The Daily Show: Ears Edition - TDS Time Machine | Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

The Daily Show unpacks the many ways Americans have found to misunderstand and misappropriate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Leslie Jones confronts people on the streets about how they’re celebrating. Dulce Sloan reminds us our heroes aren’t perfect, they’re people. Roy Wood Jr. on the exploitation of the holiday. Vann R. Newkirk II and Trevor Noah discuss the civil rights icon’s real legacy. Charlamagne Tha God is celebrating MLK Day like it's his last, because with this president, it might be. To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, Hair Loss, Weight Loss, and more, visit https://Hims.com/dailyshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This show is supported by Odu. When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up, and it gets complicated and confusing. Odu solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odu is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on features you need.

Check out Odu at O'Don. O-O-O-com. That's O-D-O-O-O- dot com. You're listening to Comedy Central. Since the Daily Show finally hired a black host, we can properly celebrate Martin Luther King Day by asking New Yorkers how they celebrate his legacy. Shut up.

Don't interrupt me on Martin Luther King Day. That ain't cool. So, let's do this. Do y'all know what today is? Uh, we lost. We lost day? Do you know what day it is today? This is Monday.

What did you do today? Well, today we just woke up. We just checked out of our hotel. Checked out of our hotel. We're going to go get coffee and we're going to walk around. So which one of those celebrates Martin Luther King Day? Well, none of what we've talked about so far. 2.32 push-ups for Martin.

So this ain't reparations, but this is enough. That's right. Give me one hand once. Yeah! What are you doing to celebrate MLK? Came to New York. Came to New York? That's it?

That's all you're gonna do? Saw some shows, ate some food, did some shopping. Alright, I'm gonna come back to y'all on June Teeth. And y'all better have done better. Don't you like when he, like, you know, refused to move to the back of the bus? Mm-hmm. I can remember snippets through the world news. He didn't refuse.

That was Rosa Parks. What was it? Name a famous MLK quote. Okay, quote. A dream. I have a dream. I have a dream. And what does he say after that?

I'm not sure. Name a famous MLK quote. Besides I have a dream. Besides I have a dream. I will pay you $1 million. If you can tell me something else that Martin Luther King said. He told his children he loved them. Lady, you do not know.

Oh, man to his children. Can we Google it? No! I have a dream that one day, that's all I got. I have a dream that one day white people will actually know what's in that damn speech. Okay, just name five black people. Eddie Murphy.

That's only black person you know, Eddie Murphy? Byron Leftwich. Who the fuck is wearing Levin? Viren Lefich is an NFL as an offensive white coach. Don't everybody know him. You're just making up names now. So how you are celebrating Martin Luther King? Um, not too sure.

So that's what he died for man? For you, this would be out here, just not doing nothing on this day? No, I'm just kidding. You can do whatever you want, man. You black. We're gonna go see the Lion King. Okay. There's got King and the tie-dye. I mean, that's as close as you can get, I'll take it.

The freedom and liberty to go about and do what we want to do. That's our celebration. See, that's a quote from a black woman right there. That's right. Freedom and the liberty. She earned that. To do what we want to do what we want to do. That's right.

It's your birthday. It's your birthday. How old are you? I'm 50. What? That's what I'm talking about. Black, don't crack. You still need lotion though.

For more on Dr. King's legacy, we turn now to Dulcey Sloan, everybody. If Martin Luther King were here, where do you think he would stand on the government shutdown? I think you would stand inside because it's too damn cold. The day in the year? I mean, why can't we celebrate him in July? Then we can, you know, march out. outside and have a cookout. Yeah, but then it wouldn't be on his birthday.

Oh, so a black man can't have two birthdays? It's 2019, Trevor. I thought we moved past this. What? I didn't know that was a civil rights. Anyway, never mind. Okay, while you're endorsed today, what do you think and what are you remembering

about Dr. King's legacy? You know what I want to remember? The real Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, not the whitewashed, hallmark version. Because every year people talk about the same stuff, that I have a dream speech, the March on Washington, how he had the voice of a Scooby-Doo ghost. I have a dream, and I would have gotten away with it too if it worked for those meddling

kids. But the real Dr. King did not fit in any box. White moderates think he would have been on their side, but he thought they were worse for the civil rights movement than the Klan. And mattress stores are out here having MLK Day sales, but Dr. King was anti-capitalist. And even though he was a reverend and a man of God, he had left. allegedly had a whole bunch of affairs. Whoa, hold on, hold on. Even if that's true, I mean, that he had affairs, isn't it disrespectful to mention that on his birthday?

I don't think so. It's part of his legacy. A reminder that our heroes aren't perfect. They're people. And I'm not being disrespectful. Just the opposite. MLK was out there getting him. Good.

I mean, if he showed up on my bumble, I'd take him to the mountain top. I've never thought of MLK on Bumble. Well, he wouldn't be on Tinder. That man had class. Knew that fighting for civil rights could get you some. A lot more people would fight for equality, equal pay, voting rights, and whoever can stop black people from getting shot by the police will f*** to night!

Now first you get a million in the streets, then you get a million in the sheets. Do say Sloan, everybody! A rectile dysfunction is more common than many think, yet it's now simpler to treat than ever before. There is no need to navigate awkward waiting rooms or schedule inconvenient in-person appointments just to feel like yourself again. Think of HEMS as a digital front door that provides simple, 100% online access to trusted treatments for ED and more, all in one place. Through HIMS, anyone can connect online with a licensed medical provider to access personalized treatment options, discreetly and on their own terms. This isn't a one-size-fits-all care. It's a platform that puts

health goals first, with real medical providers ensuring access to the specific treatments needed to get results. HIMS offers access to ED treatments options ranging from personalized products to trusted generics that cost 95% less than the brand names, if prescribed. To get simple online access to personalize affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit Hems.com slash daily show. That's Hems.com slash daily show for your free online visit. Hems.com slash daily show. Featured products include compounded drug products, which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality. Prescription required.

See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Actual price will depend on product and subscription plan. What is Martin Luther King Day and how should people celebrate it? Well, for more on this, we turn to a man who has had many dreams that no one wants to hear about. Roy Wood Jr., everybody. Welcome. Good to have you. Good to see you, Mandela. Look, MLK Day is a special day for America, and it's a special day for me

as someone who has been mistaken for Martin Luther King Jr. many times. But as we get further and further away from his life, it's easy to forget what he was really about, which means sometimes people celebrate him in a really f***ed up way. So today, I'd like to show y'all some of my favorite MLK fuckups, like this one. The holiday didn't go as planned for some today. A business in Duluth, Minnesota, created controversy when promoting a sale in honor of the civil rights leader.

The sign posted at the shop read MLK. day sale 25% off everything black, but the owner says it was just misinterpreted. 25% off everything black. He was black. He was proud. He looked good. We were celebrating that. Are you serious? For MLK Day, 25% off for black clothes? What it should be is 100% off of black people. Free at last, free at last, pants, tops and coats are free at last. Yeah, Roy, you know, what makes it worse is that if you read Dr. King's speeches, you'll see that he was opposed to consumerism and wasteful capitalism. That's right.

Celebrating MLK Day with a sale is like commemorating Samuel L. Jackson Day by whispering. That's not what the man stands for. It's not like in the middle of his mountaintop speech, Dr. King just broke off a, Remember me with savings too insane to be believed. I might not get to that store with you, but my eyes have seen the power of the discount. Come on, Corretta, let's roll. You know, it actually is unfortunate

because it seems like some white people are out of touch with Dr. King's legacy. Oh, it's not just a white thing. In fact, Dr. King might actually be proud that on his special day, people of all colors and backgrounds have been fucking up. As we paused to honor Dr. King this year, a flyer for a local event that bears his image

is causing quite a stir. But as NBC 25, Swalder Smith tells us right now, the party is now canceled. The party promoters nowhere to be found. This poster has a lot of people shaking their heads and disgust. It shows Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wearing a gold chain promoting a party called Freedom to Twerk. It was supposed to take place at this club, but it's been canceled. The owner says he's disgusted, and there'll be no twerking here. There will be no twerking here.

Sounded like Gandalf in a Tyler Perry movie. There would be no twirking here. And then, you know, the strippers fly all over the place. And also, how are you going to Photoshop Dr. King with gold chains to try and make him look cool? He was already cool. Look at these real pictures of Dr. King from back in the day. Look at him playing pool in a suit. Fresh from a march.

That shot so cool, it doesn't matter if he misses. And here he is making the library look cool. Stated in front of books like they stacks of money. But this is my favorite Martin Luther King. Wearing sunglasses inside. Trevor, he could have taken that call in private, but he left the door open for the haters. But maybe, maybe the most popular activity on MLK Day

is using his legacy to push your own agenda and no one has done it in a more interesting fashion. than this guy. I believe that Gun Appreciation Day honors the legacy of Dr. King. And the truth is, I think Martin Luther King would agree with me if we were alive today, that if African Americans had been given the right to keep and bear arms from day one of the country's founding, perhaps slavery might not have been a chapter in our history. Okay, okay, hold up.

I'm pretty sure on Dr. King's list of priorities. Giving slaves guns comes way below not having slaves in the first place. The logic, the logic makes no sense. How would you do that? Like, do you think the slave owners would have just had a little chit-chat? Well, shit, we set them free. Oh, no, don't set them free. Let's make it interesting.

Give them shotguns. Now, I will say this. If slaves did have guns, the movie Roots would have only been 15 minutes long. Your name is Tov. That's cool. What is it? Cool. Okay.

So, Roy, we've seen people mess it up, you know, with sales or, you know, with their own agendas. But what is the proper way to celebrate Dr. King's legacy? Listen, man, it's simple. MLK was for racial equality, economic justice, and stood against the exploitation of the poor. And he did so because he knew that one day our great nation would rise above bigotry, injustice and poverty. And on that day, my friends, there will be twirking for everyone. everywhere.

Where would you, everybody? My guest tonight is an amazing writer at The Atlantic who helped produce a special commemorative issue of the magazine called King, a look at the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Please welcome. Van Newkirk. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Man, I've been a fan of your writing for so long.

You touch on so many different topics, you know, from Black Panther through to racism in America, the Second Amendment. One of the more interesting conversations that I got started because of the other. of your writing was specifically about teachers being armed. And you argued that in its very essence, it goes against the Second Amendment. Why would you make that argument? Yeah. So the Second Amendment is supposed to be this thing that protects people from the government. The whole entire ethos of it is you get people, you give them guns, and you give them guns so they can build a militia to protect themselves against tyranny. Right. And so you have teachers who are state agents, right,

paid by the state, who are taking care of our kids, who have sometimes done bad things to those kids, and you're giving them guns. So, especially in Florida, you have a guy who was known to use the N-word with his students and was suspended for doing it. You give that guy a gun. Right. That's the tyrannical government.

Yeah. I never thought of that as an idea. I go, like, but, you know, it's one of those ideas where people go, like, this seems like a good idea because everything leads to more guns. You go, like, just give the people more guns, and then it solves the guns. because if everyone has a gun, then I guess it means no one has a gun.

I don't know how it works. Well, I give my gun a gun. Yeah, you give you a gun a gun. That's the most important, because guns don't kill people. Right. People kill people. What about guns? What about guns killing guns?

I don't think a gun has ever, a gun has killed a gun. I saw that in a movie once. The gun shot the gun and the gun. No one talks about gun on gun violence. You have an interesting way of looking at the world, and this issue of the Atlantic, I think, looks at Martin Luther King from so many different places and through so many different places. and through so many different lenses, which I really found interesting.

Martin Luther King is one of those figures in America that I've always felt is mythologized and oftentimes misunderstood. And it feels like you've captured that in this article. Why did you think it was necessary to have an entire article about Martin Luther King Jr.? So what we want to do is challenge people. You know, we want people to read every single article in this issue and come away thinking about something new,

something they had never thought about, something they had never even fathomed about Dr. King. And what that does as a whole is so many times as politicians bring up, people who will have an agenda bring up Dr. King, they quote the dream speech. They do the same thing, okay? He want us to live in a colorblind society where our kids can go to school together. They quote this one part, but they don't quote the part about him being against the Vietnam War. They don't say his speech, his letter from Birmingham jail where he talks about the white moderate and nobody asked themselves, am I the white moderate?

Right. So nobody, everybody now is pro-King and not racist, but nobody's reading King now for how to be anti-racist. It's interesting that you say that, because there was a specific article or piece of it that connected with me, written by you in this, and it was specifically about the idea of Martin Luther King and his assassination. And you say here, in the official story told to children, King's assassination is the transformational tragedy in a victorious struggle to overcome. But in the true accounting,

his assassination was one of a host of reactionary assaults by a country against a revolution, and those assaults were astonishingly successful. Yeah. That's an interesting point of view, because many people feel like Martin Luther King being assassinated was the beginning of the great journey that got black people to where they needed to be, and you're arguing that it ended a revolution that was starting. How do you prove that or why do you believe that? So I remember when I was in school and I had a teacher who told me straight up that the civil rights movement was victorious that we won that we We won and what I could never reconcile was how did we win if Dr. King was assassinated while protesting How did we win the civil rights movement? How are we victorious if while protesting for higher wages for

Sanitation workers in Memphis he was assassinated and his poor people's movement was derailed? So So I always want to revisit that point. So when I wrote that essay, I was listening to Nina Simone's song, Why the King of Love is Dead. She wrote it three days after he was assassinated. And she's talking about, will the country stand or fall? She's talking about a country that seemed then on the verge of an apocalypse. And so I really wanted to go back to that moment and see how we get from that moment, where

we're talking about the end of the world, the black community in shambles and teeth. and unrest and riots. And how you go from there to here in 50 years and say we won. How does that happen? People would say, but Van, look at how much progress black people have made since Martin Luther King.

Surely things have gotten better. Black people on the up in America. Well, some studies are showing that that may not be the case. So we've got some studies out from the Economic Policy Institute that are saying that black wealth, black homeownership rates, segregation in schools haven't gone anywhere in 50 years. in 50 years.

In 50 years? In 50 years? So what are we talking about here? We're saying that the gap between blacks and whites now in terms of wealth is just so staggering that it's how do you even build policy to bridge that gap? Education has risen, but our kids are now in schools that are as segregated as they were at 1970. So what are we talking about?

That's an interesting point of view. And I guess I know a lot of people argue back on that and they'll say, well, I mean, Obama became president fans, so I mean, that's progress, isn't it? Yeah, Obama was president eight years, and now will we ever have another black president? Will you ever have another president, is the question I ask. Here's something that I really connected with, and I guess because of South Africa's history and also because it is International Women's Day, is this beautiful quote in the article, Women have been the backbone of the whole civil rights movement.

This popular narrative of the civil rights movement too often relies on great men, the great men version of history. King, Malcolm X, Thurgan Marshall, Stokely Carmichael, other names, you know, and ignores the importance of women who also organized and led the movement and shows how their contributions have been sidelined, hidden in plain sight sight sight. That is a powerful narrative that many people forget, and that is Corrida Scott King wasn't just a sidekick. She wasn't just the woman at home. Why do you think it's so important to acknowledge these women and what were they instrumental in the world? doing in many movements. Yeah, I learned a lot reading that essay from Gene Dio Harris. She was talking about Coretta, Coretta Scott King, and how Martin's development politically

came from conversation with Coreta. So a lot of what he was doing was sort of man-splaining Coretta, right? He was going out and saying, OK, she was against the Vietnam War years before he was. Wow. She, when they were courting each other and when they were still dating, She was the one who was sort of giving him these economic ideas, passing him along text about what to read and how to learn and grow.

So you look at, if you look at Coretta, Corretta Scott King, not just as Kings helped me. As someone who was an activist in her own right, you start looking at just all these other women in the movement who did so much. Rosa Parks, who was an operative. We're taught in school that she was a tired old lady who sat down. She was out there. She built the same organizing strutely. same organizing structures that actually King relied on when he was doing the boycotts. Wow.

Those were built by black women against sexual assault. That's powerful. The same things, yeah. And so when you look at these stories, how do you think it plays out? Because Martin Luther King exists in a place where some people use him to stage a protest and others go, we should use him to sell trucks in America. Everyone sees him in a different light. If Martin Luther King, we're around today from what you have read and what you have read and

what you've learned, like, how happy do you think he would be? Would he think people have reached a mountaintop? I think from reading him, his thing was never being satisfied with where we are, because there's always space. The mountaintop in that speech wasn't the place where we need to be in terms of race. The mountain top was having the vision to see where we needed to go. And I think that vision was that the road is everlasting. Right.

The moral arc of the universe is always bending. Right. And we bend it. So I think King would, he would be protesting regardless of whatever situation is on the ground right now in America, he would be protesting because that's what he does. That's what an activist does. They were always agitating. And so that's what I want people to take away from the magazine is that his activism was

always agitating, was always moving forward and progressing. And you see in the last year of his life before he was assassinated, he sat down. and thought, how do I move this forward? And he came forward with the most ambitious program to fight poverty, to fight militarism, and to fight racism across the globe. And that was king. That was king.

It's an amazing article. Thank you so much for being here. That's an amazing issue of the Atlantic. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is right around the corner, which means two things. One, if Al Sharpton sees his shadow six more weeks a winner. That's right. And two, we're about to get the worst party flyers you've ever seen. That's real, by the way, okay?

And the party wasn't nearly as fun as they made it look. Personally, I'm going to be celebrating it like it's the last MLK Day because the way things are going, it might be. NBC News has learned that the Defense Intelligence Agency has ordered a pause on all events related to MLK Day or Black History Month. The National Park Service will no longer offer free admission on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, nor on June 10th.

That's right. of parks are going from free at last, free at last, the bitch better have my money. And I know some white people out there are like, why do you care? Black people don't go camping. First of all, that's racist, okay? And second, you're correct. But when white people go get a free day in the parks,

we finally get to experience what it's like to be in an empty whole foods. Okay? What I'm worried about is that this backsliding on MLK day is just the first step toward getting rid of it altogether. Because if you don't know, It was a hard fight to get the national holiday in the first place. It took 15 years after Dr. King's death to become a law.

And some of you may be thinking 15 years, but that I'm just the bill song only took three minutes. Yeah, because he was a white bill, all right? They never told you that he was a bill to resegregate golf courses. And you should see that bill's friend. Dude's been waiting on the Capitol steps for 20 years. And when Ronald Reagan was finally pressuring to signing the bill, in 1983, you could tell he was a little salty about it.

Just two weeks ago, Mr. Reagan said he would have liked an unofficial holiday. I would have preferred that, but since they seemed bent on making it a national holiday, I believe the symbolism of that day is important enough that I would. I'll sign that legislation when it reaches my desk. Yeah, that's the tone of voice that means fine, have your little holiday, okay? I'll tell the CIA to giftwraps from Crack as a present. No wonder Reagan got all-time, but he was like, I'll make it a holiday. but I want to forget that shit immediately.

But even if Reagan caved, a lot of Republicans had a dream that one day they could turn people against Dr. King and that dream still lives on. Racist text messages allegedly sent by President Trump's handpicked nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel. One from January of last year,

M.LK Jr. was the 1960s, George Floyd, and his holiday should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs. My brother King Jr., whose whole life was a diddy part. Like oranges and smoking and fighting and whipping up on women. Martin Luther King Jr. make a ditty party look like a Catholic convent school. Lord have mercy. White people, if that guy is your one black friend, it does not count.

A ditty party? Like whatever his fault, Dr. King wasn't Diddy by any scratch. But also, if Diddy manages to pass the Civil Rights Act, I'd let a few things slide. Not the domestic violence, but a thousand bottles of baby oil. sure. That bill would have slid right through Congress. The surprising thing about the rights defamation of MLK is just how unsurprising it is. Maga conservatives have traded in their dog whistle for a racism bullhorn. Elon Musk endorses a post on X calling for, quote, white solidarity.

White men are better at all of these tasks than the allegedly underprivileged communities that are replacing them. Blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part, and we would live in paradise. It's that simple. It's literally that simple. Yeah, I'm sorry, but when I hear pure, unadulterated racism like that, you know, as a man from South Carolina, it just makes me a little homesick, all right?

I mean, they cooked up that hate speech just like my Scrom Thurman used to make it, all right? And even if you call them out on it, these races have friends in high places. In the United States of America, you don't have to apologize for being white anymore. When the f*** have white people ever apologized for being white? Okay? What are we talking about?

Come on, man. White people barely apologize for being black on Halloween. The only sorry I've ever gotten from a white person was, oh, sorry, I thought you worked here. But there's still one reason to have hope that we can preserve MLK Day because all right. all of us, regardless of race, color, or creed, enjoy that sweet three-day weekend, all right? And if MLK Day goes away, what ain't gonna replace it with? Congresswoman Claudia Tenney of New York

introduced legislation to make Trump's birthday a federal holiday. You gotta be kidding to me. Yeah, replace an MLK day with a holiday honoring Trump would be insulting, racist, and unnecessary. But you know what? A day off is a day off, okay? I mean, we've all seen Trump's face. We'll call it prune teeth.

All right? But hey, that's just my opinion. 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. This show is supported by Odoo. When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up, and it gets complicated and confusing. O-DU solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. O-D-O-D-O-O-D-O-O-D-com. You can save money without missing out on features you need. Check out O-D-O-O-D-O-com.

That's O-D-O-O-O-com.