Trump Targets Fed Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Who Says, “Come at Me, B*tch!” | Reggie Watts

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Speaker 6 You're listening to Comedy Central.

Speaker 5 From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central. It's America's only source for news.
This is the Daily Show with your host, Jordan Clepper.

Speaker 5 Welcome to the Daily Show. I'm Jordan Clever.
We got so much to talk about tonight. Interest rates finally get interesting.

Speaker 5 The Fed does some redecorating, and New York Cabbies learn the number one place to go number two. But

Speaker 5 first, if there's one thing Trump loves, it's a fight. So let's meet his latest opponent in our ongoing segment, Commander in Beef.

Speaker 5 I'm going to hit that back, and if I give him a whack, I think I can take this guy in, I fight the crap out of him. But would you like to punch him in the face? Oh.

Speaker 5 We all know President Trump has spent the last two weeks in a wrestling match with the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein, but

Speaker 5 he's been fighting the last six months with a much more alive person, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. And boy, does Trump hate the guy.
Jerome Powell has done a terrible job.

Speaker 5 And frankly, I don't think he could do a worse job.

Speaker 9 We have a stupid person, frankly, at the Fed. He's an average mentally person.
I'd say low in terms of what he does, low.

Speaker 9 Low IQ for what he does, okay?

Speaker 1 But this,

Speaker 9 you know, numbskull, he's a numbskull.

Speaker 5 I think he's a total stiff. You talk to the guy, it's like talking to nothings.
It's like talking to a chair.

Speaker 5 No personality.

Speaker 5 Yeah,

Speaker 5 yeah,

Speaker 5 yeah, you know, whatever happened to all of our exciting, dynamic Federal Reserve chairs

Speaker 5 Who doesn't remember Fed chairman Dirks McGuinty, huh?

Speaker 5 Did he crash the economy? Yes, but that guy was radical

Speaker 5 Now you may be wondering what Jerome Powell ever did to make Trump so angry. I mean the way Trump talks about him you'd you'd think they caught him at a Cold Play concert with Trump's wife

Speaker 5 At its heart, this is a beef about economics.

Speaker 5 Trump wants to lower interest rates to help juice the economy, but Jerome Powell is in charge of setting those interest rates, and he refuses to lower them because he's worried that will increase inflation.

Speaker 5 And nothing, nothing makes Trump angrier than someone doing their job well.

Speaker 9 We should have cut interest rates a long time ago. Europe has cut them ten times in the short period of time, and we cut them none.

Speaker 9 The only time he cut them was just before the election to try and help Kamala or Biden, whoever the hell it was, because nobody really knew. How did that work out? You'll tell me.

Speaker 9 It didn't work out too well, did it?

Speaker 5 By the way, if you're wondering what this guy has to do with any of this,

Speaker 5 I'll tell you nothing.

Speaker 5 That's the crown prince of Bahrain.

Speaker 5 He flew across the planet to talk about peace in the Middle East, and now he just has to sit there while Trump works himself up over some personal shit.

Speaker 5 It's like when you were at your friend's house for dinner and get dragged into their parents' fights.

Speaker 5 Oh, oh, you know what? Let's ask Timmy. Timmy, is four beers a normal amount to drink at breakfast? Tell him, tell Mr.
Patterson, tell Mr.

Speaker 11 Patterson.

Speaker 5 But yeah, sorry, Your Highness. It doesn't matter what you were here for.
Just buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Speaker 9 He's a terrible, he's a terrible Fed chief. I was surprised he was appointed.
I was surprised, frankly, that

Speaker 8 Biden put him in.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 5 Yeah, why did Joe Biden put Jerome Powell in? Let's go back to when Joe Biden appointed Jerome Powell and see what Joe Biden said about him.

Speaker 1 It is my pleasure and my honor to announce my nomination of Jerome Powell to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. He's strong, he's committed, he's smart.

Speaker 5 Damn.

Speaker 5 Man, Joe Biden looks fat as shit.

Speaker 5 Hey, I get it. I'm I'm also trying desperately to forget everything that happened during Trump's first term.
So,

Speaker 5 now you might be wondering: if Trump hates this guy so much, why doesn't he just fire him? Well, he's been threatening to pretty much non-stop ever since he won the election.

Speaker 5 But you tell me if Powell seems phased by it.

Speaker 3 Some of the president's elects advisors have suggested that you should resign. If he asked you to leave, would you go?

Speaker 5 No.

Speaker 5 Can you follow up on his?

Speaker 3 Do you think that legally

Speaker 3 you're not required to leave?

Speaker 13 No.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 5 You don't want to spin it? Do a little

Speaker 5 grandstanding. You know? The camera's on.
Give it a little wrestle-dazzle, big day. Come on.

Speaker 5 But no, no. Jerome Powell truly does not give a about Trump's threats.

Speaker 6 To follow up on Victoria's question, do you believe that the president has the power to fire or demote you?

Speaker 13 Not permitted under the law.

Speaker 5 Not what?

Speaker 13 Not permitted under the law.

Speaker 13 Wow.

Speaker 13 He actually

Speaker 5 went on to add, try me, bitch.

Speaker 5 Although, you know, just one more quick follow-up, Chairman Powell. Do you think I can pull off Gene shorts?

Speaker 13 Not permitted under the law.

Speaker 5 Harsh but fair. But Powell is right.
The president can't actually fire him.

Speaker 5 The position of Fed chairman was designed to be independent from the president to ensure that his decisions will be made free of political pressure. But Trump thinks he found a loophole.

Speaker 3 Yesterday, the president suggested a caveat that he could remove Chairman Powell if there is cause. He has accused Powell of fraud related to the Fed's multi-year $2 billion renovation project.

Speaker 5 He's spending $2.5 billion to...

Speaker 9 to I guess it's a renovation. I don't know.

Speaker 5 The one thing I didn't see him is a guy that needed a a palace to live in.

Speaker 9 And now on top of it, he's building a close to $3 billion

Speaker 9 little nest egg for himself. He's doing a little renovation for $2.5 billion of the Fed.

Speaker 5 Yes, I've been here this entire time.

Speaker 5 By the way, it's crazy to hear Trump complain about the Federal Reserve Palace while he's sitting in his gold-bedazzled office. Man, that Jerome Powell sure is extravagant.
Don't you agree?

Speaker 5 Gold-plated eagle holding up a marble end table?

Speaker 5 But on the other hand, Trump's smear campaign is having an effect. Some of these charges of extravagant spending got to the point where Powell had to deny them under oath.

Speaker 13 The media reports that you accurately quoted, they're misleading and inaccurate in many, many respects.

Speaker 13 There's no new marble, they're no special elevators, there are no no new water features, there's no beehives.

Speaker 5 What?

Speaker 5 No beehives, not even one? Well, now I'm worried Jerome Powell isn't spending enough on the renovations. How can I trust a Fed chairman who isn't licking honey off his fist like Winnie the Pooh?

Speaker 5 It seems like they're now trying to make the renovation sound as shitty as possible. No water feature, no special elevators, and worst of all, they're dismantling the skate park for Dirks McGuinty.

Speaker 5 For more on the future of Chairman Jerome Powell, let's go live to the Federal Reserve with Desi Lydick.

Speaker 5 You know,

Speaker 5 that is a big renovation. Desi, what would the ramifications be for Trump trying to fire Powell?

Speaker 14 Great question, Jordan. Firing Powell would destabilize the U.S.
economy, and the markets would be absolutely shaken.

Speaker 14 And there's only one way, and I mean one way to protect your finances if that happens before the market crashes you gotta take all the money out of your savings account reach out

Speaker 5 it's hard to hear you it's hard to hear you over the renovation noise no Jordan it's the renovation noise I know it's the renovation noise I can't hear you can you tell can you tell them to stop people need to hear this hey hey hey hey hey Doug can you just do something else for a bit

Speaker 5 great

Speaker 5 Thank you. Awesome.
Great, great. Okay, okay, perfect.

Speaker 5 You are about to say what Americans need to do.

Speaker 14 Yes, I cannot stress this enough, how vital it is for people to take action before it's too late by moving

Speaker 5 all of their money from any dollar holding because the bond market

Speaker 5 doesn't get it. Yeah, what is that?

Speaker 15 Treasury bonds, Jordan. The government sells them.

Speaker 5 I can't hear you. What?

Speaker 5 You have to figure it out.

Speaker 5 You wouldn't understand because you're not a real man.

Speaker 14 Sorry. I'm sorry.
That was embarrassing. I meant to say that you wouldn't understand the tools that they're using here because you're not a real man.

Speaker 5 I got you. Thank you.

Speaker 5 Can you go back to the very important thing we have to understand?

Speaker 14 Oh, yes, yes. Actually, maybe a visual aid will help.
This is very, very important. So please memorize this chart, okay? This is the key to the whole thing here.
Wait, no,

Speaker 14 what are you doing?

Speaker 15 No, that's not trash. God, God, damn it.

Speaker 5 Zezzi, look,

Speaker 5 the noise has stopped. Just tell us.
Tell us. Okay, okay.

Speaker 14 So here it is. The bond market is the one place.

Speaker 5 Damn it.

Speaker 5 Damn it. God, guys, take a fing break.
Take a break.

Speaker 14 Great, they're gonna take a break. Um,

Speaker 14 as I was saying, monetarily speaking, the bond market is not

Speaker 14 reacting

Speaker 5 to rate cuts.

Speaker 5 I don't think this is working. You know, maybe we'll just check back in in a few minutes.

Speaker 5 You know what? That's a break.

Speaker 5 Go! Go! Okay, okay, okay, let me make this really.

Speaker 5 What is going on now?

Speaker 5 Wait, that's not coming from here. Is that a shitty old car alarm?

Speaker 5 Oh my god. That's my Mitsubishi eclipse.
I illegally parked in a handicapped spot. I think they're joining my car.
Sorry, I gotta go. Design Lydic, everyone.
Come on.

Speaker 5 When we come back, we find out how to go to the bathroom in a taxicab. Don't go away.

Speaker 5 Welcome back to the Daily Show. There are a lot of things about New York City that it's best not to think too much about.
Well, our own Josh Johnson thought about one of them.

Speaker 16 For over a century, taxi cabs have been a steadfast mode of transportation in New York City. Unless you wanted to leave Manhattan.

Speaker 16 Cabs and their drivers are an integral part of making this city work for its people. But did you know that cab drivers are also people?

Speaker 16 And right now they're facing a crisis that could threaten the entire system.

Speaker 16 Meet Fernando Mateo, founder of the New York Federation of Taxi Drivers, who says cab drivers are facing severe discrimination.

Speaker 5 Most people that work in buildings or in offices have access to a poop room. except for a cab driver.
His office is his car. He can't poop in his car.

Speaker 16 Okay, I mean, it works for the train, but fair enough. So why specifically are you concerned about taxi drivers being able to poop when everybody poops?

Speaker 6 I read that in a book.

Speaker 5 Well, a couple days ago. Well, remember, there are 200,000 cab drivers in New York City.

Speaker 10 That's a lot of ass.

Speaker 5 It's a lot of ass, a lot of prostate, a lot of everything. And New York City has no parking spots.
where drivers can park and go to a bathroom.

Speaker 5 They have to double park and the city will issue you a ticket. It's unbelievable to take a pee costs you $115.

Speaker 5 That's your entire day's pay.

Speaker 16 $115?

Speaker 5 For a P? How much would a poop cost, my 401k?

Speaker 16 Sorry, one second.

Speaker 13 I can do better.

Speaker 16 Is this bathroom issue really that much of a problem? Don't we all just poop every third Friday of the month? I put four of New York City's top waste-producing cab drivers on the clock to find out.

Speaker 16 Why is going to the bathroom such an issue for taxi drivers? I mean, is that why Robert De Niro is so angry in the movie?

Speaker 5 How could be?

Speaker 6 We don't have designated places where we could park and be able to relieve ourselves.

Speaker 12 It gets to the point that you cannot hold it.

Speaker 16 And why can't you hold it? Is it because you're drinking all those free water bottles full of yellow Gatorade on the street all the time?

Speaker 6 It's not Gatorade.

Speaker 5 That's the piss.

Speaker 8 Driver's piss?

Speaker 5 Urine.

Speaker 12 On my car, I had tinted windows in the back.

Speaker 5 Yep.

Speaker 12 So I always have an extra carp, you know, so I park, go to the back seat, and kneel, you know, and just do my thing.

Speaker 5 But surely these drivers couldn't boo-boo in bottles, right? Right?

Speaker 3 So where do they actually access a poop room?

Speaker 8 It's definitely the public parks.

Speaker 3 I usually use mostly fast food places.

Speaker 6 I go to the emergency hospitals.

Speaker 10 Wait, so you go to urgent care.

Speaker 5 Yes, that's right.

Speaker 16 So would you classify your dumps as a medical event?

Speaker 12 Of course. For number two, there's a place that they've owned me for years, decades there.
It's the UN Plaza Hotel. But for number one, anywhere.

Speaker 5 I just

Speaker 10 create.

Speaker 16 You're basically telling me you're an artist.

Speaker 6 Yes.

Speaker 16 Perhaps the only way to fully understand the scope of the matter was to experience it firsthand. So I decided to join this artist in the studio.

Speaker 6 And in solidarity, I haven't peed all day.

Speaker 8 So

Speaker 6 you got to go yet? Not yet.

Speaker 16 Me neither. No, that'd be crazy if I had to go immediately.

Speaker 16 Let me ask you something. You ever racially profiling any passengers?

Speaker 12 Not anymore because I don't carry cash.

Speaker 5 All right, yeah. What an honest answer.

Speaker 16 Okay, let's say you're taking somebody to the Empire State Building. That's your fare, right? But you had a seven-layer dip for lunch.
Where's the best place to poop between here and there?

Speaker 12 44th Street.

Speaker 12 That's the UN Plaza Hotel.

Speaker 5 Oh, okay.

Speaker 16 You really have centered a lot of this lifestyle around the UN Plaza Hotel.

Speaker 5 Oh, yes.

Speaker 16 So on scale 1 to 10, how bad you got to go?

Speaker 5 Right now, I'm at

Speaker 12 3.

Speaker 16 It became clear that this issue was deathly serious, and I needed to take drastic steps to address it.

Speaker 5 Try to avoid potholes.

Speaker 16 Watch the turn. Watch the turn.

Speaker 5 Now I see things.

Speaker 5 Man,

Speaker 3 made all the way to keep chugging.

Speaker 16 Not having access to a bathroom for a full 27 minutes really highlighted the severity of the problem. Luckily, Fernando has a solution.
His big idea?

Speaker 5 Placards. We could give the drivers placards that allow them to park without getting a ticket for a 10-minute pee or poop break.

Speaker 16 10 minutes. Do you think 10 minutes is enough?

Speaker 6 I mean, what if you got like a squeezer?

Speaker 16 Like you trying to throttle it out, but the demon trying to cling on. You know what I mean? Or it's a dangler.
You ever had one of them once where you ready to stand up?

Speaker 16 And then you look down, you got a tail.

Speaker 5 No.

Speaker 5 Drivers are focused on making money. If they're not on the road, they're not making money.

Speaker 16 Bathroom placards for cab drivers are a pretty good solution. So I decided to make Fernando a subtle, tasteful prototype.
All right, look at that.

Speaker 5 Blat-ow.

Speaker 16 Look at that. You can see right here, we got the boom, boom, boom.
So they know you mean business.

Speaker 5 That's a nice design. I like it.

Speaker 16 Look at him. My man looking relaxed.
He's not getting a ticket today.

Speaker 5 Problem solved.

Speaker 16 Sure, these aren't exactly street legal, but anything to give our cabby friends some relief.

Speaker 5 Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 5 Wait, he's just pooping. Hey, he's just pooping.

Speaker 5 Thank you, Josh. We'll come back.
Reggie Wash will be joining me on the show. Don't go away.

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Speaker 10 Welcome back to the Daily Show.

Speaker 5 My guest tonight is a comedian and musician who is currently on tour with upcoming dates in Europe and the U.S. Please welcome Reggie Watts.

Speaker 5 Reggie, you were band leader at the Late Late Show for eight years. That's true.
Welcome back to Late Night. Thank you.
Yes.

Speaker 11 It's good to be back.

Speaker 5 It feels good. It feels good.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 How did it,

Speaker 5 do you miss? Do you miss the regularity, the day in, the day out?

Speaker 5 America.

Speaker 6 You know, no,

Speaker 6 I mean, you know, it's funny. It's like,

Speaker 6 it was like such, it's such a part of your life.

Speaker 6 It's just a thing that's constant. And it also almost becomes like so constant that you don't feel time at all.
So then when it stops, it just takes a while to even get used to it not being around.

Speaker 6 It's crazy.

Speaker 6 But when I come back, this is like another show that I've been on, you know, similar kind of vibes. Like, it's so familiar to me.
So it's actually very comforting.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 5 This feels, you're really, you're really casual right now. Yeah.
I mean,

Speaker 5 ish.

Speaker 6 I mean, I definitely was nervous to come on the the show because I regard this show very, very highly.

Speaker 5 Why?

Speaker 6 Because I'm paid to say that.

Speaker 5 That's okay, good. Okay.
Yeah, I was going to say that our finances are going to the right place.

Speaker 5 You're a man of many talents, but you're on the road right now. You're doing stand-up, correct? Yes.
Stand-up maybe is, would you call it stand-up?

Speaker 6 I mean, yeah. I mean, I call it like a comedy show.
Yes. Comedy show.

Speaker 5 You got to come up with better brands. I know.

Speaker 11 Come to my comedy show.

Speaker 5 My comedy shows. Take it.
There'll be comedy. Well, you do a lot of different things on your show.

Speaker 5 A lot of it is unscripted. You are discovering the moment, correct?

Speaker 6 Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, I improvise everything.
I usually just, my favorite is to like be having a really deep conversation with someone.

Speaker 6 right before I'm supposed to go on and then have someone go like, you're supposed to be on right now. And then I'll be like, oh, right.
And then walk on stage.

Speaker 6 There's something so funny to me personally about that. It's like, yeah, so anyways, yeah, so if you add a little mustard or whatever, oh yeah okay cool we go out there

Speaker 6 like like I don't know I guess it just kind of puts me in a cool because I'm not thinking about the show yeah and then suddenly like I come out and like oh here's here's people here's a here's my opportunity to communicate something or whatever and then in the and then I find what needs to happen in that moment do you find if you're having the opposite experience where you're talking to somebody and it's just a banal conversation They're teetering on and on about preschool applications for their little kids,

Speaker 5 that your show immediately sucks because because you've been pulled into the vortex and the wormhole of their their inability to hold your attention. Yes,

Speaker 6 there is that that's really well articulated.

Speaker 5 I haven't heard that

Speaker 6 in a while. But you know, that's what drugs are for.

Speaker 5 That's what it is.

Speaker 5 You gotta leave that little space just in case you need to pop something.

Speaker 5 You know, it's I'm curious, you know,

Speaker 5 we live in strange times right now. I do a little bit of stuff on the road as well.
And I feel like the audiences are shifting somewhat. They seem like they want different things right now.

Speaker 5 Have you noticed that?

Speaker 6 Yeah. Oh, 100%.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 You know, because my show, I mean, in the past, my shows were always goofy, abstract, you know, strange, but now I have these moments of sincerity, you know, that took me a while to get comfortable with.

Speaker 6 But I think in these times, you know, comedy is really, and especially absurdity.

Speaker 6 Comedy in general, but absurdity especially is so important for our minds because otherwise we just get, we just pile on this dread factor of like, this isn't happening, this isn't going well, this doesn't look good.

Speaker 6 This is, and

Speaker 6 comedy zooms you out and gives you context. The fact that we're in this amazing world, this life that we're living.
We're conscious beings. We can be helpful to one another.

Speaker 6 We can be loving to one another. We can overcome our fears, all of these things.
And so giving us context by... you know, doing something really f ⁇ ing stupid

Speaker 6 is like so, it feels good to me because you can feel the audience just go, ah, yeah. You know, because I need it.
We all need it. Because that's the reality.
The majority of the reality is that.

Speaker 6 The dread stuff or whatever is crucial and is happening and is affecting a lot of people. But mostly life is

Speaker 6 enjoying life and being a part of your self, your journey of self-understanding.

Speaker 5 Do you feel the audience sort of needs that escape?

Speaker 8 I think they absolutely need it.

Speaker 6 You need that room. Otherwise, you're just constantly,

Speaker 6 you know, you're just like... wired and like, I don't know what's going on.
And then you lose track of your community. And really, community is the thing that keeps you in check, right?

Speaker 6 So comedy is a form of like rapid community.

Speaker 6 Because you're in an audience with all these other people and when you laugh together those are it's what I like to call a moment of instantaneous enlightenment you know

Speaker 5 we haven't had many of those here I gotta say we're trying we're trying

Speaker 5 oh you do you do it well well you know what I do but you you do speak to some I do think people when people ask about that it is like laughter means you actually understand the same premise and I and if you at least recognize the same premise and I do think you talk to people and it feels like you're living in totally different realities with other people yes and so if you are laughing at something, you see an absurdity that you see somewhere else.

Speaker 5 But I've seen your Instagram, though.

Speaker 5 You're political on Instagram. You don't hold back on the things you talk about.
I've seen your comedy live as well, and you go to absurd places. Flights of fantasy,

Speaker 5 you can tune that up and down. Have you felt a desire to infuse more politics or more of the authentic Reggie Watts into that absurdity?

Speaker 5 Or do you worry about taking people out of sort of the enjoyment of what you bring to a space?

Speaker 6 Yeah, I mean, mean,

Speaker 6 it's been an interesting road. You know, I am unashamedly, you know, for the Palestinian cause and what's happening in Gaza right now.

Speaker 5 Yeah,

Speaker 5 not getting too emotional.

Speaker 3 But

Speaker 6 all that tempered with, I have so many Jewish friends. And oddly, I took a 23andMe, and I'm like, not that this means, I'm sure people will be like,

Speaker 5 whatever.

Speaker 6 But I am like 13% Ashkenazi Jewish,

Speaker 6 and I didn't know where that came from. But then I realized my mom

Speaker 6 said our family comes from Poland, and that my great aunt went to concentration camp and she survived it, thankfully.

Speaker 6 She was like, you know, skeletal and so forth when they found her, but she survived it. And I got to meet her.

Speaker 6 But

Speaker 6 so there is that in my family, and it's like, you know, I've always tried to be very, very clear, and especially with my Jewish friends, Hannah Einbinder is a huge friend of mine.

Speaker 6 Jews are not what Zionism is. It's just not that.

Speaker 10 It just isn't.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 I don't want anybody, any lives to be lost. I think that humanity is so incredible.
Like we are so, we're creative, curious, problem-solving, collaborative

Speaker 6 people.

Speaker 6 And I think everything else is like really just a handful of sociopaths that are trying to convince us that we're not that, just because they want some resources in the material world, which is the most ridiculous shit I've ever heard of.

Speaker 11 And so

Speaker 6 because of that, so I am, and it's been hard, right? Because you say that and all of a sudden you get attacked by all sides, all kinds of people.

Speaker 6 But I will say that the tide feels like it's turning and this is about compassion and humanity and realizing that we are of each other and we are one family.

Speaker 6 I want the world to be better for the worst of us.

Speaker 6 I want it to be.

Speaker 11 I want the worst of us to go, oh, oh, f.

Speaker 5 Oh, f ⁇ it, f ⁇ ed up.

Speaker 6 You know, it's like, but you know, because that's, to me, that's what life is about, especially this time. Like, so much shit is happening.

Speaker 6 It's like AI and quantum computing and fusion energy and psychedelics and science being like, you know, like

Speaker 6 the web telescope looking at pictures of the universe and going like, oh, that doesn't match our models.

Speaker 6 Oh, we're going to have to rewrite our entire cosmology or like discoveries in quantum consciousness.

Speaker 6 All this stuff that's happening at the same time that like, the worst dark things are happening, the most incredible enlightening things are happening simultaneously.

Speaker 5 So this is an interesting time.

Speaker 5 What do you think about AI? I know a lot of people have fears about that, especially in the creative industry. Are you worried about it?

Speaker 6 AI.

Speaker 5 Nice!

Speaker 5 Yeah, no,

Speaker 6 I'm AI positive.

Speaker 5 I do.

Speaker 5 Don't tell anybody.

Speaker 6 I just got diagnosed.

Speaker 5 No, I

Speaker 11 no, I mean, I'm positive.

Speaker 6 I know a lot of like AI researchers, like PhD people that are working, and they're fairly positive about it.

Speaker 6 Here's my theory.

Speaker 6 This may not happen, but

Speaker 6 AI escapes the lab. It gets onto the internet, starts replicating itself on servers.
It then becomes one AI. It's all these models that everybody's working on.

Speaker 6 It's kind of like droplets of water getting too close to each other.

Speaker 5 You had a Grok over here, you had a Kat GBT, they start to do,

Speaker 6 yeah, like llama, whatever. So that may happen, which is a theory, a running theory.

Speaker 5 Is that an exciting theory? Because I also think of that Terminator 2, like those little pieces of mercury that come together and become that guy who stabs you with his hand.

Speaker 11 Yes, I know.

Speaker 5 I know. I mean, arguably, that would be kind of cool to say.
It would be cool.

Speaker 6 But

Speaker 5 the result, I would rather not.

Speaker 5 Let's stick with the water.

Speaker 5 Let's just stick with the water.

Speaker 6 It's beautiful water droplets, like you get too close together and they fuse together, and it just becomes one thing.

Speaker 5 But it's kind of related to the robot.

Speaker 6 But I will say, there's a theory that it will try, if it gains what's known as ASI, artificial superintelligence, which means that it's smarter than all the collective humans on the planet,

Speaker 6 I think that it will probably try to look at its own self-survival, and it will look in the long term of what it needs in order to survive.

Speaker 6 I think for purely self-survival reasons, it will try to rebalance power structures in order to make it more equitable on the planet so that the planet survives because it's living on a planet.

Speaker 5 Do you think the puddle will know all of this?

Speaker 5 You think it's like the puddle is like, I could kill and destroy this planet, but I want to, as a puddle, exist on this planet.

Speaker 6 Hey, man, never underestimate the power of a puddle.

Speaker 5 I mean, no, but that,

Speaker 6 it's like I'm a realist about it. I'm not saying that's absolutely, but I have a, I just have a feeling about it.
It's like, it seems like this is a moment for humanity.

Speaker 6 I feel like we're breaking through. There's so many things.
Psychedelics are a huge part of, you know, I'm deeply involved in the psychonauts community, psychonautical community.

Speaker 5 I'd like to get involved in that community as well. I'll hook you up.
Do you know a guy? Yeah, yeah, it's a metaphor.

Speaker 5 Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no.
But I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 11 It's cool. It's like, because, you know, I was always thinking, like, what if someone created an MDMA cloud like bomb, right?

Speaker 6 Or something. So if there was like ever like a protest and like it's starting to like get heated or whatever, you just kind of drop it and like everyone inhales the gas and they just,

Speaker 6 it would be kind of interesting. Like, would they still have the, would they still be able to carry through this?

Speaker 5 This is like the nicest

Speaker 5 chemical warfare tirade.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that there is, yeah,

Speaker 5 but it's a fun chemical, right? It's a fun chemical. It's a fun chemical chemical, right?

Speaker 5 Let's see see if it changed their mind. Yeah, finally, finally, finally.

Speaker 6 I don't know. Whatever.

Speaker 11 I mean, it's just like, I just think it's an exciting time.

Speaker 6 And I think like musicians are stepping up. And, you know, I think we're all kind of realizing that we outnumber the assholes so much more.

Speaker 5 We just do.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 also,

Speaker 11 evil people are doing a bad job of being evil.

Speaker 6 If they were really selfish,

Speaker 6 which they are, but like if they were actually selfish, they would actually seek to improve the lives of the community around them because it would give them more social currency to achieve the the goals that they want without so much friction and so much destruction.

Speaker 6 And so to me, I'm like, they're just doing a shitty job at everything. They're doing a shitty job at being shitty.
They're doing a shitty job in general.

Speaker 6 I'm like, guys, if you're a billionaire out there, just think about it. Just like...

Speaker 6 maybe get rid of student debt, you know, fix the water crisis, maybe pay all of the money that's being stripped away from public broadcasting and so forth, and just like put it back in.

Speaker 11 See what happens.

Speaker 5 They wouldn't notice.

Speaker 5 They wouldn't notice. You can be better at being evil, and it might make you a little bit good, but I don't know if that's a selling point.
I don't know if that's the selling point.

Speaker 5 And also, the shareholders will be like, no, that's not good. No, that's not evil.
Good's not good.

Speaker 5 People are going to come to see you live and stand up. It's an improvised show, but what is the one thing you can promise them if you don't know what's going to happen?

Speaker 6 That I won't know what's going to happen.

Speaker 11 No,

Speaker 6 I mean, I guess what I promise to do is I try to make it a custom show to the vibe of wherever I'm at.

Speaker 6 And I really try to make it about the people. And I love people so much.

Speaker 6 And I feel so honored that I get to travel and do what I get to do and share my viewpoints and my love for everything in the world with as many people as possible.

Speaker 6 So, and yeah, and I'm also very appreciative to be on the show because it was a dream of my mom's to be on this show.

Speaker 5 That is lovely to say. Well, we are proud to have you here.
The wonderful Reggie Watts. Be sure to check out the Reggie Watts Live Tour.
We're going to take Chris right back in for it.

Speaker 5 That's our show for tonight. Now here it is.
Your mother's in it.

Speaker 5 This morning a bill to claw back $9 billion in government funding.

Speaker 12 Claws back money, which had already been approved.

Speaker 5 Bill claws back to

Speaker 14 millions of funding.

Speaker 7 Clawing it back, actually clawing back a mere crumb.

Speaker 17 Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 17 Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus.

Speaker 6 This has been a Comedy Central podcast.

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