December 6, 2024 • 33 mins
Ronny Chieng covers Biden’s potential pardons for Trump’s enemies, the NYPD’s hunt for the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter, and Grace Kuhlenschmidt’s takes on airport security. Michael Kosta investigates Florida’s top book banner, Bruce Friedman, and the impact of his censorship crusade on schools. Charles Yu discusses adapting his novel Interior Chinatown into a Hulu series, working with Taika Waititi, and breaking stereotypes as an Asian American storyteller.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central's America's only
sorts for news. This is The Daily Show with your
host FRODNYA.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Welcome the Daily Show. I'm Ronnie Shang. We got so
much to talk about tonight.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Joe Biden takes a farewell to a Florida, tackles the
scourge of reading, and an NYPD is hunting for a
master criminal who loves pumpkin spice lattes. So let's get
into the headlines. Let's start with Joe Biden. Who's that
(01:00):
sounds so familiar anyway? What did he do?
Speaker 5 (01:03):
President Biden is continuing his historic trip to Angola is
he becomes the first US president to visit the southern
African nation. Biden is expected to announce new US fact
infrastructure projects in the region, including the redevelopment of a
major railway that carries critical minerals that are used in
batteries and electric vehicles.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I know that. Look, that's the face I make when
I ask someone how that weekend was and still saying
good they actually answer the question. I mean, he looks
so uninterested. It would have been less rude to just
put on a VA headset. At that point, it's like,
I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm still listening to you. I'm
just on a roller coaster. But hey, don't worry. Biden
(01:49):
might have at least one fun thing planned for his
last few days in office.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
Tonight, Political reports that the Biden administration is currently debating
preemptive pardons for prominent figures who have spoken out against Trump.
Those who could face exposure include Senator elect Adam Schiff,
former GOP Representative Liz Cheney, and Anthony Fauci. White House officials, however,
are carefully weighing the extraordinary step of handing out blanket
partons to those who've committed no crimes, both because it
(02:17):
could suggest impropriety and because those offered preemptive partons may
reject them.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Man, poddons are getting so confusing. I mean, it used
to be that you had to commit a crime to
be poddon, But now Biden has to do this weird
like Minority Report pre poddon thing where it's like, hey,
we know you didn't do anything, but Trump thinks you
did some things. I'm gonna potdon you for anything you did,
even though you didn't do it. It's it's what our founders,
(02:43):
what I've wanted. Also, also, who in the right mind
would reject a presidential potden I mean, do you want
to go to jail?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
That's what Diddy is. Okay.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Look, if you're going to reject a pod and just
give it to me, okay, I'll take it, hand it over.
I'll probably need it if Donald Trump comes after me
for political satire, speaking truth to power, or opening a
credit card in my roommate's name, right, any of those things. Anyway,
Let's move on, because the story that everyone is talking
(03:16):
about isn't in Washington, DC.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It's right here in New York. Citate Well.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Manhunt continues for a man accused of carrying out a
target to hit on a health insurance ceo, and investigators
have been finding clues in some surprising places.
Speaker 7 (03:34):
Urgent manhunt police looking for the man who gunned down
the CEO of United.
Speaker 8 (03:38):
Healthcare, NBC News has learned that the words deny, defend,
and depose we're on the shell cases at the scene
of the shooting.
Speaker 9 (03:46):
Investigators believe this could be a reference to what's called
the three d's of insurance, a known reference made by
critics of the health insurance industry to write something on
something this small and I mean, John, picture how you
would try to do that. Would you take a fine
point sharpie, would you try to scratch it in?
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Would you train a mouse to write on it with
some kind of mouse scray on? I mean, who gives
how he wrote it. It's not important how he wrote it.
What's important is that he wrote it. Okay, this guy
knows that there's so many bullet casings on the streets
of New York, and you wanted to make sure we
knew which ones were his.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Right And now, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
If we should be applauding that and now and now
they're trying to interpret what denied, defend and deposed means,
and it looks like it's either a criticism of the
health insurance industry or this guy was just trying to
solve the world or on his bullets or something. Honestly,
I think all bullets should probably say stuff on them.
I mean, how else are we going to get Americans
(04:57):
to read?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Again?
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Right, you should load up a machine gun with a
tail of two cities written in it.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I mean, it was the.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Best of times time, But now the cops just need
to narrow down their list of suspects to anyone in
America who hates their healthcare plan and has access to guns.
It should be solved in no time. And that's one
(05:24):
other thing that might help them piece this together.
Speaker 7 (05:26):
The NYPD is processing forensic evidence the suspect left behind
and the nearby Starbucks just before the shooting.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Okay, you stopped at a Starbucks on your way to
your assassination. I mean like, oh, you know me, I
can't and think about murdering until I've had my coffee.
This is this is helpful though, because the guy went
to the Starbucks, so we now know he's either a
tourist or local who really needed to take a shit.
(05:55):
And and and if he did use the bathroom, they'll
definitely have his DNA because ninety nine percent of Stopbucks
bathroom users somehow missed the toilet. But that's not the
only major crime story today. We also have crime in
the skies new questions.
Speaker 7 (06:11):
After an airport security breach, Federal investigators are looking to
how a stowaway boarded a flight from New York to
Paris at the height of holiday travel. It's Vetlana Dally
managed to bypass the document check podium as well as
the gate agent before boarding Delta flight two sixty four
from JFK to Charles de Gaul Airport.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
Dolly was caught when a flight attendant noticed that she
was going from bathroom to bathroom because she didn't have
a seat on the plane.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Okay, first of all, that's not what a stowaway is. Okay,
a stowaway has to hug the wheel or hang onto
the wing by Tom cruise. If you're just inside the
plane without a seat, you're not a stowaway. You're just
losing at musical chairs. Okay. And if security is so laxed, hey,
maybe I should have just left that bottle of shampoo
in my backpack instead of trying to smuggle out my ass.
(06:58):
I mean, am I crazy?
Speaker 7 (07:01):
Like?
Speaker 4 (07:01):
How did she do this? Airport security is so complicated now,
Like they have ropes and the dogs and the machines
and people and the scanner that I take your naked
photo and post you on the internet. Like what what
kind of secret agent acrobatics did she have to do
to get past all of that?
Speaker 10 (07:19):
She first used a lane reserved for flight crews and
then skirted the standard ID jeck. But she went through
a body scanner and voluntarily removed two bottles of water
that officers discovered in her bags.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
That's it, that's it. We give TSA ten billion dollars
a year and all they got was her water. TSA
is like, hey, we literally don't care who you are,
what you plan on doing, just do not stay hydrated.
From on this story, Let's go live for the airport
with grays Cool and Smith.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Race.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Grace, how did this woman evade airport security?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Beats the f out of me, Ronnie.
Speaker 11 (08:04):
The way she did it made it look like they
don't pay attention if you sneak through the flight crew line.
But they do pay attention, especially when you yell made it.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Okay, what the hell, Grace? We sent you down that
to interview the TSA. Why are you under rest because
I'm a reporter and I wanted to.
Speaker 11 (08:21):
Report on what it's like to get a free flight
to the Bahamas for two weeks. That's how dedicated I
am to the pursuit of the truth.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Okay, Grace, it's not your job to get a restless
sneaking through a flight crew Liane.
Speaker 11 (08:35):
I didn't. They almost arrested me, but then I pointed
out a guy and told them he had three point
one ounces of sunscreen. He beat the living shit out
of him, and I got to the gates.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Okay, but you didn't have a boarding pass.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (08:50):
It turns out if you put your phone down on
that ticket scanner and just say beep, they'll totally let
you through.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Okay, right, but you didn't have a seat.
Speaker 11 (09:01):
I actually was able to find a seat way up front.
But apparently only the pilot is allowed to sit in
the cockpit, which seems super strict.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Did something like happene? Wait, so once you got on
the plane, that's how they got you.
Speaker 11 (09:16):
No, I guess they thought I was the pilot, so
they let me fly the plane. But my landing it
was a little bumpy, and that's when they caught me.
They're super sharp, these guys.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Grace, do you have anything to report on at all?
Speaker 11 (09:31):
Yes, it turns out there is an interesting new wrinkle
to this story, which is I need a pardon.
Speaker 6 (09:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Did you know all of this was.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
A federal crime? Okay?
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Yeah, I hear Joe Biden's hanging them out right now.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Grace Clemens went every one night, when will you come back?
We've done.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Some books that don't go away.
Speaker 8 (09:58):
Well show book banning fever sweeping America.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
But is it possible that book banning may not be great?
Michael Costa has more.
Speaker 12 (10:24):
Water skiing while intoxicated, mentioning climate change, and government records
reading Maya Angelou in public schools.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
These are all things that are banned in Florida.
Speaker 12 (10:34):
That last one is because in March twenty twenty two,
Ron De Santis signed the Curriculum Transparency Bill, which made
it easier for anyone to request that any number of
books be removed from public school libraries. And if there's
things like pornography, the parents have a right to say
it should be removed.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
From the school.
Speaker 12 (10:55):
One individual has made more use of the law than
anyone else in Florida. Conservative activist and dirty bookworm Bruce Friedman,
You are.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
The number one book banner in the number one.
Speaker 13 (11:08):
State of book banning. You're the Michael Jordan of book banning.
Speaker 8 (11:12):
Well, in the last two years, I challenge more than
one book every calendar day.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
How many challenges have you made? Would you say over
nine hundred?
Speaker 13 (11:20):
So let me ask what your qualifications are for determining this.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Do you have a doctorate, in literature.
Speaker 14 (11:26):
No.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Do you have degrees in child's education and media?
Speaker 7 (11:30):
No?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So why are you the arbiter.
Speaker 8 (11:33):
Book with blatant sexual activity and over the top grotesque
excessive profanity.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Doesn't belong in any of our schools. That's what this is.
I hate profanity. Let me offer a counter.
Speaker 13 (11:49):
The internet, phones, lyrics and songs, movies.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Sure, do you think kids aren't seeing that shit?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
What does it take to control what's coming at your
children desire?
Speaker 1 (12:03):
You have to want it, okay? And do you have
kids in the school system? Yes, you do. He's not
allowed in the public school library, so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 13 (12:09):
Hold on, your son doesn't use the library at school,
That is correct, it's polluted.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
So you're doing all of this work for all the
other kids, correct, that's right.
Speaker 12 (12:20):
Bruce is so good at protecting his own kid that
he needs an even bigger challenge protecting other people's kids.
But how do those parents feel about it?
Speaker 13 (12:29):
What is the big deal about having a random man
named Bruce determine which books your kids read.
Speaker 15 (12:34):
I want my children exposed to different mindsets, different points
of view. So if some random person tells me that, now,
this is not how you should parent your children. I
have a problem with that.
Speaker 16 (12:47):
First of all, when we're talking about anything that involves
sex at all, it's not children, it's teenagers. These are
in high schools.
Speaker 17 (12:55):
And that's what so many of these book challenges do, right.
They take issues of racism, discrimination, and sexual assault and
they label them as pornographic just because it makes it
easier to remove the book. And he brags about having
a list of over five thousand books that he wants
out of our schools.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Are there even five thousand books? Yes, in the world.
I'm not a big reader.
Speaker 12 (13:21):
So is Bruce protecting innocent kids or forcing his own
beliefs on others. To resolve that question, I'd have to
do the one thing I had sworn never to do,
join a book club.
Speaker 13 (13:32):
We've all read this book, me, I know why the
Cage Bird Sings written by Maya Angelou.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
My Angelou is a poet, laurate that part she wrote
porn But I.
Speaker 13 (13:42):
Know a pornographic book really because it's like and his his,
and he shoots all over.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
And all those would be disqualified, right, But that's not
what Maya Angelou is. I know why the Cage Bird Sings.
It's pornography. The content violates law, so.
Speaker 12 (13:59):
Bruce would rather the cage bird just shut up in
Some of his other targets are even more surprising.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
And particularly okay mixed or colorful story.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Two male characters getting married, that's it.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Oh yeah, look at their big old dicks. Those two
happened to be male if you read the rest of
the christ Okay, so they're getting married. And then here's
the most defensive part. Look what happens here? They are baby?
What do they do? Shout it out of their above holes?
Their problem.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I don't want to get lost in the mechanics.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
All right, So what happened to the challenge failed?
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I was appealed, and you immediately appealed. That's what I do.
Speaker 13 (14:32):
So in your opinion, there's an alien creature in this book,
and it's neither male nor female, and you believe it's
part of a greater agenda.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
That is correct. I'm thinking of a person. Is it
a boy? Nope? Is it a girl? Nope? Is it me?
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Is it you?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Okay? Now I'm thinking of a planet.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
If your child was unclear on their sex, how would
you resolve the issue?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
But this is not the issue.
Speaker 14 (14:55):
No, it's not.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I don't even know what the you're talking about by
challenging this, Okay, I mean it fails and we move on.
Speaker 13 (15:02):
Right, But it did fail the challenge, and you immediately
appealed it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
I always do anything that fails a challenge, I file
an appeal, and.
Speaker 12 (15:10):
Due to Florida law, books are removed while the challenge
is appealed. So the little perverts who get off on
color blobs and Star Wars aliens.
Speaker 14 (15:17):
Are out of luck.
Speaker 12 (15:18):
But there is a cost attached to Bruce's relentless drive.
Speaker 16 (15:21):
We have spent more time and resources on Bruce Friedman
than any other person in the history of Clay County.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
And how are you personally affected by Bruce Friedman?
Speaker 16 (15:31):
Well, essentially, I was the only librarian in the district
who was speaking out against the book banning, and I
guess I got to be too much trouble and they
decided to have me remove from the library.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
So Bruce, had you banned?
Speaker 16 (15:49):
Maybe I guess you could say that.
Speaker 12 (15:51):
Yeah, Bruce's campaign has been so effective. He's not only
been removing books and money from the school's budget, but
also people from the live But even Ron DeSantis may
be questioning this strategy for helping Florida children. Earlier this year,
the governor signed a new bill limiting the amount of
challenges any one person can submit.
Speaker 13 (16:11):
It's been mentioned that it might cost one hundred dollars
to challenge a book.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, with that deterrier, nothing's going to stop me. Chris.
Speaker 13 (16:19):
Do you think you'll one day write a book about
this experience?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Sure? And would that book be banned from a public school?
I've read?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Thank you, Michael.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
When we come back, tell us you'll be joining me
on the show, so don't go away. Hey, welcome back
to the Daily Show. My guest tonight is the author
(16:54):
of the best selling novel Interior Chinatown. He's also the
creator and executive for use of the Hulu series.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Please welcome mister Charles. Yes your name.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Yeah, thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 14 (17:22):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Man, it's so good to see you again. The first
time I met you was on the show is yes,
those years ago with when you were on with Trevor
last time.
Speaker 14 (17:31):
Yeah, that was Trevor and you came back. It was
really nice.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
No, I got I come back to meet all the
Asians only. Yeah, so you are? You are my showrunner
and executive producer on this TV show, and there's all
the stuff I couldn't ask you at the time. But
now that you're a guest on my show, I got
some questions for you. First of all, between me, Chloe Benner,
(17:55):
and Jimmy O Yang, who got paid the mode. You
don't have to be specific, but just indicate who was
the highest paid one and I'll be okay, Okay, that
makes sense. Yeah, Taika was also the director of the pilot,
and he was an EP on the show as well.
And you have a working relationship with him.
Speaker 14 (18:17):
I do. I do, as we as we all do. Right,
we had fun. Yeah, you directed that scene that you
just showed.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
But how did you get to work with him?
Speaker 14 (18:25):
You know, I think a little bit of luck. I
mean I had been working with him on a project
that I can't really talk about yet. But but but
the script for this, I think maybe his manager or
somebody sent it to him and somehow he read it
and liked it enough that he wanted to do it.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Oh, so he actually worked on this based on the
strength of it wasn't a pre existing relationship. It was
something you showed him your work on this project.
Speaker 14 (18:50):
I think.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
So, Yeah, I don't know, it must have been right.
You didn't know that before to modest you don't want to.
You showed him the project and it wasn't like you
guys were friends before.
Speaker 14 (19:00):
We weren't friends, but no, but we had, sorry, we
had been working together a little bit a little bit.
So yeah, we never talked about it. I never mentioned like, oh,
I have this thing because I felt too weird about
maybe like because I'm Asian, I have felt weird about,
like here's this other thing that you might be interested in.
And then all of a sudden, I was hearing word like, oh,
Tak might be interested in the pilot, and I just
(19:20):
couldn't believe. I was like sort of descended from Marvel
Heaven to coming like, you know, be part of our project,
which was really amazing, and that really gave it all
kinds of momentum, right and that and.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
How was it like walking? I asked you, you know,
I mean, I asked myself.
Speaker 14 (19:34):
That scene is, how was it?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:37):
It was great?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
It was great. It was I thought you was great.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
I thought he came and he was like so creatively free,
you know, I mean, I've never seen someone who was
that Like I think we all aspire to be as
free creatively as him.
Speaker 14 (19:53):
Yeah, he's wild. He has the kind of wild creative
energy you can't really harness it. You don't want to,
you know. Sure, I think that scene is such a
good exam well, like it's one of the funniest clips
you showed it. I didn't write that line, right right,
I just came to set a little bit late from
like I don't know, lunch or something, and that you
guys are filming that, and I was like, that's really funny.
(20:13):
So I don't know who came up with you, Jimmy
or Tyker.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
I mean it's a creative collaboration. It was me, really,
I remember when that No, I'm just well, I mean
we we kind of launched into it. But you know
the problem is, like I feel like I did the
press tour with you for this show, and everyone wants
like the elevator pitch for this show, which is so
annoying because it's just like, tell me in five seconds,
(20:40):
I won't watch it. But now that we have time
and this is my show now, so freaking yeah, the
elevator pitch, I tell us what the show is about.
Speaker 14 (20:47):
Like, speaking of which I have to show I'm wearing
Ronnie chang socks.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Show it for the camera. We've had this, yeah about
the little can you can you make it clear that
oh Christmas colors, we got the Christmas I.
Speaker 14 (21:04):
Got green and you got I don't know if I
can hear my Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Next we'll try to sell that I didn't need you,
that we sold these songs enough on this show. Everyone's
really angry about it. Paramount's like trying to take a
cut of this, but yeah, what was the what's the
non elevator pitch for the show?
Speaker 14 (21:20):
You would think I would have it down by now,
you know it's it's a show. I think it's about roles.
I think it's about how people like imagine if you
woke up one day and you were living inside of
a universe where Spider Man was real, and like Spider
(21:40):
Man was on the news, and you weren't a superhero.
You were just like, oh, they're spider Man, right, You're
just an Asian guy, just an Asian guy in a
Spider Man movie. That's sort of what this is like.
It's like Willis Woo, the main character played by Jimmy o'yang,
wakes up, not wakes up. He lives inside of a
show that is basically like law and order type police procedural,
(22:04):
and that's his reality. And so essentially he's what this
season is about, is he has a very small role
to play, which is really no role, like he's a
waiter at this restaurant that's in the background of this
police show. He has no lines, he's he's not really
(22:24):
in the story, and in the course of the pilot
he says he's kind of drawn into the story, and
he has a chance to say, I don't know if
I want to accept my role. You know, he's kind
of dealing with both how other people have defined him
and limited him, and he's also dealing with his own
internal kind of limitations, and so he basically breaks out
(22:47):
of his role, which is, you know, the tagline of
the show, break out of your role. But in the
course of doing that, he sort of disrupts the whole
ecosystem because when this guy sort of starts changing his lines,
everybody in the kind of world he lives in is
a little bit messed up now, and so it kind
of has these ripple effects and that's you know, that's
that's sort of the non elevator pitch, which is to say, like,
(23:09):
you know, I I wrote the book, you know, wanting
to kind of tell a story about what it's like
to be someone like Willis Woop, you know, and a
background character, a background character, someone who doesn't feel like
their story really matters. And you know, what does it
look like if you take the background character and say,
(23:31):
you know, this story could be yours now if you
if you choose to kind of accept that mission, right?
Speaker 4 (23:36):
And how much money did Jimmy make on the show
her episode?
Speaker 14 (23:40):
Does at it?
Speaker 17 (23:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Okay, so because this will help my contract negotiations. Did
he get a companion ticket for this? When do you
bring because sometimes I try being my wife and they
you know, yeah, let's talk about the do the contract
stuff after one thing. One thing I really love about
this book is that it's not written. In my opinion,
(24:02):
it's not written in a traditional narrative and as someone
who narrative structure, I mean, you know, because it starts
off as a screenplay and then it kind of, you know,
it becomes like a I don't spoil it, but it
becomes almost like a legal drama. In my opinion, it
doesn't as someone who's or anyone out there who's watching,
who's trying to write something original. It's kind of out
(24:23):
of a template, you know, because oftentimes when we're making
stuff now, I feel like we were just kind of
reduced to feeling in a template for how a story
should go at one, act two, act three, you know whatever.
The Dan Hammann hero's journey. So how did you manage
to break out of that role? You know, and when
you're writing this book?
Speaker 14 (24:40):
Ah, I mean I think it felt like I don't know,
I follow the role of like right not right towards
my strengths, but right away from my weaknesses. Like I
just always am interested in trying to subvert or change
the thing that I'm playing around with. To me, I
(25:01):
get bored of my own writing almost immediately. You know.
If I try to like put on a serious writer
hat and I'm like, oh, this is going to be
a good novel, you know, it's like by the second page,
I'm already bored. Oh So I always have to kind
of find a side door into something I always have
to take. I just enjoy taking taking things and sort
of just tweaking them. And so for me, that's that's
(25:23):
what this was. Is just like taking the idea of
a police procedural, which we all sort of know, and
I love them, you know, because it's this really kind
of comfortable, well well, kind of established form and then
you sort of can play around within that and then
meanwhile the audience can just be like, oh, I'm watching
a cop show. This is just a really weird cop show, right.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
And it's also rare that someone who you know wrote
the book on it and it got adapted into a
TV series. It's kind of rare for like off of
the book to be so intimately involved in the making
of the TV show, you know, not just show running,
but actually writing it a team of writers, but you
will hid writing it. So I mean, would you have
trust to anyone else to adapt this? I guess this
(26:06):
is the.
Speaker 14 (26:06):
Question I should have. Probably it's harder than it looks,
and I probably not. It's so personal in a lot
of ways, you know. I think the original inspiration for
that book was my mom and dad, who were you know,
immigrants from Taiwan. And I had these pages. I didn't
know what to do any you know, I didn't know
what to do with them. It wasn't even a book yet,
(26:28):
you know. I sent it to my agent. She's like,
this is great, and I thought, oh, I'm almost done,
and then like eight years later, I finished the book,
you know, and and I think then Hulu called and
they're like, let's make that a show. And I probably
should have said get someone who knows how to do it,
but I wanted to do it myself and it was
an incredible journey. But it's yeah, it's it is pretty special.
(26:48):
They let me do it.
Speaker 16 (26:49):
Well.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I I thought you did a great job on it.
I was it all the time.
Speaker 14 (26:53):
And technically I'm not your boss right now, so you
don't have to say.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Yeah, that's how you know. I mean it.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
That's all, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
I got a few more questions for you here. I
think this is the only time we'll ever be able
to talk about this on American TV. But why is
this so difficult talking about being an Asian man in America.
Speaker 14 (27:14):
M that's a good question. I don't think you're having difficulty.
I think I don't know. I don't know. I watched
your special. I think it was during the pandemic Asian
comedian destroys American I remember feeling like I kind of
like got inspired, I got really just like, you know,
(27:36):
you just lit a flame under me. Because I do
think it's really hard. I think you don't. I don't
want to like, it's not I'm not asking for like
pity or trying to be a sort of like, oh
woe is me at all?
Speaker 4 (27:49):
You don't play a discrimination Olympics here.
Speaker 14 (27:51):
Definitely not. I would lose at that. I mean, I
think I'm a like incredibly lucky, privileged person. My parents
came to America. They are, you know, two thirds of
their lives in America. They're Americans, you know, and so
I'm I've only lived here, and it's an incredible thing
that they could come here and then I could be
talking to you here in front of you know, like
(28:12):
about this book that I wrote about them learning how
to play the role of being an American. You know,
that's an amazing thing to me. So to me, it's
hard to talk about because you sort of have to
be able to hold two ideas in your head at once,
which is it can be hard being invisible, it can
be hard being marginalized. And I'm not a victim at
the same you know. I mean, it's like, I want
(28:33):
to talk about how this guy Willis and his family
have stories worth telling, and there's no trauma. Necessarily, there's
no necessarily like some huge tragedy. It's just a story
of these people, you know, assimilating and becoming Americans. And
you know, I think I think it's it's a complex story.
Maybe that's why it's hard.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
Well, there is some trauma. I mean, being modest again
of the the discrimination. I you know that your background
is also very interesting. I mean I'm just right now,
I'm just trying to get raised from you. So I'm
just gonna keep complimenting. So uh like people people don't
know this, but you're part of that. Yeah, you know, yeah, capitalists,
(29:17):
they know what I'm trying to do. It. So you
you majored undergraduate, you are majoring in molecular and cellular biology,
and then you got a law degree and you worked
in corporate law, and then you became a TV writer.
So your level of expertise here is just out of control.
(29:37):
So I got I need some advice from you. Okay, okay,
just speaking to your expertise, do you think that the
Delaware Supreme Court's recently decision in the matchcase expanding the
scope of the MFW framework to include entire fairness review
for non freeze out control shareholder mergers will make market
(29:58):
responsive consolidation to AF Yes, okay, that's awesome. Well, we're
talking about legal issues here, like the fridge in my
apartment broke, and like the groceries like went off, So
(30:19):
like who's responsible for that? Is my landlord? Or do
I have to pay for that? Or like what's the
tenant law on that?
Speaker 14 (30:26):
I don't know. I was kind of a B student
in LA. There's been a long time Runnie. You're a lawyer.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Yeah, I'm a lawyer. I don't even know what the
answer is to that. The New York, New York landlord
lord so so crazy. Uh, there's another question for you.
A new system level model revealed that transcriptional schotasticity is
required for he made to a poetic stem cell differentiation.
Are you shocked by these findings?
Speaker 14 (30:54):
To be clear, I was also a B student in biology. Okay,
that's why I'm a writer.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Asian B means a you know what that means?
Speaker 16 (31:04):
No?
Speaker 4 (31:04):
No, just mix, Yeah, tell us about biology.
Speaker 14 (31:11):
I I majored in biology, It's true, at at Berkeley,
and it was hard, go bears.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
Uh.
Speaker 14 (31:20):
And then I did not get into any medical schools.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
So so then you went to law.
Speaker 14 (31:24):
So I went to law school. Yeah, and my parents disappointment.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
And you worked in law and then you got into
went to a law firm and you worked for years
and he became a writer.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
I got.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
I got to ask the obligatory obligatory, Like, so, you know,
any quick advice for all these people out there, who
are you know, in the corporate world and they're trying
to get into creative industries. You know, any any was
of wisdom?
Speaker 14 (31:48):
Yeah, get bees in biology.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Be a bad student, and you too could end up
on the Daily Show. All right, Listen, Charles, you wrote up,
you won a great ball, you made a great TV show.
Thank you so much for having me on it.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
It's to be told.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Interia Hotown is streaming now in Hulu, and the book
is available everywhere. Hey, Charles, everybody, we gotta think our
quick gray.
Speaker 18 (32:18):
We'll be right back after this. Hey, that's our show
over tonight. Oh here it is your moment of.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
Ded Veteran affairs officials in Tennessee just got caught having
an orgy on the clock.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
And not just any orgy.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Twelve people butt naked all over each.
Speaker 12 (32:44):
Other at work.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
We paid for that orgy. This was a taxpayer funded orgy.
Veterans Affairs literally.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by
searching The Daily Show wherever you.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Watch The Daily Show weeknights at eleven ten Central on
Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount plus
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Paramount Podcasts
You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central's America's only
sorts for news. This is The Daily Show with your
host FRODNYA.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Welcome the Daily Show. I'm Ronnie Shang. We got so
much to talk about tonight.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Joe Biden takes a farewell to a Florida, tackles the
scourge of reading, and an NYPD is hunting for a
master criminal who loves pumpkin spice lattes. So let's get
into the headlines. Let's start with Joe Biden. Who's that
(01:00):
sounds so familiar anyway? What did he do?
Speaker 5 (01:03):
President Biden is continuing his historic trip to Angola is
he becomes the first US president to visit the southern
African nation. Biden is expected to announce new US fact
infrastructure projects in the region, including the redevelopment of a
major railway that carries critical minerals that are used in
batteries and electric vehicles.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I know that. Look, that's the face I make when
I ask someone how that weekend was and still saying
good they actually answer the question. I mean, he looks
so uninterested. It would have been less rude to just
put on a VA headset. At that point, it's like,
I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm still listening to you. I'm
just on a roller coaster. But hey, don't worry. Biden
(01:49):
might have at least one fun thing planned for his
last few days in office.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
Tonight, Political reports that the Biden administration is currently debating
preemptive pardons for prominent figures who have spoken out against Trump.
Those who could face exposure include Senator elect Adam Schiff,
former GOP Representative Liz Cheney, and Anthony Fauci. White House officials, however,
are carefully weighing the extraordinary step of handing out blanket
partons to those who've committed no crimes, both because it
(02:17):
could suggest impropriety and because those offered preemptive partons may
reject them.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Man, poddons are getting so confusing. I mean, it used
to be that you had to commit a crime to
be poddon, But now Biden has to do this weird
like Minority Report pre poddon thing where it's like, hey,
we know you didn't do anything, but Trump thinks you
did some things. I'm gonna potdon you for anything you did,
even though you didn't do it. It's it's what our founders,
(02:43):
what I've wanted. Also, also, who in the right mind
would reject a presidential potden I mean, do you want
to go to jail?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
That's what Diddy is. Okay.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Look, if you're going to reject a pod and just
give it to me, okay, I'll take it, hand it over.
I'll probably need it if Donald Trump comes after me
for political satire, speaking truth to power, or opening a
credit card in my roommate's name, right, any of those things. Anyway,
Let's move on, because the story that everyone is talking
(03:16):
about isn't in Washington, DC.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It's right here in New York. Citate Well.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Manhunt continues for a man accused of carrying out a
target to hit on a health insurance ceo, and investigators
have been finding clues in some surprising places.
Speaker 7 (03:34):
Urgent manhunt police looking for the man who gunned down
the CEO of United.
Speaker 8 (03:38):
Healthcare, NBC News has learned that the words deny, defend,
and depose we're on the shell cases at the scene
of the shooting.
Speaker 9 (03:46):
Investigators believe this could be a reference to what's called
the three d's of insurance, a known reference made by
critics of the health insurance industry to write something on
something this small and I mean, John, picture how you
would try to do that. Would you take a fine
point sharpie, would you try to scratch it in?
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Would you train a mouse to write on it with
some kind of mouse scray on? I mean, who gives
how he wrote it. It's not important how he wrote it.
What's important is that he wrote it. Okay, this guy
knows that there's so many bullet casings on the streets
of New York, and you wanted to make sure we
knew which ones were his.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Right And now, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
If we should be applauding that and now and now
they're trying to interpret what denied, defend and deposed means,
and it looks like it's either a criticism of the
health insurance industry or this guy was just trying to
solve the world or on his bullets or something. Honestly,
I think all bullets should probably say stuff on them.
I mean, how else are we going to get Americans
(04:57):
to read?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Again?
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Right, you should load up a machine gun with a
tail of two cities written in it.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I mean, it was the.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Best of times time, But now the cops just need
to narrow down their list of suspects to anyone in
America who hates their healthcare plan and has access to guns.
It should be solved in no time. And that's one
(05:24):
other thing that might help them piece this together.
Speaker 7 (05:26):
The NYPD is processing forensic evidence the suspect left behind
and the nearby Starbucks just before the shooting.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Okay, you stopped at a Starbucks on your way to
your assassination. I mean like, oh, you know me, I
can't and think about murdering until I've had my coffee.
This is this is helpful though, because the guy went
to the Starbucks, so we now know he's either a
tourist or local who really needed to take a shit.
(05:55):
And and and if he did use the bathroom, they'll
definitely have his DNA because ninety nine percent of Stopbucks
bathroom users somehow missed the toilet. But that's not the
only major crime story today. We also have crime in
the skies new questions.
Speaker 7 (06:11):
After an airport security breach, Federal investigators are looking to
how a stowaway boarded a flight from New York to
Paris at the height of holiday travel. It's Vetlana Dally
managed to bypass the document check podium as well as
the gate agent before boarding Delta flight two sixty four
from JFK to Charles de Gaul Airport.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
Dolly was caught when a flight attendant noticed that she
was going from bathroom to bathroom because she didn't have
a seat on the plane.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Okay, first of all, that's not what a stowaway is. Okay,
a stowaway has to hug the wheel or hang onto
the wing by Tom cruise. If you're just inside the
plane without a seat, you're not a stowaway. You're just
losing at musical chairs. Okay. And if security is so laxed, hey,
maybe I should have just left that bottle of shampoo
in my backpack instead of trying to smuggle out my ass.
(06:58):
I mean, am I crazy?
Speaker 7 (07:01):
Like?
Speaker 4 (07:01):
How did she do this? Airport security is so complicated now,
Like they have ropes and the dogs and the machines
and people and the scanner that I take your naked
photo and post you on the internet. Like what what
kind of secret agent acrobatics did she have to do
to get past all of that?
Speaker 10 (07:19):
She first used a lane reserved for flight crews and
then skirted the standard ID jeck. But she went through
a body scanner and voluntarily removed two bottles of water
that officers discovered in her bags.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
That's it, that's it. We give TSA ten billion dollars
a year and all they got was her water. TSA
is like, hey, we literally don't care who you are,
what you plan on doing, just do not stay hydrated.
From on this story, Let's go live for the airport
with grays Cool and Smith.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Race.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Grace, how did this woman evade airport security?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Beats the f out of me, Ronnie.
Speaker 11 (08:04):
The way she did it made it look like they
don't pay attention if you sneak through the flight crew line.
But they do pay attention, especially when you yell made it.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Okay, what the hell, Grace? We sent you down that
to interview the TSA. Why are you under rest because
I'm a reporter and I wanted to.
Speaker 11 (08:21):
Report on what it's like to get a free flight
to the Bahamas for two weeks. That's how dedicated I
am to the pursuit of the truth.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Okay, Grace, it's not your job to get a restless
sneaking through a flight crew Liane.
Speaker 11 (08:35):
I didn't. They almost arrested me, but then I pointed
out a guy and told them he had three point
one ounces of sunscreen. He beat the living shit out
of him, and I got to the gates.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Okay, but you didn't have a boarding pass.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (08:50):
It turns out if you put your phone down on
that ticket scanner and just say beep, they'll totally let
you through.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Okay, right, but you didn't have a seat.
Speaker 11 (09:01):
I actually was able to find a seat way up front.
But apparently only the pilot is allowed to sit in
the cockpit, which seems super strict.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Did something like happene? Wait, so once you got on
the plane, that's how they got you.
Speaker 11 (09:16):
No, I guess they thought I was the pilot, so
they let me fly the plane. But my landing it
was a little bumpy, and that's when they caught me.
They're super sharp, these guys.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Grace, do you have anything to report on at all?
Speaker 11 (09:31):
Yes, it turns out there is an interesting new wrinkle
to this story, which is I need a pardon.
Speaker 6 (09:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Did you know all of this was.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
A federal crime? Okay?
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Yeah, I hear Joe Biden's hanging them out right now.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Grace Clemens went every one night, when will you come back?
We've done.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Some books that don't go away.
Speaker 8 (09:58):
Well show book banning fever sweeping America.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
But is it possible that book banning may not be great?
Michael Costa has more.
Speaker 12 (10:24):
Water skiing while intoxicated, mentioning climate change, and government records
reading Maya Angelou in public schools.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
These are all things that are banned in Florida.
Speaker 12 (10:34):
That last one is because in March twenty twenty two,
Ron De Santis signed the Curriculum Transparency Bill, which made
it easier for anyone to request that any number of
books be removed from public school libraries. And if there's
things like pornography, the parents have a right to say
it should be removed.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
From the school.
Speaker 12 (10:55):
One individual has made more use of the law than
anyone else in Florida. Conservative activist and dirty bookworm Bruce Friedman,
You are.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
The number one book banner in the number one.
Speaker 13 (11:08):
State of book banning. You're the Michael Jordan of book banning.
Speaker 8 (11:12):
Well, in the last two years, I challenge more than
one book every calendar day.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
How many challenges have you made? Would you say over
nine hundred?
Speaker 13 (11:20):
So let me ask what your qualifications are for determining this.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Do you have a doctorate, in literature.
Speaker 14 (11:26):
No.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Do you have degrees in child's education and media?
Speaker 7 (11:30):
No?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So why are you the arbiter.
Speaker 8 (11:33):
Book with blatant sexual activity and over the top grotesque
excessive profanity.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Doesn't belong in any of our schools. That's what this is.
I hate profanity. Let me offer a counter.
Speaker 13 (11:49):
The internet, phones, lyrics and songs, movies.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Sure, do you think kids aren't seeing that shit?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
What does it take to control what's coming at your
children desire?
Speaker 1 (12:03):
You have to want it, okay? And do you have
kids in the school system? Yes, you do. He's not
allowed in the public school library, so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 13 (12:09):
Hold on, your son doesn't use the library at school,
That is correct, it's polluted.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
So you're doing all of this work for all the
other kids, correct, that's right.
Speaker 12 (12:20):
Bruce is so good at protecting his own kid that
he needs an even bigger challenge protecting other people's kids.
But how do those parents feel about it?
Speaker 13 (12:29):
What is the big deal about having a random man
named Bruce determine which books your kids read.
Speaker 15 (12:34):
I want my children exposed to different mindsets, different points
of view. So if some random person tells me that, now,
this is not how you should parent your children. I
have a problem with that.
Speaker 16 (12:47):
First of all, when we're talking about anything that involves
sex at all, it's not children, it's teenagers. These are
in high schools.
Speaker 17 (12:55):
And that's what so many of these book challenges do, right.
They take issues of racism, discrimination, and sexual assault and
they label them as pornographic just because it makes it
easier to remove the book. And he brags about having
a list of over five thousand books that he wants
out of our schools.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Are there even five thousand books? Yes, in the world.
I'm not a big reader.
Speaker 12 (13:21):
So is Bruce protecting innocent kids or forcing his own
beliefs on others. To resolve that question, I'd have to
do the one thing I had sworn never to do,
join a book club.
Speaker 13 (13:32):
We've all read this book, me, I know why the
Cage Bird Sings written by Maya Angelou.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
My Angelou is a poet, laurate that part she wrote
porn But I.
Speaker 13 (13:42):
Know a pornographic book really because it's like and his his,
and he shoots all over.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
And all those would be disqualified, right, But that's not
what Maya Angelou is. I know why the Cage Bird Sings.
It's pornography. The content violates law, so.
Speaker 12 (13:59):
Bruce would rather the cage bird just shut up in
Some of his other targets are even more surprising.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
And particularly okay mixed or colorful story.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Two male characters getting married, that's it.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Oh yeah, look at their big old dicks. Those two
happened to be male if you read the rest of
the christ Okay, so they're getting married. And then here's
the most defensive part. Look what happens here? They are baby?
What do they do? Shout it out of their above holes?
Their problem.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I don't want to get lost in the mechanics.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
All right, So what happened to the challenge failed?
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I was appealed, and you immediately appealed. That's what I do.
Speaker 13 (14:32):
So in your opinion, there's an alien creature in this book,
and it's neither male nor female, and you believe it's
part of a greater agenda.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
That is correct. I'm thinking of a person. Is it
a boy? Nope? Is it a girl? Nope? Is it me?
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Is it you?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Okay? Now I'm thinking of a planet.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
If your child was unclear on their sex, how would
you resolve the issue?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
But this is not the issue.
Speaker 14 (14:55):
No, it's not.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I don't even know what the you're talking about by
challenging this, Okay, I mean it fails and we move on.
Speaker 13 (15:02):
Right, But it did fail the challenge, and you immediately
appealed it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
I always do anything that fails a challenge, I file
an appeal, and.
Speaker 12 (15:10):
Due to Florida law, books are removed while the challenge
is appealed. So the little perverts who get off on
color blobs and Star Wars aliens.
Speaker 14 (15:17):
Are out of luck.
Speaker 12 (15:18):
But there is a cost attached to Bruce's relentless drive.
Speaker 16 (15:21):
We have spent more time and resources on Bruce Friedman
than any other person in the history of Clay County.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
And how are you personally affected by Bruce Friedman?
Speaker 16 (15:31):
Well, essentially, I was the only librarian in the district
who was speaking out against the book banning, and I
guess I got to be too much trouble and they
decided to have me remove from the library.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
So Bruce, had you banned?
Speaker 16 (15:49):
Maybe I guess you could say that.
Speaker 12 (15:51):
Yeah, Bruce's campaign has been so effective. He's not only
been removing books and money from the school's budget, but
also people from the live But even Ron DeSantis may
be questioning this strategy for helping Florida children. Earlier this year,
the governor signed a new bill limiting the amount of
challenges any one person can submit.
Speaker 13 (16:11):
It's been mentioned that it might cost one hundred dollars
to challenge a book.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, with that deterrier, nothing's going to stop me. Chris.
Speaker 13 (16:19):
Do you think you'll one day write a book about
this experience?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Sure? And would that book be banned from a public school?
I've read?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Thank you, Michael.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
When we come back, tell us you'll be joining me
on the show, so don't go away. Hey, welcome back
to the Daily Show. My guest tonight is the author
(16:54):
of the best selling novel Interior Chinatown. He's also the
creator and executive for use of the Hulu series.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Please welcome mister Charles. Yes your name.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Yeah, thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 14 (17:22):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Man, it's so good to see you again. The first
time I met you was on the show is yes,
those years ago with when you were on with Trevor
last time.
Speaker 14 (17:31):
Yeah, that was Trevor and you came back. It was
really nice.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
No, I got I come back to meet all the
Asians only. Yeah, so you are? You are my showrunner
and executive producer on this TV show, and there's all
the stuff I couldn't ask you at the time. But
now that you're a guest on my show, I got
some questions for you. First of all, between me, Chloe Benner,
(17:55):
and Jimmy O Yang, who got paid the mode. You
don't have to be specific, but just indicate who was
the highest paid one and I'll be okay, Okay, that
makes sense. Yeah, Taika was also the director of the pilot,
and he was an EP on the show as well.
And you have a working relationship with him.
Speaker 14 (18:17):
I do. I do, as we as we all do. Right,
we had fun. Yeah, you directed that scene that you
just showed.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
But how did you get to work with him?
Speaker 14 (18:25):
You know, I think a little bit of luck. I
mean I had been working with him on a project
that I can't really talk about yet. But but but
the script for this, I think maybe his manager or
somebody sent it to him and somehow he read it
and liked it enough that he wanted to do it.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Oh, so he actually worked on this based on the
strength of it wasn't a pre existing relationship. It was
something you showed him your work on this project.
Speaker 14 (18:50):
I think.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
So, Yeah, I don't know, it must have been right.
You didn't know that before to modest you don't want to.
You showed him the project and it wasn't like you
guys were friends before.
Speaker 14 (19:00):
We weren't friends, but no, but we had, sorry, we
had been working together a little bit a little bit.
So yeah, we never talked about it. I never mentioned like, oh,
I have this thing because I felt too weird about
maybe like because I'm Asian, I have felt weird about,
like here's this other thing that you might be interested in.
And then all of a sudden, I was hearing word like, oh,
Tak might be interested in the pilot, and I just
(19:20):
couldn't believe. I was like sort of descended from Marvel
Heaven to coming like, you know, be part of our project,
which was really amazing, and that really gave it all
kinds of momentum, right and that and.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
How was it like walking? I asked you, you know,
I mean, I asked myself.
Speaker 14 (19:34):
That scene is, how was it?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:37):
It was great?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
It was great. It was I thought you was great.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
I thought he came and he was like so creatively free,
you know, I mean, I've never seen someone who was
that Like I think we all aspire to be as
free creatively as him.
Speaker 14 (19:53):
Yeah, he's wild. He has the kind of wild creative
energy you can't really harness it. You don't want to,
you know. Sure, I think that scene is such a
good exam well, like it's one of the funniest clips
you showed it. I didn't write that line, right right,
I just came to set a little bit late from
like I don't know, lunch or something, and that you
guys are filming that, and I was like, that's really funny.
(20:13):
So I don't know who came up with you, Jimmy
or Tyker.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
I mean it's a creative collaboration. It was me, really,
I remember when that No, I'm just well, I mean
we we kind of launched into it. But you know
the problem is, like I feel like I did the
press tour with you for this show, and everyone wants
like the elevator pitch for this show, which is so
annoying because it's just like, tell me in five seconds,
(20:40):
I won't watch it. But now that we have time
and this is my show now, so freaking yeah, the
elevator pitch, I tell us what the show is about.
Speaker 14 (20:47):
Like, speaking of which I have to show I'm wearing
Ronnie chang socks.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Show it for the camera. We've had this, yeah about
the little can you can you make it clear that
oh Christmas colors, we got the Christmas I.
Speaker 14 (21:04):
Got green and you got I don't know if I
can hear my Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Next we'll try to sell that I didn't need you,
that we sold these songs enough on this show. Everyone's
really angry about it. Paramount's like trying to take a
cut of this, but yeah, what was the what's the
non elevator pitch for the show?
Speaker 14 (21:20):
You would think I would have it down by now,
you know it's it's a show. I think it's about roles.
I think it's about how people like imagine if you
woke up one day and you were living inside of
a universe where Spider Man was real, and like Spider
(21:40):
Man was on the news, and you weren't a superhero.
You were just like, oh, they're spider Man, right, You're
just an Asian guy, just an Asian guy in a
Spider Man movie. That's sort of what this is like.
It's like Willis Woo, the main character played by Jimmy o'yang,
wakes up, not wakes up. He lives inside of a
show that is basically like law and order type police procedural,
(22:04):
and that's his reality. And so essentially he's what this
season is about, is he has a very small role
to play, which is really no role, like he's a
waiter at this restaurant that's in the background of this
police show. He has no lines, he's he's not really
(22:24):
in the story, and in the course of the pilot
he says he's kind of drawn into the story, and
he has a chance to say, I don't know if
I want to accept my role. You know, he's kind
of dealing with both how other people have defined him
and limited him, and he's also dealing with his own
internal kind of limitations, and so he basically breaks out
(22:47):
of his role, which is, you know, the tagline of
the show, break out of your role. But in the
course of doing that, he sort of disrupts the whole
ecosystem because when this guy sort of starts changing his lines,
everybody in the kind of world he lives in is
a little bit messed up now, and so it kind
of has these ripple effects and that's you know, that's
that's sort of the non elevator pitch, which is to say, like,
(23:09):
you know, I I wrote the book, you know, wanting
to kind of tell a story about what it's like
to be someone like Willis Woop, you know, and a
background character, a background character, someone who doesn't feel like
their story really matters. And you know, what does it
look like if you take the background character and say,
(23:31):
you know, this story could be yours now if you
if you choose to kind of accept that mission, right?
Speaker 4 (23:36):
And how much money did Jimmy make on the show
her episode?
Speaker 14 (23:40):
Does at it?
Speaker 17 (23:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Okay, so because this will help my contract negotiations. Did
he get a companion ticket for this? When do you
bring because sometimes I try being my wife and they
you know, yeah, let's talk about the do the contract
stuff after one thing. One thing I really love about
this book is that it's not written. In my opinion,
(24:02):
it's not written in a traditional narrative and as someone
who narrative structure, I mean, you know, because it starts
off as a screenplay and then it kind of, you know,
it becomes like a I don't spoil it, but it
becomes almost like a legal drama. In my opinion, it
doesn't as someone who's or anyone out there who's watching,
who's trying to write something original. It's kind of out
(24:23):
of a template, you know, because oftentimes when we're making
stuff now, I feel like we were just kind of
reduced to feeling in a template for how a story
should go at one, act two, act three, you know whatever.
The Dan Hammann hero's journey. So how did you manage
to break out of that role? You know, and when
you're writing this book?
Speaker 14 (24:40):
Ah, I mean I think it felt like I don't know,
I follow the role of like right not right towards
my strengths, but right away from my weaknesses. Like I
just always am interested in trying to subvert or change
the thing that I'm playing around with. To me, I
(25:01):
get bored of my own writing almost immediately. You know.
If I try to like put on a serious writer
hat and I'm like, oh, this is going to be
a good novel, you know, it's like by the second page,
I'm already bored. Oh So I always have to kind
of find a side door into something I always have
to take. I just enjoy taking taking things and sort
of just tweaking them. And so for me, that's that's
(25:23):
what this was. Is just like taking the idea of
a police procedural, which we all sort of know, and
I love them, you know, because it's this really kind
of comfortable, well well, kind of established form and then
you sort of can play around within that and then
meanwhile the audience can just be like, oh, I'm watching
a cop show. This is just a really weird cop show, right.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
And it's also rare that someone who you know wrote
the book on it and it got adapted into a
TV series. It's kind of rare for like off of
the book to be so intimately involved in the making
of the TV show, you know, not just show running,
but actually writing it a team of writers, but you
will hid writing it. So I mean, would you have
trust to anyone else to adapt this? I guess this
(26:06):
is the.
Speaker 14 (26:06):
Question I should have. Probably it's harder than it looks,
and I probably not. It's so personal in a lot
of ways, you know. I think the original inspiration for
that book was my mom and dad, who were you know,
immigrants from Taiwan. And I had these pages. I didn't
know what to do any you know, I didn't know
what to do with them. It wasn't even a book yet,
(26:28):
you know. I sent it to my agent. She's like,
this is great, and I thought, oh, I'm almost done,
and then like eight years later, I finished the book,
you know, and and I think then Hulu called and
they're like, let's make that a show. And I probably
should have said get someone who knows how to do it,
but I wanted to do it myself and it was
an incredible journey. But it's yeah, it's it is pretty special.
(26:48):
They let me do it.
Speaker 16 (26:49):
Well.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I I thought you did a great job on it.
I was it all the time.
Speaker 14 (26:53):
And technically I'm not your boss right now, so you
don't have to say.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Yeah, that's how you know. I mean it.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
That's all, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
I got a few more questions for you here. I
think this is the only time we'll ever be able
to talk about this on American TV. But why is
this so difficult talking about being an Asian man in America.
Speaker 14 (27:14):
M that's a good question. I don't think you're having difficulty.
I think I don't know. I don't know. I watched
your special. I think it was during the pandemic Asian
comedian destroys American I remember feeling like I kind of
like got inspired, I got really just like, you know,
(27:36):
you just lit a flame under me. Because I do
think it's really hard. I think you don't. I don't
want to like, it's not I'm not asking for like
pity or trying to be a sort of like, oh
woe is me at all?
Speaker 4 (27:49):
You don't play a discrimination Olympics here.
Speaker 14 (27:51):
Definitely not. I would lose at that. I mean, I
think I'm a like incredibly lucky, privileged person. My parents
came to America. They are, you know, two thirds of
their lives in America. They're Americans, you know, and so
I'm I've only lived here, and it's an incredible thing
that they could come here and then I could be
talking to you here in front of you know, like
(28:12):
about this book that I wrote about them learning how
to play the role of being an American. You know,
that's an amazing thing to me. So to me, it's
hard to talk about because you sort of have to
be able to hold two ideas in your head at once,
which is it can be hard being invisible, it can
be hard being marginalized. And I'm not a victim at
the same you know. I mean, it's like, I want
(28:33):
to talk about how this guy Willis and his family
have stories worth telling, and there's no trauma. Necessarily, there's
no necessarily like some huge tragedy. It's just a story
of these people, you know, assimilating and becoming Americans. And
you know, I think I think it's it's a complex story.
Maybe that's why it's hard.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
Well, there is some trauma. I mean, being modest again
of the the discrimination. I you know that your background
is also very interesting. I mean I'm just right now,
I'm just trying to get raised from you. So I'm
just gonna keep complimenting. So uh like people people don't
know this, but you're part of that. Yeah, you know, yeah, capitalists,
(29:17):
they know what I'm trying to do. It. So you
you majored undergraduate, you are majoring in molecular and cellular biology,
and then you got a law degree and you worked
in corporate law, and then you became a TV writer.
So your level of expertise here is just out of control.
(29:37):
So I got I need some advice from you. Okay, okay,
just speaking to your expertise, do you think that the
Delaware Supreme Court's recently decision in the matchcase expanding the
scope of the MFW framework to include entire fairness review
for non freeze out control shareholder mergers will make market
(29:58):
responsive consolidation to AF Yes, okay, that's awesome. Well, we're
talking about legal issues here, like the fridge in my
apartment broke, and like the groceries like went off, So
(30:19):
like who's responsible for that? Is my landlord? Or do
I have to pay for that? Or like what's the
tenant law on that?
Speaker 14 (30:26):
I don't know. I was kind of a B student
in LA. There's been a long time Runnie. You're a lawyer.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Yeah, I'm a lawyer. I don't even know what the
answer is to that. The New York, New York landlord
lord so so crazy. Uh, there's another question for you.
A new system level model revealed that transcriptional schotasticity is
required for he made to a poetic stem cell differentiation.
Are you shocked by these findings?
Speaker 14 (30:54):
To be clear, I was also a B student in biology. Okay,
that's why I'm a writer.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Asian B means a you know what that means?
Speaker 16 (31:04):
No?
Speaker 4 (31:04):
No, just mix, Yeah, tell us about biology.
Speaker 14 (31:11):
I I majored in biology, It's true, at at Berkeley,
and it was hard, go bears.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
Uh.
Speaker 14 (31:20):
And then I did not get into any medical schools.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
So so then you went to law.
Speaker 14 (31:24):
So I went to law school. Yeah, and my parents disappointment.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
And you worked in law and then you got into
went to a law firm and you worked for years
and he became a writer.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
I got.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
I got to ask the obligatory obligatory, Like, so, you know,
any quick advice for all these people out there, who
are you know, in the corporate world and they're trying
to get into creative industries. You know, any any was
of wisdom?
Speaker 14 (31:48):
Yeah, get bees in biology.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Be a bad student, and you too could end up
on the Daily Show. All right, Listen, Charles, you wrote up,
you won a great ball, you made a great TV show.
Thank you so much for having me on it.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
It's to be told.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Interia Hotown is streaming now in Hulu, and the book
is available everywhere. Hey, Charles, everybody, we gotta think our
quick gray.
Speaker 18 (32:18):
We'll be right back after this. Hey, that's our show
over tonight. Oh here it is your moment of.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
Ded Veteran affairs officials in Tennessee just got caught having
an orgy on the clock.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
And not just any orgy.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Twelve people butt naked all over each.
Speaker 12 (32:44):
Other at work.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
We paid for that orgy. This was a taxpayer funded orgy.
Veterans Affairs literally.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by
searching The Daily Show wherever you.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Watch The Daily Show weeknights at eleven ten Central on
Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount plus
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Paramount Podcasts
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