The Daily Show: Ears Edition - TDS Time Machine | Taylor Swift

Episode Date: October 4, 2025

It's a big day in America (Taylor's Version) as Taylor Swift drops a new album. Take a listen to The Daily Show's previous coverage of the life of a showgirl... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Fly the seven-time world's best leisure airline champions, Air Transat. You're listening to Comedy Central. The midterm elections are in full swing. Today was the last day to register in many states, but don't worry, if you haven't registered yet, you can still vote illegally. Now, one thing we've come to expect around elections is celebrities getting involved.

And these days, a celebrity voicing their political opinion is like climate change. It's happening every day, and most people ignore it. But there are still some celebrities who simply cannot be ignored. Kanye West added, again, sparking controversy on Twitter. The pro-Trump rapper posted a photo of him wearing a red Make America Great Again hat. He's the brave one, going out into liberal la-la land and getting booed because he likes Trump.

What I love about Kanye West is he has been blazing this trail saying it's okay to think freely. Thank you, Kanye West for standing up for what is right. Yes, the Wright has a new favorite rapper. So step aside, nobody. Yeah, that's a slot that's never been funny. filled before. So Republicans have been celebrating the second coming of Jesus as one of their own.

But yesterday, Democrats said, hey, Republicans, I'm going to let you finish, but we just got one of the best endorsements of all time. Taylor Swift got a huge response. After announcing yesterday, she's voting for Democrat Phil Bredesen over Republican Marsha Blackburn in the U.S. Senate race in Tennessee. The pop star has always made it a point

of keeping silent on politics, shocked her fans last night. Swift wrote, I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. Wow. Wow. This is a big deal. Because you realize until now, Taylor Swift has stayed

as far away from politics as she does from rhythm, right? And no, like, don't get me really. Don't get wrong. I love, I love Tatea's music, but let's be honest. Have you seen her dancing? Like, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, here's the thing. Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift dances like she's making fun of how white people dance. That's how she dances. And just like Kanye fired up Republicans, Taylor also seems to be having an impact. Her post apparently caused a huge surge in voter registration, so you can't deny that she has influence with voters. You just can't.

You can't deny that Taylor Swift has that influence. The same way, you can't deny that while reputation might have lacked momentum in sales records of 1989, it's still an impressive, brooding departure portraying Taylor as a woman coming into her own and solidifying her power in range as an artist. Or so I've been told. I mean, so I've been told.

And I get it, I get it. If anyone can convince young people to vote, it's the woman who somehow got young people to buy physical CDs because she wasn't on Spotify. I mean, like, who even owns a CD player? Like, people were probably popping the distance or the toaster trying to play them. There's like...

And since Taylor has been so quiet about politics, there was actually a theory in the alt-right community that maybe she was secretly a pro-Trump conservative, right? But now by endorsing a Democrat, she blew that theory up, which is news that the president took surprisingly well. What do you have to say to Taylor Swift now that she's in politics?

Taylor Swift jumping into politics. And what did she say? She said you want people to vote the Democrat. Let's say that I like Taylor's music about 25% less now, okay? That's a weird way to express displeasure. He likes her music 25% less? Like, what does that even mean?

Is he now just going to cut off 25% of his Taylor merchandise? Is that what he's going to do? Oh, and by the way, I love how true. Trump turned back when he heard Taylor Swift. Do you see that? Like, because he was leaving. He was leaving, right?

And then he heard Taylor Swift, and he was like, what? Yeah, because normally a reporter shout questions. He just keeps going. They're like, Mr. President, the United Nations global warming. Mr. President, your policy and husband are Mr. President. What do you think about Taylor Swift? He's like, what's that? What's that?

Taylor Swift, let me tell you something. I know all about this issue from my briefings that I read in United States Weekly. And look, I know right now there are conservatives out there who are pro Taylor Swift and are feeling conflicted at this moment because she has endorsed the Democrats.

And to them, I say, if you're a real Taylor Swift fan, you know what you've got to do. Shake it off. Covering the news is exhilarating. You travel the country, meet interesting people, and find real stories. But then one day you realize it's a fucking Tuesday in November again.

Well, it's election day again. Got it? It's election day again. Because it's... I can't... It's election day again. Fucking Virginia! As a journalist, I'm honored to be covering this sacred process.

Oh! Again. I feel super chill about it. I'm good. It's election day again, and we've got another close race on our hands. So you better start clenching those butt cheeks. Early voting is already underway in the Virginia gubernatorial race with the latest polling showing Democratic Governor Terry McCalloff effectively in a dead heat.

Political writing, if Terry McCallive doesn't pull out a win, Democrats are privately predicting a collapse on Capitol Hill. Wait, Virginia could go red? For a state that went blue by 450,000. and votes in the last election. This was a story worth keeping down the vomit. I sat down with Jeffrey Skelly from 538 to help me make sense of this. Sorry about the mess. Elections, am I right? Why is this race in particular so close? Isn't Virginia blue? Yeah, so Virginia has been Democratic leaning over the last few years, but President Biden is now somewhat unpopular. And I think voters

are responding to that, and so the electoral environment is better for Republicans. So we've got a a close race in Virginia. Who do you think will actually decide this race? Young voters are really important because they are basically the most democratic-leaning group. Well, one little interesting thing, recall if he's done, is run campaign ads attacking Glenn Youngkin because he was CEO of the Carlout Group, which was involved in the purchase of Taylor Swift's master recordings. And so they've been using this to try to get young people to pay attention to the race because there are a lot of young people out there, you know, 18 to 34-year-olds who really like like Taylor Swift. Virginia Democrat candidate for Governor Terry McCullough recruiting Taylor Swift fans.

McCullough reportedly linking his opponent to music executive Scooter Braun, who infamously bought Swift's master recordings back in 2019. After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalog was sold to Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings in a deal that I'm told was funded by the Carlisle Group. One of the targeted ads reading, Did you know that Republican candidate for Governor Glenn Yonkin helped buy Taylor Swift's masters out from under her? You gotta be shitting me. Taylor Swift fans vote? I think that's what the McCallough campaign is, is hoping.

If the Swifties are backing McColliffe, what group of fans are backing Yonkin? Chet Hank's fans, Chetheads? Well, we don't have any polling on different fan groups of musical artists. We're 538. What the fuck? Yeah, it's a real niche. Could we be underestimating the Swifties? I think I'd be careful about giving them too much weight,

but there are a lot of young people who like Taylor Swift. We know that's true. Could Taylor Swift fans be the key to the Virginia race? To find out, I had to dive deep into their fandom, no matter how many of her albums I had to buy on the show's credit card. Oh, sorry. This just happened to me without my approval or consent. Shame on him.

Wow! Woo! Finally, after becoming fluent and all things, Taylor, I gathered a group of her fans of Virginia to see how angry they were with Candidate Yon. Are you all true fans? Are you true Swifties? Did you buy signed Fearless Albums, Taylor Version?

I actually do have it, and I can pull it up. I also have every single Taylor record on vinyl right next to me if we want to go that far. Yeah. The two most important dates in November is November 2nd, which is Election Day, and November 12th, which is Red. Yeah, I'm taking off work for Election Day, just in case the lines are too long. Are you also taking off work for Taylor's release of Red?

Oh, 100%. I need to get through all the emotions of all the songs on that album. I'm taking off work, and my therapist is not getting the day off. While I respect this generation's clear dedication to mental health, could this new base of voters actually tip the scales in Virginia? I'm originally from Texas, and the last three years, in college, I voted in Texas, but I just knew that I couldn't just sit by and watch as Yon took Virginia. And so that's when I decided to change my vote at registration.

Wow. Okay. So you just changed your registration. This is dedication. I was in the weird college era as well, where I was kind of voting in my home state. But now I am voting Virginia because of this issue. They couldn't help but pity these young girls. There are so many important issues, but all they care about is Taylor Swift's master recordings. It's not really about the masters, but I mean, just a couple days ago, Yon came out and said, you know, he loves everyone. And when asked if that includes LGBT people, he said no. Are there other issues that you care about? Women's right to choose.

I'm very passionate about gun violence prevention. Climate change is going to be the biggest issue of our time. So those policies are super important. I'm an environmental engineer. So this is life changing. What would you say to boomers like my aunt Sheila who say, 14-year-old girl should stay out of politics and stop stealing my sleeping pills, Desi. I think that's such a weird stereotype of Taylor-So fans because we're not 14 anymore.

We are adults. We pay taxes and we vote. Yeah, do you want to see my thesis paper about congressional legislation? Because I can show you that. Don't underestimate Swifties. All right. Take it easy, Molly. Jeez. I don't want any snake comments on my Insta. Yes, they are fans of Taylor Swift. And yes, they are in their plans. Maybe they can make a difference in this upcoming election. No matter what happens, at least now I'll have some great music to cry to, just in time for next election Tuesday. All right, let's move on to a more important election.

Every year, Time Magazine announces the person of the year. So that people remember what Time Magazine is. And this morning, we found out who won, 2003. gives this Times editor-in-chief, Sam, good morning. Welcome to today. You can reveal right now who it is. Are you ready for it? We're ready for it. The 20-23 time person of the year is Taylor Swift. Okay. Let me just, let's just get this out of the way, Sam, because the world is on fire right now. And, you know, this is person of the year, and it purports to say this is the most influential person or group of persons in the world this year. You pick Taylor. We know about her influence. How did you justify

this decision? There are a number of different choices that could have represented 2023. And I don't think there's anyone who's moved so many people so well as Taylor Swift did in 23. Yeah. Also, my teenage daughter doesn't speak to me and I thought this would help. But yeah, yeah. But yes, Taylor Swift is Times person of the year, which is terrible news for Taylor Swift. Have you seen how the past few winners of this are doing? Last year, Zelensky won. How's Ukraine doing now?

Year before that, Elon Musk got to cover. How's Twitter doing now? Year before that, Biden and Kamala got to cover. Enough said. Forget Travis Kelsey. If this pattern keeps up, next year, Taylor Swift is going to be dating the punter for the New York Jets. But the question is, does Taylor Swift deserve to be person of the year? To discuss, we turn to Ronnie Chang and Michael Costa.

Um, let's start with you, Ronnie. Why did Taylor deserve this cover? Well, uh, as a Swifty, I can say, isn't it obvious? A massive tour that generally. generated like $5 billion from the U.S. economy, a movie about that tour that saved movie theaters, and she made football even more popular. Not to mention all the breakup she got me through. I mean, I was getting dumped on purpose just to enjoy those songs more. Good point, Ronnie. Okay, that's the pro-tailor side. Now let's go to Michael Costa. Michael,

give us the anti-tailorside. What? No, no. No, no, no, I'm not doing the anti-tailors. When did this happen? I'm not going to criticize Taylor Swift on television. She deserves all her success. Her music is great. She was terrific in that Cats movie. I wish nothing, I wish nothing but the best for her and her army of incredibly passionate and defensive fans. Michael, I'm very confused. You were telling me earlier today how stupid you thought it was to give her a person of the year.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Charlemagne, Charlene, Charlene, this is not what I said. I wasn't talking about Taylor Swift, and you weren't even talking to me. I've never even said words until now. How am I doing? Listen, listen, can we just talk about something less controversial, okay? I've got some strong opinions about Palestine. Don't be afraid, Costa. Remember earlier you said you couldn't believe, with everything going on in the world,

they'd give person of the year to some overrated singer-songwriter. Yeah, you said that, who dances like Phoebe from Fringe as being electrocuted. Yes, that was you. You said, and I quote, I wish Kanye would interrupt her more. Charlemagne. You said that. Charlemagne, I have a family, please, okay? I didn't say anything like that about Taylor.

That wasn't even me. I think you're confused with Ronnie. That sounds something like Ronnie would say. Don't you know him? He's always like, ugh. everything, uh, including Taylor Swift and babies and puppies. Oh, fuck these bloggers. Charlemagne, these Taylor Swift haters, like at Michael Costa on Instagram and

at Michael Costa underscore on TikTok, they disgust me, okay? First, despite what Michael says, the way Taylor Swift dances makes her relatable, all right? And two, she can easily fulfill all the responsibilities of Times Person of the Year, okay? She can pose for the cover. She can hang on the wall. And then that's it. Those are the responsibilities. Michael, he's got you there.

Are you at the airport? What are you doing? What does it look like I'm doing, you loose-lipped snitch bitches? Okay? Yeah. I'm fleeing the country. I need somewhere to hide out. Somewhere safe.

One ticket to North Korea, please. They don't have any internet there, right? Come on, Costa. You really think the Swifties aren't going to find you? That's why I'm changing my name to something generic, like John Mayer. All right, good luck with that, my brother. John Mayer and Ronnie Chang, everyone.

Did you lock the front door? Check. Close the garage door? Yep. Installed window sensors, smoke sensors, and HD cameras with night vision? No. And you set up credit card transactionally. alerts at secure VPN for a private connection and continuous monitoring for our personal info on the dark web?

Uh, I'm looking into it. Stress less about security. Choose security solutions from TELUS for peace of mind at home and online. Visit tellus.com slash total security to learn more. Conditions apply. This episode is brought to by Tron Aries. For the first time, the captivating world of Tron breaks out of the grid. Aries, a highly advanced program, journeys into our world on a dangerous,

marking humankind's first encounter with AI beings. Featuring an electrifying original soundtrack by 9-inch nails. Tron Aries is a must-see movie event, filmed for IMAX and made for the big screen. Experience it only in theaters, October 10. Get tickets now. Taylor Swift, pop star, songwriter, an inventor of the color red.

Personally, I love Taylor Swift. Huge fan. Really nothing bad to say about her. But even if I had something bad to say about her, I wouldn't. I wouldn't say it. Because Taylor Swift fans are super protective of her. Like they're like one of those old-fashioned dads with a shotgun who doesn't want you to marry his daughter because he wants to marry her.

You see, Taylor Swift has been re-recording all of her old albums, which means people are re-listening to all of her old songs about her famous exes and then getting mad at those exes all over again on her behalf. and while Taylor may be content to address her old boyfriends with heartfelt lyrics and songs that are again, I want to stress this perfect in every way

some of her fans are a lot less subtle. This is going a little too far. While Jake Joan Hall is taking incoming fire from the Swifties, another one of Taylor's exes is being bombarded with messages now. A user on Instagram sent John Mayer a direct

message telling him, fuck yourself you ugly bitch. I hope you choke on something. Mayor then responded to the user, saying that he'd been getting many messages like that over the past couple of days and asking, do you really hope I die? To which the user responded, OMG, what? I don't want you to die. I'm sorry. The user apologized again and admitted they didn't really think mayor would see the message. You see people, this is what I hate about social media. It makes people act shittier than they actually are, which then makes us think that people

are shittier than they actually are. Because social media makes us forget that we're all human beings. You know, we just see that little avatar and then we all talk shit to each other, but we're all human. Even celebrities are real people, all of them. I mean, obviously, except Timothy Shalome,

he's got to be CGI. No one can be that good-looking. I mean, just look at that person. Now I'm craving spice. God damn. Mm-hmm, mm-mm, mm-mm. And I know her fans are like, but he hurt her.

Listen to her song. Yes, that's all you're supposed to do. Listen to the song. You know, Taylor Swift, songs to express her emotions in a way that touches other people. Not to order a hit on her ex-boyfriends. So death threats are not the way to go. Especially with someone like John Mayer.

Don't send him death threats. He gets them all the time. If you really want to upset him, tell him that Ed Sheeran is a better guitar player. Well, that's going to hit his heart. You know, it's weird how people get, like, they're so hateful on the internet, Desi. Yeah, I know.

It's bad. But if you think John Mayer's DMs are rough, you should see the DMs of any woman on the internet. Really? Yeah. It's either death threats or, or, or requests to see your feet, every time. Like just your feet, feet?

Yeah, just your feet. Or a death threat, one of the two. It's either like, why are women in Star Wars or send me a picture of your feet? That's really intense. Yeah, yeah. I know they both bad, but which one do you prefer? Well, I'm pretty proud of my feet,

so I got no problem sending foot picks. Again, bad. I just wondered which one. Have you ever requested a footpick? No. No. Wow. Look who's a gentleman. I think normal is the phrase you're looking for maybe? Well, okay. It all depends. Yeah.

No, but to be totally fair, it is completely inappropriate for anyone to send a death threat on the internet. Okay. It's not cool. I agree. You got to do it the old school way. You know, you got to, like, cut out from a magazine. This is the real way to do it. That is better than a DM?

Yeah. Still not good. Yeah. I always have this with me, just in case. I don't even know who it's for, but it takes so long to do it, but I figure by the time I'm done, I'll figure it out. I'll be pissed at somebody. Before we get into the big stories, let's catch up on a few other things going on in the world.

Starting with Taylor Swift. This morning, tickets, wait. went on sale for the singer's first tour in four years, and so many fans rushed onto the Ticketmaster site that it immediately crashed. And no one could get tickets. And yeah, Ticketmaster Detaila Swift's so wrong, she's already put out three albums about them.

They're gonna learn their lesson. And look, I know everyone thinks that getting these tickets is the most important thing in the world but it's really not all right if you don't get them just relax log off you know just give the site like a chance to cool down and repair itself and then you know don't bother you just you just chill ah all right I got mine you can go back on you can go back on you do whatever you want the biggest crisis the country is facing right now

Finally, there's something that Republicans and Democrats seem united on, and it's this, the Taylor Swift ticket fiasco. Today on Capitol Hill, senators held a hearing to examine the lack of competition in the ticketing industry. The bipartisan hearing comes in the wake of a technology breakdown on the Ticketmaster website during the presale for Taylor Swift's upcoming tour. Superfans, known as Swifties, faced hours long wait times and website crashes. I'm not getting tickets. Shame on you, Ticketmaster. Look what you did to these emotional young people. Hey, you know what?

It's about time someone held Ticketmaster accountable, and the Swifties are the only ones who can get this done. They're the most politically organized group in America. Yeah. It goes Swifties, the Teamsters, and somewhere way old. the way down the list is the Democrats. You know, these hearings are so popular,

I bet Ticketmaster screwed up tickets to that, too. You got kids outside crying, I'm the Senate's biggest fan. I just wanted to see Dick Durbin. But ultimately, there's only one way to fix this problem. Get rid of online ticket sales. Go back to waiting online in person out on the pole.

Make people earn that shit like we used to. You're not a real fan unless getting a ticket gave you hypothermia. Hey, I almost lost two toes just to see Johnny Gill. And I'll do it again, damn it. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot trackside. So being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime.

That's the powerful backing of Amex. Pre-sale tickets for future events subject to availability and varied by race. Turns and conditions apply. Learn more at amex.ca. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ, built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights,

and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence. While Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-training tread plus at OnePeloton.ca. Let's move on to climate change. If you couldn't tell from all the sweat on your ass cheeks today, the Earth is still getting hotter. So climate activists have taken their protests to the next obvious place, a pile of rocks. A pair of climate protesters have been arrested after spray-paying the historic Stonehenge monument in southern England.

Video of the incident shows two people running toward the stone circle while spraying orange paint. A third person can be seen trying to stop them, then a fourth. The climate activist group Just Stop Oil has taken responsibility for the incident. Whoa, guys, I appreciate the cause, but what did Stonehenge ever do? I mean, literally, what did Stonehenge do? I get the stone part, but what the fuck is a henge? Regardless, I don't think this helps the cause.

All they did was make it look like Stonehenge went to town on some Doritos. Guys, these stunts don't work. I promise you, Exxon saw this and thought, that's a good point. I wonder if there's oil under Stonehenge. Yeah, I don't think painting Stonehenge orange is going to do anything, guys. Okay, last year the sky in New York turned orange and we still didn't care. Okay, everybody was like, oh, that's weird.

Let's turn up the air conditioning. Yeah, I'll tell you who they should be going after. Billionaires and their private jets. Two more members of the organization just stop oil have been placed under arrest for spray painting private jets and Taylor Swift might have been a target. No, no, not Taylor.

She is our queen. Take another billionaire. Another billionaire. Justop Oil said that the airfield is where Taylor Swift jet was parked, but Essex police in the United Kingdom said the pop star's aircraft was not at the airport. Oh, thank God, Taylor doesn't have to fly commercial. But guys, spray paint is not going to ground these planes, okay? You got to do something radical, like cut some wires or install some Boeing pots.

The motive of the assassin remains. It remains unclear, so we'll have to look at who might have a reason to be angry at Donald Trump. On Sunday, three hours before the attempt on his life, Trump blared, I hate Taylor Swift, on truth social, reacting to her bombshell endorsement of Kamala Harris. Oh, Donald tweeting, I hate Taylor Swift. That's dangerous. I mean, I would rather buy one of those Hezbollah pages than tweet, I hate Taylor Swift. I think Trump needs to stick to racism. It's less divisive. The assassin this weekend was probably not a Swifty, okay? He doesn't fit the M.O. Swifties are nonviolent.

They prefer to cyber bully you until you kill yourself. So why did this guy come for Trump? I mean, according to J.D. Vance, Trump's VP and the worst thing to happen to cat lady since feline AIDS, Democrats made him do it. The left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out. We cannot tell the American people that one candidate is a fact. And if he's elected, it is going to be the end of American democracy. Yeah, liberals.

Stop accurately describing Trump. You're putting him in danger when you repeat the things he says verbatim. Now here it is. Your moment of Zen. I knew you were trouble when you logged in. Why Ticketmaster has them seeing red. There may be some bad blood among Taylor Sweat. Swift fans tonight, instead of tickets for her highly anticipated tour, they're looking at blank space.

For those who couldn't get tickets for her upcoming stops here in Philly, well, you may just have to shake it off. Shake it off. Shake it off. You just got to shake it off. Shake it off. You've got to shake it off, Taylor Swift fans. I know that song. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show. Wherever you get your More 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.