The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Epstein Bill Has Trump & Co. Freaking Out & Melania Delivers AI War Cry | Sebastian Maniscalco

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

Ronny Chieng dives into Trump’s signing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Pam Bondi’s shell-shocked statements about a new Epstein investigation aimed at Democrats, U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan’s monumental screwup in the Comey case, Grok's ego-stroking of Elon Musk, and Melania Trump’s unlikely speech to Marines about AI warfare. Plus, Michael Kosta looks into Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy’s current problem with air travel: bad manners. America might be getting sick of RFK Jr. as health secretary, but much like the worm in his brain, he doesn't appear to be going anywhere. While you won't find his brand of non-professional medical advice on "Grey's Anatomy" or "The Pitt," you can find it on a bold new medical drama: RFK Hospital. Record-breaking comedian, actor, and podcast host Sebastian Maniscalco sits down with Ronny to discuss his latest Hulu special, "It Ain't Right." They delve into the experience of playing arenas versus intimate theaters, conveying jokes with tone and physicality, the intention behind ending the special with his family, and the evolution of stand-up marketing from recruiting audiences with flyers to promoting on social media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm Roy Shank. We got so much to talk about tonight. Melania tells AI to be best. The Epstein Files caused Pan Bondi to glitch. And Sean Duffy thinks your airport outfit looks like shit. And he's not wrong. Let's get into all of it with another installment of The Worst Wing. What a bunch of losers.

Last night, Trump signed the Epstein Foul Transparency Act into law. It was the first step towards proving that there's no connection between him and Jeffrey Epstein. Unfortunately, he signed the bill like this. Not again. So now this bill is a law. It's fully legal. or as Megan Kelly would probably call it, 16. In the meantime, Pam Bondi has opened a new investigation into Epstein's relationships with Democrats,

and it's not just because Trump ordered her to go on Twitter for the whole world to see. No, that's not why. She had a perfectly good explanation for that that she's not nervous about at all. What changed since then that you launched this investigation? Information that has come forward. Information.

There's information that new information, additional information. Perfect answer. It was perfect. What part of information in the information? Do you not understand? Also at the briefing was FBI chief podcaster Cash Patel, who seems to think that if he stands still long enough, if we won't notice that he's a part of this whole thing.

I mean, I've heard of a thousand-yard stare, but this dude looks like he could see to China right now. Hey, Cash, could you check in it in all my family in Malaysia while you're at it? I mean, what's my mom doing? Actually, no, don't look at my mom. But Pan Bondi isn't the only Trump official investigating Democrats and fucking it up. We also got Lindsay Halligan,

whom Trump made his personal lawyer after he saw her, on a golf course in a suit, which sounds like a joke, but it's not. She's now a U.S. attorney leading his crusade against Jim's Comey, and she's crushing it. The case against former FBI director James Comey may be in jeopardy. Lindsay Halligan, the inexperienced prosecutor, President Trump, handpicked for the job, but it was never tried a criminal case, admitted she never showed the entire grand jury the indictment it was supposed to have approved. It's a mistake that could end up getting the case thrown out entirely.

It turns out their unqualified lawyer f***ed up the case. I mean, this is how legally blonde would have gone if it was real. It's like, well, I've never tried the case before, but I'm going to do my best. Case dismiss, you are disbarred. Roll credit. In her defense, how is she supposed to know she has to show the indictment to the whole grand jury, okay? They almost never show that part on suits. But let's move on to one of Trump's friends

who never gets anything wrong, Elon Musk. He's been away for a while, but this week he was back at the White House for a state dinner. And I'm glad Trump and Elon made up because love him or hate him, Elon is the richest guy in the world, so you have to love him.

And if you doubt Elon's greatness, just ask his own AI. After some apparent reprogramming, Elon Musk's Grock AI is now telling users that Musk rinks among the top 10 minds in history, rivaling Da Vinci or Newton. Grock also claims that Musk's lean and wiry physique, while not Olympian, places him in the upper echelons, and that he edges out LeBron James in, quote, holistic fitness. That's right. Elon Musk is in better shape than LeBron James.

And that shape is trapezoid. I mean, AI is everywhere. When it came time this week to speak to the troops about AI warfare, Trump sent the obvious choice from the White House to do it. First Lady Melania Trump offering a warning about the impacts of AI on the battlefield. Melania Trump.

What is the first lady doing talking about AI and warfare? I mean, she should be doing. doing normal first lady things like calling kids fat or calling kids drugies or calling kids stupid. But, okay, let's see what she has to say about this. AI will alter war more profoundly than any technology since nuclear weapons. The shift from soldiers to machines is already underway. Autonomous helicopters, swarming drones. and reconnae aircraft are here now.

Fighters less jets and autonomous bombers are on the way. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you. Wow. The new Terminator movie is weird as hell. I mean, I can't even tell if she's for or against this future that

she's describing. Like, maybe she's just waiting to see who wins and then declare her allegiance. She's like, the robots will destroy us, and they're good or bad. We'll see. And finally, big news from the Secretary of Transportation, Sean

Duffy. The FAA has had a lot of problems recently. Worker shortages, system failures, mixing up the sky in the ground. But luckily, Sean's got a solution that will fix everything. The Department of Transportation is urging airline passengers to be on our best behavior. Let's bring civility and manners back.

Ask yourself, are you helping her pregnant woman put her bag in the overhead bin? Are you addressing with respect? Are you saying thank you to your flight attendants and your pilots? Are you saying please and thank you in general? Our manor is the most important thing for the FAA to be dealing with.

with right now? This would be like if in the middle of Vietnam, Henry Kissinger said, hey, everyone, just here to say chew with your mouth closed. But Duffy's right, we should all be more civilized, including the president who just today posted Hang the Democrats.

Does that sound polite to you? No. It should be, please hang the Democrats, thank you. But they are really committing to this civility campaign. They even released a whole video about how they want to take air travel back to the golden age. Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away.

Air travel is a miracle of American ingenuity. We respected the dignity of air travel, and the men and women who made the dream possible. Flying was a bastion of civility. But today... Yeah, get him. Yeah, get him, fuck him up. Hey, I mean, it's nice to see Americans being physically active. I know flying isn't as classy as it was in 1950s,

but at least with these passengers, 9-11 is not going to happen again, all right? No way a bunch of terrorists can defeat four angry Karens in their pajamas. They're going to be like, I got a box cutter too, bitch. For more on the new airline stability efforts, we go live to Reagan National Airport with Michael Costa. Michael, Michael, what's the movie? over there. Oh, man. It is great, Ronnie. I'm glad Sean Duffy's taking air travel back to the 1950s. Everything was better back then. More men wore hats. Women's boobs looked like torpedoes

and cigars didn't cause cancer yet. It was the best. Okay, well, the 1950s won good for everyone. Obviously, I don't mean the racial stuff. We're not going to go back to that, blah, blah, blah. Sean Duffy only wants the classy airplane stuff from the 50s, like dressing up and sitting in huge with lots of legroom while you eat a steak dinner with old school Coca-Cola that has cocaine in it. Wait, where do you get Coca-Cola with cocaine? Well, this one was kind of a DIY situation. Woo! Huh?

This fat cat is Zooted. Okay, hey, Costa, I think you misunderstood this campaign. You're not getting extra legroom, and you're not getting a steak. Well, Florida steak, lobster's fine. No, there's no lobster. You get nothing. Sean Duffy just wants travelers to be more civil.

He's not doing anything about the actual airplanes. Okay, that's fine, I guess. As long as I can still walk up to the gate 10 minutes before a flight and pay cash for a one-way ticket for me and my gun, that will still be nice. No, the airports aren't changing either. You still got to do TSA and all that security shit. Wait, wait, wait.

So I have to be in the 1950s, but the airlines get to be in 2025? Yes. I'm sorry. Well, can I still call the stewardess tuts? No. Well, can I call her dame? No. Dollface?

No. Kitten? No. Sugar tits? No. Sugar breasts? No. Toots?

You said that one already. You can't call them any of the many, many derogatory yet somehow commonly used. terms of women in the 1950. You know, this, this makes me so, makes me so mad. That's it. I'm going to go changing the crocs and punch a baggage handler.

Okay, no. Michael, you can't do that either. You're right, you're right, right. This is 2025. I'm going to save it for the plane. Michael Costa, everyone, when we come back, we find out about the latest hit show,

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Visit CanadaLife.com slash business protection to learn more. Canada Life. Insurance, Investments, Advice Welcome back to the Daily Show. We've been talking a lot about Trump cabinet members, but one we haven't mentioned yet is RFK Jr., Secretary of Health and Harriet Tubman of measles.

Back when he was trying to get confirmed, he made a lot of promises the senator and actual medical doctor, Bill Cassidy. Mr. Kennedy and the administration reached out seeking to reassure me regarding their commitment to protecting the public health benefit of vaccination. CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.

Well, that's a relief. You definitely don't want people reading unverified conspiracies about vaccines on the official CDC government. website. So as long as RFK is a man of his word, we should be fine. The CDC walking back its previous guidance on vaccines, updating its website to say claims that vaccines do not cause autism are not evidence-based. The web page now reads studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities. Okay, no, no, it is

true that RFK promised to not do that. But his friend the brainworm didn't promise shit. Just to be clear, for everyone watching, vaccines don't cause autism, but eating the needle does cause RFK voice. Either way, we seem to be stuck with RFK as health secretary, even though his medical advice is not something you're ever going to see

on Gray's Anatomy or The Pit. Although, they did just announce one new hospital show that's going in a different direction. This fall. We got another one. Status. He's bleeding out.

We're losing him. I decide when we're losing him. A groundbreaking new medical drama. We lost him. Time of death 522. Cause of death? The COVID vaccine. God dang it!

RFK Hospital. Sick of it! The only hospital brave enough to follow the medical advice of America's Health Secretary. Health Secretary. Sorry, trying to squeeze in lunch. What are you looking at? We have a patient with a strange virus that's weakening his immune system. Interesting.

Has he been swimming any raw sewage? Not that I know if. That's your problem right there. Haven't spent a few hours in Fecal Matter Creek, he'll be better in no time. Led by a doctor who knows that medical science doesn't have to be based on anything in particular. Come on. I told you, never interrupt me when I do pull-ups and genes. Sorry, but we have a patient with a fractured clavicle.

Should I administer painkillers? Minister painkillers. And give the patient autism? No thank you. Well, should I take an x-ray? And give the patient more autism? Give him 20 cc's of raw milk and get the fluoride out of his water. Now!

At RFK Hospital, they're making America healthy. And hot again. Wait, there's something I have to tell you. I have the measles. It's okay. So do I. And so do I. It's fine.

He's giving medicine a taste of its own medicine and giving health care the shakeup it needs. Smoothing? And when tragedy strikes, he answers the call. School bus hit a deer in I-60. Dozens are arriving in critical condition. How long ago? 35 minutes. We can still save that deer meat.

Let's move, people. Come on, let's go. Hospital, premiering after an new episode of CSI, Epstein Files. Thank you, Michael. When we come back, Sebastian Man Scout, I'll be joining on the show so don't go away. At Desjardin, we speak business.

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Black Friday is here at IKEA, and the clock is taking on savings. you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. slash Black Friday. Ikea. Bring home to life. Welcome back for The Daily Show. My guest tonight is a record-breaking comedian, actor, and podcast host. His later special for Hulu is called It Ain't Right.

Please welcome. Comedy Legends, Sebastian Maniscocco. Thank you. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. First time on the show. Yeah. Thanks for coming.

Thanks for coming on when I'm hosting. Yeah. You look great. Thank you. Thank you. The suit is tight. If I move, I could split something. What do you mean?

It looks great. In the special, you're so self-deprecated about your looks, but you look grateful like a 75-year-old guy. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Yeah, you're so, healthy. You call me so physical, you know,

it's such a big part of it. Yeah, I like to be physical on stage. I not only like to explain the joke with my voice, but my body. So I kind of grew up talking with my hands and moving my body all around. Yeah, you're best in the business at it. It's great. And this is the first, you've done quite a few specials, but this is the first one you've done in an arena.

Back in hometown, Chicago, you did the United Center. That's crazy. The opening to the special looks insane. It's like the whole thing. And you, sometimes when, you know, comics, when they do arenas, they cut it in half, and then they go, we did the arena. But you did half an arena. You did the whole goddamn arena.

You did it in the round. Yeah, so I did it in the round. You saw more tickets than the Chicago Bulls like that before. Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, it was really special to do it in my hometown of Chicago. and I like the way you pay attention to detail in production. I did it in like a triangle stage. It took a lot to figure out how are we going to make this look different.

At the end of the day, you just want to go home and say he was funny, right? But I like to make it an experience for people and put some money into production, whether it be lighting, stage, what have you, to make it look like it's a show business, right? Yeah, a show business, yeah. And also, I mean, there's a difference, as you are well aware, between the live show experience and then the tape thing. And I feel like you executed great on both. Well, thanks.

It's difficult in an arena to have it be intimate. There's 18,000 people there. Comedy is best enjoyed in a comedy club, in my opinion. But, you know, for me, having it in an arena for the first time, it was a challenge. But the way it came out, I thought it was really good. Yeah, I'm so sorry. so many tickets that you got to go into that you have to do it in the goddamn basketball arena

and you did a great job capturing it and were you like looking to what was kind of like your visual theme for this one because your last one was in Las Vegas I think yeah so we'll get to that but this one this one it's funny the last one I did in Las Vegas I was in pain I had sciatic pain ripping down my right leg I couldn't move I was in a tuxedo which I never performed in a tuxedo before I tried to do something different in Las Vegas. I said, we're going to do a throwback to the 60s. I want the crowd, similar to the airplane bit, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I want the, I want the crowd to dress up like it's 1960s, Las Vegas. Did they, did they dress up? 22 people. It's hard to get those guys to dress up, because they're in the shot, and it's like... It's hard to get anybody today to dress up to do anything. I mean, just take a look around. It looks like... I mean, oh, take a look. No, it's a well-dressed audience.

It's a well-dressed audience. I wasn't talking about you. You can't even tell people to dress up without everyone taking it personally. Yeah, look at how upset everybody got. Listen, I'm just saying, in general, we're talking backstage about this, show business. Like, I like the fact that you did your special

and you wore a suit. Now, I noticed the next time around you had, like, like a collared shirt on in short sleep. So why to change? Oh, for me, wow, we're the throes on Spotlight on Me. Yeah, we're talking about dressing up. Yeah, well, I agree that show business, you should dress up and look nice for it.

And I was always inspired by classic American showbiz. So for the last special I did, first of all, I wanted people to look at the new special and know that it was a new one. And I was worried, I was worried if I just wear a suit, people back, we've seen this one before. But even you, you changed the draper. You had red and then green.

I changed. Great to green, huge, which no one cares except for us. And we do care. But the other reason, my other reason for dressing in short sleeves is because I have great arms. No, because, no. It's because I was trying to capture for that last special I did in Hawaii, and I was trying to capture this vintage Elvis in Hawaii feel. And so he performed in that kind of, with a lay and all that.

Gotcha. You know, but, and I mean, were you thinking of, you know, homage to anyone when you were doing this, this one visually? No, no, I mean, I wore a red and black jacket just to pay homage to the Chicago Bulls because I'm a huge Bulls fan. Yeah. But other than that, no, I just wanted to get back to kind of what I do best is the physicality and the facial expressions. And, yeah, I'm really excited for this to come out tomorrow. Right. And what was really cool is, if you watch till the end,

you will... What the f*** of that? No, hear me out. I'm saying... No, I'm telling people watch through the end, because there's this thing where you go offstage and you walk backstage and the camera follows you, and then you go, and then you...

I don't want to give it away, but you... Well, it's my family is there. I have two kids, an eight-year-old, a six-year-old, my wife, so they all kind of greeted me offstage, and you kind of see us walk. into the sunset. So it was nice to have them there to experience all that. I had my mother, my father there.

So it was a very cool. It's cool. And it's something that, and by the way, it's not like you say, good night, everybody, and then you walk off stage and they're there. You have to really watch the credits play a bit before they get. And then we see you walk backstage, the door is closed, and it's just you and your kids and your wife,

you kiss, and you hug, and you go off. And I thought that's really nice and sweet. And it's proof that I watch your whole . Yeah. No, you know what? No, it's these little things that make it cool. Like for my first special, I put a photo of my dad who passed away,

and he passed away before I filmed it. And so I put a photo of him in it, just a photo of me and him when we were kids. And the problem is I put it after the credits, being like, here's my homage to my dad. But now, Netflix, as soon as the credits roll, it minimizes into... And so nobody...

I did the next one. It was like, well, no one, you have to, it's actually hard to watch, to see my dad's photo at the end of the credits. It's hard to watch the credits in Netflix, just technologically. They don't let you watch it, yeah. But you were smart. You made it so that it wasn't all the way at the end. Well, I haven't seen it on broadcast yet, so they might cut that.

They might cut that. But that's cool. But would you, I mean, would you film it in an arena again, or would you want to go back to kind of theater? Yeah, no, I think I do a theater next time. The arena I kind of did there. What was the challenge of it? It was, well, I mean, for me, it's not really a challenge.

I like to move around a lot. So, and that's why I did the triangle stage because you got the three points and you could kind of go to those three points throughout the show. In a circle, you kind of, you kind of like go around. Someone's looking at your ass. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, they're looking at my ass regardless. I really have none. You saw the joke where it kind of bleeds into my legs now, but other than that, I didn't really have a problem doing it in this triangle setting, and I really, really like doing it in the round just because it's as intimate as you possibly could get it in an arena.

Sure. But why is it that you wouldn't do arena for taping again? Because I'd like to do, like you said, something different. You know, I don't want to do the same old thing. Yeah, same old thing. And you know what? Right now, I'm not even looking at what's next in regards to specials. So I'm just taking some time off.

Yeah. Relax with my family. And by the way, that's a very kind of, dare I say, old school mentality with stand-up in that you film it, you put out there, and then you, you film it. you, you know, you go away for a bit. Well, you try to. Yeah, you try to go away. But with social media now, and I'm 52 years old,

so I didn't kind of grow up with the whole social media thing. You know, if you're not on social media, people don't even think you exist anymore, right? So you get a social media team calling, you got something for us to post today? I'm like, no. I'm hanging out with my wife, you know. Well, can you get, like, a photo of where you're at? It's, like, constant, you know. So I get it, I get the game, but I also, you know, Chris Rock said to me, if you never leave the room, it's hard to make an entrance, right?

So it's kind of what I'm trying to do, but it's hard. It's hard to kind of stay away. Yeah, and so how do you, you know, again, I kind of feel like you've got this old school sensibilities with everything, including marketing comedy, where I guess, you know, when I started, I only started in 2009. So you've got, you know, five decades on me in that. But like, when I started, we were just selling live tickets. We weren't trying to get famous on the internet because you couldn't really, or at least I wasn't smart enough to figure it out.

And so we would try to sell live tickets live and not worry about the internet. And I feel like you kind of have that mentality, too. You're not too worried about social media. You kind of, you know, and I guess do you have a, you know, what is your view on kind of using social media these days to try to... Well, I mean, listen, you have to use it. I mean, you have to get the word out there, right?

But I come from an era where after shows, I was passing out flyers, right? And I was asking people to sign a notebook with their email address so I could email the next time I was coming into town. Right. And it's very heartbreaking to pass out all these flyers after the show and then go to your car and see the flyers on the ground of the parking lot. So, yeah. But with social media, it's like, you know, You need to do it, but you don't need to do it, in my opinion, as much. You don't need to see everything that I'm doing. You know, look at Tom Cruise.

I mean, Tom Cruise is a major star. He has a movie. He comes out. He promotes it, and he disappears. You don't see Tom Cruise in his living room watching anything. That's because Scientology kidnaps him afterwards. But I take your point. I take your point.

He gets... I love that. Get the fucking away so people can miss you. Give people a chance to miss you. Give people a chance to miss. And also, I love that sensibility, you know, that kind of, like you were saying, dressing up now. And people don't really dress up for show business anymore. I mean, that's the show business that attracted me to America.

It was, you know, Johnny Carson, it was Elvis. It was people who put in some fucking effort. Not these goddamn amateur hour podcasters in their fucking wife beaters. Podcasting from a basement. It's like, I, well. Yeah, it's, I grew up on Johnny Carson, too, and I used to watch the guys. guests come out, whether it be Sinatra or Rickles or whatnot. And you're

in suits. I'm not saying you have to wear a suit everywhere you go. I don't. I do podcasting. Do I wear a suit when I do podcasting? No. But I just say, like you said, have like a standard of something. It just seems like whatever you feel like doing now, you show up.

And it's like, oh, this is me. Well, we might not want to see you. I don't know. Listen, again, I grew up with Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson. When they got on stage, you knew who was the performer, right? Just because they didn't look like anybody else in the audience, you know what I'm saying? They took their time and curated, you know? I mean, I don't, I mean, everybody's looking at me like, well, what's wrong with it?

I'm just saying, when Prince came out, it was like, you never seen anybody that looked like that with the hair. and the mittens. He looked like he was ready to perform. Yeah. Yes, he looks, and he dressed better than your audience. Yeah, have a costume. Yeah, have something. Yeah, and I agree.

I agree completely. Like, now you go on a flight. If I wear a suit on a flight now, people think I'm going to fly the plane. Oh, yeah. They're like, what are you doing? Who's wedding to you go to? You know, like, but, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know how to fix this, though. It's not going to be fixed. It's not going to be fixed. I mean, you're trying, we're trying. Hey, look, we're doing it. But losing the audience, the more we ask people to dress up everywhere. Yeah, no, this audience is not into it.

He's not into it. They're like offended. I could feel it. I'm just saying, take some time when you leave your house. We don't want to see you in your pajamas. That's it.

That's all. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It ain't right. We'll be available at Hollywood starting November 21st. It's Sebastian Menz Giles, everybody.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back after this. That's our show for the night. Now here it is, the moment of Zen. people behaving well in the airplane be nice say please say thank you bringing civility back i think enhances the travel experience for everybody and so sometimes you just have to ask people hey let's maybe go back to an era where we didn't wear our pajamas to the airport explore more shows from the daily show podcast universe by searching the daily show wherever

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