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- Hollywood is being rebuilt by artists
not afraid to disrupt the status quo.
Telling fresh stories and bringing to life characters
who until now have been confined to the margins.
This is Emerging Hollywood.
So, you understand the whole conversation
about reparations now.
'Cause it's really just the acknowledgement
that America did something wrong.
- Right, and I think the interesting thing is just framing.
You look at Germany, Germany goes back to Namibians.
They're like eh we gon' pay.
We're going to pay for what we did.
And we're not paying to pay you off.
You know, I've seen the talking point
that people have gone with.
They're being like black people,
you're just going to get paid off.
It's not about paid off.
It's about somebody out there acknowledging,
hey I put you down and kept you down
so that I could build everything I have today.
And as we all understand with compound interest
and with accumulations of wealth, holding somebody else down
and growing what you've taken from them
can lead you to be in a position
where they can never ever catch up to you.
There's never truly equality.
So the conversations around reparations
rarely have to be in and around that.
It's just studying and looking,
hey, is there something we can do in this country
that can truly put black people in a position
where they are equal.
Not just equal on the surface but they are equal.
And we've realized that on many levels in America,
Black Americans have been held back
on so many different levels.
Whether it's getting higher interest rates
for not just loans from banks but also student loans,
you leave school with a higher level of debt
for studying the same thing as a student who is white.
How is that equality?
And I think those are some of the conversations
that Americans need to have but it's been spun again
because people have made it seem like
(in Southern American accent) hey Dan,
you gon' have to give them $50.
(Charlamagne laughs)
Hey Petey, you gon' pay a 100.
And that's not what it's going to be
but I think people have managed
to successfully distill it into this simple talking point
that makes it feel like it's an us versus them conversation
when in fact it's not.
- Nah, it's simple.
America systemically did something
to put black people in a bad position,
now systemically do something
to put them in a good position.
- It's as simple as that.
I always ask people, why wouldn't you want that as well?
I always go, why wouldn't you want that?
Why wouldn't you want to see black communities raised up?
Why wouldn't you want it?
I don't understand why you wouldn't want to see that.
And America has a history of doing that.
That's another thing for me.
America has a history of helping people.
America has a history of going,
hey farmers, we're going to give you subsidies,
we're going to help the corn industry.
Hey, you know what?
All you guys who fought in the war,
you come back, we're going to help people.
They didn't help the black soldiers as much
but what they did was they said
if you were a white person who has fought for this country,
we're going to help you.
We're going to help you buy a house,
we're going to help you go to school.
And for a long time that wasn't frowned upon in America.
It wasn't seen as a handout, it was seen as a boost.
It was a normal thing.
But now it feels like that once that boost is going
towards a certain group of people,
now there's resistance to that idea.
This is not a country of handouts,
this is where you work hard.
It's like yes, we all work hard
but it helps when somebody doesn't block the path
that you're trying to work hard towards.
- So what's their answer when you ask them that though?
When you say, "Hey, why wouldn't you want that?",
do they pull out their Klan hoodie (Trevor laughs)
this is why I don't want it.
- No, I genuinely think it's framing.
I've learned most of American politics
is hampered by political branding.
It's brilliant and it's how most of the conversations
are distilled in this country.
A classic example and a simple one is
Obamacare versus the Affordable Care Act.
They asked Americans do you support Obamacare?
- No.
- The numbers were dismal.
They said do you support the Affordable Care Act?
The numbers were double.
Same thing. - Same thing.
- Different name.
Why? 'cause the one sounds like black medicine that's why.
(Charlamagne laughs)
- What's the role of comedy in politics?
- Well, that's an interesting question.
What is the role of comedy in politics?
- Especially right now.
- I've lived in a country where,
for many years, comedy wasn't legal
if it was speaking about what was going in the country.
There's still African countries
where you can't just tell whatever joke you want.
So I think for me the most important aspect of comedy
personally is knowing that you still have
the freedom of speech to say what you want to say
about what's going on and the world.
In terms of its importance,
I think it changes from person to person.
For me, it's about giving people a reprieve
'cause people get so stressed
about what's happening in the news,
people get stressed out about what's happening in politics
and I think comedy reminds you
of who you're trying to be, who you maybe once we're
and that the world is not always ending
even though it seems like it may be.
- What do you think that the most effective way
to inform people about politics,
like people who may not be informed about politics
any other time?
They get it from the Late Night shows it seems like.
- Well, I don't think it's the most effective way.
I think it has become one of the more effective ways
in America because of how bad your news is.
Do you know what I mean?
- Yeah, it's so much fear mongering,
they want something lighter.
- Yeah, but what is news in America?
It's opinion panels, boxes of people shouting at each other.
It's people sitting on a couch spewing opinions
whereas when you look at news especially around the world
like in South Africa what I grew up with,
people in Britain, et cetera.
The news is a very boring institution but very informative.
So, I grew up watching what was happening
all over the world, every night as a kid.
I didn't enjoy it but I knew and so for me I think
maybe a byproduct of American news
skewing towards entertainment has meant that entertainment
has started to skew towards news
and so that's why people feel like
it's one of the best places to be informed.
I don't think it's the best way to be informed,
I just think right now it's how people
are being best informed.
- But you do try to be informative though?
- Oh yeah, I think great comedy is about informing yourself.
All of the greats have given me that advice
in different ways, at different times.
Everybody from Dick Gregory to Dave Chapelle,
they all go like look at what's happening in the world
and just tell the truth
and then the jokes are going to come from that.
So, as a person I try and make The Daily Show
what I'm talking about to my friends,
to my writers, to my people.
It's not like I leave the building
and all of a sudden I'm thinking of other things.
It's everything that's going on in my world
and I try and condense it into that 30 minute show.
- So what is the most effective way to be informed nowadays?
'Cause it's so much different news coming at you--
- [Trevor] That's a good question.
- Every second of the day.
- I'll be honest with you, I question everything now.
I question everything and I read everything.
Everything, everywhere.
So, I will read five different newspapers,
I will try and get five different versions of the story.
I try and dig into a thing over and over and over again
'cause I've come to realize
that as much as we like to believe
that there's such a thing as objectivity,
everyone has some sort of bias.
- Yeah, I guess that's the problem
with having so many opinion based sources, right?
- Right, yeah that's the thing.
- 'Cause everybody's got some bias.
- When it comes to politics,
you realize there is no definitive truth per se.
I mean there are certain facts, there are scientific facts
but when it comes to everything else.
I mean everyone can argue chicken or the egg
in any argument.
So, you have to figure out, I guess,
what you base your opinions on,
which economists you trust, which think tanks you trust,
et cetera, et cetera,
and that's why I have a big team that works here
with fact checkers, with writers, with everyone
who can come together and say okay, we agree on this
being the most concrete version of the truth
that we're going to go out with.
- Do you get the final say in it?
- Yeah, you have to have the final say.
At some point, I've got to put my neck on the line
and be like yeah, this is what I want to do
'cause again if I leave the building, it's me.
I can't say to you guys tomorrow,
if you go Trevor, why did you say that?
Well actually Charlamagne-- - One of my writers wrote it.
- My writer wrote this.
No, that's why every single joke that comes out,
I either write it with the writers or I approved the joke.
I go that was funny, I'm going to say that.
- What do you say to people who say The Daily Show
can be an echo chamber?
- Everything is an echo chamber.
I think that's a term that people use to try and justify
what a group of people are saying in and amongst themselves.
I think for myself, you will always have an echo chamber
because people who watch your show
are people who like your show.
Do you get what I'm saying?
So you'll always have that.
What I think is key for me is
to break out of that bubble that you live in
and acknowledge what's happening outside of that world.
So what I do is I go, let's acknowledge moments or things
that may make us uncomfortable or engage in ideas
that other people have, that we may not necessarily discuss
amongst ourselves and I think that's key.
So, I don't just live in a world where I'm like you agree,
we agree, yeah we're good, we agree, we agree.
No, no, it's like all right, we know what we think.
That's why I want to have Republicans on the show,
that's why I have people I will not agree with
on any policy on the show
because I want to engage with them on an idea
and I want to expose them to my audience and be like
yo, I want you to trust your ideas of the world
because if what you believe can change
when you meet somebody else
then it wasn't based on anything concrete.
Your belief should be strong enough
that they can stand up to the ideas of somebody else.
- Have any of them ever changed your mind?
When's the last time that's happened?
- I don't know if anyone has changed my mind
but I do know people have given me a different perspective
on how to see something.
So whether it's Chris christie or whether it was Rand Paul.
There's always something I garner from another human being.
I think most human beings are trying to do
what they think it's right from their point of view.
There are obviously people in the world
who I think are just evil.
There are some human beings who are just like
no I'm trynna destroy things
but I think most human beings in the world are going,
no, I'm right and I'm trying to do what's right.
So, I try and garner even a glimpse
of their world from them.
It helps me understand how to formulate a different argument
or see them more as a human being
and try to engage with them and get to the same place.
- Is there any good way to see this current administration?
Has any of them ever said something to you
that says oh I can see why you support the president?
- Is there any good way to see this administration?
I don't know if there's a good way
to see this administration
but one thing I will say about Donald Trump
that I've repeatedly said is one thing
that people take for granted with Donald Trump
is that he is brilliant at acknowledging problems.
- Really?
- He is fantastic at acknowledging problems.
His solutions are trash.
(Charlamagne laughs)
He's fantastic though.
He doesn't hide that there is a problem.
So he would say, for instance, no one liked it
when he went and said, "Hey guys, in Belgium and in France,
"they've got something bubbling up there."
He was like look man, I've noticed that there is conflict
between the immigrant community in these places
and that's going to bubble.
People were like Trump is just talking trash
and then all of a sudden you saw immigrants
that were involved in attacks
and people like oh we didn't know this
and people we're like
yeah this is a big thing in the community,
how did we not know?
And I think it's because a lot of the time,
we choose to ignore things.
His solutions are trash though
because he'll say the same thing in America.
He'll go we have a problem with immigration, build a wall--
- [Charlamagne] Build a wall.
- Come on, man, that's not a solution.
What are you going to do about the Middle East?
We're just going to bomb the shit out of it.
These are not solutions but I think what he's good at doing
is identifying problems
and I think if you understand the problem
that he's identifying
you can figure out another solution
and speak to those same people.
And I think some politicians have latched onto that now.
They've started realizing the reason
Trump connects with people
is because he speaks to people that they see as real
but maybe we can give them another solution.
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