The Daily Show: Ears Edition - A Conversation with TDS | Jon Stewart & Team Talk Evolving the Show, Processing Trump 2.0 - FYC

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Jon Stewart, Desi Lydic, Michael Kosta, Ronny Chieng, and Jordan Klepper discuss evolving The Daily Show for a digital age, covering the 2024 election, and tackling another Trump era.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Mass deportations. Potential measles outbreak. Grabbing Panama by the canal. RIP to DEI. Invading Greenland. Professional wrestling. Takeover Gaza. Tariffs. What was I talking about? Donald Trump.

Elon Musk. Joe Biden. Melania. F***ing bank! Now let's focus on the price of eggs. You asked for it, we listened. The Democrats acted like Republicans for the last four months. They wore camo hats and went to Cheney family reunions.

Do you know how dangerous it is to wear a hunting hat around Cheney's? We have been so concerned about all the scary things that Trump's gonna do. We forgot he's also gonna do some really stupid things. If you've been tuning out the presidential campaign so far, I get it. It's boring. My grandpa is also a rambling 80-year-old man. And let me tell you, I keep half an ear open for the word inheritance and I just ignore everything else.

It used to be that you had to commit a crime to be pardoned, but now Biden has to do this weird, like, minority report tree pardon thing, where it's like, hey, we know you didn't do anything, but Trump thinks you did something, so I'm gonna pardon you for anything you did, even though you didn't do it. It's what our founders would have wanted.

Think about how strange this moment is. I mean, years from now children will be reading about this in history books. I mean not in Florida. You want Dems to take action? They gotta give Trump some action. You want Dems to stop jerking off and get to work? They gotta get to work jerking him off. Yeah, no, I get it. I get where you're going. I get it. Yeah. I bet you get it, you sex monster. Damn it.

It's a letter from Donald Trump. Dear Troy, I saw you on TV, so you are now the new secretary of the interior. You're not qualified to run the interior. I'm gay, Jordan. He obviously thinks the head of interior is a decorating job. There's wallpaper swatches in here. These tariffs are gonna help out all my N words.

You're, you're... My net gains, Kosta. Right, right, of course. Of course, your net gains. Hey, hey, you're not an economist. That's not your word to say, okay? You got a truck you wanna show me? I wish the world a better place because I was here.

Jesus Christ, President Trump. Same funds, huh? Yeah. Chattery, you're not worried about that whole worshiping false idols thing? Not at all. Yeah. Please welcome to the program, Pete Buttigieg.

Gabrielle Union. Ed Helms. Alevin Moss-McGuire. Coleman Domingo. Governor Josh Shapiro. Paul W. Downs. Mark Kelein. Coleman Domingo. Governor Josh Shapiro. Paul W. Downs. Mark Carney. Ray.

Wes Moore. Mark Cuban. Jason Segal. Francis Ford Coppola. Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Connie Chow. Maya Hawk. Aubrey Plaza.

The Amazing Linda Lindas. Steve Bomber. Jesse Eisenberg. Huy Kwan. Jessica Williams. I just signed on for another year. With your doctors? With the network.

Oh my God, you crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You'reberg. He week one. Jessica Williams. I just signed on for another year. With your doctors? With the network. Oh my god, you crazy. You think you're going to live for another year? Trump has ushered in the purge.

You should celebrate. What's running? Someone likes to kink shame, don't they? Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew! ["Sexy Girl's Dance"] ["Sexy Girl's Dance"] ["Sexy Girl's Dance"] Welcome to our panel. Thanks, John.

As you can see... Thank you, John. Thanks, John. I'm remarkably prepared... with questions that I wrote... Yes. ...for all of you. Thanks for everybody coming.

This is full room. We didn't know what was on the other side of the door, so of you. Thanks for everybody coming. This is full room. We didn't know what was on the other side of the door, so thank you. You know what we're gonna say? This is nice. They could be anywhere on a Saturday. Like if this were New York,

a Saturday afternoon in this kind of weather, I don't think we would come to this. We would not be here. No way. But I just want to get in. We don't have that much time, and I know that there's a lot of interest, and I But I just want to get in, we don't have that much time and I know that there's a lot of interest and I want to just get to the questions and I'm just gonna do them sort of in order. The first question is for Ronnie. Why is

it that your name appears so often on the Epstein list? Wow. look the 90s was a weird time you know things were different it was things happened things happened and you know in show business I don't know yeah yeah I don't know how it went actually this does get in Kosta you were you were hosting Kosta you were on the Epstein List no no no you were hosting this week so this this is something that I want to talk because I think it's interesting for everybody and I'm interested in how you guys deal with it. There was a great deal of preparation that went into the week.

There was a great deal of preparation that went into each day. You had all these bits lined up, and then in the middle of the day, around 2 p.m., a young man by the name of Elon Musk decides to use the platform that he has purchased to, and I don't know if this was his intention, to blow up the show. Correct. Yeah. What is that for people that are watching? Because you see it, it all looks kind of effortless.

People don't realize sort of what maybe goes into all that preparation, all those different things, the writers, the producers, all the different people that are putting it together. When at two o'clock in the afternoon, somebody just goes, shh. Right. What did that feel like?

This week, and I know all my co-hosts have experienced the same, and the same for you, John, for all the years you've hosted, but this week we did rehearsal at 2.45. We covered Trump's travel ban. We covered that he appointed a 22-year-old boy as his anti-terror expert that had an eyeball raised in his head shot.

And then I went upstairs to get my dog to bring him down to the rewrite room. And by the time I went to the rewrite room, they said, Trump and Elon are in a Twitter fight. We're starting over. And then you're back to the blank cursor blinking on a computer screen and man that's like my favorite part of the Daily Show when you realize how good the machine is that we just wiped the show which was a funny show it was a funny

show it was a funny rehearsal thank you very much and And... Wait, you rehearse? I rehearse. And it is so impressive. I'm in awe of The Daily Show that they created in new graphics, new sound bites, new jokes, and put on a great show. And it's just so cool that we didn't back down and avoid that and do the show that was good, but we challenged ourselves,

and that's what they do all the time, and that's what's so fun to be proud of, yeah. Can I throw a question off that to you? You ready for this? This is going to be so awesome. You ready for this? No, I got a fucking whole thing here. This is what the new athletic show does.

Put it down, Stuart, put it down. Damn it. Get out the, Stuart. Put it down. Get out the shredder. Put it down. I feel like this is commonplace for us in the Trump era. Biden was so much easier. They'd let you know a month in advance. Yeah.

He's going to have trouble at this one press conference. Make sure you have a camera there. You came you took a little break right? I had to get to know my family. You had to get to yeah your family time as you call it right? They turned out to be lovely. It turned out to be lovely. Coming back into a Trump world where where you hadn't been covering day in and day out, were you expecting the change in the way the show had to sort of run in the day to day? Was that different than your expectations walking back into the show?

It's a funny question because a lot of the people that were there in 2015 when I left are still there. And they were phenomenal but it's you go away for a little bit and you come back and they're faster stronger taller better smarter funny like I walked back into the room and I was all the people that I'm used to seeing like you kind of you go away you don't realize and I was blown away at how they had taken even the level. You know what it reminds me of is,

so when I was in college I played soccer and we thought we were pretty good. And then I went back like 30 years later to watch my old college team play and their team sucked. Like we were probably nationally ranked top 20 team in the country. I went back, they sucked 30 years later. But they would have beaten the shit out of our team.

Like they were so much faster, stronger, more athletic. And that's how I felt about coming back to the show is, everyone had taken it to that next level. And I think probably out of necessity, having been through the first, what was it like in the first Trombera and is it different now than what you experienced in that first one? Well, first of all, we're faster,

it's performance enhancing drugs. That's what it is, you know? That I did not know. That is, I mean, I think, I remember hosting, it was, I mean, hilariously, we did a live show this year during the, uh, the Republican National Convention. And I remember us thinking like, oh shit, we have to write this show. It's always fun doing a live show because you are crafting it as the news is coming

in and then Hulk Hogan takes the stage and you're like, we're going to be fucking fine. But America, America's like, oh, that guy, that's Hulk Hogan takes the stage and you're like, we're gonna be fucking fine. Right. But. America! America's like, oh, that guy, that's Hulk Hogan, he's ripping off his shirt and he's, and then he's bringing out Dana White and then Donald Trump's coming out with a tampon on his head? Okay, this is gonna be fine.

You know what's bad? We will find comedy. When Kid Rock is on the side going, Hulk, take it down. Be respectful. Be respectful, Hulk. I think there was the, when we jumped back in after the Biden era,

like we all remembered the pace of a Trump news cycle, but it's not until you jump back into it that you really remember, oh, right, it's just an onslaught by design. And I think this one felt even more of an onslaught. He's both unfettered. I think that design has been honed and is more intentional than it ever was before. And so it did seem like the pace kicked up two speed. It's like the 445 curse is what we call it.

Where it's just late enough in the day, you could maybe save it for the next day, but it's such a big story, you kind of feel like you want to touch, at least touch on it for the show. How do you decide in that day, when a story drops like that, at 4.30, how do you decide whether it's something

that you wanna tackle that day or you wanna sit on it? Well, you know, I show up Monday around three pretty drunk. Yeah, that is true. So, whatever's in the prompter's in the prompter and I just, you know, I think we all have that and I think the interesting part for me will be what level of distraction. Everything is strategic now,

and he's got a bunch of cards, I think, in a box that he can deploy to distract us from route. The Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross leads, he just pulls. I think he's got the lead box. Right now they're like, Elon Musk tweets, Donald Trump is on the Epstein list, and he's like, let's declare martial law in Los Angeles. How about that?

How about I send in the National Guard, and a bunch of ice agents, and it works phenomenally well. But speaking of that kind of pivot, and I want to ask you guys, because you brought up the Republican convention. The show was all set to go to the Republican National Convention right before that first attempt I think on Trump's election. Were you guys in Milwaukee at that time?

I was still home, but were you guys in Milwaukee when that happened? Oh God, Jordan. We were buying Milwaukee Brewers baseball caps at the time. Yeah. We were at a Brewers game. No! In the gift shop. You were at the park? You gotta hang John, we're going out doing cool stuff man. Yeah. You gotta come, we're seeing baseball games. You guys know I'm super social. I know, you would love it. We were trying on Brewers jerseys, we had hats. Do you think, is this hat good or is this hat good? And we're running around the store

and Jordan is like, stopped just staring at his phone and I'm like, Jordan, do you like this? And he's like, Desi, put that down. It was not a good fit to be very clear. It was just not a good fit. It wasn't, I had to be honest. Not my color. I was doing what a lot of people do at baseball games.

You were at the game too? Yeah, we were all there. I was on Zillow looking at the local housing costs to see if I should move from my shitty New York Brooklyn apartment to Milwaukee where I can have a six-bedroom house on a lake for $185,000. But we were in Milwaukee and took a Zoom with you and Jordan's family was there and he said, do you mind if we share a hotel room? Because I don't want my family to kind of be a part

of this terrible national news. So Jordan and I are sitting next to each other. We don't know where you were. You probably were, I don't know. And that's when we decided to go back to New York and do the shows. And again, that's what's so fucking awesome about The Daily Show is how quickly the pivot can happen

and great week of shows, which I think was live shows, right? Maybe that next week. I don't remember. Robbie was in the air, had the pilot turn around. The power. I was in San Diego doing stand-up comedy when he got shot. Oh you weren't that you hadn't gone to Milwaukee? I hadn't gone to Milwaukee. I was gonna do the show and then go to Milwaukee afterwards and then before

the I was doing a stand-up show in San Diego which is kind of a military town mm-hmm right and so the guy he got shot and I was like man I should I talk about this at the show or not I have I have some jokes about MAGA in my routine right now and should I just in the name of human decency maybe let's just have a night of comedy. I'm sorry what's that phrase? And I got to the show and no one in San Diego cared. Yeah.

Yeah. And to me it was a lesson of like people, I don't think they knew he got shot and I guess I chalk it up to like we are so connected to the news in a way that most humans are like, what? He got, oh. Right. What's the, tell us the dick joke. Right. They didn't even notice at the San Diego show.

So I think I was the one who broke the news to the San Diego crowd. Like, hey, do you know the president got shot? Well, this has also explained some of the problem. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Right. I'm sure he this has also explained some of the problem. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I'm sure he's really gentle breaking it to the people.

I can only imagine that being the calm, soothing voice when there's a national tragedy, a tragedy, people feel unsure. Ronnie Bigg, why don't you fill us in? You people are so stupid. Stupid people don't even know the president got you, when we pivoted and came back, so I hadn't gone out in there yet. And Jen and I were talking, Jen Flance, who's the executive producer of the program,

and is really the only reason why any of this can happen with the kind of adaptability that it does. Like just, that's one of the people that, Jen was a production assistant when I started on the show in 1999, and now like is the keeper of, you know, the Krusty Krab formula. Like she's the only one who knows how this thing all works,

but she's the one who makes sure so she and I were talking. And you know, it was that sense of, do you give into the moment, there was something it was that sense of, do you give into the moment, there was something about it that felt like we must, because Lord knows if one 22-minute nightly satirical show is off the air, you know, from the live location that it was supposed to be that nobody believes we're at anyway, because normally we're on a green screen.

You know, the world will stop spinning. And we were going back and forth and all that. And then they moved the security zone. Our theater was in, there was the soft zone and the hard zone. What are we talking about, my abs here? Yeah. Jen got the call that where the theater was,

was gonna move into the hard zone. And we were like, I don't think we wanna be in the hard zone. So everybody, everybody came home. But why John, why? Because my instinct was, oh my God, this is a big thing. This is our duty as Daily Show correspondents. And I was so thankful that you smacked us in the face with reality and said

come home be safe yeah so thanks for that no listen I thought it'd be funnier if you guys weren't no I think that's and and that's something that you know for the audience I think there's sometimes an expectation and I would talk about that a little bit, is do you feel a sense of, and I know I began to feel this sort of in the early 2000s, as things would happen, like the Charlie headboat, horrible massacre, and you start to feel like, oh, we've gotta go on the air and say something funny and profound about this.

But I think it took a few of those for me to realize, oh, why? If we've got something to say, great, we'll say it. But that's not necessarily our flag to plant all the time. We'll be back. Do you guys feel that pressure? I can't take a lot of my cues from you. And so when you said,

Uh oh. So I gotta admit, it is when something super horrible is happening, I'm with you. I'm like, wait, why, you know, why is, this is not the voice to come on and make some jokes about something horrible that just happened. So I'm with you of like this isn't a, that's not something that we necessarily need to contribute to the culture at that moment, you know. I think it really helped when you relieved us of that burden.

Yes, someone called me. I came into a meeting and I just went, what we do doesn't matter! Why won't you all understand that? Some would call it cowardly or a dereliction of duty, but we see it as a relief. Not a cowardly act by a small man in stature

and morality, but as a permission structure to be small ourselves, you know? Thank you. Thank you. I have always said this show can shrink to meet the moment. We have. But to remember that we are a comedy show,

and I think so much of it is not just about making people laugh and bringing some lightness and some joy to everything happening, but it's also about catharsis. And that can come through laughter, and it can come through having something meaningful to say. It can come through honesty and authenticity and vulnerability and keeping your humanity intact. But if you can't do that, if it doesn't feel cathartic,

to talk about it on the show, why do it? Right. People, on occasion, people will come up to me and say, thank you for making the show. What you're doing is really important. And I look behind me to see if they're talking to someone else. Because I say, you know I'm not a journalist.

You know I went to University of Illinois and I played collegiate tennis. And I got a C plus average in the School of Communication where classes were like public speaking. So I hope we're holding real journalists to the standard that something important happened, the burden is on them to cover this with integrity and honesty. Of course I love when we say something profound and have a message but we speak for myself I am NOT a journalist I am NOT a politician I'm a comedian tickets are available most nights to my shows. Plug the book plug the book and

plug the book no but of course we want to say something important But but you don't you don't important people should say the important things first and we can tell jokes Well, you don't sell out in pre-sale You should try the yeah But but I gotta get a better marketing guy or something I don't know I was supposed to be talking about this season But just to bring it back, since we have the guy who invented modern American satire here.

Yeah. No big deal, no big deal. Uh. You know, a lot of what we do, we're talking about changing the show at 4 p.m. for 6 p.m. taping. A lot of that has to do with the technology available as well, in addition to obviously the skill set

of the crew and the producers and editors using this technology as available. As someone who's been around since the Jurassic, like what was it like trying to, could you even change the show at four with tapes? Yeah. Yes, years ago, we used to do the show with a stone tablet and a chisel. I would sit and then we'd have the tablet almost done and then somebody would come in and go,

Garfield's been shot! Take it. McKinley's taking over. It is, the technology part of it is, and I'm sure even you guys have seen the advances in that technology, but it is true, like when we started in 1999, you still edited in the online room. And there were no, I mean, it sounds almost ridiculous now, but like TiVo hadn't been invented yet. Like there wasn't this sense that you could follow. I think the way we did the show was we used to get,

there was one group feed that you could buy into, even if you were us, and it was the AP News Feed. So what it would be is you would get stories on the AP News Feed. So it would be the two big stories of the day, and then generally like a human interest story, like the celebration of the Nazarene in the Philippines, you know. And so our show that night would be whatever was on the AP feed. And if you wanted to use five rolls of tape, like this is before we ever did our daily show montages

or any of those kinds of things. If you made an error in the edit, when you were putting the show together for rehearsal, AVIDs weren't invented yet. So you hear the whole crowd like, what? Yeah. This is such an LA audience. You see Avid, everyone's like, oh, Avid.

Oh, Avid. I don't understand. It didn't react to Trump being shot, but Avid. Oh my god. The humanity. They don't even know Trump got shot. It was rough. Those were the days.

And then when all of those technologies started to come on board and you saw how quickly it all changed, and suddenly what changed was the agency that the show could have in terms of narrative direction. So you went from being sort of at the mercy as to what would be presented to you to a kind of democratizing of what your intention could be. And so you could now run five Tivo's and collect a bunch of stuff. And that's when sort of the more modern way

of how we would put the show together. But even then it was rudimentary compared to, like you guys say, you go in there and just redo the entire show and they'll turn it around and the render time of it will be 45 minutes. That is one of my favorite parts. Studio production, this week before the big feud, Elon Musk didn't like the big beautiful bill

for four reasons. And MSNBC had a read of that and it was slow and it was a boring read. And someone said, can we get a more exciting read from a different network? And then Justin Melkman is on the phone and in like 12 seconds there's a new read of a more exciting version of that and it's amazing. You talk about like the tools that are fun to play with. They have this amazing toolbox and they give us the tools and it's very, it's very cool.

There used to be a studio production, remember, when you would walk in and all the computers were recording all of television and it felt like you were getting radiation cancer in that room every single time you were there. Look, I saw the room. All this stuff. By the way, that room was in the basement of our building

and for years we didn't realize it wasn't supposed to be moist. Like for some reason, it was this one room in the building that was always moist and we just thought like, is that necessary for the computers? And then somebody else was like, I think that's mold actually. You would just lose video editors,

like where is he like tuberculosis. But it's all, those things have changed. And even the funny part about working at the show is The people that are on there that do that the guts of the show love it so much like max How many times have you been emailed on a Saturday on a like Monday night to in the morning? We're like max or Justin or somebody will go like Send you a link to a thing that they found. That's just the right Piece of information for the

larger thought that you were gonna put into the piece. Honestly one of the most interesting things in having been at The Daily Show for a long time is to see like how it's been adapted. Have you? Have well I mean not not Jurassic. I think I was like Jurassic Lost World. You were the fourth one. Once Chris Pratt entered the. Yeah, we had the Chris Pratt era, right? Yeah, Chris Pratt. Where he's a raptor wrangler. Is that where that series went?

Yes. It makes sense. Yeah, one of these. I love that one. The velociraptor. Careful. All six writers are that screenplay. You're right. Yes. In this room. Yeah. Don't worry. Your geniuses AI could never come up with an idea that dumb.

Back then, they had to use real dinosaurs. They did. It was so impressive. What has been so interesting, there's Twitter now. People get reactions to the news in real time, where 20 years ago, they would wait to the night to see how late night shows responded to it. Now they get in real time on Twitter, now they get quick clips. And I think we have this robust social team that

has the ability to respond in real time, and so we can have comedic conversations in real time throughout the day. I think then the show now can craft a narrative in its first act, which can play for like a eight minute narrative about what happened during the day or make a larger point. We have field pieces that can go out and they can kind of craft stories that are out there. We get to do specials, they get to have long narrative.

We get to do clipped jokes. There are great specials done by really intrepid reporters go into the fray, you know? Finger the pulse. Finger it. Finger it. Who are not afraid to use their pulse. Finger it.

And finger the pulse, you know? It's really intrepid work that's out there. But I do think like people often talk about like the way they engage with like Daily Show content and sometimes people just get clips. They don't know it's engage with Daily Show content. And sometimes people just get clips. They don't know it's from the Daily Show. They just know here's a funny thing. John Stewart said this funny joke. Ronnie Chang did this one interesting take.

And it can play. And I think the show crafts ways that it can play in that context. But also, if you watch it on linear television, it plays with a narrative context. And then it also plays in a real time context, which I think that's like a testament to the structure that we have at the show that has the ability

to be a comedy machine in real time and like have conversations on all those platforms. Yes. But, is there a but? No, no but. No, just a yes? Yeah, just a yes. But that's a, so you guys were more, grew up in that era,

and I'll ask you how you sort of interact now with... We grew up watching you, John. Yeah. We grew up watching you. You grew up in that era where, you know, again, I was used to this linear idea of like, I feel like, like I run a tower records. Do you know what I mean? Like, I'm still like, people, if they want music, they've got to come into my store and

go to the CD rack. And everybody's like, I have a chip behind my ear, and it gets me all the new Bieber songs. The delivery systems are so different, but the content, I sorta like it too, when I started, we were at McDonald's, and then you opened a drive-thru, and I'm like, wait, you can just go around the corner

and just pick it up at the window? Has that changed, but it still feels like content is king rather than the system by which it's delivered. Do you consume media in that way? Does it matter to you how you get it, where you get it? That's our show for today. I'm going to go. It's definitely how I consume it.

I think where I get nervous about it is context. My kids don't watch television. They see it on their phones. They see it like this. I think context is gone in so many ways in which people get media. That's what scares me about stuff, is you can get stuff out of context from TV,

from shows, from clips. And so people don't know the grand scheme of things. I laugh when people see me on the street, and if they're over 40, they recognize you from the Daily Show. If they're between 30 and 40, they recognize you from YouTube, and if you're under 30, you're content that they see. Yeah.

Right. You're an influencer. What is it? Yeah, you're an influencer. You're an influencer. Exactly. And I used to be like, oh, that's funny. I'm like, no, that is like canon now. Like a 25-year-old just knows you in 30-second clips, which to me is worrisome, or at least a challenge,

in crafting something that makes sense within that 30-second clip. But it's also kind of the reality in which they are getting information. And I think the savvier ones are using that and then seeking out longer form stuff. Even like a podcast. Then you have flip side where people will listen to to people talk for an hour and a half about

something as well so I think like it's the context that shifts the the platforms people I seem to be like dipping in in each of them I know I do people listen to our show just the audio version of it with no other visual component as a very popular podcast they just sit on the train and listen to the audio of our show and it crushes and they say, Kostas, audio crushes. They say that? They say that?

I added that last part. And you're there. But I'm saying, here we are, technology's never been better and people are still taking the audio of a video component and downloading it and loving it. Yeah. What a missed opportunity, they can't even see your abs. Exactly.

How does that work? Soft and hard security area. I like coming out of the jungles of Malaysia. Like I- Here we go, stop Ronnie, Jesus Christ. As a real immigrant here who actually overcame adversity. I was raised by small lemurs. I always aspired to work at these American institutions

of comedy. Like, you know, that was my aspiration to work at, you know, like SNL, Daily Show, you know, work in American show business. I felt there was something, aspiration about these institutions. And you get to, you know, over the last kind of 10 years, you're talking about the internet kind of,

kind of, the algorithm kind of rewards quantity over quality. I think that's kind of what we're discussing here. By the way, that is Comedy Central's new tagline. Right. Okay, well, I'm glad you could say that. Um, and. Are the three of, are your buzzers buzzing in your back?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't go there, don't go there, don't go there. But I do, I do feel that we've, we've lived in 10 years of this kind of quantity over quality internet content thing. And I feel like there is a bit of a reaction, humans are feeling sick of it. Some people feel sick of it but they don't know why. But there is a reaction to this,

ugh, this social media is making me sick. And I think one thing that the show does really well, and thank you to Jon Stewart as well for doing this really well, is doing, is production value and quality over quantity, you know? And I think that comes through. So there's a million people who can put on a suit and talk in front of a desk and talk about the news, but like it doesn't, they don't have this,

the same production value and comedy knowledge and you know, like. And we have a great, great, great group of writers. Right, great group of writers. And so they turn shit out fast funny yeah yeah but I'm just saying that that quality comes through the quality right it and people can feel it yeah I think people can feel it you know when John's on the show they can feel it if they know this feels different to someone telling the news with a dance. Okay, I did that one time. One time.

Right. I just think that the... I hope that we're... Maybe this is more hopeful than anything, but I hope that we are going back to a quality kind of... Right. ...of a quantity kind of world. Hopefully. I know. Hopefully. I hope you're all clapping and hope it's true. Right. Well it is, I mean I think, and for you guys also,

you know, everyone out here who works in the business, I think we're feeling these kinds of, the plates shift underneath us, and having experienced those shifts from, you know, our more primitive days of notivos and everything else, to what we're seeing now, I think we're all sort of feeling like we're on a much more tenuous ground, that I think we still sort of cling

to this idea that what we do is a craft, has an artisanal purpose to it, that it's done for connection and it's done for a reason. And the more that you see the different, you know, as we watch these tech companies get into content, you see that the ethos is, it's a very different ethos. You know, when they talk about like writers rooms, you know, it's really important for us

that the writers are a part of the whole process. And that people in the building get to put their hands and touch the macro of the art that you produce because you want them to see that picture so that when they become creators, they understand all the different elements and what the render times of certain things and how these things go. I think we all have a respect for the craft of working in a kind of a refinery where we really do go and we test the hops and we smell the...

And you do all that and then a tech company comes in and buys it and goes, let's just have two writers, and let's just have them be in a room. And when you're shooting the show, they're not there anymore. They don't have that connection to the legacy of passing down the craft that we've all grown up with. And I think that's a tragic thing to lose in this business. I mean rehearsal John is really yeah yeah let them applaud. I'm sorry.

Well now I built it up. By the way that speech was written by AI. Chat GPT couldn't tell the difference. But I do think, because everything that these guys are talking about is about touching every part of the process and valuing every part of the process from the people that do the editing to the people in the control room to the people in makeup and wardrobe, to props, to every single part of that is a contribution to that greater whole of quality. And I wondered, you know, where you see that, do you worry about technology replacing that

with the ethos of like, Elon's kind of, yeah, move fast and break shit and don't care at all about the people who make it. Every once in a while in the rewrite room we'll do something funny or say something funny and I will think, ooh, that'll make a good clip and then I wanna punch myself in the dick. By the way, we also have two people in the building

whose job it is to punch Michael in the dick. And that's a contribution as well. And I think think we're I'm afraid we're gonna lose that. Sorry. I just wanted to see what the sign language will punch someone in the dick. Yay! Can someone even verify this is correct sign language, by the way? Because I don't want to end up on my own show. I hope the answer, John, is what Ronnie alluded to earlier, that people, there always will be a hunger for quality. And I hope we keep making quality.

We have for the last 30 years. Yes. Right. Having faith in humans. Having discernment to be able to tell the difference. Can I do the act out that I was going to do? Yeah. So you talked about the brewmaster tasting the hops. I was thinking that's cool because rehearsal is really just getting the script and kind

of going. Oh yeah, no, you're supposed to read it. That's your problem. This is perfect. I did an act out, it wasn't really funny. John stepped in, saved the day. Daily show's great. There we go, boom, that's how we work.

There's a team working together here. I blame the sign language girl with the whole punching in the dick thing. I'm standing there. I don't know, I don't know. I worry about it, I don't know. I worry about it. You, I don't know if this is the last of the Moheans.

No, it feels like we're in one of those places. The one thing I will say is I remain optimistic that people feel the humanity that is infused in art. And if you remove that, that will, you will know it. I can't say it for sure, and maybe I'm lying to myself, but there is something about the connection between people. And I see it now, maybe this is a place to take it to a different place, because each week that we

host, we go out and we have sort of an audience with it. I'm noticing in the audience something that I haven't seen in a long time, and that is need. Like a real need to be in that room together, to connect with each other, a real almost, a sense of isolation and a feeling of like the world is a little out of control and that room feels almost like a revival to some extent.

Are you feeling a difference when you go out and talk to the audience? Yeah, I think they're just so with you the whole way through. Yes, it feels like we're thirsty to laugh. We need some relief. And I know for me, I feel it all throughout the day and talking about just the group collaboration

and from the first meeting of the day, walking into a room of your funniest friends and finding the lightness and the humor and the tragedy that's happening in the world. And the fact that I get to work in a place that is so deeply collaborative. And this is something that you instilled into the DNA of the show.

And Jen Flans is a huge part of it as well. But we have multiple meetings throughout the day. We talk to each other. We collaborate with each other. Anyone can pitch an idea. And you feel it in the creative process and then to get to sit in with the audience and process it with them. It feels much more like a collaborative experience with them than

I've ever felt before. The one I've been getting a lot lately is thank you for making me feel like I'm not crazy. I think when The Daily Show gets turned on, people have all these thoughts about what happened to the news and then we dissect or joke about what happened and it's like, oh no, I'm not crazy. They're pointing this out too. Desi brings up a great point.

Anybody can pitch at The Daily Show, anybody. Anybody can pitch an idea from an intern all the way up to the front and it's really amazing how many different levels on the hierarchy have created jokes and pitches and ideas. I pitched an idea a year ago about this woman in the Everglades who hunts pythons. Because the Burmese python, I'm sorry if this is going to turn anti-Burmese for a second, but the Burmese python has wiped out rabbits, foxes, squirrels, and the Everglades.

Or maybe they're a better animal. Maybe they should take over. Well, it's not supposed to be there in the first place. Okay, well. That's typical of somebody who grew up in Malaysia. Who's to say who's supposed to be where? This is an argument that's been going on at the show now for some reason Ronnie always feels the need to defend the Burmese python.

And we don't know why. Well, do you know where I'm going on Monday Ronnie? I'm flying to the Everglades angles on Python fucking kill Python with this lady and I Don't know if this might be the last time I ever do a police vote for our Emmy show nomination show but I have to point that out because I There's one of my most favorite things of the Daily Show, and what I'm most proud of are these package pieces that we do, is that we go actually out there,

I'm gonna be with this woman in her truck. She gets paid $65 to kill a snake, and she gets like $90 to get an egg, and you're not allowed to trans- Wait, why is the egg more? Because I guess it's like the potential, like even a young child's life is worth more than our child, you know what I mean?

Our life, I mean. Why did this get so dark? Why does this sound familiar? Yeah, the package. The point is you're not gonna be in the office next week. Correct, I'm not gonna be in the office next week. Well, Desi said everybody pitches, and I was like, that's right,

and that is an awesome thing that I thought, except for my pitch about going to hunt pythons, because now I actually have to go fucking do this piece. You're regretting it. But that's something we do at The Daily Show is field pieces, right? The field, we go into the field and in your case, talk to mentally ill people. Americans. It's Americans, Ronnie.

Thank you, Ronnie. In your case, you kill local wildlife. Well, what about your piece where you went to the bottom of the ocean? I killed fish. You shot fish? We shot lionfish. They were invasive species in Florida. Lionfish are very rare.

They're very rare. local wildlife. What about your piece where you went to the bottom of the ocean? You shot fish? We shot lionfish. They were invasive species in Florida. What did you shoot them with? With a gun. By the way, this is where we thank the legal department at Comedy Central. They're wonderful.

But all these field pieces are like little short films, I guess, or snuff films, if you want it. That's how it was and we got there when you have to you know it's a real education in in right in all aspects well Americana I was gonna bring it back to LA and be like of movie making because you need to have writing skills you need acting skills in the improv skills you need a producer who knows what they're doing that direct you know director you need camera people they need to edit it. So every of these these field pieces, you know, you see Jordan going out there just, you know, and

you think it's easy. Have you watched any of these pieces? No, I don't know, I don't know what you actually, I know you go to DC or something. Jordan Klepper's new special. Look at me, and you'd see him do it and it looks easy. But that's because he spends a lot of time in edit and he works with a lot of people. You are the worst at complimenting people. Like the fucking worst. The worst. By the way, there's been a whole... Where is... There's like a genuinely nice thing in there. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I'm getting to it. And I'm getting to it. I'm getting to it. And he's also... This is every meeting at the show just evolves. I don't know how we get the show in

the air. And he's also a lanky person who's... He doesn't have to enter into the conversation if you've even seen a piece. Who happens to be a world-class improviser. Then that's why you get... That's where it is. That's where it is. That's a beautiful, ultimately within all that, I thought was a beautiful, thank you. Imagine a Burmese python with something inside it and you're like, what is that? And it was a beautiful compliment.

Yeah. Feels like it's the snake eating its own tail. Ronnie, has traveling around the country, has it reinforced stereotypes that you thought you had about Americans? Has it opened your eyes to certain things that you didn't think you would believe? Is it a more nuanced view? When I came out the jungles of Malaysia, we had Malaysian pythons and we

had and I always wanted to come to America and travel so I got when I go around America I go with like oh my god I get to do I get to see America you know when I get to do field pieces or when I do when I go around America, I go with like, oh my God, I get to see America. You know, when I get to do field pieces or when I tour the standup comedy special, like I get to see all these different parts of America. And I gotta tell you something, this was before the election and every town I went to, I was like, you know what, there's more good people

than bad people out here. For sure. You know, every city, I don't care, is Republican or Democrat or whatever. Everyone was always super nice to me. They didn't know who every city, I don't care if it's Republican or Democrat or whatever, everyone was always super nice to me. They didn't know who I was, I think. And they were still nice. Everyone was respectful face to face.

People in America are very respectful. And so I didn't go in thinking everyone was going to be horrible in the middle of America. I went in liking it and I left the middle of America really liking it. Everyone was super nice. Everyone was trying to get by. Everyone was welcoming to me. They would show mutual respect, you know, and that made me hopeful. And then the election happened,

and I was like, what the fuck happened there? Because everyone I met was great. You like Americans as individuals, but not as a voting block. In the aggregate, they get a little weird. But as individuals, they were great, face to face. Everyone's very nice. So I don't know, I don't know how to square that away,

with what I saw, and the people I saw. I think it's generally people's experience with other humans is that they are, I think you had alluded to it earlier, that the view that people have from social media and from being online is a truly warped perspective of how we interact with each other.

And it does so because it's incentivized purely for outrage and hostility. The people that you see online that make a name for themselves do it through provocation. There are very few people online that you're like, I just find that gentleman fascinating. Like it's just more like, wow, that fucking guy will say anything, you know,

and in a horrible way. Like I always tell this story, it's a terrible story. Oh, fuck it, I'm not gonna tell it. But I'll tell it, all right. But the world as it exists, so, it's like when people say we talk about, not to bring up like Jews or anything like that, but like, oh, are you worried about antisemitism? I'm like, no, I'm not worried about antisemitism.

I think antisemitism will be fine. I think it's very resilient. But the reason I say it is, so I've just gotten back to the show. I've been there for like a month. And my favorite dog passed away. His name was Dipper. He was a three-legged dog. Pitbull.

We got him. So I went on the show, just mentioned it at the end of the show, and I ended up blubbering like a very, very emotionally volatile person. But the response from people was so wonderful that I did something I never do, which is post it on social media. And I put pictures up of my family

and I the first day we met Dipper at the shelter. And what was so interesting is the comment section on social media, people started posting pictures of their best dog. So the first post is, you know, this is Kibbles. He was our Akita. I hope he and Dipper are playing at the Rainbow Bridge. Beautiful.

The next one, this is our King Charles Spaniel. It was the best dog we ever had, and we miss him to this day. Beautiful. And then the third post was, why did you change your name, Jew? Look, I was going through some stuff that week and I just, you know, I apologize. The second part of that post was, and this is our German shepherd, Eva.

And she's like, but, but my being, like, you would meet those people face to face and go, wow, I had a great interaction with them, or we did a thing. Because what you see online is such a perversion of who we are that when you see people in there, and I wonder, do you guys deal at all in social media? Do you delve into that toxic factory of attacks in the comments section? Because it is, those people I don't actually think exist.

Even the people that write those, that's not really who they are. It's that the algorithm has changed their wiring in that context. I've been hassled by folks in the MAGA universe who then I meet in real life. Is that the MAGA universe now? They're like Marvel?

Yes. All right. I think they've created their own superheroes. They're on superheros now, yes. Right. How do you do MAGA in sign language? Is it like this? Is that what it is? She's spelling it out.

I think it's also SOS, I believe. The mainstream liberal interpreters. I have a like the vitriol online is is intense in these spheres and I feel like when I'll go that there's a man I met who's called the Brick Suit Guy who is famous in the mago world and the Brick Suit Guy he wears a brick suit that looks like Trump's wall and he but not actual bricks not it's a bespoke suit, he has five of them. And he gets brought up on stage and Trump parades him and talks to him. And he's a, he's a celeb at all these events.

And he heckled us while we were filming one of these, one of these events. And he was posting about how terrible we were, he was trolling us and doing all this stuff. Long story short, I get stranded at the airport with him for three and a half hours. What? Just me and him. Just me with him for three and a half hours. What? Just me and him. Just me and him for three and a half hours. You and Bricksuit Guy. Me and Bricksuit Guy.

And we talked for three and a half fucking hours. About bricks? About, a little bit about bricks. I hear about his suits, his five suits. Three he keeps off site because he was burgled because he livestreams his location and somebody got him to it and robbed him. This sounds like the worst Delta Sky Club of all time. But it's free eggs, you know, you gotta do it.

But long story short, three and a half hours with that guy, I'd love to tell you the guy who dresses in a brick suit, he has a handlebar mustache and Trump brings on stage that he's an idiot, he's not. He's a smart he's a smart guy a nice guy He got to you. He got to me Shit, I love my you guys I voted for you know what he's good with the economy I think in Michigan, but he has changed his tune literally online. We talked online He would I go to events now. He'll come up to me and ask me about my family

When we talk online, when I go to events now, he'll come up to me and ask me about my family. It's one person who's changed the way they talk to me, but it's such a clear example that I've seen. I've seen it with many people I talk to. I've seen your profile online, and it's similar to the big man's profile online. It's cruel, it's vitriolic, it is aimed to be mean. And then I've met you in person, and with no cameras watching, you're thoughtful, you're interesting, you're nuanced, you show a vulnerability about the things you don't know in a way that doesn't exist online.

You can't be online if you're uncertain about anything. But in real life, you are and you're compelling. I would spend two hours is okay, three and a half is a bit fucking much. But I think that's not who it is. It's an incomplete picture of these people that are out there. But I do feel for our job, I feel you gotta dip in. I feel I need to dip into X on the week of hosting. I gotta dip into these spaces to get a sense

of what that conversation is. What's the temperature? What is the temperature? What are the conversations? And then shut it out for my own mental health and be aware of what it is. Do you guys dip in? Do you find yourselves? I dip in right before a hosting week just to see what people are talking about.

Yep. I feel this is awful before your hosting week. You literally like you come in and you just got to like do your prep like you're going to get the G-forces. You got to strap it up. I'm going to host this week. Fuck! There was a field piece I did when Trump kept the air last season. Canada is the 51st state. Of course we go up to Canada, let's meet some of these Canadians, do some man on the street. We meet with this man who is a Canadian and he's voted for Donald Trump in Canada's election. That's how much he loves Donald Trump.

He's a roofer. He looks the way you would think he would look for a MAGA supporter and you sit down with him in these one-on-one interviews. He comes in, the shoulders are out. I think, oh my God, this is going to be a rough three-hour interview. And you get talking to him, you get to know him, he's really mad that Canada's taxes are high, he loves his kids, he's having a hard

time paying for them, and he thought it would be a funny gimmick that would get some traction to vote for Donald Trump, and it's not like I leave loving the guy, and I want him to come to Thanksgiving with me, but I understand him, and he's a good dude actually, so I don't know, maybe what we're talking about here is that mob mentality is the problem, that individually we're all okay.

I don't know, yeah. Everybody clap at the same time, right now. Yeah, mob mentality's the worst. Mob mentality's bad. Some of it may be that it really is, there's a certain kayfabe to it all. The thing that I worry about with kayfabe, those of you who are not arrested adolescent boys,

kayfabe is sort of the acting that takes place in professional wrestling, where there's heels and faces, bad guys and good guys, and everybody acts in backstage, they're all friends. The thing I worry about with kayfabe is that if you act like something long enough, you become it. And I do think we do have a danger of that in the country, that the anger, even if it is artifice at first,

somehow embeds itself in a way. And the thing I will say, we sort of took to wrap this thing around because we've got to wrap up. When we first started, one of the things that I get from the audience almost all the time is this sense of like, are we going to get through this? And I'm always like, hey man, tickets are free.

Just shut the fuck up and watch the show. No, I'm just kidding. I don't say it. But I think people forget, like in early 2000s, they argued to let, for the unitary executive and that the vice president, I mean there was an argument that the vice president had the power alone to institute the ability to torture people. You know, we forget our history is littered with these really tenuous moments where we find ourselves in a shaky place,

and yet the resilience of the country finds its way, not to perfection, but past maybe those really rough moments. And so in final, going back to the show, do you still find yourselves optimistic about, A, our ability to try and synthesize and contextualize all these things that are going on in a funny way, and the ability of the country to overcome that tenuous moment?

And I will only ask Ronnie. Um, coming out of the jungle, so no it's relevant, no it's relevant because one cool thing about America is the separation of powers is very strong. It is very strong and people here complain about freedom of speech but I can tell you coming from places where there really isn't freedom of speech the freedom freedom speech is still is is there I mean we've been shitting on him for 12 years now and he hasn't come after me yet so I don't know you know so there's something there so we've got a special surprise for Ronnie ice is here for you right now. Ladies and gentlemen. So I would say that I am hopeful of the resiliency of these American institutions which are being strained. I do think that people will get past it. I think I can feel the antibodies

kind of growing a little bit on social media, in the country, this kind of resistance to this garbage that we can't even put a word to. I can feel people, they feel a little sick about it, but people don't know yet how to avoid being sick, but they can feel the sickness, whether it's the political discourse, it's social media, there's this, and we're developing the antibodies for it. And it's a new medium, and so that makes sense, this internet thing. It makes sense that we had to develop it, just like we had developing the antibodies for it and it's a new medium and so that makes sense This internet thing it makes sense that we had to develop it just like we had to develop it for TV when TV came out Just like we had to develop it when newspapers were invented. We had to keep developing these antibodies

so I I am hopeful that we will get to a place where we can see some bullshit on the internet and as As a civilization will be like nah, that's bullshit and we'll, you know. That's a great point. You know, the printing press was invented and everybody thought, and that ushered in the enlightenment. But it didn't. It ushered in like a hundred years of killing witches. The opposite of them. Yeah, it was the opposite of it.

It brought in there. You guys, any thoughts on that? I'm hopeful. I mean, I. Desi's always hopeful though. Yeah, I'm always hopeful. She's always the best. Maybe delusionally so.

No. I am naive. You asked if I check the comment sections and check in on Ax to see what they're saying. I don't have to, because I go home to visit my family. Explore more shows from The Daily Show Podcast Universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcast. Watch The Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central. And stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. Listen, like, it's not easy that those conversations do happen.

...on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount+. All can still laugh together, we can find some commonality, and I think... This has been a Comedy Central podcast. ...the idea that people stop talking to one another. That's scary. But if people continue to have conversations and not be so stuck in their silos, and, you know, I do think that there's hope that we'll get through this thing.

This might sound naive, but I am still impressed with the United States Constitution. It's roughly 270 years old. It isn't perfect at all. The checks and balances system, though, blows my mind. And we're seeing some of it being executed now with some of Trump's executive orders and what's happening with immigration.

And I'm hopeful that judges will realize that Trump will push things further, further, further. He's pushing them as far as they've ever been. And I just am hopeful that the checks and balances will continue to work. That being said, other things I wake up thinking about in the middle of the night are, are we making a really beautiful, funny TV show

on the Titanic while it's going down? That'll be my final thought. Take us home, Jordan. Jesus Christ. Take us home, Jordan. Jesus Christ. Titanic, jungles that I wasn't aware of. Burmese python. Burmese python.

You know, yeah, I think you gotta find hope. I find hope in a couple places. I just did a really great special. And... But I went into that with a lot less hope, because I was talking to kids who were MAGA kids and who I'd seen images of online. And online is a cruel fucking place. And when I talked to these 19 and 20-year-olds,

I didn't agree with a lot of the things they had to say, but they weren't cruel and they weren't mean. And I talked to them about some big issues, the economy, immigration, but when I talked to some of these culture war issues, trans rights, gay rights, they didn't take the bait. They didn't give a shit about it. They weren't upset about it.

I think those kids are being preyed upon by institutions and by bad actors who want those eyeballs. They want to turn that naivete into weaponized cruelty, and they might. I think the way the tech is set up right now, that's where this end game goes. But those kids, those kids were a lot like me. They were contrarians, they were 19, they were naive, they were looking for a place, meaning, and community. And I think that's what we're all searching for. And I feel really grateful with having this show.

We joke a lot about this. But I love coming to work. I think we laugh together in that room. And we feel so lucky because the world does feel like it's on fire sometimes. You watch the news. But our job is we get to turn on some of these clips and we can laugh at it, we can scream at it. But like our job is to find a fucking joke to take away a little

bit of that pain and to also like connect to one another. So I feel very, very fortunate that that exists as long as linear TV is still a thing. Well, I very much appreciate you guys coming out. It's an honor and a joy to work with you guys every day. Thank you for coming out, you guys, for real. Thanks, y'all, for coming out. Everybody, please, the one and only Mr. John Stewart. This is an iHeart Podcast.