Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Daisy light it here. The Daily Show is
Speaker 1: on break for the holidays, but in the meantime we
Speaker 1: put together some special highlights for you. We'll be back
Speaker 1: in the new year on January seventh with all new episodes.
Speaker 2: What do you think about young people getting all of
Speaker 2: their information and entertainment from social media? I see no
Speaker 2: problem with it. Why would you? It seems great? Is
Speaker 2: that true? I mean, I don't know, because obviously TV
Speaker 2: is dying. Don't what? No, don't sir? Well, let me
Speaker 2: ask you a question in your mind, seeing as I
Speaker 2: work in television, will I die first? Because if that's
Speaker 2: the case, I don't mind. But but don't don't You
Speaker 2: still watch TV? But you just watch it on your
Speaker 2: on TikTok on your phone, right, But you understand that
Speaker 2: that's still TV. It's just you're watching it in a
Speaker 2: different uh delivery service. It's like heroin is heroin, whether
Speaker 2: you snort it or shoot it, it's it's still an
Speaker 2: opiate for the masses, as is television. You're just getting
Speaker 2: it in smaller bites, but it's it's still It's like
Speaker 2: it's still TV. We make it unless you have to
Speaker 2: look on your face like this poor boy. If he
Speaker 2: only knew the business he was in. Well, I hope
Speaker 2: we don't die quickly, but and stay, and you're here
Speaker 2: and we're making TV for you tonight. Welcome to the
Speaker 2: Daily Show. I'm your host, John Stewart, captain of this
Speaker 2: dying medium. Would you even say that to me? Gentlemen,
Speaker 2: tell me tonight? He said, Oh, I'm so happy to
Speaker 2: be here. You know your television is dying. I said,
Speaker 2: I am aware, and in fact I'm contributing to it.
Speaker 2: You're welcome. All of the.
Speaker 3: Interviews that you've had in these many years, there's the
Speaker 3: one that stands out.
Speaker 2: As the most profound. Oh, most profound interview. Well, so,
Speaker 2: I've interviewed people like literal dictators, like people that have
Speaker 2: killed people like Preve. I don't know if you remember
Speaker 2: Proves musharaff was the leader of Pakistan and this was
Speaker 2: a post nine to eleven so and al Qaeda had
Speaker 2: been threatening him with an assassination. Now, I've had great
Speaker 2: like Malala Yousaus and Bishop Desmond too, to Jimmy Carter,
Speaker 2: like people of pure goodness like you just they they
Speaker 2: vibrate on a different plane of kindness and goodness than
Speaker 2: most people and you can feel it on them. Uh,
Speaker 2: and then you have dictators slightly different vibe. So Pervez
Speaker 2: Musharp it was only memorable because so he was at
Speaker 2: the time the president of Pakistan and he was under
Speaker 2: assassination threat. He'd just written a book and it was
Speaker 2: his autobiography, I think, and so he came here to
Speaker 2: the show to promote it. And that day we had
Speaker 2: snipers on the roof, we had a K forty seven's
Speaker 2: in the hallway, guys marching, we had bomb dogs, we
Speaker 2: had I mean, it was a level of security that
Speaker 2: I had never seen before, and I realized, like, this
Speaker 2: man is risking his life to tell his story on
Speaker 2: this show. I should have read the book.
Speaker 4: That's what I remember thinking is I thought, oh shit,
Speaker 4: I feel terrible. Now here's this guy's He could die and.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to be like, so is Pakistan hot?
Speaker 2: Like I didn't know shit. But so the crazy part
Speaker 2: was even with all that security layer right in the
Speaker 2: studio they put a kevlar front on the desk, like
Speaker 2: this was no bullshit. This was Many of you are younger,
Speaker 2: so you don't remember after nine to eleven, like we
Speaker 2: all lost our minds. Safety wise. So they put a
Speaker 2: kevlar front on the Daily show desk and I'm in
Speaker 2: there and I'm looking at it, and I say, because
Speaker 2: there are secret service agents from both countries, America and
Speaker 2: Pakistan in the room. And I go, what's so? Tell
Speaker 2: me about this, what's going on? And they said, well,
Speaker 2: if somebody manages to get through any kind of security
Speaker 2: issues and try to assassinate President Musharaf, we will jump
Speaker 2: and push him down below the kevlar to protect him
Speaker 2: from the bullets. And I said, you know, funny thing is,
Speaker 2: I'm also, uh, you know, because you know, I understand
Speaker 2: he'll be there and then I'll be sitting there. What
Speaker 2: should I do without missing to be in New York City?
Speaker 2: Cop talk behind, he goes, should fucking duck.
Speaker 4: Watching TV?
Speaker 2: Oh dear god, Now you're these are one of those
Speaker 2: that are always rough. Because I was, like I was
Speaker 2: six years old. You would come on my paw and
Speaker 2: I I'm.
Speaker 1: Just curious, you know, knowing what you know now, you
Speaker 1: know if you went back to you know, the early nineties, Yeah,
Speaker 1: anything you would have advised us or done differently, like
Speaker 1: different guests, like somebody.
Speaker 2: That didn't cab or on the MTV program. You watched
Speaker 2: that show because here was like I think the guest,
Speaker 2: the first guest on the MTV show, the premiere episode.
Speaker 2: Now this is so I should explain to younger people
Speaker 2: in the artists. MTV was a cultural course in like
Speaker 2: the seventies and no in the eighties. I guess it
Speaker 2: started right with video killed the radio so or the Buggles,
Speaker 2: and then from there it was really cool. And then
Speaker 2: I don't know what they happened to it, but my
Speaker 2: first guest was Howard Stern was the first guest, and
Speaker 2: he came on and he said, you suck. The set
Speaker 2: looks ridiculous. You'll be canceled in six weeks. And I
Speaker 2: just sat there like, don't say that. But you know,
Speaker 2: it was such a different kind of show. I think
Speaker 2: the two guests on that first show were It was
Speaker 2: Howard Stern, a boy that ate cheese into the shape
Speaker 2: of states, who was referred to in all the production
Speaker 2: documents as cheese Boy. The crazy part is cheese Boy
Speaker 2: is probably like fifty Now cheese Boy is an ophthalmologist.
Speaker 2: But we had so much fun. But it was such
Speaker 2: a different ethos, and then we went to I was
Speaker 2: hired to replace our Sineo, which makes total sense, and
Speaker 2: so you can imagine how that went, and then that
Speaker 2: got canceled. I remember the last two weeks of that
Speaker 2: show were just chaos, like it's good that they took
Speaker 2: us off there because someone was gonna die. Like Marilyn
Speaker 2: Manson was on the show. He lit a fire during
Speaker 2: his performance, an actor smashed a mug and cut his
Speaker 2: hand wide open. And the final one was there was
Speaker 2: an act called The Birdman of Vegas, and the Birdman
Speaker 2: of Vegas had a condor act. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you've ever been around condors, they're gigantic. These they were
Speaker 2: probably like, there's my size, Not that I'm gigantic, but
Speaker 2: in the bird world, i'd be badass, Like like if
Speaker 2: I walk up on a pigeon, the pigeon'll be like,
Speaker 2: I don't wantny problems. But the bird, there's like six
Speaker 2: weeks so he's doing the bit, and the bit is
Speaker 2: his assistant is there and the condor will fly from
Speaker 2: his arm to the other and it's a giant bird
Speaker 2: with a wingspan of twelve feet and it flies over.
Speaker 2: But the bird apparently wasn't going to do that that day. Instead,
Speaker 2: what it did, is it flew into the audience, and
Speaker 2: so a giant condor just started pecking the shit like
Speaker 2: and then the audio and starts chanting.
Speaker 3: Sue them, sue them, and like and I'm just like
Speaker 3: I and we're really canceled. We were already canceled. I
Speaker 3: was just like, I will let the birds kill everyone.
Speaker 2: I don't give it. But that was that was the
Speaker 2: experience there. So if you say, like, would you have
Speaker 2: done anything differently, I'd be like, I guess I would
Speaker 2: have made sure the condors were leashed. How happy am
Speaker 2: I to be back tonight? You know, I don't know
Speaker 2: if any of you have ever had to slog it
Speaker 2: out one day a week like this. It is, you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know what you guys do. And I listen,
Speaker 2: this is not the disrespect your work ethic or any
Speaker 2: of the things that you are. But you know, it
Speaker 2: was around three o'clock today, three o'clock in the afternoon,
Speaker 2: and I remember turning and looking at somebody and saying,
Speaker 2: I just don't know how much longer I can do this,
Speaker 2: you know, because it was almost four. I mean, I thought, no,
Speaker 2: it's been I have to say it's it's been lovely.
Speaker 2: You know, I have been in hibernation for a few
Speaker 2: years with my family and I would never give that
Speaker 2: back like it was. It's been wonderful, and COVID played
Speaker 2: very much into my social leanings in terms of reclusiveness.
Speaker 2: So once a week is about right for me with
Speaker 2: people and for people with me. The best piece of advice, Wow,
Speaker 2: that is such an end of life question. That really
Speaker 2: is that nobody ever comes to, like a twenty two
Speaker 2: year old like best advice, and they're like, well, beer
Speaker 2: on liquor, never been sicker, all right, the best advice.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of good advice. I don't really
Speaker 2: I don't seek counsel in that way. Do you like
Speaker 2: a mentor? I didn't have a mentor. This was back
Speaker 2: in like late seventies, early eighties, so there were no mentors.
Speaker 2: I was raised feral, So I don't have a ton
Speaker 2: of a ton of advice. Oh here's one, this is
Speaker 2: a good one. So I used to host a show
Speaker 2: on MTV. It was a talk show, and then it
Speaker 2: got bought by Paramount to replace our Sineo. So I
Speaker 2: was the natural replacement for our Sineo. Because I think
Speaker 2: a lot of people are like, Hey, the hip African
Speaker 2: American guy, let's stick a maybe small jew in his
Speaker 2: place and see what happens. And so the show was
Speaker 2: on for like nine months and it got canceled and
Speaker 2: we were all very sad. And when your name is
Speaker 2: on it and they tell you to get out of
Speaker 2: the building, like, it's very hurtful. David Letterman came on
Speaker 2: the final show, and on the final show he said
Speaker 2: to me, don't confuse cancelation with failure. And I thought
Speaker 2: that was really interesting. And then in the commercial break
Speaker 2: he said, although this is also a failure. He just
Speaker 2: he just didn't want me to confuse it. The sale
Speaker 2: world where young people right now, No, you're good, you
Speaker 2: got so many we're gonna we're gonna ruin this so much.
Speaker 2: You have no idea what we've got plan. You are
Speaker 2: walking into thunderdome. Uh no, you're gonna Honestly, like we
Speaker 2: do this all the time every generation, like even the
Speaker 2: greatest generation, Like I mean they dropped atomic bombs on people,
Speaker 2: Like don't don't let the perspective. We always think that
Speaker 2: the world is at its worst in the moment that
Speaker 2: we're in it. But like you have to remain optimistic
Speaker 2: because the images that they present to us are to
Speaker 2: heighten your fear. That's how they make their Oh you're
Speaker 2: gonna love the show tonight. I found I'm gonna love
Speaker 2: the show. But so what do you what are you thinking?
Speaker 2: I think a lot of young people are a little
Speaker 2: bit not happy with the choice of tens another.
Speaker 1: I guess I feel like, as we our voice.
Speaker 2: Does it's matter? Oh? It so matters. Yeah, in fact,
Speaker 2: your voice is Can I tell you something about advertisers.
Speaker 2: Do you know that advertisers they look at different demographics,
Speaker 2: but the largest demographic that they look at is eighteen
Speaker 2: to twenty four. That's the one that means everything to them.
Speaker 2: Use that power, the power of the person. I'm sixty one,
Speaker 2: I'm not even listed anymore. Like they're literally companies would
Speaker 2: be like, what about people over fifty five? And they're like,
Speaker 2: I think they might be dead? Like, don't discount the
Speaker 2: power that you guys have. You have a tremendous amount,
Speaker 2: I would think on Instagram, I would tell them on Instagram, well,
Speaker 2: I don't know, this is the fight man. No generation
Speaker 2: ever feels empowered or seen or any of those things.
Speaker 2: But what I would suggest is trust your discomfort because
Speaker 2: you clearly feel it. But discomfort is a wonderful motivator.
Speaker 2: It's sort of the difference between stress and anxiety. Like
Speaker 2: action is the antidote to anxiety, and if you feel anxiety,
Speaker 2: it will lessen as you take action, small actions like
Speaker 2: a little bit every day. You know, I have young
Speaker 2: people that live in my house and I usually see
Speaker 2: them after three when they've woken up, and generally they
Speaker 2: just want me to make them a bagel. So it's different.
Speaker 2: But honestly, like that, discomfort will spur you on, I'm
Speaker 2: sure of it and your generation, and then you'll be
Speaker 2: in a position to save us. But you won't want
Speaker 2: to college campuses. You had a question about college campuses. Okay,
Speaker 2: so the cafeteria. If you want to go by the quad,
Speaker 2: you're gonna look for the quad. Usually the food is
Speaker 2: near the quad.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to.
Speaker 4: Navigation glad special election in college campuses and Indian conversations.
Speaker 2: Listen, the beautiful thing about college is that it's built
Speaker 2: for that. It's built for you to push the limits
Speaker 2: of who you think you are and who you think
Speaker 2: you want to be. And it's a wonderful experience. Uh.
Speaker 2: The thing that I would say to you is have
Speaker 2: the courage in the internal barometer that you've developed over
Speaker 2: the years for yourself about right and wrong, and don't
Speaker 2: necessarily just allow the conditions that you find yourself in
Speaker 2: to shape that you. You're here for a reason and
Speaker 2: you're that way for a reason, and be strong in
Speaker 2: that and learn be open to people, but be convicted.
Speaker 2: It's you know, it's a good I think it's a
Speaker 2: wonderful experience for kids, and I don't worry. But you know,
Speaker 2: gen Z, there's so shut down. You know. It's every
Speaker 2: generation is like that generation sucks. We were awesome, And
Speaker 2: I'm like, eh, I know my generation, like we were
Speaker 2: doing whippets in eleventh grade, like.
Speaker 4: You think everyone should have on their shelf.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a great question. And I really thought you
Speaker 2: were going to end it with what's a book? Because
Speaker 2: you get that a lot from the kids. Now, sir,
Speaker 2: I have a question, what's a book? And I was
Speaker 2: gonna it's like a movie you flip, I would say,
Speaker 2: So this may sound antiquated, was I feel like I
Speaker 2: was raised on Kurt Vonnegut and so any Kurt Vonnegut.
Speaker 2: I had the whole from player Piano, to Breakfast Champions,
Speaker 2: to Slaughterhouse Five, to you know, Mother and all of them.
Speaker 2: And he was my favorite author by far, and I
Speaker 2: felt like he educated me in in the genre of
Speaker 2: optimistic cynical humanism, like the thing that you're talking about,
Speaker 2: how do you maintain? So he's a guy who was
Speaker 2: an author, who came of age. He fought in World
Speaker 2: War Two, he saw Dresden. That's what Slaughterhouse five was about.
Speaker 2: It was about his experiences seeing the worst that people
Speaker 2: could do. And people always mistook his cynicism as or
Speaker 2: his I guess I should say his dryness as cynicism,
Speaker 2: but it was really idealism. He believed so much in
Speaker 2: people that he couldn't help but be somewhat disappointed that
Speaker 2: we were blowing it in the way that we were
Speaker 2: blowing it. But I would say, line your your desk
Speaker 2: with Kurt Bonnegut and and you cannot go wrong. And
Speaker 2: I was lucky enough to get to interview him when
Speaker 2: he was you know, hadn't passed away yet, no, but
Speaker 2: he came on and when he passed away, his son
Speaker 2: sent me. He was also a really wonderful caricaturist, sent
Speaker 2: me a doodle of his that he had inscribed to
Speaker 2: me before he passed. So it's one of my most
Speaker 2: cherished But I would say, Kurt Bonnagut, you can't go wrong,
Speaker 2: and like Playboy, you're wondering, you.
Speaker 1: Know, how do you maintain a sense of hope in
Speaker 1: levity when times.
Speaker 2: That's right? Mother? How do you see laughing? Right? How
Speaker 2: old are you? I'm nineteen, nineteen years old, and the
Speaker 2: world's already beat the shit out of here, and that
Speaker 2: it's always the young dudes that are like, I have
Speaker 2: a quick question, I'm nineteen years old when hope is gone,
Speaker 2: when the darkness slowly creeps down. Uh, I'm sixty one,
Speaker 2: so I'm already an injury time like so I'm I'm
Speaker 2: I'm good. I'm actually weirdly always optimistic. We go. I
Speaker 2: think maybe that is the horizon of history. I came
Speaker 2: up at a time in the sixties where we had
Speaker 2: all these great leaders and we killed all of them,
Speaker 2: every single one, and then we went to Vietnam and
Speaker 2: law and then Watergate, like shit was just unraveling. So
Speaker 2: I do think it gives you a sense of oh,
Speaker 2: it's always a mess, like and and what that makes
Speaker 2: you realize is Oh so it's just it's just that's
Speaker 2: the game. We buckled down, you gotta lunch pail it,
Speaker 2: and you carried through like you're nineteen, Like you'll someday
Speaker 2: when you're sixty one and people be saying like, how
Speaker 2: do you maintain optimism and be like, you have no
Speaker 2: fucking idea what it was like when I was kid,
Speaker 2: Like you will be that guy to be able to say, like,
Speaker 2: you think it bad now and obviously, look it is.
Speaker 2: These are tenuous times and maybe even we'll talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about that on the program. And I'm a
Speaker 2: terrible times the good thing, no, but because part of
Speaker 2: the issue is like you just want someone to talk
Speaker 2: to you like you're a human, like you're an adult,
Speaker 2: not like they're like it's a work, not like it's
Speaker 2: they're they're spinning you or any of those. That's my
Speaker 2: biggest complaint with all of this. Nobody expects perfection. Everybody
Speaker 2: knows that the obstacles and and all the things that
Speaker 2: are going to be thrown in front of us are
Speaker 2: going to be arduous. That's life, Like, it's life is hard,
Speaker 2: you know, but you just want someone to not bullshit
Speaker 2: you when what you know you see and hear is
Speaker 2: what you've seen? Like, that's all that that you can
Speaker 2: really do? But how do you maintain So you're nineteen?
Speaker 2: So are your friends optimistic or pessimistic? Or do they
Speaker 2: not talk about it? Or are they just on discord
Speaker 2: being racist? What is going on? God?
Speaker 3: I mean, I think a lot of people are pessimistic.
Speaker 1: I mean, how do I maintain optimism?
Speaker 2: Yes? I try to laugh.
Speaker 1: I watched the.
Speaker 2: Daily Show you so here's the only thing I would say.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you do that, But really we write it
Speaker 2: for eight year olds. Nineteen is a little above our
Speaker 2: pay grade, But is it? I do? I do remember nineteen?
Speaker 2: Like that age, there is a certain existential anxiety that
Speaker 2: creeps in because the world does listen. It feels out
Speaker 2: of control. You probably know more about it now than
Speaker 2: we did when I think. One of the things that's
Speaker 2: probably harder for kids now is you are the amount
Speaker 2: of information that you absorb is probably But I would
Speaker 2: imagine hopefully your brains will evolve to you know, because
Speaker 2: when I was a kid, like TV happened and everybody's
Speaker 2: like that will run. Don't sit in front of the
Speaker 2: TV and eat and just watch TV and now, you'd
Speaker 2: be so happy if your children would do that. Right,
Speaker 2: you just be like, don't send pictures of your dick
Speaker 2: to people like