The Daily Show’s Desi Lydic Mines the “Weird” 2024 Election For Comedy Gold
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Hi, everyone, from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is On with Kara Swisher, and I'm Kara Swisher. My guest today is Desi Lydic, actor, comedian, and senior correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, bringing the news with their ironic satirical twist. Desi, does it have to be a white guy? I mean, why can't there be two women on the ticket? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Ronnie, an all-female ticket? America couldn't even handle an all-female Ghostbusters. LAUGHTER

This year, her series, Foxplains, where she watches hours of Fox News and condenses it into an insane social rant, has been nominated for an Emmy again. What I think is weird is not thinking for yourself. That's right. The far-left Democrats have taken time away from building a socialist abortion laser to call good, honest patriots like J.D. Vance and Marjorie Taylor Greene weird.

One of the greatest parts of having your own podcast is you get to have people on who you're enormous fans of. And I'm a big fan of her. I love Fox Plains. My mother's a Fox News aficionado. And so it's highly enjoyable. I showed it to my mom and my mom thought it was the real thing.

Earlier this year, Daily Show legend Jon Stewart decided to come out of show retirement to do a once-a-week stint behind the desk. Lydic and the rest of the Indecision News correspondents have been rotating through his still-warm seat Tuesday through Thursday, sometimes alone, sometimes tag-teaming. It's a new concept. I want to talk to her about it, but of course also about the election that has gotten a lot more exciting. She is really funny. This should be fun. Our question this week comes from writer and comedian Nell Scovel, who directed Lydic on the TV show Awkward. ♪

It is on. Desi, welcome. Thanks for being on On. Just so you know, you're my only pick from The Daily Show, except for John. Stop it. It's true. I can't wait to tell the others. Tell Ronnie. Although they're doing a good job. They're doing a good job as being the guys, I guess. That's very nice to hear. We have a lot to talk about. I love your stuff. You're going to be hosting the show this week, Flying Solo. Yes. We're going to get to the news in a second, but...

I'd love you to explain how that works. You do it one week, and Ronnie does it another week, and Michael does it another week, and Jordan, et cetera. Yeah, so John hosts every Monday. So he leads the charge, shows us how it's done, and then we pretty much ride his coattails for the rest of the week. Excellent. And we're on sort of rotation. So our executive producer, showrunner, leader...

Jen Flans, who's been steering the show. She's been at the show for over 25 years. She creates the schedule and decides who's going to host when. And it's been really even-handed. All of us have an equal amount of time. And so, yeah, so then John will host Mondays, and then one of us will take Tuesday through Thursday for the rest of the week. Yeah, after that long search, you know, that didn't end up finding anybody or all kinds of problems. Yes.

Anyway, we're going to get into that in specifics in a second. But first, let's start with the news because this is your week, right? This is your week going on. And we're taping this on August 7th. Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate yesterday. I guessed it would be Walz. You did. Yes, I did. Although I thought she might go the...

you know, the route where she would be, I need those Pennsylvania voters. I thought Shapiro, too. Yeah, I think a lot of people did. But I thought he seemed very folksy and was doing really well. I'm just curious what you think about the ticket. After watching it last night, they did the whole... I think he's a thrilling choice. I am so excited about him. Why thrilling? Yes, because he just... He's just exciting. He just seems like...

You know, he's so authentically who he is from what it seems. I'm going to say, let me say this first. I think myself, most of us, and myself included, even quote-unquote political junkies, did not know who Tim Walz was until about eight days ago. So I think we're very quickly trying to learn as much as possible. But I love what he's done for Minnesota, a lot of issues that are incredible.

important for reproductive rights and school lunches, being a gun owner, but believing very much in common sense gun reform. I think all of those things are really crucial. But he seems like...

And again, I'm just kind of learning about who he is. But there are so many politicians do this flip-flop thing and they sort of change their ideas and policies based on what serves them politically. And it does feel like he has evolved over the years from on what he stands for and what he believes in. But

But it seems to be coming from a place where he's actually listening. Changed his mind. And he's changed his mind from an authentic place. I don't know that to be true, but it's kind of what I'm picking up on the more I learn about him. And I think that's really important.

Yeah, because it's interesting because one group is doing sort of light and bright and the other is doing dark and stormy, essentially. Obviously, you focus a lot on politics and you didn't seem thrilled about President Biden's reelection campaign when he announced in January, you said he wasn't running for reelection. You said he was stairlifting. That's right. Joe Biden is running for reelection.

Well, not running, exactly. The man is 80 years old. Let's say he's stairlifting for reelection. Oh, no. Hey, you wrote it, not me. Just after the Biden-Trump debate, you basically compared him to Gwyneth Paltrow's bed-shitting houseguest, which was brilliant, I have to say. All I'm saying is Gwyneth has every right to be skeptical about inviting this houseguest to stay over again for the next four years or so.

I mean, it might be too late in the summer to get another house guest. There's plenty of time to get another house guest! Okay, okay, okay. But who's to say that another guest might not shit the bed even worse? I mean, sometimes the bed shitter you know is better than the bed shitter you don't.

Maybe, maybe, but we should at least be honest about the bed shitting instead of pretending that the bed was never shat in. Otherwise, we're going to delude ourselves into thinking that this is the best house guest we can get, and now all of a sudden it's January, and there's a house guest that nobody wanted, and nobody in the house is allowed to get a goddamn

goddamn abortion. Talk to me about coming up with that. You need to own it. So, okay. I will. It was a real, listen, we got a lot of very talented writers at this show. I lean very heavily on them. No, I came into that week, I think we had been on a dark week and I just needed a moment to

of for my own mental health to just like break away for a minute. It was getting very stressful. So I became pretty obsessed with that Gwyneth Paltrow, Hamptons shitting the bed story. And I just thought we have got to work this into the show somehow just for a breath of fresh air. So to speak. So to speak.

And then so I was hammering pretty hard on on working that into the day. And Jordan Klepper, who was my partner that day, was fully supportive of it. And one of our writers, Jubin, who is incredible, came up with the idea to compare it to Biden, quote unquote, shitting the bed.

on the debate stage. And he did a lot of the heavy lifting on that. And we just fully committed to it. It felt like, you know, it was tongue in cheek. It felt like it was kind of fair game for the day. You went for it. You went for it. Just like Tim Walz did last night with the couch joke. I didn't think he would do it, but then he did. Oh, my God. He landed the punchline. Did all comics go, well done, well done? There were a couple moments that I was just like, guys, stay in your lane. That's a joke. I'm jealous. I wish I would have come up with that.

Yeah, that was a good one. I don't think he's going to do it again. But, you know, interestingly, John was also who I've interviewed before. It was outspoken about Biden after the debate. Was there a consensus at the show that you all should push this idea of him dropping out of the race itself or just? No, not at all. I mean, I think sometimes John had his feelings about it and he said them out loud. He was saying the thing that I think we all were beginning to see. He was speaking on it.

before the debate, to be fair. Yes, he was, yeah. And I think all of us, you know, when he did that, even I kind of went like, ooh, I don't know if that, I feel that makes me a little uncomfortable, but...

You know, John has a way of seeing the world around him and not being afraid to say what's happening. He's saying the thing out loud. And so I think it did give us all permission to kind of go, all right, this is our job. Like, we are not working for anyone's campaign. We're all pretty progressive. You could probably guess who we're all going to vote for. It's not Trump.

But it's our job to try to mine comedy out of all of this and say... No matter where it takes you. Say what's happening. Just call out what's happening in front of you. You were all rolling your eyes about the Trump-Biden rematch in general. Has this reboot changed the vibe in Decision 2024, which is the Daily Show's election coverage headquarters? Yes. You make it sound so official. We have very serious jobs. I know, I know. We should be taking it very seriously. Does it change the vibe? What does it do for the comedy? I mean, it's...

You have a fun candidacy, you know, funt, as they've called Kamala Harris the fun aunt. But does it change it, what you're doing? Does it change the way you cover it? It certainly makes it more exciting. Now, you know, anytime the news takes a hard turn in a different direction, that's something exciting to cover. And I think this is much more, yeah, new material to work with. We get to learn who Tim Walz is. We get to see Kamala in this light.

You know, and Trump, he just, he's trying. I mean, we've done it so much. He gives you new material all the time, though, doesn't he? Oh, he's endlessly funny. Not for democracy, not in the White House, but he is, as a person, the most unintentionally funny character. I think for us, we're used to...

satirizing the news and these political characters. And he is such a parody of himself that it became really hard to out-satire him. We all had to become straight people. Speaking of Tim Walz taking your job, he came up with Weird. Did you like that? The Weird idea? Don't you think that's... I think it's brilliant. It's brilliant. You can't...

Cannot. Hillary used deplorable and he used weird. It was such a great strategic move. What do you say to weird? You can't defend. You can't go, I'm not weird. What do you mean? There's nothing weird about me. There's no way to defend yourself to that. It's brilliant. And it...

I do think the whole, you know, even though we all believe democracy is on the line here, that is a very specific type of messaging. This weird thing just, it really undermines them. It kind of takes the power away a little bit, don't you think? Yeah, yeah, it's a great word because it's a word you can't escape. Everyone's been called weird. Don't be weird. Don't be weird is something people have gotten.

and said hundreds of times to each other. So it's not quite as offensive either at the same time. Right. But it is. It's totally offensive. But it puts... It totally sets you... Yeah, it puts you off. I want to talk about Kentucky a bit. Your home state, you have a very light accent, by the way. I can hear it just barely. Yes, a little bit. Give me a couple...

Glasses and bourbon, it'll come out. I know, you say a couple words and I'm like, oh, I see, I hear. But Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear was reportedly running for the vice, but he was in the running. You went back there in 2023 as a Daily Show correspondent. Talk a little bit about that, going there. The interesting thing about Kentucky and the piece that I went back and did last year was...

Just kind of based on this idea that there are all these, you know, red states and their legislators are putting laws into action that don't necessarily represent the needs and the wants of the people. So when you get out on the streets and you start talking to people...

You know, these book bans and the culture war issues, these are not important to the average voter in Kentucky. So I, instead of just like from our, you know, elite New York City bubble over here, make commentary on some of these red states, I felt like I wanted to go there and show a different side and talk to a variety of people. And your parents are Republican, is that correct? They are. Are they Trumping Republicans?

They are not Trump Republicans. They are not Trump Republicans. So where does that leave them in Kentucky? Mitch McConnell territory? Yeah, we shall see. They never liked Trump from the beginning. They did vote for him the first time around, and they are now not Trump fans. So I don't know if they will ultimately vote for Kamala. I'm working on it. I have my mother's a Trumper. Your mother is? How are those—

Bad. Bad to worse, I guess. She hated Trump and then she loved him. And now she just loves him because he's in your face. Fox News gets its tentacles around her brain every day. Does she watch anything other than Fox News? No. No. Yeah. That's the issue. I mean, if any of us or anyone watches Fox News day in and day out, when someone tells you, we are the only source that you can rely on, no one else is telling you the truth, we are the only ones...

You're going to drink the Kool-Aid. My mom has an aide who wears earphones, you know, AirPods. And my mom's like, she's always wearing AirPods. And I'm like, she's wearing them because she can't hear Fox News because it makes her homicidal, which is interesting. I'm just curious. But Louise, Kentucky does have an outsized influence. We have Mitch McConnell. What do you?

He's leaving leadership in November, but he's not leaving. How does one explain it in Kentucky from a Kentucky person? I don't know. I should probably go back and spend a little more time there. Louisville is where you're from, isn't technically Appalachia, but Appalachia adjacent. It's kind of like J.D. Vance who calls Kentucky home, even though he's from...

Ohio, how do you look at him as someone you're going to take on hillbilly elegy, etc.? I mean, the fact that he just loathes childless women is wonderful. I mean, that's just, oh, good Lord. It is.

When you're asking about Tim Walz, it's like, okay, well, you know what I love about him? He doesn't hate women, generally. So that's one good step in the right direction. But from a comedy point of view, J.D. Vance, you know, he obviously got the cat lady comments. There's also a piece recently in The Atlantic by Kentucky State Senator Cassie Chambers. I don't know if you read it at Armstrong. Hillbilly women will get no help from J.D. Vance. She makes a point that Vance's positions on divorce and abortion, on women's reproductive care, on universal daycare, are all bad for women he claims to represent. I don't even

know if he believes any of those things. I think he thinks that it's going to help him politically, right? Absolutely. I mean,

Did you read the... There was somebody you went to school with who... Yes, trans person. Yes, and shared the texts going back and forth. And he actually seemed like a pretty progressive or, you know, moderate person. Oh, I knew him when he was like that, when he was talking about Trump being America's Hitler. I thought, I wouldn't even say that. I wouldn't even go that far. Right? Yeah. So all of this is all just...

Perhaps, perhaps. But how do you deal with, is he like great for you guys over there? I think for us, we generally just look to mind comedy in hypocrisy. Anytime when there's a hypocritical point of view, that is generally the area to go in on. And he is hypocritical. Especially around women's rights. Now, a few years ago, you put out a special where you traveled around the world looking at gender inequality and women's rights being discussed.

tackling other countries. Did it give you a new perspective on the U.S.? Talk a little bit about that. It did. I think we have this, like, you know, obviously American exceptionalism, and we think we're the best at everything. And I really, we were ranked at the time, I think, 49th in the world by the World Economic Forum when it comes to gender equality. And

I thought, well, let's travel around the world and see if we can copy off of someone else's homework, see what they're doing in all these different areas. So we looked at female representation in government. We looked at parental leave in Iceland. We went to Spain. You went to Namibia. Yeah.

I went to Namibia. Yeah, where they have had female representation in their government for quite some time. And that was really interesting to see. By the way, Namibia is the most beautiful place I've ever been. Wow, I've never been to Namibia.

I like saying it. I highly recommend it. Namibia. Namibia. Congratulations. You can say it unlike our former president, who I believe called it Nambia. Nambia. Oh, Trump. He called Kambala, Kambala. He has a new word for her. I hope you're using it next week. Kambala. That's...

that's intentional, right? That's the thing I've learned most about Fox News is that there are a thousand ways you can pronounce Kamala. We're getting to your Fox News things, which are brilliant, which I actually made my mother watch one. Oh, my God. And she's like, that's real. She thought it was true. Oh, no. Yes, she did not realize you were part of the problem. Oh, we're part of the problem. But,

one of the things, you are from a red state. Do you think they are shifting? You're saying that they are different on the streets than they are politically. Do you see it shifting in any way with Kamala Harris and Governor Beshear and things like that? I certainly think it could. I think the more the Democrats

are clear on their message on what they're going to do for the American people in a real way, in a real meaningful way, the more that they can kind of resonate with the people of Kentucky, I think there's absolutely a chance that it could shift. Probably not the

This election. So when you're when you were talking about the popularity of Trump in these areas, because I mean, again, it's easy for you guys to make fun of him and he's he gives you something new every week from whether it's bleach or Hannibal Lecter or whatever he happens to be doing. Is it difficult when it's so hateful at the same time or is it you feel like it's just your job to make comedy out of it? Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I think any time that you're really agitated or irritated about something, that's a good place to come from for comedy. Something that really gets under your skin that you feel, you know, hopped up about. But you also don't want to perpetuate dangerous narratives. So it's a fine line to walk. Yeah. And there are times that we...

We certainly have those conversations, like, do we want to make a meal out of this today? But there are also loads of things that we want to talk about, issues that are really important to us, but they happen to be very tragic, sad issues.

And then we go, okay, well, we're a comedy show. Can we find the humor in this? Is there a, you know, a perspective from a legislator or politician that we can poke holes in and find the hypocrisy or the irony in and blow that out comedically? If not, maybe we have someone on as a guest and have this conversation in a different way. We'll be back in a minute. Support for this show comes from Delete Me.

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Every episode we get a question from an outside expert. I think you'll recognize this voice. Hi, Cara. Hi, Desi. It's Nell Scovell. Sorry, my voice is a little raspy. I've got a little bit of COVID, but Tim Waltz is on his way over with some Vicks Vapor Rub, so I'll be fine. I am currently a contributing editor for The Daily Beast.

And also a TV writer and director. Desi and I worked together when I directed her in an episode of Awkward. And she truly blew me away. She's an absolute comedic genius. And I'm so happy she's now doing the Lord's work with The Daily Show. So my question for Desi is for her to imagine that she's been given five minutes with Donald Trump.

And I understand that whenever he meets a pretty lady, he likes to murmur, you're so beautiful. If Trump said that to you, Desi, what would you say in response? Oh, God. First of all, I love Nelson. Oh, my God. She is just amazing.

The most lovely human being. She worked on my book with me. I didn't know she worked on Bernbach. Yeah. I didn't know that. She saved it because I wasn't turning it in and she kicked my ass until I got it in. Oh, that's so funny. Yeah. God, I just love her. She's an excellent director too, by the way. So answer. What would I say if he said, you're so beautiful? Which he would. Oh.

I would just say, I don't know exactly what I would ask him, but I would just say, answer the damn question. Answer the damn question. Oh, you'd go tough. You wouldn't do a joke. I don't know. I don't think so. I don't know. Maybe I would need to play into it in a Fox News-y kind of way and pretend to be charmed by him to then get in there and get him to answer the question. But he is so good at...

at evading the question and making hard turn. I think just anyone who sits down with him needs to ask him the same question over and over again until he responds. Have you asked for an interview with him? I have not. You have not. I would, though. I would take it. Yeah. I don't know that he would ever come on our show. I know John wouldn't interview him. John has been vocal about that. Yeah. I think any of us would love to. Yeah, yeah.

So let's talk a little bit more about The Daily Show. You started a correspondent there nine years ago, just after Trevor Noah started. Jon Stewart is back again, you said, on Mondays. Has that changed things? I know you say you're all riding his coattails, but has it changed the tenor of the show right now? Because he's on until, what, November? Is that right? Yeah, as far as we know. He seems to like it. He seems to be having the time of his life. Yeah, and morale is way up. It's really, really good to have him back.

I think so many people here at the show have been here for many, many years, and many of them actually worked with John before. So there was already, you know, a family connection there. And then the rest of the people, you know, many of them came here because they have such admiration and reverence for John and what he built here. So, you know, people like myself are getting to work with him for the first time. And he's...

He's the best. He is truly the best. To get to watch him as a performer every Monday is one thing, but to watch him come into the office with ideas, the way he leads the staff and, you know, just his energy coming in is upbeat and passionate. He comes in with a clear vision. He has ideas, but...

He's flexible when it comes to the process of it. So watching the behind the scenes in morning meetings, in rehearsal, how he shapes the show from rehearsal to the show itself, it's a master class. And for those of us who get to go sit at the desk for the rest of the week, it's

It's incredible to be able to, like, kind of process and take it all in and then apply what we're learning, you know, the next week or the next day. Attempting to. No one can be John. We're not trying to be John, but there's a lot to learn. You say morale is up. Was it hard with the guest hosts after—what's a good word? Weird. Was it weird to have all— Was it weird?

Do we have to pay Tim Waltz every time we use weird? Yes, you do. Yes. He's got it copywritten, right? Yeah. Yeah, he did. It's like happy birthday. I think the unknown felt scary at times. I think people were on edge sometimes with not knowing what the permanent plan was. We did not know that Trevor was going to walk away. Yeah.

And so that there was a bit of a shock when that happened and totally understandable, by the way, he is a standup at heart and he was at the show for seven years. That's a long time. And it is a grind and he did it beautifully. Um, but that was, we all had to kind of like process that. And, you know, I, it, it was challenging, but I also have to say it's a huge testament to the show and the machine that's built here. Um,

Jen, being so good at her job, managed to keep the train from running off the tracks and build a show every week for a new voice. And that's incredible. And I was part of it, but also as a viewer. I think it does work better in a lot of ways, actually, because you're a little like SNL. Like, it's a team of people. And then John's there as sort of the...

the icing on the cake kind of thing. We're enjoying it. Which I think it's, I'm surprising how well it's working with all of you doing, trading things. Is there a difference from being a correspondent, from being on the desk? Because you had not done that, right? Yeah. What's the difference from your perspective as a performer? And you come up with those bits, right? You decide what those bits are going to, or not, you work with writers. We have a whole staff of writers

brilliant writers and they do a lot of the heavy lifting, but we were involved in the writing process and we can pitch an idea and often we do for a chat, but it's very collaborative. So it's usually for the actual bits themselves. It's two writers and a correspondent sitting down and writing it together.

But I'd say as a correspondent, you're usually embodying kind of a wild perspective to try to heighten whatever point of view is being made. So you're assisting what the host's perspective is and usually doing it by coming in and being very arch and being a character. And I don't.

I never did stand-up. I came up through improv and scripted comedy. And so I was very accustomed to playing a character and felt very comfortable that way. I never thought that my path would be hosting a late-night show. Right.

So I think for me, the biggest transition was getting comfortable being myself at the desk. When you're at the desk, it's your point of view. You have a lot of help from a lot of really talented writers and producers. But ultimately, you're choosing the stories. You're setting the tone. It's your take. You have a say in what guests you want to bring on and what questions that you want to ask. So getting comfortable...

being myself in that seat was different and really liberating. And it's working because, you know, Tuesday through Thursday viewership is up 30% higher than last year's average. You did multi-host concept too. Sometimes you're together apart. Do you like anything better? You and Jordan are particularly good, but you and Michael are good too. Like, and you and Ronnie were good too. I have a

a podcast named Pivot with Scott Galloway. It works really well because we're... Yes. It's a great podcast. I love that podcast. Because we're together. Do you prefer anything if you had your druthers? I have to say, it's really nice to be able to share the responsibility with someone else. Part of what we're enjoying so much about this episode

era of The Daily Show is that we get an opportunity to host, but then we're not hosting every single show. It's a grind. We take little breaks here and there, but it's not a lot. So when we can host once a month for a full week, there's time to read the books, it's

of the authors that are coming on as guests. There's time to watch the shows and do the research and take a little breather. So we're really enjoying the ensemble aspect of it. As far as being at the desk with another person, I love the duo. All local news. All local news. There is kind of like a local newsy... Mm-hmm.

pattern to it. There's like a rhythm that's really fun. And, you know, Jordan and I just did that a couple weeks ago. We had the best time. Is there one that you like over the others? You can't ask me to choose. You can't. I can't. They're all my boys. But I will say the last time I got to do a duo with Jordan, we had a big...

And it was really fun to be collaborating together from the top of the day all the way to the end. So we have a great time at the desk together, but also the behind-the-scenes plotting and planning and shaping the show was incredible.

surprisingly pretty effortless. You joked recently when you and Ronnie interviewed Rosalind Chow that he always chooses Asian guests and you want women. But how do you decide on guests? Do you get input or do you guys all get to choose? We get input and we can make requests. Who would you like to have? Is there someone, like, well-known people who you would just love? Kamala? Well, yeah, that, yeah. Let's get Kamala on the show. All right. Okay. Really,

who I would love to have, and this is a big ask, but Carol Burnett would be my, not political answer, but just comedically, Carol Burnett would be my dream. Is she your hero of role models? Yes.

She's, yes. Why? My dad. I love Carol Burnett. My dad. I watched that show every week live. Did you? When I was a kid. It just, no one is like her. My dad would show me the episodes of the Carol Burnett show and it's timeless. And we would howl and watching her just fully commit to whatever character she was playing. She just, she owned it.

And then watching her be herself and be so vulnerable in the Q&A portion of the show, which I heard originally intimidated her a little bit. And then she kind of got into her rhythm and was like, oh, no, this is my favorite part of the show. She's just an icon. I was obsessed with the movie Annie growing up, and I watched it probably a hundred times. She plays Miss...

And you would think as a child, I saw myself, I would want to be Annie. I wanted to be Miss Hannigan. I was like, she's the funny one. She's the one. She's the star. She's the star. So I wanted to be an alcoholic child abuser, apparently, at three years old. Yeah, that sounds good. Mrs. Hannigan. God, she was so good. She is. She remains brilliant. I'm holding out hope that maybe she'll...

We'll go to her. Yeah. We'll go to her. We'll go to California. Yeah, why not? So Jon Stewart is supposed to stay on Monday hosting the election. Do you feel like you're still auditioning? Is one of you going to be chosen? I have no idea. No idea. I have no idea. I think we're all going into this looking at it like this is what it is. Like this is the version of the show that we all love making. Would you like to be the Uber boss? I love Uber.

love sitting at the desk. I will do it as much as they ask me to do it. It really genuinely surprised me how much I'm enjoying it every second of the day, like in a way that really shocked me. I would not have thought that. Why did it shock you?

I just didn't really think that that would be my path. I thought I was a comedic actress that played characters. Even on the show, I was the character of the correspondent. And I didn't know if I could do it. I didn't know that I would enjoy it. And there's no manual. There's no...

testing it out. You just have to kind of like throw yourself in and see how it feels. But it's really, it's messy. And I'm, you know, I have made a lot of mistakes and I continue to make mistakes, but it's such a fun challenge and it's just, it's a joy. And I have been here for almost 10 years. So I'm getting to do all of this with people that are essentially my family. We'll be back in a minute.

Support for this show comes from Amazon Business. We could all use more time. Amazon Business offers smart business buying solutions so you can spend more time growing your business and less time doing the admin. I can see why they call it smart. Learn more about smart business buying at amazonbusiness.com.

On September 28th, the Global Citizen Festival will gather thousands of people who took action to end extreme poverty. Watch Post Malone, Doja Cat, Lisa, Jelly Roll and Raul Alejandro as they take the stage with world leaders and activists to defeat poverty, defend the planet and demand equity. Download the Global Citizen app to watch live. Learn more at globalcitizen.org.com.

On September 28th, the Global Citizen Festival will gather thousands of people who took action to end extreme poverty. Watch Post Malone, Doja Cat, Lisa, Jelly Roll and Raul Alejandro as they take the stage with world leaders and activists to defeat poverty, defend the planet and demand equity. Download the Global Citizen app to watch live. Learn more at globalcitizen.org.com.

So I want to zoom in and talk about Late Night in general and comedy overall. I'm sure you've heard the Jerry Seinfeld controversy a few months ago when he said comedy was...

being killed by the extreme left and PC crap because he says everyone is too sensitive and people are worried about offending. By the way, I had Julia Louis-Dreyfus on who thought that was bullshit. She was like, that's ridiculous. You can say whatever you want. Maybe you shouldn't say some things. I'd love to get your thoughts on this because it seems like it's mostly a male comedy thing as they feel like they can't be assholes quite as much as they used to. Or I don't know. What are your thoughts on this? I...

overall, like, you know, isn't it a good thing that we have to sit back and think twice about what we're saying? You know, I don't think that good comedy is,

doesn't come well from fear. You know, you don't want to come from a place of fear when you're trying to be funny. It's not going to end well. So I understand from like an emotional standpoint, being afraid of saying the wrong thing can absolutely kill comedy. But being more thoughtful about the types of jokes that

that you're saying and the types of narratives that you might be perpetuating and, you know, being sensitive to

punching up and not punching down or, you know, that's just being a human being, right? Yeah, it's interesting. There is a real gender difference. I just think men finally don't get to, they can say it, but they get consequences for saying things and it's upsetting to them. But you, of course, did compare an elderly president to a bed shitter. So in any case, but you and Ronnie also like to trade each other bars. I think you do a lot of what one might call non-PC topics like

You were mocking Rodney's accent during the Roz—she was—the Roz Chow interview, which was very, very funny. Remember, I said you should be one of the hosts of The Daily Show. Yeah, okay, okay, okay. Stay political. We can't talk about this in the air. You're embarrassing me in front of the co-workers, Mom. I'm sorry.

Keep going. Keep going. I like it. Bring out the blackmail. And then we worked on the accent a little bit. I turned you on to these accent coaches. You never called them. And you wanted a freebie. He wanted it free from me. And so he would record himself saying, I hate myself. I hate myself. Over and over, over text. All different versions of it. Southern accent. Not just that. Not just I hate myself. I also said...

Make America Great Again. No, but so grade my American accent. Okay, let's hear it. Has it improved? I heard a couple missteps earlier on. Okay, fine. But the Boston accent is... The Boston accent is killing. Do you...

That one went way off the rails. That did. The two of them had a whole relationship going, and you were sitting there like, what am I going to do here? At one point, I tried to get it back on track, and then I thought, you know what? No, now I'm just interfering. We've got to let this play out. It was an Asian mom energy. It totally was. It was something happening there that you could—you did look like you gave up at one point. I did. At a certain point, I was just thoroughly entertained by it. Is there stuff that you have thought of doing that you—

won't do or didn't do? Or are you like, I'll do what I want? Is there anything you pulled back on? Oh, I think every day we have those conversations. Can you give me a specific something you're like, I'm not joking about this? Well, I don't think there are hard rules about never joking about a certain topic or never joking about a certain person, but it's the...

style of joke has to be considered. Like, you know, Boeing is in the news all the time. This might not be the best example, but, you know, with Boeing being in the news all the time, if it's top of the day and we're going to make a run of Boeing jokes, we should be making them

punching up at the executives of Boeing who are responsible for these mishaps, not at any, you know, potential tragedy that could happen. You know, if there's a big... If something tragic happens in the world and we think, okay, we're a comedy show, we have to make jokes about this, well, we want to be sensitive to that. We either... Maybe it's not the right time to make jokes about that. Maybe because there was a tragedy, we should stay away from it altogether and have the conversation in a different way. You know, I...

I will say when we came back for the week of the RNC, the assassination attempt happened. You were supposed to have a live event. What happened there? I was going to ask you about it. You canceled because of the assassination attempt. We canceled because after that happened, the security was already going to be, you know, hard to navigate around. We had 1,500 people coming in every night for shows in our theater, and our theater was plundered.

placed within the area of the convention. We were very close to the convention. So it was already going to be challenging. But then once that happened and the security parameters were changing every day, we started to very quickly realize that it was just not going to be feasible either to load our audience in safely every day or for us to go out and do pieces, quick turnaround pieces in

At the convention on the floor. It wasn't because you couldn't make jokes about it, right? No, I mean, I think we...

But that was part of the conversation. I mean, then they got to the bandage. And then they, which got bigger and bigger progressively. The maxi pad on the side of his face by Thursday. Unbelievable. I know, you can't write it. You can't write it. Are you going to be at the DNC? Yes, we are going to be at the DNC. We've gotten there doing live pivot. Yeah. Nice. I know, it's going to be bad. We say penis a lot. I don't think CNN realizes what's.

It's done. Anyway, we're going to be at the CNN Grill. It should be interesting. But you're doing a full on shows from there. Full shows, Monday through Thursday. Thursday night will be a live show with John. Okay, great. Okay. So one of the things I've talked about, I've interviewed a lot of comics and a lot of women comics, including Sam Bee, Chelsea Handler, et cetera. But you're one of the

A few women still hosting late night. A bunch of shows have been canceled. Does it matter to have a woman behind the desk? I know you probably get this question a lot, but it really is rare.

Can you talk a little bit about that? Isn't it disappointing that it's so rare? Yes, it's very disappointing. The fact that we're having this conversation right now. That I can name them, Joan Rivers, you know, Hacks is all about that, right? The season of Hacks is all about that. Why do you think that is from your perspective? Because there's so many astonishing women comics out there. Astonishing. Oh, for sure. And I was a huge fan of Sam's show, of Amber Ruffin's show, Lily's show, and

Oh, Z-Way, of course, Joan Rivers and, you know, Chelsea and Sarah. Huge fan of all of their shows. I think...

I think America just kind of gets used to hearing their late-night comedy fodder from a man, and then it starts to feel right, and men watch men, and women have become accustomed to watching men, and no one really thinks any differently. It's just like, oh, this feels like the right fit. But I know...

for myself, I would love to see more women in the space. I, growing up, maybe had I seen more women behind the desk, maybe I would have thought like, oh, I would really like to do that. Yeah.

Yeah. I think one thing that I can say that feels good about what we're doing right now at The Daily Show is that we all have different perspectives. We all come from different backgrounds. And I'm going to cover the show differently than the way Ronnie would cover the show, than the way Jordan would cover the show. So I think, you know, we all have different perspectives here in this country and...

And it's a gift to get to, you know, share that with each other. Speaking of where Late Night's going, the media landscape is completely different than it was when you became a correspondent. You've said it's evolving. What does that mean? And obviously your company just got sold to someone, a tech person, actually, who I know pretty well. What's your prediction? How are we? How are we going to fare in all of this? I think you'll be sold off.

If I had to guess. I'm not sure. I think it's probably not something they're thinking of right away. I don't mean to be rude, but it's not that much money. And you're popular, so you don't cost that much money to them, so you're kind of a comma. They've got bigger fish to fry or badder fish to fry. Just for people who don't know, Comedy Central is part of Paramount Global, which was...

previously controlled by Sherry Redstone, had a lot of tough times, some of them self-inflicted. David Ellison's Skydance recently bought control of the company from Sherry. And now I'm not sure what's going to happen. Sale would be my guess. Yeah. Some side of sale. How do you look at that media landscape? Because the audience has gotten smaller, but it still has impact at the same time. How do you think about that when you're thinking of your own career? Yeah.

I try not to think about it too much. I waited tables for 10 years. I did bit parts on Two and a Half Men and every comedy show I could. Oh, God, I don't. We don't need to talk about that. I was the girlfriend of one of 7000 girlfriends on that show. Yes, I was the girl of the episode or whatever.

And the Emmy goes, too. Yeah, right? For your consideration. Girl number three with Charlie Sheen. But listen, like, I've been at The Daily Show for nine and a half years. I am just thrilled to have health insurance for this long. I knew what I was signing up for in being an actor. But is there an insecurity on behalf of Comet? Because everything's moving. You know, everyone used to do stand-up in order to get a show done.

and then order to go to late night. That is not the path anymore. How do you look at the path if you were a young Desi? My advice to someone just entering the business right now trying to navigate all of it is because there are no rules, one of the huge benefits is that you can write your own stuff, you can record yourself, you can share it with the world. Now you have production at your fingertips and you can very pretty easily produce

practice, you know, writing and directing and creating your own content. And that's really exciting for any artist, for any performer. When I was coming up, it was like I was...

scouring the back pages of Backstage West to try to get into a student film at Loyola Marymount or whatever to get a little bit of experience. I need to go find that now. Oh, yeah. It exists somewhere. But it's acting classes and all of that, but there was only so much you could really see. There was only a small path. It was a small path.

glideway to get to where you go. Pull yourself up the greasy ladder, as they say. But social media is the path. Your series Fox Splains, I want to talk about this, was nominated for an Emmy again this year. Republicans are weird. Democrats are the ones who want to make AP butt stuff a requirement for elementary school. They're the ones milking almonds, which, last I checked, don't have nipples. They're the ones providing litter boxes to illegal immigrants who identify as Garfield. It does have a made-for-social feel. It certainly does. How do

you think you're adapting to social media? Do you feel like you have to? It's sort of a beast that never stops eating. Are creative benefits from your perspective? Are you like, I just want to do a show? Yeah, I find like posting, getting too engaged and posting content on my own personal account can be really daunting and time-consuming sometimes. I lose patience for that. But I think as far as the show goes, we have an incredible digital team who's been really

really at the forefront for many, many, many years. When Trevor came on, that was one of the first things that Trevor talked about. It was like, we have got to engage in this space or we're going to fall away. And we do have a really solid following on digital because of our great team. And now I have to say, like, Fox Plains is my favorite thing to do at the show. Explain Fox Plains, how you came up with that. I really, it's...

You have them cold. It's kind of easy. I love them so much.

So much. We, well, for a long time, back in the old days at The Daily Show, you would, through your correspondent character, you would kind of embody that perspective. Right. The Fox News perspective. So you were the she-dressed lady, you know. Right, right. So, but then I think as time has gone on, our audience kind of grew to expect a little more authenticity from the correspondence and playing that arch-felt role.

somewhat out of style. So we were looking for a way to not just comment on Fox News, like, you know, the host went at the desk, but actually embody the feeling of it and to play with the mental gymnastics and the talking out of both sides of their mouth. You know who else they called weird? Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, the Unabomber. He went to Harvard. Republicans have so many wonderful patriots in their ranks. Look at this man. Does he look weird to you?

Hey, stop calling Republicans weird. You guys are being so un-woke right now. Stop it. And so that idea came from one of our writers on the digital team. And the first time it was done, our first installment of it was actually with a different correspondent. And it was when we were working at the studio. It was with like a full studio production, full setup, reading the prompter. And it was good. Then the pandemic happened.

And we were working from home, and that correspondent wasn't available, so they called me, and they go, hey, can you shoot this quick Fox Blains thing from your iPhone in your apartment? That's how it looks, yeah. And we did it, and we realized, oh, this is what it needs, because this woman... It's crazy. You're climbing into the phone, and with huge eyes, the eyes are the best...

The voice in the eyes. So unfair. It's just so juvenile. It's doo-doo. It's poo-poo pen. They go poo-poo in diapers. What does weird even mean? What does it mean? No one knows what it means. Why won't they tell us what weird means so we know how to respond? It's just,

hiding in her bunker. She is so hopped up and just fueled on fear and paranoia and ivermectin, and she has got to share the message with the audience. She can't even leave her house. She's like, I've got to get this out right now. I've got to warn you all. It does have a social media feel. So it kind of adds... There's people on social media like that that are not kidding. Yeah. Did you watch a lot of those people, or did you... Was there an inspiration for the crazy eyes? Do you watch a lot of Fox? I do. Fox News, yeah. I...

I watch Fox News just to kind of get the... You've got a little Megyn Kelly going there. When I auditioned for the show the first time, I auditioned when John was the host, and then months went by and it was Trevor. So it was a different time and pre-Trump in a serious way. Yeah. My audition, you have to write your character and kind of show the show what you think you would do. And my character for the audition was very much a Megyn Kelly, Fox News type. And...

I used that piece to ultimately, it's what got me the job. But then very quickly, I think the whole team was like, we're not going to put you in that lane. We need you to, yeah. And I'm grateful. I'm really grateful. Last question. You're not just a Daily Show correspondent. You're also an actress. Tons and tons of people switch between them. What...

new projects you've been coming up you feel like you haven't devoted yourself to being doing acting or do you how do you manage doing that i know you have a kid yeah i i would uh i love doing all of it they scratch different itches it's all a little different i look like this show definitely has been taking up quite a bit of time during especially during an election season so uh

This is this feels very fulfilling right now in many ways, but I I love playing characters and I love doing scripted comedy. And yeah, I hope that there's room for that in the future as well. Are you working on something now? I'm not yet.

Not in any meaningful way. No, not necessarily. But I'm always kind of like brainstorming on ideas. And one of the gifts of working at this show is that we're not only acting, we're invited into the creative process behind the scenes. So we get to be part of the writing process. We get to sit in the edit. You're not just dumb talent. Well, that's debatable, but

but they allow us to be part of the process, which is nice. So for me, it's been kind of my film school. Like, I didn't go to film school, so this has been a great education in that. And I realize I really love the process of it. So I think anything...

going forward. I hope that I get the opportunity to kind of create a little and be part of the process behind the scenes, too. All right, last question. If you did a political character, obviously Maya Rudolph's got Kamala taken. Oh, yeah. Who would you want to play? Great question. Who would I want to play? I mean...

Marjorie Taylor Greene is pretty. Yeah, I see it. Pretty inspiring. I feel like I could probably work on her a little bit. What would be the most important thing getting through for that? The intensity. Yeah. And the Chardonnay. I think we'll leave it at that. Oh, good. Intensity and Chardonnay. The title of my memoir. Please do that. Intensity and Chardonnay. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I'm an enormous fan. Oh, I'm a fan of yours. Thank you so much for having me on.

On with Kara Swisher is produced by Christian Castro-Russell, Kateri Yochum, Jolie Myers, Megan Burney, and Gabriela Biello. Special thanks to Kate Gallagher, Kate Furby, and Kaylin Lynch. Our engineers are Rick Kwan, Fernando Arruda, and Aaliyah Jackson. And our theme music is by Trackademics.

If you're already following the show, you get to host The Daily Show. If not, put down your phone and stop posting about Fox with those crazy eyes. Go wherever you listen to podcasts, search for On with Kara Swisher and hit follow. Thanks for listening to On with Kara Swisher from New York Magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network, and us. We'll be back on Thursday with more.

The first half of 2024 was defined by a slew of A-list album releases. But the second half, that belongs to the newcomers. I'm Rihanna Cruz, senior producer of Switched on Pop. And over the course of our brand new series, The Newcomers, we'll be talking to some artists, popular in their own right, that are popping off right now and who we think you should be listening to.

There's our pop darlings, Latin superstars, and those in between. Tune in to Switched on Pop wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Amazon Prime. Support for this show comes from Amazon Business. We could all use more time. Amazon Business offers smart business buying solutions, so you can spend more time growing your business and less time doing the admin. I can see why they call it smart. Learn more about smart business buying at amazonbusiness.com.