A Conversation with TDS | Jon Stewart & Team Talk Evolving the Show, Processing Trump 2.0 - FYC

You're listening to Comedy Central. Here we go again. It's been a good run America.

We've got so much to talk about tonight.

Mass deportations, potential measles out.

Break, grabbing Panama by the canal, rip.

Todi, invading Greenland, profession wrestling, takeover Gaza, tariffs.

What was I talking about?

Donald Trump?

You must Joe Biden Milania.

Now let's focus on the price of eggs.

You are for it. We listened.

The Democrats acted like Republicans for the last four months. They wore camo hats and went to Cheney family reunions. Do you know how dangerous it is to wear a hunting hat around Cheney.

We have been so concerned about all the scary things that Trump's gonna do, we forgot He's also going to do some really stupid things.

If you've been tuning out the presidential campaign so far, I get it.

It's boring.

And my grandpa is also a rambling eighty year old man. And let me tell you, I keep half an ear open for the word inheritance, and I just ignore everything up.

It used to.

Be that you had to commit a crime to be potted, but now Biden has to do this weird like Minority Report Preepodden thing where it's like, hey, we know you didn't do anything, but Trump thinks you did some things. I'm gonna pott in you for anything you did, even though you didn't do it. It's it's what al found us, what I've wanted think about.

How strange this moment is.

I mean years from now, children will be reading about this in history books. I mean not in Florida.

You want us to take actions.

They got to give Trump some action. You want dem to stop jerking off and get to work.

They gotta get to work jerking him off.

Yeah, I get it. I get where you're going. I get it.

I bet you get it.

You sex monster.

Damn it.

It's a letter from Donald Trump. Dear Troy, I saw you on TV.

So you are now the new Secretary of the Interior.

Qualified to run the Interior.

I'm gay Jordan.

He obviously thinks the head of Interior is a decorating job.

John pay for tracting in here.

These tarffs are going to help out all.

My in words, you're you're my net gains.

Costa right, of course, your net gains.

Hey, hey, you're not an economist. That's not your word to say.

Okay, you got a truck you want to show me.

I wish the world a better place because I was here. Jesus Christ, President Trump, same fun. Huh okay, Jenny, I don't worry about that whole worshiping false idols thing, not at all.

Please welcome to the program.

Boda Gabriel Union and help of Baga Coleman, Domingo Governor Joshua.

Year Old, Paul W.

Down, Mark Carney, Ray Wes Lore, Mark Gibber, Jason Brand, Si Sport col.

Governor Gretchen Whitner, Connie Charm, the Amazing Linda Linda.

Steve Omer, Jessey Eisenberger.

Jeff Williams. I just signed on for another year with your doctors with the network. Oh my god, you're crazy.

You think you have to live for another years in the puge. You should celebrate.

What's ronning.

Someone likes to kick shame.

No, welcome to our to our panel. Uh, thanks John, Thank you John.

Thanks John.

I'm remarkably prepared with questions that I wrote. Yes for all of you.

Thanks for everybody coming. Oh this is full room. We didn't know what was on the other side of the door, So thank you. You know what we're gonna say. This is nice.

You could they could be anywhere on a on a Saturday, Like if this were in New York, a Saturday afternoon in this kind.

Of weather, I don't think we would come to this.

We would not be here, no way.

But I just want to get in.

We don't have that much time, and I know that there's a lot of interest, and I want to just get to the questions, and I'm just going to do them sort of in order. The first question is for Ronnie, why is it that your name appears so often on the Epstein List.

Wow? Look, the nineties was a weird time. You know, things were different.

It was things happened, things happened, and you know in show business, I don't know.

I don't yeah, yeah, I don't know how it went. Actually, this does get Costa. You were you were hosting Costa you were on the Epstein List. No, no, no, you were hosting this week. So this this is.

Something that I that I want to talk because I I think it's interesting for everybody and I'm interested in how you guys deal with it. There was a great deal of preparation that went into the week. There's a great deal of preparation that went each day. You had all these bits lined up, and then in the middle of the day, it's around two pm. Yeah, a young man by the name of Elon Musk decides to use the platform that he has purchased too. And I don't

This week?

And I know all my co hosts have experienced the same, and the same for you, John, for all the years you've hosted. But this week we did rehearse. At two forty five, we'd covered Trump's travel band. We covered that he appointed a twenty two year old boy as his anti terror expert that had an eyebiw raised in his headshot. And then I went upstairs to get my dog to bring him down to rewrite room, and by the time

Yeah, can I throw a question off that to you? You're ready for this. This is gonna be awesome. This is this is what the new athletic Jinga.

Put it down, put it down, get out the shredder, put it down.

I feel like this is commonplace for us in the the Trump era.

Biden was so much easier. They'd let you know a month in advance. Yeah, he's gonna have trouble at this one press conference.

Make sure you have a camera.

That you came.

You took a little break, right, I had to get to know my family. You had to get to Yeah, family time, as you call it.

Right. They turned out to be lovely. It turned out to.

Be lovely coming back into a Trump world where where you hadn't been covered day in and day out like we were. You expecting the change in the way the show had to sort of run in the day to day, Like, was that was that different than your expectations walking back into the show.

You know, it's a funny question because a lot of the people that were there in twenty fifteen when I had let are are still there and they were phenomenal. But it's you go away for a little bit and you come back and they're faster, stronger, taller, better, smarter, funnier. Like I walked back into the room and is all the people that I'm used to seeing like you kind of you go away, you don't realize and I was blown away at how they had taken even the level.

You know, what reminds me of is.

So when I was in college, I played soccer and we thought we were pretty good. And then I went back, like thirty years later to watch my old college team play, and their team sucked, like we were probably nationally ranked top.

Twenty team in the country. I went back.

They sucked thirty years later, but they would have beaten the shit out of our like they were so much faster, stronger, more athletic. And that's how I felt about coming back to the show. Is everyone had taken it to that next level. And I think probably out of necessity having been through the first What was it like in the in the first TRUMPERA And is it different now than what you experienced in that first one?

Well, first of all, we're faster. It's performance enhancing drugs. That's what it is. You know that I did not know that is I mean, I think I remember hosting it was. I mean, hilariously we did. We did a live show this year during the Republican National Convention, and I remember us thinking like, oh shit, we have to write the show. It's always fun doing a live show because you are crafting it as the news is coming in and then Hulkogin takes the stage and you're like, we're gonna be fucking.

Fine, right, but America America.

Oh, that guy that's Hull Coke and he's ripping off his shirt and he's and then he's bringing out Dana White and then Donald Trump's coming out with a tampon on his head.

Okay, this is gonna be fine.

You know what we will find comment when Kid Rock is on the side, gone Hulk, take it down.

Be respectful, be respectful.

I think there was the one we jumped back in after the Biden era, like we all remembered the pace of a Trump news cycle, but it's not until you jump back into it that you really remember. Oh right, it's just an onslaught by design, And I think this one felt even more of an onslaught.

He's both unfettered.

I think that design has been honed and is more intentional than it ever was before, and so it did seem like the pace kicked up two speed.

It's like the four forty five curse is what we call it, where it's just late enough in the day you could maybe save it for the next day, but it's such a big story you kind of feel like you want to touch, at least touch on it for the show. How well, how do you decide in that day when a story drops like that at four point thirty, right, how do you decide whether it's something that you want to tackle that day or you want to sit on it?

Well, you know, I show up Monday around three pretty drunk.

Yeah, yeah, So whatever's in the prompters and the prompter and I just you know, I think we all have that, And I think the interesting part for me will be what level of distraction?

Everything is strategic now? And he's got he's.

Got a bunch of cards, I think, in a box that he can deploy to distract.

Us from leads. I think he's got the lead box.

Like right now, they're like Elon Musk tweets Donald Trump is on the Epstein list and he's like, let's declare martial law in Los Angeles.

How about that?

How About I send in the National Guard and a bunch of ice agents it and it works phenomenally well. But but speaking of that kind of pivot, and I want to ask you guys, because you brought up the Publican Convention.

The show was all set to go to the Republican.

National Convention right before that first attempt, I think on Trump's loge. Were you guys in Milwaukee at that time? I was still home, But were you guys in Milwaukee when that happened?

I was Jordan's Yeah. We were buying Milwaukee Brewers baseball caps at the time.

Yeah, we were at a Brewers game.

No, yeah, you park. You gotta hang John. We're going out doing cool stuff, man, Yeah, I gotta come.

We're seeing base You guys know I'm super social. More.

We were trying on Brewers jerseys. We had hats. Do you think is this hat good? Or is this hat good?

And we're running around the store and Jordan is like stop just staring at his phone. And I'm like, Jordan, do you like this? And He's like, uh, Daisy, put that down.

It is not a good fit. To be very clear, it was just not a good fit. It wasn't I had to be honest, not my color. I was doing what a lot of people do at baseball games. Look, you were at the game too, Yeah, we were all there.

I was on Zillow looking at the local housing costs to see if I should move from my shitty New York Brooklyn apartment to Milwaukee where I can have a six bedroom house on a lake for one hundred and eighty five thousand dollars. But we were in Milwaukee and took a zoom with you, and Jordan's family was there, and he said, do you mind if we share a hotel room?

Goes.

I don't want my my family to kind of be a part of this terrible national news.

So Jordan and I are sitting next to each other. We don't know where you were.

You probably were, I don't know, but and that's where we decided to go back to New York and do the shows. And again, that's what's so fucking awesome about the Daily Show is how quickly the pivot can happen. And great week of shows, which I think was live shows, right, maybe that next week I don't remembers, in the air.

Had the pilot turn around the power I was. I was in San Diego doing stand up comedy when he got, oh you weren't that you hadn't gotten to Milwaukee. I hadn't gone to Milwaukee. I was gonna do the show and didn't go to Milwaukee afterwards, and then before the I was doing a stand up so in San Diego, which is kind of a military town, right, and so the guy he got shot? And I was like, man, should I talk about this at the show or not?

I'm sorry, what's that for?

And I got to the show and no one in San Diego cared?

Yeah yeah because And and to me it was a lesson of like people people.

I don't think they knew he got shot.

And I guess I chalk it up to, like, I'm we are so connected to the news in a way that most humans are like what he got Oh right, what's the what's toes?

The dick joke?

But they didn't even they didn't notice at the San Diego show, so I had to. I think I was who broke the news to the San Diego crowd, like, hey, do you know the president got shot?

Well, this has also explained some of the problem.

Yeah yeah, right, yeah.

I'm sure either really gentle breaking it to the people.

I could only imagine that being the calm, soothing voice when there's a national tragedy of react. People feel unsure running big God to fill us in, right.

You people are so stupid.

Stupid people even know President God?

Did you when we pivoted and came back? So I hadn't gone out in there yet, and Jen and I were talking. Jen Flanso was the executive producer of the program and is really the only reason why any of this can happen correct with the kind of adaptability that it does. Like just that's one of the people that Jen was a production assistant when I started on the show in nineteen ninety nine. And now like is the

Uh and but what are we talking about my abs here?

Yeah, Jen got the call that where the theater was was going to move into the hard zone, and we were like, I don't think we want to be in the hard zone.

So everybody, everybody came home.

But why John, Why? Because my instinct was, Oh, my god, this is a big thing. This is our duty as daily show correspondence. And I was so thankful that you smacked us in the face with reality and said come home, be safe.

Yeah, so thanks for that. No, listen, I thought it'd be funnier if you guys weren't.

No.

I think that's and and that's something that you know, for the audience.

I think there's sometimes an expectation and I we'll talk

We'll you know, we'll be back. Do you guys feel that pressure?

Take a lot of my cues from you. And so when you said so, I gotta admit it is. Ah, it is when something super horrible is happening. I'm I'm with you. I'm like, wait, why you know, why is this is not the voice to come on and make some jokes about something horrible. It just happened, right, So I'm with you of like, this isn't a uh, that's not something that we necessarily need to contribute to the culture at that moment, you know.

So it really helped when you relieved us of that burden.

Yes, someone someone go in to.

A meeting and I just went, what we do doesn't matter. Why won't you all understand that?

You know, some would call it cowardly or or a dereliction of duty, but you know, we see it as a relief, you know, not a not a cowardly act by a small man in stature and morality like as a permission structure to be small ourselves.

You know, thank you, You're what?

Thank you?

I've always said this show can shrink to meet the moment, but.

To keep but to remember that we are a comedy show, and I think so much of it is not just about making people laugh and bringing some lightness and some joy to everything happening, but it's also about catharsis. And you know that can come through laughter, and it can come through having something meaningful to say. It can come through honesty and authenticity and vulnerability and keeping your humanity intact.

You know people on occasion, people will come up to me and say thank you for making the show. What you're doing is really important, And I look behind being to see if they're talking to someone else, because I say, you know, I'm not a journalist. You know, I went to University of Illinois and I played collegiate tennis and I got a C plus average in the School of

Plug the book, Plug the book and plug the book.

No, but of course we want to say something important, but important people should say the important things.

First.

We can tell jokes, Well, you don't sell out in presale, you should try the Yeah, but.

You got to get a better marketing guy or something.

I don't know.

I was supposed to be talking about this, but just to bring it back since we have the guy who invented modern American satire here.

Yeah, you've been.

Uh, you know a lot of what we do. We're talking about changing the show at fourth at four pm, four, six pm taping. A lot of that has to do with the technology available as well, in addition to obviously the skill set of the crew and the producers and editors using this technology as available as someone who's been around since the Jurassic Like, what what was it like trying to could you even change the show at four with tapes.

Years ago. So we we used to do the show with the stone tablet and a chisel.

I would sit and then we have we have the tablet almost done, and then somebody would come in and go, Garfield's been shot.

Take it in, McKinley's take it over.

It is the technology part of it is and I'm sure even you guys have seen the advances in that technology, but it is true like when we started in nineteen ninety nine, you still edit it in the online room. So and there were no I mean, it sounds almost ridiculous now, but like TiVo hadn't been invented yet, Like there wasn't this sense that you could follow. I think the way we did the show was we used to get there was one group feed that you could buy into even if you were us, and it was the

On the AP feed.

And if you wanted to use five rolls of tape, like this is before we ever did our daily show montages or any of those kinds of things. If you made an error in the edit when you were putting the show together for rehearsal, avids weren't invented yet, so you you're the whole crowd like.

What this is such an la audience avids, I don't understand.

It didn't react to Trump being shot, but.

Oh my god, the humanity, they don't even know Trump got shot.

It was rough. Those were the days.

And then when all of those technologies started to come on board and you saw how quickly it all changed. And suddenly what change was the agency that the show could have in terms of narrative direction. So you went from being sort of at the mercy as to what would be present to you to a kind of democratizing of what your intention could be. And so you could now run five tvOS and collect a bunch of stuff. And suddenly that's when sort of the more modern way of how we.

Would put the show together.

But even then it was rudimentary compared to like you guys say, you go in there and just redo the entire show and they'll turn it around in the render time of It'll be forty five minutes.

That is one of my favorite parts studio production. This week before the big feud, Elon Musk didn't like The Big Beautiful Bill for four reasons and MSNBC had a read of that and it was slow and it was a boring read, and someone said, can we get a more exciting read for a different network? And then Justin Milkman is on the phone and in like twelve seconds there's a new read of a more exciting version of that, and it's amazing. You talk about like the tools that

Look, that room was in the basement of our building, and for years we didn't realize it wasn't supposed to be moist like for some reason, it was this one room in the building that was always moist, and we just thought, like, is that necessary for the computers?

And then somebody else was like, I think that's mold.

Actually you would just you would just lose video editors, like they'd be like, where's he like tuberculosis, But it's all it's it's.

Those things have changed.

And even the funny part about working at the show is the people that are on there that do the guts of the show love it so much. Like Max, how many times have you been emailed on a Saturday on a like Monday night in the morning where like Max or Justin or somebody will go, like, send you a link to a thing that they found that's just the right, uh piece of information for the larger thought that you were going to put into the piece.

It's honestly, one of the most interesting things in having been at the Daily Show for a long time is to see like how it's been adapted have well, I mean it's not Jurassic I think I was like Jurassic Lost World.

Right, you were the fourth one once Chris Pratt entered the Yeah, Chris Pratt era, right, Chris Pratt where he's a raptor wrangler?

Is that where that series went.

On?

The care found all six writers of that screenplay.

You're right, don't worry. Your genius is Ai could never come up with an idea of that.

Back then they had to use real dinosaurs.

They did so impressive. What what has been so interesting?

Like there's Twitter now that people get reactions to the news in real time, where in you know, twenty years ago, they would wait till the night to see how late night shows responded to it.

Now they get in real time on Twitter.

Now they get quick clips, and I think, like we have like this robust social team that has the ability to like respond in real time and so we can have like comedic conversations in real time throughout the day. I think then the show now can create craft a narrative in its first act which can play for like an eight minute narrative about what happened during the day or make a larger point. We have field pieces that can go out and they can kind of craft stories that are out there.

We get to do specials. They get to have long narrative, We get to.

Do clipped lives special There are great specials done by really intrepid reporters go into the fray, you know, finger it the finger who are not afraid to and finger the pulse. You know, it's just it's really intrepid work that's out there. But I do think like people often talk about like the way they engage with like daily show content, and sometimes people just get clips. They don't know it's from the Daily Show. They just know here's

Yes, but is there a butt? No?

No butt no, just yes? Yeah, yes, so did that surprise?

So you guys were more grew up in that era, and I'll ask you how you sort of interact now.

We grew up watching you, John, We grew up watching you grew up in.

That era where you know, again, I was used to this linear idea of like I feel like like I run a tower records, do you know what I mean? Like, I'm still like people if they want music, they've got to come into my store and go to the CD rack, you know, and everybody's like, it's there's I have a chip behind my ear and it gets me all the new bieber songs like it is. The delivery systems are so different, but the content, you know, I sort of

Do you consume media in that way? Does it?

Does it matter to you how you get it, where you get it. That's our show for today. It's it's definitely, I mean, it's definitely how I consume it. I think I get nervous about it. It's content.

I've watched television.

They see it, they see it like this.

I think I think context is gone in so many ways in which people get media. That's what scares me about stuff is like you can get stuff out of context from TV, from shows, from CLI and so people don't know the grand scheme of things. I laugh when people see me on the street and if they're over forty, they recognize you from the Daily Show, If they're between thirty and forty, they recognize you from YouTube. And if you're under thirty, your content that they see, yeah right,

Idea, people listen to our show just the audio version of it with no other visual component, as a very popular podcast, they just sit on the train and listen to the audio of our show and it crushes, and they say costas audio crushes they say, they say that I added that last part, and you're not saying here we are technologies. Technology has ever been better, and people are still taking the audio of a video component and downloading it and loving it.

But missed opportunity. They can't even see.

Your abs exactly. And hard security area.

I like coming out of the jungles of Malaysia, like I hear we stop Ronnie jesus As as a real immigrant here who actually overcame a vood I was raised. I always aspire to work at these American institutions of comedy, like you know, I that was my aspiration to work at you know, like sn Now Daily Show, you know, working American show business. I felt there was something aspiration

I think that's kind of what we're discussing here.

By the way, that is Comedy Central's new tagline.

Okay, well, I'm glad you could say.

And are by the three are you're a buzzers buzzing in your back back there, don't go there, don't go there.

But I do.

I do feel that we've we've lived in ten years of this kind of quantity over quality internet content thing, and I feel like there is a bit of a reaction what humans are feeling.

Sick of it.

Some people feel sick of it, but they don't know why. But there is a reaction to this. This social media is making me sick. And I think one thing that the show does really well and and thank you John Stewart as well for doing this real is doing, uh is production value and quality over quantity, you know, and.

I think that comes through.

So there's a million people who can put on a suit and talk in front of a desk and talk about the news, but like it doesn't they don't have the same production value and comedy knowledge and you know, like.

And we have a great, great, great group of writers, right, great group of writers, and so they turn shit out fast, funny.

Yeah, uh yeah, it's in the business.

But I'm just saying that that quality comes through the quality, right, and people can feel it. I think people can feel it, you know, when John's on the show, they can feel it if they know this feels different to someone you know telling the news with a dance and not you.

Know, it's that It's okay, I did that one time, one time, right.

I just think that the I hope that well this maybe this is more hopeful than anything, but I hope that we are going back to a quality, kind of a quantity kind of world hopefully.

I know, hopefully. I hope you're all clapping and hope it's true.

Well it is, I mean, I think and for you guys also who you know, everyone out here who works in the business, I think we're feeling these kinds of the plates shift underneath us. And having experienced those shifts from you know, our more primitive days of no TiVos and and everything else to what we're seeing now, I think we're all sort of feeling like we're on a

For a reason.

And the more that you see, the different you know, as we watch these tech companies get into content, you see that the ethos is, it's a very different ethos.

Up with, and I think that's a tragic thing to lose in this business. I mean, rehearsal, John is really yeah, yeah, let them applaug. I'm sorry. Yeah, Well, now I built it up, and I don't even.

Know by the way that speech was written by Ai chat GPT couldn't tell the difference. But I do think because everything that these guys are talking about is about touching every part of the process and valuing every part of the process, from the people that do uh the editing, to the people in the control room, to the people in makeup and wardrobe, to props, to every single part of that is a contribution to that greater whole of

Every once in a while in the rewrite room, well we'll do something funny or say, right, say something funny, and I will think, oh, that'll make a good clip, and then I want to punch myself in the dick.

By the way, we also have two people in the building whose gab it is is to punch Michael in the deck and that's a contribution as well. And I think we're I'm afraid we're going to lose that sorry, I hope.

I just wanted to see what the sign language will Punchday.

By the right?

Can can someone you verify this is correct sign language by the way, because I don't want to end up on my own show with I hope the answer, John is what Ronnie alluded to earlier, that people there always will be a hunger for quality, and I hope, I hope we keep making quality and we have for the last thirty years.

Yes, right, as can I do the act out that I was gonna do?

So you talked about the brewmaster tasting the hops. I was thinking, that's cool because rehearsal is really just getting the script and kind of going, oh.

Yeah, you know you're supposed to read. It's you, that's your problem. I needed to This is perfect. I did an act that wasn't really funny. John stepped in saved the day Daily shows Great. There we go, Bo. That's how it worked, the team working together.

I blame the sign language the girl with the whole punching of the dick thing.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.

I worry about it. I don't know you you uh, I don't know. If this is the last of the movie is no.

It feels like we're in one of those places. The one thing I will say is I remain optimistic that people feel the humanity that is infused in art, and if you remove that that will you will know it. I can't say it for sure, and maybe I'm lying to myself, but there is something about the connection between people and I see it now. Maybe this is a place to take it to a different place because each you know, each week that we host, we go out

Yeah, I think.

You do.

They're just so with you the whole way through. Yes, it feels like we're thirsty to laugh. We need some relief, and I know for me, I feel it all throughout the day and talking about just the group collaboration, and from the first meeting of the day walking into a room of your funniest friends and finding the lightness and the humor and the tragedy that's happening in the world, and the fact that I get to work in a place.

That is so deeply collaborative.

And this is something that you instilled into the DNA of the show, and Jen Flans is a huge part of it as well. But you know, we have multiple meetings throughout the day. We talk to each other, we collaborate with each other. Anyone can pitch an idea and you feel it in the creative process, and then to get to sit in with the audience and process it with them, it feels much more like a collaborative experience with them than I've ever felt before.

The one I've been getting a lot lately is thank you for making me feel like I'm not crazy. I think when the Daily Show gets turned on and people have all these thoughts about what happened to the news, and then we dissect or joke about what happened, and it's like, oh, no, I'm not crazy. They're they're pointing this out too. Deasy brings up a great point anybody can pitch at the Daily Show, anybody. Anybody can pitch an idea from an intern all the way up to

It's a better animal. Maybe they should take Well.

It's not supposed to be there in the first place. Okay, Well, well that's typical somebody if you're going on at the show now.

For for some reason, Ronnie always feels the need to defend the Burmese python and we don't know why.

Well, do you know where I'm going on Monday running.

I'm flying the Everglade to fucking kill python with this lady. And I don't know if this might be the last time I ever do. Please vote for our Emmy Show nomination show. But I have to point that out because I that is one of my most favorite things of the Daily Show. And what I'm most proud of these package pieces that we do is that we go actually out there.

I'm going to be with this woman in her truck.

She gets paid sixty five dollars to kill a snake, and she gets like ninety dollars to get an egg, and you're not allowed You're not allowed to try the egg because I guess it's like the potential, like like even like a young child's life is worth more than our child, you know, our life. I mean, why did this get so dark? My point is the package? Yeah, the package point is you're not going to be in the office next week. Correct, I'm not going to the

But but that's something we do at the Daily Show is field pieces. Right, the field, we got into the field and in your case talk to mentally ill people.

And Americans it's Americans.

Running and in your case, you kill local wildlife. And what about your piece where you want to kill fish? The bottom of the ocean. You shot the shot fish. We shot lion fish. They were in vasive species in Florida.

And what did you shoot them with? With a gun?

By the way, this is where we think the legal department, they're wonderful.

But all these field pieces are like little short films, I guess, or snuff films if you want to, you know, like that's how it was, and we got there when you have to. You know, it's it's a real education in in in all aspects.

Well Americana.

I was going to bring it back to LA and be like of movie making, because you need to have writing skills, you need acting skills, you need improv skills. You need a producer who knows what they're doing. They're direct, you direct, need camera people. They need to edit it. So every of these these field pieces, you know, you see Jordan going all day. I just you know, and you think it's easy.

You watched any of these pieces.

No, just I don't know, I don't know what you actually. I know you go to the d C some special look at me and and you you see him do it and it looks easy. But that's because he he spends all time in edit and he's he.

Woke a lot are the worst of complimenting people, the worst, the worst, and try to be like that.

Where is there's like a genuinely nice thing.

And yeah, okay, I'm getting to it, and I'm getting to it. I'm getting to it. And he's also.

Every meeting at the show, I don't know how we get the show in the air.

And he's also a lanky person who's he doesn't have.

To enter into the conversation you've even seen who happens to be a world class improviser.

Then that's why you get that's.

Where that's where it is.

That's a that's a beautiful ultimately within all that, I thought it was a beautiful than you imagine a Burmese probably one with something inside and you're like, what is that?

It was a beautiful compliment.

Yeah, it feels like it's the snake eat in its own tail.

If has has traveling around the country, has it reinforced stereotypes that you thought you had about Americans? Has it opened your eyes to certain things that you didn't think you would believe?

Is it a more nuanced view.

When I came out of the jungles of Malaysia?

Yeah, here we go.

We had Malaysian pythons and we had and I always wanted to come to America and travel. So I got when I go around America, I go with like, oh my god, I get to do I get to see America, you know, when I get to do field pieces, or when I do when I tour this NOOW comedy special, like I get to I get to like see all these different parts of America.

And I got to tell you something.

This was before the election, and every town I went to, I was like, you know what, there's more good people and bad people.

Out here for sure.

You know, every city, I don't care it's Republican or Demico whatever. Everyone was always super nice to me. They didn't know who I was, I think, and they was still nice. Everyone was respectful face to face people in America very respectful. And so I didn't go in thinking everyone's gonna be horrible in the middle of America. I wentan liking it, and I left the middle of America really liking it. Everyone was super nice. Everyone's trying to get by. Everyone was welcoming to me. They would show

Like Americans as individuals, but not as a voting block.

In the aggregate, they get a little weird, but as individuals they were great.

Face to face, everyone's very nice.

So I don't know, I don't know how to square that away, you know, with what I saw, you know, and the people I saw.

And I think.

It's generally people's experience with other humans is that they are you know. I think you would alluded to it earlier that the view that people have from social media and from being online is a truly warped perspective of how we interact with each other. And it does so because it's incentivized purely for outrage and hostility. You know, the people that you see online that make a name

I always tell this story. It's a terrible story. Fuck it now.

I'm not gonna talk, but I'll tell all right, but the world as it exists. So as like when people say we talk about not to bring up like Jews or anything like that, but like, oh, are you worried about anti Semitism, I'm like, no, I'm not worried about anti Semitism. I think anti Semitism will be fine. I uh, I think it's I think it's very resilient. And but the reason I say it is so I I had just gotten back to the show. I've been there for like a month, and my favorite dog passed away. His

Beautiful. And then the third post was did you change your name? Juve?

Look, I was going through some stuff that week and I just, you know, I apologize.

The second part of that post post and this is our German shepherd Eva, and she said, I know, but.

But my point being like.

You would meet those people face to face and go wow, I had a great interaction with them, or we did a thing, because what you see online is such a perversion of who we are that when you see people in there, and I wonder, do you guys deal it all in social media? Do you delve into that you know, toxic factory of attacks and like the comments section, because it is those people I don't actually think exist, even the people that write those, that's not really who they are.

I mean, I've been hassled by folks in the Maga universe who then I meet.

In the Maga universe now they're like Marvel, Yes, all right.

I think the superheroes. Now, yeah, right, what do you do?

Magu and sign language like this is that what it is?

She's spelling it out spelling.

I think it's also s o s.

The mainstream liberal interpreters.

I I have a like the vitriol online is is intense in these fears, and I feel like when I'll go there. There's a man I met who's called the Bricksuit Guy, who is famous in the maga world. And he wears a bricksuit that looks like Trump's wall and he uh but not actual bricks not it's bespoke suit. He five of them, and he gets brought up on stage and Trump parades him and talks to him, and he's a he's his leb at all these events.

And he heckled us while.

We were filming one of these one of these events, and he was posting about how terrible we were.

He was trolling us and doing all this stuff.

Long story short, I get stranded at the airport with him for three and a half hours. What just me and him, just me and him for you and bricksuit guy. Me and bricksuit guy and we talked for three and a half fucking hours about bricks about a little bit about bricks. I hear about his suits, his five suits. Three he keeps off site because he was burgled because he live streams his location and somebody got him to it and robbed him.

This sounds like the worst Delta sky Club.

But it's free eggs. You know you gotta do it.

But long story short, three and a half hours with that guy. I'd love to tell you the guy who dresses in a brick suit, he has a handlebar mustache and trump brings on stage that he's an idiot.

He's not. He's a smart guy, a nice guy.

He got to you, he got to met to shit.

He's kind. I voted for you know, he's good with the economy.

I think in Michigan.

But he has changed his tune literally online. We talk online. When I go to events. Now he'll come up to me and ask me about my family. It's one person who's changed the way they talk to me. But it's such a clear example that I've seen. I've seen it with many people I talked to, Like, I've seen your profile online and it's it's similar to the Big Man's

That conversation is.

It's a temperature.

What is the temperature?

Right?

What are the conversations? And then shut it out for my own mental health and be aware of what it is.

Do you guys dip in? Do you do you find yourselves?

I dip in right before a hosting week just to see what people are talking about.

Yep, I feel this is awful.

Before you're hosting meek, you literally like you come in and you just gotta like, do you your prep like you're gonna get the g forces.

You gotta strategy. I'm a host this week.

There was a field piece I did when Trump Keep the aired last season. Canada is the fifty first state. Of course, we go up to Canada. Let's meet some of these Canadians. Do some man on the street. We meet with this man who votes a Canadian and he's voted for Donald Trump in Canada as election. That's how much he loves Donald Trump. He's a roofer. He uh looks the way you would think he would look for a MAGA supporter. And you sit down with him in

Yeah, mob mentality is worse.

Yeah, some of it may be that it really is.

There's a certain k fabe to it all.

The thing that I worry about with caveabe for those of you who are not arrested adolescent boys, k fabe is sort of the acting that takes place in professional wrestling, where there's heels and faces, you know, bad guys and good guys, and everybody acts in backstage they're all friends. The thing I worry about with k fabe is that if you act like something long enough, you become it.

Up when we first started. You know.

One of the things that I get from the audience almost all the time is this sense of.

Like, how are you going to get through this? You know?

And I'm always like, hey, man, tickets are free to shut the fuck up and watch your shop.

I would say, but but I think, you know, people forget, like in early two thousands, you know, they argued to let for the unitary executive and that the vice president.

I mean, there was an argument that the vice president had the power alone to institute the ability to torture people. You know, we forget our history is littered with these really tenuous moments where we find ourselves in a shaky place, and yet the resilience of the country finds its way not to perfection but past maybe those those really rough moments.

And I will only ask.

Ronnie coming out of jungle.

Uh So, No, it's relevant.

No, it's relevant because one cool thing about America is the separation of house is very strong. It is very strong, and people here complain about freedom of speech. But I can tell you, coming from places where there really isn't freedom of speech, the freedom free speech he still is is there. I mean, we've been shitting on him for twelve years now. He hasn't come after me yet, So I don't know, you know, says something there.

So we've got a special surprise for Rannie.

Ice is here for you right now, ladies and gentlemen.

Uh So, I would say that I am hopeful of the resiliency of these American institutions which are being strained. I do think that people will get past it. I think I can feel the antibodies kind of growing a little bit on social media in the cory, this kind of resistance to this garbage that we can't even put a wood to. I can feel people they feel a little sick about it. But people don't know yet how to avoid being sick, but they can feel the sickness.

That's a great point. You know.

I think you know that the printing press was invented and everybody thought that ushered in the Enlightenment, But it didn't. It ushered in in like one hundred years of killing witches.

The opposite of them. Yeah, it was the opposite of it. It brought in there. Do you guys have any thoughts on that.

I'm hopeful, I mean hopeful.

Yeah, she's always the best.

Maybe delusionally, No, I am naive.

I you asked if I check the comment sections and check in on Actasy what they're saying. I don't have to because I go home to visit my family.

Podcast, Universe Bow your podcast, watch the daily show nights at eleven ten Central owns Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramoupo.

Laugh Together. We can find some commonality, and I think this.

Has been a comedy.

Is the idea he has stopped talking to one another. That's scary.

But if people continue to have conversations and not be so stuck in their silos, and you know, I do think that there's hope that we'll get through this thing.

This might sound naive, but I am still impressed with the United States Constitution. It's roughly two hundred and seventy years old. It isn't perfect at all. The checks and balances system, though, blows my mind. And we're seeing some of it being executed now with some of Trump's executive orders and what's happening in immigration. And I'm hopeful that judges will realize that Trump will push things for further, further, further, for I mean, he's pushing him as far as they've ever been.

Uh.

And I just am hopeful that the checks and bounces will continue to work. That being said, other things I wake up thinking about in the middle of the night are are we making a really beautiful funny TV show on the Titanic while it's going down?

That'll be my final thought.

Take us home, Jordan Jesus Rice Titanic jungles that I wasn't aware of the python. Uh you know, yeah, I think you gotta find hope. I find hope in a couple places. I I just did a really great special, but I went into that. I went into that with a lot less hope because I was talking to kids who were maga kids and who I'd seen images of online, and online is a cruel fucking place. And when I talked to these nineteen and twenty year olds, I didn't agree with a lot of the things they had to say,

But those kids, those kids were a lot like me.

They were contrarians, they were nineteen, they were naive, they were looking for a place meaning and community and I think that's what we're all searching for, and I feel really grateful with having the show. We joke a lot

Right well, I have very much appreciate I very much appreciate you guys coming out.

It's an honor and a joy to work with you guys every day. And thank you for coming out, you guys for real. Thanks all for coming out.

Everybody, please don't one and only mister John Stewart