-Our next guest is a very funny comedian
you know from "The Daily Show" and "The Opposition."
He co-hosts the podcast "Kasich & Klepper,"
and his new special, "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Presents Jordan Klepper Fingers The Globe:
Hungary for Democracy," premieres April 21st on Comedy Central.
Let's take a look.
-Were Hungarian rallies anything like MAGA ones?
Do you have any Orban pictures,
specifically with him shirtless, riding a velociraptor?
-Just the flags. That's basically
a Hungarian reference.
-Does that have any profanity on it whatsoever?
-No, it's just a -- -Just a straight flag.
-Just a straightforward flag.
[ Crowd chanting in native language ]
-Lock her up!
[ Silence ]
I thought I heard, "Lock her up."
-Please welcome back to the show
our friend Jordan Klepper, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-How are you?
-Good, Seth! How are you, sir?
-Good. I want to ask about the podcast and the special,
but I also want to ask, you had a baby.
Congratulations. -Yes! Thank you very much.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-And maybe the most stressful time to have one,
right at the beginning of the pandemic.
-Yes, exactly.
And for the man especially, it was really difficult for me.
-Yeah, really. And tonight, you know,
if we could take anything away from today,
it's men's rights and -- [ Laughter ]
-Exactly. Let's talk about the male experience,
having a child during COVID.
I'm so glad I get an opportunity.
No, it was incredibly stressful.
And we were right in the heart of it,
so we didn't know if I'd get to be in the delivery room or not.
And we headed to the hospital, and we arrive upon,
right next to Central Park, on the Upper East Side.
And when you go in there, usually the dad
can hang out in the lobby. -Yeah.
-As they run the tests or what have you,
go into triage, which is a very scary word.
When they said, "She's going into triage,"
I'm like, "Oh, my God! Get the defibrillators!"
Like, "No, it's just a process." Like, "Okay, I get that."
-You're like, "They have been misusing it on TV."
-Yeah, "I have not been paying attention to 'E.R.,'
clearly." But they said,
"Well, we don't have the space anymore,
so she's gonna go through there. You have to wait outside.
There's no more common area."
So they sent me across the street at midnight in New York.
It was raining, and I sat along Central Park.
And if I looked down there, about every 30 feet,
there was a man with a suitcase, just waiting for their partner
inside to go through all the hullabaloo.
So it was a very -- -Aww.
-Thank you. [ Laughter ]
Again, what the men have been through.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-Thank you, sir. -We actually called your wife.
We wanted her to be on the show to tell her story,
and you answered and said,
"Mine's the story you want to hear."
-Yeah, yeah. She's really busy.
I think enough people listened to her side of things.
-Well, congratulations. -Thank you very much.
-I'm glad it all worked out. So, you have been, uh --
You do many things, but you've been going
to a lot of Trump events. -Yeah.
-And one of the things you do that I think has made these
so enjoyable to watch is, you very politely engage
with Trump supporters and try to get to the bottom
of how they came to whatever position it is they hold.
-Yes.
-When you go into it, what do you set out to do?
I mean, do you have a game plan in your head
of how you want to approach it? -For sure.
I mean, based on sort of what is happening and what is
the news at the time, we sort of break down,
"Here are the narratives about stories that are going on."
They're talking about CRT.
We're reading people talking about CRT.
They're talking about school-board meetings,
they're stopping that.
We'll go out with the narratives we hear at home.
We'll prep for perhaps responses for those narratives.
But when you arrive, you get surprised just like that.
You know, like, you can only hear so many conspiracy theories
on television and then show up and hear somebody say, you know,
"The reason I keep 6 feet apart from someone
is because 6 feet is the devil.
So therefore I won't be listening to this devil sort of
spatial issues that the government
wants to impose on me." And you're like,
"That wasn't in my 'New York Times' this morning."
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
-So you kind of have to drop everything.
It's the improv rule of, like, prep and then let it all go
and see what happens. And more often than not,
it's just us pushing people to get to the point
where they have to justify the issues
they maybe haven't thought through.
-Right. There is a core --
I know you to be a very nice, very polite person in real life.
You do bring that with you to these rallies.
Now, obviously, you disagree with the people
you're engaging with, but do you find it easy
to maintain what strikes me as, like, a very affable persona
when you're talking to them?
-As a nice guy, is it easy to be nice to these [bleep]?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. -Yeah, yeah.
These [bleep], man, these [bleep], I gotta tell ya...
[ Laughter ]
Well, it's infuriating, I will say.
Sometimes you want to shake folks.
I try not to. Or babies.
Folks or babies. [ Laughter ]
Again, good dad. I've got dad brain.
I will say, what I empathize with
when I go to any of these rallies is,
it's people want community. And I get that.
People want community, and they need meaning.
And when you go to a rally, what you find is
like-minded people who have a purpose.
And you walk into an arena and you have the former leader
of the free world say, "You're a hero, you're a patriot.
Just do what I do." And so I get that.
I joined an improv group.
That gave me purpose and a community.
-Right. -We all have our own cults.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-So I can empathize with why people are there, I think,
but I get frustrated with the logic
that's behind some of these ideas.
And the manipulation of the people who impose
that logic onto these folks.
-And you've obviously done quite a few of these now.
They're incredibly popular.
You know, millions of people have watched them.
Are you recognizable now to some people within that community?
-I am, yes. I actually --
What's odd, sometimes you get recognized,
and people want to engage. Sometimes you get recognized,
and people want to yell at you and chase you down.
I went to CPAC recently, and I was shocked because
I was prepared for people to recognize me
and not want to engage and perhaps get fairly angry
that I was crashing their party.
But I was shocked at how many selfies I took at CPAC,
which is where conservatives go to get their marching orders
for the next year.
And what I quickly realized is, I'm part of the narrative there.
A little kid came up to me who said he was -- a little kid?
He was, I think, 17.
He said he was Trump's biggest fan.
He showed me pictures of mannequins he had
at home of Trump.
He loved Trump. He watched all my videos.
And I asked him like, "Do you see what I do in these videos?
Why are you a fan?"
He's like, "I watch all Trump stuff -- good, bad.
It's all part of this world."
And even though I might be espousing some points of view
that he doesn't agree with, I'm the heel in this WWE world,
and, like, he needs me. -Yeah.
-And so he might be mildly aggressive towards me,
but beyond that, he's more excited to actually
get this close to the world. -Wow.
Do you think maybe a Jordan mannequin's in his future?
-God, I hope so. -Yeah, yeah.
-Yeah. Do whatever you want with it, kids.
If you got a mannequin of me at home, I'm not gonna judge.
[ Laughter ] Have fun.
-I want to talk about your trip to Hungary.
We'll be right back with more from Jordan Klepper.