The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Thirty F#@cking Years: Ronny Chieng & Jordan Klepper on Their Daily Show Journey

Episode Date: August 3, 2026

Ronny Chieng and Jordan Klepper look back on 30 f**king years of The Daily Show and talk about what it's like joining as a correspondent and as a weekly host, and why field pieces remain at the heart ...of the show's legacy. They revisit standout moments from the archives, including Brian Unger's legendary Disney-man interview, Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert's "Even Stevphen" debates, and Jordan's first Trump rally piece. -- 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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Starting point is 00:00:22 Cox, a step ahead. Requires two-gig speeds and gig unlimited mobile. Taxes and fees excluded from price lock. Mobile data speeds reduced after 20 gigs. You're listening to Comedy Central A little bit of drugs A little bit of sex And a little bit of political satire
Starting point is 00:00:38 I was Oh, you're oh man This is just That's a stew, Ronnie He's doing this hand motion He's doing a hand motion That's very disgusting Welcome to 30 fucking years
Starting point is 00:01:02 A special podcast miniseries Celebrating 30 fucking years Of the daily show I'm Jordan Klepper And I'm Roy Chang We're here to talk about That's a really long Oh, I already messed up
Starting point is 00:01:12 And I'm Ryan Chang we're here to talk about how that's a really long time for a TV show to exist and revisit some of our favorite moments and segments right are we gonna call it the fact that you are wearing sunglasses yeah yeah and a suit yeah just trying to dress up for this audio medium this is it feels like comics unleashed in here okay I'll take up the sunglasses it's cool it's actually bright is bright in here that's why I was wearing the sunglasses right do you feel cool when you wear sunglasses I guess I mean I guess we all I don't think that's a I don't think
Starting point is 00:01:41 it's a bad thing that's no part of what it is Yeah, it's weird that this someone nailed sunglasses, right? The first time they put on sun, they're like, oh, it's functional and it just makes everything cool. Yeah, so, I don't know. Have we ever reached a point where it's uncool to wear sunglasses or it's not that it's always a cool thing to have sunglasses on? But it feels like at some point sunglasses became equated with like a cool aesthetic. And then people like, you're trying to be cool. But I don't know if we ever reached a point where putting on sunglasses made you not.
Starting point is 00:02:13 cool um it's weird because the uncool one is when you wear oakley's in a in a truck with like a you know like a like a under armor t-shirt who's probably sponsoring this podcast or something but you know so there is a way where it kind of it looks tacky but even then you can't deny that putting on the oakley's makes that tackiness like 10% more style you're right you know what i mean yeah so you have a criticism around the style of glass as an oakley or a wrap-around in and of itself is an aesthetic. But probably if you're going for that aesthetic, there's no way to get there faster
Starting point is 00:02:48 than put it on the wrap around. Yes, correct. Yes. 30 fucking years of this. Can you believe it? This kind of banter. You can just see why this kind of stuff. I can't believe it.
Starting point is 00:02:55 I feel like this show has outlasted America. We've outlasted quite a few things, hey. We totally have. What's the longest one? Meet the Press is the longest running TV show, right? Yeah, I think Meet the Press is up there. Well, up there. We are up there.
Starting point is 00:03:09 We're up there. I'm going to take 30 years. That's a long-ass time. is. No show has ever lasted that long. And also a show that's like a current affairs show kind of, you know, political satire.
Starting point is 00:03:23 Yeah. I do feel like there's always a place for political satire, don't you think? I always think. I do think like satire is a part of every cultural moment and movement. Televised satire is a newer phenomenon in the history. Jonathan Swift wasn't doing televised satire, but he would have. Right. He would have. Mark Twain would have. Mark Twain would have.
Starting point is 00:03:43 Would have. Would have. Gordaal. Gorda Dahl, he would have been all over. He would have been, I mean, he popped up on talk shows. But if you gave that guy a wig and a chance to play a character, I think Gorman would have been all over it. Right.
Starting point is 00:03:56 And I always felt that if America couldn't do a daily political satire show, nobody can do it. You know what I mean? Like, this is the country that has the most freedom of speech, the most money entertainment, the most comedy infrastructure, nurturing writers and, and, you know, I mean, like, this is the country, and comedians, and we have the craziest politics. Yes. If those four things doesn't combine to form a daily political satire show, if this isn't a country that can do it, then no one can do it.
Starting point is 00:04:23 I think, also I think satire is almost a responsibility of like the American comedian. Sure. I think our American society is full of all of these things swarming into it with the freedoms that we have and the power that we have, the capitalism that we have, you're swimming at it. So it's like, I think like... But don't discount the freedom of speech that we have. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:04:43 You know, that's, I think a lot of Americans don't understand that this is, this show is able to exist because of strong freedom, not speaks, protections that most other countries don't have. Yeah, I know. You know, you know, you know, and would talk about that a few years back. And, and you just, you see, yes, the freedoms that we have in America and the ways in which we express. You don't need Bussam Yusuf. You got me. I'll tell you that. Just say, some people have lived it a little bit harder than you, Rane Ache. You know how I live? But why don't you talk about how you first encountered the Daily Show? So I was a fan from...
Starting point is 00:05:18 A press question you've been asked 50,000 times. You know what, but it's from you. And so I respect it to. I'll answer you. Actually, try to answer it this thing. Exactly, yes. It's a podcast so I can talk for 100 minutes and it'll be fine. Well, I was a fan really early on.
Starting point is 00:05:34 So like Craig Kilbourne, I was a huge fan of Craig Kilbourne on Sports Center. I would wake up in the morning I would watch Sports Center before going to school because that gave you things to talk about at school And sorry interrupt but people don't understand
Starting point is 00:05:47 Sports Center back in the day was like almost a must watch thing You know People don't remember now Because we have people Showing the armpit hair On Sports Center in wife beaters and shorts But it used to be a must watch thing
Starting point is 00:06:01 It was culturally relevant It was very culturally relevant And at the time It makes me feel so old But we're talking 30 years here At the time, there's, I don't have internet. I'm also, there is no internet. There's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, where, where the centerpiece of conversation exists.
Starting point is 00:06:19 And especially as a high schooler at the time where I wanted to see what was happening. What happened last night? What did I miss? I'm not reading the papers. What's the Zs? Exactly. And also sports center was a, uh, had such a funny sense of humor. Yes.
Starting point is 00:06:32 Their, their, their hosts were very tongue and cheek. They were very playful and funny and had a really comic sensibility and Craig Kilbourne was one of those and he was so funny and I loved his... Keith Oberman was one of them He was one of them. He became a literal news talk show host guy. Yeah it's really interesting
Starting point is 00:06:50 watching how those guys kind of like what they evolved into because it was such a it was a cultural touchstone. I mean it still is but it was you were totally right and was a comedic touchstone at the time and so when Craig Kilbourne got the Comedy Central job I liked Comedy Central I watched Whose Line Is It Anyway all the time And I remember being like
Starting point is 00:07:09 Oh, this is funny And it felt youthful, funny He had five questions He had an attitude to him That felt like MTV adjacent And so I was a fan And then as when John took over I remember like in college watching
Starting point is 00:07:25 The Daily Show And that was I hate to say that's where we got our news I think I'm sure you get That compliment from people all the time The Daily Show It's where I get my news which I think is a complicated thing to hear.
Starting point is 00:07:36 Please don't. Please don't. You know so much. That's what I was like, take it and then go seek out news. That's what I'm wishing upon at all. But I like, but I like John. I was like, I trust this guy. He's funny.
Starting point is 00:07:50 I know where he's coming from. Likeability. High likeability. He has high likability. I trust him. I always think this is a benefit of the daily show when people say, I get your news from that. And you're like, why do people? Well, comedy is one thing.
Starting point is 00:08:01 But also all information sources have bias. and you knew from the get-go what John's bias was, which is like he's trying to make jokes. He's calling out bullshit. And you might not always agree with what he's saying, but you understand where he's coming from. And then I love the correspondence. It was just so funny with the Colbert's and everybody at that time.
Starting point is 00:08:18 So you actually were there the first couple years of John? So you saw that evolution. I saw it. And I think, like, I would, my relationship to TV at that time is, like, the Kilbourne stuff was, I think, a middle school, like, era. and into high school, and college was the time where I think I was sort of awakening
Starting point is 00:08:38 to the world around. And I'm sexually, sexually, too. You know, let me tell you guys. A little bit of drugs, a little bit of sex, and a little bit of political satire. I was, oh. You're, oh, man.
Starting point is 00:08:50 This is just, that's the stew, Ronnie. He's doing this hand motion. He's doing a hand motion that's very disgusting. Oh, that's the stew right there. But I loved it. I mean, it really did have, like, we nerd out about comedy all the time. Like me in a bottle.
Starting point is 00:09:03 There's lightning in a bottle. It's so funny. I think I forget it's really fun. We're going to talk about some clips later. But it's really fun thinking about it. Like, yes, the politics. And we're also dealing with like Iraq war and all of this happening. So there's a need to be like, what's happening in the world around us?
Starting point is 00:09:21 And who's calling out the bullshit that is there that I sense? The Daily Show was doing that. And also, these correspondents at the time were so fucking funny. And I'm like developing my comedic voice. I'm getting interested in. Monty Python, other forms of British satire and just comedy, sketch comedy. I loved the state on MTV, kids in the hall. You're starting to like digest these worldviews.
Starting point is 00:09:47 And also form a taste. And form a taste. Exactly. And the daily show was very important at that point because it felt smart, edgy and silly. And different. No one was doing it. Nobody was doing it.
Starting point is 00:09:58 No one was doing that style of satire. Yeah. The field piece is specific. The field pieces were so new, and at that time also, like, they were. It's a new satire. They're making fun of the news that we are ingesting. And also to speak to the fact that, like, 24-hour news was a newer phenomenon. So as a public, we're seeing these formats in our eyes 24 hours a day.
Starting point is 00:10:24 And it's starting to shape the way we have conversations. And here's the Daily Show making fun of that in a very, Alt comedy way. Yes, all comedy way. And I came from, I started seeing sketch comedy in Chicago in the Second City, and a lot of those guys came from that as well. So starting to like connect those. So for me, putting my head back 30 years, 25 years, 20 years ago was like my gigantic,
Starting point is 00:10:50 large forehead. This was an incredibly important show for me in developing that taste. Right. Yeah. I'm what a couple years behind you. So I'm born in 85. So I've encountered a daily show. I was in Australia, and it kind of crossed my radar in university.
Starting point is 00:11:13 So it was around early 2000s. And that was when it started. I can't even remember how it first crossed my path, but I do remember when it was in full force. And I would pirate it on Torrent just to watch it. So I would pirate the episodes on BitTorrent. How do you hear about it in Australia? I cannot remember.
Starting point is 00:11:34 I can't, I just know. It was just like, it was in the, it was a cultural phenomenon. So it was in the Zagai. So people are talking about it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like you said, it wasn't really on the internet.
Starting point is 00:11:44 It was because it, the internet wasn't what it is right now. So it, to watch it, I had to go pirate episodes, literally download illegally. And I would watch it and I would watch Colbert afterwards. I would pirate it both and then watch both back to back and pretend I had cable and in college. And yeah, they were talking about the news and they were making it funny. And when I came on, it was already the kind of pre-post,
Starting point is 00:12:10 that 9-11 period of Daily Show. So I didn't see what you saw, the Kilbourne transition to John Stewart era, which I've actually gone back to watch the archives of John Stewart's first two years at The Daily Show. Man, the show is very different. It's very, you can see that they're trying to figure it out. The pace is a lot slower.
Starting point is 00:12:28 It's less, as you said, it became more media. mass media criticism. But at the start, it wasn't. At the start, it was more kind of news and making fun of the news, and the guests would be in the middle. I don't know if you remember this.
Starting point is 00:12:41 Were they really? In the first season of John Stewart's Daily Show, George Clooney comes on in Act 2, and then they have him for two minutes because, you know, there's no, we're not putting this on internet. So we have to tape whatever we use. So George Clooney is freaking there,
Starting point is 00:12:57 and they're talking, and then, okay, we gotta go, see with George Clooney, and then they go back to this Act 3, which is another segment. So just a different show. Their access to also news clips was severely limited. And I'm not versed well enough, but talking to the editors and some of the people who were here forever.
Starting point is 00:13:13 Like the feeds with which they were able to get stories from, it's like they had like a finite number of AP stories that you could make stories out of it. You are the mercy of it. We have six clips about these things. That's what we're talking about. Like that technology grew with the show as well. So the pace started to shift.
Starting point is 00:13:30 The show grew with the technology. Yeah. And so I will watch it in university. And that was kind of, I was always following U.S. politics anyway. I was the guy who was always listening to meet the press and watching the West Wing and whatever. And so the Daily Show fit perfectly into that subculture of U.S. political junkie, nerd or whatever. And then I remember I would go back to Singapore on vacation where I lived because I was in Australia for college. And I would go back to Singapore on vacation.
Starting point is 00:13:58 and they would show the Daily Show International version, which I don't know if you guys remember, John would do an international version, which hilariously I found out after joining the show that he hated doing, where he would make fun of the international news once a week. I only remember, I never saw it, but I remember when I got hired,
Starting point is 00:14:15 I think they were still doing it like once a week, and I was always, because it was always, like, tagged onto a taping, and it was like, all right, now I'm going to do these specific jokes. I don't believe there was an audience. I think it happened at rehearsal. Oh, maybe. I remember.
Starting point is 00:14:27 I remember the international version of the Daily Show because that's what we got in Singapore and hilariously we got it on CNN. So I would go and watch on CNN the daily show. Obviously they bought the rights to it in Singapore and so they'll show it. It'll be the normal daily show
Starting point is 00:14:41 and then be like, here's the international version and then they would do some jokes at the end. And it seemed funny to me, it was cool that they did an international version. I'm like, oh, this is cool. And then, you know, after joining the show, the Jen, the executive producer was like, oh, John hated doing those.
Starting point is 00:14:56 It's so annoying. It had to finish. I was like, oh, but I'm just here to tell the executive producers that the international version was worth it. Because I liked it and a lot of people outside America did like it. So, you know. How was it in joining the show after having this experience of it and expectation of it, like what was different when you suddenly got dropped into being an employee of the Daily Show? No, nothing was different. Like, I thought, you guys don't understand.
Starting point is 00:15:25 It's a dream to work on. these kind of comedy institutions if you are an American aspiring comedian when you're not American it's like beyond a dream it's like impossible it's like another you might as well go to another galaxy you know like how can you ever hope to be on SNL or daily show or letterman or any it's like impossible you know so when I got hired I was like this is I couldn't believe it was like beyond a dream coming true and I was so excited to work at the show and just pour everything I had into it. You know, I was so thrilled.
Starting point is 00:16:06 And when I was here, it was exactly what I thought it was in the sense that it was the highest level possible of whatever you want to call this. It was everyone, as soon as I joined the show, it became very clear. Everyone is great at their job. They've been doing a long time. You don't want to be the weakest link. and you're the dumbest guy in the room most of the time and everyone is at the top of their game
Starting point is 00:16:31 whether it's the comics, the writers, the producers, the crew, everybody. And so in that sense, it was exactly what I thought it would be, right? The hardest thing. Yeah. In a good way. But also, surprisingly, collegiate. I think I was very surprised at how collegiate it was as well. What do you mean by collegiate?
Starting point is 00:16:48 It was like, despite maintaining a high standards and level of performance required, It was, man, I mean, no assholes, no asshole policy. I think, like, everyone's very supportive. Like, that correspondence, like, people don't know. Like, we pitch for each other gladly. When I came, I was like, pitching, please, take it. If you take this idea, you know, we want hoarding ideas.
Starting point is 00:17:13 I don't think we will cutthroat. No one was cutthroat to me other than Hasan Minaj, who's a piece of shit. Yes, he is. Other than him, you know, everyone else was super cool. Yeah, everyone was super cool. friendly and like encouraging like again I don't want to skip ahead here remember that they you gave me the the stupid chain letter Yes down from correspondent to correspondence like the president and the when presidents leave the over office the previous president writes down some notes That's that yeah there was me these tips and it was super useful
Starting point is 00:17:44 Colbert yeah Colbert wrote down tips for correspondence and sort of got passed from like yeah chain-to-person-to-person now as a little now if we don't if we don't send it on we die in 30 days Oh shit. I got. Detroit get it. I hope Troy got it. I sent it to Detroit, but how did you feel when you joined? I mean, that is a...
Starting point is 00:18:00 Because, again, the context is you developed your taste on the show, you loved it. You know, you are a fan of the show, huge fan, and you are... I mean, not totally dissimilar from yours in that... Yeah, I got to work on this show after doing comedy for almost 15 years. So, like, failing a bunch, getting close, and dreaming of getting that break. And in this comedy world, there's only a few places
Starting point is 00:18:27 that are true comedy institutions. Yeah. I think, like, performative-wise, SNL and Daily Show are kind of the only ones that have been going for an amount of time. That is an American comedy institution.
Starting point is 00:18:39 And there are other things that I enjoyed and loved and you're pitching, hoping for sketch shows or writing jobs and what have you. And so to get it was a dream come true. Yeah. And I had so many expectations about this place.
Starting point is 00:18:51 Yeah. Well, was... Well, I mean, I would say, like, I felt very lucky in that, it seems cocky to say, but I felt ready for it. Sure. It was very overwhelming. But I came up in the Second City. And what was interesting by the Second City, like, which was the sketch comedy, it's sort of an institution. It's a sketch comedy and improv institution in Chicago that a lot of people came from Bill Murray, Tina Faye, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell.
Starting point is 00:19:20 And so I toured with the Second City, and there were a couple of years where I'm literally watching old... I love studying old comedy. We talk about old comedy all the time, and I would study old improv sets and sketch comedy sets of Stephen Colbert and Steve Correll and Tina Faye and John Glazer and Adam McKay and an amazing comedic mind. And part of the job at Second City was to study it, learn it, then perform those scenes, but bring your own spin to it and do your own thing. and do your own thing. And so I loved studying it, and then it was really fun to watch some of these people
Starting point is 00:19:53 make their way onto the Daily Show. In fact, I got advice when I got, like, the call that I was going to do the final round of auditions. One of my old coaches in Chicago was Dan Backadol. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:05 Who was a previous correspondent? Previous correspondent at the Daily Show, who was a legend in the improv world, such a funny, smart guy. And I called him and was like, any advice? I'm going into,
Starting point is 00:20:18 to freaking meet John Stewart and to try to do this the advice he gave me whether it was right or not was like if you're this far you've already I don't know if he said you've already got it but essentially you've already done the thing
Starting point is 00:20:30 to get this far so like believe in yourself and to me that's half of the notes that I need to get I had a similar situation with John and when I got the opposition to do my own show was essentially a version of like believing yourself
Starting point is 00:20:45 believe in your fucking self it's like a it's like a parental situation. They're like, you know what your problem is right now? You're overthinking it, enjoy it, and trust yourself. Because that moment of self-doubt is the thing they're like, I can't be part of this big thing.
Starting point is 00:20:57 And then when you come in here, yes, I think what I was surprised by and inspired by was the workman-like element of the Daily Show. As I went on that show that night and that day still lives in my head. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And immediately, like, in my dreams, my friends who got SNL,
Starting point is 00:21:15 like when they finished their first week of SNL, You go out to a party and Paul McCartney's there. And everybody has martini. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like, oh my God, Prince is doing an impromptu show. We made it. We throw him and throws money at you. At the daily show, you go home and you prep for the next day.
Starting point is 00:21:31 You don't celebrate it. You gotta make a ton of these shows. It's very Buddhist in a good way. It is. It's very Buddhist. That's what I loved. I was like, oh, this was such a big day for me. And I loved it so much.
Starting point is 00:21:41 And it was so in awe of people. But you have to get over the awe. Yeah. You got to, I got to do a scene with John Stewart the next day. And I can't sit back and think like he just has the best ideas, let me listen. I will listen respectfully. But I also need to bring ideas.
Starting point is 00:21:53 And I also need to work tomorrow. And I need to read the paper. And if you feel like the dumb guy in the room, you got to become the smarter guy in the room. And I think that's what I quickly grew to love about this place. Yeah. It's the best. It's truly the best. So let's get into some of these old clips.
Starting point is 00:22:10 I think one of the strength of the daily show right now, I think, is the back catalog is truly amazing. we could make it available, but again, I guess that's something we're not supposed to talk about, but the archive is great. And we're going to talk about field pieces right now. And I think it's kind of funny that this incarnation of The Daily Show, the current version of it, people watch it on their stupid phones while taking a shit. And I think there's people who don't even know that we do field pieces. Do you feel that?
Starting point is 00:22:40 I think we put in so much goddamn effort into this, you risk your life. I put my life on the line. Well, no, it is, the field pieces were very much a part of, I mean, they still very much, what the linear show is. And to add dynamism to it, it's satirizing a part of the news anyway. But you're right.
Starting point is 00:22:59 Like, I go out in the field and sometimes people, sometimes people, I mean, I do those man on the streets. And so a lot of times people are like, oh, you're the man on the street guy. And I'm like, yeah, I'm also the fucking co-host guy. I co-host Tuesday through Thursdays. Right. You're different because you have a, you know,
Starting point is 00:23:14 you've built a great reputation. at the MAGA rally. So you take the cameras outside of the studio. People kind of associate you outside the studio a little bit. That's true. Yes. But for me, none of my field pieces have ever been in the revolution. So people don't even know I do this stuff.
Starting point is 00:23:30 They're just like, oh, daily show is you at the desk. And even then you're not hosting. You are just the guy who, you know, John Stewart over here, but you are here. So they think John's on your right when you're doing the daily show. You're the green screen guy. Yeah, you're the green screen guy. I'm a very dynamic performer on all of these levels. News Flash, we do field pieces where we go out of the studio,
Starting point is 00:23:49 Risk Life and Lim. Hussam Enoch is one of the worst correspondent on The Daily Show. He actually told me, not even, you know, Asimam would be way better Indian correspondent than Saddam Menaz, terrible, terrible, self-entitled, just righteous, self-righteous. Anyway, he, he said that he told me field pieces, he thought of them as, if you think of each field piece
Starting point is 00:24:12 as an indie film, that, you know, you'll have a better time doing it and I was like man what a genius framing these field pieces are independent films they're five minutes short films yeah you know and there's a beginning middle end and you're out there and you got to make the scenes connect and you know there's such a fun art to them yes and and it was one of my favorite parts of the show and I think it's it is evolved that we can talk about the ways in which it's evolved and changed and the style has changed as a early fan of the show it was all of the segments I loved John's monologues which have also evolved in the way in which they're told, and the desk segments,
Starting point is 00:24:49 but the field pieces always had, like, they were, at the time when they were originally there, they were just making fun of the news that you saw and brought such stupidity to such an art form. Yes. And again, we can't emphasize enough that these were parodying something you would see on the news all the time, or satirizing.
Starting point is 00:25:11 Whatever, you always yell at me about the difference between parades and satire. I mean, you want to get into it, No, we don't need to get into it, but my point is that they were satirizing the form. We're looking at the form. We're not using the form to have fun. We're using the form to comment on the form, Ronnie Chang. But my point is that there was a context to these.
Starting point is 00:25:27 There was a context and culture to these field pieces. So let's look at the first one. This is correspondent, one of the greats, Brian Unger. It's called In the Belly of the Mouse. And Brian Unger visits a man addicted to Disney. This is 1998. Tell me about your first wife. Just we had her honeymoon at Disney, but after a while I got tired of it.
Starting point is 00:25:54 Tell me about your second wife. Basically the same thing. She got tired of going to Disney all the time. Tell me about your third wife. Same thing over and over. She got tired of going to Disney. Tell me about your fourth wife. Same thing, but now we've got a kid involved in a couple more trips, but she's eventually got tired of it too. Tell me about your fifth wife. Another kid involved but you know she got tired of it totally yeah. Tell me about your sixth wife. That one's working out
Starting point is 00:26:26 good. Mm-hmm. And that's all that's a real human, you know what I mean? That's not an actor. No. You know, Brian Unger is obviously a comedian on a daily show and I mean news journalist who was on the daily show, actual journalist. But I'm saying the guy he's interviewing, that's not a paid actor. That's a real human being. A real person. And that story is that man was a Disney adult who was obsessed with Disney, spend almost like a half million dollars on Disney stuff.
Starting point is 00:26:58 And he's treating him like an addict. Yes. That was the angle. Sorry. Oh, yeah. That's the angle for what he's going. That was the angle for piece was this guy was addicted to Disney and they were interviewing him as though he was addicted to meth.
Starting point is 00:27:11 Yes. And talking to him. That, though, is a perfect comedic. moment. Oh. It's it's it's beautifully put you couldn't write it any better. Yes. It's it's one take it's beautifully played it tells you everything about this character he's interview it's that's a little piece of comedy. One take perfect word economy. Super funny. The concept is for premise is funny the whole thing. Yeah. The reaction is funny. Everyone plays it straight. Um, yeah. So that to me is, uh, kind of what you're kind
Starting point is 00:27:41 aiming for in every field piece, right? That vibe. Not necessarily that sequence of events or that joke style, but that feeling, that feeling of this is a real person and you're there with him and it's just insane. Yes, a moment that can, yes, how do you bring out what is interesting and compelling about it? How do you stay real in your reaction to them? Yeah. And find what the comedy is.
Starting point is 00:28:04 I think of detail, but yeah, you said it. Brian Unger came to the Daily Show from news. Right. He was a straight journalist than getting to play the role of a satirical journalist. And I remember seeing him when I was young watching it. And he was, he was, he's 7% more than you would see a normal journalist. If that, it's almost imperceptible him playing the comedy. But the framing of the comedy is so specific and well done.
Starting point is 00:28:34 Like he almost set the template of what a correspondent in the field. Should be, yeah. Should be, or was, right? Like, you see that. You're like, oh, there's a, you do this, you do a deadpan, you do it serious. And there's, there's ways to play around with that. But you watch it, you're like, oh, if you find the right story. And that's also a booking thing too, right?
Starting point is 00:28:52 Like, you find, the Daily Show did a lot of the, like, crazy weird person stories in the early years. Not that we don't do those. But that was sort of a thing of like, this is a wild crazy story that wouldn't be on the news. How do we make that rise to the importance of something that would be? And that framing will make it funny. your job is to just not laugh and to be real in that space. Yeah, I can't believe he held it together. And also, kudos Brian Unger.
Starting point is 00:29:15 Like you said, we meet a ton of news journalists who all think that they are comedians. None of them are. That Brian Unger is. He nailed it on that. So, so funny. From the producers of Super Troopers and Super Troopers 2 comes, you guessed it.
Starting point is 00:29:39 Broken Lizard and their rowdy patrol squad. Return to the scene of the crime. In Super Troopers 3, the mustaches are thicker, the maple syrup, stickier, and the pranks crazier than ever. Buckle up for the funniest comedy of the summer. Super Troopers 3, only in theaters Friday. Get tickets now. Speaking of funny, here's one that I think about a lot.
Starting point is 00:30:04 This lives rent-free, as the kids would say. Well, it's like, that's... The day of the show is a lot of... success as an institution. And you and I both go on the road a lot of people I'm sure ask you, they ask me about the important things of political satire. But also, there's just times where it's so dumb. It's just silly. It's just silly. It's just silly and it's just silly and it's fun. It's so fun and so playful and smart. I do think like the framing, I think that some of the best satire is is in the execution of a dumb premise. It sounds so forget the pretension of it. I already
Starting point is 00:30:38 named drop Jonathan Swift and I think that is a, that is already. Drop the knowledge. These idiots either. But like the idea of like isn't that famous essay about how like about writing about how we should eat children because it's the smartest thing to do. So like you come up with a silly idea and you treat it seriously and it comments on a larger idea. Yes.
Starting point is 00:30:56 And I think that's when it's genius. That's what it can be great. You can still live in the silly. Yeah. This is a great Rob Cordy. He had a segment where he took on things like the son. So he argues his case against the son with his case. catchphrase, come on, which he uses almost exclusively as the only punchline in the entire piece.
Starting point is 00:31:18 With summer fast approaching, everyone's talking about the sun and how great it is. But do we really need the sun? I mean, come on. If you believe the media, the sun is a happy breakfast friend or a disembodied baby head. And scientists would tell you it has more practical uses. I spoke to NASA employee and son apologist Dr. Ronald Miller. Do we really need the sun? I mean, come on. Well, we just depend on the sun, of course, for light. Come on.
Starting point is 00:32:03 Well, the sun is also necessary for plants to grow. I mean, come on. Ultimately, all life on Earth depends on the sun. Excuse me. Hello? Come. Come. Okay.
Starting point is 00:32:21 Okay. Sonapologist. I love and son apologist. Okay, so just in that short clip, first of all, I believe he's using the park that we still use to this day. Right off the back. To film all of our stand-ups for field pieces for 30 years now. We've been using this goddamn park. That park is in the background of so many field pieces.
Starting point is 00:32:40 So much American satire. been started in that fucking part. It's such a type, right? Like, Rob Cordray, like, it's such a, I-roll journalist attitude that is just extended throughout. Sure.
Starting point is 00:32:51 And it's just, like, rapid-fire dumb bits for it. Like, I love the Seinfeld reference. The Seinfeld reference, I don't know where. I don't know where. He walks into that, it's just like,
Starting point is 00:33:00 let's make the dumb silly, absurdist thing. Yes. And also, I mean, I guess the broader message of that field piece is parodying dumb people who are literally arguing
Starting point is 00:33:12 about things that should not be argued about. In this case, the sun, which would be like a placeholder for measles, vaccine, or whatever, right? But the way they do this field piece is like, it's almost apolitical. You know, there's a layer to it, but you could just watch it as a dumb, if you are stupid and you watch that, you would still be like, oh, that's funny. Yeah, this became almost the tenor of what, like, the onion perspective was a little bit later. Yes.
Starting point is 00:33:38 Which I think you are right, which at the time, too, and as cable news became big, bigger and bigger. Like, there's always been outrage and click bait before there were clicks, but there was just bait, I suppose. But the idea of people just taking that super aggressive anti-angle was percolated in the news as it has become overwrought with that now. And it is, it's like, oh, that was part of a series as well
Starting point is 00:34:02 of things that Rob took on, that were ludicrous to take on. Right. And I think what's cool about that from a production point of view is that there's no obvious bad guy. I think he's satirizing the, like I said, the idea of being anti-science. But there's no obvious bad guy that I can see. Well, that became an interesting thing with field pieces too, where traditional Daily Show field pieces in the old days,
Starting point is 00:34:25 you would get the guy who, you would take the ironic take of something. You ironically agree with some horrible point of view. A guy would maybe be a horrible point of view. And then you find somebody who maybe has a more honorable point of view and you bounce them back off one another. And sometimes you don't book the person who's been saying, that wild stuff. You just have the guy who's saying the same stuff. And then it's on you as a correspondent to embody that crazy thing and play around with it. Which is always fun. Although it's
Starting point is 00:34:51 really hard to, I would say it's always hard to build tension if you just have the righteous person. Yes. So, so you have to find ways to just be funny. Use your comedy tool belt. And also, I mean, just to be clear, people, again, when we have whoever we get, whether we get an outrageous point of view or same point of view, all these people want to be on it. Yes. We are literally giving them a platform and making sure that we don't take them out of context. You know what I mean? We're not cutting them to make them look bad. This is the actual
Starting point is 00:35:19 point of view. Like this this son apologist wanted to be out. This asshole wanted to talk about how great the son is. We're like, all right. All right. Stand by your words. So this next piece is a very modern daily show. So we've jumped
Starting point is 00:35:35 ahead here. We should say the last one was on 2003, I think. This one is from 2018. So this is almost what 15 year gap this is Michael Costa he what I found interesting about this is what happened in this it is a little bit of unusual field piece because it's it it's almost old school in that he just goes to talk to a person you know there's no there's no bouncing people back and forth it's like old school in the sense that he's just talking to an interesting character
Starting point is 00:36:05 who did something interesting this is called thank me later sorry it's a thank me later segment, it's called Costa on the Constitution. Michael Costa talks to a man that got a constitutional amendment ratified. It all started in 1982. With a college paper that I wrote, I found a book in the library that showed amendments that Congress had approved, but which not enough state legislatures had ratified. And I found this one from 1789.
Starting point is 00:36:39 Wait, wait, you're an undergrad. Yes, a sophomore. You're a sophomore who realized that this amendment, which was introduced in 1789, was still available to be ratified. Yes. March of 1982, during spring break. During spring break, no less. When I'm at the wet t-shirt contest in Cancun, you're realizing that an amendment can still be ratified in the U.S. Constitution. Yes.
Starting point is 00:37:04 So much to like in that. one, I thought it would be nice to you know, we keep looking to history which is cool but the last 10 years there's some pretty cool field pieces as well Yeah. Interestingly, again, this is a field piece with one subject who's an interesting man
Starting point is 00:37:21 which is a bit of a very old school thing that the daily show kind of stop doing. Usually we have two points of views. Interesting story and also like a great character on camera. Great character on camera. Then we use reenactments in that which people on audio probably couldn't see but John Hodgman, another correspondent.
Starting point is 00:37:37 Getting him his health care, which is good. Yeah, husband is health care. He needs it. And so one style of doing field pieces was, as someone's describing something they did, we reenact it, you know. And I think as the cameras got cheaper or whatever, we were able to do that more. Yeah, there's an interesting, like, I remember coming into Daily Show, end of John era, first before Trevor. Like, we, you know, the pieces continue to. evolve and sort of reflect what other news pieces were doing.
Starting point is 00:38:10 And sometimes it felt like it was like satirizing local news pieces, what field pieces looked like. Then it felt a little bit more like cable news or like dateline. Yes. And I will say I like when Trevor came on, I think Trevor was interested in a much more modern look. I'm going to take some credit and point that credit to like Joel Sadler. I did a special in between where we wanted to do a big long special and Vice was really bubbling up too. And Joel Sadler is a great DP who works for the show, worked over at Vice. And Todd Bieber, who helped produce that as well, was just like, hey, we want to up what these things look like.
Starting point is 00:38:48 And things aren't looking like old, new stuff right now. Everybody's loving what Vice looks like. It feels gritty. It feels authentic. And that quickly became sort of the style of the moment in many different places. And Trevor was really excited about, like, I think, loosening up the format of field pieces as a straight satire. on the way news is told, which has its place, I think, but I do think we've perhaps exhausted it.
Starting point is 00:39:13 And I think it was like, let's use this as a storytelling device, what is an interesting way of doing it? And like you watch that, it's like, it's beautiful. It looks like a little film. I don't think the Daily Show is that interested in making little films before. I think they're interested in bits, satire, and also just like, what is the quickest way
Starting point is 00:39:27 to do this format? So you get your walk and talk with the person you're interviewing and you talking there, you get a shot of them working on the computer, and then you guys do to sit down, interviews and that's the piece. And now it's like, oh, there's better ways to tell this. Yes.
Starting point is 00:39:41 And again, again, so there's some kind of reinventing how we do these field pieces with reenactments. And like you said, the vice thing was huge. Vice in 2015. People don't remember that now. But Vice was big, man. Vice became as big as MTV was at a point. And so, again, we were all trying to get the Vice look, which is a lot of.
Starting point is 00:40:07 of video portraits and a lot of like on slides and you know anyway so um uh that was the news of that was how people were getting the news of the day almost because vice at the time they were like interviewing like drug like drug cartel yeah bosses in Mexico wherever and so it felt dangerous and like real and gritty and so we were trying to like make fun of that yeah it's it's almost an interesting thing to track where it's like at first local news felt self-serious and you're making fun of it and then vice felt like trying to be so gritty and dangerous. So you'd throw that on a silly story and like you're making fun of like the self seriousness in that sense. Exactly. Yeah, but it's a good example
Starting point is 00:40:45 of us responding to the Z guys. And the other thing about this constitution piece I found interesting was like, again, I think that comedy is our guiding North Star. That's what we're trying to do. Sometimes you actually learn something. This guy managed to amend the US Constitution. Yeah. So, you know, not for nothing, but. And I think a smart move from a production standpoint to the reenactments then also broke out of the reenactment and had some meta jokes for Hodgman to play around with like just ways to kind of like yeah to get away from the teaching
Starting point is 00:41:16 and get into like the internal company stuff was great yeah it's crazy that this one guy managed to amend the US Constitution so very funny I want to throw to one of my favorite segments watching growing up I say growing up I was in college was I grown when you stopped growing up I was still in the process no now Now you've stopped.
Starting point is 00:41:37 Yes. Okay. Now it is it. I'm falling apart. Falling apart. My body is totally falling apart. But that's okay. Don't worry about me.
Starting point is 00:41:44 All right. I've had a good run. There's a saying... You didn't do anything to fall apart. You just... I didn't run. You didn't do anything. I've had a good...
Starting point is 00:41:51 I've had a good meander is what I've had. I've had a meander. Then I hurt my foot and then, yeah. It's been pretty downhill for the last couple of years. Guys, it's tough. Let me tell you. I've been seeing every season I see you. This guy is not doing well.
Starting point is 00:42:03 This is... This guy's still pity me. All right, but if you do have if you have foot pain solutions, let me know, or ways to get your bad cholesterol down, I'm all ears. There was a great segment on the show called Even Steven, back in the day,
Starting point is 00:42:17 which if you don't know, early correspondence on the show, Steve Correll, Stephen Colbert, had a segment where they were, essentially it was like a crossfire parody. It was two antagonistic sides about one big topic. And I loved this.
Starting point is 00:42:36 I would cackle at this segment. And I think it's such a great example of what they both do so well. So I think we're going to watch this was an even Stephen where Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell debate the death tax from 2002. 2002. Is the death tax good for America? Yes. No. Yesterday, I was beside myself with joy.
Starting point is 00:43:02 Over last week's vote by the Senate to retain the death tax. It's a big revenue generator that affects only the nation's wealthiest 1%. It sends a powerful social message that even the children of the very rich must make their own way in the world. But more than that, in the same way that taxes on smoking, discourage smoking, and taxes on drinking, discourage drinking, hopefully this death tax will keep people from dying. It is a filthy habit and it has to stop. But I suppose you and your fat cat friends in Washington won't be happy till everybody's dead. Crazy that those two guys were on the show
Starting point is 00:43:42 At the same time, you know? It's so crazy. So funny. I think I remember, again, I watched old videos of Steve Carell back in Chicago and Stephen Colbert. When I was shocked by Steve Carell, you'd watch these videos, and in the old days, you'd have to do similar scenes with similar lines. You'd try to add your own thing to it. And Steve Carell could pull laughs out of nothing.
Starting point is 00:44:06 Right. Such a good actor. But there were just pauses and spaces that only Steve Carell could find. And you'd watch these videos, how does he do this? And then watching these even Stevens, like, I mean, every time he does the extended yes or what have you is so very funny to me. But such interesting, like gravitas and silliness and playfulness. And that one too goes on. If you can watch the whole clip, it's so funny.
Starting point is 00:44:31 It goes on to debate the pros and cons of it all and then ends with them. It gets to a very funny dark place where they essentially plot the murder of Stevens' father-in-law. So it goes to such a wild place. But again, another great example of, like, I think taking what is happening on the news at the time, which was like Crossfire-type shows of like, we're just going to be two people who hate each other and going as hard as they can. Set it up. Yep, let's make fun of it.
Starting point is 00:44:57 They get to fun, personal, silly places, but the performances are just top-notch. You see, like, Stephen find his Colbert character, like, It is in there and it's so fun and petty and clean. And then Correll is just so committed. It's very clean. It's very clean. The comedy is very clean. The wood economy and everything. In watching it again today, I hadn't seen it in a while.
Starting point is 00:45:24 Frankly, knowing how these shows are made and what have you, I'm like, this is performed like they've run it for weeks. And I'm like, they didn't. We know how this thing is done. I'm sure... Two hours of top. Exactly. But...
Starting point is 00:45:38 Just try to figure it out. Like, the acting chops and that are really... And the writing and everything... Yeah. And the other interesting thing, again, this is from 2002. So, I guess
Starting point is 00:45:47 if you're watching a daily show, you would have knowledge of Crossfire, which was a show where Tucker Carlson and this other guy, I think as Paul Begala, would yell at each other, uh,
Starting point is 00:45:57 conservative and Democrat and, you know, crossfire. So they're parodying that. But, uh, even if you don't know that, you watch this right now, it's funny, first of all.
Starting point is 00:46:07 Two, it weirdly holds up because we're back with the political division. So even if you don't know Crossfire, per se, you know what they're trying to parody. This idea that two guys are just going to yell about this thing that we should all not be death. We should all be united with the same thoughts of. But they're like, you know, still trying to make death political. Yeah. Which is, you know, and it's relevant today, you know. 100%.
Starting point is 00:46:31 They still hold up. There was another one where they're fighting over like Halloween or whatever. And you realize, like, oh, Colbert's broken inside because his dad used to punish him. And he starts out as a like a fundamentalist Christian making that argument, which was sort of what was in the ether at the time. And then you realize he's just like a hurt boy who never got to go have fun, which was such a fun. It pointed, like, I think like, aspired to give you a little bit of nugget as to like what is actually making these people tick behind these outrageous just a tirades that they go on. Right.
Starting point is 00:47:08 And you've got some perspective on this. But like when you watch the early versions of a daily show with John Stewart and, you know, maybe maybe three or four seasons in, do you feel that it was as divisive as it feels now? Because I always feel the daily show was always something that called balls and strikes, more or less, you know. And so do you feel like that, you know, when you watched it as a college kid, did you feel like it was balls and strikes or do you feel like it was on your team or you know what do you feel now I didn't have a team right way of calling it right and so I think I think balls and strikes is a great way of calling it right and I will say when there were like defining cultural moments yeah I would say like the
Starting point is 00:47:50 Iraq war it's it became not partisan but like focused on one big thing like when I think of it it now I think of like the Trump era that we are in right and I do think like the ethos of the show is like you call bullshit where it is. And I do think like when John came back as well and as Biden was aging, like it was very important for the show to articulate what everybody fucking saw
Starting point is 00:48:17 which I think what became, that's where you see the, where you got critical of media where you're like it does feel like media that sees itself as nonpartisan is purposely like not calling out what everybody feels which is like the age of this candidate here. And our job here is to, and we articulated
Starting point is 00:48:33 this, we talked about this. John talked about the show talked about it. Like, this is an emotional time. The job is not to articulate a cause that you feel. The job is to put pressure on the bullshit that you see. All of these parties and these people can stand up for themselves and it's their job to articulate that point of view. And so there's times where we feel so consumed by Trump.
Starting point is 00:48:58 But I think that's more a reflection of like it being such a consuming and consequential part of the storyline right now. And so the Iraq era for me felt like that as well. I remember watching it and it was like, oh, this doesn't feel like let's weigh Democrats versus Republicans. It feels like a show that's like, this is happening in the world. There's discussions about weapons of mass destruction.
Starting point is 00:49:19 There feels like the wool is being pulled over our eyes by an administration. The show is going to keep talking about that because that is the elephant that is in the room. Sure. And this elephant in the room, I mean, brought you to your first, Just MAGA rally. First, I like to address how we pronounce MAGA differently. Every time you say MAGA on the show, I'm always like, who is right here?
Starting point is 00:49:41 Because I go MAGA. And I go MAGA. What is it? But I don't know where... I don't know where... I'm going to have to defer to you. I don't... Yeah, I go, I think you can say it both ways.
Starting point is 00:49:55 Okay. This is 2015. This is... This is kind of landmarks. joined the show at this point 2015 you were there for a while and you were you know this improv genius and so they sent you out to go and die basically and like i was down for dying i was down to go and die but i just didn't have the skill that you had to like i would just go and die you would die but you would have great clips die but with clips that's the job you would physically die but
Starting point is 00:50:28 you would come back with some good footage i would they would just murder me and we would have like like a, you know, nothing to show for it. So this is you, Klepper's first mega rally in 2015. Regardless, I had to see Trump up close. So I headed to one of his rallies and got to hear from some die-hard trumpeters. I think he's the only candidate in the Republican side who's actually going to build a wall. And who's going to make him pay for it? He's going to make China.
Starting point is 00:50:52 And you know what, people say, oh, you can't make China pay for it. You know what, that's a bunch of horse crap. It's pretty easy to make China pay for it. China will be paying for the wall. Should Mexico pay for the wall? Oh, my. Mexico, sorry. Either way.
Starting point is 00:51:04 It doesn't... One of those... One of those countries is paying for that wall. Donald Trump is inaugurated. He becomes President of the United States. What's behind that curtain? Deficion of ISIS. Defecian of ISIS.
Starting point is 00:51:16 What should we do to ISIS? Bomb the f*** problem. Where officially should we bomb ISIS? Probably like Israel area, but not like... Not necessarily there, but around the area. I think he's going to help with the ISIS. What's he going to do with the ISIS? He can't tell us right now.
Starting point is 00:51:32 Now. If he tells everybody, then the next thing, you know, somebody else is going to copy what he says. Wow. Wow. Do you remember this? I do remember that. It's funny. It's funny to be watching it.
Starting point is 00:51:44 Yeah, there's a... It's a snowstorm, first of all, for people who can't see the video. He's in a freaking blizzard. I remember that. I mean, usually what you remember first is, it's not the people, it is the weather. It's the weather. The weather is always, God is always punishing you if you're at a Trump rally. And you went there and you talked to these guys.
Starting point is 00:52:00 And honestly, This was in 2015 over like 11 years ago. It might as well have been yesterday. You know what it's funny about that clip is I do think you are right. It might as well be. I'm surprised at even hearing people talk and the things that's like the cadence is there. Also the like they're always searching for a way in which to articulate Trump's in articulate worldview. And like the defection of ISIS and not knowing where to bomb and stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:52:26 It's like, oh yeah, if we talk about Iran and all that and tariffs, it's like there's still like there's a haziness about. Yeah. The specifics. The specifics. But I think the tenor of that piece, if you watch it, is it, and I think what we thought, is like, this is an aberration. This was Trump, if I'm remembering correctly, before he was the official candidate. Yes, correct. And I think he was doing well in the primaries, but I think there was still an assumption that this might be done. Right.
Starting point is 00:52:56 And so the beginning of that clip also had, I went and talked to somebody at Coney Island about, like, like this being like P.T. Barnum's, it's being a show. So let's see what the show is. Like, yeah, it was novel. That this was a show. Let's see what the show looks like before it closes down. Right. And it's 11 years now. And I think I go upstairs and I'm going to have to plan out the next show that I'm going to.
Starting point is 00:53:16 It went very strong. PT Barnum took over. But I know you mean it was the vibe going in was like, this is goofy. This is a goofy, silly thing that, you know, and, you know, I mean, did you get a sense when you were attending this that, one, it was. stronger than you thought and two that this would probably define the rest of your life. And make you millions and millions of dollars. So much. Did you get a sense that this would be the first line in your obituary?
Starting point is 00:53:49 When you were there, did you come back with like, oh, this is more real than we think? I'd like to say yes and maybe I'm sugar-coding it. I've had a hard time of understanding scope with the Maga thing. What I, perspective is hard. What I knew is that people cared and there was excitement here. You know, it was hard to tell, like, is it just the 500 people are here to see the shit show? Yes. And at the time, it felt like that because all of the politicians, all the pundits are like, this is not what America does.
Starting point is 00:54:23 Sometimes there's these wild candidates who are there. There's the Ross Perot, who everybody pays attention to, but nobody actually votes for this person. So that was in my head, and I didn't know any better. I could tell that people were excited. excited about him. He was funny. All of the news paid attention to him. I think about our first daily show. God, when Donald Trump announced his candidacy, it was a John show. And the whip chat was me, Hussein and Jess on a whip chat. And I believe the joke was Donald Trump is running for president. And we all were so excited about the comedic potential of it that we were coming in our
Starting point is 00:55:01 pants. Yeah. Yeah, I remember that. That was like, I do remember that. Yes. So I think that was really like, this is so comedically funny and ridiculous. That's our take. I think the sentiment was, by most American logic, this is not a sustainable path. But I saw energy. There was excitement and it was fun. But to me, we were still framing it like it was. Side show, impossibility, goofy. I think that's what it was. This is a side show. This is a freak show. And the reality is, oh, no, this is the circus and this is the big show. Yeah. A clip I wanted to show was this great clip of John Oliver. Love this field piece. Gunned in Australia. Love it.
Starting point is 00:55:43 Gold standard. It really is. I think when I came in here, let's show a little clip from John Oliver. He went all the way to Australia. I think he did like a three-part field, three field pieces on like gun reform in Australia, comparing it to what we were doing here in America. It was 2013. What if, hypothetically speaking, what if gun control could work?
Starting point is 00:56:03 which obviously it can't, so we know that it won't, so that's not a problem. But what if it could due to that time that it did? Okay, when was that? Australia. Yes, Australia. In 1996, a Conservative Prime Minister John Howard instituted sweeping gun control laws following a mass shooting that shocked the nation. So should we be learning from this effective example? Of course not.
Starting point is 00:56:29 I guess if we're going to go to Planet X and say it's not the United States, it's some of us, some of us, other planet, different people, different everything. I don't know, yeah. But in the real world with human beings, it's not gonna work, and Ben Patrol isn't gonna work. Unfortunately, not only is Australia actually in the real world, even their animals can holster weapons.
Starting point is 00:56:51 I think Peon did this one, I think. I can't remember, but yeah, great field piece, please, I don't even take away from you're the one who picked this one. Well, I highlighted it because it was a great field piece. Killer. covered a big important topic in a very smart John Oliver Way, went to Australia, it's always
Starting point is 00:57:09 fun when you can go overseas to get that perspective and bring it back and bounce off of it. My memories of this beyond it being a great field piece was when I got hired at the Daily Show, those first few weeks you got to figure out one, they basically put you in front of a green screen and you have to do a chat.
Starting point is 00:57:24 But the wild thing about our job as a correspondent is like you have to do this thing in front of a live studio audience and work with writers and make it funny. But you're also do this other thing, which is like fly to a random part of America, sit down in front of an expert who may be... Sometimes Australia. Sometimes Australia. They may be angry or frustrated at you and you have to sit in that chair and interview them.
Starting point is 00:57:46 And quite frankly, I was like, I don't know what that looks like. I've had some experience in the past with interviews and what have you. But when I got to the Daily Show, I watched the raw footage of this interview, which was so helpful because... Quickly talking to the executive producers here, it was like, I want to learn this job. This job is like we talked about before. It's a sink or swim thing, and they ask a lot of you at this show. And what's great about that show is you can bring a lot to it. You can do a lot of different things.
Starting point is 00:58:13 But it's hard, and you wear a couple different hats when you are a correspondent. So I was like, how do I do this well? And they're like, well, there are some correspondents who really double down on this and do it really well. And it was like, let me watch their tapes. And I watched Sam's tapes. And I watched this Oliver one. And it was really eye-opening to watch like, yeah, Jason Jones had great, Yeah, watch what it was great in the chair.
Starting point is 00:58:35 Because there's an art to sitting in that room and doing that interview. Of course, these things get edited down, as all media does to these moments and what have you. But you have to also navigate sitting in a chair with somebody for sometimes up to an hour. Walking through questions that might poke and prod them, try to land jokes, but also try to open them up so they are revealing in interesting ways. And so this piece was just watching a master class of somebody who knew how to, to articulate an argument, be funny, and open somebody else up to reveal themselves. Yes, totally.
Starting point is 00:59:08 Totally. Could not agree more that this is such a gold standard for a modern at that time what the daily show field piece should be because it was satirical. It was funny. It was pointed. That was a great point to it.
Starting point is 00:59:23 Yeah, and watching the raw tape is actually very interesting because that's something I know human actually will get to see other than us. Because, again, when we join the show, we want to do a good job. One of the biggest strengths of the daily show that people don't understand
Starting point is 00:59:37 is the institutional knowledge here. That's why this show can't be easily replicated because there's so much institutional knowledge from the editors to the EP's or producers to the library of footage. And so when you first join, you want to tap into the institutional knowledge. You want to get up to speed.
Starting point is 00:59:52 So we watched these tapes. And what was great about this was he went there. It's so simple, so clean. What a clean idea. Guns are bad, you know, where had, but we can't solve the problem. Where have they ever solved this problem? Australia. And then he goes to Australia.
Starting point is 01:00:07 And again, me coming just, I just came from Australia when I joined the show. I lived there for 10 years. So being like, oh man, we got to go back to Australia. No, I came here to get out of Australia. But then seeing him do this feel piece, the framing was clever. It became three parts, which never happens. Right. We never do three parts.
Starting point is 01:00:23 Every time we do a field piece, it goes over time. It's a two-parter. And we never get the two-parter. You're making it four minutes. Yeah, you know, maybe things. This is an eight minute piece. It's always a six minute piece. It's probably five.
Starting point is 01:00:34 Yeah, five, probably five. So the fact that this got three legitimate parts is very rare. And all three were great segments. And, yeah, I mean, again, he talks to the people who are very pro-guns in that. And he talks to the people who got rid of the guns in Australia who are conservative. And yeah, it was great, great writing, great structure, everything. Yeah, I don't even know. know how to and not that you know this show has done thousands of field pieces so not that this is the
Starting point is 01:01:08 only good one obviously but and there's been examples i'm sure john oliver built off of as well in terms of you know politically uh relevant and super funny you know so there's a there's a there's a whole bunch of these this one i think really does stand i think this one a emmy this really yeah i think that everyone involved in this one i'm so it's so fun to dip back into these archives yeah it's just I mean we've had to it's curious even while we've been here you know you come and you start doing these feel pieces and I think the style of these fields pieces shifted and evolved and sometimes we do some old school ones that are two people bouncing back and forth but our take like our audiences have
Starting point is 01:01:49 gotten savier and you have to be able to distill some of these things down to sketch now sketch like I think Trevor brought sketch into the world like he was very interested in that and so like that became a format that we could play around in as well. Then we've introduced sketch elements to some of these field pieces as well, or some things that just become quick social media has now taken over elements of that. So it's been fun to see in these old pieces what become the gems or the seeds that germinate into some of the things we're doing now.
Starting point is 01:02:19 Absolutely. Absolutely. And just like all great comedy, a lot of this holds up. Despite it being literally the daily news of the day, you know, couldn't be more or of a time stamped, but they still hold up. And like a lot of comedy, also, there's a lot of stuff out there that does not hold up. Oh, yeah. And that is why you never viewed the entire archive.
Starting point is 01:02:43 Exactly. The archive is there, and there's a lot of great stuff in it. But we don't want to get in trouble, so some of this stuff you'll never see. Yeah, guys, 30 years of shows, there's a lot of great shows out there. You can say anything 30 years ago. Yeah, yeah. And we get. There's some stuff that you'll never see.
Starting point is 01:02:58 Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. All right, that's all the time we have. Thank you for joining us. You can catch the next 30 years of The Daily Show. Starting up again, September 8th on Comedy Central, Paramount Plus, and right here in podcast form on The Daily Show.
Starting point is 01:03:12 Here's edition. Thank you, Roddy Chang. Thank you, Mr. Clever. 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.
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