The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Jon Stewart on Which Speech Is Free in Trump’s America | Paul Rudd

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

Jon Stewart goes old-school Daily Show on Trump and Republicans who pride themselves on “saving” free speech, all while censoring anybody who doesn’t agree with them. Paul Rudd sits down with Jon Stewart to chat about his latest starring roles in the films “Death of a Unicorn” and “Friendship,” watching their kids grow up, and, of course, pharmaceutical side effects to the perineum.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, it's America's only source for news. This is The Daily Show with your host, John Stewart. Hi everybody, come on! Welcome to the Daily Show. My name is John Stewart. We got a great show for you tonight, my friends. I got a new tie.

Is it sharp? I'll tell you what, we got a great one. Paul Rud, my friend. I got a new tie with a chart. I'll tell you what, we got a great one. Paul Rudd is going to be joining us. Yeah! Paul Rudd finally had the balls to come on this show after weeks of calling me a propagandist. Know this, our interview will be unedited. Rudd's going down. after weeks of calling me a propagandist. No, this. Our interview will be unedited.

Rudd's going down. It's happening. I'm gonna give that dude an infection of the perineum. I should explain. We spent... We'd come out early, I'd do a little warm-up with the audience, and for some unknown reason, and it really was not prompted.

I was trying to discuss the relationship warm up with the audience and for some unknown reason and it really was not prompted. I was trying to discuss the relationship between asthma medication and a side effect of an infection of the perineum. Unfortunately, I have no one in the audience who was able to satisfy my curiosity on that. Those of you at home who may be looking it up right now, wait till the commercial break. But first, a quick update on an administration that is once again carrying out its plans with competence and professionalism.

A reporter from the Atlantic says he was mistakenly added to a group chat with top members of the Trump administration as they were texting back and forth about highly sensitive war plans. Jeffrey Goldberg says he was included in a group chat full of our nation's top security officials discussing what we can only assume to be top secret plans to bomb Houthi targets across Yemen on March 15th. Everything from the weapons America would be deploying to the timing and the attack

sequences. Oopsie poopsie! You know, back in my day, if you were a journalist who wanted leaked war documents, you'd work the sources, meet them in a dark garage, earn the trust, pound the pavement. Now you just wait for the national security advisor to be distracted by White Lotus while he's setting up his Bon Yemble group chat. Are those guys jerking each other off? Bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum- By the way, I might be in this group chat.

I don't know. I don't check my group chats. Perhaps my favorite text of the entire group chain was the one from our defense secretary saying, quote, we are currently clean on OPSEC. For those of you who don't know, OPSEC means Operational Security. He said that in a group chat. A group chat with a journalist. The journalist said that he didn't think that the story was real

until Yemen was bombed. Oh, did I bring you down? Let's move on. Because as you know, there are certain hypocrisies and absurdities that we find in our cultural moment that make for great fodder for humorous dialogue. A facial expression. A nod and a wink. Then there are other pronouncements by our elected officials, actions by our government,

that are so baldly bullshit, even though you know it will have no effect, and that these powerful creatures have been genetically modified to resist shame, self-reflection of any kind. You just can't help yourself but to go old-school daily showcatch. I'm talking about the debate on free speech. As we know conservatives have been very concerned about the loss of free speech in our country for a fair. Bullies on the left aiming to silence conservatives free

speeches under siege in this country leftist they've there become the thought police they basically declare themselves God and judge us for our thoughts. George Orwell was right. The thought police come next to punish thought crime. Be very, very scared. I am. Perhaps not for the reasons you... Are the thought police with you right now, Jeanine?

Are they in the bottle? But luckily our national free speech nightmare recently came to an end when we entered the golden age of Donald Jehoshaphat for Trump. We have saved free speech in America and we've saved it strongly. Free speech in America is back. Thank God we have a president now who believes in free speech. Yes. Thank God we have a president now who believes in free speech. Yes. Thank God. We have a president now who believes in free speech. Just go ahead, roll to 12.

I believe that CNN and MSDNC, what they do is illegal. I think CBS should lose its license, but I think ABC should lose its license also because of what they've done. I watched What Happened Live. I think Bravo should also lose their license. What they did to Dorinda on Traders, they should be sent to a Salvadorian hello. This is what I'm talking about. Generally, you've got to search the archives for contradictions on one's stated principles,

dig through policy papers to uncover private actions that are undermined by someone's public stance. But this is so... this is so blatant. I can't wrap my head around it. It's not even the hypocrisy. It's that they so fetishize free speech, this thing that they do not in any way actually practice. The freedom to speak our minds and express the truth

that is our heart, really, that's really a big chunk of our heart. Any cardiologist will tell you...... ...hearts come in chunks. ... Blood comes into the aorta to the right ventricle, passes through your speech chunk. ...

But since coming into office, Trump and the Republicans have instituted policies that are a dagger right through many people's speech chunks. The White House has barred the Associated Press from presidential events because the AP has refused to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America in its style book. And in a dramatic escalation against the American legal

system, Trump this weekend directed his government to target law firms battling his actions. Federal immigration officials arrested a Palestinian activist who helped lead last year's student encampment protest at Columbia. I think we ought to get them all out of the country. They're troublemakers. They're agitators. They don't love our country. My chunks! My precious chunks! My lovely lady chunks! My chunks! Not chunks. Unlovely, baby. You're making my perineum tingle. Here's the thing.

These attacks on free speech, especially the one where they deported that activist, if there's one thing that I know about the powerful principles at our higher education institutions, they will not be bullied by a W- roll 212. Columbia University is bowing to President Trump's demands, announcing it will change a number of policies. Among them, placing the school's Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department under academic receivership for at least five years.

Some students protested the war in Gaza. Suddenly, a whole academic department is on double secret probation with government oversight. And by the way, okay, Middle East part, African studies? What the f*** did they do? I'm sure the African studies professors are like, I teach intermediate Swahili. See, these guys don't give a f*** about free speech.

They care about their speech. It's so blatant hypocrisy. It's so old school, daily show, gotcha. You know what? I'm just gonna put on the wig I used to wear during those years. Because the hypocrisy is just so, here's Donald Trump on those who would criticize judges

that he has appointed. A lot of the judges that I had, if you look at them, they take tremendous abuse, and it's truly interference, in my opinion, and it should be illegal, and it probably is illegal in some form. Yes, criticizing judges! It is interference!

It should be illegal! Tremendous abuse and four days later not four days later Not a full French work week later President Donald Trump just took the truth social and deemed this judge responding to this Decision here calling him a radical left lunatic of a judge a troublemaker an agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama. He says this judge should be impeached. The back rusted. It burns. And are we really still doing the Barack Hussein Obama thing?

Oh, free Harambe. Come on, people! See, what was the whole thing that they hated about the left on free speech? No one is safe from the left's ward police. No one? What exactly would an actual government-run ward police organization look like? The Trump administration is actively trying to purge the federal government of so-called woke initiatives. Government agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid. Words like DEI, BIPOC, anti-racism, Latinx, Native American, black, women.

Seemingly random words like expression, at risk, political, and even mental health and sex. What's left? By pocket Latinx, I get that. You're not allowed to say sex. You can't say words like women or sex or hashtag me too. How can a lot of your cabinet members describe their weekends? You know, you can't protest in a way that... You can't protest in a way that offends the right.

You can't teach things that the right doesn't want you to teach. You can't read things that they don't want you to read. You can't read things that they don't want you to read. You can't use words that they don't want you to use. But they love free speech. I guess fear not. At least we'll always have art. President Trump demanding a painting of him be removed because he finds it unflattering. He's demanding they take it down because he believes this picture is unflattering, which really makes you think, do you think other pictures of you are flattering?

At least in the painting they blended the foundation into your hair. But painting is out. Oddly enough, there is still one area of free speech that the right defends non-hypocritically. I think they've come a long way. Metta, Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg came to the White House, who I like much better now.

You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok. Twitter, now they call it X. And it's great that Elon bought that. He's done us all a big favor. He loves it. Meta, X, the tickety-tock. Why is it that they're so enamored with social media? Studies by the Wall Street Journal,

the Washington Post, and academic organizations have found that the site forced political content on users. That content was almost invariably pro-Trump, pro-Republican, and pro-Mosc. Huh! The one area of free speech that they want to protect completely is the area that supports them and isn't actually free. Social media is algorithmic,

and it advances with key demographics, or to put that in the most hilarious way possible. The president sat down with outkicks Clay Travis on Air Force One to discuss the status of his second term. President Trump getting to talk to you here on Air Force One. I wanted to start with this. Why do you think young men are so overwhelmingly coming in your direction? My work here is done. Perhaps I can answer that question. They are overwhelmingly coming in his direction because that is the direction they're facing. I don't know if you know how that works, but you really can't come in a direction you're not facing.

Although young men at that age, you could bank a shot. I could... I could see one fly over the shoulder. Maybe a trick shot where they landed in a cup. You know where that would go viral? Social media. The one place the right will unequivocally protect free speech is the one place where the speech isn't actually free. Algorithms. It's speech incentivized for engagement and profit. It's manipulated.

It just so happens that the same process that forces you to doom-scroll somehow also draws you into Republican ideology. Social media is a machine designed to stimulate the reptilian parts of your brain that would otherwise beg you to go outside. It's like being impressed that casinos give out free food. It's not free. Social media isn't the town square open forum of ideas. It's got a plan. In the summer of 2019,

Facebook created a fake account for a 41-year-old mom. They called her Carol Smith. Carol started off by liking a few popular conservative Facebook pages, but quickly, Facebook began dragging her down a rabbit hole of misinformation. After only two days, Facebook recommended Carol follow a QAnon page, and few days later it suggested she follow another. By week

three, Carol's feed had become quote a constant flow of misleading and polarizing content. Now Carol Smith is a completely fictional character and yet her children have stopped talking to her. Although she was apparently added to a Pentagon group chat and knows the details about when they're bombing. Guys, social media isn't the same as free speech. Social media is free speech in the way that Doritos are food. It's ultra-processed. It's designed in laboratories. It's the same mechanism that somehow convinced you that you should eat a 50-story skyscraper of potato-ish.

And the most disappointing thing? Where are my conspiracy theorists at now that it's on the right? For God's sakes, billionaires are designing machines to manipulate our speech, to control our behavior and rewire our brains. They're removing our regular speech and doing a, I don't know, great replacement of it to solidify their hold on power. Are you awake yet? Come on, you were with me on the lab leak thing,

remember what happened, come on! You've barely even touched your Epstein binders. Doesn't this bother you at all? Elon Musk has taken a very courageous stand for the First Amendment. He's tough as a pine nut. And the man's got guts. He's got oranges the size of beach balls

please stop with this foghorn leghorn bullshit got on this the size of a ball But let me guess. How do you feel about other billionaires owning and manipulating our media? Mr Soros is now the largest single shareholder in Odyssey radio stations. In America you can't just go do this. Mr. Soros is a billionaire. Pass me the sick bucket. The sitting right. Pass us all the motherf***ing sick bucket. When we come back, Paul Rudd will be joining us. Don't go away. I'm going to show my guests tonight an actor. He stars in the new movie, Death of a Unicorn. Please welcome Paul Rudd! I'm sorry, John, I'm on this new medication and my perineum is on fire.

You know, here's how beautifully you craft these bits. It took me a while to understand that that was an inflamed perineum. At first, if I may, the physical crafting you do and obviously the stage fighting classes you've taken and all the things, the control you have over your body, at first I thought, sciatica? It's clearly in the nether region. Yeah.

It was the bowing of the legs. It's the telltale giveaway of an inflamed perineum. Do we think... Now, do we think it's... Do we think it's... Should I go first? You go first. Okay. We hear perineum, but we've also heard perineum.

I thought you were going to say taint. The layman's term, sure. Don't denigrate the term. I thought you were going to say taint. The layman's term, sure. Don't denigrate the term. Parenium sounds like a flower. In many ways, isn't it? A delicate, the bouquet. Yes. The aroma.

Yes, yes. Did you know, in your life, first of all, the way you walk, it's the difference between just an actor and a craftsman. You got to put your, you got to throw your whole body into it. By the time you were done, my perineum hurt. That's how powerful it was. Transfers. You felt it. You felt it.

No question. That's good acting. Do you know... Or is it acting? There is no way. Is that the one part of your body that is corroding? I think. Is that your Achilles perineum? You know the portrait of Dorian Gray? I, uh... I have a painting in my attic.

I call it my attic. My attica. And that is just a rotting old decrepit taint. And I also have one where it looks like a spaceship. It's called the perennium Falcon Yeah, I do hope you get that checked out Yeah, that is uh it is it is I have wondered this Yeah, yeah, you can't every every commercial is for a medication. No question.

Everyone talks about the perineum and how it's some sort of side effect. The other thing they also mention is, which is in a way even more disconcerting, because they do it with kind of a cheery voice. Right. It's talking about bloody or black stools. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, is there a painting in your attic about that you want to tell us about? The other thing that drives me crazy, they always say, and don't take it.

Like, they've given you five reasons not to take this. I mean, you've got to be thinking to yourself, the accent was not that bad that I would risk my entire fingernail. Wouldn't you rather have a little, like, flanking on your arm or something? Yeah. One kid at the beach and he's like, on my elbow. And they're literally like, your balls will fall off.

So they go through that, and they think like, oh, these five things will not have dissuaded you. The final one is always my favorite. And don't take it if you are allergic to it. Yeah. I know. What's the giveaway? Oh, I think I might be allergic to this.

Yeah, everything. How would you know unless... Paul, I'm going gonna be honest with you I finally I Didn't even know you still did movies. I just thought we just I thought you were a WebMD doctor and I just brought you out here to talk Yeah strictly

Medicines. Medicines. Do you have... I am at the point now where I... Like, I'll read an article on biohacking, and they'll be like, it's an injection of NAD and ultraviolet rays, and you can't go outside for three months.

And I'll be like, I would do that. Yeah. There is a thing that is so strange. We are so insistent on letting everyone believe they are sick in this country. Oh, shit. You just got real. Oh.

No, but every commercial is one of these medicines. And my daughter, when she was little, you know, you just watch TV. It was unavoidable. You play games with your kids of like, all right, we're gonna go through, we have to name, you have to come up with a food. We're gonna go through A for like, apple, banana, cherries, whatever.

We used to do... No, keep going. I want to see how far this is gonna go. D would always throw us. No, D, we could never... Dates! We used to do it. My daughter would be four years old,

and we would do it with medicines. She'd be like, Abilify. And I swear to God, we could make it through the entire alphabet. Four years old. Normally, you skip skip X but she's Zell Jams right not a bit that's really true how many times are we gonna do Zoivaraxx and

Zithromaxx yeah Xanax didn't even make the cuts god damn it is a very interesting, you know, uh... Remember Anison? Good old Anison. Right, and it cured everything. I just remember as a kid, I think all we had was Anison, Bufferin, Bear. They had like an aspirin commercial. Looks like somebody lived in a nice neighborhood.

I had St. Joseph's Children's aspirinin and I was 17 and had Chlamydia. But how was your perineum? Gorgeous. As Rihanna would say, shine like a diamond. You could eat off of that thing. And boy did I try. We all tried. Can I tell you something?

I've missed you. I've missed you too. What? I haven't. I think the last time I... I see you every now and again at an event. Once I moved out of the city, once you move out of the city,

for those urban sophisticated, you are a dead man. I live out in New Jersey and I would say to Paul, hold on one second, hard disagree. But I see you, you are living now the dream But I see you. You are living now the dream that I sometimes think of. Like, you're Kansas City Chiefs. They keep winning Super Bowls. You're out there with your son on the field, like celebrating that thing. It's such a magical time. Our kids are around the same age. So we're all, they're going through the thing it's it's a big transition like do you feel the empty nest of it all like

that's that's slowly starting to to dawn on me. Yeah, I do I mean I certainly feel older my kids are older they have their own lives, I mean I'm sitting here, you know getting nostalgic about about the Abilify game, and so, as I'm talking about it. And I see, you know, people with little kids. I'm like, I remember that. And I do feel... The thing for me, when I see someone whose kid is at that age where you can still do, like, the football hold...

Right. Yeah, yeah. And you got the coffee in one hand and the kid in the other, and then so. Right. Yeah, yeah. And you got the coffee in one hand and the kid in the other, and then so the cigarette can just dangle. And... Yeah. It's a wild feeling when it washes over you,

but it's also nice to, I guess, have them at that other, like, the conversations you can have with them. There's so much... Yeah. Oh, it's great. I mean, it's, you know, you always hear that, and that it's like, oh, the conversations you can have with them. There's so much. Yeah. Oh, it's great. I mean, it's, you know, you always hear that. And that it's like, oh, every age is great. And it's true. And it's an amazing thing.

I was just in Australia, working in Australia. And my son was on break from school. And he came to visit. It was the first time ever by himself. And it was... Came to visit you in Australia? Yeah. Fantastic.

It was great. Did you, the one thing I didn't do and I probably should have done is make friends. So, they have to be there. I own them. But when they leave, it's just me eating a Jersey Mike's by myself watching a game. Well I don't know, have you found this to be the case? Because I certainly have.

I think as I get older, my world gets smaller. And as far as friends, I do have friends, but I'm not nearly as social as I used to be. Right. I'm not nearly as social as I used to be. Right. I'm not on any actual social media. I never have been. So I do feel as if the world operates in a way that it's passing me by. I sit alone with my books.

I sound like a Simon and Garfunkel song. I am a rock. No, his looks crazy. I'm gonna tell you something. Look up for one second. I do this every time we're together. God, my life is f***ing horrible. No, before I let you go,

I wanna show the audience something. I want everybody at home to look at this. Paul is older than I am. Laughter Applause And if I go home right now, my guess is somebody has ruined my taint painting. Your tainting? You know, talk about an oil tainting. He's got the movies, Death of a Unicorn. It's going to be in theaters everywhere.

Friendship with Tim Robinson, who may be the funniest man. I laugh. He's amazing. Amazing. Tim Robinson. Tim Robinson and you're in the movie. Friendship, which will deal with the things that we were just talking about. Yeah.

And then a movie about killing unicorns. Yeah. Which we're not probably going gonna talk about that much. Fine. We're not gonna talk about any of this. How do you, when you get, because the movie, it's wild, and you'll love it, and Jenna Ortega's in it, and she's great, and the cast is insane.

But I can't, when they pitch to you, they go, Paul, there's this movie we'd really love for you to be in. You play a lawyer. And they go, oh, what does the lawyer do? Well, he's around murderous unicorns. Mm-hmm. And is that when you go like, look, motherfucker, I was in Marvel. I don't... I get a thing that says, it's called Death of a Unicorn.

I'm like, where do I sign? That's the beauty of the improv. That's it. Well, it is always a pleasure, and I hope that I host one day a week for the next 20 years, and you come back to see us again. I would love nothing more, John. I hope so too. Down in the Unicorn! In theaters, everyone! In theaters! In theaters! In theaters! All right! Quick, quick! We'll be right back. You know, I got halfway through. All right, let's go over tonight. Before we go, we're going to check in with yours. For the rest of the week, Mr. Ronnie Chang.

Ronnie! What do you think? I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you.

I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you.

I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going check in with your host. For the rest of the week, Mr. Ronnie Chang. Ronnie! What do you... What do you got for the rest of the week, Ronnie? Well, John, we'll be covering the bankruptcy of 23andMe.

It's a sad day for all the people who want to learn their family history, but a great day for all the secret fathers who wanted to keep that history quiet. And course smart people like myself don't just give out our genetic information I keep mine safe and secure Jesus I'm sorry oh for God's sakes Ronnie you just group texted me your entire DNA sequence okay that was a small mistake but otherwise my-sec is totally clean here. Come on, I'm just glad to hear it.

Ronnie Chang, everybody! All this week, I'm gonna shut my real phone off. Oh, also, March 31st, next week, one week from today maybe, Night of Too Many Stars at the Beacon Theater here in New York City, live comedy event benefiting autism programs nationwide. If you are in town, please consider buying tickets at the link below. Join me and really too many stars. I can't even name them all. Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, a bunch of other people.

Please join. Here it is. Your moment is in. President Donald Trump taking aim at a portrait of himself in the Colorado state Capitol. He's calling it distorted and Ken and I have you see kind of agree. It was funny social on Sunday to disparage the painting that was originally commissioned by the Colorado GOP. And it's post he says that the painting was purposely distorted to a level that

even I perhaps have never seen before. Explore more shows from the Daily Show Podcast Universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. Paramount Podcasts.