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

Summary

The Daily Show: Ears Edition – Episode Summary Episode Title: A Conversation with TDS | Jon Stewart & Team Talk Evolving the Show, Processing Trump 2.0 - FYC
Release Date: June 23, 2025
Host/Panelists: Jon Stewart, Jordan Klepper, Ronny Chieng, Desi Lydic, Michael Kosta

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Introduction

In this enlightening episode of The Daily Show: Ears Edition, Jon Stewart reunites with the Daily Show news team to discuss the evolution of the show amidst the tumultuous political landscape, particularly focusing on the "Trump 2.0" era. The conversation delves into how the team adapts to real-time news, leverages technological advancements, and maintains comedic integrity while addressing serious societal issues.

Adapting to Real-Time News

The panel begins by addressing the challenges of preparing for unexpected news events. Jon Stewart highlights the intensity of adapting on-the-fly, especially during the Trump administration's unpredictable news cycles.

Jon Stewart [05:20]: "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."

Desi Lydic shares their experience of having to completely rewrite a show due to Elon Musk's sudden tweets, emphasizing the show's resilience and adaptability.

Desi Lydic [07:38]: "It's so impressive... we didn't back down and avoid that and do the show."

Evolution of Technology and Production

The discussion transitions to the technological advancements that have transformed the show's production. Jon Stewart reminisces about the early days when the team relied on cumbersome tape edits, contrasting it with the current ability to overhaul segments swiftly using modern technology.

Jon Stewart [22:11]: "Years ago, we used to do the show with a stone tablet and a chisel."

Michael Kosta underscores how digital tools have democratized content creation, allowing for real-time narrative crafting and enhanced production value.

Michael Kosta [33:11]: "Humanity has never been better, and people are still taking the audio of a video component and downloading it and loving it."

The Role of Collaboration and Teamwork

A recurring theme is the importance of teamwork and collaboration in maintaining the show's quality. Ronny Chieng praises the collaborative environment, attributing much of the show's success to the collective effort.

Ronny Chieng [20:04]: "It's about catharsis... keeping your humanity intact."

Jon Stewart credits Jen Flan, the executive producer, for her pivotal role in ensuring seamless production and maintaining the show's creative direction.

Jon Stewart [16:34]: "Jen was the keeper of the Krusty Krab formula... she makes sure we stay on track."

Social Media and Audience Engagement

The panel examines the impact of social media on audience perceptions and engagement. Jordan Klepper expresses concern over the fragmented way audiences consume content, often missing the broader context.

Jordan Klepper [30:47]: "Context is gone in so many ways in which people get media."

Desi Lydic highlights the popularity of the show's audio version, noting how listeners appreciate the depth and humor without the visual component.

Desi Lydic [32:21]: "People just sit on the train and listen to the audio of our show and it crushes."

Handling Serious Topics with Humor

Balancing humor with sensitivity is a critical aspect discussed by the team. They reflect on instances where the show had to address national tragedies and the ethical considerations involved.

Ronny Chieng [20:04]: "Real need to be in that room together... to connect with each other."

Michael Kosta shares his experience of addressing his dog's passing on social media, illustrating the complex interplay between personal vulnerability and public persona.

Michael Kosta [50:09]: "People started posting pictures of their best dog... they get it when you meet face-to-face."

Optimism and Resilience

Despite acknowledging the divisive political climate and the pervasive negativity on social media, the panel maintains a hopeful outlook. They believe in the resilience of American institutions and the enduring power of comedy to foster connection and catharsis.

Jon Stewart [39:48]: "I remain optimistic that people feel the humanity that is infused in art."

Ronny Chieng echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the collective need for laughter and relief in challenging times.

Ronny Chieng [40:52]: "We are thirsty to laugh. We need some relief."

Conclusion

The episode wraps up with Jon Stewart commending the team for their dedication and adaptability. The panel reiterates their commitment to producing quality content that not only entertains but also connects with audiences on a profound level.

Jon Stewart [63:34]: "It's an honor and a joy to work with you guys every day."

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Notable Quotes:

• Jon Stewart [05:20]: "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."

• Desi Lydic [07:38]: "It's so impressive... we didn't back down and avoid that and do the show."

• Ronny Chieng [20:04]: "It's about catharsis... keeping your humanity intact."

• Michael Kosta [33:11]: "Humanity has never been better, and people are still taking the audio of a video component and downloading it and loving it."

• Jordan Klepper [30:47]: "Context is gone in so many ways in which people get media."

• Jon Stewart [39:48]: "I remain optimistic that people feel the humanity that is infused in art."

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This episode offers a deep dive into the inner workings of The Daily Show, highlighting the team's ability to navigate and adapt to the ever-changing media landscape while maintaining their comedic edge and commitment to meaningful dialogue.

Transcript

[Jon Stewart]

This is an Iheart podcast.

[Jordan Klepper]

This episode is supported by FX's the Bear. The Emmy award winning series returns following Carmi, Sidney and Richie as they push forward, determined not only to survive, but also to take the Bear to the next level. This season, the pursuit of excellence isn't.

[Jon Stewart]

Just about getting better.

[Jordan Klepper]

It's about deciding what's worth holding onto.

[Desi Lydic]

FX is the Bear.

[Jon Stewart]

All episodes streaming June 25th on Hulu.

[Desi Lydic]

This episode is brought to you by WhatsApp. Your personal messaging is also your personal space completely private. That's why it's nice to know that on WhatsApp, no one can see or hear your personal messages. So the calls with your mom, chats about the latest work drama, late night voice messages, and all those photos and videos of your dog, every personal message stays private because no one, not even WhatsApp, can see or hear your personal messages. WhatsApp message privately with everyone. You're listening to Comedy Central.

[Jon Stewart]

Here we go again. It's been a good run, America.

[Ronny Chieng]

We've got so much to talk about tonight.

[Jordan Klepper]

Mass deportations, potential measles outbreak, grabbing Panama.

[Ronny Chieng]

By the canal, rip to dei, invading Greece, professional wrestling, take over Gaza, tariffs.

[Desi Lydic]

What was I talking about?

[Michael Kosta]

Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Melania.

[Ronny Chieng]

Now let's focus on the price of eggs.

[Jon Stewart]

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 ch?

[Ronny Chieng]

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.

[Desi Lydic]

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

[Jordan Klepper]

It's boring.

[Desi Lydic]

I mean, 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.

[Michael Kosta]

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 pre pard, hey, we know you didn't do anything, but Trump thinks you did something, so I'm gonna pardon you for anything you did, even though you didn't do it. It's. It's what our founders would have wanted.

[Jordan Klepper]

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.

[Michael Kosta]

You want Dems to take action, they gotta give Trump some action. You want Dems to stop jerking off and get to work.

[Jon Stewart]

They gotta get to work jerking him off.

[Ronny Chieng]

Yeah, no, I get it. I get where you' I get it.

[Jordan Klepper]

I bet you get it, you sex monster. Damn it. It's a letter from Donald Trump.

[Michael Kosta]

Dear Troy, I saw you on tv. So you are now the new Secretary of the Interior.

[Jordan Klepper]

You're not qualified to run the Interior.

[Jon Stewart]

I'm gay, Jordan.

[Michael Kosta]

He obviously thinks the head of Interior.

[Jon Stewart]

Is a decorating job.

[Jordan Klepper]

There's wallpaper swatches in here.

[Jon Stewart]

These tariffs are going to help out.

[Michael Kosta]

All my n words.

[Desi Lydic]

You're.

[Michael Kosta]

You're my net gains, Costa.

[Jon Stewart]

Right, right, of course.

[Desi Lydic]

Of course, your net gains.

[Michael Kosta]

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

[Jordan Klepper]

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 fund, huh? Okay, Jenna, you're not worried about that whole worshiping false idols thing?

[Michael Kosta]

Not at all.

[Jon Stewart]

Please welcome to the program Pete Buttigieg.

[Desi Lydic]

Gabrielle Union. Ed Helms.

[Michael Kosta]

Olivi Moss.

[Jordan Klepper]

Magwa Colman Domingo.

[Jon Stewart]

Governor Josh Shapiro. Paul W. Downs. Mark Carney.

[Jordan Klepper]

Ray Wes Moore.

[Ronny Chieng]

Mark Kubrick, Jason Siegel.

[Jordan Klepper]

Francis Ford Coppola.

[Desi Lydic]

Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

[Michael Kosta]

Connie Cha.

[Jordan Klepper]

Lia Hawk.

[Ronny Chieng]

Aubrey Plaza.

[Michael Kosta]

The Amazing Linda.

[Jordan Klepper]

Linda.

[Jon Stewart]

Steve Ballmer.

[Jordan Klepper]

Jesse Eisenberg.

[Jon Stewart]

Peak week one. Jessica Williams. I just signed on for another year with your doctors with the network. Oh, my God.

[Ronny Chieng]

You crazy?

[Jon Stewart]

You think you're going to live for another year? Trump has ushered in the purge. We should celebrate White Friday.

[Jordan Klepper]

Someone likes to kink shame, don't they, huh?

[Jon Stewart]

Pe. PE.

[Jordan Klepper]

PE.

[Jon Stewart]

PE. Welcome to our. To our panel.

[Desi Lydic]

Thank you.

[Ronny Chieng]

Thank you, John.

[Jordan Klepper]

Thanks, John.

[Jon Stewart]

I'm remarkably prepared with questions that I wrote.

[Jordan Klepper]

Yes.

[Jon Stewart]

For all of you.

[Desi Lydic]

Thanks for everybody coming. This is full room. We didn't know what was on the other side of the door. Thank you.

[Jon Stewart]

You know what we're gonna say? This is nice. They could be anywhere on a Saturday. Like, if this were New York, a Saturday afternoon in this kind of weather, I don't think we would come to this.

[Ronny Chieng]

We would not be here.

[Jon Stewart]

No way.

[Ronny Chieng]

No, no.

[Jon Stewart]

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?

[Michael Kosta]

Wow. Look, the 90s was a weird time. You know, things were different. It was.

[Jon Stewart]

Things happened, things happened.

[Michael Kosta]

And, you know, in show business, I don't know. I Don't know.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, yeah, I don't know how it went, actually. This does get in. Costa, you were, you were hosting.

[Desi Lydic]

Costa, you were on the Epstein list.

[Jon Stewart]

No, no, no. You were hosting this week. So this, this is something that I, that I want to talk because I, I think it's interesting for everybody and I'm interested in how you guys deal with it. There was a great deal of preparation that went into the week. There was 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, around 2pm, yeah. A young man by the name of Elon Musk decides to use the platform that he has purchased to. And I don't know if this was his intention to blow up the show.

[Desi Lydic]

Correct. Yeah.

[Jon Stewart]

What is that for people that are watching because you see 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?

[Desi Lydic]

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 Trav ban. We covered that he appointed a 22 year old boy as his anti terror expert that had an eyebrow raised in his headshot. 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.

[Jon Stewart]

And wait, you rehearsed.

[Desi Lydic]

And it is, it is so impressive. I get, I'm in awe of the Daily show that, that they created in 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, that's what's so fun to be proud of. Yeah.

[Jordan Klepper]

Can I throw a question off that to you?

[Desi Lydic]

What you ready for? This, this is going to be so you ready? Awesome.

[Jon Stewart]

No, this is fucking whole thing here.

[Jordan Klepper]

This is what the new athletic show does.

[Jon Stewart]

Jenga Park.

[Jordan Klepper]

Put it down. Put it down.

[Jon Stewart]

Damn it.

[Ronny Chieng]

Get out the shredder.

[Jordan Klepper]

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

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, Biden was so much easier. They'd let you know a month in advance.

[Jordan Klepper]

Yeah.

[Jon Stewart]

He'S going to have trouble at this one press conference. Make sure you have a camera there.

[Jordan Klepper]

You came, you took a little break. Right?

[Jon Stewart]

I had to get to know my family.

[Jordan Klepper]

You had to get to. Yeah, Family time, as you call it. Right.

[Jon Stewart]

They turned out to be lovely.

[Jordan Klepper]

It turned out to be lovely. Coming back into a Trump world where you hadn't been covering day in and day out. Like, 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?

[Jon Stewart]

You know, it's a funny question because a lot of the people that were there in 2015, when I left are. Are still there, and they were phenomenal. But it's. You go away for a little bit and you come back and they're faster, stronger, taller, better, smarter, funnier. Like, I walk back into the room and is all the people that I'm used to seeing, like, you kind of. You go away, you don't realize. And I was blown away at how they had taken even the level. You know, what it reminds me of is, so when I was in college, I played soccer and we thought we were pretty good. And then I went back like 30 years later to watch my old college team play, and their team sucked. Like, we, we were a 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. Like, they were so much faster, stronger, more. 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 Trump era and is it different now than what you experienced in that first one?

[Jordan Klepper]

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 gonna be fucking fine. 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 gonna be fine.

[Jon Stewart]

You know, it's bad. We will find comedy when Kid Rock is on the side going, hulk, take it down.

[Jordan Klepper]

Be respectful.

[Jon Stewart]

Be respectful.

[Jordan Klepper]

I think there was that 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.

[Ronny Chieng]

It was like the 4:45 curse is what we call it, where it's just late enough in the day. You could maybe save it for the next day. But it's such a big story. You kind of feel like you want to at least touch on it for the show. How do you decide in that day when a story drops like that at 4:30, how do you decide whether it's something that you want to tackle that day or you want to sit on it?

[Jon Stewart]

Well, you know, I show up Monday around 3, pretty drunk.

[Desi Lydic]

Yeah.

[Ronny Chieng]

Yeah, that is true.

[Jon Stewart]

So whatever's in the prompter's in the prompter. And I 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. He's got a bunch of cards, I think, in a box that he can deploy to distract us from.

[Michael Kosta]

Route the Glengarry Glenn Ross leads. He just.

[Jon Stewart]

That's. I think he's got the lead box. Like, right now, they're like, Elon Musk tweets, Donald Trump is on the Epstein list, and he's like, let's declare martial law in Los Angeles. How about that? How about I send in the National Guard and a bunch of.

[Michael Kosta]

And it works.

[Jon Stewart]

ICE agents. It. And it works phenomenally well. But. But speaking of that kind of pivot, and I want to ask you guys, because you brought up the 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?

[Ronny Chieng]

John? Jordan.

[Jordan Klepper]

Oh, yeah, we were buying Milwaukee brewers baseball caps at the time.

[Ronny Chieng]

Yeah, we were at a Brewers game.

[Jon Stewart]

No, you were at the park.

[Jordan Klepper]

You gotta hang, Jon. We're going out doing cool stuff, man. You gotta come. We're seeing baseball.

[Jon Stewart]

You guys know I'm super social.

[Jordan Klepper]

I know you would love it.

[Ronny Chieng]

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.

[Jordan Klepper]

It is not a good fit. To be very clear, it was just not a good fit. It wasn't.

[Ronny Chieng]

I had to be honest, not my color.

[Desi Lydic]

I was doing what a lot of people do at baseball games.

[Jon Stewart]

You were at the game, too?

[Desi Lydic]

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.

[Jon Stewart]

I don't remember in the air. Had the pilot turn around the power.

[Michael Kosta]

I was. I was in San Diego doing stand up comedy when he got.

[Jon Stewart]

Oh, you weren't. That. You hadn't gone to Milwaukee?

[Michael Kosta]

I hadn't gone to Milwaukee. I was gonna do the show and then go to Milwaukee afterwards. And then before the. 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.

[Jon Stewart]

I'm sorry, what's that phrase?

[Michael Kosta]

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

[Desi Lydic]

Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Kosta]

And to me, it was a lesson of, like, people. I don't think they knew he got shot. And I guess I chalk it up to, like, 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. They didn't even notice at the San Diego show, so I had to. I think I was the one who broke the news to the San Diego crowd. Like, hey, do you know the President got shot?

[Desi Lydic]

Well, this is also explained some of the problem.

[Michael Kosta]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jon Stewart]

Right.

[Michael Kosta]

Yeah.

[Jordan Klepper]

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?

[Jon Stewart]

Right? You people are so stupid.

[Michael Kosta]

Stupid people don't even know President God.

[Jon Stewart]

Did you. Did you? When? 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.

[Desi Lydic]

Correct.

[Jon Stewart]

With the kind of adaptability that it does. Like, just. That's one of the people that. Jen was a production assistant when I started on the show in 1999, and now, like, is the keeper of, you know, the Krusty Krab 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 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.

[Desi Lydic]

What are we talking about my abs here?

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah. Jen got the call that where the theater was was gonna move into the hard zone. And we were like, I don't think we wanna be in the hard zone. So everybody. Everybody can't call.

[Desi Lydic]

But why, Jon? Why? Because my instinct was, oh, my God, this is a big thing. This is our duty as Daily show correspondents. And I Was so thankful that you smacked us in the face with reality and said, come home, be safe.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah.

[Desi Lydic]

So thanks for that.

[Jon Stewart]

No, listen, I thought it'd be funnier if you guys weren't. No, I think that's. And that's something that, you know, for the audience, I think there's sometimes an expectation. And we'll 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, as we, like, things would happen, like the Charlie Hedbo 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 be back. Do you guys feel that pressure?

[Michael Kosta]

I. I kind of take a lot of my cues from you. And so when you said. So, I. I gotta admit, it is. 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?

[Jordan Klepper]

Right.

[Michael Kosta]

So I. I'm with you. Of, like, this isn't a. That's not something that we necessarily need to contribute to the culture at that moment, you know, So I think it.

[Ronny Chieng]

Really helped when you relieved us of that burden. You kind of. No, but you do.

[Jon Stewart]

You do.

[Jordan Klepper]

Yeah, some. Would someone.

[Jon Stewart]

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

[Jordan Klepper]

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. As a permission structure to be small ourselves, you know?

[Jon Stewart]

Thank you.

[Jordan Klepper]

You're well, thank you.

[Jon Stewart]

I have always said this show can shrink to meet the moment.

[Ronny Chieng]

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 right? You know, people.

[Desi Lydic]

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 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, I love when we say something profound and have a message, but we 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.

[Ronny Chieng]

Plug the book.

[Jon Stewart]

Plug the book and. Plug the book.

[Desi Lydic]

No, but plug the book. Of course we want to say something important, but the important people should say the important things first and we can tell jokes.

[Michael Kosta]

Wait, you don't sell out in presale. You should try the. Yeah.

[Desi Lydic]

But you gotta get a better marketing guy or something. I don't know.

[Michael Kosta]

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. Yeah, you've been.

[Ronny Chieng]

No big deal. No big deal.

[Michael Kosta]

You know, a lot of what we do, we're talking about changing the show at first, fourth at 4pm for 6pm 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 trying to. Could you even change the show at 4 with tapes?

[Jon Stewart]

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

[Michael Kosta]

Yeah.

[Jon Stewart]

I would sit and then we'd have. We'd have the tablet almost done, and then somebody would come in and go, garfield's been shot. Take it. 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. And there were no. I mean, it sounds almost ridiculous now, but like, TiVo hadn't been invented yet. Like, there wasn't this sense that you could follow. I think the way we did the show was we used to get. There was one group feed that you could buy into even if you were Us and it was the AP news feed. 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 before we ever did our daily show montages or any of those kinds of things, if you made an error in the edit when you were putting the show together for rehearsal, avids weren't invented yet. So you hear the whole crowd like, what?

[Desi Lydic]

Yeah, this is such an LA audience.

[Jon Stewart]

You say avid.

[Desi Lydic]

Everyone's avid.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, avid. I don't understand.

[Jordan Klepper]

It didn't react to Trump being shot, but avid, oh, my God, the humanity.

[Desi Lydic]

They don't even know Trump got shot.

[Jon Stewart]

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 sudden 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'll be 45 minutes.

[Desi Lydic]

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 Melkman is on the phone and it like, 12 seconds, there's a new read of a more exciting version of that. And it's amazing. You talk about, like, the tools that are fun to play with. They have this amazing toolbox and they give us the tools, and 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? It felt like you were getting radiation cancer in that room every single time.

[Michael Kosta]

It looked like so.

[Jon Stewart]

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. You would just lose video editors. Like, they'd be, 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 you been emailed on a Saturday, on a like Monday night, 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 gonna put into the piece.

[Jordan Klepper]

It's honestly one of the most interesting things in having been at the Daily show for a long time is to see, like, how it's been adapted.

[Jon Stewart]

Have you have.

[Jordan Klepper]

Well, I mean, not. Not Jurassic. I think I was like, Jurassic Lost World, right?

[Jon Stewart]

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

[Jordan Klepper]

Yeah, we had the Chris Pratt era, right? Yeah, Chris Pratt, where he's a raptor wrangler. Is that where that series went?

[Michael Kosta]

Yes, it makes sense.

[Jordan Klepper]

Yeah. One of these.

[Jon Stewart]

I love that when he looks at the velociraptor. Yeah.

[Desi Lydic]

Careful. All six writers of that screenplay.

[Jordan Klepper]

You're right. Yes.

[Desi Lydic]

In this room. Yeah.

[Jordan Klepper]

Don't worry. Your geniuses AI could never come up with an idea that dumb.

[Jon Stewart]

Back then. They had to use real dinosaurs.

[Desi Lydic]

They did it.

[Jordan Klepper]

So impressive. What has been so interesting? Like, there's Twitter now. People get reactions to the news in real time where in, you know, 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, like, we have like this robust social team that has the ability to like, respond in real time. And so we can have like comedic conversations in real time throughout the day. I think then the show now can craft a narrative in its first act which can play for like an eight minute narrative about what happened during the day or make a larger point. We have field pieces that can go out and they can kind of craft stories that are out there. We get to do specials. They get to have long narrative. We get to do clipped jokes.

[Ronny Chieng]

Love the special.

[Jordan Klepper]

There are great specials done by really intrepid reporters who go into the Fray, you know, finger the pulse.

[Jon Stewart]

Finger it.

[Jordan Klepper]

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. Ronny 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 the 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, like, have conversations on all those platforms. Yes, but. Is there a but?

[Michael Kosta]

No. No but?

[Jordan Klepper]

No, Just a yes?

[Michael Kosta]

Yeah, just a yes.

[Jon Stewart]

But did that surprise. So you guys were more grew up in that era. And I'll ask you how you sort of interact now with.

[Desi Lydic]

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

[Jon Stewart]

You grew up in that era where, you know, again, I. I was used to this linear idea of like, I feel like. Like I run a Tower Records. Do you know what I mean? Like, I'm still like, people, if they want music, they've got to come into my store and go to the CD rack, you know, and everybody's like, it's. There's. I have a chip behind my ear and it gets me all the new Bieber songs. Like, it is. The delivery systems are so different, but the content, you know, I sort of liken it to like, when I started, we were at McDonald and then like you opened a drive through and like, I'm like, wait, you can. 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 gonna go.

[Jordan Klepper]

It's definitely how I consume it. I think where I get nervous about it is I watch television.

[Jon Stewart]

They see it.

[Jordan Klepper]

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, is like, 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.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, right.

[Jordan Klepper]

You're an influencer. Was it? Yeah, you're an influencer. You're an influencer. And I used to be like, oh, that's funny. I'm like, no, that is like canon. Like a 25 year old just knows you in 30 second clips. Which to me is worrisome and, 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 are 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 like, it's the context that shifts the platforms. People seem to be like dipping in each of them. I know I do.

[Desi Lydic]

People listen to our show, just the audio version of it with no other visual component as a very popular podcast. They just sit on the train and listen to the audio of our show and it crushes. And they say, Costa's audio crushes. They say that I added that last part and you're. But I'm saying, 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.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah.

[Ronny Chieng]

What a missed opportunity. They can't even see your abs.

[Desi Lydic]

Exactly.

[Michael Kosta]

And hard security area, like coming out of the jungles of Malaysia. Like I. Here we go.

[Desi Lydic]

Stop. Ronnie. Jesus.

[Michael Kosta]

As a jungle, as a real immigrant here who actually overcame.

[Jon Stewart]

I was raised by small lemurs.

[Michael Kosta]

I, I always aspired to work at these American institutions of comedy. Like, you know, I. That was my aspiration to work at, you know, like snl Daily show, you know, work in American show business. I felt there was something aspirational these institutions and you get to, you know, over the last kind of 10 years, you're talking about the Internet kind of, kind of wipe. The algorithm kind of rewards quantity over quality. I think that's kind of what we're discussing here.

[Jon Stewart]

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

[Michael Kosta]

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

[Desi Lydic]

Are the three of your buzzers buzzing in your back pocket? Don't go there. Don't go there.

[Michael Kosta]

But I Do. 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. Social media is making me sick. And I think one thing that the show does really well, and thank you to Jon Stewart as well for doing this really well, is doing 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 this. The. The same production value and comedy knowledge and, you know, like.

[Desi Lydic]

And we have a great, great, great group of writers, right?

[Michael Kosta]

A great group of writers.

[Desi Lydic]

And so they turn shit out fast. Funny. Yeah, yeah. And.

[Michael Kosta]

But I'm just saying that that quality comes through the quality, right? 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, okay, I.

[Ronny Chieng]

Did that one time. One time, right.

[Michael Kosta]

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

[Desi Lydic]

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

[Jon Stewart]

Well, it is. I mean, I think. And for you guys also, who, you know, everyone out here who works in the business, I think we're feeling these kinds of the plates shift underneath us. And having experienced those shifts from, you know, our more primitive days of 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, writers 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 really do go and we test the hops and we smell the. 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. That's a tragic thing to lose in this business.

[Desi Lydic]

I mean, rehearsal, John, is really.

[Michael Kosta]

Yeah, yeah, let them applaud.

[Desi Lydic]

I'm sorry.

[Jordan Klepper]

Yeah.

[Desi Lydic]

Well, now I built it up, and I don't even.

[Jon Stewart]

God bless. By the way, that speech was written by AI Chatgpt. Couldn't tell the difference. But I do think. Because everything that these guys are talking about is about touching every part of the process and valuing every part of the process, from the people that do 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. Of. Of quality. And I. And I wondered, you know, where you. 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.

[Desi Lydic]

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.

[Jon Stewart]

By the way, we also have two people in the building whose job it is. 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.

[Michael Kosta]

Sorry.

[Desi Lydic]

I hope.

[Michael Kosta]

I just wanted to see what the sign language will punch someone in the dick.

[Jon Stewart]

Hey.

[Michael Kosta]

By the way, can. Can someone even verify this is correct sign language, by the way? Because I don't want to end up on my own show with.

[Desi Lydic]

I hope the answer, John, is what Ronnie alluded to earlier, that people there always will be a hunger for quality. And I hope. I hope we keep making quality. And we have for the last 30 years. Yes, right.

[Jon Stewart]

Having faith in discernment to be able.

[Desi Lydic]

To tell them, 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.

[Jon Stewart]

Kind of going, oh, yeah, no, you're supposed to read it. That's your. That's your problem.

[Desi Lydic]

I needed. This is perfect. I did an act, wasn't really funny. John stepped in, save the day, daily shows. Great. There we go. Boom. That's how we work.

[Jordan Klepper]

There's a team working together.

[Desi Lydic]

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

[Michael Kosta]

I. I don't know. I don't know. I worry about it. I don't know.

[Ronny Chieng]

I worry about it.

[Michael Kosta]

You. I don't know if this is the Last of the Mohicans.

[Jordan Klepper]

Is this.

[Jon Stewart]

No. It. It feels like we're in one of those places. The one thing I will say is I remain optimistic that people feel the humanity that is infused in art. And if you remove that, that will. You will know it. I can't say it for sure, and maybe I'm lying to myself, but there is something about the connection between people, and I see it now. Maybe this is a place to take it to a different place, because each, you know, each week that we host, we go out 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, and 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 something extent. Are you feeling a difference when you go out and talk to the audience?

[Ronny Chieng]

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 and talking about just the group collaboration and from the first meeting of the day, walking into a room of your funniest friends and finding the lightness and the humor and the tragedy that's happening in the world, and the fact that I get to work in a place that is so deeply collaborative. And this is something that you instilled into the DNA of the show, and Jen Flan's is a huge part of it as well. But, you know, we have multiple meetings throughout the day. We talk to each other, we collaborate with each other. Anyone can Pitch an idea and you feel it in the creative process. And then to get to sit with the audience and process it with. With them, it feels much more like a collaborative experience with them than I've ever felt before.

[Desi Lydic]

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. 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 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.

[Michael Kosta]

Everglades, they're the better animal. Maybe they should take over.

[Desi Lydic]

Well, it's not supposed to be there in the first place. Okay, well, that's typical of somebody who.

[Michael Kosta]

Grew up in Malawi.

[Jon Stewart]

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

[Desi Lydic]

Well, do you know where I'm going on Monday, Ronnie? I'm flying to the Everglades strangles on pythons to fucking kill pythons with this lady. And I don't know if this might be the last time I ever do a Please vote for our Emmy show nomination show. But I have to point that out because that is 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 gonna 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. You're not allowed to chase.

[Jon Stewart]

Wait, why is the egg.

[Desi Lydic]

Because I guess it's like, the potential. Even, like a young child's life is worth more than our child, you know? Our life. I mean, why did this get so dark? My point is the package. Yeah, the point is you're not going.

[Jon Stewart]

To be in the office next week, correct?

[Desi Lydic]

I'm not going to 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.

[Ronny Chieng]

But you're regretting it.

[Michael Kosta]

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 and Americans.

[Jordan Klepper]

It's American Americans, Ronnie.

[Desi Lydic]

And thank you, Ronnie.

[Michael Kosta]

In your case, you kill local wildlife.

[Desi Lydic]

And what about your piece where you went.

[Michael Kosta]

I kill fish.

[Desi Lydic]

Went to the bottom of the ocean.

[Jon Stewart]

You shot shot fish?

[Michael Kosta]

We shot lionfish. They were invasive species in Florida. And lion.

[Jon Stewart]

What did you shoot them with?

[Michael Kosta]

With a gun. Yeah, just.

[Desi Lydic]

By the way, this is where we think the legal department at Comedy Central.

[Jordan Klepper]

They're wonderful.

[Michael Kosta]

But all these field pieces are like little short films, I guess, or snuff films. It's. If you want to, you know, like, that's how it was. And we go out there and you have to, you know, it's a real education in aspects, well, Americana. I was gonna bring it back to LA and be like. Of moviemaking because you need to have writing skills, you need acting skills, you need improv skills, you need a producer who knows what they're doing, they're direct, you need a director, you need camera people that you need to edit it. So every of these field pieces, you know, you see Jordan going out there just, you know, and you think it's easy.

[Jordan Klepper]

Have you watched any of these pieces?

[Michael Kosta]

No, I just. I don't know. I don't know what you actually, I know you go to the DC or something.

[Jon Stewart]

Jordan Krepper's new special.

[Michael Kosta]

Look At Me and. And you. You'd see him do it and it looks easy, but that's because he, we. He spends a lot of time in edit and he's. He works with a lot of the.

[Jordan Klepper]

Worst at complimenting people. Like the worst. The worst. By the way, you try to be like that.

[Jon Stewart]

Where is.

[Jordan Klepper]

There's like a genuinely nice thing.

[Michael Kosta]

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

[Jon Stewart]

Every meeting at the show just evolves. I don't know how we get the show on the air.

[Michael Kosta]

And he's also a lanky person who's.

[Jordan Klepper]

Who doesn't have to enter into the conversation.

[Michael Kosta]

If you've seen a piece who happens to be a world class improviser, then that's why you get.

[Jordan Klepper]

That's where. That's where it is.

[Michael Kosta]

That's a.

[Jon Stewart]

That's a beautiful. Ultimately within all that I thought was a beautiful.

[Desi Lydic]

Thank you.

[Jon Stewart]

Imagine a Burmese python with something inside it and you're like, what is that? And it was a beautiful compliment. Yeah.

[Jordan Klepper]

Feels like it's the snake eating its.

[Jon Stewart]

Own tail, if you ask me. 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?

[Michael Kosta]

When I came out of the jungles of Malaysia, here we go. We had Malaysian pythons and we had. And I always wanted to come to America and travel, so I. I got. When I go around America, I go with like, oh, my God. I get to do. I get to see America. You know, when I get to do field pieces or when I do, when I tour the Stan Comedy special, like, I get to. I get to, like, see all these different parts of America. And I gotta tell you something, this was before the election, and every town I went to, I was like, you know what? There's more good people and bad people out here for sure. You know, every city, I don't care is Republican or Democrat, whatever. Everyone was always super nice to me. They didn't know who I was, I think. And they were still nice. Everyone was respectful, face to face. People in America are very respectful. And so I didn't go in thinking, everyone's gonna 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, and that made me hopefully. And then the election happened. I was like, what the fuck happened there? Because everyone I met was great.

[Jon Stewart]

You like Americans as individuals, but not as a voting block.

[Michael Kosta]

In the aggregate, they get a little weird. But in 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.

[Jon Stewart]

And I think it's generally people's experience with other humans is that. 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, gentlemen, fascinating. Like, it's, it's just more like, wow, that fucking guy will say anything. You know, and in a horrible way. Like, I, I always tell this, this story. It's a terrible story. Oh, fuck it. Now I'm not gonna tell it, but I'll tell. All right, but the, 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 anti Semitism. I think anti Semitism will be fine. I think it's very resilient. But the reason I say it is. So I 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 post, I did something I never do, which is post it on social media. And I put pictures up of my family and I when 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?

[Desi Lydic]

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

[Jon Stewart]

The second part of that post was, and this is our German shepherd, Eva. And she said, 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 in like the comments section? Because it is those people I don't actually think exist. Even the people that write those, that's not really who they are. It's that the algorithm has changed their wiring in that context.

[Jordan Klepper]

I mean, I've been. Hassled by folks in the Maggie universe who then I meet in.

[Jon Stewart]

Is that the MAGA universe now they're like Marvel. Yes. All right.

[Jordan Klepper]

I think they've created super.

[Michael Kosta]

Maga in sign language. Is it like this?

[Jordan Klepper]

Is that what it is?

[Desi Lydic]

She's spelling it out. Yeah, Spelling.

[Michael Kosta]

Sorry, but you want to say.

[Jordan Klepper]

I think it's also S.O.S.

[Michael Kosta]

You say you ain't coming.

[Jon Stewart]

The mainstream liberal interpreters.

[Jordan Klepper]

I have a. Like, 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 is famous in the MAGA world. And the brick suit guy, he wears a brick suit that looks like Trump's wall and he.

[Jon Stewart]

But not actual bricks.

[Jordan Klepper]

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 one of these. 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.

[Jon Stewart]

What?

[Jordan Klepper]

Just me and him? Just me and him for three.

[Jon Stewart]

You and Brick suit Guy.

[Jordan Klepper]

Me and Brick suit guy. And we talked for three and a half fucking hours.

[Jon Stewart]

About bricks?

[Jordan Klepper]

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 livestreams his location and somebody got hip to it and robbed him.

[Desi Lydic]

This sounds like the worst Delta Sky Club of all time.

[Jordan Klepper]

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.

[Michael Kosta]

He got you.

[Jordan Klepper]

He got to me.

[Michael Kosta]

Shit.

[Ronny Chieng]

And that's why you voted for Trump?

[Jordan Klepper]

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. It's one person who's changed the way they talk to me. But it's such a clear example that I've seen. I've seen it with many people I 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 you got to dip it. I feel I need to dip into X on the week of hosting. I got to dip into these spaces to get a sense of what that conversation is.

[Jon Stewart]

The temperature.

[Jordan Klepper]

What is the temperature?

[Jon Stewart]

Right.

[Jordan Klepper]

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

[Jon Stewart]

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

[Ronny Chieng]

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

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, I feel this is awful before you're hosting where you literally, like, you come in and you just got to like do your prep. Like you're going to get the G forces. You got to strap. I'm going to host this week.

[Desi Lydic]

There was a field piece I did when Trump aired last season. Canada is 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 vote, who's 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 gonna 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.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, mob mentality's worse. Some of it may be that it really is. There's a certain K phase to it all. The thing that I worry about with kayfabe, for 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 and 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 took to wrap this thing around because we gotta. We gotta 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 gonna get through this? You know, And I'm always like, hey, man, tickets are free. Just shut the fuck up and watch a show. I don't say that, but I think, you know, people forget, like in early 2000s, you know, they argued to let. For the unitary executive and that the vice president. I mean, there was an argument that the vice president had the power alone to institute the ability to torture people. You know, we forget our history is littered with these really tenuous moments where we find ourselves in a shaky place. And yet the resilience of the country finds its way not to perfection, but past maybe those 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.

[Michael Kosta]

Coming out of 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. Freedom speech still is. Is there? I mean, we've been on him for 12 years now, and he hasn't come after me yet. So I don't know, you know, says something there.

[Jon Stewart]

So we've got a special surprise for Ronnie.

[Michael Kosta]

Isis 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 sickness. 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 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.

[Jon Stewart]

You know, people think, you know, the printing press was invented and everybody thought and that ushered in the Enlightenment, but it didn't. It ushered in like 100 years of killing witches.

[Michael Kosta]

The opposite of then.

[Jon Stewart]

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

[Ronny Chieng]

I'm hopeful. I mean, I. Desi's always hopeful, though. Yeah, I'm always hopeful.

[Jon Stewart]

She's always the best.

[Ronny Chieng]

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. I don't have to because I go home to visit my family.

[Michael Kosta]

Explore more shows from the Daily show.

[Desi Lydic]

Podcast universe by searching the Daily Show.

[Jordan Klepper]

Wherever you get your podcast, watch the.

[Desi Lydic]

Daily show weeknights at 1110 Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount.

[Ronny Chieng]

Plus, we can find some commonality. And I think this has been a Comedy Central podcast. 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 and, you know, I. I do think that there's hope that we'll get through this thing.

[Jon Stewart]

Right?

[Desi Lydic]

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. 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.

[Jon Stewart]

Take us home, Jordan.

[Jordan Klepper]

Jesus Christ. Titanic jungles that I wasn't aware of.

[Desi Lydic]

Burmese Python.

[Jordan Klepper]

Burmese Python, you know. Yeah, I think you gotta find hope. I find hope in a couple places. I just did a really great special, but I went into that, I went into that with a lot less hope because I was talking to kids who were MAGA kids and who I 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 and to weaponize cruelty. And they might. I think the way the tech is set up right now, that's where this end game 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 the 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.

[Jon Stewart]

Right. Well, I very much appreciate, I very much appreciate you guys coming out. It's an honor and a joy to work with you guys every day.

[Desi Lydic]

Thank you for coming out, you guys, for real.

[Jon Stewart]

Thanks for coming out.

[Michael Kosta]

Everybody, please. The one and only Mr. Jon Stewart.

[Desi Lydic]

This is an Iheart podcast.