The Daily Show: Ears Edition - A Look Back at 2021 - The Year in Scams

Episode Date: December 31, 2021

Michael Kosta takes a look at the top scams of 2021, including skyrocketing NFT sales, meme stocks, Donald Trump's voter fraud claims, anti-critical race theory hysteria and more. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. A lot changed in 2021. The length of Kanye's name, the energy level of our president, my in-law's Hulu password. But one thing that didn't change is that people still fell for anything. You know how they say a sucker's born every minute? Well, this year there was more sucking going on than an orgy at the Dyson factory. Mmm. Starting with one of the most ridiculous scams people fell for,

NFTs, otherwise known as non-fungible tokens. It's basically when you buy the rights to a piece of digital art. And hang on to your Apple wallets, they got pretty expensive. $200,000 for a LeBron James dunking clip. $600,000 for, I don't even know what that is in the middle, and millions for Jack Dorsey's first tweet. This image of digital toilet paper is worth $2,100. Yeah, $2,100 for digital toilet paper. I guess it'll come in handy when I had to take a dump in the metaverse. Sadly, gullible, idiots spent millions on NFTs

thinking they have actual value, when in reality, they can become worthless at any time, which I found out the hard way when I sold my house to buy this NFT of a dog wearing panny hose. What can I say? I love art. My next favorite scam of 2021 was the meme stock. All year long people were pumping money into terrible businesses just because the internet thought it was cool. It was the financial equivalent of the Tidepod Challenge and no stock was more memed than GameStop.

Its stock had been declining in value for a long time because it's a store that tries to sell you video games that you can download at home. And if there's one thing gamers love, it's leaving their house. Ever. But of course, like all meme stocks, this whole thing is just a big roller coaster ride. And the only question is, who's the sucker who's going to be left holding the bag when the price crashes. Turns out it was me. I bought it all at the top. Not totally my fault. My cousin is a hedge fund manager and he assured me that this thing was foolproof. Anyway, he's living in Turks and Caicos now and I'm living in an airport La Quinta. But let's move from Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue. Home of the scam that kicked off 2021 is somehow

still going strong. It's the biggest lie since, oh that fedora looks great on you. Trump's claims of voter fraud. He and the GOP convinced his supporters that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election, which led to the January 6th insurrection, aka Q. Cue Cella, Maga Paloza, Whitestock. I mean, guys, come on. If the election had been rigged, we would know by now. Probably because Biden would have accidentally said it in a speech. The man has no filter.

But instead, people were foolishly led to believe that they could actually stop the election from being certified. But the truth is, that was never possible. And fortunately, I only found that out after I got maced by Capitol police inside Chuck Schumer's office. I got his mouse pad as a souvenir though. Still has some chicken salad stains on. Anyhue, as I said at my bail hearing,

I deeply regret my participation. Let's move on to CRT, or critical race theory. This was a big scam spread by right-wing culture warriors that suggested your kids' elementary school was teaching white kids that slavery was their fault. And some parents they bought it hookline and sinker. The Western culture and values that brought forth Christianity in the founding documents are being called evil and

racist. Critical waste theory is a Marxist philosophy and cancer. Just because I do not want critical race theory taught to my children in school does not mean that I'm a racist, damnit. CRT is evil. If I lived in the school zone or had a kid, I would pull him out of this school forever. Oh yeah, I forgot that. I was part of that too, so.

I got got again. But the scam that best sums up 2021 is without a doubt, Ivermectin. It was the medicine for people who would take anything to prevent COVID except for the free and effective vaccine that could prevent COVID. So some pretty twisted individuals took this opportunity to promote the idea that a veterinary grade horse dewormer could prevent and treat COVID. And people fell for it so bad that pet stores even started selling out of it, which really sucks for the horses. It's bad enough, humans give them names like Daddy's Velvet and Smoky Midnight Blossom.

Now people were taking all their medicine. Although, full disclosure, I did take some. But in my defense, it seemed like such a bad idea that it made me think maybe it wasn't a bad idea. That's how they get you sometimes. Anyway, long story short, I came down with something my vet is calling horse diarrhea. I don't know exactly what that means because that's the clinical term, but to be honest, I've never felt so worm-free in my entire life.

So as we go into 2022, let's take with us the lessons we learned this year. Stay vigilant, be smart, and do your own research, but not in the crazy way. The only way to protect yourself from getting scammed is to... Oh. Holy shit, Bill Gates just emailed me, and he wants to send me some cash. I'm gonna be rich. Woo! Ha! Woo! Whoa!