The Daily Show: Ears Edition - The Precap | Josh Johnson on the Reaction to the Press Gala Attack, the Michael Jackson Movie Success, and Not Caring About the Royals

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

This week's host Josh Johnson sits down with Daily Show writer Joe Opio to recap the latest news, and preview the week to come. They break down the apathetic and conspiratorial reactions to the attack at the White House Correspondents Dinner, the unsurprising success of the 'Michael' movie, and a ridiculous case of bear-suit luxury car insurance fraud. Looking ahead they preview the UK royal family visit, and why anyone cares, and predict the next steps in the Iran war. -- Stream full episodes of The Daily Show on Paramount+: https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/the-daily-show/ The Daily Show airs weeknights at 11/10c on Comedy Central. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Comedy Central. Hello and welcome to the pre-cup, a daily show podcast where we see it with this week's host to recap some of the latest news and also to preview what's coming up next. I'm Joe Opieo, a writer at the show, and today I'm joined by this week's host, the man Demith, the legend, Josh Johnson. How's it going, man? No, it's going great. Yeah, you're good.

It's my first time doing this, so I'm great to have you as my first guest. Yeah. Last time I checked, actually, you were sitting down for an interview. The last time I saw you on a podcast, you were sitting down for an interview with Michelle Obama. Oh, yeah, yeah. And now a week or so later, you're sitting down with me. So I don't know how to process this. Is this like another milestone in your career or is it the most dramatic downfall in show business street?

I think to be able to have a conversation with top Ugandan comedian Joe Opio is absolutely incredible because I never get to see you. So this is, this is special. Yeah. You're on the road. I used to see a lot. A lot more when you used to be in the writer's wing. Yeah. And then once you took off, you went like, I'm cutting.

I don't. I made it out of the ghetto. I'm never coming back. So we never see you back. You come every once in a while. But no, it's a pleasure to have you on the show. on this podcast and we have a lot, a lot to cover. Okay.

And that's our standing the team, who better? Oh, thanks. Than the man who helps America make sense. Oh, thank you. Of news every week. We have a lot to go through. And I think we should start actually with the biggest news, the biggest event. Yeah.

Of the weekend that everyone was talking about. Yeah. The New York Knicks leveling their playoff series against Atlanta. Which is, wow. No one saw a comment. With a gay. Yes. Yeah.

On the road, the winner on the road. But seriously, no, let's talk about the White House correspondence dinner. We knew talk about it, but we didn't know

that it would be such a huge talking point. And that's precisely because of what happened. Yeah. What's your take on? What happened? It is wild to me

that so much of the country falls into two camps. One, they either don't care or they think it was fake. I'm not seeing people expressing a lot of concern or stressed about something like this happening again. You know, every president has had their threats and everything. But this one in particular, I think that it came apart because it just felt so goofy in how it was presented to the public. So for instance, everyone there, right, has a phone.

And so because everyone there has a phone, we're all getting their POV of what's happening. And so not every person there, but everyone with a phone, I don't know who shot footage on their phone and then didn't put it out. And so we're seeing lots of stuff that has nothing to do with the shooting. And if you're being honest about any incident like this, there's the whole world going on while it's happening anyway, right? But because we are seeing it in social and we're seeing it on the news and we're getting different versions from different people

who saw very specific things or had a certain proximity to the shooter, we're also getting people who are like, y'all, they're stealing Prosecco. Oh, yes, the universe says. So now it's like, oh, okay. Are they worry? Yes.

Whereas when you watch like a documentary about a shooting that took place in the 70s and they actually sit everyone down and you hear from eight or nine people how traumatic the whole thing was and what was going through their head and so like that, this thing feels like one thing to you, which is a shooting that was terrifying, right? But because we're in this modern era where anybody can just post and upload and share what is somewhat confidential to completely. completely commonplace. It puts people in a place where they see the whole idea of what's happening. They see every angle. And by seeing every angle, it shows you that no one thing is presented just one way for everybody. Okay. So there's no official account. There's not like, yes. And which is, which also feels crazy because the news was there. Yes, yes. These people are the news. And so it happened where the news is. And so then they were like almost talking satellite to their new station as the news. And then stuff would still happen where they were like, well, I actually didn't see any of that.

But then the question, to go back to the point you made about the two camps, and I'm going to make it a two-partout because first of all, this has happened way too many times someone feels. Yeah. Someone even went like, oh, and a new assassination attempt has dropped like it was an album. Yeah. Because in the past, you got like, oh, there was an assassination attempt or there was an assassination, but it was like once every blue moon. So it was like quite the event.

These Trump has so far gone through three. And which I find ironic because Trump ran promising to make America safe again. He proudly brags about making DC safe. And it feels like there have been more crimes committed against him. Yeah. Than another president. But okay, that's one part. The other part is Trump is also very big at, he has been.

very big at so in distrust in the media in the civic institution so do you think that somehow has inspired you know the conspiracies

and the fact that because he is a conspiracy theorist yeah and so he has like bred that kind of once you once you see it and everything it is hard to turn it off

and so I think that you have to be very careful with manipulating people's emotions or their beliefs around something because they will not turn that thing

off once it looks like what once it's because it's affecting you yes because Trump is very good at breeding distrust when it comes to other people

yes Obama wasn't America and Biden wasn't real president or when it affects him like he like he kept saying he didn't lose the election

you know and and so now there's even if you want to take this guy's word for everything he's not even really giving you enough details on things

Yes. You know, and then you see the footage and it's like, even the footage of the guy running is, it's very bad footage. It's the type of footage that is in a TV show about a shooting. Yes. You know what I mean? Where they're like, we can't make help the shooter's face because, you know, this camera is like the second camera ever made. Did the fact that the event still went ahead also known to all matters? Because I'm thinking about with you.

God forbid, but if I'm the shooter and the event still goes on, that can't do wonders for my ego. Yeah, no, no, that would definitely make you wonder if you accomplished anything. I don't know why they still had the dinner. I think that to me, you cancel. I don't know where they were in the dinner. It seems like some of them had eaten. And I think that you just call it. There was a shooting.

It would be understandable if you, like, the only. people that will be disappointed that you called off the wild correspondence dinner after a shooting are the 12 people that watch it on C-SPAN oh yeah who wanted to watch the whole event yeah I just I'm not seeing a world where people look at them canceling after a shooting and go I can't believe they did that what a bum I wanted to watch yeah I was intrigued when you said we watched a footage or we kept watching like all these other like P.O. And part of that is we watched the live evacuations.

And some of them were very goofy. Yeah. Like you had RFK Jr. You had the vice president getting evacuated before or getting taken out of the room before the president. You had RFK Jr. going and somehow leaving his wife behind. Yeah. You had.

There's been lots of conversation around, what is online, about how the officials or the members of the Trump cabinet reacted during the moment, either by abandoning their wives or by protecting their wives. And what do you make of that? Yeah. I mean, it's going to be hard to, it's going to be hard to not look like you showed your true colors in a crisis. You were in a crisis and you didn't know, you didn't know you would make it out on the other end. And so anything you did is what I imagine you would do again. And so it does make it, it does make it worse when someone has a reaction that's not exactly moral.

Oh, no more. Yes, because here's the thing. I don't know. I'm not acting like I know what I would do in their situation or that I would just, that I'm just like so noble to the core that I would. do exactly the right thing in that moment. Like if you're, if you're scared and you run, you're scared and you're running. You're running because you're scared.

Yes. You may think about the fact that you have a kid 12 seconds after you get out of the building. And you see that, you see that all that. Like that's also the thing you see in the movie sometimes where people make it all the way out of the building and then they go, my baby. And then they need Spider-Man to go get the baby. Yes. Right.

And I feel like, I feel like in a. moment like that you, you're panicked. And so if someone comes and grabs you, if someone's going to take you to safety, maybe you don't ask too many questions right away. I'm going to ask this. And I'm not an expert on gender dynamics. If you are married man, yes, in an active shooter situation and you leave your wife behind, would it be more merciful for you to not make it out of that situation than to deal with the aftermath of your wife asking why you left her behind? I think if you leave your wife behind, you should plan to be an unmarried man.

I don't know a world where she's like, oh, you know, stuff happens. Like, I think that if you are in an active shooting and you leave your wife, your wife will then be like, so you would leave me. I feel like something that no partner would ever let go. Like you're going to be fighting 12 years later.

Easily. And she would go like, you left me. Yes. Well, also, you got to remember that, couples now, every couple goes through scenarios. What would you do if this thing happens? Yes, yes, yes. And now you've shown them what you would do in the worst possible situation.

So now they don't even need to ask anymore. You know, sometimes you get those questions. Would you still love me if I was a frog? Yes. Oh yeah. We don't even have to play hypothetical. I know I would leave you. Would you choose me or the kids?

Would you choose me or your mom? Yeah, yeah. And RFK Jr., I was like, no, I would choose me. I would choose myself. It was interesting. And Stephen Miller, some people are saying he protected his wife. Some people are saying he used his pregnant wife. As a shield.

As a shield. Because in one of the pictures, he's leading her out, but she's in front of him. You ever see that optical illusion with the duck and the rabbit? And it just depends on how you look at the picture if you see a duck or a rabbit. I think that's this situation. Because I guess if the attack is from the left, he's shielding his wife. If the attack is from anywhere else, he's hiding behind his wife. So it's a hard, it's a hard one to know exactly what to say.

I'll say this. As someone who's not a fan of Stephen Miller at all, I tend to believe that the way he is shielding her is a little bit shielding for him. But at least he would say, even if his wife went like, oh, were you using me as a human shield, he would say at least I didn't leave you behind. I didn't leave you behind. I didn't abandon you like RFKD, abandon.

Because I'll tell you what the thing about a human shield is that you can only hold it in one direction. Yes. So technically you're shielding whoever you human shield as well if you're talking about the different direction. Yes, I agree with you. Kash Patel also drawing lots of attention for his reactions. I've never seen somebody still have a job like cash retail. Like in my mind, there's like nine times where I would have been fired. If I like when I think about the people who I know who have been fired in my life and what they got fired for and he's out here doing like he's reported to be doing some most fireable things you could possibly do they literally had to go get him like he was barricaded and he looked when I looked at the video footage he looked when the shooting was like he looked like how I would look yes he looked like I can't believe this is happening now no he makes me feel like I could be everything

FBI director too. Yes, that's exactly. Yes. He makes you feel like anyone can do the job. And then later when it came out, that his girlfriend was actually hiding in a room and she was, she had another guy holding her hand. That doesn't help your reputation as the top law enforcement guy in the country. It's also, you saw the, you saw the thing of him outside after and he's on the phone. You know that, you know that person that doesn't know what to do at a scene. And so they call 911, even though the police already there. And they're like, they'll literally call now I want to be like, hey, we have an emergency. It's like, well, I hear sirens in the back.

It's like, yeah, but if y'all can send some extra people, I'm just trying to do something. I'm just trying to be helpful. I think you're being a little bit more. For me, he looked like a guy trying to call a guy inside the club when he's stuck outside. I'm a guy inside. If I call him now, he'll come and get me past the velvet rope. That's what he looked like. This was the first.

for the task correspondence dinner that didn't have a comedian. Maybe that's it. Thank God for small masses, yeah. Because I feel like you could have been hosting. You could have been one of the names hosting. Because it's always hosted like almost my, you know, the hottest comedian at the moment. And it has been hosted by lots of comedians from the daily show.

Yeah. This was the first one. They had a mentalist instead of a comedian. Yeah. And maybe just goes to show. I don't know, yeah, maybe comedians are good luck charms. Interesting. You know, you can make the point like, hey, every time we have a comedian, this doesn't happen, does it?

Okay, so White House called Spencer, that was hard to process, but more big news from the weekend. And I think this a little bit, maybe lighter a little bit, better news, a little bit brighter. Okay. Depending on where you stand, the Michael Jackson biopic coming out. and trashed by the critics but the audience obviously loved it and it traced to 217 million odd

at the box office. Did you expect it to be a hit like that or did you have some reservations because of whom Michael Jackson has become of how his reputation has suffered a bit No, I figured it would make money. I figured it would actually be huge.

You saw the people dressing up and you saw the people dancing at the end of the movie. together and everything having like a Michael off and everything and yeah I expected it to do pretty well I was a little surprised when the critics like trashed it so hard but I also think that sometimes with critique you just have to remember that the the people watching and the critics don't care about the same things there's a lot of critics out there who are going to be very technical especially in a movie about a person's life,

they're going to be very technical about what the movie got right or wrong or they're going to... What is left out? Yes, what was left out. Who was sanitized? Who was made look like the villain and everything? And I think the audiences

by and large, when they go to see a movie, they just want to be entertained. And unless it's a documentary where they are looking for information, I don't know how much the general, audience is going to be thinking about the like representation of this auxiliary character or something so when you think about uh sorry to interrupt when you think about the trend in recent

movies you know Michael being the latest but also movies like uh super Mario galaxy world movies like Minecraft which were trashed by the critics but laugh by the audiences yeah do you feel like critics all lose? Have they ever had the influence in a way? Are they losing their... I mean, I think they had influence when it was in print. When critiques and things like that were in print and people had less of a social media outlet to get feedback on how the movie was from their friends and everything.

Yes. I think that's when critics have the most sway. I think critics also... can do themselves a disservice by not accepting that they are critiquing from a place of knowing about film and the audience is looking for the escapism that film brings or just the like fun and entertainment that a film is is is going to serve you with and so I think that a critic could be right like like that's my thing is sometimes a critic is right and I'm still like oh yeah but it's fun or you like you're like that. You can brush some things off when a movie gets a very bad rating. I'm trying to think of another movie that got a really bad rating, and I thought to myself, like, I enjoyed it. The other movies I don't think got the best ratings from the critics,

but they still raised to a billion dollars. There's so many movies recently that haven't gotten the best treatment from the critics, but maybe, as you're saying, the critics are going for, like, the technical excellence of the movie. Yeah. Same thing with the Oscars. Sometimes the movies that win the Oscars were not exactly crowd pleasers. And I think Chris Rock did a good bit about that with like white cheeks where he went into the streets and white cheeks.

Everyone loved white cheeks. I trust it. But clearly sometimes I think there are that discrepancy between what the critics are looking for in a movie and what the audiences are looking for. AMG was a huge figure. Yeah. Globally. It didn't matter whether you were in a lot. Africa, it didn't matter whether it was pre-social media.

Everyone seemed to at least know about him. And do you think that's part of this movie is going to have legs? Is it going to have legs anyway? Yeah, I mean, I think isn't it just a part one as well? Yes, no, but I mean like normally weekend opening gross can sometimes, you know. I think I think this is the perfect time to release. If you're worried about Michael's legacy overshadowing the movie or people being iffy about going, I think the U.S. being in the middle of a war that we don't understand and people actually being apathetic about like a shooting at a White House correspondence dinner, I think that this is the time where if you were going to release a Michael movie, it's now.

I was because I was talking to Devin about this and I was like, do you think that if they had come out with the movie like a year earlier, it would be doing this well? and I feel like we were in somewhat agreement that like maybe a year and change ago if you had come out with the Michael movie people would be like you know he's got such a controversial past or I don't know if I can go see a movie

that celebrates a person or whatever and I think that now we've actually been beaten down to the point where if somebody just plays something that we can dance to people will flock to the theater I do feel like that's what's happening. Oh so you think Yeah, has made a change in the national mood in America.

A hundred percent. I think that if you were to put the movie out, even a few years ago, it wouldn't do as well. I think that now people are just looking for something to feel. Because real life is so great. Yes, yes, yes. I think people are just looking for something to feel a part of in a way when you go somewhere and people are excited enough to dress up and people are dancing together and everything

and it's not a holiday. It's just like people, even now, there are people who are like, I'm going to go to this theater on this weekend because I know other people are going to go and it's going to be like an experience and people are trying to experience it together. That's a very interesting observation

because I read and I saw clips from like theaters during like Minecraft a movie even when you move in a movie like Sonic or movies that are bad. based on like really iconic characters. And people go there for that. People go there to almost like have an interactive experience with the screen. Yeah.

And I think it's here. It speaks to that what you're saying about people wanting to be part of a larger moment. But the insurance scam. Yeah. That's something that if you wrote it as a movie. Yeah. Maybe they would think it was way out there. So in case you don't know, this is an insurance insurance.

that was happening in California where people dressed up as bears, three people could have been charged, dressed up as bears, went and trashed these luxury cars and then filed insurance claims trying to claim that it was a bear that actually trashed the cars and so that they could get a payout.

Yeah. Yeah, I remember when this happened, this is a testament to how slow the American justice system works. Because this is like, when they were actually doing it and got caught and got arrested I think was two years ago.

Okay. And that for something that we saw you do on video, two years is a long time to wait to tell you we saw you do it all video. You know, like I don't know how court systems work in other countries, but I imagine like... If the evidence is there. If I'm in

Uganda and I did something and it's on camera and you see that it's me and maybe I'm even holding a sign that says my name, right? In my mind, I could be wrong. I don't know the system. But I imagine in Uganda if there's that much evidence against you and they file charges and you've been arrested, that it doesn't take two years to be like, oh yeah, that was you.

I feel Americans have a phrase for that. It's supposed to be called an open and shirt case. Yes, yes. But it took two years. I thought the first time I read about this and I wasn't as well versed with it as you are clearly. I thought this is the whitest crime I've ever seen. Look, the insurance side of it. Dressing up as a bear, the insurance I have it, and the fact that, like, it's mildly plausible does feel, yeah, it does, it.

Yeah. Yeah. It feels as white as it can be. A little bit because if I'm being honest with you, I'm like, I just don't know anybody. I've never met anyone in my life just personally that was like, hey, so I got a plan. All right. I'm going to dress up as a bear. And you're going to scum.

You go ahead, lead the car unlocked. Let me do my thing. going to take home at least six figures. Like to me, that is a, that is a scam. Yes, it's a scam that is done by people who truly understand insurance. I'm sure that even when they got in the car as a bear, they made sure to tear up the right amount of stuff to both be believable and be like, insurance is going to cover this, it's going to cover this, I'm going to leave the steering wheel alone, insurance is going to cover

this, you know. I love Rondita in the story where they say, uh, the wild life. life expert took one look at the video and went like that's clearly man in a bear yeah and you've had you you've had the famous the famous online question that they ask women would you trust oh in the woods a man or a bear yeah turns out you can't trust a man because he could actually be dressed or you can't trust a bear because most women choose the bear yeah a lot of women choose the bear it seems you can't trust the bear because the bear might be a man just as a bear yeah which is honestly even

scary than a man because a man dresses a bear we're talking about somebody who's into some different stuff well that has been a review of what happened at least over the weekend but lots coming up as well

there's always news happening in the Trump world there's always news happening in the world and I think the most interesting is the royal family from Britain is visiting the US excited or not about that visit?

I don't really care. I don't care about them coming. I don't know. I don't get it. I don't get what the thing is with them. I just am not. I don't even know why people care when they go anywhere. I feel like part of it is like,

no, we really have the British royal family here. Yeah, it's like we've got Megan and Harry. This thing now feels like, an older much less sexier version of them like i understand it's a there's a ceremony involved and that there's there's like a decorum to it and everything and i guess i guess as people who have watched the country devolve into like ai slop and and even like journalistic slop and everything i think that some ceremony probably seems nice right about now but i don't know king charles and Camilla just don't.

I don't think about them at all. I don't think about them the way that I thought. When the queen was alive, I thought about the queen when she would visit or just, the queen would just do stuff. Like whenever she was driving, I thought that was wild. She drove up until the end.

And you'd see her driving the vehicle herself because she liked to drive. I think the problem with Charles is, I think he waited a bit too long. Or the queen lived. a bit too long because yeah yeah it feels like he was waiting

waiting and then when he ascended to the throne people no longer cared and also didn't help that when he ascended to the throne his brother got involved in what he got involved in with Epstein and that somehow took the shine off but also like I think you expect

royalty to have a certain look at this we've been told when they go like oh Prince Kios was a prince for so long but then he didn't have what we are taught by Hollywood, by pop culture. We didn't think that's what the prince looks like. Yeah, he feels like, what's the best way to put this?

It feels like we don't know him enough to like care about him being king. Well, you're not excited about the visit. I'm sure Trump is because Trump loves the poem. Trump loves the glamour. Yeah. Trump loves the glitz. And there's going to be lots of, you know, pomp and, you know, glitzy ceremonies happening when is

actually some people would even argue and I was talking to the team before we came in here they would argue that Trump would love to be what Prince Charles is or like one of the King Charles is he would love he would love to be because when you look at it and many people are saying oh right now the UK and the US

are not like the best of friends because of what's happening in Iran and the UK that seems to be as on board but I feel like Trump has a problem with the Prime Minister he doesn't have a problem with the royal family because it doesn't see the royal family as policy leaders in the UK. I think he sees them more as you'd say mascots. And I feel like that's what Trump would love to be. And the reason Trump keeps stressing Americans is because you guys have actually baddened him with policy. He just wants to be like a mascot for the US. Where you come

out, you've seen mascots for sports. It doesn't matter if their team sucks. They're always going like our team is winning, mascots are pretty popular with everyone. And when you make Trump do policy, now is unpopular, now he's not polling well. And I feel like for him, the ultimate dream is to be like,

for the Trump family to be like the royal family of the US. Yes, I mean, being a figurehead is the original reality TV. Like when you, when you think about a figurehead of a, of a nation, that doesn't have much political power and it's just there to reassure,

the people or something, that to me is like reality TV because you actually do keep up with that person and you wonder what they're doing and you keep track of yeah where they're visiting everything. And I'm sure like to your point, yes, Trump would love that to not have to govern and just be able to campaign

because he kind of did that first term. Like he kind of would just do this victory lap after winning the first time and you were like, I don't know why you're in Arizona kind of campaigning. You just won. So, yeah, I don't know, man.

I feel like, I feel like he'll have a great time. And, yeah. He's going to pay dress up. Well, he's not having a great time when it comes to Iran and I think. No, no, that's bad. We were talking about this, how he just keeps extending the ceasefire. We don't know what's happening. He has, yeah, I don't.

He just keeps extending out. I parented the brocade has gone global. Mm-hmm. He has called back. You're talking about how. Sometimes it seems to stumble into, when it comes to like the negotiations with Iran, he just went like, you know, no need to travel to Islamabad. Maybe you should just give me a call.

And you seem to think it's not as crazy as it sounds. Yeah. I honestly think that there are some things, especially when you're in peace talks, that should just be handled over the phone. FaceTime, maybe, Zoom. But this thing of like, we're both going to fly to the other country. To a neutral country. to a neutral country.

Flying takes time. If I'm fighting a war, I want to know as soon as the war is over. And I don't need you to fly to the place to eat the tea cookies and have the conversation. It's like, no, if you can figure this out in a couple hours on the phone, better you figure it out on the phone than like being set in a schedule for a week and a half from now. I also feel like the worst thing you want to do after a flight all the way across to Islamabad. to Pakistan is get down to the, you're cranky probably. You know, when you get off a flight, you're jet lagged, you're cranky. You're not feeling well.

Yes. You're not your best self. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I could see that, that, I mean, that feels like a Snickers commercial right there. Just like you're not you when you're hungry. Yeah, just sit at home.

Okay, so then what do you think is going to happen? Like, do you have an idea how this is going to shape up? With the US and Iran? Yeah, no, no, it feels like negotiations are on. Now they are all. Fruitcoff is going and Jared Kushner, now they're not going. J.D. Vancey is headed. Now he's not. The ceasefire is on. Now it's been extended indefinitely.

Do you have any... Because Trump seems to be playing it by the year, which probably is something you shouldn't do when so many things are depending on the ceasefire. But do you have an idea of... Is this war anywhere near the end or are we... No, I couldn't even begin to guess because I feel like we are watching in real time. someone who is very consequential and I have a plan. And so whenever, I try not to make guesses off people who don't have a plan. Do you know what?

If somebody ran in and didn't have a plan, I would be like, he doesn't know what he's going to do next. Yes, yes. Because he doesn't know what he's going to do next, I don't know what he's going to do next. So the straight remains closed for, you think, the possible future? Yeah, you know, I think this is me doing exactly why I said, I wouldn't do, but this is my guess, right? My guess is that the straight stays closed until we

finally have, like, projections that everyday people can understand about how bad the straight being closed is. Because right now, we're still working off of reserves and people still don't have to fully familiarize themselves with the consequences of the straight being closed. And I think that there are people who want to believe the president's messaging that are still able to because nothing has like affected them just yet. If they haven't tried to fly or if they don't buy things in mass, they might have noticed prices go up a little bit, but like it's really if you're buying plane tickets and if you are in any way working with like fertilizer, there's so many things that are about to skyrocket, right?

But if you don't really engage with any of that stuff, if you go to the grocery store and get your groceries, you go to work and you go home and maybe you go to a movie once in a while, I think that right now you've only experienced a slight spike in groceries and you've been told oh okay well it's going to take some some short-term pain for some long-term changes and it won't be until someone can come to you with a very understandable graph we're talking like three words on the graph and it just says like the length of time the straight is closed means the prices will go up means you'll be able to afford like fewer and fewer things and then I think that off of that backlash because Trump cares about the market and he cares about holding.

Yeah. I think then he would come up with a solution that he could try to sell as a win but would actually be a deep, deep, horrific concession to Iran. And I say horrific concession because I think that when you are desperate, especially as a leader, you'll do anything to get out of that position. And so him doing anything to get out of that position probably means giving them something that they never would have got. You know, four years ago. And so I'm, yeah, I just look at it as he's already tried to sell off things as wins that were actually him seeding ground. So I just imagine that's going to happen again. Interesting prediction for someone who said they wouldn't predict what someone without a plan.

Well, I just don't know if I'll be right. That was way more in depth than I expected. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know if I'll be right. So it doesn't, it doesn't matter how well you put it or how many words you say if you're wrong. You might as well just been wrong. Where only time we'll tell and now we get to the part

which we call the Daily Show until any topic, anything you've read, anything you've watched, anything you've argued about, anything you've seen online that you feel you should share with our viewers. There is a documentary series on Netflix about these Mormons and their cult leader

who took the place of the previous cult leader and it just blows my mind how few cult leaders are good looking. Like these people get a lot of people to follow them and do stuff that they don't want to do and then you see them and you're like, for this guy? Oh, so you think looks, I should at least be a factor.

You would think it'd be a bigger factor. I'm saying based off of human nature, you would think it'd be a bigger factor. I'm not saying it should be. I'm not in. support of any cult leaders. I'm just saying you're more surprised by how average yes. Not even average. Below average half the time. Half the time it's somebody that looks like you would not want to sit next to them on a bus. How many of these things have you watched for you to come to this conclusion? I've watched a ton. I've watched so many that I can't even remember

the names of some of the cults. Like I remember I watched one on Heaven's Gate. I've watched some on nexium um i've watched i won't know nexiam yeah yeah i agree with you yes he wasn't he wasn't bad pete that was that was a weird one for me because i was like he looked he just looked like he retired early like he was gray in places that didn't seem to match symmetrically which look if you can gray well as a man it's it's it's pretty uh it's a pretty good life if you can gray like George Clooney. Yeah, if you can gray like George Clooney, the world will reward you for being good looking.

And this dude grayed in a way where he, because I think he liked to play basketball with his cult, it was like a big thing that they'd play basketball. And he looked like somebody who would hurt himself if he played basketball. And so I've watched a ton of these cult things. I love how you watch them and you're like, no, I wouldn't follow that one.

No, I wouldn't follow that one. No, man. No chance I would want to sit near that one on the subway. Some of them, The first like gear-ish of in any of these documentaries, the first year of the cult is actually pretty dope. You just hang out with your friends and eating snacks and stuff. And then something turns.

And I think that when people like that in that, in that they're trying to be this messianic figure and they are trying to exploit people and get the most that they can out of them, trying to extract everything financially and like on a level spiritually from them, they'll work them physically and everything. And then you just look at the guy and you look at him after everything is settled, like when he's been arrested him and stuff like that. But you also look at him when he was doing it.

And I'm like, it's not like he had a fall from being hot. Yes, yes. He was never a good-looking person. And it, yeah, yeah. I mean, not to be vapid, but it does kind of blow my mind that you would have an ugly cult leader. I love that your message is, you're going to at least join a cult be as shallow as a guy on Tinder.

Yes, because... So if they're like, only on nines or above. So that when anything falls apart, people go like, oh, at least we see what he saw. We see what they saw in him. Yes. When they make this documentary, because you know what, actually, this is a good, this is a good example, right? They will make a documentary, sometimes the cult leader is a woman. And whenever the cult leader is a woman, I think it's just a social person.

pressures. This is a better looking person. This cult leader is like a good looking woman. And so then you you see that even cults adhere to these like patriarchal standards around who you listen to, who you follow. It's always like the same type of woman that you could imagine being like a venture capitalist at a startup or something like that, like someone who is not just well spoken and convincing, but someone who's good looking. Whereas the men are slops. Or maybe. Or maybe. It speaks to the fact that women have to do a lot more to get what an average dude will get just by being an average dude. Yeah, yeah. Look, I don't, I'm not for this inequality in the cult leadership, you know?

Yeah, we got to start opening our minds up. I wasn't watching cult documentaries. I was doing something where more benign. I was following what's happening in the soccer world. And the thing I don't talk about everything that has been trending in my world is the fact that. Someone did propose to Trump, and Trump actually was all for it, that Italy should replace Iran at the World Cup, which for me was, and their reasoning was, and this is someone, of course, that Trump knows from, he's the guy who actually introduced Medellania to Trump. And so they have the Epstein link going for them. But he did propose that Italy should replace Iran because right now Iran is fighting with the US one.

But also because Italy has won for World Cups, they were not able to make it to do. this World Cup, but it was like, oh, they have won four World Cup, so maybe we should just replace Iran. And for me, it sounded like the most American thing in the world because they were going like, oh, you know, the same way you do it with the college, where you go like, oh, this kid didn't really get the grades to join this Ivy League school. But hey, their grandpa and their dad contributed to the school. Maybe they have, I don't know, a library named after them who should just bring them in at the cost of some kid who. it. For me, it's under the most American

things. The Italians are pretty mad about it because they don't want to be seen as they're mad. Babies in that way. Yeah, they want to earn their way to the World Cup. And the fact that Trump was all for it also speaks a lot about who Trump is as a person. Or how, at least Americans

don't understand exactly how the World Cup and soccer work, that you have to earn your place at the tournament. You can't just get paracuted in because you won four in the I think, I don't know, I think Trump does understand it. He just wishes it work that way. All right, Josh, it was a pleasure. That's all the time we had for the pre-cup. I'm Joe Opio. You can catch, remember to please catch Josh Johnson as he hosts the Daily Show on Comedy Central, Paraman Plus.

And, of course, in this form right here, on the Daily Show, EAS edition. It was a pleasure having you, man. Good to see you. I know, this was fine. Yeah. 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.