The Daily Show: Ears Edition - The Precap | Jordan Klepper on "Bored" Trump's UFO Report, Cruise Ship Improv, and Crying During Basketball

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

This week's host Jordan Klepper sits down with Daily Show writer Scott Hercman to recap the latest news, and preview the week to come. They look back at Jordan's first days at The Daily Show as weird costume fodder and history as a cruise ship performer, and dig in to reports that Trump is "bored" with his war in Iran, preferring to sew chaos with UFO reports, constant construction and late night NFL kickoff criticism. Looking ahead, they preview Trump's trip to China with his CEO entourage, and bask in the glow of a successful basketball playoff run with the New York Knicks. -- 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

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Wayfair, every style, every home. You're listening to Comedy Central. Hello, and welcome to the Precap, a Daily Show podcast where we sit down with this week's host to recap some of the latest news and preview what's coming up next. I'm Scott Hirkman, a writer at the show, and I'm joined today by your host this week. week, Mr. Jordan Kleber.

Hello, everybody. Happy to pre-cap for you. Yeah, I'm very excited to be here. You've been here for a while. I've worked at the show almost 10 years. People don't know that by my face, usually. You look very young. They think I'm a PA. Yeah, you look like a PA. You have

the air of somebody without authority or status. Exactly. That's how I look at myself every day when I walk into this building. But I was actually PA when you started at the Daily Show, which was super exciting. I remember your first a couple months, very vividly, I've always wanted to ask you this, and I never have, and now I finally have the courage to you because I'm allowed to speak.

Because there's cameras on us? Because there's cameras on us, yeah. Usually you won't talk to me when we run into each other in the hallways, and that's sort of by design, contractually, I believe. Yeah, you're too tall for me also. I'm scared. I'm scared to my neck doesn't go that high. You can tell that you were brought on in the first John era because of your heights.

Yes, yes, Jewish and height. They're like, this person is perfect to be a VA at the Daily Show. But my first year, when it was your first year also, I feel like every chat you did was you being mangled or physically harmed in insane ways. And as a PA, I didn't know what was going to be on the show and it'd be like, oh, Jordan Kleber is coming down to the studio. And you would have like a waffle iron burn on your face or like green all over you. Did you feel like they were just trying to injure you? It's so interesting you bring that up because I don't, I think I blocked out most of that partially because. because it somehow affected who I am as a person,

that they were just like, this is a piece of meat that we can make look ugly and strange. So let's do exactly that. And at the time, I believe Jason Jones was like, I don't want to do these pieces. Give it to the new kid. I was so grateful. Still am very grateful that I had the opportunity to be on the show.

But I was sort of a blank canvas. Again, a blank canvas, I think, with the bare minimum amount of respect. So if the joke was, Waffle Iron to the face, Let's paint this weird, gangly person, waffly on the face, and then put them on camera. And that I do think is always a weapon of comedy is a lack of conventional attractiveness. I think we're too harshly. You know, I feel confident enough to say that, but my gangly weirdness was utilized by the great writers at the show.

So in your head, it was, I already look weird. Please make me weirder so that it's funny. At some point, putting a waffle iron and a bunch of feathers on me. If I recall that bit, I have in mind, I think that was like a Home Alone reference of having to get maybe into the White House or something and being attacked by Home Alone weaponry and then doing a report. Actually, this brings up another question. Now I have for you.

Now it's a writer on the show. Going from intern to PA to writer on the show, one of the funniest writers we have. Oh, wow. We're done. We don't have to talk anymore. I have a list of my office. You're number eight for sure. Perfect.

Number eight. That's still top nine. I wonder what number I was going to pick on. You thought eight. That's good. You'll take it. As a very funny writer on The Daily Show, you get to utilize the bodies of all the correspondence and hosts for comedic purposes.

What do you see as your palette? Who is the most interesting to put in weird physical situations? You guys all do it tremendously. So I'm not, if I was ranking it, you're definitely in the top seven or eight. I'm not sure how many correspondence we have. But yeah, I think that's like probably the most fun we have at the show when it's like, oh, we're going to put Jordan in something crazy today. I can think of at least three examples I've done with you. You were in a Superman costume once.

That was a great one. Yes. You were in, that denim bachelorette jacket. Oh, is that the one that had a, there was something on the back? Yeah, you're in bedazzled. We do so many of them. Oh, I think that was a Cash Patel reference to a super tight jacket. Yes, yes.

So we put you in a girl's bachelorette jacket. And then I remember you wore a giant cowboy hat that said, I heart boobs. And that's got to be one of my favorite bits. I don't know. Do you remember Joe Biden shared a MAGA hat with somebody? So we did the bit where you and Costa trading hats? Yes, that's right. I heart boobs.

And you were like, oh, I'm going to trade you my favorite hat. I heart boobs cowboy hat. There's so many good hat. One of my favorite bits was with Hassan Minaj back in the day, where we were wearing team one direction or no direction. It was a joke about the band One Direction, but also about pigs who were stuck in shoots and were being led to slaughter

and could only move in one direction. And then perhaps my favorite physical bit is I was on a, did a piece in the Virgin Islands where I was walking along the shore. And the joke was that I kept buying local, like novelty T-shirts, like female body inspector or what have you. And it was, the shirts kept changing. as I walked along the shore

and so they got more and more like offensive and touristy and by the end I was I was sporting shorts, a visor, and a shirt that just said tits on it. A lot of boob jokes. A lot of boob jokes. You realize, yeah, okay, it's, we love genitalia here and we love body disfigurement. We use it to satirize the world that we're in.

What an eloquent way to put, my feeling is, that's just funny. It's just funny. It is funny. Bobs and penises are, they are still, There's still the baseline of what we do here. All right, we should probably talk about what's happening in the news this week. We are still in the middle of a war.

Donald Trump has rejected Iran's latest offer to end the war. And there's also an Atlantic article that says Donald Trump is reportedly bored with the war. Spoiler. So this is really, it's really devastating to people who haven't been paying attention. Yeah. Now that it needs more strategy, he's just like, nah, too much work. I mean, interesting, but not at all surprising with this man. This is definitely the kind of guy that was like, ah, we were able to pluck a South American leader and steal him and bring him over here.

And it seems like everybody forgot about that because, you know, news and everybody's a goldfish in a bowl. So what if we just do that over there in Iran? And now it seems to be a bit more complicated. He looks bored. If you read his true socials, if you hear him hop off a helicopter and talk. I was in D.C. this weekend. I did a show on Friday at the lovely Warner Theater and the wonderful people of D.C. were warm and kind.

Thank you to lovely Washington, D.C. But I was staying right next to the White House. And you can very much see that it is a construction project happening. You see this ballroom is being built. I was watching Cement. trucks go in and out of the White House, which to be articulated something that I don't think I had noticed until I really was right then and there is this man is living next to an instruction project, which Donald Trump has for his entire life. But just imagine having the role of

President of the United States and understanding that you're going to make some of the most consequential decisions in any month's lifetime. And there's been another article that came out recently that saw himself as one of the most important people who's ever lived. He sees himself as one of the most important and consequential people who's ever lived. And he chooses to, instead of create a space where he can be alone with his own thoughts and perhaps think through things, he chooses to create a space that is nothing but jackhammers. It's like white noise for him. It relaxes him.

I just need chaos. So I don't have to confront who I am as a human being. Can you just add a jackhammer outside here for the entirety of my entire time that I am president of the night? And you know, at night he's like sneaking out to the construction site with a hammer. or like getting excited. Like he's loving it. He's loving it. And by the way, they're also not supposed to be working on it right now.

And you said there's just trucks all day long. They're going in and out. There's giant cranes that if you walk by walking through D.C., there's so much construction happening on the reflecting pool all across the national mall walking by the White House. You can't even get a good look at the White House. I'm sure there's safety concerns that are there. But also there's just so much construction going in and out.

It is not a space that is. built for people to contemplate their actions. Whichever there was a city where perhaps we could, you know, ergonomically develop it so that people could sit with the consequences of their own ideas. We would aim for that to be the case. But yeah, we got, we got, we got, we got a UFC fight come up. We better put up those stands, y'all. Which we're talking about also like Trump is clearly bored by almost everything, the fact that he's kind of. of just like doing a little bit of everything and then moving on.

You know, like this week, he released like the UFO files. And that was just, here's a Wednesday. Here, tell me what's in them. He literally said, you go through them. Tell me what's in them. Yeah, he's not even better than it. He just let it out to the masses. I think he had a truth that, that's like, figure out what the heck is in here.

Go on. Have fun. He's throwing chum. It's just chum. It's like, go take a look. And it also shows you, we're not. not talking about the UFO files. I think partially because from my understanding there's not any huge bombshells, although I'm excited because this week we have Neil deGrasse Tyson on,

and we're going to go through those and talk about what Neil sees, what we might be missing. He said there's not evidence of aliens. DeCrasseigne says that. Which I think is he's nervous there's someone who's weirder about space than he is. He doesn't want them coming down. If you can ask him that, hey, are you afraid the aliens will supplant you as the weirdest dude about space. So should I, Neil, as Scott would call you, the weirdest guy I'm out to say. Is that just because he has an interest in space that you see it as peculiar? I find a peculiar that he's so anti-aliant now. Did you think? Because he's obsessed with space. Why wouldn't he want to speak to experts? He's an astrophysicist. Why wouldn't he want to get more information from the aliens

on what else is out there? Do you think of Stephen Hawking? Was he someone who was obsessed with physics or weird about physics? Is that how you would have framed Stephen Hawking? I would not disrespect Epstein Island local Stephen Hawking. Wow. Shots fired on hockey. Is LeBron James weird about sports or dribbling? No, sports is awesome. Sports is awesome.

Sports is awesome. Do you believe in aliens? Would you expect there to bend something, some smoking gun or I guess frothing orb to be in those files? I looked at the files. Everything, I can be convinced either way on both. Either I'm looking at a sophisticated piece of technology or like this is a balloon that's floating in a weird way.

Space is gigantic. I don't know what's going on there. I'm not smart like Neil deGrasse Tyson. Respect to his name. I'm sure. There's got to be something. There's got to be something out there. Yeah, I'm optimistic there's something out there.

Although I don't buy the fact that if there was something out there, it came here, shook for a little while 50 years ago. We caught a picture and then we never saw it again. Yeah, they were like, not interested in what's going on here. I do think, just based on how everything comes full circle, in this world we live in now. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if, like, aliens exist, but they were also on Epstein Island.

You know, like, it's all somehow interconnected. I think an advanced society would understand how the media landscape works. And so if it's like, if you want to stay hidden, it's not that you hide behind the mountains or escape back to your planet. You just go to Epstein Island and trust that the people in power will keep those files hidden and nobody will ever find out about you. Yeah. These aliens are smart.

Even more things Trump's doing now that he's bored. He's complaining about the NFL kickoff. rule, which it's not even NFL season. We're in the middle of a war. He started. What do you think about the kickoff? I mean, that's the most important thing. We could be discussing right now.

Well, I think it's something that if you were complaining about the NFL kickoff rule during the NBA playoffs, you are an old man with nothing better to do. My guess, he has something better to do. First of all, though, I'm so glad Trump is focused on this as opposed to other things. Let the old man spin in a corner. Let him build a ballroom. Let him bitch about the win. for the big Super Bowl that's coming up next year.

Like, great. Yeah. I think that's going to give some other countries ways in which they can figure out how to defend themselves against our worst instincts. So I'm all good for that. I also don't think a lot about the NFL kickoff world. It seems like it was put in place to stop murders

from happening on the field. That seems to be a good thing. It's probably the least exciting part of the game, and it's somehow the only thing Trump wants to talk about. Which is what... Help me out here. The NFL kickoff rule is essentially they've staggered the way in which people can run down the field when the ball is kicked because of head injuries, right? Because of, so there weren't a lot of kickoffs.

This is why I'm on the podcast because we're talking sports. We're talking sports. This is the only reason they invite me on the podcast. They, people were fair catching all the kicks because of all the injuries. So in order to create some action on the kickoff, they created this rule that makes it safer for the players. And maybe the team tries to run it back for a. touchdown to try to create more excitement, which I think it has, but somehow Trump has turned this into like, I'm not ending the war with Iran unless the NFL gives up the kickoff rule.

This man, he's such a unique human being, but everything, you can zoom in on everything about Donald Trump, and it articulates something about what is so uniquely broken about this human being. Because I think about that kickoff rule, and, you know, I love watching a football game, But if you watch a football game, you're inundated with commercials. And the one thing we know about kickoffs is they always happen in between commercials. They're the easiest thing to miss if you're at all engaged in something other than watching advertisements beep into your eyes. If you have friends, you're talking to friends and you miss the kickoff.

If you have bodily needs for food, you're eating wings before coming back to the kickoff. If you have family members or children who are playing, you're playing with your child, the game comes back. You've missed the kickoffs. So the only people who are truly that invested in the kickoff are people who are not spending their time with family, friends, communicating, or feeding themselves. They are instead watching advertisements and propaganda beamed into their eyes, and they are obsessed with the little minutia of the game in front of them. Which goes back to Trump, is bored and alone in the White House. He is bored and alone in the White House.

Get this man a worthwhile hobby. Well, I said to you earlier, I think the way the East Wing got destroyed was one night he was walking around. I'm thinking, I don't like this wall here. I just took a hammer. The man tinkers. That whole wall with the auto pen, that's a tinker. That's a tinker. You got the, I mean, the signage outside the Oval Office is the most low-class funny shit.

To put Oval Office outside the Oval Office like it's a ballroom at the Sheridan. Yeah. But that's the tinkering man. It's a man who can't sleep. It's a man who wife doesn't want him in bed. It's a man who had no children who are calling them. It's a man who walks around. And yeah, he's hammering.

He's touching. There's also a report, I believe, of him sticking up challenge coins onto doors. What does that mean? There's challenge coins that are often handed out. Veterans often will hand them out or people have it in the military. I think some people work for governmental offices. Get coins with like the presidential seal. He's his would have the seal on it, I assume, and his name, often handed out to people who would visit the White House or VIPs. They're pretty and thick pieces of coinage. that he sticks up. I mean, he, the man's got like a glue gun and puts it on a door. Take the glue gun away from this man. He's adorning too many things. Why is this man so into adorning? Why does he have a toolkit that he can put these things out?

Get this 80-year-old man's of day coupons. So he can be a normal, weird old person. Two months ago, he said on camera, they'll say Trump wants it quick and he'll get bored. But don't worry, I never get bored. and now there's reports he's bored it's like he's he's just walking around doing nothing

he is this is this that may have been the first contradiction in the things that Trump has said that I've ever heard him say and frankly I think the man's slipping yeah he's slipping yeah he's he's slipping he should not get that third term he should not he's got a bunker to wait it out

but I I hope the American people finally see maybe he's not the the man for the job another thing going on in the news is the haunt of virus. Are you concerned? As somebody who has worked on a cruise ship, done sketch comedy on a cruise ship,

which is perhaps the most noble thing to do on a cruise ship. And you came to do this show? I did. At this point, I was like, I've served the people. I've given them what they wanted, which is short form comedy and sketch comedy in an open air arena

to a bunch of people who leave halfway through to go see the slate of hand magic show that's happening next door. Was it only cruise ship-based sketches, or you guys did others? Great question. It was material cold from the Second City's archives

that I believe had some classic relationship dramas. Okay. Some short form, like, physical bits and some original material written for the cruise ship. What you realize when you're doing comedy on a cruise ship

is you have a lot of non-English speakers as well, so you have to do a lot of physical comedy. Got it. Going back to, again, adorn me. Put me in something weird and let me shake it for a bunch of people who have neurovirus. And I will make you laugh until your body has explosive diarrhea because of the uncooked chicken you had an hour and a half earlier. At least while their body has diarrhea, they're laughing to whatever you're doing on stage. That's what they're doing. They're laughing to

keep them thinking like, oh, should I have eaten all of that soft serve? I don't think so. So I've lived that life. I'm, it seems as it we've been told over and over again this is not something we need to worry about. So I'm going to choose to worry about other things like the NFL kickoff rule. Because if we look at our commander in chief, there are more important things on the docket. Are you nervous? I'm nervous that people keep going on cruise ships. I feel like at some point we got to as a society say, hey, not worth it. Bad idea. People get sick out, although that's part of the risk. I guess You can get those deals on cruise ships, and part of it is because, you know what, you're rolling the dice.

Yeah. Well, now's the time to buy, so maybe I'll buy a few cruise ships. This would be the time. Should we invest in a cruise ship? You would invest? This is, didn't Pete Davidson do that with a ferry at one point in him in Colin Jones? The last I heard, they haven't figured it out yet. But we already have the entertainment.

Maybe we could buy the Staten Island ferry from Colin Jost and Pete Davidson. Turn it into a Disney cruise. Turn it into a Disney cruise. Be like, this, it's a. Then just print money at that point. Come for the Haunted Virus. Stay for the Jordan Klepper short form sketch comedy. It was great.

All physical comedy. Look at this weird, strange-looking man, shaking a stuff for your benefit. I will invest, but not go on the cruise. I'm going to look for somebody to take my place as well. All right. Let's look ahead to this week and what's coming up that you might cover on the show. Trump is going to China. What do you think?

You think he's going to get the deal done? Oh, that may. It sounds like he's bringing a bunch of CEOs. If he ends up taking the trip to China, perhaps he does. We will cover that. I'm curious, I think we're going to hear big talk of big deals. Yeah. Seems like we're not in the making deals phase of the Trump presidency.

He's bringing an entourage with him of all the top CEOs, thinking that would help. Why aren't that? these CEOs running their companies? Why are they? They do. I'm, that is one of the benefits of this Trump administration is we, we get to see the, the travel plans of America's biggest CEOs. I guess the globe's biggest CEOs. Especially those first few months. It was like, Mark Zuckerer had spending a lot of time in Mar-a-Lago, Washington, D.C., hanging out also at like boring dinners. Yeah. Apparently that's part of the job is to kiss the ass of the person in charge and or just eat bad chicken.

Yeah, because we didn't see that first term. First term CEOs seem to like step away. All right, we're going to wait this out and see what happens. But now that he won this term, it feels like they're all coming out and they're all pledging money to the ballroom that either they're paying for or we're paying for. Still unclear. Imagine that. If you take the politics out of it, your CEO, you've achieved massive amounts of success,

at least financially. You've probably done it and unorthodox. and perhaps immoral ways, but you know what? You've done it. You've achieved the American dream. You have financial freedom. You can do what you want. And they're like, also, you have to hang out with this 80-year-old man who eats McDonald's.

His farts smell bad. And he wants you to come to all of these meetings so you can be an embarrassing prop for photos. He's like, oh, so I have to do that once? It's like, no, you'll probably have to do that every week and a half. Yeah. And there's a good chance that he just thinks your last name is the company you work for. Exactly. Oh, look, it's Tim Bowlingham over here.

Oh, look, Jim Palantir is over here. Come on over here. Jim. Come on, Jimmy Target. This guy he does the best targets. Paul Walmart, get your ass in here. Come on. These poor, poor billionaires. It's not even worth being a billionaire anymore. Oh, yeah. I thought

I was going to have fun. I was going to bounce around to private islands. Occasionally hop on a Zoom call where I give some financial advice. Instead, look at this. I'm hanging out with grandpa over here. Bitching about the NFL, non-stop. For the last time, I have nothing to do with the NFL's honest.

Stop telling me. I'm not Roger NFL. I told you this. That's not who I am. All right. Well, to the big thing that's happening this week, the real reason I'm on this podcast is because the New York Knicks are going to the Eastern Conference finals. Me and you are two of the biggest Knicks fans in the office. I say that because we wear Nix gear year round. Fashionable Nix gear. I've followed your Nix gear apparel choices. You have good ones. you. I pride myself on that. It's, if my writing is top eight, my Knicks gear is top one.

You are, you are, I think you're number one Knicks fan in the office. Do you think? Definitely. I didn't know as a question. It is exciting to be in New York when the Knicks are winning. Totally. Like I've, I grew up a Michigan fan, fan of a lot of the franchises from that area. And I, you know, I have no shame. I have loved a lot of different teams, usually based on my location. I lived in Michigan and still have a lot of love for Michigan-based teams. I love the Pistons. I'm rooting for the Pistons to play the Knicks, but then I'm going to have to

root for the Knicks. I want the Pistons to do well. I was a fan of a lot of Chicago teams when I played there as well. I've become such a fan of what sports can do to a community when teams win. My buddy Seth is a Celtics fan, and he lives here in New York and has a kid who is here in New York. And I'm like, I know you want the Knicks to lose because that is part of who you are. But if they win, there's something so beautiful about wearing a Knicks hat going into a bodega and talking about Josh Hart to whoever sees you wearing that hat. Like a winning team showing that you support that team in a town. It just elevates every conversation. You meet your neighbors.

People yelling, let's go Knicks at you. Oh, let's go Knicks. Oh, it's amazing. And you get to just scream it back. It's amazing. People at this office who I've never spoken to you before, like, so Scott, how are you feeling about the Knicks? And I'm like, I'll talk to you for the next two hours about the Knicks.

Let's go. Doce make bride. He had a great game. This is the thing. As I, you know, I'm a Michigan fan. I wear any Michigan apparel all over the globe. If you pass somebody with a Michigan hat on or shirt, they say, go blue. My wife is always like, what is it with you weirdos?

But it's such a life-affirming thing. Yeah. Not to make everything about politics. But there is something about putting on the hat of the team you root for and seeing people in the wild wearing that hat that makes you feel like you are a part of something larger. The MAGA movement, they got the freaking hats. The hats, they nailed it with the hats.

And it's how you feel when you go to an event like that. It's like how I feel. You go to MSG and you wear the hat. You go to outside Michigan Stadium and you're wearing Michigan Apparel. Everybody's wearing it. You have one thing in common. You're excited about that.

You have a connection there. It's a wonderful thing. When it is a sporting event that happens in your top, you extrapolate that and then you weaponize. it for overall power, it gets a little dicey, but there's something very human about it all. Well, if that weaponized power gets

the Knicks of Championship, I have this thing, I'm a very superstitious fan. Since the Strait of Hormuz has been blocked, the Knicks have been winning. And I need everything to stay exactly the same until the Knicks win

the championship. So you're rooting for an elongated conflict? I'm rooting for the Knicks to win the championship. That is what I'm rooting for. That is the goal right now. I don't know if I would get super superstitious about extended global conflicts. Everything needs to stay the same, Jordan. We are finally winning for the first time. Maybe cut that part. We're out.

You know what? I'll root for high gas prices as well. I think it's all worth it. If we all go through a little bit of financial duress for the short term, in the long term, it means that the NICs get to be champions. I think we could all agree. that it's a worthwhile endeavor. As someone who was covering the January 6th rally, you'll see where I'm getting. Let's see you get there. Nick's fans infiltrated the Philadelphia 76ers Arena. What do you think about?

What do you think about that infiltration of the arena taking over? You just moved, you went from eight to nine on that one. You got to see what. You know what? As a, yes, as a as a as in, as an, as an, an insurrection witness. Check my FBI file. I know what it's like to, yeah,

to dive into a foreign space and take it over. The hearing about that in Philly is wild. Yes, for those who don't know, the Knicks played in Philadelphia, and it became like a home game in Philadelphia. Yeah, I think it was like 75% Knicks fans for Game 4. That's wild. That gives me some New York pride.

If I was a Philly fan, I would be totally pissed off. I remember, but I do love that stuff about it again in the sports arena I think that's also where you get out some of that you put in the political world and it gets cruel and mean and can hurt you can get it out in the sports you can get out that angst and that energy and that tribalism and hopefully you can let it just live there like there was also a story how New York wasn't selling Philly cheese steaks in certain places because it being Philly and again as a Michigan fan what whenever the Michigan

Ohio State thing happens I know OSU they they will like cover M's on campus I know there was a story too and this is props Ohio State, I give it to you. It always made me laugh. Like, they wouldn't, there's a story of, like, the Ohio State bus unwilling to pay for gas in Michigan. They don't want to spend any money there. It's just that kind of shit. I love it. I love that local pride.

Well, politics has, like, real-life consequences where, like, as someone who spends way too much time watching basketball, basketball is, ball and hoop, and then game over. Well, there are only real-life consequences of the time you spend there as opposed to with your family, and which has real world consequences, and you should spend more time with your family. Or, well, the Knicks can be family. Okay.

Oh, yeah, you've expanded your family. I would say the other issue is maybe the online gambling, but as long as you're winning, as long as you're winning, it's not a problem. It's not a problem. It doesn't matter. Yeah, people don't talk enough about that with online gambling. If your team's winning, you're good. You're good.

Yeah, the problem's not me. It's with the efficacy of my team. Yeah. It's their, they should cover my losses. You got to figure it out. Yeah. All right, it's time for something we call Daily Show and Tell. So, Jordan, what's something that you've watched, read,

listened to, argued about, or just been on your mind lately? I'm going to give two things. Two things that happened recently. Because we slagged off Philadelphia, I went to Philadelphia recently. I enjoyed that city. And I went to the big museum they have there. And they have an art exhibit on the Rocky.

monument that famously was created for the movie, then lived outside the art museum, and became one of the most visited monuments in all of the country, and had a sort of tumultuous relationship even with the museum. The museum itself was like, is this art or is this just a movie prop? They moved it around, and then they finally just moved it inside. and they've curated this curated exhibit by a guy named Paul Farber who works for Monuments Lab, which is a really cool group that focuses on monuments, the history of them, also facilitates a lot of monuments, and it asks a lot of interesting questions about like, what is a monument, what does it represent, what are we choosing to hold on pedestals, what does it say about who we are? And this one in Philadelphia is really kind of fun.

It looks very much at boxing, but also the history of putting people on these pedestals. And what it means when you take something that is a movie story and not a real person, and you put it inside a museum and it becomes art and something that people reflect and see themselves in, especially at a time when we are talking a lot about building arches in Washington, D.C., and Donald Trump is releasing big gold statues of himself at Mar-a-Lago. There's going to be monuments built in Washington, D.C. to who our heroes are. I think as a kid I grew up thinking like monuments were just built to people that everybody agreed was the person that we respect. But they are all political acts and they are reflections of our society or what people want our society to be or pushing on our society.

And so this was just a great exhibit that allows you to to ask some of those questions. I don't want to say it's an apolitical exhibit, but it allows you to ask it through the framework of of boxing in the city of Philadelphia and not just the politics of Confederate statues. So it gets at in a very open, surprising way. So I highly recommend going down to Philadelphia and checking that out. So we need more movie-based statues is what you're arguing? I think yes. I think you will walk through that at the end and be like, you know what?

It is time to build. If you want to save cinema, what characters do you think need statues? Give me a buzz light year. Everybody's going to love a buzz light year. What else are we going to love? I would love all of the characters from Bottle Rocket, my favorite movie to...

Just a cast, gold cast photo. Yeah, just give me, Owen and Luke Wilson. It's like, what is this? Oh, that's Owen and Luke Wilson from the movie Bottle Rocket. It was like, not Tennon and Bob's, not Tenton of Bottle Rockin? It's one of their earlier films?

Yeah, that's just what I want. I want them to reflect the stories that are important to me. What would you do? What film character? Oh, man, too many Adam Sandler movies to pick through for just a one statue. Oh, man. Yeah, maybe Billy Madison just in the middle of New York City. Yeah,

that's... I mean, that would be pretty iconic. It would be pretty iconic. No one would try to tear that thing down. You know what? I had a framed poster in college of Jeff Daniels from Dumb and Dumber on the toilet screaming, if you remember that image. That's a good statue. I was like, that would be a great statue. I don't know where you put that. I don't know what it says to us about who we are as humans. but uh,

the fucking, why not? Yeah. If everyone's getting a statue now, might as well put these up. And what was the other thing? Oh yeah,

the other one too. You know what? I just started a Lord of the Flies. Oh, nice. And, uh, I'm very early on in it,

but I forget how I read that book in high school and enjoyed it then. But it seems to this remake was immediately compelling and fascinating. And watching kids create society is, it's great and fascinating. So, based on the first 30 minutes of it, I think they might have a hit over there. Good for that upstart Netflix, too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was rooting for them, you know. I wasn't sure they were going to make it a while back, but... They might figure it out. Yeah, they might figure it out, yeah. What do you got? You got a show and tell? I got a show and tell.

I'm going to keep it consistent, and I'm going to say that everybody listening should take some time from their day and watch Jalen Brunson play with a basketball for the New York Knicks because it's awesome to watch. It's a beautiful thing. It's really fun to be. a Knicks fan right now. It seems like

you're relatively new, but I've had a lot of pain, and it's awesome, and it's fun, and you should do it. And if you don't know what sports are and you're listening, I'm really sorry that you had to listen to that suggestion. Can I, you know, we're turning into a sports podcast, but there was a moment that I, that made me, I was surprised by how

emotional I got last week. I was watching, they've been all great series. I've been a big fan of the NBA, but but whether you like the NBA or whatever sport, there's beautiful narratives that are happening. And I think basketball at its best feels poetic and beautiful. And I was watching LeBron play in this last series.

You know who LeBron James is, but it's been a season that's been up and down, and it was going up and then lost all of their players due to injury, or most of them. Luke is out, and Austin Reeves was out. And LeBron won to me games. They weren't supposed to win. And in one of these games, he had an alley-up,

to his son, Brani James. And there's been a lot of conversation about Brony being on the team and they played and they haven't played a lot. But because there were so many injured players, Brony got to play in this game. And there was a moment where he threw an Aleup. And after the game, they won.

And they were talking to LeBron about the game. And they asked LeBron what it was like to throw. It was the first time a father had thrown an Aleut to their son in a playoff game. And LeBron James, he flippantly said this. but when asked about it he said oh I noticed he made a little shuffle

stuff with his feet and I've been watching him make that move since he was a baby and so I knew to toss it up to him and he got it and I immediately broke down and started crying as a dad

I was like that is one of the most beautiful expressions of like parental love and attention you watch your child grow you watch every little face they make and the ways in which they move around the rooms like you are attuned to catch them when they fall that that is what that is what a loving parent does is you

become attuned to the way in which your child moves through space and time and in this weird world this one of the greatest best players of all times is suddenly playing with their child at the biggest stage on the planet and in a little moment out of the corner of their eyes saw their child do some tiny move that they recognize because they've been watching their own life. And instinctively, the poetry of basketball takes place that he tosses it up in the air. And he's been practicing basketball his entire life.

And therefore, he executes it on the highest level possible because that's something he's cared so much about. But his instinct came from fatherhood and watching his child. And his child is able to catch it, know what to do with it and make it. To me, it was like, that's beautiful. It's awesome. And I wept. And I was so happy I was alone.

My wife would have been like, what are you doing? In fact, I told her a version of this and I don't think she was like, okay. I'm like, but it hit me. I was like, that's a beautiful thing. And I forget that sports can do that. When they showed like the parents when USA won gold medal at the Winter Olympics, I was hysterically crying. And my wife was like, why are you so emotional?

I'm like, what if one day that's our children and I'm that parent? Because I've given up on that it'll be me playing on you. But there's still a chance for him to be there. And just like, okay, let's move on with our day. You see things differently. I think on this Mother's Day week, it's important to shoot, you know, a big shout out to the fathers. Yeah, yeah.

Really, I think it left behind on the Mother's Day week. Yeah, they should get a little more credit on Mother's Day. Uh-huh. But also on Father's Day, they should get all the credit. Yeah, I think this is actually this is a good start. Father's Day is coming up. So this is sort of like a few week run-up to Father's done up. It should be, it's a few weeks of celebration.

Exactly. May it begin in earnest today. Yes, yes. Last thing I'm going to recommend is Jordan Klepper hosting the Daily Show this week because as I mentioned at the top, I've been working with you for over 10 years and it's still awesome watching you host the show. From the waffle iron face to hosting the show, it's really awesome.

Well, Hercman, thank you for making me funny. We get to do this. It's the best job in the business, and we have the best team who makes us look funny and smart. And so let's do it this week. Let's do it. All right. That's all the time we have for the precap.

I'm Scott Hirkman. catch Jordan Klepper hosting the Daily Show this week on Comedy Central, Paramount Plus, and right here in podcast form on the Daily Show Ears Edition. Ooh. All right. Now, Alan, that tequila you promised. Find it in. 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.