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