Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Jordan Klepper On Comedic Journalism, Engaging With Both Sides, New Comedy Special + More

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INTERVIEW: Jordan Klepper On Comedic Journalism, Engaging With Both Sides, New Comedy Special + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: The breakfast Club Morning.
• 0:04
  Speaker 3: Everybody is the j Envy just hilarious. Charlomagne the gud
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: We are the breakfast Club. We got a special guest
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: in the building.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, Jordan.
• 0:13
  Speaker 4: Klepper yelcome, Thanks for having me. How you feeling I'm
• 0:15
  Speaker 4: feeling real good.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: I love the way you came in here already. Because
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: I was joking, I was like, you what six four?
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: And then Charlam, I was like, really you win, and
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: you said Charlomage must be around six to one and
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: say that.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: He's not live one.
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: I said five to one, five five one, right, I
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: was being generous my joke in my head. I was like,
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: I'll make a joke about four to six, but I'll
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: give him a little bit more.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I said five to one. What did you say you were,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: charlamne on five six? That's what I said, live five six?
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: You are no five six.
• 0:39
  Speaker 5: Actually five seven, but I just say five six to
• 0:41
  Speaker 5: make people feel comfortable.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Well, if you know.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Whatever reason I say five to seven, they argue with me.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: So I just say five six, And even though you
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: said five six, I'm arguing with you right now, right
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: is that the brim if you put the brim away up,
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: you're including the brim, right.
• 0:52
  Speaker 5: But see, that's what I thought with you. I'm like
• 0:54
  Speaker 5: with the hair, you might be six four. I was
• 0:55
  Speaker 5: thinking like six one.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: That is fair the hair. The hair gives me an
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: extra couple of inches five six.
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: With heels, well, you wear heels you when you actually
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: wear them?
• 1:05
  Speaker 6: Okay, I'm six five.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Okay. I broke my sesamoid bone.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Have you heard of it?
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: It's I didn't either. It's called it's the kneecap of
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: the toe. Wow, I got I got another. Let me
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: tell you if you want old man stories right now,
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: I broke my sesamitie bone by standing on.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: It for too long.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: I don't even know what that is.
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: It's it, really, I broke about my standing. I'm just
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: I'm that old now.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, And I mean that's.
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: A big deal for you because you are, you know,
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: probably one of the best field journalists out here, if
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: not the.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Best, the best, one hundred percent the best. I'll take it.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: And you have the new one fingers fingers, fingers, the
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: post fingers, the post maggot, the next generation that have
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: to affect you.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: It does.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I I mean literally, if you watch the
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: special right now, you will see I'm only shot from
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: like the halfway up. Uh and if anything gets awry,
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: like I can't move or get away from people.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: So it was broke during the special.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Broke during the special.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Oh you can't do that when you run the Maga crowd.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: Now, no offense to the Maga crowd. But they're also
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: slow movers too, so you know I can I can
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: usually outmaneuver them. I can use my privilege to lord
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: it over them, or I use the four security guards
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: to get between me and them if things get hairy.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: I enjoyed the special.
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: It's you talking to the younger I guess generation of
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: Magna because fifteen percent of what young.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: Men, Yeah, young men shifted right this election, and there
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: was a shift. There was a shift right from the
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: entire youth generation. Like women shifted right, but men especially
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: moved into the Maga camp. And so we were we're.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Curious, why, like what was it about that.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: It doesn't it doesn't feel like the cool thing on
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: a campus to to believe in you know, anti abortion,
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: reproductive rights or you know, essentially it's the anti hippie movement.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: But there was a movement, so.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Like, let's get there, Let's go to a turning points event,
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: Let's go to a UFC fight, let's like talk to
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: some of these kids.
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: I watched it and I when I finished, I was like,
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: I still didn't hear a logical reason.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: It just felt like vibes.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I think it still is vibes.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: The large question was like, is there an ideology behind
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: this shift?
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: And I think the answer is no.
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: I don't think you have a lot of kids who
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: have conservative ideals, So there's some religion comes in or
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: whatever those ideals are. But I think mostly they see
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: they see people finding success on TikTok and the social
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: media space being conservative, and that gives them an identity.
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: They see it as a little bit punk, that gives
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: it an identity. So I think like they're moving towards vibes,
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: which I think for the left they can get those
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: vibes back, but they're just not engaging with that generation.
• 3:39
  Speaker 6: Jordan.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: I would have to ask why why did you want
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: to waste your time and talk to Maga younger?
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: A waste of time? I think it's a good exercise.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I think more people should do that.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: The reason I say that is because you're not going
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: to get the answers you like, probably and you're probably
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: gonna get threatened a lot.
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: Sure, yes, I mean the first answer health insurance. My
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: job is to be able to talk to other people.
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: And if I don't do my job, I don't have
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: health insurance and I.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Have weak bones.
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: So we've established that for this six foot nine frame,
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: I need that health insurance. But I think what I
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: like about it. I mean, I'm lucky I get to
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: go out there. I'm not a journalist, I'm a comedian,
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: so I get to push, I get to ask follow ups,
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: I get to cavort and try to find something that reveals. Right, Like,
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: my job out there isn't to convince people of one
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: way or the other. I think my job is to
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: find something that is revealing. Like for this special, we
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: talk to a kid. And I always find it fascinating
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: to go to a campus and just see, like what
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: actually is happening. CNN will tell you one thing, but
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: until you go to Texas A and M and talk
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: to a kid, do you actually understand what it is?
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: Like we talked to a kid about like why he
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: was obsessed with Charlie Kirk and why he was he
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: was going to a Charlie Kirk event. What is it
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: about this this guy? And he literally articulated, like I
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: have a hard time with my words. I like to
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: listen to what he says. I like to memorize it,
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: and then I have his words and his ideas, and
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: it's like it's comedic in the special, but I think
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: above that, it's it's just revealing, Like when you're like,
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: why do these people?
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Why are they drawn to this? It's like that kid
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: set it right there.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: He didn't even know that he's being somewhat comical, that
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: you're just memorizing ideas so you can regurgitate it, but
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: it's very human. He was like, he feels lost without that.
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: So for me, it's always always compelling to go where
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: the story is and to talk to folks about.
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: It, and that part, in particular reinforce something that I
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: truly believe. People wake up every day and wait for
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: other people to tell them how to think and feel
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: about them. Of course, they have no opinion about nothing,
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: but they'll go online see their favorite person's opinion on something,
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: and now that's their opinion.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: Man, I'm sure you guys feel this stress like I
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: remember when I was hosting a.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Show before the Daily Show.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: I would wake up every morning and I'd grab my phone,
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: I look at the news, and I realized it was like,
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: the first thoughts I have of the day are somebody else's.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: It's somebody else's opinion, somebody else's take. It's like I've
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: given no space to actually have an opinion on the
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: world whatsoever.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: And I think that's very much the case.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: And in fact, you can't compete in a collegiate space
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: without having some sort of social media presence or connecting.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: So these kids aren't giving space to figure out what
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: the hell they want to think about.
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: First, I was gonna ask that not a threatening part? Yeah,
• 6:10
  Speaker 6: how many times have you been threatened?
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Whether it's calls, people in person, emails, texts.
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: I mean that happens a lot, the emails, the calls.
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: There's been threats on family members, which would ain't is
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: not super fun. I think out in the field ten
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: years ago, I'm not going out there with security guards.
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: You know, you can go out there as a comedian
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: talk about politics and not be afraid of getting punched.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: But Trump era comes in, people get more upset. Upset
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: Trump says like, you you're a patriot, fight back. These
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: are the enemy of the people. And it was during
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: his first first run for president that like, we went
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: to a school board meeting and are having a conversation
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: and I get bum rushed by somebody who's just mad
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: that we have a camera there. And since then we
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: keep adding security guards. I was there on January sixth,
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: and that got Harry. We got to the security guard,
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: they got pushed. There's flash bangs going off. They're like,
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: we can't stand here. We need to get on a train.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: Like it's sort of the new reality. And most people
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: I talked to are great. They want to talk, they
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: are they want to be on DV, they want to engage.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: But you have it now where people have been weaponized
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: by the most powerful men on the planet who says
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: like you can do something, you should fight back. These
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: are the bad guys, and all it takes is a
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: couple of bad ideas for those guys to feel themselves
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: and go after you.
• 7:27
  Speaker 6: What's the crazy experience you that that you've had so far?
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: I mean JA six was pretty wild. I was up
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: there for Jay six. I was working on J six
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: all right. Charlatne I was working there.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: I was out there.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: I was out there. You know what the funniest moment
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: on Jay six.
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: Outside of the hole trying to overthrow the government and
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: you know, crapping on Nancy Pelosi's desk. Outside of that,
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: I'm literally interviewing people. And we've been there before, and
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: we knew sort of like, we don't want to get
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: trapped on the onslaught, so let's stay outside.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Of where everybody is.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: Quite frankly, we're like, where's the one place nobody is congregating?
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: And it was outside of the African American History Museum.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: Nobody was going there. So we were like, we will
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: meet up here and then we will go and find
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: people to interview. We start walking, we find this guy
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: swinging a pitchfork and I go up to the man.
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: I start talking to this man.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's the guy.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: That's the guy we got to make TV here, you know.
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: And that guy's got a pitchfork, he's he's throwing it around.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: That still hilaris, And nobody was outside African Americans.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: You know, where are we gonna go? Yeah, African American Museum.
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: Do you want to engage with American sins of the past?
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: Let's take a crap on the desk of the Capitol.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: What do you say?
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: So we're talking to this guy swinging a pitchfork and
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: he's ranting about revolution, and another man comes up. He
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: sees the camera and he just starts. He's just swearing,
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: He's just obscenity man, and he's yelling so loud that
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: pitchfork man stops the interview. He shushes him, and then
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: he says, this man doesn't speak for me, which then
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: leaves me grateful to the more level headed man swinging
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: up his ark and he makes eye contact with me
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: and he rolls his eyes as if to say, like,
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: can you believe this evan guy? And I was like,
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: oh yeah, that's it. Like even this guy is like
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: these guys are too crazy for me. Can we just
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: have a conversation? And you're like, right, we can actually
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: find a little bit of common ground if there is
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: that crazier person there, you know.
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: Refreshment memory. I don't what the hell was happening on
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: January sixth, before the insurrection. What was everybody there for?
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Well, they were there to certify the vote.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: But Trump then preempts it by having a huge rally
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: at eleven o'clock, and so everybody comes out. Rudy Giuliani's there,
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: and so everybody comes to watch the giant Trump speech,
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: but everybody leaves halfway through, not everybody. Half the folks
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: leave halfway through to start moving towards the Capitol, which
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: then we saw, we saw the Proud Boys march on
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: the Capitol. I mean, it was.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: A wild day.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: It was not a surprise though, as a cable comedy show, like,
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: we knew to be at the Capitol. We were right
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: there when they pushed in, because we're like, this is
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: where everybody's going. This is where they said they're going.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: There's going to be something to happened here. We didn't
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: expect them to get inside, but we knew they'd be there.
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: For the sake of content, for the sake of clicks.
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: Did you think to yourself, hey, we should go in
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: with them.
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: Luckily, like my inherent fear got in the way there.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: I think it was it was confusing, That's what the
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: rules were. I think even at the at the time,
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: there was a small fence that got pushed in. And
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: even as you're seeing this and you're watching this and
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: it's again it's it's half tragic. You're like, this is
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: the capital, this is the seat of American governance, and
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: I see all these people acting like generals going in there,
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: and it's also completely absurd. I saw I interviewed literally
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: an old man on a segway trying to go up
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: the hill while it's happening. But I'm assuming they can't
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: get in right. You're like, they're going to get stopped
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: at some point there, but the people just kept coming
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: and literally our security guards at one point were just like,
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: we're hearing explosions. This is an uncontrolled situation. It's time
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: to get home.
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: People at the Daily Show, and you said it a
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: little while ago, everybody the Daily Show always says something
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: that I totally disagree with.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Y'all say that you're not journalists.
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: Y'all are comedians when reality is y'all probably some of
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: the best journalists out because you do things like go
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: and talk to the other side when other folks really don't. Right, So,
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: when do you have an interview people at these rallies, Well,
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: first of all, do you think it's fair for y'all
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: be able to say y'all not journalists?
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: It's definitely a dodge.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: So yeah, thanks for calling that out, you know, I
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: mean I think I say that in that the stories
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: we get on the Daily Show are stories that are
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: brought to us by journalists putting in the work, and
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: so that I respect and they work by the code
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: of journalism.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: I think what we have we take it very seriously.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: I don't see myself as a journalist, but I take
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: going out and bringing back what we.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: See to the show very seriously.
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: But I do want an audience to understand the bias
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: that we have towards comedy and that we're making a
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: show with that point of view. But I think all
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: news has a bias, and I do think like in
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: modern journalism, I don't think it should be a bunch
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: of comedians going out there bringing the stories back.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Far from it.
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: But I do think they could probably loosen up some
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: of the rules and ways in which they engage with people,
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: because sometimes you see people engaging with the old school
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: rules of journalism, not pushing people past their conspiracies or
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: their BS, or they're they're weighing both sides where you're like, no,
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: that that's BS. You need to call that out, You
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: need to use some other way to knock that person
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: off their talking points so they can reveal something truthful there.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: And I think as comedians we.
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: Have that ability, and at its best it works that way,
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: but we're working in conjunction with journalists who are actually
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: bringing the story back so that we can have some
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: commentary on comedy.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Is disarming? It is, That's the thing that a lot
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: of the journalists don't have.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: One hundred percent.
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And at its best it cuts to the quick
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: faster than trying to argue with somebody else.
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: You know, when you do something like the Maggot in
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: Next Generation, do you ever leave to rally thinking damn,
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: maybe I'm the one who doesn't.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Get it, you know.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think I always leave it with a
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: little bit more empathy towards the folks that I'm talking with,
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: because for every you know, every five minutes on camera,
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: there's two minutes off camera where you're talking about something
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: that's not political, and you connect with them and they're interesting,
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: they're compelling. You find music that you both care about
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: or something, and I think like that that softens what
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: you think about the people and the interactions that you
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: have with those people. I think I usually feel pretty
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: steadfast in my opinions. That being said, I do think,
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: like no, nobody has the certainty that they pretend to
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: have on camera.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: At these rallies.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: Like no, there's a lot of complexity to many many issues,
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: but nobody has the guts or the vulnerability to be
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: open about it, usually in front of a camera.
• 13:27
  Speaker 6: Now, you said you want to bring peace in harmony?
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: God, did I say that?
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: Yes?
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: Really?
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Is that true? Oh boy? What did I say? I
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: want to bring peace in harmony?
• 13:34
  Speaker 6: They said you want to bring peace in harmony? But
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: how was that? When every time a MAGA member comes
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: you give them a little joke, just a little.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Bit, you know what.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I try to deliver peace through the lovely delivery
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: mechanism of.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: A joke.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I'd love there to be some peace and harmony.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: But it is a constant balance of you know, I
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: want to empathize. I don't want to just be mean
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: out there when I talk to other people. But also
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: it's I think life is pretty serious right now, and
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: I think when I go to some of these MAGA events,
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: you see Donald Trump playing to the masses in a
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: way that emboldens him to do pretty cruel things. And
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: so I don't mind pushing back hard in that direction.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: But I often think the people I talk to I
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: have sympathy for because I think they're being weaponized by
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: other people who are trying to manipulate them. So that's
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: that's where my empathy tends to lie.
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: Do you have a struggle with where satire ends and
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: responsibility begins with.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think like that activist conversation is
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: a tough one. I don't. I don't. I don't love
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: the hat.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: I do think like John is somebody who always says, like,
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: you know, this is not ACTIVISTI we're comedians, And I
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: think like in some ways that is a that is
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: a that is a safety net, but you also sort
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: of need that to like not approach work every day
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: to think of like what am I trying to change
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: in the world. Like I understand where that comes from,
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: but it's like the job of the show is to
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: find comedy to follow like your passions, the things you
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: care about, where you see bs call it out, but
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: also like find a way to make it funny and
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: interesting and reformat it. I think that is the job
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: you get in tough territory when you're like I need
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: to I need to be an activist in that moment.
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: I don't think that is the place, but I think
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: you have to be honest with your desire to be
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: a part of that conversation, but also be honest with
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: what your skill set is and what your platform is.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: Have you ever spoke with somebody where you actually changed
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: their mind by the things that you said and they
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: understood what you were saying.
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: No, okay, I do tell a story, though it doesn't
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: happen in front of the camera. People don't change their
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: minds in front of the camera, but off camera gets close.
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: I was heckled at a rally by a man who
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: was dressed in a brick suit, a suit that looked
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: like Trump's Wall of bespoke suit in a hand of
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: our mustache. He's known as the bricksuit guy. Trump brings
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: him up on stage at lots of his rallies. He's
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: famous there. He trolled me at a rally he live
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: streamed during our interviews to try to get people not
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: to talk to us. He was paying the ass. We
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: get snowed in and all of us have to fly
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: out the next day after this round on different flights,
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: and I show up at the Green Bay airport, very
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: tiny airport alone. There's a three and a half hour delay,
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: and bricksuit guy is there and he's not he's not
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: in the bricksuit. He's wearing a Maga hat. He's got
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: two extra hats on his case, but no bricksuit, civilian clothes.
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: And he's like, do you want to talk? And of
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: course I don't want to talk. But we're there at
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: an airport for three and a half hours, and we
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: get into it, and I don't change his mind.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: He doesn't change my mind.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: But he is remarkably open about the things he's unsure
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: about with Donald Trump.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: He's unsure.
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: He wishes Donald Trump didn't go on and on about
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: the twenty twenty election being stolen, which is a huge
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: thing to show any kind of weakness, Like I don't
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: believe Trump was honest about that in the Maga movement.
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: You can't say that in front of the camera. He
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: says that to me. Off camera. He talks about like
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: where he comes from, and frankly he comes He's like
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: a libertarian guy who likes to troll people online. You'd
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: like to think that the handlebar mussage guy who dresses
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: and bespoke bricksuits is an idiot, not an idiot. Smart
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: guy feels like a history buff, like the kind of
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: person who has too many like World War two books,
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: but a smart guy has his own topics.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Like we literally we laugh.
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: Somebody recognizes me as we're talking and ask for a
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: selfie and he takes the photo, which is like this,
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: He's open to all of this stuff. We talk all
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: the way up until I get on the plane and
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: I'm in an exit row and the woman who takes
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: the ticket asks if I'm willing to accept the responsibilities
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: of being an exit row.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: I say yes, and then I turned.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: Into him and I was like, I hope this fucking
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: freaks you out, man, and he laughs, and I'm like,
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: that's it right there, Like you're not intimidated by me.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I'm not so offended that I made a joke.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: You laugh.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: It's humor, it's disarming, and it's for most of the
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: people who I'm friends with, even who I disagree with.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: You find things you can laugh at.
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: And that happens all off camera, and I'm not entering
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: that conversation to try to change his mind.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: That's not gonna happen.
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: But I'm entering it with like an amount of uncertainty
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: of like here's the things that I'm unsure about what
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: the left says or or here's things that I think
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: are okay about what Trump does. And he's like, here's
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: things that I doubt about what Trump does. Like, oh,
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: there's there's the human behind that, even in the caricature
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: of a guy from the Daily Show mixed with the
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: caricature of a person from the Trump universe, Like they
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: can talk, they can meet somewhere of an understanding, and
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: usually it's it's freaking away from those cameras in a
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: Green Bay airport. You think you're a character, Well, in
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: that moment, I think he sees me as a caricature.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: I bet he sees me as somebody who was like,
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: you're on this show that I see as a progressive
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: leaning shows as a comedy guy.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: But I think I have a.
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: I have an agenda, and I have a bias as
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: I think everybody should see people on their their screens
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: as having those things, and I, you know, my agenda
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: feels right to me. I'm looking for comedy and hypocrisy.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: But I'm sure he's like, oh, this guy is just
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: going to try to twist me into progressive loopholes.
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: I remember they when you had you Late Night Show,
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: didn't they have you playing a character of like a
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: conservative right one.
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: I was playing like an Alex Jones style right wing character,
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: And so that that was And at that time too,
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: it was like Info Wars was so huge and and
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: the conspiracy mindset, which thankfully is gone.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Completely away, we don't see it anymore.
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: But that that was me playing a caricature to find
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: humor in going over the top. Quite frankly, as comedy
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: has evolved and the politics situation has evolved so much
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: over the last ten years, Like, I think that's still.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: A space to play in.
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: There's still humor to be found, but I think audiences
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: are like so tired of extreme caricatures. You have one
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: in the White House that like, I think they're connecting
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: more with comedians on a more authentic level. And so
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: that's sort of in some ways where the finger the
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: pull stuff has come out of.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Trevor was big on that.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: He was just like, go out there, you're not playing
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: a parody of a journalist. You're yourself, bringing your wits
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: about you and your opinions. Find humor in that, but
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: don't lean on the character.
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: Also, people are dumb, but they don't believe you. I
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: didn't know you playing a character.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: You know what?
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we had we had at the opposition. We had
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: Carter Page, who was a foreign advisor to Donald Trump
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: and was the center of the news cycle at one
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: point because people were wondering he was if he was
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: a Russian asset because Russia had manipulated him in the past.
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: He was working for the Trump administration, and he reached
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: out to our show and took a meeting at our
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: show because he wanted to work on our show as
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: someone He didn't.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: See it as a satire.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: He saw it as an opportunity, which which was hard
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: for us to swallow.
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: Where do you think satire fits into today's media landscape?
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: But people numb to it are addicted or are they
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: still reachable to the understanding thing?
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think what has shifted so much is
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: like the formatting of it all right. I think like
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: satire is all about context, and that's hard if you're
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: taking in seven second chunks on like TikTok. I think
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: it's easier if you have a thirty minute chunk, if
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: you have an eight minute rant. I think people are
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: drawn to comedy in many ways. It is like the
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: language of I mean, it's a language of humor, but
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: I think like it's the quickest way to get to
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: a truth. So I do think I think satire is
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: in a boom. I think people are drawn, but I
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: think but that being said, the social media landscape has
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: shifted the ways in which we consume all this stuff,
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: and that has kind of like it is made for
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: long form capabilities, long podcasts, and I think that has
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: shifted word comedy, lies and short form as well, which
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: is more about those soundbites.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: Speaking of the future of mag, what do you think
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: the future of mag is going to look like, especially
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: in twenty twenty eight.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: Oh boy, I think that I think Trump is such
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: a singular character that they think it can be passed
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: on and that we've seen no proof of that yet.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump has been famous his whole life. I mean,
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: you know, he's reference in rap songs when I was
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: coming up in a way that was like he is
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: equated with wealth, and I think that is nobody else
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: has that, and so I think they're going to try
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: to pass it off. Maybe that's to shade events, Maybe
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: it's to somebody who's even farther right, But right now
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: it's still a cult of personality that he's going to
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: try to build around him. We'll see if that baton
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: goes anywhere else.
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: It's interesting when people say that, though, because to me,
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: it's not even about the individual of Donald Trump. There's
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: clearly a whole sty that is perfectly okay with him
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: doing everything that he's doing. So that is what scares me.
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: It's the system, Yeah, that is allowing him to exist
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: because they will allow somebody else to exist in that
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: same way.
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they've attached the system, and there's people behind it
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: who have gotten good at understanding how to use Donald Trump.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: I think this Project twenty twenty five the world of
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: Steve Bannon's like or like Okay, he's.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Going to come in here.
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: He's a singular character in his ability to charm half
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: a nation, forty percent of a nation.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I think that is hard to pass off. But I
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: think you have you have.
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: A conservative movement who has sort of lost any desire
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: to make a moral argument and just found a way
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: in which to attach attach their wants to somebody who
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: will just bulldoze all the way through. Who is about
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: I mean, the Trump doctrine is he likes to make
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: deals and he wants.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Whatever is good for him.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: Yes, and if they can attach conservative things onto the
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: things that are deals and good for him, that make
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: him look successful and popular, then they will ride that.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: And he has no problem riding that.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: What's the moment?
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: Like a couple more questions, what's a moment that actually
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: made you emotional? Why doing one of your man on
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: the screen segment?
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's not to get dark about it all,
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: but like we covered news day in and day out,
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: and when I was hosting the show specifically like mass shootings,
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: like you're like, oh, how do you find humor in it?
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: We find humor.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: But like when you are when it's your responsibility, Late
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: Night has shifted into a place where people come to
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: it to feel like a connection to what has happened
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: during the days. And we have such a mass shooting
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: epidemic in this country, and especially when I was hosting
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: a show where like what happened today, Well, the big
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: news is there was another terrible shooting in a school
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: and we had people come on and I've covered like
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: the gun movement with specials and in the past as well,
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: and I've talked to parents and I've talked to students
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: who are affected by all of this, and it's such
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: it's such emblematic of what is which is what is
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: wrong with country, Like most people just want safe, basic
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: guidelines to try to stop us, and there's such inaction
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: on a federal level that it's constantly infuriating. And so
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: as that keeps happening and continues to happen, like it's
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: it's it's it's so heartbreaking. Also as someone who has
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: a kid who's in school right now, it's so scary
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: to think of that happening to parents. And beyond that,
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: it's so infuriating because it's like the system is broken
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: when you have people who scream out from the rafters.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: Eighty percent of people are like, we just need basic
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: stuff to try to help kids in schools, and yet
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: you have like a system of government that can't respond
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: to that like that always, it always pisses me off.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: What's your dream, feel piece that you haven't gotten to do.
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: Yet, Barbados, send me to a nice place, a nice
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: place on a beach. I'm in Pennsylvania all the time,
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: and Trump rallies in the heat fighting with people about
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: whether JFK Junior is still alive, and so like, send
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: me to someplace beautiful, give me a puff piece.
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: So how do you decompress after a day of absorbing
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: conspiracy theory the ninety degree?
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: You know what it's it's it's booze. Booze helps real quick.
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: It's booze the NBA and.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Being a dad. I think that helps out.
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: Yeah, we'll tell them how they can see this special.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: They can.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: They can check it out on Paramount Plus or YouTube.
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: It's up on both those places right now.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: Fingers the Pulse Maga the Next Generation on The Daily's YouTube,
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: Jordan Klepper Lately Shows YouTube.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you so much for joining us, Thanks
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: for having us. Gus.
• 25:24
  Speaker 6: The Breakfast Club is Jordan Clipper.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up Earth in the morning.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Breakfast Club