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

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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 deportation.

Potential measles outbreak.

Grabbing Panama by the canal.

RIP to DEI.

Invading Greenland.

Professional wrestling.

Takeover Gaza.

Tariffs.

What was I talking about?

Donald Trump.

Elon Musk.

Joe Biden.

Melania.

F***ing space!

Now let's focus on the price of eggs.

You asked 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's?

We have been so concerned about all the scary things that Trump's gonna do, we forgot he's also gonna do some really stupid things. If you've been tuning out the presidential campaign so far, I get it.
It's boring. My grandpa is also a rambling 80-year-old man.
And let me tell you, I keep half an ear open for the word inheritance and I just ignore everything else. It used to be that you had to commit a crime to be pardoned, but now Biden has to do this weird, like, minority report tree pardon thing where it's like, hey, we know you didn't do anything, but Trump thinks you did something, so I'm going to pardon you for anything you did, even though you didn't do it.
It's what our founders would have 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 Dems to take action?

They got to give Trump some action.

You want Dems to stop jerking off and get to work? They got to get to work jerking him off. Yeah, no, 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.
You're not qualified to run the interior. I'm gay, Jordan.
He obviously thinks the head of interior is a decorating job. There's no paper swatches in here.
These tariffs are gonna help out all my N-words. You're, you're...
My net gains, Costa. Right, right, of course.
Of course, your net gains. Hey 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 font huh yeah okay chen are you not worried about that whole worshiping false idols thing not at all please welcome to the program pete buddha gabrielle Ed Helms.

Levin Mosbagoe.

Coleman Domingo.

Governor Josh Shapiro.

Paul Domingo.

Paul Domingo. Please welcome to the program Pete Buttigieg.
Gabrielle Union.

Ed Helms.

Levin Mosbago.

Coleman Domingo.

Governor Josh Shapiro.

Paul W. Downs.

Mark Carney.

Ray.

Wes Moore.

Mark Cuban.

Jason Siegel.

Francis Ford Coppola.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Connie Chow.

Maya Hawke.

Aubrey Plaza.

The amazing Linda Linda.

Steve Ballmer. Jesse Eisenberg.
Week 1 Jessica Williams I just signed on for another year With your doctors? With the network Oh my god, you're crazy You think you're gonna live for another year? Trump has ushered in the purge Ha ha You should celebrate What? Right Ha Someone likes to kink shame, don't they? Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew. Welcome to our panel.
Thanks, John. As you can see.
Thank you, John. Thanks, John.
I'm remarkably prepared with questions that I wrote. Yes wrote for all of you.
Thanks for everybody coming. This is a full room.
We didn't know what was on the other side of the door, so thank you. We didn't know what we were going to see.
This is nice. They could be anywhere on a Saturday.
If this were 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 90s was a weird time.
You know, things were different. It was...
Things happened. Things happened in show business.
I don't know. Yeah, I don't know how it went.
Actually, this does get... Costa, you were hosting...
Costa, you were on the Epstein list. No, 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 i'm interested in how you guys deal with it uh there was a great deal of preparation that went into the week there's a great deal of preparation that went into each day you had all these bits lined up and then in the middle of the day it's two around 2 p.m yeah uh a young man by the name of elon musk uh decides to use uh the platform that he has purchased to and i don't know if this was his intention to blow up the show correct yeah what is that for for people that are watching because you.
It all looks kind of effortless. People don't realize sort of what maybe goes into all that preparation, all those different things, the writers, the producers, all the different people that are putting it together.
When at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, somebody just goes. Right.
What did that feel like? 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 rehearsal at 2.45. We covered Trump's travel ban.
We covered that he appointed a 22-year-old boy as his anti-terror expert that had an eyebrow raised in his head shot. And then I went upstairs to get my dog to bring him down to Rewrite Room and by the time I went to Rewrite Room they said Trump and Elon

in our Twitter fight, we're starting over.

And then you're

back to the blank cursor

blinking on a computer screen and man, that's like

my favorite part of the Daily Show when you realize

how good the machine

is. That we just

wiped the show. Which was a funny show.

It was a funny show. It was a funny rehearsal.

Thank you very much. Wait, you rehearsed? I rehearsed.
And it is so impressive. I'm in awe of The Daily Show that they created new graphics, new sound bites, new jokes, and put on a great show.
And it's just so cool that we didn't back down and avoid that and do the show that was good, but we challenged ourselves. And that's what they do all the time, and that's what's so fun to be proud of.
Yeah. Can I throw a question off that to you? What? You ready for this? This is going to be so awesome.
You ready for this? Oh, why not? No, this is what the new athletic show does. I got a Jenga pile of cards.
Put it down, Stuart. Put it down.
Get out the shredder. Put it down.
I feel like this is commonplace for us in the Trump era. Yeah.
Biden was so much easier. They'd let you know a month in advance.
Yeah. He's going to have trouble at this one press conference.
Make sure you have a camera there. 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 you hadn't been covering day in and day out, were you expecting the change in the way the show had to sort of run in the day-to-day? 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 2015 when I left 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 it's all the people that I'm used to seeing, like you kind of, you go away, you don't realize. And, uh, I was blown away at how they had taken even the level, you know, what it reminds me of is, uh, so when I was in college, I played soccer and we thought we were pretty good.
And then I went back, uh, like 30 years later to watch my old college team play and And their team sucked. Like we were probably nationally ranked top 20 team in the country.
I went back. They sucked 30 years later.
But they would have beaten the shit out of our team. 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 first Trombara? 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 a live show this year during the Republican National Convention. And I remember us thinking like, oh shit, we have to write this show.
It's always fun doing a live show because you are crafting it as the news is coming in. And then Hulk Hogan takes the stage, and you're like, we're going to be fucking fine.
Right. But.
America! America's like, oh, that's Hulk Hogan. He's ripping off his shirt, and then he's bringing out Dana White, and then Donald Trump's coming out with a tampon on his head? Okay, this is going to be fine.
You know what's bad? We will find comedy. When Kid Rock is on the side going, Hulk, take it down.
Be respectful. Be respectful, Hulk.
I think there was, when 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 to speed. It's like the 445 curse is what we call it.
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 will, how do you decide in that day when a story drops like that at four 30, 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, that is true.
So whatever's in the prompter is in the prompter. And just 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 a bunch of cards

I think in a box

that he can deploy

to distract us

the Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross 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

Thank you. The Glenn Gehry, Glenn Ross leads.
I think he's got the lead box. 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?

And it works phenomenally well. But speaking of that kind of pivot, I want to ask you guys, because you brought up the Republican convention.
The show was all set to go to the Republican National Convention right before that first attempt, I think, on Trump's election. Were you guys in Milwaukee at that time? I was still home, but were you guys in Milwaukee when that happened? Oh, God, Jordan.
Oh, yeah. We were buying Milwaukee Brewers baseball caps at the time.
Yeah. We were at a Brewers game.
No! In the gift shop. You were at the park? You got to hang, John.
We're going out doing cool stuff, man. Yeah.
You got to come. We're seeing baseball.
You guys know I'm super social. I know.
You would love it. You can hang out with us 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, Desi, put that down. It was 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.

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 $185,000.

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 because I don't want 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 when 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 remember. It was in the air, had the pilot turn around.
The power. I was in San Diego doing stand-up comedy when he got shot.
Oh, you weren't that? You hadn't gone to Milwaukee? I hadn't gone to Milwaukee. I was going to do the show and then go to Milwaukee afterwards.
And then before that, I was doing a stand-up show 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 have I have some jokes about MAGA in my routine right now.
And should I just in the name of human decency? Maybe let's just have a night of comedy. I'm sorry.
What's that phrase? And I got to the show and no one in San Diego cared. Yeah.
Yeah. 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 tell us the dick joke right they didn't even they didn't even notice at the san diego show so i had to i i think i was the one who broke the news to the san diego crowd like hey hey, do you know the president got shot? Well, this is also explained some of the problem.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Right.
I'm sure you're really gentle breaking it to the people. I can only imagine that being the calm, soothing voice when there's a national tragedy.
People feel unsure. Ronnie, why don't you fill us in? You people are so stupid.
Stupid people don't even know. The president got...
Did you... When we pivoted and came back...
So I hadn't gone out in there yet. And Jen and I were talking...
Jen Flance, who's 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 run.
That's one of the people that Jen was a production assistant when I started on the show in 1999 and now like is the keeper of, you know, the crusty crab formula. Like she's the only one who knows how this thing all works, but she's the one who makes sure.
So she and and i were talking and you know it was that sense of do you give in to the moment there was something about it that felt like we must because lord knows if one 22 minute nightly satirical show is off the air you know from the live location that it was supposed to be that nobody believes we're at anyway, because normally we're on a green screen. You know, the world will stop spinning.
And we were going back and forth and all that. And then they moved the security zone.
Our theater was in, there was the soft zone and the hard zone. 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 correspondentsents 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 i listen i thought it'd be funnier if you guys weren't uh no i think that's and and that's something that you know for the, I think there's sometimes an expectation, and I would talk about that a little bit, is do you feel a sense of, and I know I began to feel this sort of in the early 2000s, like things would happen like the Charlie Headboat, horrible massacre, and you start to feel like, oh, we've got to go on the air and say something funny and profound about this. But I think it took a few of those for me to realize, Oh, why? That's not, if we've got something to say, great, we'll say it.
But that's not necessarily our flag to plant all the time. We'll, you know, we'll be back back do you guys feel that pressure i i kind of take a lot of my cues from you and so when you said so uh i i gotta admit it is a it 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 that just happened you know so i 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 i think it really helped when you relieved us of that burden someone called...
I came into a meeting and I just went, what we do doesn't matter. Why won't you all understand that? John, you know, some would call it cowardly or a dereliction of duty, but, you know, we see it as a relief, you know? Not a cowardly act by a small man in stature and morality, but like as a permission structure to be small ourselves, you know? Thank you.
Thank you! I have always said this show can shrink to meet the moment. 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.

But if you can't do that, if it doesn't feel cathartic to talk about it on the show, why do it? 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 me 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 play collegiate tennis and I look behind 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 communication

where classes were like public speaking

so

I hope

we're holding real journalists

to the standard that

something important happened the burden is on

them to cover this with integrity

and honesty of course

Thank you. we're holding real journalists to the standard that something important happened.
The burden is on them to cover this with integrity

and honesty. Of course,

I love when we say something profound

and have a message, but

we, I speak for myself,

I am not a journalist.

I am not a politician. I am a comedian.

Tickets are available most

nights to my shows. Plug the book.

Plug the book.

Plug the book.

Of course we want to say something important, but the important people should say the important things first. We can tell jokes.
Wait, you don't sell out in pre-sale? You should try the, yeah. I got to get a better marketing guy or something.

I don't know.

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Side effects may include faster job placement, improve work-life balance, and increase career satisfaction. I was supposed to be talking about this season, but just to bring it back, since we have the guy who invented modern American satire here.
You've been... No big deal, no big deal.
you know, a lot of what we do,

we're talking about changing the show at 4 p.m. for 6 p.m.
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, what was it like? Could you even change the show at four with tapes? Years ago, we used to do the show with a stone tablet and a chisel. I would sit and then we'd have the tablet almost done and then somebody would come in and go, Garfield's been shot! Take it and get it done.
McKinley's taken 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 1999, you still edited in the online room.
So, and there were no, I mean, it sounds almost ridiculous now, but, like, TiVo 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 AP newsfeed.
So what it would be is you would get stories on the AP news feed. So it would be the two big

stories of the day. And then generally like a human interest story, like the celebration of the Nazarene in the Philippines, you know.
And so our show that night would be whatever was 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, Avid's weren't invented yet. So you hear the whole crowd like, what? This is such an L.A.
audience. You say Avid, everyone's like, oh, Avid.
Oh, Avid. I don't understand.
It didn't react to Trump being shot, but Avid got... 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 changed 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 presented to you to a kind of democratizing of what your intention could be.
And so you could now run five TiVos and collect a bunch of stuff. And 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 and the render time of it will be 45 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 from a different network? And then Justin Milkman is on the phone and in like 12 seconds, there's a new read of a more exciting version of that, and it's amazing.
You talk about the tools that are fun to play with. They have this amazing toolbox, and they give us the tools.
It's very cool. There used to be a studio production, remember, when you would walk in and all the computers were recording all of television, and it felt like you were getting radiation cancer in that room every single time.

By the way, 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 lose video editors like,'d be like where is 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 times have you been emailed on a Saturday on a like Monday night at two 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 piece of information for the larger thought that you were going to put into the piece.
Honestly, one of the most interesting things in having been at The Daily Show for a long

time is to see how it's been

adapted. Have you?

Well, I mean, not Jurassic.

I think I was like Jurassic Lost World.

Right?

You were the fourth one. Once Chris Pratt entered the picture.

Yeah, the Chris Pratt era, right?

You are Chris Pratt.

Where he's a raptor wrangler? Is that where that series went? Yes. It makes an interesting context.
Yeah, one of these. I love that one.
I love that. It was a velociraptor.
Careful. All six writers are that screenplay.
You're right. Yes.
In this room, yeah. Sorry.
Don't worry. Your genius's AI could never come up with an idea that dumb.
Back then, they had to use real dinosaurs. They did.
It was so impressive. What has been so interesting, like, there's Twitter now.
People get reactions to the news in real time, where 20 years ago, they would wait to 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 we have this robust social team that has the ability to respond in real time so we can have comedic conversations in real time throughout the day.
I think then the show now can craft a narrative in its first act, which can play for 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 that get to have

long narrative. We get to do

clipped jokes. Plus this special.

There are great specials done by really intrepid reporters

who go into the fray,

you know, who are afraid to

finger it.

Who are not afraid to use the pulse

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 a funny thing.
Jon Stewart said this funny joke. Ronnie Chang did this one interesting take.
And it can play. And I think the show crafts ways that it can play in that context.
But also, if you watch it on linear television, it plays with a narrative context. And then it also plays in a real-time context, which I think that's like a testament to the structure that we have at the show that has the ability to be a comedy machine in real time and have conversations on all those platforms? Yes.
But? Is there a but? No, no but. No, just a yes? Yeah, just a yes.
But did that surprise you? So you guys were more grew up in that era. And I'll ask you how you sort of interact now with social media.
We grew up watching you, John. I'll settle down.
We grew up watching you. You grew up in that era where, you know, again,

I was used to this linear idea of, like,

I feel 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,

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, I sort of liken it to when I started, we were at McDonald's, and then you opened a drive-thru, and I'm like, wait, you can just go around the corner and just pick it up at the window? Has that changed? But it still feels like content is king, rather than the system by which it's delivered. Do you consume media in that way? Does it matter to you how you get it, where you get it? That's our show for today.
We're going to go. It's definitely how I consume it.
I think where I get nervous about it is context. Like my kids don't watch television.

They see it.

They see it like this.

I think context is gone in so many ways in which people get media.

That's what scares me about stuff.

You can get stuff out of context from TV, from shows, from clips.

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 40, they recognize you from The Daily Show.

If they're between 30 and 40, they recognize you from YouTube. And if you're under 30, your content that they see.
You're an influencer. Yeah, you're an influencer.
And I used to be like, oh, that's funny. I'm like, no, that is like canon now.
Like a 25-year-old just knows you in 30-second clips, which to me is worrisome or at least a challenge in crafting something that makes sense within that 30-second clip. But it's also kind of the reality in which they're getting information.
And I think the savvier ones are using that and then seeking out longer-form stuff. Even like a podcast.
Then you have the flip side where people will listen to people talk for an hour and a half about something as well. So I think it's the context that shifts.
The platforms people seem seem to be dipping in each of them. People listen to our show just the audio version of it with no other visual component.
It's a very popular podcast. They just sit on the train and listen to the audio of our show.
And it crushes. And they say, Kosta's audio crushes.
They say that? i added that last part and you're what i'm saying but here we are technology is technology has never been better

and people are still taking the audio of a video component and downloading it and loving it yeah

what a missed opportunity they can't even see your abs exactly soft and hard security area

i like coming out of the jungles of malaysia like i here we go stop ronnie jesus as

I'm sorry. It's a soft and hard security area.
Coming out of the jungles of Malaysia. Here we go.
Stop, Ronnie. Jesus Christ.
As a real immigrant here who actually overcame adversity. I was raised by small lemurs.
I always aspired to work at these American institutions of comedy. That was my aspiration to work at SNL, Daily Show,

work in American show business.

I felt there was something,

aspiration about these institutions.

And you get to, over the last

10 years, you're talking about the internet

kind of

the algorithm kind of rewards

quantity over quality.

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 that. Are the three of your buzzers buzzing in your back? Don't go there, don't go there, don't go there.
But I do feel that we've lived in 10 years of this kind of quantity over quality internet content thing. And I feel like there is a bit of a reaction.
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 oh this social media is making me sick and i think one thing that the show does really well and and thank you to john stewart as well for doing this really well is doing uh is production value and quality over quantity you know and i think it 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.
Yeah. That's in the business.
But I'm just saying that that quality comes through the quality right it and people can feel it yeah 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 okay i did that one time one time right i i just think that the i hope that well just maybe this is more

hopeful than anything but i hope that we are going back to a quality kind of right of a quantity kind of world yeah hopefully i know hopefully i hope you're all clapping and i hope it's true right 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 experience I think, and for you guys also, 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 our more primitive days of notivos and everything else to what we're seeing now, I think we're all sort of feeling like we're on a much more tenuous ground. that, you know, I think we still sort of cling to this idea

that what we

do is a craft, has an artisanal purpose to it, that it's done for connection and it's done 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. You know, when they talk about like writer's rooms, you know, it's really important for us that the writers are a part of the whole process and that people in the building get to put their hands and touch the macro of the art that you produce because you want them to see that picture so that when they become creators, they understand all the different elements and what the render times of certain things and how these things go.
I think we all have a respect for the craft of working in a kind of a refinery where we're, we really do go and we test the hops and we smell and you do all that. And then, you know, a tech company comes in and buys it and goes, let's just have two writers and let's just have them be in a room.
And when you're shooting the show, they're not there anymore. They don't have that connection to the legacy of passing down the craft that we've all grown up with.
And I think that's a tragic thing to lose in this business. I mean, rehearsal, John, is really, yeah.
Let them applaud. I'm sorry.
Well, now I built it up. And I don't even...
God bless them. 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 and valuing every part of the process from the people that do 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 quality and And I wondered where you

see that, do you worry about

technology replacing that

with the ethos of like

Elon's kind of, yeah, move fast and break

shit and don't care at all about the people

who make it. Every once in a while

in the rewrite room, we'll

do something funny or say

something funny and I will think, ooh, 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 job it is to punch Michael

in the dick.

And that's a contribution as well and I think

I'm afraid we're going to lose that.

Sorry. I hope.
I just wanted to see

what the sign language will punch on.

Hey!

By the way, can someone even verify this is correct sign language, by the way?

Because I don't want to end up on my own show.

I hope the answer, John, is what Ronnie alluded to earlier,

that people, there always will be a hunger for quality. And I hope we keep making quality.
We have for the last 30 years. Right.
Having faith in humans. To be able to tell the difference.
Can I do the act out that I was going to do? Yeah. 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.

No, you're supposed to read it.

That's your problem.

I needed... This is perfect.

I did an act out.

It wasn't really funny.

John stepped in.

Saved the day.

Daily Show's great.

There we go.

Boom.

That's how we work.

There's a team working together here.

I blame the sign language girl with the whole punching in the dick thing. Stay together.
I don't know, I don't know. I worry about it, I don't know.
I worry about it. Because you, I don't know if this is the last of the movies.
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 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 week that we host, we go out and we have sort of an audience with it. I'm noticing in the audience something that I haven't seen in a long time, that is need like a real need to be in that room together to connect with each other a real almost a sense of isolation and a feeling of like the world is a little out of control and that room feels almost like a revival to some extent are you feeling a a difference when you go out and talk to the audience? Yeah, I think 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 in 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, anden flans is a huge part of it as well but you know we 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 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 pointing this out too right desi 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 the front and it's really amazing how many different levels on the hierarchy have created jokes and pitches and ideas i pitched an idea a year year ago about this woman in the Everglades who hunts pythons because the Burmese python, I'm sorry if this is going to turn anti-Burmese for a second, but the Burmese python has wiped out rabbits, foxes, squirrels.
Well, maybe they're a better animal. Maybe they should take over.
Well, it's not supposed to be there in the first place. Okay, well.
That's typical of somebody who grew up in Malaysia. This is an argument that's been going on at the show now.
For some reason, Ronnie always feels the need to defend the Burmese python. You don't know why.
Well, do you know where I'm going on Monday, Ronnie? I'm flying to the Everglades to fucking kill pythons with this lady. And I don't know if this might be the last time I ever do a police vote for our Emmy show nomination show.
But I have to point that out because there's one of my most favorite things of the Daily Show and what I'm most proud of are 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 $65 to kill a snake and she gets like $90 to get an egg. And you're not allowed to translate.
Wait, why is the egg more? Because I guess it's like the potential like even like a young child's life is worth more than our child. Our life, I mean.
Why did this get so dark? Why does this sound familiar? Yeah. The point is you're not going to be in the office next week.
Correct. I'm not going to be is the package.
Yeah.

The point is you're not going to be in the office next week.

Correct.

I'm not going to be in the office next week.

Well, Desi said everybody pitches and I was like, that's right.

That is.

And that is an awesome thing that I thought, except for my pitch about going to hunt pythons because now I actually have to go fucking do this piece.

But you're regretting it.

But that's something we do at The Daily Show is field pieces, right?

The field.

We go into the field and in your case, talk to mentally ill people.

Americans.

It's Americans, Ronnie.

Thank you, Ronnie.

In your case, you kill local wildlife.

What about your piece where you went to the bottom of the ocean?

You shot fish?

We shot lionfish.

They were invasive species in Florida.

What did you shoot them with?

With a gun.

By the way, this is where we thank the legal department at Comedy Central. They're wonderful.
But all these field pieces are like little short films, I guess, or snuff films, if you want to. That's how it was.
And we go out there and you have to, you know, it's a real education in all aspects. Well, Americana, but I was going to bring it back to L.A.
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 directing. You need a director.
You need camera people. They need to edit it.
So every of these field pieces, you know, when you see Jordan going out there, just, you know, and you think it's easy. Have you watched any of these pieces? No, I just, I don't know, I don't know what you actually, I know you go to DC or something.
Jordan Klepper's new special. Look at me, and you'd see him do it and it looks easy, but that's because he spends a lot of time in edit and he works with a lot of people.
You are the worst at complimenting people. I know.
The fucking worst. The worst.
By the way, there's a genuinely nice thing in there. Yeah, yeah.
Okay, I'm getting to it. And I'm getting to it.
I'm getting to it. And he's also- This is every meeting at the show.
It just evolves. I don't know how we get the show on the air.
And he's also a lanky person who's... He doesn't have to enter into the conversation if you've even seen a piece.
Who happens to be a world-class improviser. Then that's where you get...
There it is. There it is.
That's where it is. That's a beautiful...
Ultimately, within all that, I thought it was a beautiful... Thank you.
Imagine a Burmese python with something inside it, and you're like, what is that? And it was a beautiful compliment. Feels like it's the snake eating its own tail, if you ask me.
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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, we had Malaysian pythons. And I always wanted to come to America and travel.
So when I go around America, I go with like, oh, my God, I get to see America. You know, when I get to do field pieces or when I tour the stand-up comedy special, I get to 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 what there's more good people than bad people out here for sure you know every city i don't care is republican or whatever everyone was always super nice to me they didn't know who i was i think and uh they were still nice everyone was respectful face to face people in america are very respectful and so i i didn't go in thinking everyone's going to be horrible in the middle of America. I went in liking it, and I left the middle of America really liking it.
Everyone was super nice. Everyone was trying to get by.
Everyone was welcoming to me. They would show mutual respect, you know, and that made me hopeful.
And then the election happened, and I was like, what the fuck happened there? Because everyone I met was great. You like Americans as individuals but not as a voting bloc.
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. I think it's generally people's experience with other humans is that they are, you know, I think you had 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 for themselves do it through provocation.
They don't, there are very few people online that you're like, I just find that gentleman fascinating. Like, it's just more like, wow, that fucking guy will say anything, you know, and in a horrible way.
Like, I always tell this story. It's a terrible story.
Oh, fuck it, I'm not going to tell you. But I'll tell you.
All right. But the world as it exists, so it's like when people say we talk about, not to bring up like Jews or anything like that, but like, oh, are you worried about antisemitism? I'm like, no, I'm not worried about antisemitism.
I think antisemitism will be fine. I think it's very resilient.
But the reason I say it is, so I had just gotten back to the show. I'd been there for like a month, and my favorite dog passed away.
His name was Dipper. He was a three-legged dog, Pitbull.
We got him. So I went on the show, just mentioned it at the end of the show, and I ended up blubbering like a very, very emotionally volatile person.
But the response from people was so wonderful that I did something I never do, which is post it on social media. And I put pictures up of my family and I the first day we met Dipper at the shelter.
And what was so interesting is the comment section on social media,

people started posting pictures of their best dog. So the first post is, you know, this is Kibbles.

He was our Akita.

I hope he and Dipper are playing at the Rainbow Bridge.

Beautiful.

The next one, this is our King Charles Spaniel. It was the best dog we ever had, and we miss him to this day.
Beautiful. And then the third post was, why did you change your name, Jew? Look, I was going through some stuff that week, and I just, you know, I apologize.
The second part of that post was, and this is our German shepherd, Eva, and she's like, no. 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 at all in social media? Do you delve into that, you know, toxic factory of attacks and like the comment 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.
It's that the algorithm has changed their wiring in that context. I've been hassled by folks in the MAGA universe who then I meet in real life.
Is that the MAGA universe now? They're like Marvel? Yes. All right.
I think they've created a handful of projects now. Right.
How do you do MAGA in sign language? Is it like this? Is that what it is? Yeah. She's spelling it out.
Yeah. Spelling it out.
Sorry, but you were saying you ain't... I think it's also SOS, I believe, right? Is that what I...
You're saying you ain't... The mainstream liberal interpreters.
I have a... The vitriol online is intense in these spheres, and I feel like when I'll go...
There's a man I met who's called the Brick Suit Guy who's famous in the Muggle world. The Brick Suit Guy.
He wears a brick suit that looks like

Trump's wall.

But not actual bricks.

It's a bespoke suit.

He has five of them. And he gets brought up

on stage and Trump parades him and talks

to him. And he's a

celeb at all these events.

And he heckled us while we were filming

at 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.
You and Brick Suit Guy. Me and Brick Suit Guy.
And we talk 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 of all time. 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 me.
He got to you. Shit.
And that's why you voted for Trump. I voted for him.
You know what? 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. That'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 talk to.
I've seen your profile online. And it's similar to the big man's profile online it's cruel it's vitriolic it is aimed to be mean and then i've met you in person and with no cameras watching you're thoughtful you're interesting you're nuanced you show a vulnerability about the things you don't know in a way that doesn't exist online you can't be online if you're uncertain about anything.
But in real life, you are and you're compelling.

I would spend... Two hours is okay.

Three and a half is a bit fucking much.

But I think that's not who it is.

It's an incomplete

picture of these people that are out there.

But I do feel for our job,

I feel I need to

dip into X on the week of hosting.

I've got to dip into these spaces

to get a sense of what that conversation is. What's the temperature? What is the temperature? 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 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 your hosting week. You literally come in and you just got to do your prep like you're going to get the G-forces.
You got to strap yourself. I'm going to host this week.
There was a field piece I did when Trump aired last season. Canada's the 51st 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 is a Canadian, and he's voted for Donald Trump in Canada's election. That's how much he loves Donald Trump.
He's a roofer. He looks the way you would think he would look for a MAGA supporter, and you sit down with him in these one-on-one interviews.
He comes in. The shoulders are out.
Oh, my God, this is going to be a rough three-hour interview. And you get talking to him.
You get to know him. He's really mad that Canada's taxes are high.
He loves his kids. He's having a hard time paying for them, and he thought it would be a funny gimmick that would get some traction to vote for Donald Trump.
And it's not like I leave loving the guy and I want him to come to Thanksgiving with me, but I understand him and he's a good dude, actually. So I don't know.
Maybe what we're talking about here is that mob mentality is the problem, that individually we're all okay. I don't know.
Yeah. Everybody clap at the same time right now.
Yeah. Mob mentality is the worst.
Mob mentality is bad. Some of it may be that it really is, there's a certain kayfabe to it all.
The thing that I worry about with kayfabe, those of you who are not arrested adolescent boys, kayfabe 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 kayfabe is that if you act like something long enough, you become it. And I do think we do have a danger of that in the country, that the anger, even if it is artifice at first, somehow embeds itself in a way

you know, and the only

the thing I will say, we sort of

to wrap this thing around because we've got to

wrap 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

are we going to get through this?

You know, and I'm always like

hey man, tickets are free.

Just shut the fuck up and watch a shot.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

But I think people forget, like, in early 2000s,

they argued 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 really rough moments. And so in final, going back to the show, do you still find yourselves optimistic about, A, our ability to try and synthesize and contextualize all these things that are going on in a funny way, and the ability of the country to overcome that tenuous moment.
And I will only ask Ronnie. Coming out of the jungle.
So, no, it's relevant. No, it's relevant because one cool thing about America is the separation of powers 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 of speech still is there.

I mean, we've been shitting on him for 12 years now.

And he hasn't come after me yet.

So I don't know.

So there's something there.

We've got a special surprise for Ronnie. Ice is here for you years now, and he hasn't come after me yet.
So I don't know, you know, so there's something there. So we've got a special surprise for Ronnie.
Ice is here for you right now. Ladies and gentlemen.
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 country, this kind of resistance to this garbage that we can't even put a word 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 whether it's the political discourse it's social media there's this and we're developing the antibodies for it and it's a new medium and so that makes sense this internet thing it makes sense that we had to develop it just like we had to develop it for tv when tv came out just like we had to develop it when newspapers were invented we had to keep developing these antibodies so i i am hopeful that we will get to a place where we can see some bullshit on the internet and as a civilization we'll be like nah that's bullshit and then we'll you know.
That's a great point you know people think you know that the printing press was invented and everybody thought and that ushered in the enlightenment but it didn't it ushered in like a 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, I... Des is always hopeful.
Yeah, I'm always hopeful. She's always the best.
Maybe delusionally. No.
I am naive. You asked if I check the comment sections and check in on X to see what they're saying.
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We can all laugh together.

We can find some commonality,

and I think what frightens me

is the idea that people stop talking to one another.

That's scary. But if people continue to have conversations and not be so stuck in their silos, 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 270 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 further, further, further, further.

I mean, he's pushing them as far as they've ever been.

And I just am hopeful that the checks and balances 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 Christ. Titanic.
Jungles that I wasn't aware of. Burmese Python.
Burmese Python. You know, yeah, I think you got to find hope.

I find hope in a couple places.

I just did a really great special.

But I went into that with a lot less hope

because I was talking to kids who were MAGA kids

and who I had seen images of online.

And online is a cruel fucking place. And when I talked to these 19 and 20 year olds, I didn't agree with a lot of the things they had to say, but they weren't cruel and they weren't mean.
And I talked to them about some big issues, the economy, immigration. But when I talked to some of these culture war issues, trans rights, gay rights, they didn't take the bait.
They didn't give a shit about it. They weren't upset about it.
I think those kids are being preyed upon by institutions and by bad actors who want those eyeballs. They want to turn that naivete into weaponized cruelty, and they might.
I think the way the tech is set up right now, that's where this endgame goes. But those kids, those kids were a lot like me.
They were contrarians. They were 19.
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 this show.
We joke a lot about this. But I love coming to work.
I think we laugh together in that room. And we feel so lucky because the world does feel like it's on fire sometimes.

You watch the news.

But our job is we get to turn on some of these clips.

And we can laugh at it.

We can scream at it.

But our job is to find a fucking joke to take away a little bit of that pain and to also connect to one another.

So I feel very, very fortunate that that exists as long as linear TV is still a thing. Right.
Well, I very much appreciate you guys coming out. It's an honor and a joy to work with you guys every day.
Thank you for coming out, you guys, for real. Thanks a lot for coming out.
Everybody, please, the one and only Mr. Jon Stewart.
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