Jon Stewart has been on The Daily Show, excluding a nine year sabbatical in the middle, since 1999 and he’s seen a lot.
The comedian was leading an FYC panel in New York on the Comedy Central show and talked up how technological changes have both impacted how they put together the show and the relationship with people that appear on it.
Stewart said that The Daily Show is a “product of how technology has changed”. He noted that when he started they didn’t have DVRs or the Avid editing software. “All of those things utterly changed the way we did the show. We were now able to be proactive and do a show about what we thought was interesting. Now, we’re in an algorithmic world where the incentives of the entire system have changed,” he said.
He asked his co-hosts – Ronny Chieng, Josh Johnson, Michael Kosta, Jordan Klepper and Desi Lydic – whether these technological advances have changed people’s political views.
“100%,” said Klepper. “I’m seeing the effects of that propaganda and how far it goes. I’m seeing grandmas in the middle of Wisconsin, their hobby is cracking conspiracies because it’s being fed to them and it’s fun. What becomes worrisome to me is that everything is a performance of a more certain point of view that maybe they don’t hold. That’s reflected in the way that they post on Facebook. I see like microcosms of the larger flaw in the entertainment algorithm.”
Kosta pointed to a story after Fox News lost its lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems, which cost the right-wing news channel $787.5 million in damages.
“We found the woman in Minneapolis who emailed Fox that night and said ‘Look at the voting machines’ and Fox gets the email and then blurts it on TV,” he said. “We go and sit with her and it’s not exactly like she seemed like she really knew a lot about the voting machines. She was mad and she had her computer open.”
Stewart added, “My problem is with your certainty. I don’t have a problem with a counter narrative but a narrative being disproven is not evidence for your counter narrative. Certainty is the enemy of civilization.”
Stewart returned to host the Comedy Central series on Mondays with the other hosts taking turns each week.
He spent the majority of the hourlong panel introducing and examining his co-hosts.
Chieng joked that he was a “counterpunch to all this liberal nonsense”. “This woke f*cking liberal agenda over here. I do think there is some perspective, globally. If you look outside, I do think other countries have it way worse. I think there’s a lot going for America, still. That’s why I’m here. I think we over index on what’s wrong here, because, one: it sells newspapers or in 2026, it gets the likes so emphasizing what’s wrong with America is often easier,” he added.
Stewart retorted, “You could make a 25-year basic cable run off something like that.”
Lydic was an actor before moving into the comedy space. She said living in LA and doing “excruciating scenes” at acting classic with different partners was a good way to figure out how to connect with people.
“The idea of playing a character always felt comfortable but hosting is a whole different situation because we’re being ourselves, that felt like a different vulnerability that I wasn’t used to,” she said.
Last year, Lydic won the Emmy for Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series for her work on Foxsplains, which parodies the news network. She also has a very right-wing family.
“Somehow and maybe it’s just the unconditional love for their kid, they somehow find it funny. They don’t agree with me always but they always find something to laugh about. My dad said if you guys win one more Emmy, I’ll stop watching Fox News. He actually said that,” she added.
Stewart called Michael Kosta a “man whose looks and athleticism belies a dryness underneath and a warmth”.
Kosta does segments such as the Cost of Business, where he plays a “coked out financial guru”.
“We are trying to get the bastards. I’m not sure we are ever going to get them but the pursuit of the bastard is what this is,” he said.
Kosta talked up the writing staff on the show. “We have amazing writers who put very funny jokes on the page and we’re thankful for them, unless they strike,” he added.
Josh Johnson is the newest host on the show, having been promoted from correspondent last year. He was also a writer on the show before that, which he said informs his work.
“I just don’t get too attached to any one idea. I don’t take it personally when people are like ‘Nah’. When you are writing, you get really attached to your ideas because obviously you believe in the thing that you wrote and you should but sometimes what you wrote serves the greater purpose is just not in alignment. That’s one of the reasons I write so much in general because you get to the good stuff faster… just because I’m hosting doesn’t mean there won’t be a ‘Nah’ in there,” he said.
Jordan Klepper is best known for attending MAGA rallies as part of his Finger on the Pulse videos. “I’ve made more friends at MAGA rallies than you can imagine. I truly have friends that I see. Some of these events are a show. They love the Trump universe, it is their identity for so many people on this inside. They go to be close to this universe. I’m not the good guy in that universe but I’m a part of it, I’m the heel,” he said.
Stewart asked him whether that audience would “buy someone else running that universe?”.
“No, it is personality based through and through. That’s why sometimes the debates I have with people out there, the fact that we’re talking about politics is just for show,” Klepper added.
Stewart wrapped up the panel by thanking his co-hosts, writers, researchers and executive producer Jen Flanz as well as Comedy Central “if that’s still an entity, which I don’t know that it is”.
English (US) ·