I'm not sure if you're familiar
with the internet or TV,
but if you are,
you've probably seen this [beep]
that happened a few days ago on Fox News.
In the first presidential debate,
China was mentioned 12 times.
So we sent Watters down to New York's Chinatown
to sample political opinion.
Okay, first of all, let me get this straight.
They say China in the debate,
so you go to Chinatown?
-[audience laughing] -in New York.
So, when they mention Mexico,
do you send someone to Taco Bell?
[audience laughing]
Chinatown is nothing like China.
They got nothing to do with each other.
That's like if they brought up women's rights,
so I decide to go over to Fox News
to get some opinions.
[audience laughing]
Now, as dumb as that premise is,
it is nothing,
compared to the idiocy that followed.
And by the way,
we haven't added anything to this.
This is the original footage from Fox News.
["Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting" music]
-Am I supposed to bow -Ah.
to say hello?
-Ni hao. -Ni hao.
I like these watches.
Are they hot?
JC Penney 3.98. [laughing]
Who are you gonna vote for?
Clinton wife.
Clinton's wife has a name. What is it?
Oh, man. I'm forget it.
Well, snap out of it.
Do you know karate?
Yeah, I know.
Hit my hand.
[both grunting]
[punches and kicks thudding]
Oh.
That's the spot.
Is it the year of the dragon?
Rabbit?
No, it's actually the year of, "Go [beep] yourself.
-[audience laughing] -[audience cheering]
What the hell was that?
How was that on the news?
In fact, how was that even on TV?
Where the [beep] did this come from?
I mean, everyone's been wondering who'll be the tiger
of 2016s worst racism?
I didn't even know Asians were in the running.
[audience laughing]
Oh, and by the way, if you're gonna be racist,
at least get your stereotypes right
you ignorant sack of [beep].
Karate isn't Chinese, it's Japanese,
and you're doing it in a Taekwondo studio,
which is Korean you [beep] jack off.
Jack on, jack off, jack on, jack off.
[audience cheering]
[beep] this guy.
And seriously, Mr. Miyagi.
Update your reference material.
That's like me making fun
of Americans for Saturday Night Fever and Mr. T.
-Yeah. -[audience laughing]
Real topical stuff buddy.
If you wanna come at Chinese people,
make fun of China's high pollution
or the fact that they censor most of the internet,
which in this case may actually be a good thing
since no person in China will ever have to watch
your garbage attempt at comedy.
Donald Trump beating up on China at the debate.
-[laughing] -[cricket chirping]
Trump has been beating up on China.
How does that make you feel?
Speak! Speak! Why don't you speak?
Hey, asshole.
They don't speak English.
That's why they're silent.
It's easy to make fun of someone
when they can't respond.
Here, I'll show you.
Hey, douchebag.
Why do you look like a guy who carries around
-a pack of rufies just in case? -[audience laughing]
And why do you look like you have hookers on speed dial?
Oh, and fallout question,
is it hard to fit Bill O'Reilly's entire scrotum
in your mouth?
-[audience laughing] -[cricket chirping]
This might come as a surprise,
but Chinese Americans do actually have
genuine thoughts on this year's election.
That's why I went to Chinatown
to speak to people in a language they understood, human.
[suspenseful music]
[speaking foreign language]
Wait.
You understand American politics enough
to lodge a protest vote?
Definitely.
[speaking foreign language]
I'm from Queens.
What are your thoughts
on the Jesse Watters video on Fox News?
The chicken [beep] reporter who came down here
and thought he was big [beep] because he talked to people
who couldn't speak English?
Yeah, that douchebag piece of [beep].
The one who was sent here by the larger chicken [beep]
who couldn't come to Chinatown
because he was afraid to do it himself?
-You mean that one? -Yeah, that guy.
-The one with no testicles, -[audience laughing]
the one who came down here,
who said, "Let me talk to some old people
-and let me," -Totally.
"let me put them on camera without asking them,
-and sort of," -Yeah.
"put them on national television and made fun
of them in the worst possible way."
That asshole?
Yeah, I think we're talking about the same guy.
Right, alright.
What was the question again?
I can't even remember.
We joke a lot in the show,
but this was a piece that, you know,
it was what we call in the Daily Show offices, a quick turn.
This is where the news breaks,
and rather than go through a formal booking
and get like, no.
Ronnie was like, "Yo, where's the camera?
I'm going to Chinatown."
Just for the people who don't know,
who've missed a piece,
give me the backstory on what lit this fire so fast.
From the time,
from the time this piece aired on Fox News,
I think our response aired maybe 36 hours later,
-if that. -Yeah, it was, yeah, yeah.
So,
once things hit the zeitgeist in America News,
then it starts to enter the building a bit.
And this, this, the underlying story,
which was the Fox News story,
was actually causing so much grief in America
that it hit the pop culture zeigeist.
And then that entered the building,
which it, I mean to be fair,
it already entered the building the day before,
but it started building overnight
to the point where the Daily Show had to address it.
We decided to go to Chinatown
to get the response of people from that neighborhood
who were interviewed,
the same neighborhood that was interviewed
in the Fox News segment.
And,
we went down and I was worried that,
because in Singapore and Malaysia,
people get really apathetic about politics
and they're very hesitant to be on screen
talking about politics.
So, I didn't know if that would be the same thing
we would face in New York City Chinatown.
But what we found,
the entire Daily Show team found,
was that it was the exact opposite.
-Because as soon as we got -[laughing]
to New York City Chinatown, people,
literally, as soon as we got out of the car
and I was dressed in the suit,
and they, they,
-as soon as they saw me, -[laughing]
they were like, "Hey, are you here to talk
about that thing that happened yesterday?"
And I was like, "Yeah."
And they're like, "Come over here."
[laughing] And then they,
they brought us to the place in Chinatown.
People lined up around the block,
-to talk to us. -To talk to you.
They lined up.
-So, it was like, -That doesn't happen,
-normally. -I didn't need to-
Yeah,
people don't normally line up to talk to us.
[both laughing]
So, I literally, I was just standing there
as people came one after the other
to come and and,
bitch about what happened yesterday.
What are your thoughts
on the Jesse Waters video on Fox News?
The chicken [beep] reporter who came down here
and thought he was big [beep] because he talked to people
who couldn't speak English?
Yeah, that douchebag piece of [beep].
The one with no testicles,
the one who came down here,
who said, "Let me talk to some old people
-and let me," -Totally.
"let me put them on camera without asking them,
-and sort of" -Yeah.
"put them on national television
and made fun of them in the worst possible way."
That asshole?
Yeah, I think we're talking about the same guy.
Right, alright.
What was the question again?
I can't even remember.
The whole idea behind the piece was that,
and this came from Trevor,
was the idea that,
just because people aren't speaking your language,
whatever your language is,
doesn't mean they don't have sophisticated thoughts
on politics and the way the country should be run.
-So, -Correct.
that was the idea we were doing in Chinatown,
which was trying to get their opinions.
And in many cases we may,
we kind of asked them to speak Chinese
or Cantonese just to make the point,
that you can have sophisticated thoughts
Hm.
in languages other than English.
[speaking foreign language]
I'm from Queens.
Yeah, the response was, you know,
it required almost no effort on our part.
The streets, the streets did the talking on that one.
You're more zen dude than me.
[laughing]
But the thing that I found most interesting
about this piece for you,
was the lack of anger from you as a correspondent.
That's the thing I'm always suppressing,
like dude, when I'm, you know,
like when we did the Republican National Convention 2016
and we did the piece, "When was America great?"
And I'm having to look at people
look me in my black ass eyes and tell me,
America was great during slavery,
and I'm trying not to rip. [grunting]
So, when you went down to Chinatown
on a piece as an Asian,
was this personal?
Was this a more personal piece for you?
-Cuz, it's like- -Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean it felt like a direct personal attack,
but at the same time, you know, at the Daily Show,
you know the drill, man,
it's like what, like in the emergency room.
It's like we see so much crap every day
that you,
in order to operate professionally,
you become kind of desensitized
and you're just here
-to treat the patients. -That's a great analogy.
And so we just keep seeing car crashes every single day.
Eventually you're like, "Oh yeah."
[laughing]
Like, you have an objective view of it.
And also I was pretty pissed going back to the studio
and I remember we brought the footage back
and this is again,
speaks to the team at the Daily Show,
is that we went out to shoot,
went back, edited wherever we shot,
wrote the desk piece and on the same night, right?
And we recorded the same night.
Like you, and you know,
field pieces are usually separate to desk pieces,
but this was like the perfect merging
-of chat with Trevor -Yeah
and a desk piece
and a field element and man on the street,
all in one day.
I mean, that's the, you know, for me,
and that was, this is early on in my Daily Show,
I was maybe one year in.
And I was like, "Man, this is the Daily Show at it's best."
-You know, everything, -[fingers snapping]
everyone's operating and firing on all cylinders
in a very short timeframe.
And sorry, to answer your question
about not being pissed off.
I mean, part of it is the job
and part of it is, I always feel like,
because I'm a first generation immigrant to America,
so I'm in America because I, by choice,
-like I want to be there. -[laughing]
And,
so when I see shit go down, I see like,
I also see, what,
in this particular instance, yeah,
you can say, you know, blatant racism,
but the silver lining to this whole story
was that everyone got angry by this Fox News piece.
-Not just Asian people, -[laughing]
not just Chinatown New York City people.
The entire country was like, "Yo, this sucks."
And that's why he entered the zeitgeist, right?
Because if,
if most people thought it was okay
it would never have, you know,
blown up to the point where, you know,
at that time people were pretty upset,
you know, everyone, white people were upset.
Every race was pretty upset about this.
So, if you ask me why I'm not more upset,
it's because, oh, it was a cause
that everyone already, you know,
most people were upset by the issue already
and we were just giving them a platform
to express it, you know.
[upbeat band music]