The Daily Beast Podcast - Why Trump’s No Laughing Matter—Even for Me: Comic

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

Comedian Zarna Garg joins Joanna Coles to explore why she avoids political comedy, the pressures of Indian-American family expectations, and the surprising ways the Indian community relates to figures like Trump and Modi. Along with her daughter Zoya, Zarna traces the intersection of heritage, ambition, and representation, from Bollywood-inspired bravado to the delicate balance of supporting daughters marrying across faiths. Along the way, Garg reflects on mentorship, collaboration with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and the lessons that have shaped her career. It’s a conversation that’s at once personal, political, and profoundly revealing—how does heritage shape ambition in America? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Empecies your period of a month in Shopify. coms bar records. So Indian community has not had the problems with Trump in the way that America has. Because we don't, me personally, I don't think he should be doing things the way he's doing that. I have a problem with his execution.

I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. We've got advice for you from the only Indian family that has a family podcast. I'm talking, of course, about the Zags. Zana Zag is the matriarch. Zoya is her daughter. They're also going to give you a different perspective on Ushavans and how J.D. is fully integrated into a Hindu lifestyle. And, well, they're just going to blow your mind about many, many things

and give you a good laugh. So are you tempted to do... The shows I've seen that you've done haven't been political. No. Are you tempted to do politics at all? I have a lot of political opinions, but I try not to do. do it. I don't do political comedy because it feels like every other comic

wants to. You know, the space that I'm in, nobody seems to want to be in. There are so many brown comics today that are married, but they don't want to talk about their mother-in-laws. Right. They're too afraid. So I feel like...

So you're going there. So actually, that's the elephant in the world. It's easier to take on Trump than it is your own mother-in-law. You're an Indian mom. Another Indian mom. Yeah. Must be feeling very proud. Her son at the age of 34 got elected mayor of New York. I'm obviously talking about Mira Naya, the filmmaker.

Yeah. What do you think she's thinking? She's probably so happy. I mean, look, he's not a doctor, so there's a limit to how much she can feel pride. But New York City mayor not bad. And I think she's so happy. I think she has a lot of faith in her son. You can see it in the images.

And we actually, you know, Zoran is. is an alum of my high school. Yeah, he went to Bronx Science. And so my high school is incredibly happy for him, even though he has his own issues with my school and the specialized testing program that gets them into those schools. Which he wants to now get rid of, right? He wants to get rid of, which I really strongly hope that he reconsidered

because I think that program is one of the few meritocratic systems that exists in America. Of course, it has its own issues in terms of, like, certain students can get certain levels of tutoring, but it's also one of the few things where it's, just a test. There's no other way to get in. I think that America needs more of those. But one thing that I found so special was at the end when he got elected, his family came out, his beautiful Indian parents, and they played through Machale, which is a very Bollywood song. It's like a remix. And no matter who you voted for, to just hear that song played with a big American audience

in the most important city in the country, I was so, I almost cried. I mean, I I was just like, I cannot believe that this song is going to be listened to by so many people. And, like, I grew up. We grew up hearing that. That's a song that's played at Indian weddings, you know, like, and only at Indian weddings. You wouldn't hear it anywhere else. And so it was just really special. Yeah.

But I'm sure Mira is excited, ecstatic, and probably a little nervous. Yeah. Politics, as we know, is not, it's not like fun in games. Winning is a big thing, but it's the start. Is she going to move into Gracie Mansion with him, the mayor's residence? Probably. She's a mother-in-law at the end of the day. You know what I mean? He's watching that whole situation. Yeah, she's watching. I'm sure she's asking him where when are the grandkids coming? Listen, all the things that every mother-in-law, including me, I will be doing.

If I was running for mayor and she is my mom. I think one day you might run for that. Well, listen, let it be known. I would love to get into politics one day. But I- No, she's not getting into politics. I know. Nobody has heard that. See, okay, I know that if I was running for mayor, I would be hovered upon 24. I know she would move in. I know that she would be checking everything that I wrote and said. I know she'd be grading me on what I said, right? This was actually a B grade, what you said in that interview.

That wasn't very good. That's exactly what would happen. And I'm sure his mom was treating him the same way until the moment he got elected. I'm sure there was like pressure on him at the highest level. You know? It's like you weren't a doctor. You may as well be the mayor. Yeah.

That's what she was saying. Do something, Zoran. So you also spent two years opening for Amy Polar and Tina Furrow. What did you learn in that experience? I learned that women not only can, but should work together. So to watch these two iconic comedic powerhouses, it is clear to me that one would not, neither would become who they became without the other's friendship.

So even though they have their own production companies, they have their own projects, the fact that they have each other in their corners has been their superpower. And I came up in a generation where work and friends don't mix, business and family don't mix. Working with them and watching them in close quarters gave me the confidence that that is actually outdated at the very least, if not completely wrong. In a world where so many women are working now and out there building their own projects, building their own companies, we have to work together. And we will find ways to be collaborative and not competitive.

And I really learned, I mean, working with them was bittersweet. One, the sweetest part is just having that experience. And also knowing that they, they could have had anybody. They're Tina Faye, the Amy Poehler. The vote of confidence, they also on the back of my book. I mean, so they could have had. And Amy Poehler invited us on her podcast. She invited me too, which she did not have to do.

And she was so inviting and so welcoming. And both times I met them at the shows, they just could not speak more highly of your talent, which was really, like, special. I mean, I just still get goosebumps talking about that. And also, I think it's really funny we talked about it in the Amy episode, but she's obsessed with anneagrams. Do you know what the anneagram exam is and, like, scoring?

And Tina and FAA and I had the same score, and you had the same score as Amy. And I just thought that was so sweet that they just are, you know. No, but I learned, I really learned that women have to collaborate because the success is unmatched if you find that little part of women who can support each other. And also not just support,

like you don't have to, sometimes it's just a word of encouragement where you think you had the worst day ever and you need somebody who understands who can help you get through it. It has been, and also you can have big ambitions. I learned from them.

They run huge companies. They produce so many projects. It was eye-opening to work. watch how they do it. Like, they, they don't involve themselves in the low-grade decisions anymore. Like, that's something I learned up close, that even as they're artists and they truly are, like, you know, they are running proper businesses. They are running proper businesses with proper structures and systems in place.

So I, you know, I was already ambitious when I got into this business, and it kind of scaled a thousand levels up, just watching them and how they did it. I feel a little sad because I don't know if I would ever have a friend who would be my equal that way. That's why she's like my little. Did you just call his friends? No. No, she didn't. Was that affection?

She just sort of. Did you, that was the closest. I just want everyone to know. That little tap, that's the most we've ever gone. Oh, well, I'm proud that we got it. I know. I mean, thank you, daily, please. You're on the wait list.

Oh, yeah. One of the funniest moments on our family podcast is I, she's my best. friend. Everybody on the internet knows that. Everybody in my world knows that. It's been true since I was 12. I remember when I had a crush on a guy. I was in middle school. I had a crush on a guy. And I knew that he would want to hang out with me if he met my mom because she would make him laugh. This was way before she was a stand-of-comedian. So I was like, oh, do you want to get pizza in my house? And what I did was like, mom, like for these two hours, can you just be hovering in the living room so we can make conversation? And he had a crush on me back, probably because she was so funny. That's good. People like to

I know, and people also like to avoid meeting the parents, obviously, because they're usually so awkward and embarrassing. But in my case, it was like she was so funny. But, yeah, I'm on the wait list to be her best friend. And I'm consistently reminded of that. And based on my actions in the business, if I do well, I rise, but sometimes I fall. Have you ever made the top of the wait list? No. That's always been the eldest son, my brother.

Yeah. It's hard to beat him. He's very handsome. What can you do? Yeah, I have a lot of people on that. wait list. You might be on that wait list. I want to be on the wait list. I want to get higher up the wait list. You're higher than Zoya. We'll exchange. We'll exchange notes. You two can form a support group. We could form our own friendship. Yes. And then we can create some leverage. Yes. We need that.

See women working together. Collaboration. Collaboration. I can give you a hot take. I mean, the Indian community loves Trump. It is what it is. The Indian community loves Trump. We don't have the problems with him that a lot of people in America have. Why is that? Well, first of all, all our politicians are crooked back home. So that just seems to be a job requirement. I mean, like, they're like, of course he's a criminal. They all are. Nobody who's not a criminal wants to do this job. Right. Interesting. So we're kind of comfortable with that. You know what I mean? Like, of course he's cheated on his wife. They all do.

So we don't even consider any of those issues. Now when it comes to immigration, Indian people by and large are legal immigrants in America, which means it was years of waiting, years of applying paperwork,

hundreds and thousands of verifications and submit this and submit that. So the whole illegal immigration thing was something that we never really got on board with. We did not understand what was happening during the Biden administration. We could not understand why they were not taking this seriously.

Because we all, ask any Indian person, we have relatives who've been waiting 15 years in line because that's the right thing to do. And then yet it felt like anybody who was breaking the law was getting rewarded. So Indian community has not had the problems with Trump in the way that America has. because we don't, me personally,

I don't think he should be doing things the way he's doing them. I have a problem with his execution, but a lot of the problems that he has highlighted are real problems. And just saying that the problem doesn't exist is not going to make them go away. So let me ask you about Ushavans.

Yes, let's talk about Ushavans. I have a lot of thoughts on her. I want to hear what the Indian community makes of Ushavans. Yeah, I mean, I, I think Ushavance is very aspirational, especially as a girl that's dating American guys. She makes me feel confident that it's not abnormal to be in an interracial relationship, that it's not abnormal to have conservative points of view. I think it's really special that there's actually one that's taken such a public position.

Her kids are, you know, out there on Instagram constantly. And I think it's really actually a good thing for America. What did you make of his comment that he hoped that she would convert to Christianity? I think it was taken out of turn because if that was really true, if he meant it in that fully saturated way, then there's no way that they would have gotten married, right? Like that's a decision that has been made 20 years ago, I would say. And I think the idea that he is so afraid of her faith and her decision to not convert, there's no way that they would be together

and have kids at this point. I mean, I just feel like objectively. We had a Hindu Pandit at every day. And I've seen him in the outfits. Those outfits when he's wearing Hindu Hindu-Kat. First of all, if he truly needs her to convert, like Hindu-Hindusom is the most liberal religion.

Please go. We got a billion and a half. We're never worried about losing a number. That's not our issue. We have too many. We're embarrassed. But I don't think. think it was, look, he's a politician, right?

Yeah. So he's got to say things a certain way so that his base is not upset. We are looking at the reality of what we're seeing. We actually, I have friends who are friends with them in real life. Because they're both Yale professors. Yale graduates. Yale graduates. And like, from what we know personally, what little and from a far distance,

he's fully integrated into her Hindu life. Like the kids eat Indian food. The in-laws come and go out of the house. So I don't think it's this dramatic. I think he may have meant it as a, you know, I wish she did. But like my husband wishes I did a hundred things. Right. Like, I wish she talked to my mother.

Like, not happening. And none of this is to say that he's a saint and that he doesn't have problematic positions. Nobody's perfect. Have we not learned that? Hold on one second. We're just going to take an outbreak. and I'm back. What are Ushah's parents who are Democrats?

What are they thinking? Are they just thrilled their daughters married to the vice president? Do they have anxiety about his positions? Do you think? I mean, they were very avowedly Democrats. And they're first, obviously, they're immigrants. Yeah. I mean, I think that they trust their daughter.

Do you trust me? No, no. But you have shown very poor judgment. Because, like, do you see what just happened there? That was such a moment of, like, Wow, my mom is so accepting, but then completely contradicts with my life. You sometimes agree with your dad, which is the first sign. You married my dad, so I'm supposed to actually trust your judgment.

I think they trusted their daughter. I think they trust that the big picture will work out, even though there will be disagreements along the way. And I think that that's what we've lost in America as a whole. 100%. Every little disagreement seems to threaten the relationship. relationship at large. You can't go on like that. And that it's all or nothing that if she does marry a conservative man, then it's gone. She's out, right? Like, I'm glad to see that that has changed in our own culture. When you look at the pictures of her, the photos of her, do you think she looks cheerful? It's a good question. We're Indian people. We're not cheerful. I see her stress, but I feel like she's stressed about if her kids are doing well in math. I feel like her stress is more to do. If you see, listen, an Indian kid pretty much wins the national's Bellingby every year. Have you seen what that kid looks like in the end? There is no smile.

He looks like he's going to pass out. Just 15 year old kid, 12 year old kid looks like he's about to have a heart attack and his mother is proud. She's like, look how hard I worked him. Yeah. No one's smiling. Okay, so we're looking for the wrong thing. Listen, I do think that the media can tend to skew one way. That if they don't see every marker of how they see things, something's wrong. Indian people, if you look at it, are wedding photos, now one person's smiling. My own wedding photo. Everybody's crying.

Yeah. Why? But I also think it's going to... I think it's going to really shake up the snow globe for the conservative party of like what does it mean? Like, what does this mean for our policies? Does this mean that we're going to accept Ushut? Because I think

they're going to make a presidential run. Of course. And so I'm really curious to see... And she is going to be Indian and she's going to be Hindu wherever she is. Yeah. Whether she can words or not is irrelevant. You're not taking 50 years of Hinduism out of somebody because she decided today.

You know, she comes from a value system that is so textbook Indian. Yeah, 100%. You know, extreme academic giftedness, having that traditional marriage, having the children, having the parents around all the time, you cannot be more Indian than

Ushah Vance. And that's not going to change no matter what church she prays to or doesn't pray to. Indian people, we are in and out of every culture's Like, India is a very secular nation like that. Yeah, it is. I grew up going to school with Jewish people, with Catholic people, with Christian people. We have, because we're so many, people forget how many of each culture we have.

There's 300 million Muslims in India, more than any other country on earth. And I think that's why also the Indian community found so much resonance with Trump, because, or President Trump, because my dad, for example, never took an American history class. He's never taken an American history class in his life, not because he's not, very well educated. He went to IAT, which is like the Harvard Stanford of India. But it's just not prioritized in the curriculum, right? There are other things like STEM or, yeah, or like philosophy is like, oh my God, he didn't even know. He still doesn't know what classics is. I think he's like, what is classics? What of my daughter study at Stanford? And so what was admirable was that

President Trump could be seen as like a business person, because that is something that Indian people can understand and aspire to in their own families constantly. So that real image, really did win favor with a lot of Indian people support Indian people. And I know I'll get a lot of hate. She'll get, we'll get hate for it because it's not cool to support her. And I'm not saying we support him. I'm saying our community understands. Like we expect them all to be liars. Right. So you expect them to be corrupt. You expect them to be liars. That's a given. Right. It's like, it's like how we were talking about acting, right? Indian people don't like no proper Indian person is trying to be an actor.

So we expect that this person probably failed out of everything else. This is their last hope. Also, I think Indian people are very used to bravado in like an extreme sense, right? Like Prime Minister Modi is a very, like, he's playing the entertainment card in his political run. I mean, he takes photos on mountains and like just has, like, you look at his Instagram and it's like, it's like not propaganda, but it's very positioned in a certain kind of way. And you learn from the Americans, by the way. Yeah. He's like, this works.

He's using Bollywood inspiration to run his own campaign. So we're very familiar with, like, the merging of, like, this entertainment-type bravado with politics. And I think that is something that we are familiar with. Yeah. I mean, Modi did a whole photo up in a cave, in a mountain. Yeah. It's like an extremely high elevation where he got in religious clothing and just posed as a yogi. Yeah.

Like, you know, listen, he's like, they like to see. And then he did a photo up in scuba gear. Yeah. To look young. Yeah, he did. And it got millions of likes on Instagram. And like all of Instagram broke for a day because India was so up in arms about this photo. But it's like a borderline thirst trap.

It's a borderline thirst trap. And he is single. And he is single. So people are always like, well, you know, you never know. I wonder how many Indian women slide in his DMs. But we don't. I will tell you that during the Biden administration, we were the Indian community, the immigrant community that got work visas and stuff to come here was like how is this going on

like what is happening at the south border and the north border like i do a lot of international touring so i meet people abroad constantly and yes they make fun of trump yes they do all of that for sure especially the europeans they love trashy on trump and they're right for a lot of it but they all were like what is going on with your border like you cannot just walk into switzerland right you just cannot. You cannot just walk into Canada. Forget anybody else. You cannot walk into India. My son is extremely liberal on some topics. We went to India. I'm also extremely liberal. Yeah. And we went to India. For the record. We went to India a few months ago. He was blown away with the amount of security at the Indian border we had to go through as overseas citizens that we all

are. He was blown away. It took a good 20 minutes for all of us to, to, to, to, to, to, to get through clearance. So people, as much as they make fun of him, they were like, but how is it that people are just walking in? Also, misinformation is not something the Indian community generally cares about. That's interesting. I think what the Indian community cares a lot about is, like, just actions, like seeing things change, seeing things move.

They, like, they already, I think you spoke to this, but, like, there's so much misinformation in India constantly. Even, like, one of the biggest magazines, like, the most important newspaper in India, couldn't get accurate where she in America was from. There was like, my book has chapters of how I spend years in Akron, Ohio, and in the reviews they're like she was in Detroit. And this is like, this is the New York Times of India.

This was in every newspaper, and they got it wrong where she was from. They were like, she hails from Michigan, and we were like, what? When was she in Michigan? Right. So interesting. And so I don't care. And I was trying to be polite and actually make them aware that they'd made this. I was thinking, at least on the digital, they can fix this.

And they were like, oh, it makes no difference. That was the response. It's just wild. We're just going to take some messages from our sponsors. And we're back. It's so interesting getting your point of view because it's so different to the point of view we normally think about, especially around Usha and her parents and Mammar. It's fantastic.

They're going to be bringing their Indian ethos wherever they go. And I hope they do. I really, like, I really admire Ushah Vans. I really, really admire her. And, like, I hope that there are more Ushah Vance equivalence in all political parties. On both sides, on all sides. Like, we were very excited when the Obamas were elected, too. We were like, it's new and it's different.

It's like they're really, like, breaking barriers in, not in the cliched way. Like, but look at what they've done, what they've done since. So we want change on both sides. But we're not there to vilify. Like the Trumps have done, the Trumps, I now say plural because the kids are also doing so, you know. Yeah. Speak about family business. I mean, truly, and even in that regard, it's aspirational.

What, for example, like this peace negotiated deal between that they were able to get the hostages out. That was a family affair. I will tell you, nobody abroad was afraid of Biden or Harris. But everybody is afraid of Trump. That's something you hear everywhere you go. Like, he's crazy. He can do anything. I haven't even asked you about Kamala Harris, but she's half Indian to do.

How did you feel about Kamala? So I was a little disappointed with how little she actually claimed that part of her identity and her political run. It was a lot about how, you know, she represents the black community, which she absolutely does, and that's not to take away from that. But her name is Indian. Kamala, it's Kamala, right? That's how you pronounce it in Hindi. Lotus. It means lotus.

And so I felt like she didn't do a lot, actually, to, like, mobilize the Indian American effort, not to criticize her and her campaign, but I think that would be objectively true. I think it was not a priority. I think she had to choose because she had so many identities and so little time. Yes. That she had to make a choice. Who are you going to go for? Who are you targeting?

And, I mean, she's brilliant. She's a brilliant woman. And, again, very textbook Indian, you know, academic, professional job, succeeded at a a professional job for many years. Lawyer. Yeah, lawyer. And, you know, we thought she was great. And had she been president,

we would have been equally as supportive of her. Right. As we are, with Trump, we don't, we are not sitting there. The hate that we saw for him, we felt like the liberal side was getting vicious. We saw that actually

Charlie Kirk's death. All my kids are public school kids, right? I remember my little one was in school when he shot. And then when the kids all came out, middle school kids, they all, you know, fired up their phones and they all saw the actual shooting. And he saw all these girls celebrating. Yeah. The death. Right. And it felt like it's, it's okay. You don't have to like him. You don't have to agree with him. But it just felt so mean. And he came home so shaken. He's like, I can't believe they

were all like, yeah, yeah, watch the shooting again. Well, not just that. What's even more frightening about that is Veer, the youngest of the Gargs. He's 13, and he's on our podcast, and he's a beloved point of view on our podcast. I mean, he's always getting A-grades from our audience. He's putting his perspective on things on the internet every single day, on really tough topics, and the idea behind that is to show that any person of any age should be using their right to speak up. And from our point of view, as people who are podcasting, who are putting our thoughts online, for someone to celebrate someone else who did that very freely and then got murdered for it, that was so frightening to my little brother, as it should be.

To all of us. To all of us. It was terrifying. And like, for that to be celebrated with his classmates in middle school, which was actively happening. He came back from school and he was like, Dedi, I've never seen the girls in my grade so happy. And that is a result in my opinion of TikTok. Like, TikTok has made these narratives like fed to these girls. where it's like, oh, like, the guy who is pro-life is now gone, so like abortion rights are now more safe.

And it's like, that's not what's happening here, actually. And so that was very disappointing. And the Trump's, not to bring them back, but they were a New York City family, right? We have so many friends in common. I have so many friends. The one thing we never saw the Trump kids do is be drinking, be slobbering all over town. We never saw any of that with any of the Trumps. We know so many rich people in New York.

Generally, the kids of extreme privilege, you see them, you know, doing stupid, crazy things. We hear about it. There are parties where this thing happened and an ambulance was called because this kid OD'd on this and that. We never heard or saw any of that with any of the Trump kids. They must have done other things. But I remember before he even became president, it was always like the Trump kids are the serious kids, like whatever they're doing.

And maybe they're doing bad things. I don't know what they were serious about. But the one thing we didn't see was, in fact, the funniest thing, I think I saw Melania once. If I'm not mistaken, I did at Lulu Lemon trying to return an $8 headband. I was like, am I hallucinating? This is really happening. So we, as a New York family, also have had our opinions on him. And a lot of people who dealt with him in real estate have their opinions.

Because they had all those interactions. We didn't have those interactions. But just as a parent, I remember when we were in private school, we were in a world where we would talk about each other's kids. Like, you know, this big bar mitzvah, a million-dollar bar mitzvah, and like what happened there? Or this kid rented out the whole something sweet at the Knicks, wherever they play or whatever. Right. But we never heard any of that with these guys. Well, listen, this is fantastic.

It's a different perspective on how to think about our second lady. It's certainly given me completely different way to think about things. If you haven't done, subscribe to the Daily Beast. Please leave us a comment or a review wherever you get your podcast and join the Daily Beast community on YouTube for lots of extra content, especially from these guys. And if you haven't been this week, be Beast. And thank you to our Beast tier of members.

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