The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Mamdani’s Endorsements Sweep NY Primaries & World Cup Fans Can’t Get Enough Ranch | Jay Pharoah

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

Josh Johnson plunges into World Cup visitors' obsession with ranch dressing, Zohran Mamdani’s new “kingmaker” status after his endorsements swept the NY primaries, Trump using his congratulatory tweet to Mamdani to brag about his own endorsements of MAGA rapper Anthony Constantino and indicted fraudster Ken Paxton, and the difference between endorsing loyalists vs. committed public servants. In an age when oligarchs are maximizing profits at the expense of workers, billionaire John Paulson has stood out as a sworn enemy of offshoring American jobs. But now he appears to be singing a different tune, as Paulson's Conn Selmer brass instrument plant is gearing up to send its operations to China. Troy Iwata meets with union leader and Conn Selmer employee Robert Hines to find out what he and his fellow workers are doing to protect their jobs from the sad trombone of unemployment. Comedian, rapper, and actor Jay Pharoah sits down with Josh to discuss his new album, “The Odyssey,” and hosting the Fox game show “The Quiz with Balls.” He shares how “The Odyssey” materialized over 10 years, how he wrote it about another dimension where he has the power to save planet Earth, and what happens on “The Quiz with Balls” when contestants don’t fall in. Plus, Jay performs a table read of Josh’s political drama, impersonating Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Patrick Mahomes, and even Josh himself. -- The Daily Show airs weeknights at 11/10c on Comedy Central. Stream full episodes on Paramount+ Follow TDS: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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, Josh Johnson. The Daily Show. I'm Josh Johnson. We've got so much to talk about tonight. The TSA identifies a new delicious threat. The trade war hits our big, beautiful tubas,

and New York completes its transformation to full communist hellhole. We did it, comrades. So let's get into the headlines. Start with the World Cup. The main way American kids learn geography now. It's been great for America to host the game since recently our status in the world went from global superpower to monkey

who got loose at the zoo and has a knife. But with the World Cup, people are discovering the good things about America, like our food. And obviously, it goes way beyond our food. It's also our condiments. Soccer fans are falling in love with ranch dressing. The World Cup has led to a sudden sauce craze. The TSA issuing a warning posting

on social media, quote, if you're visiting for a very large sporting event and you happen to discover ranch while you're here, please pack it in your checked bag on the way home. Come on TSA, do you really need to be so strict about this? No one's going to blow up a plane with a bottle of ranch. The bathroom may be, but not the plane. By the way, I like how there's one bottle of facewash of that photo. You know there's some bodega odor who's like, Saravei, it's just a different flavor arranged. It's not even that valuable.

It's just ranch. You can make it at home. All you have to do is mix. Wait, what the hell is ranch? But let's move on to today's top story in our ongoing coverage, Indecision, 26. Last night was election night in America. Again, so if you were in a middle school gymnasium yesterday, hopefully that's the reason why.

And while every election has its winners and losers, there was one guy who came out on top last night, who wasn't even on the ballot. Democratic Socialist, Mayor Zora Mamdani winning record this morning, three endorsement and three victories. The progressive candidates, he backed, won their House primary races. The king of New York City politics right now is Mayor Mamdani. He's the kingmaker, and he's in charge. A socialist making kings? That's crazy. That's like if a capitalist made a hospital

everybody could afford. But all right, Mom Donnie, all your candidates won last night. So take the victory lap. Preach to the people. We are showing there is a new path for politics in our city and in our country. Wait, did you guys hear that woman scream?

Play that again? That doesn't even sound like an election night scream. It sounded like hitting the drop but the tower tear screen. But now that she's got that out of her system, let's hear Zoran speak. We are showing that last June, a year ago tomorrow,

was not an anomaly. But that's great about the wind, though. Now, obviously, Republicans are mad about Mom Dynia's win, but it also pissed off the Democratic establishment, which is pretty insane because they're in your party. And Zoran, you need to watch out because you know what happens when establishment dims are mad at you.

You get away with whatever you want. But there was one person who was willing to give Zoran his props and said, game-recognized gang. President Trump posted this on Truth Social. Mayor Mamdani pulled through three solid communists and has received loud and universal applause from the fake news media. Congratulations, Mr. Mayor.

I went 16-0 last night, helping to elect wonderful American patriots, and the media doesn't say a word. Over the past two years, he says my endorsement has net a $250. primary wins, almost no losses, zero media attention, fake news. Trump sounds like someone at a birthday party trying to remind people it's also his birthday. He's just walking up like, hey, happy birthday, Margaret.

Looks like we're both Gemini's, huh? And yeah, technically, you know, I've been having this birthday longer, so you kind of stole it from me. But nobody talks about that. And I feel for Donald Trump because he is not wrong about his endorsement clout. In fact, another one of his congressional candidates won a surprise victory last night in upstate New York. Thank you, President Trump. Businessman and Sticker Mule CEO

Anthony Constantino riding a President Donald Trump endorsement to victory. Okay. Sticker CEO doesn't sound like a real job. Like, if you went on a date and someone said, I'm the president of bouncy balls, you'd be like, okay, sounds like we're splitting it. Got it.

Got it. But who is this guy? I'm endorsed by President Trump because I fought for him. I want to detransition America. I don't like the transgender scam at all. Just like I don't like the solar scam, I hate seeing these solar panels all over our farmland in upstate New York. It bothers me because they're ugly as hell.

Wow. It's like my uncle's Facebook came to life. But don't let all the things that Constantine hates fool you. One thing I know about him is that he's. likes being funny and having fun. I know this because he told us. I like being funny. I like making people laugh. I like having fun. If you're not having fun in life, what else matters?

Why does he look like he's about to read off what my grandma left me at her will? I like being funny, but today is not about me. It's about Eunice Marie Johnson, a wonderful lady. Like the words he's saying are I like to have fun, but the tone is saying, I hit a cat with my car and felt nothing. But here's the other reason I know he's a fun guy. Constantino recorded a hip-hop album titled,

Thank you, President Trump. I made a 10-song, patriotic album, to persuade all Americans to be more patriotic and to see the world as we see it, using the power of music. Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. Black people. I know we had our fun, but I think we need to let rap go.

It's over now. We lost it. Don't get it wrong, though. Constantine doesn't only rap about how great Donald Trump is. He also raps about how terrible Trump's nemesis is. You dummies let a terrorist run for office in New York City. This poser mandami, he ain't even from here. Okay. This guy's got it.

And by it, I mean a learning disability. Also, I don't know if you heard that, but does he think Uganda did 9-11? Uganda barely got 7-Eleven. But you know what? I want to be fair. People love to isolate a piece of a song to trash an artist. Let's give him another chance and keep listening. Did he just get so bad he forgot he was supposed to be rapping?

That's not even a song anymore. It's just a guy on the corner going, and another thing. With that level of talent, it's no wonder he's getting endorsements from the cream of the crop. I am very impressed with Anthony Costantino. Anthony is exactly the kind of person we need in politics. It's like this is what I talk about, that people like this have to get involved in politics. Why are you? He's trying to endorse you, but you're making him look like.

He's a dad trying to convince a new school to take you. Like, no, no, no, you don't understand. He's a good boy, all right? He doesn't do well in class, but he makes the kids laugh. He didn't mean to hurt that girl. He had just never seen curly hair before. And you might be wondering, how could Donald Trump endorse a dude

that doesn't look like he's allowed in pet stores? But this guy isn't anywhere near as bad as some of Trump's other endorsements. Just look at Texas Senate nominee Ken Paxton. Ken Paxton has been repeatedly accused of bribery, fraud, self-dealing. In 2020, a group of AIDS reported him to the FBI, accusing him of bribery and abusive office to help a friend and political donor. Impeached by the Republican-controlled House on multiple charges of abusive office.

Sued by the State Bar of Texas for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Retaliating against whistleblowers. Two counts of securities fraud. Claimed three homes as his primary residence. He slept around with a married mother of seven. accused of adultery by his wife who filed for divorce last year on, quote, biblical grounds. Biblical grounds? I've never heard that before.

Imagine showing up to your divorce with a Bible going, he committed all the sins. You're just standing there like, whatever thou shalt not, he did. This guy is garbage. So what is it about him that Trump likes? Tell you what, I love President Trump. Every time I'm around him, it's infectious. That's a weird way to describe your relationship. Did you cheat on your wife with Trump?

But I guess that's what matters to Trump. He doesn't care about competence. He just wants loyalty. That's why he endorsed Ken Paxson over John Cornyn, and it's why he endorsed Ed Gowryne over Thomas Massey. Even though Massey was more MAGA than Trump. But Thomas Massey told Trump, he's not going to blow him to get elected.

while Ken Paxton told Trump, watch me suck this peon butter through a straw and see what I can do for you. And it's chunky. And that's a difference between these two parties. They both have kingmakers, but kingmakers are looking for two different things on each party. One looks for this in his candidates.

A fight to reject a politics of big money and small ideas, making health care more affordable and making housing more affordable, a vote for a city you can afford. And the other looks for this. When people like me, I like them. It's very simple. It's a very simple formula. That's not really a formula. I mean, I guess it's a formula

this guy could understand. Whatever you think about Trump or Mamdani, it's very clear that they are controlling the vibe of their party, and voters are eager to see come November which base is going to sound like this. When we come back, we'll find out which country is going to make our tubas now,

so don't go away. Maybe one or two are bad, but the rest are flawless. Troy Awada discovered one of them. Every day, it seems like another billionaire is hurting the American worker to maximize their own profits. Amazon announced a new round of layoffs today. Google announced more layoffs. Meta announced it's cutting 8,000 jobs. But in a refreshing change of pace, there is one heroic billionaire who actually cares about employment in America.

John Paulson. We've lost thousands of factories, millions of jobs to foreigners because of the unfairly. trade competition. You can't have American producers close at American factories and offshoring. Even our administration agrees. We're bringing manufacturing back to the United States Big League. John Paulson is the kind of inspiring leader who will always support factory workers like those here at the Consumer Brass Instruments Plant. Consumer has been around for roughly 100 years that a brass manufacturer of tubas, sousaphone, French horns, trumpets, trombage, trombes. bones, zips, you name it.

The biggest name in Braves in America. It's a lot of generations of families that come through. That's the true American way. Absolutely. Robert Hines is a union leader at Conselmer, and he is the perfect example of the kind of worker John Paulson is demanding we protect. So what is your position at this company? I'm a color buffer and skilled bender. That's incredible. You know, I also am a skilled bender.

You can find an astronaut in this country easier than somebody that can build a French horn. I'm the only color buffer of the sousaphone bells. The only color buffer of the sousaphone bells. Damn, you must just be swimming in pussy. Well, I am a huge admirer of what you do, and I actually consider myself somewhat of a musical prodigy. Well, you know, I don't actually... Celine Dion.

One of my favorites. There's nothing more American than honest, hardworking factory workers taking pride in making the instruments that nerds play to cheer on our young athletes every weekend. There's no way on Earth these jobs will ever be offshored. We were just told that we were gonna close our facility in East Lake and offshore to China.

God damn it. You're gonna offshore to China? That's what we were told. We're sending essential American manufacturing jobs to China? They're already dominating in string instruments. Leave the blow horns to us. This is exactly what John Paulson warned us of. We are literally the last American brass manufacturer.

All our competitors are already in China. Where am I supposed to buy all my sousapodes? China. How are we going to musically make fart sounds? Shima. Do you think it's going to affect the overall quality of the product? It is possible. Material seems to be cheaper.

These instruments will be a lesser quality and more expensive for us in the future. Absolutely. We've already... Sorry, that was just the best way to express my sadness. This moment calls for a hero. A man who has publicly stated, You can't have American producers close at American factories and offshoring. A man with a Criscoe Comover named John Paulson. So who made this decision to offshore to China?

Consummer's owner, hedge fund billionaire John Paulson. Oh, watch your back. Completely different but identically named hedge fund billionaire who owns Consumor John Paulson. Because the good John Paulson won't let you get away with this craven offshoring. Unlike bad John Paulson, whose side note was in Jeffrey Epstein's little black. Look. Good John Paulson's no coward. Has John Paulson showed up in any way to tell it to your face? Absolutely not. We basically got ghosted. You know, this reminds me of the time when I found out I was dumped when I received my ex's wedding invitation. Ah, that's no fun at all. I still went. It was a beautiful

ceremony. Deep down, I believed John Paulson, the sworn enemy of offshoring, would come to rescue this factory from John Paulson, the twisted sadistic freak who was shutting it down. But if I was wrong, I wanted to give this place a fitting tribute. Everybody, get the hell out of here. But much like the instruments they make, these American workers won't be silenced by monsters like this John Paulson. Billioner hedge fund owner John Paulson. He calls out American manufacturers that offshore jobs.

Yet he himself is offshoring our work to facilities in China. Wait, hold on. Is there just one John Paulson? Now that I'm looking, they do look kind of similar. John Paulson, your legacy is selling out Americans, shipping American jobs overseas. overseas. Oh my God, there is no good John Paulson. Only bad John Paulson. They're the shining twins trapped in one body. If you could say one thing to John Paulson right now, what would you say? Do the right thing. You're rich, you're loaded. Shame why you?

Go f*** yourself. Yeah. How about that? Exactly. Go fuck yourself, John Paulson. In fact, go fuck both yourselves. We'll rate this at one to a ten. We haven't been like this since band camp. Ten. Okay, this one's going to be. The rally was powerful, but it was missing something, like a big finale with American-made instruments. So to John Paulson, if you're going to break your word and offshore these jobs,

we hope you can hear this loud and clear. He also hosts the Fox Game Show, The Quiz with Balls. Please welcome Jay Farrow. I'm happy about that, man. I'm happy to see you. You know what, this is one of the nicest, most, humblest people in the world. Oh, I appreciate you. Yeah, I'm

excited about your new season coming up. So the quiz with balls. Yep, didn't name it myself. The show wasn't me. Fair enough. This show, basically, it's a quiz show. Yeah. And then if you get answers wrong, you get hit with balls into water. No, no. You get hit

with big balls. That's what has. Yes, sir. Into water. Okay. It's a pretty basic formula. Yeah. Have you ever had anybody yet that was big enough? not to get knocked in by the ball? Yes, yes. There were two people.

One was a wrestler. His name was Mata, Mata, and then the other one, it was this dude from Nashville, and that's what he had, he had cushioned, Jack. He got hit. He got hit, and he just was like, he looked back. Like, he was offended the ball hit him.

He was like, I can't believe you tried to knock me in, and he had to jump in afterwards, you know? Oh, you have to jump. I feel like if the ball hits you and it doesn't knock you in, that should be another shot right there. You know what? I feel like we can incorporate that next season.

You know what I'm saying? Or let people dodge. Yeah, yeah. If they just, if they get out of the way like this, you know? If they can shake it real fast. Yeah, then they deserve. They deserve to be back. Because this is like jeopardy for people who can swim.

Absolutely. You know what the best part is, man. It's like family feud cross with wipeout. Yeah. And I always find when you have a show where the crowd can play at home. Yeah, you got a recipe for success. Of course.

I mean, we're on season three, and I mean, we're probably going to go to four and five and six, so, you know. Yeah, no, that's amazing. If anything, what I like about this show is the consequences, you know? Because sometimes you'll watch a family feud and you'll be like, oh, okay, so that's it.

They can just be wrong. You just like people to get punished for their bad doing. That's what you're like. When they're in the only punishment from doing poorly on Family Feud is the car ride home. That's the only time where it's like, really, Sheila? Really? Oh, really?

You didn't know what color the sky was? Yeah. Yeah. I panicked. I don't know what to tell you. Yo, there was a, yo, I got to speak on Family Feud, too, because me and my family actually did celebrity family feud. You know, with Steve Hawk. Yeah, played a feud, baby.

You know, we were there with him. And we had this question where they, They said, who is one of the greatest pop stars, right? And then they had Britney Spears. They had, they had, what, it was two other people. We said Prince, and then it was wrong. And Steve Harvey got so offended. He said, I ain't even know that they got that.

They're not up there? Shoot, well, I guess we all gonna go home now, boy, so. We all got up, he got up and walked out with us. We all just walked off a sec. Because Prince is definitely one of the great. greatest pop star. That's dagget.

I appreciate the campaign you're on about this. A lot of people will go on family field be like, yep, well, we didn't get it. You're like, no, they were wrong. Yes. They were absolutely wrong.

It happened two years ago, and I'm still hurt. You know what I'm saying? Have you had anyone like that on, like, the quiz with balls? Oh my gosh. Oh, yes. Yo, there was this girl on the first episode. We called it double, first season.

Yeah. Her name was Double Take. Tina because she got the question right, but she was peering over looking at other people because she just knew she was right. And she fell in the water. Yeah, exactly what happened with her. And so if you fall in the water but you didn't get pushed in the water by a ball, y'all let people get up and then, okay, got you. You're still in.

It's called, it's the resurrection. You get back. Yeah. That's amazing. Can you tell me about the Odyssey? Yes, sir. I can tell you about the Odyssey. Well, I would like to say I have been rapping long.

than I've been doing comedy. I actually started as a rapper. When I was 13, I was trash. But I got a lot better. By the time I was 18, man, I had a whole bunch of, I had this rap group that I was in, that we were doing me, my home boy. I had a forum on MySpace.

Remember MySpace, y'all? You know MySpace? So we did this forum called Heavy Spitters, and it would be different people from different states battling each other. And I orchestrated it, and I kept rapping, and I met up with this producer. His name is Miles William,

who I became really friendly with. That's my bro. He's done songs for Eminem, Beyonce, he's done for Drake, for everybody, the baby, anything. He's got platinum, he's got platinum records, whatever. So we actually started recording in 2015, and by 2016, we had a song, but we ain't do nothing with it.

So we were like, yo, we've got to put out a full cohesive project. and we came together in 2024, and we created this idea. And it's basically me in another dimension if, you know, people would give me the power to save planet Earth. Yeah, which I won't do. That's too much. But the themes in this album, brother, are, you know, you can have all the money in the world, you know,

but that's not going to make you happy. What makes you happy is having love, having connections, and being able to give what you've earned all back because you can't take it with you in the end. So that's what the part is. I love your cover art, too. Oh, thank you. Yeah.

Yeah, the cover art's dope. AI is doing a great job, you know. They get it right sometimes, you know. So then with the music, you know, what was the reasoning behind? Because we discovered you first through comedy. Right. So why did you choose to sort of showcase comedy before music?

Well, it just popped first. It wasn't like something that I chose. It was just, you know, hey, Lord Michael's head. You're ready to come up. You got to, you know. Lauren calls you for SNL. What I'm going to do? Put out a mixtape?

No, I'm going to go. No, that's fair. That's fair. Especially when you're like battle rap, because this is the thing. I've thought about this before because I used to watch battle rap in the entire time when I was in high school. Yeah, I still do, right? And it is a wild thing when you're watching battle rap. and then you know that the organizer is in the bracket because then it's like you're basically

battling who's going to pay you and that just there's got to be nerve wracking for the other person yeah yeah battle your boss i mean if you win you win if you lose you you lose you know what i've got a lot of friends actually who are battle rappers shout out and i got to say his name shout out the chiller jones i don't know if you know who is you know chiller you know chiller That's my dude. Wow. What? Man, brother.

Look, y'all don't understand. Look, the black actors. Y'all don't understand. So Chilla Jones, he's really dope, man. He's dope. I know Loaded Lucks. I know all of those guys. Loaded, look.

Okay. I'm still a battle rap head. So I love it. I love lyricism. That's my thing. You know, my mother's from Brooklyn. I'm not. I sound like I am because I'm a good of impersonations.

But, yeah, I'm all about the New York, the New York rawness of lyricism. and everything. Yeah, loaded. Loaded lux. It's like royalty. Beloved. What's up, King, bless King. Damn. I'm giving them a lot of clout. This is crazy right now. You all know, but that's

a great loaded lux just now. I find, Josh, a lot of the impressions that I do, well, like 50 of them, I can't even do no more because the people ain't relevant anymore. You know what I'm saying? No, it is tough when it's like, oh, man, I was going to do this

this great impression. But he got me too, yeah. It's just... Now no one wants to see or hear from him. Nobody wants... Okay, so I have a quick request for you. Sure, man. I've been working on something.

The same way that you were working on music all this time, I've been working on a bit of a political drama, like a movie of sorts, right? Could be a series, but I think it's more of a movie. It's a movie. And I'm hoping that because you can do so many great impressions that we could do a bit of a table read right now if it's all right i mean i don't mind at all yeah let's let's do it would you all like that and so we're gonna we're gonna do one of the

scenes okay let's do it um and i'm gonna i'll do like the stage direction right and then i'll just sort of toss to you okay okay okay interior oval office night president trump sits in his chair in a bad mood It's a terrible day. It's an absolutely terrible day, but it's still phenomenal because I'm breathing and I'm the greatest thing God has ever put on this earth. Suddenly, the door bursts open. President Bill Clinton walks in. Well, listen, Trump, you did some things for me earlier, and I think you're going to have to

repeat them again, you know. Just when all seems lost for Trump, who smashes. through the window, but President Barack Obama. Now, hold on. Now, everybody wait a minute. Now, this is the Oval Office. It's not the oral office. Okay.

The three all start arguing. Oh, Lord. You know, it's just, you always have to ruin my moment. Well, I don't think you're ruining anything because we're the two blackish people in here.

I confirm that because I can say, You can't say the word, but you can play it with your sex. Their argument is interrupted when Patrick Mahomes falls through the ceiling. Well, I got to say, everything was great. Everything was totally fantastic until Taylor Swift came. She messed up everything, but it's okay. We're going to be back there.

Maybe we'll win next year. Maybe we will. Suddenly, secret agent and widely believed to be handsome, Josh Johnson comes in. with huge shoulders and a wide back and very defined legs. He speaks. Well, there's a couple of things we can talk about, and I would just like to say I feel heavily slighted because nobody even invited me.

I just had to... I just learned that one today. Yeah. It's only kind of hurtful. But here's the thing. Here's the thing, and I'm going to say this. The fact that you are just such a cool person, like, I don't know if you've heard people,

but there are two people that are beefing still with each other to this day. If you don't listen to the radio, then you don't know what I'm talking about, but Drake and Kendrick, I can't believe it. The fact that they agree so heavily. I've got I've just got to get the swag down just a little bit more just you know you have such a relaxed swag even your everything is so gentle it is just you are you are the most gentle correspondent and and that's what makes you absolutely unique that's what makes you you yep it's like staring in a taller mirror thank you so much for being on the show thank you so much for everything. I mean, I'm excited to

have more and more people check out the album. I'm excited for the next season of Quiz With Balls. Yes. I'm especially excited for what is now our political drama. Absolutely. Yeah, y'all, give it up for Jay Farrell a little more time. Obviously, it's out. Returns July 15th on Fox.

Jay Ferrell, everybody. We're going to take a quick break, but we'll be right back after this. Hey, y'all's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online? wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair.

With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Community organizer, Dari Uli, Chevalier, I should say, who got Mamdani's backing,

took down longtime congressman Adira Noes Pia, No SP out. 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. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.