state of Florida.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, I think I'm going to need you.
Speaker 1: To be into this cup. Those are the greatest moments
Speaker 1: when you just like I could actually like sort of
Speaker 1: speak truth to power in that way.
Speaker 2: You didn't and didn't that one also did the law?
Speaker 2: Didn't that law get reversed to down the road a
Speaker 2: little bit? It may have, yeah, I can't remember, but
Speaker 2: it went viral too.
Speaker 1: I remember like it got a lot of attention because
Speaker 1: also we were in that room with all when we
Speaker 1: went to the Rick Scott.
Speaker 2: Uh Pres it was just like it was just like
Speaker 2: weekly or Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was like every outlet in the state of Florida
Speaker 1: was in that room, you know. And the funny thing
Speaker 1: wasn't when we did that thing Brennan, I remember it
Speaker 1: was also another Brendan piece, and he said to me,
Speaker 1: He's like, just just get up and just ask him
Speaker 1: to be in the coup. And I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: And Brendan's standing off to the side. These guys are
Speaker 1: all like like everybody in the room.
Speaker 3: And if you remember, in the piece we cut to
Speaker 3: we cut to between our footage, we also cut to.
Speaker 2: Locals.
Speaker 1: So what happened was that what happened was that the
Speaker 1: Channel five is covering this at all, whatever local stations
Speaker 1: around Tallahassee and Tampa and Miami and Jacksonville, they're all
Speaker 1: covering it. And I asked him to pee in the cup,
Speaker 1: and it's like and all the cameras turn on us
Speaker 1: because they're all in the room going and so obviously
Speaker 1: the whole place goes silent. We come out of the
Speaker 1: room after after we have the interaction with Rick where
Speaker 1: he's like, I'm not doing that, and then all the
Speaker 1: press guys come up to us and they're like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, that was amazing. We wish we could do that.
Speaker 1: And then it's on the news that we were there,
Speaker 1: and my dad in Tampa sees he watches the news
Speaker 1: and sees me on the news asking Rick Scott's and
Speaker 1: then he calls me like right after we come out,
Speaker 1: and he's just like, what did you do? What the
Speaker 1: fuck did you do? Because he was watching it a lot,
Speaker 1: like on Channel eleven or whatever in Damp eight.
Speaker 2: But not everyone knew that it was the Daily Show
Speaker 2: right away.
Speaker 1: No, right away, no, I think it.
Speaker 3: Was just like they were like, oh, reporter asked Rick
Speaker 3: Scott's pen a coming, and then it went, oh, it's
Speaker 3: a daily show but like but also one of the
Speaker 3: really funny visuals in that is passing the cup because
Speaker 3: you're all the way, you're all the way in the
Speaker 3: back of the road, you pass and all these people
Speaker 3: passing it down, like like eight people get guy in
Speaker 3: the front is like and he just like puts it
Speaker 3: on the steps forward, He gets out of his seat,
Speaker 3: he steps forward, and he puts it on the floor
Speaker 3: in front of Rick Scott's podium. And then he sits
Speaker 3: back down.
Speaker 1: So great. Remember I said to him, I said, don't worry,
Speaker 1: you could pete the cup. We'll all turn around. It's okay,
Speaker 1: we'll all I was like, we could all just turn
Speaker 1: around so you could have some privacy. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: It was such a great. That was so great. Those
Speaker 1: moments I do miss like that, just those moments when
Speaker 1: you caught somebody in that way or like you got
Speaker 1: someone to you know, those are things that always felt
Speaker 1: incredibly satisfying, you know.
Speaker 2: And your signature move was to look to the camera.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, at those moments when you're like something crazy,
Speaker 3: you just look over.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, yeah, can you believe this?
Speaker 2: Rhap the wall? You know?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: It was good.
Speaker 3: Now there was something else you and Miles were involved in,
Speaker 3: which was I fit believe to this day, the most
Speaker 3: expensive slash field piece, not really a field piece, but
Speaker 3: the Quasby show.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: Well never like Miles was all in on this thing.
Speaker 3: You went, you went to soundstage in Connecticut, right, yeah,
Speaker 3: we shot this thing.
Speaker 2: Shot this thing like a real real scom listeners. It
Speaker 2: was a.
Speaker 3: Parody of the Cosby show Muslim family living in a Cosby.
Speaker 1: Show Quostrophy by Right Osby Show, and then we did that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was like a massive budget. I don't
Speaker 3: remember exactly, but I remember at the time it was
Speaker 3: huge budget. It was like the piece it was. I
Speaker 3: don't remember how we were using it in the context
Speaker 3: of the show, but it was like a twelve minute
Speaker 3: edit that Miles did and would not I did not
Speaker 3: cut it, but I remember the time he did this
Speaker 3: like ridiculously long, and he was so in love with
Speaker 3: it and would not make it sure. And John comes
Speaker 3: in just like, this seems to be like three minutes,
Speaker 3: you guys, and then he leaves.
Speaker 2: Because I figure figure it out, and Miles is like
Speaker 2: heartfro you know, Miles like, it's just like heart.
Speaker 3: And then he like they had to trim it down
Speaker 3: and down down there there it is like you know,
Speaker 3: the stream minute like.
Speaker 1: Because then we had to do a thing with the with.
Speaker 2: The and then it turned into a web series.
Speaker 1: Web So then Miles and I ended up turning it
Speaker 1: into a web series called.
Speaker 2: Family because he changed it after this.
Speaker 1: After Cosby kind of got itself in a little bit
Speaker 1: of hot water, so we had to change all in
Speaker 1: the Family. And then We won like a Peabody for
Speaker 1: that for that web series, which is still out there.
Speaker 2: You can.
Speaker 1: Die Funnier Die. It's on YouTube, like you can watch it.
Speaker 1: But we so Miles got his dream because he wanted
Speaker 1: to make that. He wanted to do a full on
Speaker 1: like so we did like four episodes of this and
Speaker 1: it was all based around like Islamophobia and anti Muslim bigotry.
Speaker 2: And you know, because you're in like a white neighborhood. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The premise was that it was a Muslim family who
Speaker 1: was terrified that anybody would find out that than Muslim,
Speaker 1: so that the whitest most like American Muslim family, like
Speaker 1: they like.
Speaker 2: Like, but just aren't the kids kind of rebelling against that.
Speaker 3: The kids are, yeah, but the likes.
Speaker 1: He's like, let's have our pork juice everyone, you know,
Speaker 1: and he's like serving pork juice and like trying to
Speaker 1: be like we're not dangerous, you know. But it was great.
Speaker 1: We actually ended up.
Speaker 3: I don't even remember how, like I remember how that
Speaker 3: got even like how we got it into the show,
Speaker 3: like you're just like, okay, let's.
Speaker 2: Just do this.
Speaker 1: Well, the premise was that we did it, and then
Speaker 1: we showed it to a focus group, and the whole
Speaker 1: idea was we had this focus group of people.
Speaker 3: No, I mean like in the original Daily Show. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, it was like that was was something that
Speaker 3: was pitched.
Speaker 1: Oh and then and then like they were like, you
Speaker 1: mean how to get green lip?
Speaker 3: Like yeah, yeah, because I don't know if if it was,
Speaker 3: it was must have been a reaction to some news
Speaker 3: story that.
Speaker 1: Was really no, it was a reaction to Katie Couric
Speaker 1: said that what Muslims need is their own cosmic. There
Speaker 1: was a sound by a little headline a little side
Speaker 1: from so she said it seems that what Muslims need
Speaker 1: right now is their own you know, cosby show because
Speaker 1: it solved racisms.
Speaker 2: Right right.
Speaker 1: And so then we were like we're going to make
Speaker 1: that and then we're going to show it to people
Speaker 1: and see what they fake. And I just remember like
Speaker 1: we showed it to all the this this focus group,
Speaker 1: and and I remember one of the guys was like,
Speaker 1: I don't believe this family, and we're like why not.
Speaker 1: It was like, well, because they're just two Americans. They're
Speaker 1: not well, they need like they need like an uncle
Speaker 1: and the basement who lives with a goat and has
Speaker 1: a gun or something, you know, like literally it was
Speaker 1: like that. So we got the response was that if
Speaker 1: they were too American, then we didn't believe that they
Speaker 1: were Muslim, you know. So that was that was the
Speaker 1: sort of takeaway from the from the the Daily Show
Speaker 1: version of it. And then we did in the Family,
Speaker 1: which is a longer version.
Speaker 3: And uh, it's an election year. Yeah, do you remember
Speaker 3: going to the convention? Oh my god, your convention memories? Yeah,
Speaker 3: you like, would you like to be back doing it
Speaker 3: this year?
Speaker 1: Honestly? It's so depressing right now. What's happening is.
Speaker 2: Also different for us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're you know, back when you were doing it,
Speaker 3: we were still.
Speaker 2: No, we were you know what we were Actually, I
Speaker 2: take it back.
Speaker 3: You came into that and six we were already like
Speaker 3: we were already like on the map.
Speaker 1: My first convention was the two thousand and eight dnc
Speaker 1: UH in Denver when Obama was the nominee, right, and
Speaker 1: I yet to experience anything as crazy as that, Like
Speaker 1: it was we were if there was any ever a
Speaker 1: moment where I felt like being a Daily Correspondent was
Speaker 1: like being a beatle, Like it was like at the
Speaker 1: d n C when it was me Wriggle, Oliver Jones,
Speaker 1: Sam I think Wyatt was there, Yeah, and we couldn't
Speaker 1: even walk through the DNC. It was crazy, Like it
Speaker 1: was like because that was our audience, that whole everybody
Speaker 1: in that building were Daily Show fans. So we like
Speaker 1: we walked through that and I remember, like remember Lindsay
Speaker 1: Crystal and and she was our one of our director producers,
Speaker 1: and she was just like like she was trying to
Speaker 1: hold people back, like he were just like shoving people back,
Speaker 1: and she had me do that. Oh my god, it
Speaker 1: was horrible because she every dew was She said, okay,
Speaker 1: I want you to go down. Well, the fucking worst
Speaker 1: things about Like she said go down. All these press
Speaker 1: guys were on their laptops and she's like, I just
Speaker 1: want you to run through the whole line of people
Speaker 1: who were all like live on there and just shut
Speaker 1: their laptops as you walked by. And so I run through.
Speaker 1: It was like we were fearless, Like it was like
Speaker 1: I would run through this thing and I shot everyone's
Speaker 1: laptop and they're live, some of them alive broadcasting. Just
Speaker 1: shut up up. People were furious and I and the
Speaker 1: guy got up and started chasing me, and I remember
Speaker 1: Lindsey being like just she's like run, just running down
Speaker 1: the hall and there's a dude some report. He's like
Speaker 1: you motherfucker, and he said chasing me, and Lindsay like
Speaker 1: is hiding and I run into like who's uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I just I just was running into people and it
Speaker 1: was just like and I'm like literally hiding from this
Speaker 1: guy who was chasing me. At the DNC, it was
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 2: Crazy and they RNC.
Speaker 3: I don't think we even had the right credentials because
Speaker 3: that's if you remember, that's where Oliver met his wife.
Speaker 2: He hid him.
Speaker 3: She was they were running him and the crew were
Speaker 3: running from like security because they didn't have the proper credentials.
Speaker 2: They're like snugging or something.
Speaker 3: And she was there with some veterans group and her
Speaker 3: and her people like hid him in the crew in
Speaker 3: some room or something all in there and they got
Speaker 3: to know each other while they all waited.
Speaker 1: So crazy. That's that's a.
Speaker 2: Movie right there. Yeah. R n C was uh. I
Speaker 2: mean the Republicans also treat you guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well the Republicans also watched the show. That
Speaker 1: was the crazy thing. Like when I remember being at
Speaker 1: the r n C and uh some Republican uh person
Speaker 1: came up like they were like, forget who it was now,
Speaker 1: but they were basically like, can we get our client
Speaker 1: on the show? And I'm like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: Like they were fans of the show, and I thought
Speaker 1: they would hate us, but they were actually like, oh,
Speaker 1: we love we love the Daily Show. You know, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was all good and and uh and.
Speaker 3: So also also threw uh. I hate to say it,
Speaker 3: but the Republicans throw a better party.
Speaker 1: They did. They know, it was definitely.
Speaker 2: It was they had how to throw a party. The Republicans.
Speaker 1: The Democrats were the Democrats party was all like kegs
Speaker 1: and booze and stuff, and the Republicans had like ice
Speaker 1: sculptures and it was like champagne and stuff.
Speaker 2: And that, and then everything was really high end in DNC.
Speaker 3: It was just like there's royalty.
Speaker 1: I remember, it was like video games and like a keg.
Speaker 2: You know. So now you're doing.
Speaker 3: Evil Yeah, well yeah, you just finished four seasons.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you're hoping for more.
Speaker 1: I mean I think, look, the reality is that we
Speaker 1: are currently like the second most popular streaming show original
Speaker 1: streaming show anywhere, and the first two seasons were on
Speaker 1: Netflix and they're doing incredibly well, and so I think
Speaker 1: the cast and the creators would love for the show
Speaker 1: to get.
Speaker 3: And the first couple of seasons were on like regular
Speaker 3: broadcast CBS.
Speaker 1: First two seasons, well, no, the first season was on
Speaker 1: regular broadcast and then we moved to Paramount. But I
Speaker 1: think they you know, it's a really smart and cool show,
Speaker 1: and it was actually kind of more of a streamers
Speaker 1: type show, and I think being on a streamer gave
Speaker 1: us a lot of leverage and gave us a lot
Speaker 1: of room to play with things that we might not
Speaker 1: have been able to. We might have been restricted on
Speaker 1: network in terms of how much we could play with stuff.
Speaker 3: You know, did the Daily Show health right? Well, it's like,
Speaker 3: so you go from like real actor Daily Show back
Speaker 3: to like real actors, So like is there is there
Speaker 3: a do they help each other or is it just
Speaker 3: like this is like, this is this is basketball, this
Speaker 3: is football.
Speaker 2: They're both sports. But like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I mean, I always I've always, even my work on
Speaker 1: The Daily Show, I always considered an acting gig. It
Speaker 1: was never not at I was playing a character. I
Speaker 1: was playing a character who had my who had my name,
Speaker 1: you know, but he was a character and uh, you
Speaker 1: know he was way smarter than me, and have a
Speaker 1: bunch of writers that he you know, who writes stuff
Speaker 1: for him. But like he was a character that I
Speaker 1: so to me, it was always an acting gig and
Speaker 1: and you know it was. It was a tremendous experience.
Speaker 1: And I think coming off the Daily Show, people knew
Speaker 1: who I was in a way that that I didn't.
Speaker 1: I mean I went from like relative like obscurity, like
Speaker 1: a guy who's like been on low order and stuff,
Speaker 1: to like people actually knowing my name and knowing who
Speaker 1: it was. So it was a tremendous logic order.
Speaker 2: Man, you're like, you're no one in New York.
Speaker 3: If you're an actor in New York and you have
Speaker 3: you have to have been in at least one episode
Speaker 3: of Law Order or you might as.
Speaker 2: Well quit acting. I guess for you should wrap this
Speaker 2: up in a while.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Sure, Well hopefully you'll be you know, hopefully you'll be
Speaker 3: back again a stranger.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, absolutely, well it was great. I'm
Speaker 1: glad we got to chat.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Always a pleasure. Oh yeah, man, good right.
Speaker 3: The final season of Evil is streaming now exclusively on
Speaker 3: Paramount Plus. Thank you for listening to The Daily Show
Speaker 3: Ears edition. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 6: Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by
Speaker 6: searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: Watch The Daily Show weeknights at eleven.
Speaker 1: Ten Central on Comedy Central, and
Speaker 6: Stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus Paramount Podcasts