Podcast Summary: "Fox News Wanted Greg Gutfeld to Do This Interview. He Wasn't So Sure."

Podcast: The Interview (The New York Times)
Hosts: David Marchese
Guest: Greg Gutfeld
Date: November 8, 2025

Overview

In this candid and at times combative conversation, Greg Gutfeld—host of Fox News’ late-night smash "Gutfeld!" and co-host of "The Five"—sits down with David Marchese amidst major shifts in the late-night television landscape. With the cancellations of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and Jimmy Kimmel’s show facing scrutiny, Gutfeld reflects on his show’s rise, the politics of comedy, media echo chambers, cancel culture, and how resentment, risk, and changing cultural values have shaped both his comedy and his legacy.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Collapse of the Old Late Night Order

• Colbert’s Cancellation & Kimmel’s Suspension
  • Gutfeld reacts bluntly to their exits:

    “Why did it take so long?... I had crushed them like bugs, David.” (03:00)

  • He attributes their demise not to politics, but to declining viewer numbers and over-politicized, unfunny content:

    “It wasn’t entertainment anymore. It was more like a therapy session for people that were upset at the world.” (03:19)

2. Nature of "Gutfeld!" and His Success

• Gutfeld contrasts his show’s approach to those on the left, emphasizing "fun" and teasing—even as he admits to being provocative and sometimes crossing lines.
  • On teasing and show dynamics:

    “I make fun of everybody that I love and, and relentlessly…If you want to know the people I don't like, it's the people I don't tease.” (05:00)

  • He credits the success to self-ridicule and camaraderie among his panelists.

3. Accusations of Hypocrisy & The "Trump Filter"

• Marchese presses on whether Gutfeld’s show acts as a right-wing echo chamber for its audience, analogous to the therapy Gutfeld ascribed to Colbert and Kimmel.

  • Gutfeld insists a key difference is in the level of demonization:

    “I may think you’re wrong, you might think I’m evil. That’s where the difference is.” (07:06)

• Marchese provides a counterexample, quoting Gutfeld’s own words:

  “You literally use the phrase, ‘the left are dumb, fascist mother effers.’” (07:44)

  • Gutfeld half-defends, half-dismisses:

    “I imagine that it was in some kind of like paragraph of hyperbole where I was having fun.” (08:11)

4. The Secret Sauce & Foils in Comedy

• Gutfeld sees traditional late-night hosts as necessary “foils” for his identity and jokes:

  “Maybe it helps sharpen my identity and it reminds me of what I am, which is not them.” (11:35)

• He outlines his "hierarchy of smears":

  “If you call somebody a fascist who’s going to destroy the world, I can call you anything... I’m never going to call somebody fat because they’re fat. I’m going to call you fat if you called me Hitler." (12:42)

5. Teasing, Animosity, and What’s Off Limits

• When asked about his own sensitivities:

  “Maybe it’s the…what gets me is when you call me Hitler. That might be my soft spot. That’s the line.” (15:44)

6. Risk, Orthodoxy, and Audience Expectations

• On what might offend his own audience:

  “If I am too flippant on religion. But I think that my audience is pretty generous because… they’re aligning kind of with me.” (16:09)

• He admits to having shifted positions over time—with drugs and tariffs as examples—but observes a libertarian streak in his thinking.

7. On Trump, Libertarianism, and Conservative Shifts

• Gutfeld highlights ideological drift on the right and his own reservations about Trump’s stances:

  “Trump was, before he was in politics, kind of like, do whatever you want, just don’t bother me.” (21:35)

  • He objects to Trump’s idea of jailing people for burning the flag:

  “If it’s your flag, you can do whatever you want. That, to me, is a mistake.” (21:35)

8. Health Fads and MAHA (Make America Healthy Again)

• Drawing on his magazine background, Gutfeld expresses skepticism about anti-vax and health fads, relating both to his wife’s hesitations and cultural trends:

  “There was some weird… you come into the reverse circumcision movement. Guys who wanted their foreskin back. That was a thing.” (23:54)

• He gives credit to RFK Jr. for being "fit" even as he distances himself from vaccine-autism conspiracies.

9. The Opposition Toxin & Framing

• Gutfeld laments media’s tendency to reduce debate to two irreconcilable sides:

  “I call it the prison of two ideas. And almost everything is, can be placed in that prison.” (26:15)

10. Childhood, Resentment, and Humor as Defense

• Gutfeld addresses his formative years—caretaking for a sick father, social exclusion ("the Sharks"), and a lost childhood friend—acknowledging their contributions to his worldview and showmanship.

  • On exclusion:

    “It was the first time I ever felt you were being excluded…and also how stupid they were acting as a mob.” (30:50)

• On resentment’s role in his approach:

  “Almost all resentments have your role in it... It’s usually self doubt.” (33:08)

11. Ambitions, Parenthood, and Gratitude

• With a new child, Gutfeld describes how fatherhood has reshaped his outlook:

  “It makes you forgive everything bad you did prior to that…It all led to this.” (28:52)

• On future ambitions:

  “God, I’m 61. There are no long term ambitions. I’m happy doing this and I imagine that the vehicles might change…” (34:08)

Part Two: Risk, Hypocrisy, and the Right’s Cool Factor

12. The Risk of Being Interviewed and Media Echo Chambers

• Gutfeld reveals Fox News encouraged him to do the interview, despite his own reluctance:

  “I didn’t want to do this interview because I was weighing the risk benefits, and I couldn’t see the benefits, but I could see the risks.” (42:41)

• He notes similar wariness from liberals who decline to appear on his show.

13. Repetition, Narratives, and Accountability

• Pressed about whether his own show amplifies the kind of narratives he criticizes, Gutfeld draws a moral distinction:

  “I do my best not to call people Nazis. I do my best not to put targets on people’s back.” (38:22)

• He asserts the right’s "crackpots" are marginalized, not platformed, in the way left’s excesses are—Marchese pushes back with the Dominion lawsuit example.

14. "Coolness," Comedy, and Generational Shifts

• Gutfeld outlines the “Dean Wormer effect”—how the right has become the rebellious class clown, and the left, “the scolds, the wet blankets.”

  “What is considered, I don’t know, fun is whatever upsets your teacher. This is where I think the real Trump fandom came into play among young people—how much it pissed off their teachers.” (45:25)

• He warns about the dangers of becoming what you oppose:

  “When you ascend, you replicate the very practices that you hate.” (48:07) “I try never to say, ‘that’s not funny,’ because that shouldn’t matter.” (48:12)

15. Idealism and Gratitude

• Reflecting on personal growth:

  “I expect everything to be difficult, and then when it goes well, I’m incredibly grateful. And that one little switch… has changed my life.” (49:21)

Selected Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On outsized insults:

  "If that man was any more full of shit, he'd be a colostomy bag." (on Kimmel; 12:36)

• On teasing as affection:

  "If you want to know the people I don't like, it's the people I don't tease." (05:00)

• On self-reflection and risk:

  “I didn't want to do this interview…why walk a tightrope between two buildings when you could just cross the street?” (42:41)

• On comedy and ‘coolness’:

  “Once the left got too comfortable, got into power, they realized they didn't have to have a sense of humor anymore.” (46:57)

• On idealism:

  “I really love life...It’s a very simple filter flip...Now it's like, I expect everything to be difficult, and then when it goes well, I'm incredibly grateful.” (49:21)

Major Timestamps

• 03:00—Gutfeld’s reaction to late night shake-up
• 07:44—Marchese calls out Gutfeld’s rhetoric (“dumb, fascist mother effers”)
• 12:36—On personal animosity and insults
• 15:44—Gutfeld reveals his soft spot: being called Hitler
• 21:35—Gutfeld on Trump and libertarian values
• 26:15—On the ‘Opposition Toxin’ in media
• 28:52—Parenthood, regret, and new priorities
• 42:41—Reluctance and risk in public conversation
• 45:25—Why the right became “cool”
• 49:21—Gutfeld’s closing idealistic note

Tone and Style

The conversation is brisk, sharp, alternately adversarial and self-deprecating. Gutfeld is unapologetically combative and witty, yet disarmingly candid about his own insecurities and personal growth. Marchese is persistent and probing, grounding the discussion with direct quotations and challenging follow-ups, matching his guest’s energy.

Final Thoughts

This episode provides rare insight into Greg Gutfeld’s worldview: his self-perceived role as outsider-turned-king of late night, the mechanics of camaraderie and teasing as comedic tools, how risk and resentment shaped his ethos, and his awareness of the moral complexities in contemporary satire and culture war. Whether one applauds or despises his style, Gutfeld’s reflections reveal the mindset of a cultural provocateur at the top of his game—and the anxieties and contradictions that come with it.