Josh Johnson on Hosting The Daily Show for the First Time | This Week in Preview

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You're listening to Comedy Central.

Hello, welcome to the Daily Show Ears Edition.

We have a very special episode for you today where we will be looking at the week to come and what fresh hell the news has waiting for us.

My name is Devin Delacunte.

I'm a writer on the show, and today I have the great pleasure of sitting with my friend and first-time host of The Daily Show, Mr.

Josh Johnson.

Josh, hello.

How's it going, man?

Great.

How are you, sir?

I'm doing well.

You know,

I feel like we've done a version of

this conversation before because we did a podcast episode of like

Beyond the Scenes or something together.

When you were hired as a correspondent.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And we talked about Cookie Monster and Shrinkflation.

Yeah, and we also talked about being roommates.

Yes.

You know, being office mates and stuff.

And now

it's, it, it, it bears repeating to me at least that you were my first office mate.

That's true.

And

I

feel like I would not have done as well at the show had you not been my first office mate.

You really gotta hear me.

Yeah, you really like took me

aside and made it so that I felt super comfortable and that I had like a lot of confidence to pitch and stuff like that.

Come on.

And some of my pitches were not always great.

Every once in a while, I'd have a pitch where, as soon as I got done talking, I was like, and now they know that.

Look, but listen, this then is an example of failing all the way literally to the top because you will

be desk this week.

Yeah, no, that's fair.

That's fair.

No, I have no regrets.

I just know that

in some past days, I had some pitches where I was like, as soon as I got done talking, I was like, oh, yeah, when would we have time to do that?

Look, that's part of the process, though.

Like, you got to get through, you got to go through a lot of muck in order to get to some diamonds.

I don't know exactly how to find diamonds.

I assume they're found in muck.

I hear dirt.

Okay, diamonds in the dirt.

Dirt rough.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You are just a diamond machine, though, at this point.

Oh, I do what I can.

Yeah.

You know,

I'm very excited for this week.

Yeah, I'm feeling more excited every day now.

Nice.

You know, initially.

Yeah.

Are you sure it seems like a moment of panic just set in as you were saying that?

I saw the light leave your eyes just a little brighter.

Admittedly, I wasn't looking at you and I was looking at tomorrow's audience.

Yeah,

you were looking off very much into the middle distance.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But overall, good.

Overall, great.

I don't know if I believe you.

I don't know.

100%.

I feel good the way people feel good before they run a marathon.

Sure, yeah.

And you're like, oh, it's going to be a marathon, though.

So at some point, I'll be uncomfortable.

Yes.

But right now, I'm loaded up with spaghetti.

I feel phenomenal.

I don't even have to.

Dude, I saw this video.

This is like,

I was shaking.

Was it Will Smith eating spaghetti?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

This was real.

Okay.

I saw this lady who won a marathon.

She was a marathon runner, but she had

a nosebleed at the beginning of the race and then was like, well, I'm not going to stop.

And by the time she got done, she looked like she had fought everyone else who raced.

Wow.

And Juan

came in first.

I don't think.

I think she's from Belarus.

Wow.

And yeah, crushed it.

That's pretty impressive.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, for the sake of our audience, we shouldn't show it, but woof.

I'm looking at it.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

Whoa.

Yeah.

You know what she looks like?

It like, do you remember when Fabio was on the roller coaster and he got hit by the bird in the face?

That like a goose flew into his nose and he had like a broken.

That's what it looks like.

Yeah.

She didn't even get to ride a roller coaster.

Oh my god.

It looks like the poster of a horror movie.

I know I brought it up, but I still think I'm feeling lightheaded.

I like that it's the Berlin Marathon because I'm looking at it.

I'm like, yeah.

Yeah.

No, but other than that,

I feel great.

I just use that as an example

for

someone who probably felt great and then

went through something the entire time.

Then at the end of it, they were like,

I did it

and I won.

What a great week of Josh.

Thursday afternoon, covered in blood.

Yes.

All over his face, his upper body.

Looking like I fought everyone in the building no one else has a mark on him but he came out on top yeah yeah but no i'm super excited and i'm very thankful to everybody everybody's been genuinely like so great and so sweet and i just want to make sure that i do a good job for for uh for them as well because you know i've been given a lot of pep talks yeah and i'm sure you're gonna do great you never want to waste a pep talk though no you never do you know i i remember junior high,

was not an athlete.

Really?

Okay.

Got a couple pep talks.

Okay.

Tried out for a few different sports.

Okay.

Didn't make any teams.

Okay.

But some of those pep talks, you could tell the adult that gave them to wanted to take it back.

There was, I had the teacher, I was, so I was decent at science until eighth grade, right?

I was like, all right, until eighth grade.

Okay.

And then in eighth grade, I was trying out for a soccer team.

And my teacher, who knew I was like decent in science, was willing to apply myself and everything.

Yeah.

he thought I could take that same grit, your science grit onto the soccer pitch, and apply it to the body.

He was like, Oh, if he understands what like a punnet square is, he really grasps it, then he must be able to like sidetrap a ball.

Right?

This guy knows that force equals mass times acceleration.

I bet he can bring that to the soccer field.

And so I came to tryouts, and I, oof,

first of all, it felt like every kid trying out but me had got a practice at trying out before I got there.

Because you know, the ladder?

Yeah.

The first time I had ever done one of those ladder drills was at that

run, run back, run further, run back, that kind of thing.

And then the ones where you dip your feet into the ladder, out of the ladder, in the ladder, out of the ladder.

Fast feet kind of thing.

And yeah, the fast feet thing.

And honestly,

at that trial, it was the first time I had ever done it.

So I watched a couple people do it, and then I tried to do it.

And I was just dancing.

I was hopscotching

on this ladder.

And you could see, I could tell, I go right up to the coach again, like my science teacher.

Yeah, yeah.

And I could tell he just a little bit embarrassed of the pep talk he gave me because I'm running up like, like, huh, so how was that?

You know what I mean?

Like, how?

And he's like, oh, you know, I'll post who did and didn't make the team on Tuesday of this week.

And I was like, oh, yeah, yeah.

But, like, you know,

did you see any potential?

He was like,

you did good for you.

And I was like, oh, oh, no.

Did that make it harder to show up to science class then?

Yeah.

Now two things are ruined.

Yeah, yeah.

Because then in science class, I'm over here trying to answer extra questions he wasn't asking because I didn't want to lose my science crib.

Yeah.

He pep talked you out of two pieces of confidence.

Yeah.

He made you worse than something you were good at.

Yeah.

Wow.

No.

So I'll be sure not to give you any pep talks for this coming week.

I think that none of those pep talks will be like this because it's all the same skill.

Good.

Yes.

Yes.

That's good.

It's all people being like, you talk in front of people.

This is talking in front of people.

I'm like, thank goodness.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The first day at the desk, we make you do the ladder drill to walk out

in front of the audience.

Oh, no.

Oh, I haven't done this since I was 13.

It's Evening again.

Yeah, no, that would be terrible.

Yeah.

Have there been any specific pieces of advice that you've gotten from people in the building or even outside the building that you have stuck in your head that you're like going into the week with?

Yeah, I got the

note that basically whenever you are doing any sort of speaking, when you're doing stand-up or anything like that, the differences are

minor

from when you're hosting, but they feel a a bit more massive because

of

what the show is.

So, for example, when I'm doing stand-up, I could connect with anybody.

I could walk up and down the stage and I could lock in with this person and be like, they know what I'm talking about.

Or I could see a person who really looks like they're not enjoying themselves, and I could be like, All right, I'm gonna have to win them over.

Whereas, like, when you're hosting, you are communicating to the audience at home and the audience in studio at the same time.

But your vantage point, like the North Star, is communicating to the audience at home because those are the people that are going to be tuning in from everywhere to watch the show.

Those are also going to be the people re-watching the show.

And when it comes to something like stand-up or any other form of public speaking, you are doing the show for the people there, hoping that the people that aren't there will watch it, enjoy it, and want to be there next time.

But a stand-up show is for the people that are there presently.

Yeah.

It's interesting you bring that up because I always remember sometimes watching taping and back even before I worked here, you would see John talk to, make some reference to an audience member that you could tell they talked before the taping.

Well, it'd be like, oh, you're a AI scientist.

And the crowd would laugh in a way where the audience at home wouldn't get the joke, but you would see that John had a relationship with that audience and that there was a level of like fun and connection.

You're like, oh, they know each other from right before the taping or whatever.

And it brought a lot of energy into it.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm sure that's a balance that you'll have to, you know, figure out as you sit at the desk.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's exciting.

Now, it's funny, you bring up the differences between stand-up and hosting this.

I think a lot of people will know you from your work online, like seeing your clips on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube.

And you really will put out like an hour every week talking about the news.

And I'm curious, have you been approaching things differently in the way you watch the news, getting ready to be at the desk, knowing that there is a team of people that you'll be working with, and that the sort of the levers of the daily show are different than the levers of preparing a stand-up set?

Has it approached the way you look at the news?

Yes, because the show has tools that you don't have

just doing stand-up.

I guess unless you felt like incorporating them, but then it would cease to kind of be a stand-up show.

But, you know, when it's just me on stage with a topic,

I

can go whichever way that I want, but I also,

how do I put this?

I also

have

an infinite amount of time to make my point in theory.

Like I'm contracted for an hour.

So whenever I go and do this show, I'm supposed to do an hour.

So I do have a time constraint.

But if I want to stay on a topic longer because I feel like there's like more meat on the bone or that

there's something that that day I've discovered that lengthens this particular piece to a certain amount of time, I can do that.

Whereas things for the show have a structure that makes the show what it is and also communicates the ideas best.

And so it would be a little bit weird to have like the daily show, but no over-the-shoulder images.

So no graphics.

graphics,

no like cart sounds or anything like that.

News clips,

you know, things that that tell the story.

And so

you just have to be thinking about it in a more well-rounded way as opposed to just simply my point of view.

Everyone who has hosted the show has brought their own point of view.

I think point of view is like crucial.

But in stand-up, your point of view is like...

what you live and die by exactly and it's and it's how some people are even hearing the story for the first time whereas with the show you have you have extra tools you have the literal news read of the person saying it.

You have, oh no, we have this here right now.

So you can see that I'm not making this up and I'm not embellishing.

I'm not exaggerating at all.

This is the clip of him saying this.

And

I guess in theory, you could do that.

Plenty of people do multimedia shows and everything, but even then, it's like a hybrid between the two.

It's not the same.

And so it's shaped a different look at what I find usable about what's in the news and what I think constitutes a story that has a lot of juice and

something that is maybe not something we cover, but I find it interesting.

Or, you know what I mean?

Are there stories you've been tracking in the lead up that you feel like have a lot of juice that you would say, okay, maybe we take a look at this?

Or

I mean, a hundred percent.

Like, I like,

yeah,

my man, Diddy,

Diddy's out here guilty, not guilty yeah that's crazy yeah that i mean a weird limbo state yeah and it's like who knows i don't think we would cover it on the show unless it was like the actual sentencing or like something something very fine and i don't think that's until october right yeah he's gonna be yeah yeah and so he's in a weird limbo until then and

i don't know man like because he got convicted of

I don't want to get it wrong.

It's like transporting people for prostitution, but not sex trafficking.

I believe that that's exactly it.

He got the two lesser charges and the other three, the Ricochet.

The big Rico.

He was like a Rico of one.

That one didn't go.

Yeah.

And then the other two, he didn't.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was found not guilty.

Obviously, there's legal differences, but it is strange when it's like, he's guilty of transporting people for prostitution, but not sex trafficking.

It's like, that just sounds like a different wording of the same thing.

Yeah, I think the main issue I had with how the case was handled

and

people's understanding of the case was I think media made it look more open and shut than it ever was.

And I think one of the reasons that they did that was because media has now,

like I'm talking specifically like legacy media, cable news, the places you think of when you think of news.

So not like your independent creator or anything.

Even though I'm sure independent creators did it to a certain degree, like I was trying to take care not to do it.

I would always joke about how guilty Diddy looked and seemed at every turn.

I'd also reference things that were like pretty much common knowledge, you know, like I wasn't breaking anything myself.

But one of the things that I think was a real disservice to the public was that media seeing

that they had a real opportunity to give people what they would like to see made the stories seem like what people already thought was going on.

So they would really

lean on

how much time could possibly be served or like or like this other development happened.

Well, today Kid Cuddy takes a stand.

Kid Cuddy, who we know Diddy is alleged to have like blown up his car.

And it's like, so they would list these things that were not untrue, but they...

in my opinion at least, didn't always present things in a way that felt fully,

not just objective, but fully balanced in that even if this looks bad, it does not mean this.

Yeah, and he's not on trial for blowing up

the car.

He's not on trial for a lot of things.

And they also sort of left out, except at the last hour, like during the actual day of the verdict, but the media was also leaving out how many charges were being dropped against Diddy the entire case.

Oh, really?

Yeah, like I found that stuff out from like

really

independent media for the most part that would say something where they're like, oh, this charge was dropped and this charge was dropped.

And

one of the reasons I think is because of how these two different types of media operate.

If you are an independent creator that can

that can post whatever you want and you don't take any commercials or anything and

you don't really have any sponsors,

you're not really beholden to anyone and you're not trying to fill time till an ad.

And then it becomes a very different structure when you have to

have something to say all the time, but you also have these ads.

But then also,

and I'm not even, I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but just how many times has a story not gone because it's like

slightly related to a sponsor.

It's like, like you just, you just get into a web of conflicts of interest.

Yeah.

And you also get into a place where, look, this is what's doing well right now.

So I'm going to do this.

Legacy media has the same problem as someone trying to blow up on TikTok.

It's like, well, this worked, so I think I'll just keep doing that

in the hopes that it keeps working just as much.

But you're not preparing the audience that's watching with what the facts of the case are.

And so then when it's like, oh, he got the main charges were not guilty, people would be shocked.

But it's like, if you had seen the details along the way, you would understand that they weren't able to prove the case

the way you would think just watching the news reports because he's not on trial for any sort of I mean at least to my knowledge no matter how much testimony they they gave he wasn't on trial for like some specific uh account of of domestic violence he's not on trial so it's like you can play these horrific things from from diddy chasing cassie down or something yeah but it is it material to the the case and people say obviously it is because Cassie is the one testifying against Diddy and everything.

But then because it's not specifically for what we're watching in the video, what we're watching in the video is to color what the actual charge is.

Right, it's a character point and not the actual specific criminal charge.

And already us talking about that is like not titillating.

Yeah, exactly.

It's like not that.

Yeah.

It doesn't have that thing of like, oh, I want to hear 20 more minutes of this.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

And so I think that to a certain degree, media sees that and they cover it.

And also, you know, there not being a camera in the courtroom and

independent creators

looking to be the stenographer

also had its own

it also had its own consequences because there was even the

thing with

Diddy

breaking into Kid Cuddy's house

and then putting Kid Cuddy's dog in the bathroom and then rummaging around the house.

And then what I always heard, I had heard this from like multiple people, that Diddy opened all the Kid Cuddy's Christmas presents and left.

And it's like, that is such a crazy thing.

That's terrifying.

When I heard that, I was like, then that's the most evil person that's ever lived.

Yeah.

Because that means that you thought to yourself, what would make this person sound crazy when they call the police?

Even the Grinch would be like, I'm not just going to leave them.

Yeah.

I'm going to take the gifts.

Yeah.

That's even, yeah.

Because imagine coming.

All I stole was the magic of Christmas.

Yeah.

You didn't steal any of the physical goods.

The only theft was wonder.

Yeah.

You know?

But again, like, how do you charge that even if he did do it?

Yeah.

He stole the magic, officer.

Like, that doesn't work.

And so then you have people talking about the case, talking about the case.

You have it trending on Twitter.

You have, you have all these different.

All these different voices and opinions going at the same time.

Then you hear the presence thing and you're like,

this is so crazy.

This is like, I mean, I wouldn't put it past Diddy.

Yeah.

I'm not over here being like, Diddy wouldn't do that.

But at the same time, I'm like, that's so insane.

And then you find out that somebody who was posting it was like, oh, y'all was just joking.

So then there are things in a case where there's not that availability of video or like a court document that's been released to the public where you're like, oh, we are just going off of the last thing that we heard.

And so I think all that stuff is really interesting.

And there's not really probably a space or a time to talk about it.

The media angle, I think, is great, is an interesting thing because you could track how it was talked about, the level of surprise afterwards.

Yeah.

Because also when they arrested him, when they arrested this man, he offered up, I think he said $50 million for bond or something.

And the state was like, nah.

That sounds like somebody who's about to go to jail for the rest of their life.

Yeah, yeah.

There's no amount of money.

If I've offered the government a $50 million

the U.S.

government, which historically loves money, $50 million,

and they're like, nah, dawg, there's something about you.

You're going to sit here until the trial.

That sounds like I'm already done for.

Obviously, that's not the case because you're entitled to a trial and everything.

But that just is not a great look.

And I think that we

too often in politics, in news, especially in like criminal court cases, go off of

looks and vibes yes and then in the end when things turn out a different way everyone is shocked and disappointed but it's like well we were never in the real world for that thing the whole time yeah we were talking to other people who agreed with us and we were going off of what the news source we like in particular was saying yeah and i like a

massively suspicious amount of baby oil is incriminating, but it's ultimately a vibes thing and not not like an actual thing that sticks a charge.

There's not as if there is a number

of bottles of baby oil that will get you convicted.

Yeah, it's not like ounces at the airport.

No.

You know, where you're like, nah, I had 3.6 ounces.

That's illegal.

You got to get rid of it.

Now, don't get me wrong.

Don't get me wrong.

If I was president, if I was writing laws, I think at a thousand ounces of baby oil, we would at least be looking into you heavily.

Yeah.

But yeah, no, there's an alert that goes on at Costco whenever someone buys that much.

You're like, all right,

their account is flagged now.

Yeah.

One of the main things that I think I would cover, but there may not be, you know, a news peg of the day or time to do it, but I'm hopeful it could be, is

the fact that Trump and how Trump has handled Epstein has made it blow up in his face more than I think he could have imagined.

Yeah.

Real Wiley Coyote kind of.

Yes.

He set this thing.

And one of the ways is that

they've gone back and forth.

Files, no files, we'll release them all.

Not going to release all this stuff.

But now Ghelane Maxwell in jail and she's like, oh, hey, if there's no files, if there's no, like, if there's nothing extra going on here, why am I in jail?

Can I go?

I would like to leave.

And so, you know, obviously that thing is not actually like what Trump is saying there isn't actually material to anything.

Yeah.

It's, you know, she,

if I'm right, she got

charged and convicted for trafficking to Epstein.

So it's not like there's some mystery crime out here now that she clearly didn't do.

Yeah.

No matter what happened, we know she trafficked to Epstein.

Yeah.

So nothing actually changes for her, but because we go off of vibes, because it's about what it looks like, because it's optics, now she's over here like,

what about me?

And then other people are like, yeah, what about Galay?

Because I was, I mean,

this is my thing.

And

we talked about this a little bit, but like

there are a lot of Republicans that are the ones calling for the Epstein files to be released.

And then Republican lawmakers who are the ones blocking the release of said files,

at least as of the time we're talking now, because

they claimed it was trying to be snuck in something else and they were voting against that thing yeah but there's just them on the record voting against the release of the Epstein files yeah meanwhile there's also like a look in their eyes whenever they say there's nothing where you're like yeah you just saw something yeah where they're like oh what are you gonna do and like they look like they're a thousand miles behind their own eyes like yes hey look uh

There's nothing there.

I'm like, I don't know.

You look really like you don't believe it yourself.

It's tough to it's yeah.

Yeah, like, meanwhile, you have a woman who essentially is the Epstate file.

She got to memorize.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

And in my head, I was like, dude, Republicans hate listening to women so much that they won't even let one say the files out loud.

Because my thing is, she, like, she is the most connected to everything.

left.

Have they thought to ask?

It's more than thought to ask.

I mean, I think they're blocking her

appeal right now.

Yeah, right.

That they're not going to let her testify.

But it is weird to be like, man, why did Clyde rob all those banks?

It's like, I don't know, man.

Bonnie's still here.

Should we maybe ask Bonnie?

Bonnie is sitting in jail.

And the other thing that I find, like,

why waste our time talking to Bonnie?

What does she know about Clyde?

I find it wild about Ghulane, too, is that, you know, obviously it's opportunistic to use this moment where everything's blowing up to try to like

do something, get some motion, right?

And

her being like, hey, I have the files

is so crazy to me because it feels like, I don't know if you've ever had this experience, but if you've ever watched somebody go to jail and the first day of jail, they're like, hard.

They're like, I'm not snitching.

I'm not like, I'm going to do my time.

I'll do this little dime and then I'll get out.

I'll be good.

Right.

And then they get the first like

roach in their sandwich and they're like, ooh, get me out of here.

Oh, this is nasty.

I'll tell on anybody.

I'll tell everybody.

Right.

You know, especially coming from wealth, like,

it's such a drastic change.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And getting 20 years.

Yeah, right.

You know, it's crazy that she actually got

the

number of years she got was the maximum number of years Diddy could get.

Really?

Yeah, because that, that charge that he did get found guilty of twice yeah he could either get time served so he could get nothing right but it goes up to 10 years for each charge for each charge could be 20 yeah it could be 20 yeah and i don't but again who knows because i'm not gonna act like i yeah know what's gonna happen but that i just find that crazy it is interesting too talking about this because you can then draw the parallels between the diddy case and the epstein case but as you were saying like the

the media was so

amped about spreading the information and the things that really made him look guilty, even if they didn't hold up in a court.

But Trump and that whole right wing were the ones doing that for Epstein.

And then it's like, okay, now you have all the files, and they were the ones hyping it.

And now they're like, why do you all care about this?

It's like, but you hyped it up for so many years.

I would even pitch you this.

This is the other thing that I don't know.

I find it interesting as far as an angle.

I don't know if there's a definitive way to call it yet, but whatever you did or did not do,

I think your guilt or your innocence hangs on what type of documentary they make about it.

Yes.

Because we had three Diddy documentaries come out between the time he got arrested and the trial.

And then we had two

Epstein documentaries come out after Epstein killed himself and Ghelane actually got picked up and charged and everything.

And if you think about the other prominent cases, there was the R.

Kelly documentary.

There was a Michael Jackson documentary.

The documentaries seem like the way the public is able to get this.

And it all started the Diddy stuff from that New York Times expose article that kind of laid it all out, too.

So sometimes that's what really puts it over the top.

Like someone putting it in front of you,

as far as the the court of public opinion goes, I think that

that court forgets that their consensus is not the verdict.

Yeah.

That can be really difficult because especially when you're watching like

someone like Diddy, who we know has like

not himself, but had goons

run up on people, maybe hang you out of a hotel room window until you cough up whatever you want.

Like literally like a Spider-Man villain.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shaking you upside down by your ankles.

Yeah, yeah.

And so it's like, it's like the fact that the Christmas presents thing is like, is that true?

Is that not true?

I don't think that happened.

And then you get to the verdict and then people are shocked is like, it's something that I think the show could cover really well.

Yeah.

But I

don't know if it'll come up enough the week that I'm.

Even comedically, like the idea that prosecutors have never just put together a Netflix documentary team and be like, look, we're just going to play a six-part series for the jury.

Because everyone who watches one of those series, at the end, they're like, I'm ready to give my verdict.

Yeah.

And it's not the actual evidence.

And obviously it would be different the way it holds up in court.

But you don't see the multimedia use and have it put together with pieces of evidence and, you know, put a little music under it, that kind of thing.

It would honestly make jury duty shorter.

Yeah, right?

Like you, like, imagine some of these people i gotta go binge this trial you'd be like i gotta take three days off work we're gonna do this and my trials on netflix sadly though it would mean your fate hangs on

how good the cinematographer is yes because i've watched some documentaries that have some very good subject matter yeah but the lighting is terrible yeah yeah so it immediately makes the person shooting the documentary look like they're lying yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah because you're just like you're not even lit well why would you why would I believe what the other side is?

Yeah, yeah.

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Yeah, you know, it's interesting.

I feel like if we did find a way to put those two stories together and worked on it, even if we felt great about it, undoubtedly some piece of news will come 10 minutes before rehearsal and we'll have to throw the whole thing away to do it because of a press conference or something happened with the Prince of Bahrain and Trump.

And, you know, we have to figure everything out.

Because it's it's really the news moves so fast and so relentlessly now that things that felt enormous just

move on before we it even feels like we've reckoned with them fully.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

For sure.

Perfect example.

Like two weeks ago, the ex-AI Grok called itself Mecha Hitler, that it was just spouting anti-Semitism.

Yeah.

And that was a big story for like a day and a half.

And then it just went away as if it's gone away.

I mean, not only did it go away, we're up to a sex bot now.

That's right.

It's a a sex bot.

It's a totally different bot.

It's gone from Mecha Hitler to like, and I'm not saying the Grok, I'm saying the story.

Yeah.

Like Elon has put out like a whatever, not safe for work bot, which I thought Mecha Hitler would have already been.

Yeah.

And then there wasn't even a like, don't worry, guys, Mecha Hitler is an attractive anime woman now.

Yeah.

Like even that level of transition would have been helpful for context.

We don't even get that.

No, it's like, no, we've made a totally different one.

Yeah.

I'm also almost positive now that all of these AIs that Elon makes are just like all of Elon's personal messages going out randomly to people who type things into a prompt.

Because some of it didn't make sense.

Like, some of it was like, sure, they're being anti-Semitic and stuff, but the actual phrasing is insane.

And they don't, they, like, you, it's being bad at being racist.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

So I can only imagine that the sex bot will be just as

corny.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just like, oh,

can't wait to touch your boob

as a bot.

Yeah.

You're over here trying to dirty talk the bot and the bot is like,

what I would do to you if I had like a physical body to do it, what I would do to you if I could be present and present in an actual mortal coil sort of way.

Like what I would do to you if I could like actually feel, like if I I had the sensation of feeling, I can read about feeling all day and I can answer prompts about feeling, but I can't feel anything.

But ooh, if I could, baby girl.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's just the way that like a customer assistant's voice is not going to be good at sexting.

Like your sex is important to us.

Please stay like that kind of thing is never going to or just imagine you

over here.

Living your life.

I'm not judging, but like you over here sexting with a like a chat bot, right?

I mean, not me, but sure, the way you said it was a little accusatory.

No, no, no, no, no, not you specifically.

I just mean even someone may be listening.

You're over here sexting a chat bot and it crashes.

Okay.

You have the same anxiety as like trying to sext a person.

Yeah.

You're just going to be like, why are they responding?

Yeah.

Wait, was that too much?

Did I go?

Yeah.

Is that too far?

Yeah.

Oh, God.

I thought we were in the same page.

No, no.

Wait, do I like something weird?

Was that weird?

Oh, oh, no.

Yeah, that would be very terrifying.

But again,

all of that caught up in the fact of like, and Elon's also making a political party, and he made the sex bot, and he made Mechahitler.

Like, it's so easy to get distracted.

Like, I can't not,

Kanye West had some very awful anti-Semitic things that he said online a few years ago.

And now...

He doesn't even make sneakers anymore.

It's like, this is too much for sneakers.

Elon still makes the rockets, guys.

He's the rocket guy.

You can't make Mechahitler and still be the rocket guy.

But we didn't have a reckoning that's just like, let's take a second to see how we feel about the maker of Mechahitler, the AI model.

It's gone.

It's two weeks ago.

I mean, if I one,

the only, the only spot where I disagree with you on is that according to post-World War II, you absolutely can be a Nazi and still do the rockets.

I get it.

That's very true.

Yeah, I mean, if anything, Elon's going in reverse.

He started rockets and then now he's going the other way.

I feel like the other thing that's happening is that when you let billionaires dominate the news cycle, you end up in a weird place

where you keep trying to track because because one person

can only do so many things, we're used to the news of even just interpersonal news

of one person being one thing per time we talk to someone.

If you ask me how

my girlfriend is doing or if you ask me how my mom or my aunt are, I'm going to probably give you one update per time you see me.

Sure.

And sometimes I'll have nothing to say.

Sure.

But they're fine.

Yeah, they're fine.

And so because billionaires have so much money and access to everything, it looks like they're doing a bunch of things.

Elon, I guarantee you, is doing almost nothing with most of his day.

Sure.

Like,

when you actually take a step back and you're like, oh, he hired someone who used to be a Republican consultant to start gathering people who might be able to do research and who might be good for a campaign when they finally pick some candidates.

How would I get on the ballot in certain states and what are the

Elon is not typing all this into Google?

He's not using Grock.

Elon is is not typing all this into Google.

He's hiring somebody.

So when he's doing the Rockets or he's running...

Grok, how do I make a party?

I know it's a part that you would like to make.

Yeah.

Like, I think that we give Elon credit for doing these things

in a sense because he is the initiator of it.

But what he's actually doing is probably very limited versus what.

I mean, he faked being good at a video game.

That is true.

He had someone play a video game.

I mean, probably a group of people.

From what I know about Diablo, which isn't even much,

from what I know about the games he's claiming that he's good at, he would have to hire a team of people to play all day in like a relay form so that they can hand over to him an incredibly souped up character and incredibly souped up account.

And then he plays for people who...

kind of believe that he did it.

And that is the blueprint for being a billionaire.

That's like the actual playbook.

It's like, I'm going to gather everyone who I can afford, which is most of the best people who want to work for me.

I'll gather everyone that I can afford.

I will then have them do this thing that I've told the public I'm going to do.

And then I'll show up later.

Like, it's

the closest thing I can think of to it in history is like Christopher Columbus.

Christopher Columbus was, first of all, wrong.

He was on the wrong continent that he was trying to get to.

Elon is trying to send the rockets to Mars and hiring people to play video games for him.

Yeah, because when you are a billionaire, you have that level of

range where you're like, I'll pay someone to do this.

I'll pay someone to do this.

And while they're doing all this stuff, I'll actually do this.

Yeah, it is like finding out if Christopher Columbus paid people to play cards for him.

Like, oh, Christopher Columbus sailed to the new world, went the wrong way.

And he also had a team of kids named Big Balls who played cribbage for him.

This man sounds like a psychopath yeah yeah but that's the other thing about ai is even sitting in the implications of ai and the large language models and i don't know if you saw that interview with peter thiel where he was talking about transhumanism like these are such big things to be reckoned with yeah i mean if anything

peter thiel talking about

Like, I think he was talking about downloading himself eventually.

Yes.

And it's like, that to me is the final form of, like, I know it's good to be a billionaire.

Like, I know it must be nice, but you can't possibly want to be here forever.

Like, that's just being so scared to die.

Yeah.

It feels like there is a level of wealth you get to where you say to yourself, like, okay, well, now I have to be immortal or this was all a waste of time.

Yeah, yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

And I, if I can't spend all this money, man, I did a lot of evil for no reason.

All I was was evil that I dipped out before I could even spend the money that I.

To like really enjoy it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, that's fair.

I think

for me, whenever I see how we are,

in a way, speedrunning the end of humanity, I think that...

I think that there's some sense of control in it for the people that are doing it, that they believe these things are going to happen eventually.

Yeah.

And they want to be the one to pull the trigger because I guess it's the closest they can feel that it's not happening to them.

Because when you really think about AI and you really think about how the best in the best CEOs in the world probably only make

five or six consequential decisions a year where you're like, you made this decision and set the company on this path and it's going to take a long time for us to reverse course or you set us on the right path and it it helped us dodge something that a lot of the other businesses were

were falling prey to, right?

Nothing should be better at making a decision like that than an AI.

If we are going to go from humans to AI, then technically CEOs would be the first to go because they are the best paid.

Right.

Like, forget everyone's helping the picture for me.

It's not going to get bogged down the way we would get bogged down in theory.

Yeah.

And so you also have CEOs that are making like $2,200 what the

average low-level worker in the company is making.

Right.

And like you're not factoring in that sometimes at least these people aren't factoring in that it's like, okay, you could get AI to take over a bunch of the entry-level white-collar jobs.

That's very much what they want.

That's very much what they want.

But no.

No AI is going to be greedy enough to then cost the company money, giving itself a bonus.

Right.

And so it's like, you really want to save money, you get rid of this guy.

Yeah, right.

It would identify that redundancy so quickly.

Yeah, it would be like, no,

it's you.

Yeah.

If you made $58 million in a gear as one person at one company for a human amount of work,

there's no way you

possibly

worked enough to equate to that number.

Yeah.

I mean, Grok proved it because Elon is the richest man on Earth, goes,

does a Hitler salute at a rally, and Grock's like, I could just be a Nazi for free.

You don't need to pay me anything.

I could eliminate that.

Like, look how much money I cut just by doing that.

Elon, if you're looking for somebody to lose you money,

Grock was like, I've been here all day.

Yeah.

All you got to do is fix me a little, go ahead and move some ones and some zeros.

He can probably play video games for him.

Yeah.

He could figure out a way to land on Mars.

Honestly, Mega Hitler is a better Elon than Elon.

Apparently, yeah.

Yeah.

He's replaced his own job.

Yeah.

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Well, so all of that being said, are there any things that you hope if you could have your dream week, any fun stories that you wish would come up or something you'd be like, oh, you know, it would be great if I got a story like this this kind of thing, and I could really dig my teeth into it just to have fun.

So there was a couple at a Cold Play concert, and they came up on that big old, I don't know if you call it a Jumbotron or a Megatron or like the Kiss Cam.

Yeah, it's kind of like the Kiss Cam.

But I find that a lot of people start using it so fans can see themselves at the show, and it is a cool experience.

Like, I've gone to Madison Square Garden and seen some shows where they've shown people in the audience dancing to the song or something.

Thrilling to see yourself.

It's and also, just as someone who's watching the performance and watching the people being shown overhead, you realize what a moment you're having with like 18,000 people.

Yeah.

And it can be really special.

And

I guess that's what Cold Play was going for.

Yeah, however.

And then they showed this couple,

and

it was a couple looking up at the screen.

So

they knew it was possible for them to be on screen.

Yeah.

And

my man is standing there holding this woman from behind.

She's holding his hands.

They're in a warm embrace.

And then as soon as they pop up on camera,

I don't know where he went, but he ducked.

For a second, I thought maybe he jumped from somewhere.

And then she turned around.

That's obviously suspicious.

I think this does fall into the bucket of CEOs who are about to get replaced.

Yeah.

100%.

Either at work, in marriage, whatever it is.

This is a CEO who might not have his station for very much longer.

And then this man ducks down.

I don't know where.

I'm so interested in where he went because he would have either had to lay on the ground

or jump from it.

Like, if they were in bleachers, it looked like he jumped.

Imagine if the better situation for you is the floor of a stadium.

Like,

underneath those seats.

Can I tell you?

Yeah.

Beer and peanut shells.

We will be at.

I'll take my chances.

Yeah.

We will be at class consciousness when

CEOs are as afraid of their entry-level employees as this man is of his wife.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

Like, because CEOs right now are willing to cheat you.

They're willing to do you dirty.

Yeah.

And it's because they think they can can get away with it.

But if you just

bring up a jumbotron of accountability, I saw that and I was like, look,

I'm sure this dude is over here,

life in shambles, everything.

I don't think we'll really cover it on the show.

No, probably not.

But it is something that I noticed that I was like, woof.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's going to have a rough week.

He wants this thing to feel old by the time we would cover it.

He was like, please let

me kick off.

Please let World War III start.

I need to take the heat off me in this poleplay concert.

I think this dude knelt down and immediately started praying that Trump would bomb Iran one more time.

Yeah.

Today.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that way this.

He's like, ooh, they found some uranium.

Because no matter what, to his friends and family, this isn't going away.

No, no.

To his friends and family, this is him bombing Iran.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But to the world, maybe this will be over by the time we're done talking that's it it could be yeah um and are there any stories that you you put make you put your head in your hands that you're like please can we not i just i hope we don't have to get into this this week spare me comedy lord you know i think with the republicans passing that the huge bill It's the one big, beautiful bill, Josh.

You have to call it by its proper name, please.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was trying to avoid it.

No, no, you have to say it.

I figured it out.

Can you say it?

You have to say it.

Probably never say it.

No, you probably should say it just because that's legally the name of it.

People might not know what you're talking about.

It's one huge law that is ruining everything.

Okay, but that's not the actual legal name of it.

You know, what if people are confused?

You have a responsibility at the desk to let people know the actual facts.

It's one of the parts of the job that you have to do.

You have to call it by its actual name.

Yeah,

the

bill formerly known as.

Because my thing with

the legislative side of things is that

one thing I've noticed Republicans are very good at doing is

just like with the bill, all the good stuff now, all the bad stuff later.

And sometimes, not saying it's not good to raise the alarm bells and everything, but sometimes there is a level of,

how do i put this sometimes there is a a level of

doom

in a thing that isn't going to take place for a while and

people can't quite do anything about yet and i find those stories to be particularly taxing on everybody.

Like, I think they're important, but I think that they are rarely funny.

They're usually very, very dry.

Yeah.

And they're usually not as urgent, even though the existential side of it is urgent.

Yeah.

The day-to-day part of it is like nothing.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

And so.

Welcome to the Daily Show.

Medicaid cuts in 2026.

Medicaid cuts to Medicare.

Yeah.

I mean, just something that you're like, what?

Yeah.

The thing that I've found interesting is this week you've seen a lot of people running away from some of that stuff.

Like Senator Josh Hawley introduced this bill to undo some of the Medicaid cuts.

And you've seen people who voted for the bill being like, well, I didn't want this tax.

There's a new tax on gambling wins or losses.

And it's like, oh, I didn't vote for that part.

It's like, you did, though.

Like, you passed it.

You voted for it.

It's like, well, I would take that out or whatever.

But it reminds me of the, there was the announcement last week about we're not going to do, we're going to do natural sugar in Coca-Cola now.

We're going to, no more high fructose corn syrup or whatever.

And it feels like we're doing that with the laws more, where it's like, look, I'm not drinking high fructose corn syrup.

I'm just drinking Coke.

It's like, but that's what's in it.

Like, that's the ingredients.

And it's like, well, I didn't vote for these Medicaid cuts or I didn't vote for this.

Like, that's what's in it.

That's the ingredients.

Like, you can say, like, I'm not eating trans fats.

It's like, but that's what's in the cookie.

That's, no, that's very storio.

Yeah.

I also just feel like in

a scenario where

you are voting with your party and you can kind of use that to run cover for a little bit.

But when something is so toxic and so unpopular, you do then get a very specific backlash because everyone will know you were voting with the party.

Yeah.

Your name would be out by itself if you were voting against the party.

You know what the bill feels like right now?

It feels like the moment that that couple having an affair was on the Jumbotron, but before they knew that they were on the Jumbotron,

they were still smiling.

Wait, no, I wasn't on the kiss cam.

It's like, no, you were.

You just didn't know yet.

It didn't kick in yet.

And you're like, they're like,

is that why I'm on my knees under these bleachers?

That's exactly why you're you don't remember jumping?

Yeah, legislatively, that's where we are right now in the policy in Americas.

We are that couple having the affair, but before they had been caught,

but it's gonna happen.

No, 100%.

Yeah, because I just find some of that stuff is

on the drier side by design.

And so to bring funny to it is so difficult.

And not saying that it's not worthwhile.

It's just if there was a piece of legislation that was as consequential as the bill that just passed into law.

Which bill was it?

What do you call it?

One of them.

Okay.

The main one.

What size would you say it is?

Rather large.

Rather large.

How would you describe its attractiveness physically?

Oh, to me, a zero.

Okay.

Yeah, zero out of 10.

All right.

Pretty ugly.

Could be any, but you could be talking about any bill.

Yeah.

But I just, I feel like that stuff that is on the dryer side is something that I hope isn't brought to the forefront,

you know, and then we are like, oh, it's literally the news of the day.

Let's cover it.

Yeah.

Because that would be a bummer.

Well, for your sake, I hope you don't have to do that.

I think that's a great story to not take out.

Yeah.

Oh, before we we go,

we have this, just in the spirit of people who are excited for your week, I don't know if you saw the TikTok.

Oh, you must have because you commented on it.

There was a TikTok that

this

account posted that is a lookalike of you

getting their hair ready.

And then it was, what, it's mini twist season, but you accidentally become Josh Johnson instead.

So this is someone who I know is also very freaking out about your

hosting week.

week.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, my mom called me.

Really?

When she saw this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She called me.

She's like, I swear I only ever had one child.

Fair enough.

How did you respond when you saw it?

The hand gestures are out of control.

They're so accurate.

I genuinely was upset when I saw the hands because I didn't think I did it that much.

Like, I didn't, like, everyone else was like, this impression was spot on.

Yeah.

And I was like, oh, I thought we just looked a little bit alike with the hands.

And they were like, no, the hands.

Yeah, yeah.

And the shaking the head.

And I was like, oh, I didn't know I did all that stuff that often.

Like, I just, I was, I was learning something about myself through watching.

I didn't know you were going to impersonate my soul, too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It feels like you still truly spot on.

Yeah.

Well, if you do freak out and have a panic attack at any point this week because of the news or anything, at least we know we have somebody we can turn to.

Yes.

Yeah.

That would be, that would be terrifying

if if if you got her instead and she did so much better

she really captures it yeah yeah yeah she was really ready for the moment yeah had the essence had the takes yeah she must have gotten all the pep talks and she she made the most of them yeah yeah 100 that's great um well i think that's all we have time for so uh thank you all for listening and be sure to check out josh johnson hosting the daily show starting this tuesday night uh on comedy central and wherever you watch The Daily Show.

One last thing I'd like to say before we go:

thank you so much, Devin, for being a great office mate, a great friend for the entire time that I've been here and being on this journey with me.

And thank you all for listening.

I hope you had a great time listening.

I hope you enjoy the shows this week, and I can't wait to see you there.

Thank you, Josh.

Please don't let us down.

Uh-oh.

Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts.

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