Subtitles section Play video
- They've been having a lot of fun backstage,
so hopefully they will have much fun here with you.
Desi, I would love to start with you.
Because we all watch this, and you make it seem easy.
But there's nothing easy about what you produce each night.
So when we watch one of those field pieces,
how does it go from concept to execution?
- One of the cool things about "The Daily Show"
that a lot of people don't know, is that
anyone who works at the show can pitch an idea.
So anybody who works there, whether you're
a writer, a producer, a correspondent,
it can certainly be an intern.
Maybe an intern pitches an idea
that takes off and is great.
So usually a field producer or the head
of the field department will pick up on an idea
and appoint a producer and a correspondent.
We spend time thinking about what the comedic take is.
Is it something that's an issue that
seems to matter to people?
Then we start the pre-production process.
Then we take it to Trevor.
And Trevor either approves it or doesn't approve it.
Then we hopefully go out.
It can be a long process.
It can sometimes take a week or so.
Or sometimes we are coming up with something
and going out and shooting at two o'clock in the afternoon
for the show that night.
Which has happened.
- So this question just goes to anybody
who wants to take it, which is
what's one idea that you have pitched
maybe multiple times and you just can't
get on the air.
- Falling school.
- Camels. - Baseball.
- Falling school. - Camels.
- There's a guy that will teach you how to fall.
(laughing)
And it's meant for the elderly.
- [Dulce] What?
Why you look at them?
- Because they get injured when they fall.
Everyone can get injured when they fall,
not just the elderly, but you understand my point.
So I wanna go do a field piece where I
learn how to fall, because every senator
is like 165 years old right now,
so we gotta teach America how to fall.
You're laughing, that should be enough
to get it approved.
(laughing)
- He has been trying to drive this thing home
ever since he started the job.
- I mean, you just learned how to stand,
so now you want to learn how to fall?
- Camels, camels.
- Camels?
- Camels. - Camels do know how to fall.
- But you're not telling the whole---
- Tell the whole story.
- It's Australia.
- Tell it. - I've been pitching camels
since I joined the show.
It never gets approved.
- [Dulce] What about camels, Ronny?
- Australia has the largest population
of feral camels on the planet.
(audience laughing)
- Did ya'll know that was a thing?
- No.
- They had the largest population of feral camels.
- I thought this was a comedy panel.
- And this is why it's not a piece.
- No!
- No, no, they still do.
Everything else died, the camels survived.
- [Michael] You see how I set him up?
- The camel survives because they are
perfectly adapted to the desert.
Nobody wants to talk about this except for me.
(audience laughing)
And just running around the middle of Australia,
just messing shit up.
- What's in the middle of Australia to mess up?
- Like nothing much really, to be honest.
But the government sent guys in helicopters
to shoot them down 10 years ago,
and they did it and they ran out of funding to do it.
And the camel population increases exponentially
every five years and it's gonna overrun the country.
And no one wants to talk about this except for me.
- I think what happens in the field department
is that a lot of stories that we pitch
that are good and are addressing a real issue,
the bigger question in the building becomes,
how does this attach itself to the national conversation
about that issue.
More often than not, a lot of the better
field pieces we do are an extension of something
that Trevor's already talked about at the desk,
or something that would have worked at the desk
but it's such a deeper issue that we go out
and actually try and figure out what's going on
with that issue.
So unfortunately, there aren't enough people in America
already talking about falling or camels.
- Do we have enough gun people in politics?
No, why?
Everyone's old as shit.
- [Dulce] So let 'em fall.
- That's all I got, that's all I got on that.
(laughing)
That's all.
- Jab, you bring up though a good point
which is how--
- Camels. - How do you avoid
following the bouncing ball?
How do you come back to what matters,
to what matters to your audience and making sure
that you're focusing on that, and not just doing
recitations of the President's Twitter feed?
- We do that, too.
- I think if you just actually care about
the thing that you're talking about,
then I think people will identify with it
no matter what it is.
Because if you genuinely care, then someone else
is going to care, it's important.
- And we are all different people.
So if you pursue what you're passionate about
or what you're interested in,
it's gonna be much different.
I don't give a fuck about camels, okay?
But Ronny loves camels.
- That's hostile.
- I don't give a fuck about old people.
Michael loves old people falling, so.
Quote that tomorrow. - Not falling.
- Jaboukie, there was a moment in one of your pieces
where I couldn't tell whether or not
the subject was bought in and understood
what was happening.
It was a piece you did about Arizona,
and about how temperatures are rising in Arizona.
You keep repeating Nelly lyrics.
You said, "Nelly tried to tell us this."
And then you keep saying, "It's getting hot in here."
And the person's like, okay, it's hot.
But then, there's a later part of the piece
where you're walking down the hallway with the expert
and you have no pants on.
So I'm assuming that he knew that was coming.
- Yeah, he asked actually.
It was his request.
No, I think Brian was really cool.
He was pretty game for it.
I think people know "The Daily Show" institution,
so that a lot of people are ready to play,
and it can actually be hard to catch people
off guard sometimes, because they go into it
thinking a certain way.
With that, it's either you have to play it
really quiet and subtle, or you just have to
lean into it and see how far you can poke them,
for them to break this steely reserve
that they have set up.
- Or they're so ready to play a game
that you're not playing.
(laughing)
- That happens too.
- So I was interviewing someone for the chip piece,
and he kept making these jokes and I was just like,
I don't know what's happening.
Because they were like true Dad jokes.
But then I also think he'd never talked to
a black person before, especially a black woman.
So we're going through the takes,
and we'd be having a conversation,
or he would want to redo the take.
Which is fine, because we're taping something.
He's like, "Well, let's just go back
"because we just need to run through this again."
And he was like, "Okay don't hit me."
And I was like, "What is happening?"
But it was always like, "Don't get mad at me,
"don't hit me, don't hit me."
And I was like, "Sir, what do you think
"is gonna happen today?"
- I think a lot of what happens in our field pieces
is it's just a conversation.
And we can be talking to someone that has
a position that we may find to be incredulous,
but to them, this is their reality,
this is what's real.
We did a piece at the University of Texas
where they'd outlawed sex toys, but they're
allowing concealed carry on campus.
So, we spoke with a pro-gun advocate
who's anti-sex toys, and he was adamant
about why sex toys are worse than guns.
That's just a real conversation.
Within that is the humor.
So a lot of the times, you don't have to try.
You just talk. (audience laughing)
- A sad, sad man.
(audience laughing)
Or sad wife of that man, I don't know.
(audience laughing)
- Ronny, there was a piece that you did
with Andrew Yang.
What--
- Oh, sorry, yeah. - Okay, hey.
- I was thinking about some field pieces and camels.
Sorry. - Camels.
- You sort of start out with this premise.
You were like, "You're Asian, so I'm going to
"vote for you.
"That is the entire premise of my vote."
And he really wanted to pull it back
to universal basic income.
Like he was gonna get that point in, regardless.
What kind of response did you get from the Yang Gang
on that piece?
- Oh, you mean, honestly I don't know.
I swear to God I'm not trying to,
I don't know what the response was from them.
- I can tell you.
- Did they like it?
- Yeah, it was cool.
- Okay, great.
- They rock with you.
- Do you all check your social media?
Are you sensitive to the feedback loop on your pieces?
- Jaboukie, do you wanna answer that?
(laughing)
- If you don't know who Jaboukie is.
Currently suspended on Twitter.
- Twitter jail!
- There are certain things that will
slip through the cracks and I'll see it.
I think when I first started, I was definitely
in every comment section, like,
he's doesn't know what he's talking about,
but like so hurt on the inside.
But at a certain point, I was like it's done.
Nothing you say is going to change
what the piece looks like,
so why should I care what you think?
- Well sometimes they catch you off guard.
I just did this desk piece talking about,
like listen, if you're sick, please don't
go to work, that's all I was saying.
And people started losing their minds.
And it was just like, "You have the luxury
"of not going to work."
And this girl just went off on me and I was like,
"Ma'am I've done standup with the flu."
And she was like, "Oh, okay."
What, what point did we prove now?
- Hang on, so what did you hear about
that my field piece? - What did you hear
people talking, did they say something
bad about us?
- They loved it, they loved it.
- They loved it, okay good.
- Just making sure.
- 2011, you probably remember this,
there was an academic study that looked at
"The Colbert Report" and whether people's
political ideologies affect the way
that they perceived it.
I took this directly from there.
"Conservatives were more likely to report
"that Colbert only pretends to be joking."
(audience laughing)
Has anyone ever confused your persona with
who you actually are in real life?
- I mean, for me sure, absolutely.
I've confused it sometimes.
Sometimes you're writing, you're creating
an outlandish opinion, and then you get kinda
buried in it, and you're working it with other people,
and all of a sudden you're like, well
we're kinda making a decent point, but I don't know.
I get people that come up to my standup shows
sometimes and are angry that I'm not
a dumb buffoon guy that I love playing on the show.
But hey, they bought a ticket to the show,
so fuck 'em, you know?
(laughing)
- Costa's very smart.
Costa's very smart.
- Thank you.
- I just wanna, because when he says it
you don't believe him.
That's why I said it, because ya'll believe black women.
That's why Oprah's a millionaire.
Billionaire, sorry, but yeah Costa's smart.
- I don't think there's a lot of conflation,
at least not for me.
I think that the thing that Trevor has done
with "The Daily Show," with his iteration of
"The Daily Show," is that I think it's
a little more closer to the punditry.
It's a little bit more closer to reflecting
the punditry that's on television now.
Whereas under the John Stewart regime,
I believe early on it was a lot more reporter-driven.
So there was something more there to parody.
Whereas now we're just playing heightened,
caffeinated versions of ourselves.
So for me, I'm not that much different.
I yell a little less in real life.
But everything else pretty much holds true.
- I think the fun part is doing a field piece
and interviewing someone who might not be
of the same belief that you actually agree with,
but you're sort of ironically agreeing with them.
And people always say, like how do you get away
with doing that, or how do you get away with
confronting them, or pointing out the hypocrisy?
But they're so entrenched in their belief
that it doesn't occur to them
that you don't agree with them.
- I interviewed a guy who wanted to split California
into two, make half of it, the inland part
of California Republican, and then
the coastal part Democrat.
And it was so outlandish and silly, and then
halfway through the interview I was like,
I agree with this guy.
He switched me.
- There was a piece, I don't know if ya'll saw it,
I think there was a little clip of it,
that Roy did, where you were looking at the black vote.
You had a focus group.
(Dulce mumbling) - I'll take this one.
(audience laughing)
- What was so fascinating to me is that there
was just a lot of truth in that piece.
They really did speak to a spectrum of views
and values and, as funny as it was, it also
could have appeared on a news organization.
- Yeah, and I think that's the goal,
is to find comedy in the realistic moments.
Which goes back to just what I said before.
Let's just have a conversation, and let's see
what comes up in that conversation.
And more often than not, you're going to
get something that's good.
And of course we already know if you put
a black Trump supporter in a room with
other black voters who skew Democrat,
you're gonna get some action.
(audience laughing)
So you just figure out where that stuff
is gonna come from within the conversation.
And it just surfaced up and it was great.
- Right because what was sort of amazing with that
is it didn't devolve into attacks.
They were really pushing back on the substance.
- Yeah, because we weren't trying to create
some room where people just yelled.
We weren't trying to create Facebook comments
in real life.
Like let's have a serious, structured conversation
about the candidates, and tell us
why you do not like this particular person
and why you think this particular person,
and have the argument based strictly on policies
and what your needs are as a constituent,
and not based on, well he made me angry
so I'm a just fight you because I don't like him
because that one time on TV.
It was none of that.
- It also was good because it showed America
that black people are an intelligent voting base.
Because a lot of times they think like,
all right, we ate a pork chop, they'll vote for me.
Like no, that's not.
You walk into a beauty salon, we're automatically
gonna vote for you?
That's not how...
It just seems like a lot of times when,
as a black voter, and seeing how politicians interact
with not just black voters, but black and Latino voters,
it's very much like, I ate the pork chop,
I ate the taco, let's go.
What's happening, what else do I have to do for you people?
I said five words of Spanish, I get it, let's go.
Andale, vote for me.
So I loved that piece because it was just like
oh all of America gets to see why this is
an important voting base just as anyone else.
Not just automatically, we're automatically
gonna do this.
And then the black Trump supporter being there
was also good because it was like
oh, we don't all automatically vote Democrat.
So it got to show that black people are not this
monolith in reference to--
- Wait, what?
- Did you just ask what monolith meant?
- No.
- How then do you play on stereotype
without falling into it?
So that piece, Roy, begins with you
doing a very serious open about the black vote,
and then sprinting across the street
to go to Waffle House.
- [Dulce] 'Cause it's delicious.
(audience laughing)
- Ronny you have a piece, it was you doing
an Asian alternative debate when Andrew Yang
didn't make it into one of the debates.
You've really relied heavily on Andrew Yang this season.
(laughing)
- Hey, someone's gotta, right?
If I don't talk about him, who the hell's
gonna talk about him?
- I talked to him--
- What a moment in time that was, by the way.
That we had an Asian person running for President,
and an Asian person on a TV show
able to speak about it.
I don't want to pat myself on the back but--
- No.
Okay, but then you took the opportunity,
I think your first policy question was about
Panda Express.
(laughing)
- Listen, there's-- - That's the comedy!
- Some issues which I don't expect you
to understand, okay?
(laughing)
- What was amazing is that the entire premise
was Ronny being like, you need to close Panda Express.
And then Andrew Yang was like, "I love Panda Express."
(laughing)
So how do you play with that?
Where do you see the line between
getting the joke, but then not over-relying on it
or making that the totality of it.
- I mean, it's a comedy show first.
So if you're coming to me expecting me to
give a, I'm not doing a propaganda piece.
I'm doing a comedy piece.
I'm not gonna give you five minutes on TV
to say whatever you want.
I'm here to make jokes about it.
- I'm doing a little bit of propaganda.
A little bit. (laughing)
- I mean, I'm here to make jokes about the thing.
If you're looking for serious analysis,
go to his blog, or go whatever the current
non-biased news is right now.
- But also, I didn't watch the piece.
I don't watch Ronny's pieces, but I know
(laughing)
you probably had a couple cheap jokes in there,
you probably had a couple of really smart jokes
in there too.
I speak on behalf of everybody.
When you're in the edit bay, you keep
a couple silly ones in there, because they're
super silly and fun, Panda Express jokes.
Then you also try to make more profound ones as well.
- And I think that that moment between Ronny and Yang,
I just think it's a small moment, but I think
it highlights a bigger advantage that our show has
over a lot of other shows that are in
the satirical news space right now, which is that--
- [Moderator] Are you winking at your PR person?
- No, I'm serious that we're able to do things
from a space--
- Most diverse cast.
- It's not you, it's Ronny, go ahead.
- Can you just slow the prompter down
so we can read it, please.
- I'm being for real.
- I'm messing with you.
I know.
(laughing)
See, fuck it then.
(laughing)
We got a lot of different people.
We got mo' different people than the other shows.
So we get to talk about stuff from the
perspectives, that way it's honored
and it's handled properly.
- It's true. - It is true.
- It is true.
You have black, you have white, you have Asian,
you have white again.
(laughing)
I don't know race Jabouki is. - And whatever Jabouki is.
- Whatever Jabouki is, yeah, we have that.
- Millennial. - Young.
- Age, we have young people, we have old people.
- You point to me and say age.
Oh my god! - Yeah, anyway.
But truthfully, I mean--
- There are two people on this stage
that are older than me, that are (mumbles).
- Yes, hello.
- But honestly, tell me another,
which are TV shows are Asian person, period?
Much less an Asia person who can talk to Andrew Yang.
(laughing)
SNL, did you say SNL?
- Bowen Yang.
- Okay, fuck, SNL.
- Bowen Yang, Bowen Yang. (laughing)
- One show, one other show. - Shout out to Bowen Yang.
- That's different.
- But if you're wondering what it's like
for us to be in a meeting--
- Who's team are you on?
- Mine. (laughing)
Black woman, fuck ya'll.
- [Ronny] No, I was talking to Jaboukie.
- What I'm saying is that if you're wondering
what it's like for us to be, it's this.
It's Roy trying to make a point,
Costa saying something unnecessary.
(laughing)
- I'm the only one that has a wireless microphone
at the meetings, though.
It's very odd.
(laughing)
- The whole building can hear him, it's great.
But through this whole process, 'cause when
we have those field meetings, we all pitch
to each other, and if no one...
'Cause it does seem that the ideas that
we can riff off of in the room,
or kind of the ideas that seem to get pushed,
because it's everyone going, oh, and we could do this
and we can do this, and we can do this,
and we can do this.
'Cause it's all collaborative, because when a piece
is pitched, they don't always have
a specific correspondent in mind.
Sometimes it's, okay here is the idea,
and let's see who would be best fit
to produce the piece.
- I think the most important thing that contributes
to creating comedy in the "Daily Show" environment
is that no one is sensitive when they hear no.
So you may pitch something.
One of the things that I love the most about the show
is that a lot of pitching happens over email.
Because the show is moving so much during the day,
there's only so many meetings you can have.
So you can pitch over email and no one,
just won't reply to your email.
(laughing)
You're, all right, guess that one's not getting made.
But there's no hard feelings in the meeting.
To what Dulce is saying, that you go
hey, let's do this.
Eh, that doesn't really have any teeth.
Let's do something in this regard.
And no one's all sensitive.
Because it keeps you pitching.
Like you may pitch an idea, it gets struck down,
you come back the next day with something else.
- Yeah, it's very collaborative environment.
Everyone wants the same thing.
Can I get a raise?
- Camels.
- I'm pretty sure that the email address
that I got for pitch is the wrong one.
(laughing)
Because man, do I send some sweet ideas over there,
and I have never heard a response one time.
- [Dulce] I never see 'em.
- Let me guess, falling?
(laughing)
- Roy, you said something in an interview
where you said the most difficult thing for you is,
and I quote, "When the South does something stupid."
Can you explain?
- Yeah, 'cause I'm from Alabama.
- And I'm from Georgia.
Thank you so much. (laughing)
- It's the assumption that everyone in the South
is the South that makes the news.
So the burden of carrying that on to television.
When Jeff Sessions says something stupid,
or when Roy Moore does something stupid.
Or there's a stupid law that's trying to get passed,
or there's voter suppression, or gerrymandering.
The idea that it's something that I definitely
am proud of because there are a lot of people
in the South that are trying to make a difference.
Dulce is, we pitch stuff with Stacey Abrams,
and try to show that there's something that matters,
and there's people there who care about that stuff.
And to be in a building with people who actually
listen and hear you out, and not just make
dumb Alabama toothless jokes, is important to me.
- And then the other thing with Stacey Abrams,
'cause people are like, it's so amazing.
It's like, how could a black woman be elected
governor in a state in the South.
And I was like, but people forget that
60% of the black population in America
lives in former slave states.
So the place that a black woman would get elected
is a place where a bunch of black people live.
The numbers just make sense.
And then the other thing, is some other thing
we're wanting to pitch, we can't figure how to pitch,
it's that I would love to pitch about
how America thinks that racism only exists
in 13 states, and that the rest of the country is,
ha ha ha, everything was great.
No!
The most segregated city in the country's Chicago.
That's not the South.
- Okay, whoa whoa whoa chill.
Chill chill chill chill chill chill chill.
- Um, chill on what?
You're from there, tell me--
- Chill chill chill.
- Am I wrong?
- You're right, you're right, you're right.
- Thank you so much, thank you so much!
- So we're a big happy family.
- True, true, true, true, true.
- We get along really well.
- Me and Jaboukie fistfight constantly
to keep our friendship strong.
- And our bones, it's just good for the body.
- It's how I work out.
- Does it help that our offices have doors some days?
It does help, yes, some days.
- But yeah, there's those times where it's just,
that's the hardest part, because anytime
stupid in the South happens, Roy'll text me
and go, "Damn it!"
I'm just like, "Oh, we didn't need this again!"
(laughing)
Iowa, do something.
(laughing)
- In that same interview, Roy, you said something
that I think is actually pretty resonant
in the news as well, which is that you
try to make the joke about the idea and not about
the person behind the idea.
I wonder how you focus yourself and actually
stay true to that.
- The people making bad decisions will always change.
The conditions will remain.
So that's what I would rather focus on.
So that's what we try to focus, even with
the desk chats.
It's not this person is the reason this thing.
It's no, why is this issue an issue?
And here are people that could change it.
And those are the people whose feet
we may hold to the fire on that issue.
But it would have been very easy...
Costa did how many Great Lakes pieces have you done?
Like 12? - That's all I would do
if I could, but I've done two or three, yeah.
- So he's a big environmental guy.
Costa really cares about the environment,
so the issue is more about what's happening here--
- [Michael] I care about you guys.
- And what could change, and how that change
could come about.
And it's not always about going after the person,
because then you get the person out of office and
yeah, we did it, he's not in anymore.
There's people still starving, there's people still poor.
There's still people that need solutions.
So sometimes it's better to have a piece or segment
that's solution-oriented versus just attacking
someone that's responsible for the condition.
- Ronny, is there a line for you?
Are there lines, are there parameters you try to
stay within?
- Lines.
Whew. (expels air loudly)
I trust my own internal judgment.
It's hard to talk about these things hypothetically,
like what's the line.
Everyone wants an equation and definite answers,
but if I do say so myself, this is more of an art
than a science, so we trust our own internal judgment.
Go into situations when we're like,
oh, this is fair game, go hard.
Or sometimes when it's like, you know what?
Let's pull it back a bit.
If you want hard defined lines?
- No I don't--
- Don't say the N-word?
That's one line I have.
- That gut check, there have to be times
where the gut check goes wrong.
Or where the gut check sort of comes after the fact.
- I think even sometimes if we're not sure,
if it feels like it's right on the line,
and this could upset someone, or we might be
punching in the wrong direction,
we'll pull each other in.
I'll be like, Costa, no not Costa.
I'll be like, Roy, come look at this.
- Always go to Roy.
- Roy, I trust your gut.
Come look at this and tell me if you think
that there's something that feels right,
or if we should change it.
And we do.
- Yeah, the show is a huge institution.
There's a lot of people who've been there
a long time.
I think they've rarely gotten something wrong wrong.
So we have our own internal barometer
that we trust because we have a history
of doing it as well.
And also we are good people.
(laughing)
- Yes, I think the best answer Ronny gave was
he trusts his own internal code with that.
But we also aren't gonna change something
just because one person on the internet
is mad about it.
I know I take a lot of value in the experience
of everyone above me who's made
way more field pieces than me.
Editors who edited the pilot 22 years ago
for "The Daily Show".
I mean, there's so many intelligent people
in these rooms that can help guide you.
Yeah, so.
- I'll give you a good example of something where
you go into it with good intentions.
And sometimes there's just things that
you can't change.
We did a segment during the March For Our Lives rally
about a year ago, where I went to Montana
to a pro-gun rally.
Everybody else was anti-gun.
It was nation-wide, everybody was marching against guns,
and in Montana, there was a pro-gun rally happening.
So I went to Montana to cover the rally,
and we got their opinions and perspectives
of people that are pro-gun.
We made the jokes and the piece went fine.
The feedback I got from people from Montana
was, how dare you come here and talk about
those people, when there were perfectly good people
across town talking about the right thing.
But we had an entire 12 minutes on this show
before my segment aired, that was dedicated
to people that had those beliefs.
So the whole point of my piece was
to explore the other side.
That's something where there's nothing you
could have done that would have made
that group of people happy in that instant.
- Well it's also just the challenge of the fact
that you're consumed on multiple platforms.
That if you're watching it as a television show,
then you saw that counter-balance.
But if you're only watching the digital clip,
then you're watching it...
What is the line that you've been walking
around the office saying?
About we're the most socially...
- Oh, I just want to remind everyone,
we're the most socially engaged late night series
of all time.
- Of all time?
- Yes, yes. - Of all time?
- Of all time? - I don't know about
of all time. - What does the prompter say?
- Of what's currently on right now,
we are the most engaged Emmy Award-winning.
- So I'm an old millennial, so "The Daily Show"
that I grew up with was a television show.
It probably had a Twitter handle,
but that wasn't considered truly a part of the show.
There was like a Twitter person in a corner somewhere
doing a separate thing,
where now you have all these platforms
fully integrated and it's not show first.
I wonder how that changes the work,
and changes what you do when the show
is just a piece of a much larger puzzle.
- There's a lot of pieces where I will
have to fight for a joke because I'm like
I know this won't play in a live audience,
but this is going to crush on YouTube.
And I need those YouTube comments to be good.
(laughing)
So I think it's just knowing, and having
a really good understanding, of how each thing
is going to be consumed,
and trying to plan ahead for stuff like
the Montana piece where it's like,
right, okay this will play like this.
But then online, when it's divorced from this context,
how is this going to look there.
Which is how most people from this date on
are going to be watching it.
Like 90% of the people who see it
will probably see it divorced from
the entire show that it was in.
So I think you kind of just have to develop
a new consciousness, or a new side of your brain.
- I would say, maybe to counter that,
a funny joke is a funny joke.
A lot of us tour, do standup all over the world.
I mean, people laugh at everything.
So in my opinion, if it's good on TV,
it's probably good on YouTube, it's probably
good face to face.
And that's what we try to do.
At least that's what I try to do.
I can't speak on behalf of these
other five people.
- Okay, shade.
All right. - How gracious of you.
- I just think, you know, we are all different people
and sometimes a piece will be directed toward
a different demographic, or a different group of people,
and I just try to think of that
when I do stuff.
- To answer your question, how do we extend the show?
Part of it is we live this life,
so it's not that hard to think in terms of
Twitter and YouTube and Instagram,
'cause we're from that.
And also we have a lot of talented people
working at the show, digital producers
and so forth, trying to figure it out for us.
So they'll see something, we'll pitch a good idea.
Like Michael Costa said, a good joke is a good joke.
Then these people work day and night
to try to figure out how to translate it
at every other medium.
That's why you have, you know, the show gets
extended to Instagram stories, to Instagram posts.
There's the Twitter library that tours around.
- TikTok.
- Yeah TikTok, I don't even know anymore.
(laughing)
Is Snapchat still a thing?
If it is, we're on that I'm pretty sure.
- I watch the show on Instagram.
That's how I catch it most of the time.
Is it'll have, 'cause it's the easiest,
'cause I'll be traveling and doing shows,
and if I'm in some hotel room somewhere
I can't catch Comedy Central, the show,
like at 11 o'clock because I might be
at my own standup show.
So I can be on the road and just go on the Instagram
and that's how I'll watch the show.
- (mumbles) So we do the show that we
know how to do, and then it gets cut up
for these different platforms.
And then sometimes we'll do something
and extend it, knowing that we'll extend it
into beyond the show.
So we'll do a field piece sometimes,
and we'll think, hey, this field piece
will have a website in it,
and let's get the team to make a website
that will extend this field piece
into interactive spaces and all that.
Like a did a sexual racism piece with
Jessica Williams, back in the day,
and at the end of it we had this thing that was
hey, call in and tell us, or write in,
your experiences, and then we read out
the peoples' experiences for YouTube.
That extended the show beyond what it was.
And we went in knowing that we were gonna do that.
That's why we were able to put the link
in the field piece.
So stuff like that.
That's when it's more considered.
And then sometimes when we just throw that.
Like the Yang thing is just Instagram live
and me and him are Asian, that's what it was.
That's what that was. (laughing)
- There's also an opportunity.
There are ideas that people come up with
at the show all the time that are
a killer joke, but it might not be
an entire take for a four-minute field piece
or a second act.
So we can send it out immediately,
and interact with our audience in a way
that we wouldn't be able to on the show.
- As we head into 2020 general election,
what are you all most excited about?
What are the stories you want to tell?
- The road, I enjoy the road.
I enjoy...
(laughing)
- Why do you say it like that?
You say it like you're gonna--
- 'Cause sometimes it's interesting.
- The road. - It's very interesting.
- [Jaboukie] That was like the beginning
of a Gatorade commercial, that is so good.
- (laughing loudly) Or like a Lincoln commercial.
You selling Harleys?
- I'm interested in the challenge
of finding humor in places where people
aren't necessarily embracing the media anymore.
There's a lot more of that out there than in 2016.
And 2016 was a little weird.
Now, for 2020--
- [Moderator] Okay, what do you mean?
- Just the actual, physical being out
and doing man on the street and interviewing
people on both sides.
I think in that regard, it's something more exciting
than finding comedy in places where
the country is more upset.
So there's more of a challenge in that.
We're way more pissed off than we were in 2016,
in terms of where "The Daily Show" is concerned.
We're going out with cameras to go
talk to people about the election.
We're gonna to Iowa, we're gonna go to New Hampshire,
we're gonna go do all the Super Tuesday stuff,
and we're not gonna be getting the same energy
that we got in 2016, which means that we
have to change our recipe.
So I'm excited to see what adjustments we have to make.
- What I'm most excited about,
and I think this is what "The Daily Show"
is founded on, and what it continues to thrive on,
is how the media will cover it.
Last Democratic debate, I love that moment
where they asked Bernie Sanders something
and they immediately split screen with Elizabeth Warren.
They were trying to get the fight going.
The media was like, okay, split screen,
let's get the fight going,
and they didn't take the bait.
Now they took the bait later,
during the commercial break.
And of course, CNN releases the audio.
Our job is to satirize the media
that builds this shit.
This is the American entertainment industry
is at its finest in an election year.
I mean it's gonna be going off the rails.
And our job is to be able to call bullshit
on all of this stuff. - To make money.
- That's what we do.
That's why it's called Votegasm 2020.
It's a orgasm for us.
We climax at this opportunity.
That's all I have to say.
Good night, get me outta here!
(laughing)
Why am I not leaving?
Okay, that's it.
- I'm excited to see America confirm its identity.
So we have round one.
- [Jaboukie] And don't say that, please.
Don't say that. (laughing)
- Round one and obviously this happened.
And if that's what America is, let's confirm it.
This is the Mulligan.
This is the do symbols matter?
Do people in charge matter?
This is when we confirm that.
I'm excited to see the results of that.
- Ya'll got real scared, ya'll got real scared.
And honestly, I agree with him.
I'm sitting up waiting going, okay,
let's see what time it is, America.
'Cause that's how I'm thinking with Ronny.
Just like if it'll pop off and do this again, okay.
I'm not moving.
Canada's cold, I'm not going nowhere.
(laughing)
- I'm really interested to see if the election
plays out now that we're all aware
that we live in bubbles, and we're not
acting like our co-workers, and the two
people who live next door to us
are representative of the entire country.
I think that that's going to really change,
not only how the politicians enter the race,
but also how we consume their message.
It's more so like people are listening out
not only for their own beliefs now.
But with the Democrats it's so much about electability,
so everyone is trying to imagine what
all these other people who they would never talk to
are voting like, thinking like, living like.
It's just really weird to see people try
to extend their logic and their judgment
into what other people are experiencing.
I think it's an interesting exercise in empathy.
- We will be at both conventions.
We'll be in Milwaukee for the Democratic convention.
We'll be in Charlotte for the Republic convention.
And we'll be doing man on the street,
you better believe it.
Or as Roy likes to say, the road.
(laughing)
- I'm excited to be at the RNC and just have people go,
so what are you doing here?
'Cause why would I be there?
'Cause they're gonna look at me and they're like,
well you can't, you can't support...
Because sometimes when people see
"Daily Show" and they're not a Democrat,
they automatically go, you're trying to
make fun of me.
And it's like, no I want to because,
a lot of the times when we pitch stuff to Trevor,
Trevor goes, okay I like this idea.
Now think of the other side to it.
To make sure we're not punching down,
to make sure that we're giving...
Because a lot of times you can get more comedy
out of seeing the other side of something,
because then you can maybe more anticipate
what the person might say in the interview.
And then you can come up with better questions.
Because it's just not like, well, you're wrong.
It's like what Desi was saying.
It's like, so I kind of agree with you, so listen.
It's not a bait and switch, it's I can make
a better question because I get your mindset.
I think that's gonna be interesting
to be down there and see those people,
and they're just gonna go, uh, black lady.
What's she want?
Think she's trying to trap me.
Like no sir, you're not even cute.
I don't wanna, that's not what I'm here for.
I'm here for work.
- I'm very excited to go to the conventions.
A few of us got together the last go round.
It was intense.
I've never seen anything like it.
I get to hide from my four year old for five days.
So I'm mostly looking forward to that.
- Best sleep you'll have in a long time.
- I can't wait.
- [Dulce] Somebody did not like that answer.
- I don't know if you all are having the
same response that I'm having,
but I know that you're all very smart.
I'm sort of touched by--
- [Michael] Buh.
(laughing)
- Except for you, Michael.
How soulful and invested you all are on this.
Because the way that we consume all of you
is in this very jovial, jokey way.
Which I think we all need, because we need
the catharsis of processing this moment.
But I'm struck by how seriously you all take this.
- Uh, thanks.
(laughing)
- It's still a job.
I got to be serious, I got bills to pay.
Like I can't--
- No we care.
Yeah, I think we care.
You have to care to do this job, otherwise...
It's not the hardest job in the world
but it's hard when every day you gotta come in
and look at this stuff and think of jokes about it.
If you don't care about it, you can't last in this.
- And then you also realize that what you do
matters to the people who consume it.
The thing that I found myself adjusting to
when I started at "The Daily Show,"
I would occasionally be recognized from
BET's Comic View, thank you very much.
- [Desi] Whoo whoo!
(mumbling)
As a standup, as a standup who's done some TV.
Hey, you're funny.
Yeah, you're funny, I've seen you, you're funny.
But when I started at "The Daily Show",
every now and then you get someone who comes up to you
and tells you thank you.
Which is a totally different type of compliment.
- I was doing a college show and someone
came up to me and was like, hey, I'm from Kenya,
and watching "The Daily Show" is my first time
seeing a gay person and feeling like
they were a cool guy.
That's sort of how he phrased it.
But just stupid stuff that I do sometimes.
Like the Panda Express jokes and stuff like that.
You don't realize how, to some people,
that actually is ground-breaking.
- For the record, I also asked him if he would
take his shoes off in the White House, okay?
(laughing)
It wasn't just Panda Express jokes.
- It is time for the audience's questions.
This one comes from Jackson who says,
"Tell us about your audition process,
"and first getting on the show."
Anybody have a great audition story
or a first time on the show story?
- Hm, Costa?
Was yours eventful?
- Well, it's the only audition that anybody
ever said yes to me, so I would say
the real interesting story is the first
386 auditions where the network,
in their own mistake, passed.
(laughing)
But I'm a standup comic.
I think part of our job as a standup comic
is to come up with a point of view on the world,
and share that point of view in a humorous way.
Fortunately, that is also the description
of "The Daily Show."
So when an audition came through, I was
fortunate enough to have opinions on things
that I thought were current
and put it on tape, and sent it in.
And for some reason it worked,
and I tricked them and I'm here.
I have executives here who are at the show,
but they can leave for this.
It is the best place to work in comedy.
It is a pleasant, intelligent place.
There's at least 10 dogs in the office every day.
You can be talking about serious topics,
voter suppression in Georgia,
people can be getting hot,
and then you'll look over and there'll be three dogs
smelling each other's assholes in the corner.
It is a nice, amazing comedy job.
I cannot believe Comedy Central was dumb enough
to accept my audition and hire me for this job.
- You about to get fired.
(laughing)
- The basic audition process, if anybody did
anything different jump in,
you send in essentially a three-minute segment
of what would be you at the desk talking with Trevor.
And then the producers give you something
that they wrote.
So you perform something that you wrote,
to prove that you have the ability
to construct a segment that's in the vein
of what Trevor wants,
and then you have to prove an ability
to perform something else that's written for you.
Because that's also a big part of the job.
Where you could be chilling and at noon
news breaks about XYZ, hey, Ronny you're
on the show tonight, sorry I thought you weren't
gonna be on the show, but we've already written the segment.
Head down to makeup, rehearsal's in 45 minutes.
- With Andrew Yang?
Okay, got it.
- So they're testing your ability
to be on the fly and be able to perform
something else that was prepared for you.
So you do both of those pieces with Trevor
and usually with...
I found out on the way to the airport--
- [Michael] You did?
- Yeah, it's yay or nay, it's fast.
- Yeah, it was a little bit different for me.
My mom is a head of communications at Viacom.
And she heard that there was an opening.
(laughing)
And she just... (laughing)
- [Dulce] Mm, nepotism.
Prove she's not.
- I'm actually Trevor's son.
That's how I got the job.
- Knew it!
(laughing) Knew it.
- I pulled up with the paternity test
and then I was, give me a job, bitch,
and then he just sort of let me in.
- [Dulce] Jaboukie's actually 13.
- But yeah, no, it was pretty much the same thing.
I had auditioned once before and I didn't get it.
Then a few months later they asked me
to audition again, and I was like,
what has changed in my life in the past five months?
Then I said no.
Then they were like, "Are you sure?"
And I was like, "It's so much work."
And then Trevor was just like, "I think you should do it."
And was like, "Okay, sure, whatever."
If Trevor Noah says it I'll do it.
It was pretty much that same thing, yeah.
- And to Trevor's credit, I think he understood
what he was coming into with regards to
the show having to compete with the other
satirical late night landscape.
So if the argument is A and B, I feel like
the best arguments that we construct in the building
present the C side to the argument,
that someone wouldn't have considered.
And I feel like, for most of us...
Like what was your audition?
Your original piece, do you remember?
- The original piece that I wrote was about,
it was that funeral and the pastor
put his hand around Ariana Grande in a weird way.
- Oh yeah, the black pastor.
He touched Ariana Grande.
- Yes, it was about that.
And it was about something else that happened
in the Catholic church.
And I was talking about how the Catholic church
doesn't even have bops to be doing
all this shit that they're doing.
Like the songs are not that good.
(laughing)
- [Dulce] I had two written pieces that I had to do.
- Oh really?
- So my first one--
- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
You do the first one on self tape,
and you do the second one in the studio.
- Yes, so there's the one you do on the self tape.
Like the first one was basically just trying
to help white people to stop fucking up.
And general areas--
- [Michael] And we thank you for that.
- I'm just here to be an ally.
- What was it? (laughing)
- The general stuff us asking wild shit.
Just the basics.
I didn't even talk about touching my hair,
'cause ya'll know.
And then the second audition that I did,
that's the one I remember the most,
because it was talking about how hard it is
to be black and patriotic.
Especially 'cause my birthday's July 4th.
Then on top of that, I get my nails done
really intensely.
So I had these July 4th, air-brushed,
firework nails when I come in to do this piece.
I did it and then I did the piece that they gave me.
And then you do the green screen,
and you read off a teleprompter.
So all of this is your audition.
Then they called me two hours later
and I was on the way to the airport.
So there's a lot that happens--
- Why is everybody going to the airport?
- Okay, I was not at the airport, I was at--
- Because I didn't live in L.A.
- The Dig Inn on 55th, that's where I was.
- I didn't live in New York-- - The studio is at
Terminal C in LaGuardia.
It's the shittiest studio.
- It's much easier to get guests in
when you're in the airport.
We're next to pre-check, it's pretty easy.
- Next question, from Billy.
"What was it like on election night 2016?"
- I did not work there.
- Oh my god.
I remember we were about to go out
on this quick field piece to the Javits Center
where Hillary was going to accept.
And we were doing a breaking the glass ceiling piece.
Because the Javits is all glass.
And we were about to leave and the head
of the field department was like,
"We're calling it off."
And we're, "Fuck!"
It was very somber, it was a very, very--
- Yeah, if you can remember that night,
it was actually 537.
Was that the name of that website?
What's that website?
Nate Silver's website?
- Yeah. - Yeah 538, sorry.
Off by one, Jesus.
(laughing)
- [Desi] One number off!
Just one number off.
- Just like an Asian.
- [Michael] Numbers aren't his strength.
(laughing)
- Yeah, breaking stereotypes every day.
It was, what was it?
83% chance of Clinton victory?
I say Clinton 'cause I'm not American.
Meaning it was a very big surprise on the night.
Now it's like, whatever.
But on the night it was like, all but guaranteed.
All but guaranteed, I remember that.
- Yeah, there were some people crying in the building.
There were some people sipping a little whiskey
that they had saved for doomsday.
But the thing I remember the most
is how quickly everything was changing.
Because we were live live.
- Yeah, we were live.
- On a live result show, you have jokes,
but you only have two thirds of the joke.
It's almost like a quarterback coming to the line
and calling an audible.
If Hillary wins we do this.
- [Jaboukie] What?
- If Trump wins--
- I don't get this reference.
- Here's the jokes about polling.
If Hillary wins, then here's the way
it's gonna go.
- We won't--
- [Dulce] Like a choose your own adventure joke.
- We essentially wrote two shows.
- We wrote three scenarios.
We wrote three scenarios.
We wrote the Hillary victory, which we thought
was going to air.
We had the if the votes weren't decided yet,
which was my act, the one they wrote.
I was gonna do the one about, if there's
no clear winner yet.
And then the third one was a unlikely Trump victory.
So we actually prepared all three,
because it's a place that handles its business.
(laughing)
'Cause we're good at what we do.
At the time there was no answer yet.
So I went on to do it.
I remember when I did my desk segment
it was the oh, we don't know who's winning yet.
Which is already scary, because we knew
who was winning before the show started.
So the fact that we did know halfway through
was like, oh, oh shit, something is getting close.
I remember that.
- Yeah, it was very somber.
- We're gonna be live.
We're live all the time.
We're the most live show.
We are so alive--
- [Desi] Most socially engaged.
- We're socially engaged.
We're live at the next caucus?
- We're so live, super live.
- So live.
- The most live show.
- State of the Union.
- Live, live.
- State of the Union, the next four or five
Tuesday elections we're live?
- Live.
- We go to the conventions. - All of the debates.
- No other show is as live.
- Yeah, debates as well.
- Carly wants to know, "Do you watch or listen
"to other satirical or comedic news shows.
"And if so, how does that affect your material?
"Do you also listen to or watch or read
"quote, regular news?
"And if you do--"
- How many questions is this?
That's the third question so far.
- Like six. - Ma'am you cheated!
- "Do you try to read from both sides
"of the political spectrum?
"Why or why not?"
- We have to look at regular news
to get stories for the show.
So there's that one answered.
(laughing)
'Cause how can we do a satirical news show
if we wasn't looking at the non satirical news?
(laughing)
Maybe I'm the idiot.
- I think part of the question though
is like does it help you to get an angle
on something to read things that clearly
already have a perspective?
- Only insofar as to make sure we're not doing
a exact joke that has been exactly done before.
That's probably the most useful aspect.
- Yeah, I think we, go ahead.
- No go first.
- I think we occasionally check in with
the other late night shows,
and the other satirical shows,
just to kind of see what they're doing.
It's tough to keep up with all of them,
but especially if we have a piece moving,
and we want to make sure that someone else
isn't covering it,
or if we're covering it we're doing it
in a different way.
I like to know what's going on out there.
- We got a show every day.
So you can't spend too much time
DVR-ing five hours of other entertainment.
You gotta write your show.
And I would suspect they're the same.
Although they aren't as good as we.
- Ooh.
(Dulce meows)
- You start figuring out kind of stylistically
where other shows are going.
You're not gonna land on the same joke.
Like tonight, everybody's gonna be
talking about impeachment, we already know that.
So it's what is our angle?
What's our take that we know is unique.
You've watched enough of the other shows.
You can get a feel.
All right, Seth is probably gonna be
in this ballpark.
That's funny but that feels like
something Sam Bee might touch.
What is Oliver gonna do on it?
We don't know.
So in that regard it's fine.
For field, I try to read local newspapers
when I'm on the road and watch local news.
That to me gives me more of a other side,
because to me the national media...
A lot of what's being consumed in the building
is national news.
So national news doesn't always talk
to local people.
They don't always talk to the people
that are being truly affected by the issues.
So I like doing that.
I also like going on YouTube, Reddit.
Instagram can get a little spicy sometimes.
So I like reading all the comments.
I just like knowing what people are
pissed off about, because sometimes
that can help you point which way
to shoot the gun on a particular issue.
At least it helps me with field pieces.
- How it was explained to me earlier,
I was asking is there a kind of thing
which all "The Daily Show" people
in the building read through?
What are the common sources?
And Allison, the former coordinator
of the field department, told me not to.
That it's better when you just read
what you already enjoy reading.
And you bring that to the table.
Everyone just reads what they like reading.
You're gonna be most passionate about that.
You're gonna find something that you
like to talk about.
So my point is, we just read what we
are interested in and then we usually
pitch stuff based on that.
- Yeah, I skim through the paper.
What's that?
Bernie Sanders fell in the shower, boom, falling.
(laughing)
- Here's the last question.
We're gonna start with you, Desi,
and we're gonna go down the line.
- [Michael] That piece would win an Emmy.
(laughing)
- This question's from Sarah.
"Who is your dream interview subject,
"political or not?"
- Elizabeth Warren.
We've been trying to get her on the show
for quite some time.
- [Michael] Get her, go get her!
- Why do you want Elizabeth Warren?
- She's got a plan for everything.
- Okay.
- So I have a lot of, I need some personal advice.
How to manage my marriage, my child.
- You could white lady her-- - Work life balance.
- Like Ronny did with Andrew Yang.
(laughing)
- [Ronny] Thank you.
- Yeah you could do a Lululemon joke.
- Lululemon, you could talk about Martha Stewart
and Pinterest.
I don't know what ya'll do.
(laughing)
Oh that'd be so funny.
Ya'll could go get like, I don't know, salads together.
(laughing)
That's what they eat, right?
(laughing)
Thank you. - Love it, I'd love it.
- Oh, am I supposed to?
What was the question again, I'm sorry.
- [Moderator] Interview that you want to do,
political or not.
- Oh, (expels hair) (snorts) you go first.
I can't really--
- Samuel L. Jackson.
- [Desi] That's a good one.
- I think Samuel L. Jackson represents
for black America, someone that's been
at the bottom and someone that's now at the top,
so he has a perspective of both sides
of the poverty line.
And I think he's someone that also,
politically speaking, mirrors a lot
of actual Americans, where you can be
invested only to a certain point with certain people
and certain issues.
And you can't focus on all of them.
So what are the couple things that you
would be focused on.
I've just always found his journey very intriguing.
- Ask him about those Capital One ads, too.
(laughing)
- How did he get those?
- What were you thinking, bro?
(laughing)
- A check.
Oh, I guess it's my turn.
I would want to interview Lizzo.
So people know we're not the same person.
(laughing)
I'm dead ass serious.
- I would definitely want to interview AOC.
I've tried so many times.
- He truly has.
- But she's very busy like making laws
and whatever the fuck.
(laughing)
I just wanna go ax-throwing,
get a drink or something, just hang out
for a little bit.
Dismantle capitalism or something.
I don't know.
- [Dulce] Dismantle capitalism.
- Jaboukie took my answer.
(laughing)
Living or dead, is it alive?
'Cause I would love to talk to a founding father
and ask him if they could be
a lot more clear with their...
(laughing)
They wrote it so ambiguous, come on!
- Can we quarter or can we not quarter.
That's all I wanna know.
I read the constitution.
I know what I'm doing.
- Thank you all so much.
Let's all hear it for this awesome (mumbles)
(audience clapping) - Thank you for coming.
Thank you for watching the show.
Thank you.
(upbeat music)