The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Trevor and The Daily Show Crew at the 2019 The Future of Everything Festival
Episode Date: June 22, 2019Trevor and members of his team sit down with The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern to discuss the inner workings of The Daily Show at The Future of Everything Festival. Learn more about your ad-choi...ces at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Good evening, everybody.
Good evening, everybody. All right, five of you, one of me, you're going to be nice.
To each other or you? Nice to you, yes.
Okay, great.
So let's stick with this five thing for a second.
Five words, what do each of you do?
You each get five words, not in five words, not in five words.
What do you do in five words?
We each get five words for what we do? That's correct. But it's not a sentence it's just five words. It can be a
sentence it can be five words. I'll just give you five words. News, politics, jokes,
trump. Fun. That's my five words. You guys are screwed.
Um, news? Okay we use the same ones?
No, no.
Oh, completely different.
I mean, I can't really keep track of them.
This is five words about what we do.
All right.
Okay.
I'd like everyone to know what each of you five do.
Oh.
Problem solving.
Sometimes, always, Trump.
Sorry.
That's what I heard you do, so that's perfect.
Okay.
Uh, keep that shit together every day.
Yes.
Yes.
Five unrelated words just randomly put together would be, help, help, Trevor hits me.
Unrelated.
That would say that.
Um, I do the social media.
I do the social media.
That's pretty much it.
That actually summarizes what they all do.
I've been studying this for like five weeks
and they just summarize that real quick for you.
So I came to watch the show a couple weeks ago.
I came to a taping.
Got to see your offices.
You have a dog-friendly office?
Which I inherited from John Stewart. And Jen Flans is basically I feel like the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the a thing we have a dog friendly office which I inherited from John Stewart and Jen Flans is basically I feel like the the arbiter of all
dogs it's not just the executive producer but also the dog wrangler and so
when I came to the office the first time I thought maybe it was like a
dog episode and then I came back and I was like wow this is a long
episode and then I found out no no, it's a dog-friendly office.
And Jen actually thought when I joined,
I was going to kick out all the dogs.
I said, sure, fire away to have everyone on the staff turn against you,
take away the dogs.
Well, she's thought that because they said,
I'm going to kick, like, your dogs.
And then they were like, yeah?
And I was like, no.
Because I don't know them.
I don't just love random dogs.
And I think they took that to mean that I would get rid of them.
And anyone who's read your book knows about that story about your dog's.
Yes, I love dogs.
So the dogs have all about at the show is that you guys do a live-to-tape daily show. I had forgotten that there was this
taped show that runs on TV every night because I see it on Twitter, I watch on
YouTube, I follow you on Instagram. Do you guys think of the show still as a
TV show? I like to think of the show as having a home base on TV because there are still many people who say to me, hey, I DVR the show, I watch it in the morning when I get ready for work,
I watch it at night.
Sometimes people record the entire week on Comedy Central and then they binge watch the entire
thing. So what I've always loved is thinking of the home of the show on TV. But what has become wonderful is the news cycle. thiiiiiii. th. th. th. th. th. I, th. th. I, th. th. th. I, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, I, I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I. I. I. I. th. I. I. I. I, I. I. I, I, I, I. I. th. I, I, I, I. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th truly has now become 24 hours it feels like, you know?
It feels like before it wasn't, like just people making it up, trying to full-time,
but there was a change at a very high level in this country,
and that really impacted when news broke.
And so I think it's given us an opportunity to engage with the news in a different way.
So now the Daily Show doesn't just live in one space, because News doesn't live in one space.
Before the Daily Show mainly did TV
because that's where news was happening.
But then you get to a place where the President
is basically holding press conferences on Twitter.
If he's engaging in foreign policy with foreign leaders,
twea, twea, twea then do the same thing with the show is how do you adapt that commentary? You know, and then politicians are making Instagram videos
showing you how natural they are.
And so we figured, well, we could jump onto those platforms
and comment on it in that way.
And so we had to create a completely new division
of the daily show that Rameen heads,
that moves us in a parallel direction. We're doing the same thing. The two are informing each other, but we have to give it as much attention as if it were
its own thing.
And I mean, I love to tell us the name of the team you run because it's not the social
media.
No, we call it digital expansion because, as Trevor said, like we're doing jokes that you can't do on the show. You know, like we created a whole presidential Twitter library for Donald Trump.
And it's an actual space.
You walk into it, it looks and feels like a presidential library,
but it's a satirical version of that.
And it's just like a different way to do a joke that we couldn't do on the show.
So that's what kind of that expansion entails.
That's actually one of the best things about having the show be in all these different
formats is that every format has its own style of joke making, like Twitter, Instagram
videos, and we can make jokes that work in those formats.
We're not just putting up clips of our show onto Twitter in a way
that doesn't make sense for the format. But one thing I think Ramine especially is really
good at is getting down to what exactly works in each of the many different formats we
do jokes in and then making them unique to them. So it doesn't just feel like we're
this old man coming into a format being like, ah, this flake? And everyone just kind of says, what's going on?
Which is my catchphrase in the office, just by the way?
What is this flake?
Jen, you've been with the show for, how, 20 years?
21 years.
She was born there.
Yeah.
And she drinks at work now.
Been at the show longer than half this audience, it seems.
And what, I mean, the expansion team is something somewhat new, but what is, what do you think has
been the biggest change in the production of the show in that time?
Well, that is a huge change because it's like an immense amount of work that
still goes into writing, producing, and we do it at the same
level that we would do for the show.
So it's, you know, I would say it's a third more work added to the day, every day.
And then the biggest change in the transition, you mean in the last few years, Trevor?
Yeah, that's the try to—
the show is based. Black, just say it, he's black. I was gonna say...
The host became black.
I was gonna say, biracial.
They remind me every day at that office.
By racial, by racial.
Yeah.
But yeah, so I mean, it's a different, like, when you came to the show, I think we started
looking at different guests. We've made a real effort to make sure that we are booking women, people of color,
and they didn't have to be the biggest celebrity.
We were taking people that might not be telling the same story on every late night show,
and the big stars all get on every show they want.
But what about the third actress in a movie that isn't getting a spot on late night?
We'll let's have her come here. And we started, I think we have have have have have have have have have have have the most have have have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most have the most the most the most the most the most have the most the most the most the most the most the movie that isn't getting a spot on late night. Well let's have her come here and we started, I think we have the most female guests of
any late night show. Yeah I think you have three on this week I believe. We did.
You know what's funny is we got to a point where we didn't count any more.
Yeah we don't count. And that wasn't counting. That was one of the greatest gifts of the show is like how do you you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you th you the thi thi thi thi the thus the thus thus thus thi thi thi thi thi thi. the thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. We're thi. We're thi. We're thi. We're thi. We thi. I I I I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I thi. I thi. I th. I th. I the. I'm the. the. I'm the. th. the. th. I'm th. th. th. th. the. I'm th. thi. I thi. I thi. I th. That was one of the greatest gifts of the show is like how do you create a space where you're not trying to implement tokenism but rather true representation?
You know, because a lot of people speak about it like it's a chore, but fundamentally for me,
it's about trying to find and create a space where you are tapping into different conversations
just for a competitive advantage. How do you keep the show? to keep the show. the show the show. the show. the show. the show. the show. the show. the show. the show. the show. the show. the show. the show. the show the show. the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show th. th. th. th. the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the show the same actors, the same producers, the same everything on your show.
You're trying to tap into what people are doing, watching, seeing, etc.
And so that's what's great about everyone.
Like Jen will just tap me sometimes be like, you know, as a woman, this is what I'm seeing.
thrown, this is what I see. You, you know, Jubin is from Iran.
He's having a great time in life right now.
Great.
So, like, when he couldn't fly home, when he couldn't fly home or people couldn't fly to him
because of the Muslim ban, I mean, like, it was in the office in an interesting and different
thii. The fact that he's the funniest person I know is the main part, the reason he's there, but then it became like an extra bit of texture that was like, oh, how can we talk about
this on the show in a different way that connects with people?
It was, it's interesting because when, you know, when the Muslim travel ban happened,
I was about to get married. So, you know, not to bring the, basically, because, because, because, because, because, because, because, because, because, because, because, because, because, because, I, because, I, because, because, I, because, because, I, because, I, the, the, the, the, the, the, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, i. the, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It's, in. It's, in. It's, in. It's, in. It's, i. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it. It was. It was. It was. going to come to my wedding, but the travel ban stopped them from coming.
So, which saved you a lot of money?
You did say, you did say that at the time?
Able to invite his B list, was half of work.
You did say that at the time.
Yeah.
President Trump saved me $20,000, which is very nice. Thank you. Thank you. David, I want to ask you, because you've known Trevor for a long time.
You write some of, you write most of his jokes, it sounds like, most of his jokes?
Every single joke he writes.
There's some sort of weird like AI system that's happening right now.
It's like travels through the air into Trevor's brain, I think is something
that you're... Yeah, we can all see it. Well when you guys are thinking about writing in Trevor's voice, I mean how does that work and has that been a big change for the show? Well I think at
the beginning it was like it was a huge change because I was I mean I've worked
with Trevor for like 15 years or something so I sort of was more I was closer to
it than the rest of the people but at this point in time I think everybody can write in your voice because of the work that we we we we we we we we we we we we we we the th. the the th. the th. the th. the the th. th. th. the the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi thi thi thi thi. thi. thi th. th. th. th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. th. th. I'm th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. I th. th. I th. to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to thee. the. the. the. the rest of the people, but at this point in time I think everybody can write in your voice because of the work that we've done over the last
four years, but it was at the beginning it's a real battle, especially like when
he would tell, like they would write Jewish jokes that you could not say.
And then we were like, this is not going to work and you know, but thi thi thi thi th funny But you guys have to kill like every day. Please don't say it. No, no, no, no, thank you
the next question
We try and kill it every day and we are not going to lose it now. Sorry. No, I won't I won't do it. No, I won't do it. No, I won't do it. I won't. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't. I won't do it. I won't. I won't do it. I won't. I won't do it. I won't. I won't do it. I won't. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't. I won't. I won't do it. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't do it. I won't do it. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't. I won't do it. We know Twitter is. I'll do it. I'll do it. It's not a trap.
We should do it. Who thinks we should do it? No. No. No, no. No, no. Let me explain. Just the context.
This is what's interesting. This guy pulled up his phone. He was like, I got him.
Calm down. Put your phone down. this things being live streamed anyway. So, so you're trying to end my career.
How the Daily Show ended?
How the Daily Show ended?
They were laughing and it went up in flames.
No.
So here's what's interesting.
This is one of the hardest things to understand in and around comedy,
is just what David said.
I got to a show that had been defined in many ways background. You had a host who was talking about being from New Jersey, at a host who made jokes about being Jewish, and a lot of the writers were Jewish,
and so it was a space that the show operated in comfortably.
And then I would get a script like that and I'd be like, can I make this joke?
This feels weird and they'd be like, oh yeah, this is fine.
And then everyone be like, oh Context changes when you change borders.
And it is a trial and error process.
You know, I tell a joke in South Africa to South Africans,
and everyone goes, yeah, we're on the same page,
we laugh about this.
You tell that same joke to Americans about South Africans,
and it seems like you're laughing at people,
to be the hardest challenge is figuring out how you can target a joke in such a way that everyone, or as many people as possible understand what direction you're
going in. So there would be some things I would do where I'd do an accent. I'd do an accent.
I'd like, I'd like, I'd like, I'd like, I'd like, I'd like, I'd like, I'd like, to go. And so, like, we'd go. And th, th, th, th, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, the the th. the the their, I th. their, I'd their, I'd their, I'd their, I'd their, I'd the the the to some some some some some some some some, to some some, to some, to some, to some, to some, to some, to some, I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd, I th. I, I, I, I, I, I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd, th. th. th. th. to. th. to. th. th. th. th. th. th. tho. th. th. tho. th. to. to. to. to. to. that accent in America. Then I'm like, but that's his accent. They're like, yeah, no, no, we just go. And then I realize it's because of America's history of racism
that I'm now limited in the jokes that I can tell,
because we don't have that burden in South Africa
because we never oppressed a certain group of people.
Who they are will leave you to guess. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm sorry. I'm. I'm th. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. th. th. th...................... I'm. I love them, I'm the representation of America up here.
What about, Jen is two?
Jewish.
We represent America.
Yes, definitely.
And we're women, so it's great.
I think so?
Yes. For the jokes, yes?
that what you're saying?
For the approval of the jokes?
I think so. Oh, it's a statement. It was a statement. It was a statement. It's a statement. I'll say the great thing about Trevor too is that he is also very, he's very good at finding
the funniest version of what the joke you were trying to make.
So a lot of times you'll pitch a joke and you'll say like, oh, how about something
this? And Trevor will, he'll recognize, even if of joke you tell best, and so what you
really probably meant to say, and he'll say, oh you mean like going like this and they'll
say the joke much better than the way you said it, and you'll be like, yeah, you got it,
yeah, you got that joke.
I could use that.
It really works.
It really works.
Let's talk quickly about the success of the show online, on YouTube, behind the scenes or between the scenes has
become huge. How did that come to be? And did you expect that this would become as big of
a thing? I don't think we expected to be such a hit. I think it just started with, you know,
Trevor, in between acts of the show was telling these stories and kind of just maybe opining further on events of the day and it was very
compelling and he said, you know, are we rolling on this?
Are we, are the cameras rolling?
Because they should be.
We should probably just get this out.
And we were like, oh yeah, let's do it.
So then we threw the cameras on and it was kind of a little looser vibe. And you know, it's just a more, a looserer ther, a loser version, a loser version, a loser version, a loser version, a loser, a loser version, a loser, a loser, a loser, a lus, a lus, a lus, a lus, a lus, a lus, a lus, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, tho, th. th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. theee. the. the. the. the. And, the. And, the. And, thi. And, thi, thi, thi, th. And, you know, it's just a more, a looser version of what Trevor does. You know, the show, like Trevor always says, is like,
joke, you know, premise joke, premise joke, like, you have to get through it really fast.
You have a limited time.
And in between the scenes, he can take his time and explore a topic a little further,
kind of work out his feelings on it.
And you could probably speak to it further. Yeah I think I think for me between the scenes came about I think in two ways one I love speaking to people so
fundamentally that's why I love stand-up and and it's also why I like engaging
in politics. I think politics is best when it is engaged in you know
not spoken at not shouted at but rather spoken about and so what I
what I realize is every day we had 200 odd people sitting with us in a studio who are human beings.
I was like, I don't know everything. I'm not even trying to act like I know everything.
I'm giving you my perspective on what is happening in the world.
But I would like to talk to you, the people.
And so I would talk to the audience. What are you watching in the news? What are you think about the story? Do thia. th. th. th. th. th th th th th th th th th th th. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I thin. I thin. I thin. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not even, I'm not. I don't, I'm not even, I'm not even, I'm not even, I'm not even th. I'm not even. I'm not even. I'm not even. I thin. I thin. I thin. I thin. I thin. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I thin. I thin. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not th. I'm not th. I'm not th. I'm not even try. I'm not try. I'm not try. I'm not th. I'm not th. I'm not th. I'm not th. I'm not thr. I'm not th. And it was actually an audience member who said to me one day, I bumped into them outside
and they were like, hey, I can, do, do we, are we going to see that anywhere?
And I was like, see what?
And I'm like, the conversation we had?
And I was like, no, it was a conversation.
And the person said, I would have loved to show it to my friends or it as authentic as it is? You know, don't try and overproduce it.
Let's just keep it as organic as it should be.
And it created a different space for the show to exist within, because I still like keeping
the daily show as polished and as propelled as possible.
But between the scenes is fundamentally an exploration of a different idea on social
media where you do have more time. You do have have the where you can give people a vignette of what you're thinking.
And as I say, it's not supposed to be right, it's not supposed to be wrong.
It's just me ruminating and going through ideas and thoughts with an audience who's live
and feels less on edge because the camera's not on them at that moment. And we put it out and genuinely, I don't th think th th as it is now and and we've no and I and I was at the taping a
couple weeks ago and I mean I was a little bit nervous you'd call on me even
though I know that's not how it works I was like he's gonna thinne
he's gonna call on me but like but it genuinely felt like a conversation with
right right to the to the too the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the is going to then hit the internet and have like 2 million views. Right. That's been amazing, yeah. And do you watch the numbers there? Do you watch the view
count on to? That's, I rely on Rameen to do that.
Genuine, tell us, you wake up in the morning and trends. I just go, Trevor. I just go, I just go, the comments. It's like, good. It's, good. th, good. th, good. th, good. th, good. the, the, the, th. the, do. the, do. the, do. th. the, do. the, do. the, do. the, do. the, do. the, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do. Do, do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do, do. Do. Do. Do, do. Do. Do. Do, do. Do. Do. Do, do. Do. Do, do. Do. Do, do. Do. Do, do. Do. Do, do. Do, do. Do. Do, do. Do, do. Do. Do, do. Do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Do you. Do you. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Okay. Very short. Do you read the comments? Can I can I tell you why? No, don't read the comments online. The comments on between the scenes are great.
But general rule of social media is that you don't read the comments. Because there's, you know,
things can get crazy. It's just no, you know what I think it is, and that's what's great and that's great about the team is thr the the the the the th. And th what's great, and the th. And th. And th. And th. And thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and the comments the comments the comments, and the comments, and the comments, and the comments, and the comments, and the comments, the comments, the comments, the the the the comments, the the the the the the the comments, the the their, their, their, their their their their their their their their their their their, their, thean's thean's great, their, their, their, their, their, their, the comments, their, the comments, the comments, the comments, the comments, the comments, and their, So, Ramine's great at guiding the show
and helping us grow in a digital space
that the daily show wasn't always within.
And part of his job is to alleviate my stress in that,
I'm not trying to create viral content.
I hate some when people say that.
We should make a viral thing.
Like, that's not how it works.
It becomes viral. You know, very seldom can't thamamam can can can can can can can can can you just create virality. You don't know what it's going to be. And so I'm just doing me.
We are creating for the show.
And then Ramine is fantastic at then tailor making that
or reconfiguring it or creating a new from that,
an idea that will work organically in that space.
And so that's what it is.
Between the scenes he doesn't say that, do this, whatever. He just goes like, hey man, that was a great piece. It connected all. I really liked what you said there.
Some days I don't even think it's a thing.
And Ramine's like, oh, no, no, I want to put that out.
And so that's what's been great about it is.
And I'm not, I let's let go when it trusting people who I believe can do it in a slightly better way than I can in the department that they're in.
And I want to just quickly ask about ratings because right now you're number one amongst
millennial men.
Wasn't always that way.
The two millennial men.
Really, real big support from millennial men out here.
You're number one there, but it wasn't always that way. How do you gauge successful on social. I mean, how do you gauge success?
Is it ratings?
Is it comments?
Is it hearing things in the media?
I mean, I think for us, it's like making sure
we put out a show that we're proud of,
and having fun doing it during the day,
because we're there every, like, it's a long day if you're not having a good time over there. It's not that long. We're having fun. I'm saying if you were.
But I think that at the end of the day,
like we know when it's like an OK show
or when it's like it feels like it was a great show.
And usually the, yeah, if you can leave the day feeling like
this was a great version of the daily show, we covered things that everyone that everyone that everyone that everyone that everyone that everyone that everyone that
that everyone that everyone that everyone that everyone that everyone that everyone that everyone that that tho tho tho tho thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thi... thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the. the the the the the the the the the the the the thi. that everyone's talking about or things that no one's talking about that we're interested in. And so ratings, I think once you start worrying about rating, like the network will tell
us when it gets real bad, you know, we'll hear if we're going on.
That's how I think I think that's about it. But I think like to worry about it, but just making a show that we're proud. the show, the show, th. A, th. A, th. A, th. A, th. A, th. A, th. A, th. A, th. A, th. th. th. thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thi, I, I, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, th, th, th, th, th, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th. So, th, th. ratings, th. So, th. So, th. So, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. So, thi. So, thi. So, thi. So, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. So, thithe John Stewart transition, when do you, and Trevor I'd like to answer this as well, when do you feel like it transitioned from
John Stewart's Daily Show to the Trevor Noah Show?
I'm like, what was it, September 28th and 2015?
Not the exact date, but like the day that it, you felt like it was not in the shadows. I think it was a little bit at a than, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I, I, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, I, I, like, like, I, like, I, like, I, I, like, I, like, I, I, I, like, I, I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, th.. th. th. to, I, I, I, th. to, I, I'm, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. a little bit at a time so I can't actually put like a Time frame on it. I think it was in the end of year two. I was really like this is Trevor's show
This is the whole staff knows the voice of the show now and where we're going with it
We were the expansion teams doing a lot like things that we never did on the old show and You know, I think like there's there are great things things things about things about things about things about things about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about about the the th. things about about about about about about the thi thi thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the the thi. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the show the show the show thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. things things things things things things things things things things things about things about thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi I think like there's, there are great things about the John Show that we keep,
and then there are great things about the show now that like wouldn't have worked back
then.
So, but I do feel like, kind of like mid-year two.
I think for me, the moment when I noticed a difference in the direction we were going
a very tangible change was when we went on the road. So, the, the, the, the the the the the the the the the the the convention, and the the the the the convention, and the the the the the the the the the the the the th. And the th. And the the, and the the, and threate, and threate, and the the the the the the the, and the, and the theateateathea, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, threate, threate, threaten, threaten, threate, threaten, threaten, threaten, threaten, threaten, threaten, and threate, and threaten very tangible change was when we went on the road.
So when we covered the conventions,
the Republican convention, the Democratic convention,
this was a completely new experience for many of us.
In fact, all of us in that we were all in a new place,
and we were trying to do the show in a new way. And so what that did was it removed us from the comfort of knowing how it was done And we had to figure out how to do it
You know it was new candidates a new story and now we're on the road
And I remember I mean like we did things like I was in a sketch
It was a Boko Haram sketch Dave jumped into that as well whenever I needed like an extra african
I'm like yo they, thin, thi, thii, th., th., th., th., th., th., thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, they. So, they's, they's, they's, the the the to. the to. to. to the the the to to, to, to to to to to to to to the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. new. to new. to to to to to Haram thing because I think it was like, was it Chris Christie who
was saying like Boko Haram should thank Hillary Clinton or something like that.
And so we just did new things that, you know, not many people had seen the host in a sketch
like in like the years that maybe John, like towards the end of John's tenure.
And I think that changed what we were doing a little bit. And so to to to to to to to to to to to to to the thgen. thgen. thgen. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th, th, th, thin, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, the. And, to, to, thin, to, thin, thin, the. And, the. And, the. And, the. And, the. And so to Jen's point, it has been gradual, though. And I think with any late night show,
with any daily show, it is going to be a gradual incremental change,
especially when there's a legacy that was entrenched
in the hearts of many Americans.
Did John Stewart leave any parting advice to you and ideas
about what you had to make the show your own?
Oh, he was amazing. John Stewart, the the the the to to to to to to to to to to to to to be to be to be the the to be the to be thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, thi, thiol, thiol, thiol, thiol, thi. thiolk, thoom. thoom. thoom. thoom. thoom. thoom. thoom. I thoom. I thoom, th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I's, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin. thin. thin. t t toda. toda. toda. today today today today today today thin thin. thin. the best advice that I couldn't understand. No, because if you know John Stewart, he's one of the funniest human beings ever, one
of the most profound people ever, but he like, he doesn't, contrary to what people may
think, he doesn't like to jam his opinions down people's throats.
He's very much in a zenish kind of space.
And so I remember one day he called me in and he called me in and I'd just been announced as a host and it was this crazy whirlwind.
You know, and he brought me into his office and he said,
and he had his shoes off, he socks.
And he said, to me, the shoes are on the ground.
Then he said, hey, do you want to try these on?
And I was like, what?
And he said, what?
And he said, I'm a size 11. And then he was like, oh, no, no, then they, try them on. And I try it, and I was like, it doesn't fit.
Then he's like, yeah, so don't listen to anyone who says,
you can't fit into my shoes.
You've got biggest shoes to create for yourself.
And I was like, wow, that was fancy. that I feel. I was like, I that. I that. I that. I that. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel like, I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I feel. I that. I that. I th. I th. I th. I th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. the. the. thi. th. th. th. And then he left me with a cryptic message.
I said, what is the Daily Show?
What is it?
And he said, the Daily Show is what the host
thinks it's supposed to be.
That's what he says.
Genuinely, I think it's an extension of what I think
and what I communicate
and how I absorbed to the Daily Show,
the first thing people said was,
what does a South African know about American politics?
It's totally, what are you going to do?
How are you going to, you know?
And it was like, well, that's a good question.
I was like, I don't know anything.
Then I realized, no. You will find corruption everywhere, you will find oppression everywhere, you will find systems that are created in ways that benefit or hurt certain people everywhere.
And so what I came to realize was we were telling the same story with just a different version.
So it was like the British office versus the American one.
I was like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I know exactly what this is about.
And it jumped a thousand times forward forward and I think Dave will remember when Donald Trump came in, because I'll never forget we
watched Donald Trump, everyone else was weird, Mitch McConnell and what's going
with Paul Ryan and then Philip bustering and all of this stuff and then Donald
Trump came on screen, started speaking and we looked at each other like, I know this this is Africa all over again, we're home. And we were like this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is is is this is this is is this is this is is this is this is this is thisthat what he did leave you, the cryptic message, the smelly
shoes, and he left a incredible staff.
I mean, the people here were left by John Stewart and they have been instrumental in taking
the show to where it is now, you know, the new version of the show, so we cannot underestimate
how difficult it is to find pearls like. And they're thankful for the dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs dogs. Do dogs. Where we the dogs the dogs the dogs the dogs. We the the the the the the the the the their the their their their their their their their their their the new. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the new. the new. the new the new the new the the the the the show so we cannot underestimate how difficult it is to to find pearls like and they're thankful for the dogs oh definitely where would we have
just found dogs randomly it's not as easy as people think office trade dogs no
dogs pee in the office are we living a good life Jen's dog is fairly new is a
puppy yeah yeah but I mean that's an exception but easy is pretty well
trained in two weeks an exception. But Easy is pretty well trained? Yeah, yeah, we're doing well. Trained in two weeks.
Deborah, I want to ask you a couple of personal questions. We're going to turn to 2020
in the future. But one of my favorite things is your impressions and the way you impersonate
people. We've done a little bit on stage here. And again, I want to ask if there were any, one of you love to start with, did you to to to to to to start with, one, one, one, one, one, one, to to start with, to to to start with, to start with, to to start with, to start with, to to start, to start, to start, to start, to start, to start, to start, to start, to start, to start, to start, to start, to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, thea, to to to to to to to to to this talent? I've always had the ability to mimic people who I get to know.
You know, I don't do random impressions.
I'm not that person, but if I get to know a person,
I find over time their cadence is something that becomes apparent.
And especially if they have a distinct cadence.
And I remember when Donald Trump started, I was just like,
I don't really, I mean, how does he sound? And then every day I would just like repeat something,
he says, because he says some of the funniest,
craziest things.
And then I would just sit there by myself,
and I'd be like, so many people,
so many people.
Because like, rhythmically, he has like,
the musicalitythey were songs. So I just be like walking around the office and I'll be like they're coming, they're coming, so many coming. We got to
build a wall folks. We gotta build a wall, build a wall. And I would do that all
the time. And then literally one day out of the blue it like it popped out of me
as a thing. So I went from like singing it to all of a sudden I was just
so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so so so so so many so so so many so many so many so so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many so many So many people, they're coming folks, they're all here,
caravans and caravans.
I would listen to that podcast, or some remix of that on Spotify.
So that's, yeah.
That's an idea for you down there.
Yeah, we got it.
Like an ASMR.
Yeah, we can talk after.
I also wanted to ask about, um, well, I've been listening to your book. I've got 40 minutes left th. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. th. th. th. to to th. to to to to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. th. to. th. to. to. to. th. th. th. to. th. th. th. th. th. toa. th. toa. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to me. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. And, th. th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. th. the. to. to. to. to. to. I. I. I. I. And. And,, I've been listening to your book.
I've got 40 minutes left.
Well, I asked you before, but what happens at the end?
Can you?
I live, spoiler alerts.
I don't like to spoil it.
I don't, you've got like 30 minutes.
I've got, yeah, like 40 minutes left.
Yeah, yeah.
You, do you just say, right? Okay, well, so, I mean, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, I, the, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. I. I, I, I. I. I, I. I, I, I. I. I. I, I. I. I, I, I. I, I. I. I, I, I. I. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. t. t. t. t. t. t. t. th. th. th. I, I asked, I impactful and she is absolutely just such a badass woman.
And you've got an EP here who's an absolute badass woman.
And it just seems like you know the future.
You know that women are already running the world.
Well, I like the idea that women are running the world,
but I know that it's not the truth yet, unfortunately.
And so for myself, as somebody who grew up in a matriarchal society, I do find myself more comfortable in a space where I have powerful women surrounding me.
You know, my mother, my grandmother, my aunt, I had so many women who are guiding the way I lived my life.
So for me, and Jen knows this for a fact.
There are times when we will just share a joke, and then we'll be like, oh boys. And then like everyone else is like, they just don't they just they just they just they just th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thin, thin, thin, tho, tho, tho, th, th, tho, thr-I tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, to me, and, to me, to me, to me, to me, to me, to me, to me, tho, tho, to like they just don't laugh or they don't get it. It's like it's a thing I only grew up in a world of women like I mean like
when it comes to clothing like Jen and I became best friends just because of
Clothing because I'd be like oh my god those shoes and oh my that's just because that's how I was raised with my mom
I helped her pick out high heels I helped her pick out her out partly because I was forced to live with my mother and my grandmother because my father couldn't live with us. So it's a byproduct of who I am. And so what I
do love is, you know, and Dave knows this about me, is I love finding the
jokes that everyone laughs at. So when you asked previously, like how do I
measure our successes, ratings is one metric, yes, a financial metric, but what I
find is great for me on the show is to see how many new audiences we can reach.
So for instance, the Daily Show has always been particularly popular with male millennials,
because that's what the Daily Show has been.
Yeah. You know, because of Comedy Central, etc.
But what I've really enjoyed is seeing us growing our numbers
in terms of women who are viewing the show, seeing that that change takes effect because you the their their their their their th, th, th, th, th, th, because th, th, th, th, th, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thi thi, thi, tho, to tho, to to tho, tho, tho, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thri, and, thriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiauuiauiauiauiauiauia, thi, who are viewing the show, you know, seeing that that change takes effect because you start putting on more
content and telling more jokes that aren't just for a young frat guy or a guy in college
or you're try to expand your, you try and open your aperture a little wider, you know,
and then seeing black people watch the daily show. Like that was one of the craziest, thiiiiii. I thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. Because thi. Because, thi. Because, thee. Because, thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. ta. ta. ta. ta, thea, thea, that was one of the craziest things. I remember when I joined the show, and literally my favorite thing was like, black Americans just come out to be like,
hey, man, you do the gud-got that show, right?
And I'll be like, yeah, do you watch?
Be like, hell no, man, I ain't watching that shit?
Ain't none of that's connected all over.
Black people in South Africa, black people in Nigeria, black people in America have had storylines
and narratives that have tied us together in different ways, whether it's music or whether
it's storytelling or whether it's just ancestry.
And then I was like, well, how do I bring those? And I think, you know, that's where Jen has been instrumental. That's where half of our staff has been instrumental.
It's having women in the building where we go,
you're not just here, just as it's like, no, we need you.
Help us figure out a thing, help us give an extra point of view,
help us dissect an idea.
You're talking about abortion.
I have my opinions, of course body because I'm not a woman.
And so it helps to have a building that has half of the staff being women because then you go like, hey, how do you feel about this?
Allow me to be your mouthpiece, allow me to put you on the show, allow me to create a sketch where you can speak your truth.
But I know that I am not the arbiter of this this do I wish to be an ally. Yeah I wish to be an ally.
Stuff Desi is doing is great. Yeah she's wonderful.
We have like anyone in the building can pitch so there's so many different
kinds of people ages, races, genders, people of different mindsets like liberal,
conservative.
We have all different types of people that work there, and anyone can pitch and the best
thing gets on.
And I think that we really take into account if a story is a story like abortion, it just
so happened that the best pitch for that day came in from one of our female writers,
Lauren had a great pitch.
It happened that she was a woman, probably
because she felt really connected to it,
and you know, she sent out a few pitches.
So it was nice to be able to have a woman right on that thing.
But...
This was the vagina as your corporation.
Yeah, exactly.
You guys should all watch it.
It got a lot of people tweeting me, incorporate that pussy. That's what they said. And for a second I forgot what that was and I just woke up to this and I was like, I've
done something very wrong or very right.
And then I realized it was Desi and Dulce doing the Lauren created sketch.
And it was the kind of thing where I texted Dizzy and Dolce and I'm like, if you saw Lauren's pitch, thi, the thian, th, th, th, th, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've th. th. th. th. thi, I've tho, I've tho. tho. tho. th th thooo. th th than, I've thin, I've th thin, I've they were both like, that's the one we like the best too. So it just usually works out like that,
where we're not like, this is a woman headline,
so we should get some women on it.
But like, there's always kind of a woman in the,
you know, there's now that we've made sure to,
you know, make sure the staff one kind of person. It's usually different points of viewer,
can be expressed in any room, the writer's room,
the rewrit room, the morning meeting.
Like we kind of.
The dog room.
My office, that's what we call the dog room.
No, but it's nice that it doesn't feel like we're doing it just to be like,
this is a headline about women, so let's make sure,
it feels more organic and the people that are impassioned about different
topics are usually the people it affects, so that ends up being the people that work
on those projects because they have a passion for talking about it.
Yeah, like when Arnold Schwarzenegger was kicked in the back by a South African.
Yeah.
I did not find it as funny as most of my American colleagues.
Because I was like, this made our country look bad.
So I had a completely different, so that's literally what Jen, you know, that's a great example.
that I'll be at very different stakes, don't get me wrong.
But yeah, I was really not impressed. It was on the same episode. It was on the exact same episode, yes.
And we even have conservative voices in the building.
Which gets really interesting.
Yeah.
So when the president does something that is good,
sometimes we go, we overlook it and they will bring it up in a very trolley way,
but they will still bring it out of like, so we have everyone we have it it's good to have people
that will break you out of the bubble that you're you know you don't want to
be in an echo chamber you mentioned South Africa and it struck me when I went
to the taping there was it was a really global audience somebody from
Sweden asked a question you had some South Africans have you have you
felt that impact also on online especially where you're not airing every night well well this is where this is where this is where this is where this is where this is where this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is this is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th. th. th. the th. the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the they. they. I I I they. th. I thi. I thi. I to to to to. I to. I'm. I'm. to. I'm. to. I'm. to. I'm. I'm. to. I'm. I'm., this is where, I mean, I can answer that beginning part, and I think Romine
can speak to this as well.
What's been really amazing about taking the daily show into this future of being a digital
experience that is we realized
that we were interacting with more people than ever before.
So we would initially just do American stories.
And then obviously as a South African,
I'd go, guys, there's some really funny shit
that's happening in South Africa.
That's also interesting that can inform you on how people see politics
of the world. Let's throw one one one one one one, let's throw another one in. And then someone would go, hey, Canada
is one of our biggest markets.
Let's get some stories from Canada in the show.
And initially, I wanted to do it all at once.
And then I realized, no, you have to introduce
your core audience to the story
so that people get invested. is Teresa May? What is a Brexit? How do we begin this conversation? And what's interesting is where we once lived in a space where we thought there was no
appetite, we came to realize that it extended our reach into the globe as a
show that was commenting on everything that's happening but from a hub
that is in New York City. And we don't claim to be the experts on
everything. I know every single political issue has its own nuance. Sometimes people don't feel like we cover it all,
because people do get angry.
They go, like, why didn't you say everything about everything?
And I'm like, because we don't have the time,
unfortunately.
So we can just give you the nugget.
But it's nice to know that maybe an American audience,
who may have never known about tho, a prime minister that retained their position in Australia or Modi, you know, doing really
well in the Indian election.
Maybe they wouldn't have known about those things.
It's nice to expand.
And I think Ramine has seen how that can change how we interact with people.
Yeah, and I think it also, you see the comments online, on Facebook, on Twitter, and people are just so thankful that this content is reaching them where it would and otherwise and otherwise and otherwise and otherwise and otherwise, and otherwise, and otherwise, and otherwise, and the th... And th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thr-a, thri. And, thri. And, thri. And, thr-a. And, thin, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi, th otherwise. And I think for us, too, like it's nice to get out of the Trump bubble a little bit.
So to find these other stories that it gives us a break,
because we're all consumed by it every day as we all are.
It's just such a part of our lives.
So anything that kind of releases that valve is really nice for us, and for our audience, I think. Well, it's a good segue to get the getting the getting the getting the getting the getting the getting the getting the getting the getting the getting the getting to get to get the getting the getting to get to get to get the getting to get to get the getting to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get th. thi, to get to get to to to to to to th. to th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. to be to be thi. to be to to to the. to to toe. toe. toeateatea. to toeatea. to to toeate. to toe. toe an toea. toea. thea our audience, I think. Well, it's a good segue to getting out of the Trump bubble
because we're going to talk now about the future,
and the future is very soon upon us in 2020,
and we've got a lot going on in 2020
for all sorts of media.
But how does the Daily Show plan to step it up?
What is going to look different for this season,
or this presidential election for the Daily Show
than any of the other previous seasons?
Well, first and foremost, we have an intensity in America's politics that I think is unparalleled.
You know, I can distinctly remember different phases in the show that matched where America
was in its political conversation.
When I took over the Daily Show, you know, when I was handed the reins by John,
I was living in a space and I was exploring a world
where for all intents and purposes,
things were going well, you know,
and I felt like people were still trying to be outraged,
but there wasn't really anything to be outraged about.
Conversations were fractured,
people were divided in what they were looking at and toward. And then Trump came in, took the White House,
and immediately you felt like there were very distinct lines
about what people were thinking about
and how they were defining the country as a whole.
And that gave the Daily Show the propulsion that it needed.
In many ways, similar to how the Daily Show with John really took off when George Bush became president, because now you understand the the the the the the the the the the thiiiiiiiiiii and thi and thi and thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, and thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi is and what you're trying to do.
And so for us now, what's really exciting is the conversation and the storyline around the
Democrats.
You know, because people always talk about Trump, Trump, Trump, but it's like, yeah, but
they are as much a story in his journey as he is in theirs.
You know, the Democrats and how much they succeed or fail is going to determine the history of America,
you know, whether they reach out to the right people, whether they communicate in the right
way, whether they step on their own dicks as they're trying to get there.
This is going to be the story that defines America.
And so what's great for us now is now we're starting the journey. You know, for instance, we have a segment called World War D, where we just focus on the Democratic primaries and what's going to happen in the race. We just
focus on the story that's happening. And what's funny is some of our audience was shocked
by that. They're like, how can you make a joke about Joe Biden? He's our guy. And I was like, yeah, but we're still going to tell the truth. You know, I to to to the the to the the to the the the the the story. the story. the story. the story. tho thrue. thrue. thr-I. thr-I. thr-I's thr-I's the story the story tho thr- the story tho the story story the story thr- tho tho tho tho tho the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story the story story story story story story story story story story story story story story story story story. that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's thro story. that's story. that's story. that's story. that's story. that's story. that's story. that's that's that's thooo story. tho story. tho story. the story. th people that you love should be free from criticism or critique. You know, it doesn't mean that I'm now going to say that Joe Biden made this mistake and so Trump and him are
the same. I'm not saying that. But I don't think I want to live in a blind world where we're
not analyzing everything critically because I feel like you get to the big debates and then, people, like, why to be to be the big debates. And so, the show, the show, the show, the show, the show, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, tr. to, tr. to, tr. to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, thr. And, and, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, their. And, their. And, their. And, tr. And, tr. And, tr. And, tr. And, tr. tr. Trump. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. I. I. I. how do we tell those additional stories as Ramina saying, how do we how do we get the Daily Show geared up for this 2020
challenge that is first going to be just Democrats amongst themselves. Trump is
watching the Royal Rumble with popcorn having a great time. He's getting ready
for his bout, but we're telling that story, we're getting ready to follow the
journey of each of these candidates as they narrow the fieldfield field ffield f field down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down from from from from 3 or 2, and then maybe 1. And then it's going to be how do you now cover the story
in a way that is still authentically satirical, funny,
because I believe that jokes are what propel our show.
I'm not going to stop telling jokes because things get serious.
That's how we get through the seriousness.
But then at the same time, what we're trying to do more thahahahahahahahahahahah more to do more to do more to do more to do more to do more to do more to do more to do more to do more to do more to do more than anything is remember what mistakes people made in the previous election, whether it's ourselves, whether it's the media,
whether you know, whether it's news organizations, you know, politicians or voters
themselves and remind ourselves so that we're not doing the same thing
and repeating the same story and that's what's exciting for us is thinking
about how we're getting to that next place. And how are you? I mean, Juban, what are you going to do?
What's going to be different?
What about this, about your coverage?
Well, we'll be going to the conventions in 2020,
which I think will be, I think the sixth time
the show has actually gone on the our correspondence out there into the mix, being on the scene and really just making people say great stupid things.
And I think that's...
On both sides.
On both sides, yeah.
I think the great thing about the, the best thing and the worst thing about America
is that every two years, we spend two years
talking about everything in the context of the presidential campaign.
So, you know, whether it's a nuclear bomb goes off in a city,
the immediate first question would be like,
how will this affect 2020?
And everything gets discussed through that lens.
So that intensity naturally builds anyway in the country.
And I think the bigger challenge for us is not how to ride that intensity,
because it comes at you like a title wave.
It's more how do you absorb it and comment on it
without getting so locked into the day by day
that you end up thinking kind of what a lot of people did in 2016,
which is like, wow, every day this tr Trump guy goes out and makes an assu all of himself, Hillary, this is in the bag for Hillary, you know?
And that is, I think, what the challenge will be for both the political world and also
us to keep that kind of perspective going in.
So I want to throw this, I'm going to get you guys all involved here. So I want to see if we can throw tho tho tho tho tho to to to to to to to to the magic, I to to to to the magic, I, to the magic, to to the magic, to their, their, their, tho, tho, tho, tho, thi, the challenge, the. I'm, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, the challenge, the challenge, the challenge, I the challenge, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, the challenge, I'm, the challenge, the challenge, the challenge, the challenge, the challenge, the challenge, the challenge, the challenge, the challenge, the challenge, the challenge, the the the the the the the the challenge, the the the the that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, the magic of the show and what may happen in 2020 to the stage.
See if we can...
Happened in 2020?
Well, we're gonna, I'm gonna predict the future.
Oh, okay, okay, future of everything.
I was just like, wait, are we done?
Wait, wait.
I'm gonna predict the future in a headline.
I want to see how we all kind of, you guys all KFC for their 11 herbs and spices right now.
That's what you're doing.
You're asking Coca-Cola for the secret.
No one's here, it's fine.
Okay.
We're going to be good.
I'm just going to lie, but ask your question.
Okay.
So here's the headline, and you guys are going to. Everyone knows what you do now. I don't really. to to to to to to to to to to to to to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to to to the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. toocococococoa.coa.coa.coa.coa.coa.coa.coa.coa.coa.coa.coa.coa.coa. to. to. to. to. the. the headline is, Bernie takes Iowa. Bernie takes, where does he take it to? Is this physically or just you talk about the
results? The result? I'm just making sure, we live in a crazy food future, you never know.
Bernie might just be like, I'm done with, I'm taking you with me to Vermont. And then we're now in Vermont. And then the headline would be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll be like, I'll the the the their their their their their their their, I'll their the, you're their their their the, you're their their their their their their their their their their, you're their, you're their, you're their, you're their, you, you, you, you, you their, you their, you their, you their, you their, you their, you their, you too, you too, you too, you're too, you're too, too, too, too, too, too, took, took, took, took, took, took took took took took took took, took, you my God, guys, I didn't know a senator could physically take a place. Apparently there's like a loophole in your
constitution where this can happen and then we would sit discussing and I'll be
like, did you guys know this as Americans? Did you know that Bernie could take?
It sounds like an 80-go-trip movie or something like it's. Yeah, and then we would start discussing this about taking a place and then then then then then then then th th Dave th Dave th Dave then th Dave th th th th th th. And th thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi the the the the thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th and th and th and th and th and th and thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi. thi thi thi. thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi then I would go, damn, I can't believe that Bernie took Iowa to Vermont.
And then I go like, Jubin. Man, you know what to be funny is if he took it somewhere else.
Like, wouldn't it have been funny if Bernie took it to...
Man, whatever you're going to say next is great, Trevor, I love it.
We're in. And then I feel like Ramine would run into the room and he'd be like, yo, did you
see that Iowa is missing?
It's blowing up online.
And then I'd be like, yeah, Ramine, we're going to do it on the show.
What do you think we could do to cover this online, Rameen?
I think we should do social media stuff. I think we should like, you know, we should like come up with some tweets and we should get them out and it's gonna be great. It's gonna be great.
Right. I mean we talked about it. You got to do tick talks. We'll do like yeah, it'll be awesome. That's what we would do.
And then I would look to Jen and I before? Who can we get to Vermont to see how Iowa is dealing with being taken by someone from
Vermont and the fact that they're there, are Iowans screwed over by this?
So Vermont and then we get them, we realize that everyone's happy because the populace
of both places could fit in one space.
And so now we realize that it wasn't that bad after all. And then Bernie's like thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii is Bernie is like Bernie is like thinininininininin – th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thin. thin. thin is like, thi is like thi's thi's thi. thi. th. th. th. that's that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi's thi's thi's thi. thi. thi. thi. they's they's they's they're they're they're they're theei thei thei thi thi thi starts a new thing in America and then trumps losing his shit
And he's like where's Iowa where they're gone
Stolen away communism folks the worst so much worse and then Bernie's got his thing on that side and then we tune into Fox and then
Janine is like he did a great job
Our great leader for it against Bernie and he will kill him down and then CNN will
bring seven people on to shout at each other what do you think what do you
think I hate you I hate you I hate you
and then we'll come back on and then we'll be like all right guys so now
there are only 49 states let's see what happens in the rest of the
election we'll see you tomorrow.
But then Jen kills it all.
Why would Jen kill it all?
Jen kills it all.
She says we're not going with this.
No, no, no.
Why would Jen do?
Let me tell you.
One thing I love about Jen is the, how do we make this happen person. And I'm a good audience. I laugh at it almost.
Jen is like crazy.
Jen goes, if I go let's blow something up, she'll be like,
all right, how much explosives?
Jen makes everything happen at the show.
Whether it's a balloon dropping or a library being built,
that's like our propulsion.
I tell you, let's do it.
Like one day, I was like, can we, can we like burn something in the studio?
I was like, if only we could.
And Jen was like, we can do that, we can make fire pop out of the desk.
And I was like, what? And then like, today, today, today, I was like, to to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to to to they, they, they, to be, they, they, they, the, the, the, they, they, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we................. the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. the, the, t t t t t to. to. tod. today, today, today, today, today, today, today, the, the, the, the, I asked you this actually about the other day are you worried that if Trump leaves the White House there will be no you will be out of
material? No not at all because I mean first of all the Trump material starts to
get repetitive right so he's not going any but he might not go any
I mean he'll still be on total. No it doesn't mean the White House I know what he he means. Yeah. People got really sad. Sorry, Jen, carry on.
I'll explain what we mean.
He'll be around.
He's never getting out of.
He's never leaving the conversation like ever.
But no, if he get, if the Democrats take the 2020 election, we'll like make jokes.
to the twoake, the coolest president you can have. It's hard to make jokes about, but we did it for eight years at the Daily Show. So I am not scared at all that if he is
not president anymore, that this show will be affected. We'll start talking about the Congress,
the Senate. We lost, I mean, the last few years, like, I don't think we've talked that much about any of the major players in Congress or Senate because because because sucking the oxygen out of everything.
But we, you know, we used to talk about McConnell all the time, Paul Ryan, Boehner.
I mean our audience would know a lot more about that branch of government, but right now
it's all executive.
I would say with two things.
I'll give an example.
Today was a great example on the show.
You had Ben Carson at
a hearing, right? The HUD secretary. And as many people know, Ben Carson does not know much
about housing, right? Brilliant brain surgeon, very bad at housing, right? And so he was being
asked questions and he failed to understand what one of the questions was. That's where the Oreo thing came from. They said to him, are you familiar
with REOs? And he was like, REOs? And he was like, REOs? And he was like, REOs? And he was like,
REOs? And he was like, REOs? And he was like, R-E-O's-S and he was like, the to the too? the O? And the O? And, the O? And, the O? And, the, the, the, to, to, and, to, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and he was, and he was, and he was like, and he was like, and, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he was like, and he's, and he's, and he's, and he's, and he's, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and.. and, and, and. And, and, and, and, the. And, and, the. And, the. And, the. And, the. And, the. And, the. And, the. And, the. And, the. And, the. And, and, and, they was, the. And, and, and, and, he was, ownership, no. And so like, that's one of those moments. And I said it to the audience today.
I said, man, you forget because of Trump,
how many other people are involved in running America
that are really crazy people that you could put a spotlight on.
And so I think those people would always be there.
And secondly to what Ramin wasthe White House. Listen to how he complains when he's won.
Now, imagine if that guy, you guys think that guy would lose an election
and then just be like, all right, I'm going home.
No, we will see him every day 24, he will be on every fuck,
if he doesn't start his own network, I would be sure.
Rallies are his favorite thing. Yes. It would be, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he would, he would, he would, he would, he would, he would, he would, he would, he would, he would, he would, he would, he would, he would, he would, he would th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. that, you, you that, you that, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you. that. that. that. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. that. th. th. th. th. th. th favorite thing. He's just doing rallies now and like focus grouping nicknames from candidates.
It would be, he would get to do what he's doing now without having to act like he's at work.
There's also the thing of like who would come in.
True. Because if Bernie came in, then oh my goodness.
Yeah. No, there's jokes for day.
There's certain people who have like a lot more character about them like Bernie is one of those and what's great is you know like Bernie like a lot of his
fans for instance they hate it when we joke about him on the show but
Bernie laughed with me on the show like that's what's great about Bernie
yeah Bernie's like he doesn't take himself completely seriously he's
doing a serious thing but he's still a human being so he can thoff the to the the to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the to the to the to the the the to their their so. their so. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their their their their their their. their their their their their their their. their their their their their their. their their their their their their. their. their their. their their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. the the the the the the the the the toda. the toda. the to the the the the the the the the the the the the the the. the the the the. their the the characters that are in the race is like you can still make jokes about Joe Biden, you can still tell jokes about Bernie Sanders, you know,
Kamala Harris, regardless of who would take the White House, I think we would have
enough material to grow with them as a character. It's just as you said now,
Trump has sucked out the oxygen so it's hard to learn anyone's story when that that story is the predominant one. And the one one one one that Trump has done is that he has made people politically engaged.
Definitely.
So I think that there was a bit of a lull when everybody thought things were going well.
And now if Trump leaves, people hopefully will still be politically engaged, otherwise the new
Trump will come and then remind them.
Trump 2.
Oh jeez.
Yeah, it'll be like an even worse version of Trump. Yeah, this is the scary part of the conversation. I would ask a little bit about the reach that you guys have,
especially in the 2020 election with more people focused on politics then.
You inform a big part of the electorate.
More people may watch your Bernie impression than the actually see of Bernie on the news
or of his stances. Do you worry about that? What is, what do you think
your responsibility is knowing that? I think of it as an opportunity as opposed
to an obligation, you know. One of the best comedians I ever had the pleasure of
speaking to was Dick Gregory and I asked him how he created the jokes he did
and why he was so successful and he said to me, he said, young man, if you go looking around for jokes,
you're going to chase your tale.
But he said, but if you look for the truth, you're going to find things funnier than you can ever imagine.
And that stuck with me. I was like, wow, that's what I need to do is find the jokes. And so for me, what I try and do on the show, and we try and do this is, I specifically
want the daily show to be a place and a space
where you can escape the idea that the world is ending.
I wish to provide comedic catharsis,
because that's what I love.
If I didn't laugh, my family didn't laugh, the today, to the the the they, they, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, tho, they, tho, tho, that, their, their, the the the the the the today, today, the today, to be the the today, to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the tho, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, taugha, ta,sa,sa,sa,a,a,a,a,a,a, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, to use humor to heal our wounds. And so that's what I like to do on the show. It's create a space where we can do that.
And I do the same thing, and we do the same thing,
when we talk about what's happening.
We go, yes, there's a joke, but then we try
and slip in the important parts of what you need to know. superfluous statements and words and phrases that nobody really understands but just makes people look cool you know but it's like no just just tell me
the basics of what I need to know right now is that America's in a trade
war with China all you need to know right now is that additional tariffs
have been imposed that's what you need to know right now it's gonna
raise the prices of American goods and China maybe can to suffer a little bit more because their their their their their their their their their their their their their their to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be I I I I I'm to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to thi. thi. the thi. the the thi. the thi. the. the. the the. the try. tell. the the the tell. the tell. the the. the. you need to know right now. I don't need to take you into the macroeconomics of what's going on.
I just need you to follow the story.
And we do the same in politics, but the jokes is what keeps us going forward.
The jokes is what separates us from the Wall Street Journal,
is our ability to say no would like you to know about the news when you watch the Daily Show, but I do create it so that if it is your only exploration into the news, you're not walking
away not knowing what's going on.
And so when I do a Bernie impression, I'm doing it in the context of what Bernie is doing
and how he's doing it.
Today we covered Bernie Sanders going on Fox News. And yes, I did a joke about how he thir to to to to to to to their to their, I, I'm, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm thian, thi, thi, thi, the thi, thi, thi, tho, tho, their, their, their, their, their, their, the the the the the the the the the the their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the their, thi, thi, thr, thr, thrownean, throoooooooooan, thooooan, thooooooan, thoooo speak to people who are in a place or in a space that is opposing to yours, but you
believe so much in your platform and your ideas that you know you can win them over.
And he did well at his town hall and we spoke about that.
the same thing with Pete Budajez.
We joke about how he engages in a different way,
in a space that most people would consider,
a space of adversaries.
And so that's what I'm trying to do.
I think I have less chance of you.
If you're not gonna watch Bernie's policy speech,
then you won't watch me talking about his policy speech,
but you will watch me teling a joke about his policy speech, that that that that th........... they, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I's, and I's, and I'm, I'm, and I'm, I'm, and I'm, and I'm not. thin, and then, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and the the the the the thin... thin. thin. thin. thin. thin, thin, thin, thin, th th th th th th th th th th th th thin, the th th the th thin, the the that may engage you in his policy speech because you want to see what he said versus what I said and then I feel like I've contributed
in some way to how you engage with the news that informs how you ultimately should vote.
We're really good answer.
I had a bunch of follow-ups but we're going to go to audience Q&A in a couple of minutes,
but so think about your questions. There'll be Mike runners running around someplace out there.
But I have two more forward-looking questions for you all.
Well, we'll do the first one as a group.
So we'll do our five words thing again, but you don't have to actually say five words.
In 10 years from now, Trevor's probably got gray hair.
Baron Trump, my president, I'm not sure.
What the future holds, but what are,
what do you think each of you, how does your job change?
What are each of you doing every day
when you come to work in 10 years?
I'll start by saying this.
I don't know that I will be here in 10 years,
because I don't take for granted that I will be here try and work within a space where I'm thinking of it as the daily show.
Yes, I have an idea of where I would like the show to go, but I think to what Jubin was saying earlier,
there is a propensity for American news and politics to focus so far on what's at the top
that it doesn't look at what's happening right here.
And so in many ways, I mean, that's what Hillary did in her campaign. She looked at the White House and forgot to look at Wisconsin.
And so what I'm trying to do on the show is exist in a space where I'm really looking
at the day-to-dayness of it all.
So to what David was saying about our conservative writers and people who work on the show,
I do watch what true their show, listen to how he's connecting with people because you may want to act like it's not happening but he does know how to connect and so I try and listen to
that message on a daily basis because if I spend too much time looking ten
years ahead then I'll miss what's going to happen today and I'll I won't
cover what's going to happen tomorrow and so for me that's what that's what every single show. We sit down and we go, man, we could have done that better.
That was great, that was wonderful.
Let's improve on that.
Let's expand on that idea.
And for myself, I would be lying to you
if I said anything to you about anything to you
about 10 years, to happen with Iran You don't know what's going to happen with Kim Jong-un you don't like you genuinely
Don't we this is the feature of everything right
We assume a lot of robots, but I don't think anyone knew in America that that I don't think anyone knew that you try? to be careful that you're gonna go to war with Iraq. I think you know what I mean thinks like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thin like thin like th like th like th like th like thi thi thi th like th like th like thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like th like thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi's like thi's like thi's like thi's like thi's like thi's like thi thi's like thi's like thi's like thi's like thi's like thi's like thi's like thi to us. What I like to specialize in is feeling, thinking, reacting,
and basing our opinions on the information that we have at hand.
And so that's what I hope to be still doing in 10 years,
in some way, shape, or form.
We're going to need to change the name of this conference.
Do you have any thoughts?
I only think in 10 year gaps. Thank God.
Yes.
Who?
Well, I think I'm going to, I'm about a steal Romine's answer, which is, do you want
to give it or should I?
What?
You do it?
Oh, yeah, right.
You're in his head, you know what he's going to say?
No, I mean, I'm just.
Yeah. I think that I'll be involved in the comedy in the comedy in tholved in that I'll that I'll that I'll be involved in that I'll be involved in that I'll be involved in the comedy that I'll be involved in comedy the comedy that that that that that that that the that that that that that that that that that that that think that I'll be involved in comedy in some way or form.
Hopefully it'd be a daily show wherever,
like my part takes me.
But I think that we, comedies, people will always need to laugh.
And so we will find something to laugh about in 10 years' time if we're alive.
And you know, it could be like that global warming has hit hit us then we'll make jokes about oh remember when there was land you know you know like those but yeah I think
in 10 years time I'll be involved in providing the service of jokes you'll be
in the middle of Iowa yeah yeah if telling that joke you know yes if the if the
if the business will have me.
I like that answer better, thank you.
Wow, okay.
I am very like living the moment person, so I, and because the show happens every day, kind of like doesn't give you time to think about what's going to happen.
I, I don't like to plan that far in advance in my own personal life, but in the Daily Show. I would say that there's constantly new
platforms that we're going to be, that are in 10 years, who knows where TV will be? Will
there be TV? Is it all streaming? Is it all? Yeah, I mean, I think streaming will be old by then. So I do think like Kabuka said, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like Kabuka said, comedy will need to exist wherever that
is, whatever platform that is, I hope to be working in it.
But you know, I don't know what it'll be, obviously.
I don't know, I'll probably start a podcast or something.
I hear that's, it seems kind of trendy, yeah, it seems kind of cool.
I'll probably have one. Say a newspaper.
You start a newspaper.
Yeah, we're going to go back.
We're going to go the other way.
Yeah, we're going back.
I mean, you know, Trevor is going to evolve as a host and as a person.
And I think my job is just to to translate his voice to an audience on whichever platform were existing,
whether it's Twitter, Facebook, Tick-Tock,
we need to have a conversation about Tick-Tock.
I'm here for you.
It's like, no, Trevor, like, it's a thing now
and we have to like, do it.
Ramine does this all the time.
He just comes and tells me about some of them. So one time he told me there's a thing, he said we need we need something for smishmash. And then I was like, all right, let's do it.
And then I was just waiting in a room and then I was like, what is smishmash? And then he's like, no, it's now.
It's now. that's nothing. And, I think that's the job.
That's the role.
So beyond that, I have no idea.
Well, my last question was going to be for you, Trevor, which you already answered, but John
Stewart did this show for 16 years.
Yes.
At this pace and all that you guys do in terms of digital and the T show. I mean do you think you could do this for 16 years? Well, I mean, I will, you obviously don't even think that's tomorrow. I plan to be on the show as long as Ellen is on hers.
You know, she gives me the joy that I need and then I use that joy to propel my show and so it's like a day night synergy that I have going on and so then the then I just signed just signed just signed just signed just signed just signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed signed th th th th th th th th th for thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi their the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their thi thi thi. thi. the the the the the thee theoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooes. their their their their their years right today and so then I was like well then I'm definitely going to be staying and then I just match myself by what Ellen is
doing and then and then I should be good but but genuinely you like I genuinely
think it's a it's a powerful place to be and yes you should plan for the
future but if I look at 2016 as an anecdotal story
Donald Trump one thing that he did really well because he didn't believe maybe is that he th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th is th is th is th is th is thin thin thin thin thin thin thus thus the the the. the. the. I the. I thi the. I'm the. I'm the. I'm the. I'm thi. I'm the. I'm the. I'm the. I the. I's the. I's th. I's th. I th. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I th. I I I I I I I I I I I I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I thin. I'm thin. I'm the. I'm the. I'm the. I'm theeeeeeean. I'm thean. I'm thean. I'm theeeeean. I'm theeeeeee. I believe maybe, is that he didn't plan.
He just focused on each rally and each event.
He focused on each person and on each day.
And I guess a lot of the establishment politicians thought in broad strides about what was going
to happen because it had always happened.
And I think sometimes the trap we fall into as human beings is that we use patents to define the future when in fact, the future is defined by the future, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, the, and, the, and, and, the future, is, and, and, is, and, is, is, is, and, is, and, is, is, is, and, is, is, and, and, and, is, and, and, and, is, is, is, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the future is defined by the now. And so when it comes to technology, when it comes to how we're sharing content, how we're
communicating with each other as human beings, there is no defined path that that's going
to take.
You know, who would have called Microsoft starting out?
Who would have said that?
Who would have said that?
Who would have said that, that they would become one of the most powerful entities in the world?
I don't think anybody could have seen that.
And so I think if you're not careful, you forget that genuinely the future is happening
right now on a very simple level, and then what people do is they create ideas or platforms
that connect to the now idea that then becomes ubiquitous. You know, so Uber is doing what people were doing in some way.
People were giving people rides.
They formalized it.
They created a now thing that then took us into the future.
ABNB and people were sharing people's houses
and then they moved us into the future.
And so, you know, Tinder, we-uh, yeah. And then they just made it future. And so I think sometimes we forget
that like, that's really what the future is in many ways.
It's an extension and maybe a simplification
or an improvement on what we're doing right now.
And so for me, if we focus on the right now,
I think the future becomes apparent.
Between the scenes was us embracing what we had now to create a future ppa piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece piece the future to the future to to the future to the future to the future the future to the to the the the the to be the the the of th now to create a future piece of the Daily Show. You know, the Donald J. Trump presidential Twitter library was
us embracing him now in the moment saying to ourselves, if he only communicates and tweets,
what will his presidential library one day look like, and that helped us create
what we believed would be a future, and we created a physical representation of a joke that you know that we manifested. And so that's how I like th th th th th th that th th th that th th that th th th thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi the their the. the the. their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their the. the. the. the. the. the. thr. tm. tm. tm. tm. tm. tm. tm. tru. tru. tru. tru. tm. tm. tm joke that we manifested.
And so that's how I like to think of it.
And I think it is good that we do live in different times
because that's what propels the Daily Show into the future, determined by the now.
Okay, we can keep it.
We can keep it.
We can keep it.
Okay, we can go to probably two audience questions.
I feel bad. I made the promise, but now, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, the the tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho,to probably two audience questions. I feel bad. I made the promise, but now I'm running out of time.
We've got one right over here.
We won't be taking questions from young millennials, males.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, no, that's why I've called on you.
Female.
Thank you so much.
Yes.
Hi, I'm Jed.
So my question's actually not for you, Trevor. I'm sorry. And if my voice is shaking, I'm sorry, I'm shivering out here.
Jen, you've been in the space for so long.
How have, you know, when you look at some jokes
that people were making in the past, a lot of it was at the expense of women, you know,
making jokes like, oh, like, what, okay, I don't you seen this space change and how have you, as a woman in such a position of power
in the comedy world now, how do you use that and how do you empower other women and how,
yeah, yeah.
Okay.
I, yeah, it has changed tremendously and not just for women, but for, like, if you look at 20 years ago what the Daily Show was doing you
I cringe you know like there are things that we said and did on the show that
at the time we're totally fine work whatever totally fine was but but it
certainly not anymore I think that the better question is like what I do
with the women that work with me and I'm like I can get you in the rooms like get in the rooms like get in the the the rooms I I I the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the theymeauu theymea theymea theymea the the the the the the the the the the I do with the women that work with me and I'm like,
I can get you in the rooms.
Get in the rooms, I need you to talk.
And encouraging women, I mean it really is a collaborative environment and it, I mean,
we throw out good and bad jokes all the time, good and bad ideas.
And I think once, and I try and remind the women that work with me that these guys throw out bad jokes all the time.
You do it too, come on.
So I think just reminding the women,
because I think women are brought up,
and they say that this is like, with elementary school kids,
you can see it.
If a teacher asks a question, guy will just shout out, like a boy will just blurt out whatever they think.
The girl sits there and waits until she thinks it is the exact, she knows it's the right
answer and most girls will not answer a question unless they know it's right.
So sitting in a, so comedy and late night is a hard space because it is about blurting
things out. And it is about just like saying the first thing that comes to your mind because that's that's th so th th th th th the the the the the the the the their their tho comedy, tho thi thi thi, their thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thi, and, and, and, thi, thi, and, thi, thi.e, thi.e, thi.e, thi.I. I'll, thi. I'll, thi, thi, th like saying the first thing that comes to your mind because that's not necessarily what's going to end up on the air but
like let's have that conversation and I think that so I think that comedy and
late night was a hard space for women because they're brought up to wait
for the perfect answer and in those rooms there isn't a perfect answer. And so trying to, personally, trying to impart that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that to to to to to to to to to to that that that's that that that that that that that that that that that that that that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that that's that that's that's that's that's that's that's that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the to the the thenene thenene to to thenene the the the the the there isn't a perfect answer. And so trying to, personally,
trying to impart that to the women that work with me,
you know, that's, I can only, you know, do so much for women in TV,
but I like, at least try and encourage the women that work with me at the show
to speak up when they're in the room,
because we can get you in the room, like get in the room, but I need you to talk.
And I think shaking that thing that you know from when you were in third grade and waiting
for that moment that you know the exact right answer, it's a really hard thing to shake,
myself included.
So yeah, is that?
Yeah.
That's the other part that Jen does is she whips us into shape as well, getting us guys to
understand, you know, like how to, you know, not, it's not about respecting women, but
how to understand the women's point of view as well, to get us to listen and to, you know,
be receptive to that. She helps us, she teaches us a lot as well. Too many dick jokes sometimes. I say, guys I'll laugh at the really good
ones but we can't just put any dick jokes on the show. Okay. It must be really funny
if you have one right? I'm like I'm not laughing over here so.
I'm the thing we have got time for one more. Hi my name's Walker Brown Adams.
Hi my name's Walker Brown Adams., my name is Walker, oh, sorry.
Hi, my name's Walker Brown Adams.
I was wondering, you know, you touched on this a little about the fact that some people,
this is an informational and almost educational experience for them
because they're not watching other news outlets or they're not reading these stories.
How do you kind of handle the responsibility of knowing that for some people you might really
be affecting change in their viewpoints and affecting change on a larger scale?
Well I think that question is answered by a culmination of everything and everyone on the stage
as an extension of the show.
Every time we engage in a story, we're thinking of who the story affects,
how they process that information, and what it may mean to them, whether it's
politics, with its social justice, whether it's economics, whatever it is in the
world, we try and think of it from that point of view. And so for me, the
honesty in that is best explored by people who are most affected by it. And so when we're doing, when we're telling a tel tel the the their their their their their their their their their their their. their, their, te. I te. I te. I's, te. I's, te. I's te. thoe. thoes. their, thoes, thoes, their. their. their, their. their. their. their, their. their, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story. the story, the story, the story. the story, the story, their. their. I's, their. I's, their. I's, their. I's, their. I's, their. I's, the. I's toeckeckeckecke. I's toea. I's toea.ea.ea. toea. toea. thoooeseseseseses. thoeseseseses. thoeseseses. And so when we're telling a joke
or when we're telling a story,
all I'm trying to do is get to the most genuine space
of what that story or what that joke should be about.
And so Jen was just alluding to it now.
It genuinely is, like, I mean, as guys,
we very seldom think there are too many jokes in any conversation.
They laugh at all of tham th because that's the world we've grown up in in many times, in many instances, you know.
You may find that a white person may not be as cognizant of how ostracize a black person may
feel, especially in America, and it's interesting to have that conversation.
You know, how do you tackle conversations around international affairs, etc.
And that's what we're always trying to do. And so what I find is if you start sounds joke, you just
go, what is happening? How do you feel? How do you process this in an honest way?
I find that because the formula for comedy in my opinion is comedy,
comedy equals tragedy plus time, you know, I didn't invent that but that's
what I truly believe it is. Comedy is tragedy it may be, large or small. We take the time to process that information,
and then hopefully we get to the comedy once we've had a little bit of time to feel.
And so when someone's watching the show, I hope that those elements come through.
I hope that they go, oh, we see what happened, the truth of it.
We understand how you feel about it, and then we get why're making the joke because this is what the show is about.
It's not that you dismiss it, it's not that you don't take it seriously,
it's not that you don't care,
it's rather that this is your coping mechanism.
And that's how I work to bring people in.
That's how we work on the show.
I mean, we make jokes with each their their their their their their their their their their. We their. We thoes. We thoes. We thoes. We thoes. We th. We ry and broadcast that to the audience that's
watching every single day.
That's a great great way to end things.
Thank you all so much for being here.
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Ears Edition.
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Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly
Show coming out every Thursday. We're going to be ell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show, coming out every Thursday.
We're going to be talking about the election.
Earnings calls.
What are they talking about on these earnings calls?
We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches.
I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out
on Thursday?
Listen to the Weekly Show with John St the weekly the weekly the weekly the weekly theeeejjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the weekly the weekly the weekly the weekly the weekly the weekly the weekly the weekly the weekly the weekly the weekly the weekly the weekly the weekly to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the. the. the. the. the. theeeate. theateate. thea. thea. toea. thea. toea. thea. thea. thee. the. toe. toean.