Aasif Mandvi’s Favorite TDS Moments | Behind the Show
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You're listening to Comedy Central. Hey everybody, this is Marc Paone, long time seasoned veteran editor at The Daily Show since way back before Jon Stewart. And we are here today with Asif Manbi, former correspondent and current star of Evil streaming on our own Paramount+. How does it feel to be back in the building?

It's such a weird feeling, you know, because it's like going back to your old college campus or something, you know, and everything's like...

It's the same, but like new and better, you know? Yeah, they added... They added stuff. They added walls. Yeah. Did you notice the edit rooms? There were walls and rooms. Those three edit rooms became four. Right. They got another edit room. And it's just like everything just feels like shinier and cleaner. Yeah, but it's not really. Not really. Still got a nice problem. But it's great. It's great to be here. And it's very...

It's like, yeah, there's an energy that I just love. You know, like, I just feel like, oh, right back into, like, being in this building. You were last year, like...

You were here as a guest with Trevor, right? Yeah. 2017 or something. My last officially, it was like 2015. I think right when John left. I sort of... I didn't officially leave. I never got my goodbye show, which they still owe me, really. Oh, because you...

You hung around for like a month or two into Trevor's... Yeah, I should have just been like, I'm leaving. And Trevor was like, I don't know this guy. Yeah, yeah, I know. So like, I was like...

Yeah, I'll come back, you know, I'll just come back if I'm available. And so, like, I never really officially left. Oh, right. Like, it wasn't like, I'm done now, I'm done, that's it. You were busy and they were planning on bringing you back. Yeah, they were having me come back, whatever, you know, and then Trevor was like, I don't know this guy, and I'm like, why don't you just watch The Daily Show? LAUGHTER

No, I did come back and do one correspondent piece with Trevor. And then I came back as a guest with Trevor one time. But yeah, it was around 2015. So you started in 2006? 2006, yeah. Right. Now, you have the distinction of you auditioned. Yeah. And then you were hired on the spot and were in that evening's show. Yeah, yeah.

I think I may be the only correspondent who had that experience, which was that I got the call at like 12.30 that afternoon saying, the Daily Show is looking... It's an audition for the Daily Show. And I was at that moment...

writing a letter to my ex-girlfriend who I found out had just gotten engaged. So I was really depressed. And I was writing this letter. And my manager calls and says, you have this audition for The Daily Show. And I said, listen, it's not a good day. Like, I don't feel like being funny right now. So can I go in tomorrow? And she said, no, no. If you don't go in today, that's it. They're going to hire someone.

So I was like, all right. So I basically just like put on, they were like, go down, just go down to 52nd Street. It's like two in the afternoon, something like that. Yeah, and then I showed up here. Like I basically just put on a suit and tie and I lived up just on the Upper West Side. So I just like walked down.

And I got here and I remember they were like, here's the script or whatever. Yeah, you did a chat with John. Yeah, I'm looking at it and I go in and John is there and

and then I did the piece and whatever it was that they had written I think it was a piece that they had written for that evening show and they needed a correspondent a Middle East correspondent and they didn't have one right so they were like we'll just hire a guy so I come I meet John John's very nice and you know I remember John saying to me like have you ever performed in front of a live audience before and I was such a dick I was like I was like yeah I've been on Broadway dude and he was like oh okay alright fair enough uh

Asif, uh, uh, thank you for joining us. Do the people of the Middle East share this administration's clearly more optimistic view of the conflict? Oh, absolutely, John. It's not often that an entire region is given this kind of chance. Every day, the cafes and outdoor markets of the Middle East explode in anticipation. We're like children on Christmas morning, from what I'm told. -It's very exciting. -Really?

The violence and the instability doesn't color that view? No, no, not at all. As one gentleman told me while standing in the smoldering remains of what was once his village, you can't get hummus without mashing some chickpeas. And so I do the piece, and then literally John turns to me and he says, welcome to The Daily Show. You're hired. But I was on that night,

And then literally like everyone, you know, it was like, that was when everybody watched the daily show at 11 o'clock when it was actually on. Right. And so people were like, my phone was blowing up that night. Cause there was like no announcement. Yeah, no, nothing. And they were just like, were you just a guy who looks like you was just on the daily. Like I literally got like 20 phone calls. Like a guy who looks exactly like you. And then, um,

And the funny thing is I went to a bar to watch it and the fucking guys at the bar wouldn't turn off the game and put on The Daily Show. So like, and so they put one TV on and I'm like, I'm on it. And they were like, whatever, dude. And they were like, you can watch it, but on mute. So the first time I ever watched myself on The Daily Show, it was in a bar on mute. Like not, and I was like with all these friends of mine and they're all like, what are you doing? What are you saying? And I'm like, okay, so this is when I say, you know, anyway. But then, then John just,

I wasn't officially hired, so John would just call me back. He'd just be like, "Hey, you want to work next week?" You didn't have a contract, nothing. They just threw you in there. No, they just threw me in there. And then they were just like, "Do you want to come back next week?" And I'm like, "Sure." And then Flans would call and she'd be like, "Hey, you want to do another one?" And I'm like, "Sure." And then they just kept bringing me back and they'd be like, "We got another piece, come back in." And I think honestly, it was just that John liked me and he just wanted me on the show and he just kept calling me back.

And then it was about four or five months of that. And then they offered me a contract. And then I got the office next to Bacchanal. I love that guy. I love Dan. Yeah, yeah. He was the best. And you had like most of the correspondence, almost all of them really have...

come from, like, improv, stand-up backgrounds. And you were, like, legit actor. Yeah, yeah. You know, and we were like, this guy's, like, you know, this guy's a real actor. This guy's, like, been in theater and stuff. Yeah, like, I was, like... I was, like... You know, it was weird, because I...

I had an old manager once who was always like, you know, like way before, he was always like, "You should be on The Daily Show." And I was like, "The Daily Show?" I was like, "I'm an actor. I'm not a stand-up." And so it was very surprising to me that they wanted me. - Had you done even improv at all? Performing? - I had done improv and I had done comedy, like in theater, and I'd never done stand-up. And so I was, for the longest time,

I had like this incredible imposter syndrome where I was just like, why am I here? Like, I don't really belong on this show. And I was sort of like, and it was weird because it was for a number of years that I felt like, oh, I'm kind of not...

not really supposed to be here. Like, they're going to figure this out at some point, and they're going to be like, yeah, now we're going to... And I remember, like, I did a field piece with Miles. Miles Kahn. Yeah. Wonderful guy. One of our all-time great producers on the show. And so I remember when I did this piece, and it was sort of a man on the street, like, kind of thing, and I was terrible. Like, I didn't know what...

I was doing. Like, I was just like... And, you know, Miles, who was neurotic enough already, came back and he was just like, we got nothing. We got nothing. I don't know what we're going to do. And we cobbled it together and, you know... I cannot tell you how many times I've had people come back and go to me, we got nothing. We got nothing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then... And it's like really... And I'm like, you shot for four hours and you got three minutes of really funny stuff you don't realize it. Yeah, yeah. Because...

You got three and a half hours of crap, but you got those three really gold minutes. Right, right. And it's like it turns into a great piece. Yeah. And then I got other...

you know other times it's like we got this gold we killed it we killed it we got so much great stuff it's so good so amazing and i go there's nothing here it's six hours of crap we got nothing and you know and then the piece doesn't even air because we got nothing you know it's just like people walk in door and you i would never trust what you guys would say because like you're you yeah yeah you don't it's true you're out there and you're grinding through and you don't really you

Yeah, no, it's true. That was one thing I learned. You don't realize how much you're shooting and how good you just, and then when you start to put it together, like, oh man, this is good. Yeah, that was the learning curve. That was the learning curve for me to realize that like, oh, it doesn't all,

need to land. It's just that enough of it needs to land to make that three or four minute piece. And for a long time, they didn't send me out in the field. I was like the in-studio guy and I didn't do field pieces. I cut your first piece. You cut that first piece I did with Clemens. Right, the University of Illinois. The University of Illinois, which was actually...

a good piece. Solid, solid first piece. Yeah, it was a good piece. And then I did the piece... And you were good in it. Yeah. So like a lot of correspondents, it takes them... The old rule around the office was like, give them three or four. Give them three or four pieces before they're like... Even... I remember like Steve Carell's first piece was not good. But like everybody took... But you were right out of the gate. You were pretty solid. And that was a good...

a good subject and a solid, like a really good subject matter, really good people to interview. Like the guy was like a white guy in full Native American war paint. What we had there was a very clear premise. We had a very clear, good guy, bad guy, simple story. The premise was very clear. For the listeners, it was the University of Illinois

Chief Illini was their mascot. He used to run around. And so they decided that it was obviously offensive to me. I was like, man, they're going to get rid of it. And so there was a whole group of people that did not want to get rid of it. Didn't want to get rid of the, yeah. And so we had a kid who like sat down with us in full Native, a white kid. White kid. Sat down with us in full Native American, like paint all of us, war paint all of us. Right, right, right.

As in dances with wolves, it will take one brave brave to stand up for his people. The chief is gone and so all the spirit and all the joy and all the pride and the honor and tradition that's all been taken away from us. They're saying we don't care about your culture. We don't care that you were here first. Yeah, the board of trustees, who I believe is all Caucasian, got rid of the Native American chief. Surprise, surprise. It's the white man.

And bullies like this couldn't care less. I am really glad that the school retired Chief Illiniwek. I feel like it was the right thing to do. Why pale faces like you trying to push Native Americans from their homes? Chief Illiniwek isn't Native American. He's a race-based racist stereotype. Aren't you a race-based stereotype? Seriously, dude, have you looked in a mirror lately? You look like a Wayans brother playing a white guy. That's a new one to me. I, um...

I've never heard that one. And he was like, he was like, I remember he was just like, should I, should I wear the paint? And we were like, yeah, dude, wear the paint. It's great. Wear it. The conceit of the piece was you were completely on his side. Oh yeah. Well, we always play that. And then you talk to the Native American woman and she was so confused. Oh my God. It was great. And then, uh, and then I did that. And then I didn't do pieces for a while. And then I remember I did a piece that,

with Stu Miller, which was the Wham-O or the... I cut that one too. Yeah. The Toy Factory. The Toy Factory one. But I don't remember... Was it...

But Wham-O was bringing... They opened up a factory... A factory in China. And they got... No, they got rid of their factory in China. They got rid of the factory in China. And opened up in, like, Michigan or someplace. Yeah, yeah. It was something like that. But it was a great piece. And it was... Because you got to do a lot of sight gags with all the toys. Yeah, yeah. And we did that. And the guy was great. And then I remember...

they were like, oh, okay, Monvee's ready now. And then I was going out all the time. And they would, you know, and this job is weird because you would sit around a lot

especially if you were like doing in studio stuff and you'd wait for your opportunity to get on, you know, in the, on the show. But if you weren't doing field pieces, then you were just sitting around. But then once I started doing field pieces, I was like on the road all the time. So it was crazy. The only thing I, I, I regret was I was supposed to go do the India piece and it was right when I left.

And then Jones ended up doing the India piece. And it was like, because I always ended up going to like the shittiest small towns in America and doing these fucking pieces. In fact, I remember with Burger, I went to like this place in Canada, the asbestos mine one. Did you cut that one? No. It was about the asbestos mine in this town in Canada, which was literally like,

a town that was on its last legs there was no business like all the stores and we stayed in this fucking shit ass town it was like three degrees and I'm like why is every one of my field pieces involved like going to a shitty small town and other people were like going to Hawaii and like like exotic places Iceland and stuff and I was like I was like going to some shitty ass small town in middle America somewhere what was your favorite piece

I have a couple. I have a couple. So one of them is the Boise, Idaho one where I almost got arrested. That's the two-headed fish costume. Which people remember that piece because of the two-headed fish costume. But the great thing about that piece

is that it was a real, legit, like 60 minutes should have done that story. Oh, yeah. Because it was like that company Simplot. Simplot, right. Again, for the listeners, it was this large company, Simplot, who basically owned everything in Idaho. Their main business was potatoes, I believe. Yeah, and then they were basically dumping all their stuff into the river. Selenium, I think it was. It was like getting into the river. And so you interviewed an environmentalist, and then you...

We went to the EPA. Right. And walked in to complain. But we had this great idea that, like, I would be a two-headed fish from the Idaho River who had come to the EPA to complain about my habitat, my natural habitat. And so...

I walk into the EPA office and the poor man is rolling and cameras rolling. And Brennan is like, go, go. Yeah. And we walk in and the woman at the front desk was so because I pretended like it was just me. So she sees a guy in a two and she's just like, and so she's like, who are you? She buzzes me in as soon as I come in. Who are you? And you said, I'm a two-handed fish. And she lets me in.

And then... And then the guy comes out. And then, no, but before she lets me in, she doesn't know there's a film crew. So Brendan and the crew were a few feet behind. They were kind of like out of sight. And then she lets me in and then they barge in and she's just like, what the fuck? And then the guy comes out from behind, from the back office and he was just like, sir, you have to leave. You have to leave. And I'm like, sir, I'm a fucking two-headed fish and you've ruined my river. And I start berating this guy. And he's like...

He was just like, he was like, and finally I remember him just being like, sir, you are not a fish.

Please. And then we left and they called Homeland Security and we walked out. And they were rolling on that. We got it in the piece. We got it in the piece. You remember, like, the camera guy went off sort of to the side where the cops didn't really see him. And they rolled in. They rolled in and they tried to arrest us. It looked like a movie. Yeah, it was crazy. These SUVs come wheeling into the parking lot. And then there's like all this like... And they got you on the side like the guy's talking to you and you finally took the head off.

The one head that was on your real head. Right, right. And the other head was on the side. And I was like, I am not going to prison tonight in a two-headed fish costume. If you remember, the other part of that piece that people forget about is when you start to go into the conspiracy. Oh, yeah. When you're like digging in. It was this great, very cinematic thing that Brennan did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you start to realize that the sim plot is everywhere and they've got complete control of Idaho. Yeah, of Idaho, yeah.

Why would the EPA call Homeland Security? I needed answers. But everywhere I went, no one would talk. What is this? Does Simplot run this whole state? Literally every single place I went in Idaho, there was Simplot. So I looked them up. And they're one of the largest privately held agribusiness companies in the world.

The governor of Idaho worked at Simplot for 30 years and married J.R. Simplot's daughter? Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson chairs the subcommittee that sets the EPA's budget? What the ? Is this an actual conspiracy? Certainly a conspiracy of silence. This is really dangerous. -Yeah. -What do you mean, "Yeah"?

Well, I've received threatening phone calls from people who suggested that I don't work on this issue or come back to Caribou County, Idaho again.

Okay, are you kidding me? Look, next time a fake reporter comes to ask you to do an interview about Simplot, you should lead with the stuff about the threats. And then you talk to Erin Brockovich. Do you remember? That's right. She came and she did... No, you had her on, like, Zoom. Oh, on Zoom, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I talked to Erin Brockovich. And you're like, what do I do? What do I do? And she's like, you know, get a set of balls, man. You got to go in and you got to go after these fuckers. And then at the end...

You have a nightmare where you wake up with two heads and then you completely go... At the end, you're all on board with Simplot. That was a great piece. You chicken out at the end of it. Yeah, it was a great piece. My other favorite piece is the one with the North Carolina guy who... Don Yelton. Don Yelton, who basically... That was such... I mean, that piece is legendary because...

he got fired for all this. Right, it went viral. Yeah, it went viral. Again, for the listeners, North Carolina had passed a law that basically was

Anti-voting rights. Yeah. It's like really an illegal law. Right, right. Because it was like restricting. And it was basically like to keep poor people. And young people. And African-Americans from voting because they generally vote Democrat. And he said it would kick Democrats in the butt. Yeah. But then he went off on this racist diatribe. Right. So we had all this stuff.

And we didn't put it in the piece, a lot of it, because we just felt like it was too much. So I remember John came in and he watched, you know, John would come in and watch the pieces before and he'd give notes on the edit. So he came in and he watched it and we had Don Yeltsin sort of like doing some of his racist stuff. And then we, as John was walking out, he turned back and he was like, he was like, by the way,

do you have any more of him doing all that, saying all that racist stuff? And I remember Jenna and I both looked at each other and we were like, yeah, we have a lot more of him saying that. And John was like, well, let me just put it all in there. And so we just did like a fade of him just saying all this racist stuff. Yeah, like it's time lapse. He's just going one racist thing after the next. The bottom line is the law is not racist. Of course the law is not racist. And you're not racist. Well...

I've been called a bigot before. Let me tell you something. You don't look like me, but I think I've treated you the same as I would anybody else. Matter of fact, one of my best friends is black. -So one of your best friends... -One of my best friends. -...is black? -Yes. And there's more. When I was a young man,

You didn't call a black a black. You called him a negro. I had a picture one time of Obama sitting on a stump as a witch doctor, and I posted that on Facebook. I was making fun of my white half of Obama, not the black half. And now you have a black person using the term "negro this, negro that," and it's okay for them to do it. You know that we can hear you, right? -Yeah. -Okay. You know that. You know that we can hear you. -Yeah. -Okay. All right.

And then at the end, I had this line where I said, you know we can hear you, right? Which became like the tagline of the whole piece because I just was like, you know we can hear you. And it was such a great, it was a beautifully constructed piece and it was just so diabolical. Like it was just like that guy. And then he resigned. And then he resigned because basically the RNC was like, you can't say that stuff out loud, dude. Right. And then...

the Republicans were like, you're done. And then he doubled down. He was like, whoa, what's wrong with it? Like, he's like, he wouldn't retract anything that he said. Yeah, he was like, what did I say that was wrong? Yeah, and so they fired him and he lost his seat. And yeah, it made like legit news. That was the one time, there was a one time I feel like The Daily Show actually like,

did something that actually made a difference in the world. Like, so much of the time it felt like we were just sort of preaching to the choir and... Yeah, there's been a few pieces like that that kind of made... Yeah. Occasionally, I think we just... We did penetrate. Like, you know, so much of the time it was like we were just, like, talking to ourselves, it felt like. You know, we were like, yeah, we... This all makes sense and it's funny and, you know, but, like, it didn't feel like we were really...

like changing anybody's policy but that was one of the few times I felt like we actually so I was proud of that like I was proud of the fact that we actually made a real difference in the world you know yeah yeah Don Yelton man we'll be right back

And then there's the Rick Scott. Oh, the Rick Scott. That was a great one. That was a great one. So that's another one. So Florida had passed a law that anyone getting money from the state, meaning basically they were going after welfare recipients is what it was. They had to get drug tested. Do a drug test. Do urine tests. So...

So you went to the Rick Scott press conference? No, and we were talking to the Florida legislators and we found out... And you talked to... The other thing that's forgotten about that piece was... I cut the piece. Yeah, yeah. It's the guy you talked to, the welfare guy. It was a very funny interview with him where you were like... You're trying to convince him that he should be being a cop. Yeah, yeah. Suddenly you go, oh, like everybody who works for

the Florida government also should be peeing in a cup because they're getting money from taxpayer money. Because the whole argument was if taxpayers are... Right, and you went into... Before you went to Rick Scott, you sort of wandered the halls of, like, the state legislature. Yeah, like trying to get people to pee in a cup. This law is unconstitutional and it violates the Fourth Amendment. You're poor and on drugs. What do you know about the Constitution? I served in the United States Navy.

You're a veteran? Yes. I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Any citizen, whether a veteran or not, should be happy to take the drug test. As a veteran, I would think that he would be concerned about the freedom of the taxpayers. The taxpayers that are working day and night, sometimes two and three jobs, and he won't even do this very simple thing to help his family. I just don't get that. So who pays your salary? The taxpayers of the state of Florida.

I'm sorry, I think I'm going to need you to pee into this cup. Those are the greatest moments when you just like could actually like sort of speak truth to power in that way. And didn't that one also, didn't that law get reversed too down the road a little bit? It may have, yeah. I can't remember, but I think that was another one that went viral too. I remember like it got a lot of attention because also we were in that room

with all, when we went to the Rick Scott press conference. It was just like weekly or whatever. Yeah, it was like his regular. So every outlet in the state of Florida was in that room. You know, like DeSantis. And the funny thing was when we did that thing, Brennan, I remember it was also another Brennan piece, and he said to me, he's like, just get up and just ask him to pee in the cup. And I was like, all right. And Brennan's standing off to the side. And these guys were all like, like everybody in the room. And if you remember in the piece, we cut to...

we cut to between our footage, we also cut to like the local like Channel 5 news footage. Yeah, so what happened was that, what happened was that the Channel 5 is covering this at all, whatever local stations around Tallahassee and Tampa and Miami and Jacksonville, they're all covering it.

And I asked him to pee in the cup and it's like, and all the cameras turn on us because they're all in the room going. And so obviously the whole place goes silent. We come out of the room afterwards after we have the interaction with Rick where he's like, I'm not doing that. And

Then all the press guys come up to us and they're like, oh my God, that was amazing. We wish we could do that. And then it's on the news that we were there. And my dad in Tampa sees, he watches the news and sees me on the news asking Rick Scott. And then he calls me like right after we come out of the room and he's just like, what did you do? What the fuck did you do? Because he was watching it a lot like on Channel 11 or whatever in Tampa. But they...

But not everyone knew that it was The Daily Show right away. No, not right away, no. Right. It was just like they were like, oh, reporter asked Rick Scott to pee in a cup. And then it went, oh, it's The Daily Show. Right. But also one of the really funny visuals in that is passing the cup. Oh, yeah.

So you're like, could you pass? Because you're all the way in the back of the room. And you're like, could you pass the guy? And all these people just keep passing it down through like eight people. It gets to the front. The guy in the front is like, and he just like, he steps forward, gets out of his seat, he steps forward, and he puts it on the floor in front of Rick Scott's podium, and then he sits back down. It's so great. And I remember I said to him, I said, don't worry, you compete in the cup. We'll all turn around. It's okay. We'll all.

I was like, we could all just turn around so you could have some privacy. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. Oh, my God. It was such a great... That was so great. Those moments, I do miss, like, just those moments when you...

caught somebody in that way or like you got someone to you know those were things that always felt incredibly satisfying you know and your signature move was to look to the camera oh yeah yeah at those moments when you're like something crazy you just look over the camera like yeah yeah can you believe this break the wall you know yeah right yeah yeah yeah it was good now there was something else

you and Miles were involved in. What? Which was, I believe to this day, the most expensive...

What? Slash field piece. Not really a field piece, but the Cosby show. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Remember, like, Miles was all in on this thing. You went to soundstage in Connecticut, right? Yeah, we shot this thing. Shot this thing like a real sitcom. Again, for listeners, it was a parody of the Cosby show, Muslim Family.

living in a white neighborhood. It was called the Q-O-S-B-Y show. The Q-U-O-S-B-Y. Right. Q-O-S-B-Y show. And then we did that. And it was like a massive budget. I don't remember exactly, but I remember at the time it was a huge budget. It was like the piece...

I don't remember how we were using it in the context of the show, but it was like a 12-minute edit that Miles did. And I did not cut it. But I remember the time. He did this like ridiculously long, and he was so in love with it and would not make it shorter. And John comes in and just is like, all right, this needs to be like three minutes, you guys. And then he leaves. He goes, I figured it out.

figure it out. And Miles was like heartbroken. You know Miles, he was just like heartbroken. And then he like, they had to trim it down and down and down. And I'm like, there it is. Like, you know, this three minute like monstrous. Because then we had to do a whole thing with the... And then it turned into...

a web series. So then Miles and I ended up turning it into a web series called Halal and the Family. Because you changed it after... After Cosby kind of got himself in a little bit of hot water. So we had to change it to Halal and the Family. And then we won like a Peabody for that web series, which is still out there. You can still watch it. It's on Funny or Die. Funny or Die. It's on YouTube. You can watch it. But we... So Miles got his dream because he wanted to make...

He wanted to make a full-on sitcom. So we did four episodes of this, and it was all based around Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry. Because you're in a white neighborhood. Yeah. The premise was that it was a Muslim family who was terrified that anybody would find out that they're Muslim. So they're the whitest, most American Muslim family. Like the father comes in and he's like... But just aren't the kids kind of rebelling against that?

The kids are, yeah, but the father... Because they're like, what are you doing? And the dad is like... The dad is like, he's like, let's have our pork juice, everyone. You know, and he's like serving pork juice and like trying to be like, we're not dangerous, you know. But it was great. We actually ended up...

I don't even remember how that got approved or even how we got it into the show. We were just like, okay, let's just do this. Well, the premise was that we did it and then we showed it to a focus group. And the whole idea was we had this focus group of people who were watching it. I mean, like in the original Daily Show. Yeah. It was like that was something that was pitched to...

Oh, and then they were like, you mean how did he even get greenlit on The Daily Show? Yeah. Because I don't know if it was, it must have been a reaction to some news story. Yeah, it was, no, it was a reaction to Katie Couric said that what Muslims need is their own Cosby show. Oh, okay, there you go. So there was a soundbite that was based off. Like a little headline, a little sot from her. Right, so she said, it seems that what Muslims need right now is their own show.

Cosby Show because it solved racism. And we were like, guess what? The Daily Show has one. That's what it was. And so then we were like, we're going to make that and then we're going to show it to people and see what they think. And I just remember we showed it to all this focus group and I remember one of the guys was like,

I don't believe this family. And we were like, why not? He was like, well, because they're just too American. They're like, they're not, you know, well, they need like a, they need like an uncle in the basement who lives with a goat and has a gun or something, you know? Like literally it was like that. Like,

So we got... The response was that if they were too American, then we didn't believe that they were Muslim. You know? So that was the sort of takeaway from the Daily Show version of it. And then we did the Halal and the Family, which is a longer version. Right. And it's an election year. Yeah. Do you remember...

Going to the conventions. Oh, my God. Your convention memories. Yeah. Wouldn't you like, would you like to be back doing it this year? Honestly, I don't know. All this shit that's going on, man. It's so depressing right now, what's happening. It's also different for us. Yeah. Because we're, you know, back when you were doing it, we were still, well, I guess we were. No, we were, you know what? Actually, I take it back. You came in 2006, so we were already like on the map. My first convention was the 2008 DNC.

Denver. In Denver when Obama was the nominee. Right. And I have yet to experience anything as crazy as that. Like it was, we were, if there's any ever a moment where I felt like being a Daily Chicago correspondent was like being a Beatle. Like it was like at the DNC when it was me, Riggle, Oliver, Jones, Sam. Sam.

I think Wyatt was there. Wyatt, yeah. And we couldn't even walk through the DNC. It was crazy. It was like... Because that was our audience. That whole... Everybody in that building were Daily Show fans. So we walked through that. And I remember, like... I remember Lindsay Crystal. And she was one of our... Second director, producer. Director, producer. And...

She was just like, she was trying to hold people back. I remember her just shoving people back. And she had me do this. Oh my God, it was horrible. Because what she had me do was, she said, okay, I want you to go down. We should do the fucking worst things. She said, go down. All these press guys were on their laptops. And she's like, I just want you to run through the whole line of people who are all live on there. And just shut their laptops as you walk by. And so I run through. It was like.

we were fearless. Yeah. It was like, I would run through this thing and I shot everyone's laptop and they're live, some of them are live broadcasting and I just shot them. People were furious and a guy got up and started chasing me and I remember Lindsay being like, she's like, run, run, and I'm just running down the hall and there's a dude, some reporter, he's like, you motherfucker.

fucker and he's chasing me and Lindsay like is hiding and I run into like who's you know I just I just was running into people and it was just like and I'm like literally hiding from this guy who was chasing me at the DNC it was it was crazy and the RNC I don't think we even had the right credentials because no that's if you remember that's where Oliver met his wife

Oh, was that where he met her? She hid him. She was... Oh, yeah. They were running... Him and the crew were running from, like, security because they didn't have the proper credentials. They, like, snuck in or something. Right, right. And she was there with some veterans group. Yeah. And her and her people, like, hid him and the crew in some...

room or something. And they were all in there and they got to know each other while they all waited. That's so crazy. That's a movie right there. Yeah. Well, the RNC was... I mean, the Republicans also treated you guys kind of like stars too. The Republicans also watched the show. That was the crazy thing. Like, when I remember being at the RNC and some Republican person came up... Like, they were... Like, forget who it was now, but they were basically like, can we get our client on the show? And I'm like...

Are you kidding me? Like, they were fans of the show. Right. And I thought they would hate us. Right. But they were actually like, oh, we love it. We love The Daily Show, you know. Any publicity is good publicity. Yeah, it was all good. And so... And they also threw... I hate to say it, but the Republicans threw a better party. They did. No, it was definitely... Well, it was different. They had a way better party. The Democrats don't know how to throw a party the way the Republicans do. Well, the Democrats were...

The Democrats party was all like kegs and booze and stuff. And the Republicans had like ice sculptures. Yeah. And it was like champagne and stuff. And the DNC was all like... Everything was really high end and DNC was like... DNC was just like video games. We're the common man. And the RNC is like, we're the fucking royalty. I just remember it was like video games and like a keg, you know? So now you're doing evil.

I'm doing Evil, yeah. Evil, you just finished. Four seasons, yeah. But you're hoping for more? I mean, I think, look, the reality is that we are currently like the second most popular streaming show, original streaming show,

And the first two seasons were on Netflix and they're doing incredibly well. And so I think the cast and the creators would love for the show to get picked up somewhere else. And the first couple seasons were on regular broadcast CBS, right? The first two seasons...

Well, no, the first season was on regular broadcast and then we moved to Paramount. But I think they, you know, it's a really smart and cool show. And it was actually kind of more of a streamer type show. And I think being on a streamer gave us a lot of leverage and gave us a lot of room to play with things that we might not have been able to. We might have been restricted on network in terms of how much we could play with stuff, you know. Yeah.

Did The Daily Show help? Help? Well, it's like, so you go from like real actor, Daily Show, back to like real actor. So like, is there a, do they help each other? Or is it just like, this is like...

this is basketball, this is football. No, it's all... And they're both sports, but like... Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I always... I've always... Even my work on The Daily Show, I always considered it an acting gig. Right. It was never not an acting gig. You're playing a character. I was playing a character who had my name. Right. You know? Right. But he was a character. Right. And...

You know, he was way smarter than me and had a bunch of writers who would write stuff for him. But, like, he was a character that I... So to me, it was always an acting gig. And, you know, it was a tremendous experience. And I think coming off The Daily Show, people knew who I was in a way that...

that I didn't. I mean, I went from, like, relative, like, obscurity, like a guy who was, like, been on Law & Order and stuff to, like, people actually knowing my name and knowing who I was. So it was a tremendous launching pad for me. Law & Order, man. You're, like, you're no one in New York. If you're an actor in New York and you have to have been in at least one episode of Law & Order or you might as well quit acting. I guess we're, uh... We should wrap this up because it's been a while. Yeah, sure. Well, hopefully you'll be, you know, hopefully you'll, uh...

I'll be back. I'll be back. Don't be a stranger, man. Absolutely. Well, it was great. I'm so glad we got to chat. Yeah. Always a pleasure. Yeah, man. Good. The final season of Evil is streaming now exclusively on Paramount+. Thank you for listening to The Daily Show, Ears Edition. We'll see you next time.

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