Republicans Play "War Plan" Semantics as Journalist Brings Receipts | Steve Coogan

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.

Speaker 2 You're listening to Comedy Central.

Speaker 3 From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, it's America's only source for news. This is the Daily Journal with your host, Ronnie Smith.

Speaker 3 Hello, welcome to the David Show. I'm Roy Chang.

Speaker 4 We got so much to talk about tonight, so let's get right into the controversy that's still rocking Trump's cabinet in another installment of the worst wing.

Speaker 5 What a bunch of losers.

Speaker 4 None of that was AI.

Speaker 4 By now, we all know that Donald Trump's meritocracy brain geniuses planned an attack on Yemen in a signal group chat and accidentally invited a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg.

Speaker 4 And this story might have ended on day one if the administration had just owned it and made some bullshit statement like, sorry, we're taking accountability, hashtag listening and learning, and blah blah blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 4 But they just can't help themselves because whenever they're in trouble, their default response is to punch their way out of it, which only makes things worse so now we're still talking about this three days later instead of what i wanted to cover tonight which was 23 and me going bankrupt and what they're gonna do with all your dna

Speaker 4 one word face off

Speaker 3 okay

Speaker 4 okay that's That's two words with a slash and we can't decide if I look, it doesn't matter, all right? The point is they're going to put your face on someone else and the White House wants to move on.

Speaker 4 They've got to come clean and stop stepping on their own dicks, okay? So let's start with something easy.

Speaker 4 For National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, how did the reporter get invited into the group chat?

Speaker 6 I don't mean to be pedantic here, but how did the number get a lot of people?

Speaker 6 Have you ever had somebody's contact that shows their name and then

Speaker 4 you have somebody else's number that they're?

Speaker 2 You didn't make those mistakes. Right?

Speaker 6 You've got somebody else's number on someone else's contact. So of course I didn't see this loser in the group.
It looked like someone else.

Speaker 6 I mean, I'm sure everybody out there has had a contact where it was said one person and then a different phone number.

Speaker 4 No.

Speaker 9 No one's ever had that.

Speaker 4 All right. People don't have a contact with a phone number for like a different person

Speaker 4 unless they're having an affair.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 4 I guess I'm saying I think this guy is having an affair with Jeffrey Goldberg.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 look,

Speaker 4 even if that was an actual somewhat relatable mistake,

Speaker 4 Maybe try not making that mistake when you're planning a war.

Speaker 4 And why are you shitting on Jeffrey Goldberg? He's a loser. This guy sucks.
He's dishonest.

Speaker 3 He didn't do anything.

Speaker 4 All he did was wake up in the morning and you added him to your group chat.

Speaker 4 You like abducted him and forced him to see your secrets.

Speaker 4 But okay, the bigger issue is what was shared in the group chat. Jeffrey Goldberg says there were war plans that were so sensitive, he didn't even put them in his article.

Speaker 4 But Pete Hegseph spent the last two days saying he's lying.

Speaker 10 Nobody was texting war plans. Nobody's texting war plans.
Nobody's texting war plans.

Speaker 12 Okay, great.

Speaker 4 Couldn't be more clear. Nobody was texting war plans.
You hear me? Nobody was texting war plans. Nobody was texting.

Speaker 2 And we begin with the breaking news.

Speaker 13 The Atlantic magazine's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, is releasing the messages from the Yemen strike plans group chat.

Speaker 13 And the screenshots show discussions of weapons and specific timing of US military strikes.

Speaker 14 1144 a.m. Eastern that time.
Weather is favorable. Just confirmed with CENTCOM we are a go for mission launch.
1215 Eastern F-18s launch declaring this first strike package.

Speaker 14 1345 trigger-based F-18 first strike window starts. Target terrorist is at his known location, so should be on time.
1415, strike drones on target. This is all caps.

Speaker 14 This is when the first bombs will definitely drop.

Speaker 3 Okay, look.

Speaker 4 Just because you write in all caps, this is when the first bombs will definitely drop, doesn't mean that war plans.

Speaker 3 Okay?

Speaker 4 This is P. Hag Seth.
Maybe he was talking about Jaeger bombs.

Speaker 3 But if you...

Speaker 3 Well, if you...

Speaker 4 If you ask me, that looks a lot like a plan for the war. It had military time and everything.

Speaker 4 It had more details than you get from DoorDash.

Speaker 4 Those guys tell you everything.

Speaker 4 856, we have received your order. 859, we are preparing your food.
906, we accidentally dropped your food. 907.

Speaker 4 Actually, don't worry about it. We're on our way.

Speaker 4 So I think it's a war plan, but what the hell do I know? I've never seen one before because no one's ever been dumb enough to put one in a fing group chat with a journalist.

Speaker 3 But maybe

Speaker 3 it's uh

Speaker 4 maybe this is a good thing, okay? The receipts are out, uh, so we can call a spade a spade and admit that these are indeed very specific war plans.

Speaker 4 I don't think it's uh specific enough to be considered war plans.

Speaker 16 It doesn't tell you, hey, we're gonna hit this particular village, this particular city, this particular target, this particular individual.

Speaker 8 They were talking about when,

Speaker 9 not specific longitude and latitude and all that other stuff.

Speaker 4 Oh man, Janine must be a nightmare to make plans with.

Speaker 4 Hey, you said meat at Chili's at seven, but where's the fing longitude?

Speaker 4 Like, stop pretending you need some arbitrary detail to make it a war plan, okay? It's like saying this wasn't an orgy. We didn't have the pink feathers and the eyes wide shut mask.

Speaker 4 Were there more than three dicks?

Speaker 4 Then it was an orgy, okay? Everything else is semantics.

Speaker 4 You know what, you tell me? If having a detailed schedule plan of attack is not a war plan, then what is it?

Speaker 6 Do you think these are war plans?

Speaker 15 Oh, this, you know,

Speaker 15 it's an outline of what is about to happen.

Speaker 6 There were no war plans in any of this stuff.

Speaker 2 There's a conversation.

Speaker 4 This was a private conversation.

Speaker 17 I would characterize this messaging thread as a policy discussion, a sensitive policy discussion, surely.

Speaker 3 What is a war plan?

Speaker 3 Whoa,

Speaker 3 what is war, man?

Speaker 9 It's just raw spelled backwards.

Speaker 2 I think it was Shakespeare that said, What is in a plan?

Speaker 4 That which we call a war by any other name would accidentally get texted to Jeffrey Goldberg. For more on this stupid argument, we go live to the Pentagon with senior war correspondent Michael Costa.

Speaker 4 Michael, Michael, hey, am I crazy or are these very clearly war plans?

Speaker 2 You're crazy, Ronnie.

Speaker 2 You know, maybe a civilian reporter like yourself spills his Cortado all over his little Ugg boots reading these texts, but the grizzled veterans at the Trump administration know that these are not war plans.

Speaker 2 I mean, would it be a war plan if I said carrier strike group two will engage 14 targets in northeast Syria at 0900 tomorrow? CENTCOM says go. I repeat, CENTCOM says go.

Speaker 4 Over.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that sounds like a war plan.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because you're a civilian, you know, peeing through his Fall Raven jacket all over his Lululemon yoga mat.

Speaker 2 But it's not a war plan because I didn't say something specific, like what type of plane they're using. You have no idea that it's an F-18.

Speaker 4 Yeah, you just said that it's an F-18.

Speaker 18 Yeah, well, F-18 could mean anything.

Speaker 2 It could be a bingo number or a parking spot.

Speaker 18 F-18 could be Pete Hegseth's search on a dating app.

Speaker 9 You don't know.

Speaker 4 Okay, but F-18 is clearly a plane.

Speaker 2 Oh, you're an expert now. The only military figure you know anything about is General So.

Speaker 18 By the way, by the way, by the way, that's a burn about you being a civilian, not an Asian.

Speaker 4 Okay, then, why don't you enlighten me of your military genius? If that's not war planning, then what is it?

Speaker 2 It's war manifesting. You know, Hegseth was asking the universe to drop a Tomahawk missile, and it happened.

Speaker 9 How many of you ever read The Secret?

Speaker 2 You know, the book, not the state secrets, he texted Jeffrey Goldberg.

Speaker 4 You really want me to believe this was war manifesting?

Speaker 2 Of course it was manifesting. No different than making a vision board.
Kind of like this one.

Speaker 19 You know, look.

Speaker 3 Look.

Speaker 4 Holy shit, is that a war plan for Canada?

Speaker 2 There you go again with that phrase war plan. It's not a war plan, it's an operational scribbling

Speaker 4 of a war plan. Look, it has like arrows and airplanes and like weapons and those little crosshairs and there's times that it's clearly a plan to invade Canada.

Speaker 6 Okay, look, but we don't know which Canada, you know, and

Speaker 18 none of these arrows are even labeled.

Speaker 4 So we don't know where we will be attacking, which is why the people of Winnipeg and Banff here and here will never see this coming on Saturday at noon. It's gonna be sweet.

Speaker 4 Okay, where did you even get that wool map?

Speaker 2 The DOD accidentally mailed it to my house. Mike Waltz has my address in his contacts.
It's not a big deal. He's having an affair with my wife.

Speaker 4 Okay,

Speaker 3 great job, I guess. Michael Pasta, everyone.

Speaker 3 When we come back, we find out Chris Distefano can solve it, so don't go away.

Speaker 3 Welcome back to a daily show.

Speaker 4 America has a ton of problems right now, and no one knows who can solve them. But Chris DeStefano will give it a try in our new segment: Can Chris Solve It?

Speaker 9 Hey guys, I'm Chris DeSifanu, as Ronnie said, aka Chrissy the American. And if you're like me, you love having opinions on things that you don't know anything about.

Speaker 9 Like, for example, there's no way childbirth is that bad, right? I mean, we have Tylenol.

Speaker 8 See? It's easy, Ronnie.

Speaker 9 So today, we're going to go through some of the world's biggest problems to find out if Chrissy can solve them. Hit me.

Speaker 6 Markets gripped by anxiety about an all-out tariff war.

Speaker 9 Tariffs, I have to be honest, I have no idea what a tariff is.

Speaker 9 I really don't. And don't pretend you do either, babes.
And unless you went to like Hofsha University or one of the fancy ones, but I couldn't get in.

Speaker 9 When I first saw the word tariff, I thought it was a Dune character. I was like, yes, Tarif will lead the sand people to freedom.

Speaker 3 I'm in.

Speaker 9 But listen, apparently that's not what Tarifs are. It's, yeah, it's a tax on imports, and that sounds bad because America imports everything.

Speaker 9 I'm pretty sure the only thing America makes are the real housewives.

Speaker 9 And those ladies are 50% plastic, so I don't even know if that counts.

Speaker 9 I mean, where does plastic come from? I honestly don't know, but it feels Chinese.

Speaker 9 Anyway, if you're going to have a war, a trade war is probably better than like a war war. You know what I mean? Like with guys and women, obviously, you know, they kill each other too,

Speaker 3 ladies.

Speaker 9 My Gramps was in a war war. He was crawling through the mud, dodging bullets in Okinawa.
Now I'm just paying 80 cents more for guac. But hey, we're still both heroes.

Speaker 9 I'm going to go ahead and call this one solved. Next topic.

Speaker 11 The battle over President Trump's actions to secure the border and combat illegal immigration.

Speaker 9 Immigration.

Speaker 3 Everyone, buckle up. Everyone,

Speaker 9 please stop saying there are two sides to this issue. We have to have a country with laws.
The border should at least be as secure as the deodorant at CBS.

Speaker 9 If you want to get in, you have to hit a button and wait for ICE to come unlock the wall.

Speaker 9 But listen, that being said, we also have to celebrate legal immigrants. That's right, even though I look like the fire chief of Ron Konkama, my

Speaker 9 wife and kids are Puerto Rican, hola.

Speaker 9 So,

Speaker 3 yeah.

Speaker 9 So I know how it feels when people hate on the Latino community.

Speaker 4 What's up, Dad?

Speaker 9 Look. The reality is this, immigrants can make our country better.
For instance, our soccer team has never won a single World Cup. It's embarrassing.

Speaker 9 How about free green cards to anyone who can make a penalty kick?

Speaker 5 Right? It's a good idea.

Speaker 3 That's what I thought.

Speaker 9 I mean, let's get it done. Vama, no sotros, or whatever.

Speaker 9 It's hard for me to learn Spanish. That's for my wife and kids to talk shit about me.

Speaker 3 I mean, crap.

Speaker 9 Sorry, mommy.

Speaker 9 As you can see, I actually know what I'm talking about on this subject because, because, like I said, I not only have a Puerto Rican family, but I'm also from Queens, the most diverse community in America.

Speaker 3 And yeah, right?

Speaker 9 And look, hey, look how I turned out. I'm only kind of racist.

Speaker 9 So, what I'm saying is this country should welcome everyone who wants to meaningfully contribute to American society, except Dominicans. I'm sorry, but yeah, like I said, I'm Puerto Rico, Papi.

Speaker 9 And apparently, there's bad blood, but I don't speak Spanish and my kids will teach me so either way this one's solved

Speaker 3 all right yeah

Speaker 18 here we go

Speaker 9 no seriously that was I was nervous on that one that was a controversial subject so I want to get to something a little lighter so hippie

Speaker 9 all right can I spin again

Speaker 9 I'm not doing can I spin again because I just, I don't want to say anything. Yeah, can we just get rid of the trans rights thing on the board, not in line?

Speaker 3 on the board, Jesus Christ?

Speaker 4 Don't clip that drama surrounding Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency Doge.

Speaker 9 That was close, wiggled out. Okay, Doge, please do not tell me you're against the government running more efficiently.

Speaker 9 I mean, anyone who says that doesn't remember the DMV before they installed the bakery number system.

Speaker 3 I mean, right, remember that?

Speaker 9 It's still too slow, though. I mean, by the time I get to the window, I forget why I'm even there.
I'm like, yeah, let me get a half a pound of Mortadella.

Speaker 9 I mean, sorry, I have a DUI.

Speaker 9 That said, some of these cuts might be going too deep. I mean, they just listed Guantanamo Bay on Airbnb.

Speaker 9 And hey, if you've ever stayed at an Airbnb, it could be worse. My solution: let them do their cuts, but I get to bring a baseball bat on a plane.

Speaker 9 If you're defunding air marshals, I'm not going down without a fight. Now, give me that seat, give me that aisle seat.
I pee a lot.

Speaker 9 Chrissy the prostate. All right, solved it, moving on.

Speaker 20 President Trump is doubling down on claims that controlling Greenland may be in America's future.

Speaker 9 Okay, so Canada isn't the only cold, pasty country Trump wants. He's also after Greenland.

Speaker 9 Now, people are really mad about this for some reason, and I gotta be honest with you, I've never even met a single person that's been to Greenland, let alone anyone from Greenland.

Speaker 9 And like I said, I'm from Queens. We got everybody there.
One time I had to break up a fight between a Hari Krishna and a meter maid from Tajikistan. I was like, you guys both wear robes.

Speaker 9 Just be friends.

Speaker 9 True.

Speaker 9 Now,

Speaker 9 also, this is crazy. Did you know there's only 50,000 people in Greenland? I have 50,000 people on my block.

Speaker 9 Not for nothing. You guys are also being kind and greedy with that land.
It's 600 million acres. That's got to be at least four Home Depots.

Speaker 9 What are they doing in Greenland? I mean, is that where they make the plastic?

Speaker 3 I don't know.

Speaker 9 And if you're a liberal and you hate this, maybe you shouldn't have spent so much time telling Trump to go green. This is what he thought you meant.
So, and it's true.

Speaker 9 And I got to be honest, that's what I thought you meant too.

Speaker 3 I'm an idiot.

Speaker 9 We cannot please these people. So I'm just going to mark this one not soft.
All right. Yeah.
Can't win win them all. Well, that's it for me.

Speaker 9 I hope you didn't learn anything today because if you did, that means you're even dumber than me. And I got bad news for you.
You're definitely getting rejected from Hopstra.

Speaker 18 So I'm Chris DeStefano, and I hope I solve that one for you.

Speaker 3 Thank you.

Speaker 3 Thank you, Chris.

Speaker 3 Thank you, Chris. When we come back, Steve Spooger will be joining you on the show, so don't go away.

Speaker 3 It's awesome.

Speaker 4 Welcome back to The Daily Show. My guest tonight is a legendary comedian and actor whose new film is called The Penguin Lessons.

Speaker 9 Please welcome the one and only legendary Mr. Steve Coogan.

Speaker 4 Standing ovation in New York.

Speaker 12 I know, that's unusual.

Speaker 4 No, we reserve it for legends. You're legends.
It's so great to finally meet you. I've been following you for a long time, huge fan of yours.

Speaker 3 You make me feel old, but Kika.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 4 because I kind of, we kind of, you started in life performing. Yeah.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 I also started in live performing. I know.
And we both went to Edinburgh. You went to Edinburgh in 1990, you did a show with Mr.
Frank Skinner. And then you went back in 1992.
You did a show with Mr.

Speaker 4 John Thompson. And a second, at the same time, you're doing a show with Richard Herring.
And was it Amando Anucci?

Speaker 12 Amanda Anucci, Patrick Marshall.

Speaker 4 Stuart Lee was on that. Stuart Lee, yeah.
And then you won the Perrier, which is the

Speaker 4 best show at Edinburgh for the show with John Thompson. And I went to Edinburgh, I won nothing, and I f ⁇ ing hated it.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I hated it too the first time. I went with Frank Skinner, this British comedian, and the reviews,

Speaker 12 the reviews were great for him, and for me, they were terrible. And the newspaper they're in, he hid under the sofa, so I wouldn't find it.

Speaker 3 But I did.

Speaker 8 But then you came back with vengeance.

Speaker 3 In the end, I won.

Speaker 3 Yeah, but I guess, yeah, no, Edinburgh.

Speaker 9 I say all of that to be like,

Speaker 4 first first of all, I've been to Edinburgh, it's the biggest live performing festival. But I guess you being a household name, comedy legend, very established in the UK,

Speaker 4 but you still stick with live performing. You never let that go.
And I guess I'm wondering for myself, like, you know,

Speaker 4 I like to think I'd be able to do that too.

Speaker 12 I think it's good. I mean, I have a recurrent dream where I'm about to go on stage with no material and I wake up in a cold sweat.

Speaker 18 But, you know, I think.

Speaker 4 But why? Why do you stick?

Speaker 4 What makes you stick in live performance?

Speaker 12 I think it's important to, you know,

Speaker 12 when you write comedy and you do comedy on TV, you know, there's so many layers between you and the audience, you don't see them laughing.

Speaker 12 I mean, you do, because they're over there and you're there.

Speaker 3 These guys are here.

Speaker 3 But a lot of times.

Speaker 4 These guys are forced to. Yeah, that I know, yes.

Speaker 9 That's where those guys with the whips are at the back.

Speaker 3 Yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 So

Speaker 12 I think it's important

Speaker 12 to get rid of all the filters because

Speaker 12 you don't want to be on an ivory tower. You've got to be connected with your audience and make sure they're still laughing and see the whites of their eyes and all that stuff.

Speaker 4 Right, as a live performer, you use it to stay connected to the crowd.

Speaker 4 Is there any element of it where you feel like just as career diversification and just from a pure money point of view, in terms of like, oh, that stuff people can take away from you?

Speaker 4 TV, film, but live performing is always.

Speaker 12 It's true. If people want to come and see you, they'll come and see you.
And there's no, and

Speaker 12 you're in total control. And also, it's like, it's quite gladiatorial.

Speaker 12 If it's successful, you get all the credit. But if it fails, it's all your fault.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 And you do, like, I mean, you kept, again, you got, I don't know if I should tell people this, you have like all the money in the world. You don't need to do anything anymore.

Speaker 12 You're quite as rich as Elon Musk, but you know.

Speaker 3 Right, you're close. You're saying that.

Speaker 4 Yeah, and you still got, and I mean, you did, not only do you do the

Speaker 4 Alan Partridge live show, you did like Doctor Strange Love recently.

Speaker 12 I did the Stanley Cooper movie. We did it on stage where I played Peter Sellers.
Did this famous movie? Anyone over 50 in the audience might know this movie.

Speaker 3 Wow. Okay.

Speaker 3 I'm surprised too. Where did you guys come from?

Speaker 5 So,

Speaker 12 he did this movie about nuclear war, a comedy, a black comedy about nuclear war. And Peter Sellers played three roles in it.
And I did a live stage version.

Speaker 12 And I did four roles because I wanted to do better than Peter Sellers.

Speaker 12 I just wanted to beat a dead man.

Speaker 3 That's a good chance to do that.

Speaker 4 No, but which is great because four roles and you are like losing, I saw you doing press for it and you were like losing your voice from it.

Speaker 12 When you're doing four roles on stage, you're on and off so fast when you go off stage you they pull all the clothes off you not in a good way.

Speaker 12 And then put it all back on you and it's like a formula on pit stop because you're just going bang bang bang bang bang and you're back on stage and I did 140 shows and I'm done.

Speaker 3 Again

Speaker 3 again all the money in the world why did you do that?

Speaker 12 I think that's, I know, maybe I'm a Catholic and I because I'm Catholic, I like to sort of punish myself and do penance.

Speaker 12 What they call penance. It's Lent, so you know.

Speaker 3 That was your penance doing Doctor Strange Love was your Lent.

Speaker 12 I think somehow, like, if hard work is good, and if life gets too easy and you get too lazy, it's good to kind of make, to scare yourself.

Speaker 3 Right.

Speaker 4 And I guess that goes back to what I was saying about you being this legendary comedic figure in the UK, Alan Partridge. And you've done it for so long now.

Speaker 4 I mean, do you do stuff to just kick yourself in the ass?

Speaker 4 Because you've managed to reinvent this character you've been doing for I guess what 30 years now well yeah

Speaker 12 in the UK he's an institution people over here he's not that well known over here the only people who know him over here are the cool people like Bill Hayder

Speaker 3 Ben Benny I know you're you're part of you're one of the new Gen Z are you Gen Z or millennials I don't even know I'm like why and then they call me millennial and I resent that but I don't know I don't know

Speaker 12 okay well I'm definitely an unreconstructed I'm a last of the baby boomers start generation X in between there so just to set it up because I'm a white middle-aged guy so I know I'm an endangered species.

Speaker 3 Not as endangered as you think right now. They're doing pretty well right now.
They're having a resurgence. That's true, I'd say.

Speaker 3 They were endangered for a while, and we accidentally brought them back.

Speaker 3 I'm sorry about that.

Speaker 3 No, no, but the point is that Alan Patrick is a, I like to call you mom famous in the UK.

Speaker 4 Everybody knows moms know.

Speaker 4 Do you know how famous you have to be to be mom famous? It is famous.

Speaker 3 It's very difficult.

Speaker 4 And so you're that level in the UK. And so, like, is that why you're?

Speaker 12 I'm kind of part of the furniture in the UK.

Speaker 3 Your institution.

Speaker 12 But over here, I'm still kind of, I'm still a bit, because no one knows who I am. I'm a little underground, so I'm still quite cool and edgy.

Speaker 19 So

Speaker 12 I come here to feel cool, and I go back there to earn a living.

Speaker 4 But I mean, that also is relevant for me, too, because I really had to ask myself this, not only coming to America, but staying here. in American show business.
Why do you come to America?

Speaker 3 Why are you in America?

Speaker 12 It's not like I want to come to America to live the American dream. I come here because I get to work with interesting people.

Speaker 12 And fortunately, because the people I admire, I've had a chance to work with them in the past. People are Owen Wilson and Stiller.

Speaker 12 And,

Speaker 12 you know, so I go and work with people I respect, people who want to do, you know, I want to entertain people, but I want to have some substance to it, too.

Speaker 12 I like to make people laugh. I like to punch up, not punch down, like your president.

Speaker 3 Yes, that's right. Our president.

Speaker 14 We are

Speaker 3 applauding the president right now.

Speaker 12 Okay, God bless America.

Speaker 4 Yeah, and you, so you do come to America to kind of get your ass kicked and challenge yourself and

Speaker 12 I just I go where the where the where the interesting people are. You know, I'm I'm lucky enough in my uh career that I can work with people I like and respect.
That's why I'm here with you.

Speaker 4 Oh yeah, thank you. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 3 That's very nice.

Speaker 12 So that's what I do. And

Speaker 12 I'm over here right now promoting this new movie, Penguin Lessons. Yes.

Speaker 12 So,

Speaker 12 and I know that there's a good audience here. I'm not, in some ways, in the UK, because I have this famous character, I'm kind of pigeonholed.
Over here, I do some

Speaker 12 odd movies that kind of have a follow-up. I did a movie called Hamlet 2 that has some kind of cult following over there.

Speaker 3 No, you did everything. You're in everything.
You did Around the World in 80 Days, Jackie Chan.

Speaker 3 You did,

Speaker 4 Oh my God, you're premium on the spot, right?

Speaker 4 You were in Tropic Thunder.

Speaker 3 Tropic Thunder, other guys, and other guys, yeah.

Speaker 3 I'm the

Speaker 3 Philomina.

Speaker 12 Philomino. Philomina was Philomena was the one.

Speaker 4 Oscar nominated Philomena.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I got an Oscar nomination. Yeah, that's nice.
I was nice to win, but it's not, you know, didn't happen.

Speaker 4 But so you did a bunch, I mean, you talk about this a lot in America, about how you were doing...

Speaker 4 You were kind of doing Alan Partridge, household name, and then you came to America and you were doing kind of not bit roles in American movies but kind of smaller profile roles.

Speaker 12 I mean I did like two days on the Joker and that was great because

Speaker 4 and so I guess asking for myself here is like it seems like you because I'm trying to build that that's kind of what that's kind of where I'm going myself.

Speaker 4 I'm like, you know, I'm doing 20 on the call sheet, grateful to do the role, have fun.

Speaker 4 But you talk about doing these roles in America, finding them a little bit unsatisfying and that's what inspired you to write

Speaker 12 I was yeah I mean I was doing a film called The Other Guys and Mark Waller and Will Farrell very funny guys with Adam McKay director

Speaker 12 Adam McKay who is a great director yeah and I was I know I

Speaker 12 enjoyed it a lot but you know it was kind of like I like to be in the driving seat and when I was doing that, that's why I've discovered the story of

Speaker 12 this Irish woman whose child had been taken from her and sold to an American couple back in the 1950s. And that was it.
So I pursued that as a writer, which was drama.

Speaker 12 And before that, I'd just done comedy.

Speaker 12 And I didn't know if it would work out, but we wound up at the Oscars. So I thought, okay, well, I'll do some more of this stuff.

Speaker 12 People seem to like it.

Speaker 4 But is that the strategy? I mean, so would you say you need to do these kind of small roles in America to build enough political

Speaker 3 middle?

Speaker 12 I have a career in the UK and I like to do a bit of comedy, a bit of drama. You know, like sometimes you don't want to get too serious because you can banish up your own ass.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 12 it's important to have a laugh and just remember it's just that don't get too full of yourself. So I like to do a bit of yin-yang, you know, so make people laugh, make them cry.

Speaker 12 Make them cry too much, they're not going to want to see you anymore. So you laugh again.

Speaker 4 No, but you definitely play that yin-yang almost better than anyone I've ever seen because you've got the comedy bona fide, like legend comedy characters.

Speaker 4 And then you do dramatic roles, not just Philomena, but you do like Jimmy Savile,

Speaker 4 which is probably the

Speaker 3 most important thing. Yeah, I play the sex offender.

Speaker 3 I know, it's a terrible thing, but

Speaker 12 it was a terrible story actually in the UK. But the worst thing about it was when I said I'm playing Jimmy Savile, the sex offender, people actually said, you'd be perfect for that.

Speaker 3 Wait a second.

Speaker 4 Yeah, so you managed to do yin-yang, just, I don't, anyway, just, you know, hats off to you.

Speaker 4 And every project you do, you know, you were talking about it with the other legend, Irish legend Tommy Tiernan Tiernan on his show.

Speaker 4 You said you're looking for projects that are funny but have heart in it.

Speaker 4 And I feel like you've definitely been going that way. I mean, you did this movie in 2019 called Greed, which was about a fashion mogul.
And kind of, there were political overtones in that about

Speaker 4 kind of the wage gap.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, the thing is,

Speaker 12 you want to make people laugh and you want to make people think at the same time. And

Speaker 12 there's ways to do that. Also, I think, you know, a lot of comedy is about...

Speaker 12 Some comedy can be about cruelty. I think it's always important to be to, you can be smart and tough, and you can be kind at the same time.
You don't have to be a dick. Right.

Speaker 4 I gotta write that down. Yeah, do, do.

Speaker 12 I'll email it to you later.

Speaker 3 I didn't know you could do it without being a dick. I've been approaching this all wrong.

Speaker 4 Yeah, but you, so, I mean, just going back to the politics, so what my point is that you kind of try to do things that have, not just be funny, but have a message.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I think well I think look it's like anything when you have an argument with someone

Speaker 12 you can bang heads and if you have a different point of point of view you can you can not end up resolving anything.

Speaker 12 And also if you have loads of facts and statistics they get twisted and people can present their alternative facts and all that stuff.

Speaker 12 But if you tell a story or you make someone laugh then you kind of show you people relax a little and you can talk about serious stuff.

Speaker 12 as you do on this show in a funny way, then people relax about it and it takes the edge off it. And it stops people being scared.
You know, we're living in scary times.

Speaker 12 And if you can laugh, have that gallows humor, then we can all get through it together, I think.

Speaker 3 Right.

Speaker 3 Right.

Speaker 3 Right. And

Speaker 3 I gotta

Speaker 4 I have to expertly pivot to what you're promoting or your publisher is gonna tell me.

Speaker 4 So no, but really I mean this I did have a plan and this is what I wanted to get with all this is that you talk about political activism. So, your latest movie is Penguin Lessons.

Speaker 4 Like, what is it about? And you might just say, what do you think about the lessons?

Speaker 3 I mean, it's a film.

Speaker 12 Ostensibly, you look at it, go,

Speaker 12 it's a cute film about a penguin. I'm not really interested in doing a cute film about a penguin.

Speaker 12 I just think.

Speaker 4 Did you tell the penguin that?

Speaker 3 I did. I didn't.

Speaker 12 I told his agent.

Speaker 4 There is a live penguin in this thing.

Speaker 12 There's a few penguins in it. But to me, my buddy was writing at

Speaker 12 Jeff Pope, who I've written a bunch of films before with. with, and he said, Hey, I made this film about a penguin, do you want to be in it? And I said, No.

Speaker 12 I said, Well, hang on, if I make the guy someone who doesn't like penguins and doesn't like animals and doesn't like children, doesn't really like people,

Speaker 12 then that gives him somewhere to go. And the penguin acts as a catalyst.
And it was set against the fascist regime, the the military dictatorship that existed in Argentina in the late 1970s.

Speaker 12 So uh so there's a kind of a dark, brooding backdrop to it.

Speaker 4 And um any parallels to modern times?

Speaker 12 Well, I fig I figured out that that everyone loves the penguins because they're cuddly.

Speaker 12 And fascism's very popular at the moment.

Speaker 4 Something for everybody.

Speaker 4 Right, fascism, but Disney, Disneyfied.

Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 12 It's like fascism meets Disney. Yeah.
Which is Disney. Which is Disney.

Speaker 3 Wait, hang on.

Speaker 4 I had to quickly do a calculation to see if our parent company was Disney, but it's not.

Speaker 4 It's Paramount. We're fine.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 4 I think I did a show with, anyway,

Speaker 4 they don't watch YouTube.

Speaker 4 So, yeah, but I did, this is kind of just for me now. Because did you,

Speaker 4 when you,

Speaker 3 again.

Speaker 12 By the way, I just want to say about the penguins, because I'm a little worried. No penguins were harmed in the making of this film.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 12 we have a robot penguin in the film, as well as real ones. So if we asked the penguins, we didn't ask the penguins to do anything difficult.

Speaker 4 It was difficult. But there's one scene where you throw the penguin back into the ocean.

Speaker 12 Yeah, that's like

Speaker 12 There's a fake one that I throw, and then

Speaker 12 we cut it together.

Speaker 4 You guys say that for legal reasons?

Speaker 12 Yeah, no, and also,

Speaker 12 I've never thrown a penguin in my life.

Speaker 12 But we get cancelled for throwing penguins.

Speaker 8 It's in the movie.

Speaker 3 It's in the movie, yeah.

Speaker 12 It's trickery. Okay.
Magic.

Speaker 3 The magic of movies. Okay, yeah.
It's not a real penguin. Okay.

Speaker 12 Yeah, but we had a robot penguin and we had a puppet penguin. Someone had their hand up, a fake penguin, so to speak.
And

Speaker 12 so

Speaker 12 we sort of mixed the two together. And I just...

Speaker 4 Yeah, and when you're doing these scenes, I was watching it, and it's like,

Speaker 4 it's comedic. It's not, I won't say you did, you're not, you're obviously not doing a sketch when you're in this movie.

Speaker 4 So is it difficult to kind of like dial it to where it's

Speaker 2 where you're not doing a sketch?

Speaker 12 No, no, it's funny, it's not silly, it's not dumb funny. It's I play a guy who doesn't really like penguins and winds up adopting one by mistake and

Speaker 12 ends up teaching these kids at school with it.

Speaker 4 It's very touching. It's not goofy.
It's not quite goofy.

Speaker 12 And like I say, there's a little bit of fascism in there because

Speaker 12 we need more of that.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 A little bit sprinkled in there.

Speaker 12 Yeah, a little sprinkling of fascism.

Speaker 4 Yeah, and I just feel like

Speaker 4 you're like this beloved character in the UK, both Steve Coogan and Alan Partridge. I think

Speaker 4 your character, Alan Partridge, appeals to people on the left and the right. in the UK, I would say.
That's true.

Speaker 3 That's true.

Speaker 4 And you're Steve Coogan yourself, you're very politically active.

Speaker 4 You're out there, you're campaigning publicly.

Speaker 12 I pick and choose my fights. If you bang on about what you think about stuff, after a while, people go, who cares what you think?

Speaker 12 And it's like, oh, no.

Speaker 3 That's where I'm at right now.

Speaker 3 No one cares about what I think.

Speaker 4 But I guess that's what I asked. I was like, you can't answer the question.

Speaker 4 I feel like you never use,

Speaker 4 chose to use Alan Partridge as a political, overt political.

Speaker 3 The thing is, you have to. It's more satirical.

Speaker 12 If you're just trying to entertain the people who already agree with you, you're never going to change anyone's opinion. You're never going to challenge them.

Speaker 12 So you have to reach out, you have to put your arms around everybody and say, look, I don't agree with you, but come over here, let's have a laugh, and maybe we can learn something. And so

Speaker 12 I do that with that Alan Partridge character.

Speaker 12 And, you know, sometimes I slip, I try to make people laugh, and if occasionally you can slip a secret message under the door while you're doing it, then that's great. And I do do that with Partridge.

Speaker 12 But if you're just preaching to the converted,

Speaker 12 what's the point?

Speaker 4 Yeah, other than making money.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, and I like to do that occasionally.

Speaker 4 All right. Anyway, but I could talk to you forever, but I just want to say thank you so much, Mr.
Steve Coogan. You're a legend.

Speaker 3 Thank you for calling me cool.

Speaker 3 I really appreciate it.

Speaker 3 You increased my street plan in the UK. Thanks for entertaining everybody.
Thanks for coming on the show. I really appreciate it.
You're the best, man. Thank you.
Just Steve Coogan, everybody.

Speaker 3 The Penguin lessons will be influenced nationwide, March 28th. It's Mr.
Steve Coogan. We're going to take a quick break.
We'll be right back after this.

Speaker 3 That's our show for tonight. Now here it is.
Your moment of Zen.

Speaker 1 What's your reaction to all of this? And what do you think the lesson from it should be, Secretary?

Speaker 7 Well, Martha,

Speaker 7 I'm going to leave all that to the legal experts.

Speaker 7 I'll say one of the few advantages of being one of the older people in the cabinet is that I still like to pick up the phone and call people.

Speaker 19 Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 19 Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus.

Speaker 20 Paramount Podcasts.

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart Podcast. Podcast.