Roy Wood Jr. and Jordan Klepper don’t eat, drink, and sleep politics. Wood Jr. has done a ton of acting work (co-starring in Confess, Fletch), co-produced an award winning documentary, and developed scripted comedies that have nothing to do with Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Klepper is also developing projects that aren’t exactly in line with his Daily Show work, including one that “expands on documentary work that brings comedy to serious issues.”
With that all said, they do love this shit. That can’t be denied, even if Wood is having fun paying a little less attention to national news since leaving The Daily Show. What’s next for him? He’s weighing options still, whether that means self-producing something or going in with a big network or streamer. But more immediately, he’s going on tour with Klepper for the America, For The Last Time tour (click for info/tickets), hitting towns like Charlottesville, VA and Ann Arbor, MI to talk about the state of the world, reminisce about less divisive times, and discuss this incoming transformational election with attendees.
Below, we get into all of that with the comics and friends, discuss whether some voters are lost for good, and try to agree on whether there is too much politics in late night comedy.
Roy, Jordan and I were just talking about philosophy books while waiting for you to join us, and how I’m utterly lost with some of this stuff.
Klepper: You and me, both. I’ve just been looking for one easy interview where we could talk about Slovenian philosophy, but no. Okay, let’s talk comedy.
Roy Wood Jr.: To be fair, because Klepper’s still on the campaign trail, in the 2024 mix, I think we have different philosophies and different priorities right now. Different stuff. I watch the local news now, with pleasure.
Does that mean instead of the national news?
Wood Jr.: Yes. Fuck yes. To some degree, I have not completely unplugged from the news cycle. I’m just trying to balance it a little more. I don’t think it’s a luxury you have when you’re still at The Daily Show. I need to know what’s going on. But to the deeper philosophy so that I can then satirize them? No, I don’t have to do that right now.
Jordan, doesn’t that sound nice?
Klepper: (Laughs) Oh, my God. Dear, Lord, tell me what it’s like to hear about a puppy being rescued in Michigan. Sounds like the vacation I need right now, Roy.
It could be yours too. You’re the one who’s making you go to these rallies and exposing yourself to these people. Now it’s gone from philosophy chat to a therapy session. Jordan, what is it about you that makes you want to hurt you with these assignments?
Klepper: (Laughs) I have a morbid curiosity and the depth our brains will go, and so whether that’s Slovenian philosophy on one side or the QAnon philosophy on the other, I want to walk around the edges of the human mind.
So the tour that you guys are doing. I’ve read the poster. Can you give me a Cliff’s-notes version of the good parts of America that we’re celebrating here before the last light flickers out?
Wood Jr.: I think it’s the last bit of real unity before the AI and disinformation really starts reigning supreme. I mean, we call it America For The Last Time just because it’s tongue-in-cheek, but it really is about where we’ve been as a country up until this point. I don’t think we’re still going to be there after this. Now whether that’s for better or worse remains to be seen, but so far everything’s lined up to be for the worst. So I think it’s an opportunity to talk about some real issues, but also just jokingly laugh about things that we communally also all agreed were fun. I mean you had Popeye’s chicken sandwiches and people fighting over that, and now it’s Stanley cups. So are we the same? Are we better off than what we were before Trump? I don’t know.
Klepper: (Laughs) Well, I don’t know if we’re better off before Trump. I feel we’re in a crazier place, and I think Roy is totally right in that we are going to find ourselves in a very different time and space a year from now. And I don’t exactly know how it’s going to play out, but I do know people are stressed. People are getting pulled apart, as they have been for the last eight years, and it’s only getting worse.
And so this was an opportunity for us to, one, hang out and play with each other, which we love hanging out and having fun. So that’s what we want to do, but we wanted to bring it to an audience who, I know Roy experiences as well as I. When I go out on the road and I talk to audience members, they’re stressed too. They want to talk about the shit that’s on their mind, the things that they’re seeing in the news, from small to big. And to go to some of these towns and to get into big places and actually communally laugh over it, is cathartic. You feel like you’re on the same page, or at least you find a little moment of respite from the chaos. And so, I think this is an opportunity for us to find some fun before the dark times ahead.
These are going to have a town hall element to them. Obviously, town halls can descend into madness. Are you guys going to have Tasers? You going to be behind glass? What’s the security? Jordan, you know I always like to ask you what the security is like to make sure you’re safe.
Klepper: I think from a security standpoint, my New Year’s resolution, I’m trying to cut these carbs. So you’re going to see a sleeker or more efficient Jordan Klepper.
So more flight than fight?
Klepper: Exactly. Well, at least my flight is going to be swifter than it ever has been in the past. So that I can guarantee.
Seriously though, is that (the town hall aspect) the element that you are most looking forward to?
Klepper: I think in conceiving this show, it started with the fact that Roy and I have a lot of fun on stage together. And so we start there, and also something we don’t get to do enough is to interact with audience members during the shows that we do separately. And I think this was an example of let’s use this format. We’re going to have some fun, we’re going to tell some jokes, we’re going to riff off of each other. We’re going to tell some stories from our years on The Daily Show and out on the road, some close calls that we’ve had. But also a big chunk of this is going to be talking to the audience, what’s on their mind.
And I will tell you when I have those conversations on the road, when I have those conversations after shows, it’s a wide swath of things on people’s minds. Sometimes people want to know what it’s like doing comedy on TV. Sometimes people want to know what the political attitudes are like on the East Coast or the West Coast. The conversations vary vastly from, perhaps the more comedic to the more dire and serious. And I think this is an opportunity for us to field those, both in earnestness for people who really want to hear from what we’ve seen and our perspectives on it, but also with the dash of comedy that they’ve grown to expect from the other shows we’ve done and the way we approach these topics.
Wood Jr.: Yeah, I don’t think it’s about necessarily solving any of these issues, but just knowing that you’re not alone in thinking and feeling the way you feel. And I think if we’re able to do that as a group, I think there are parts of the show that will be a communal group hug and parts that will be a communal punch in the balls, but we’re still friends at the end. It’s like when your brother gives you a noogie, you don’t always love it. But I just think there are opportunities to have conversations, like real connected conversations on a myriad of issues, serious and silly.
There was a poll with something like 31% of Republicans saying they think the FBI was behind January 6th, and I think it’s 62% think that the election was fraudulent in 2020. Are those people reachable still, or are they just gone and you just have to hope that when you bring down their king that they’ll kind of scatter?
Klepper: I look at those polls and it bums me out. It shows the rot of the Republican party. All of the leaders in that party have given up any credibility they have, simply staking their claim with what has the best chance of winning. And I think because of that, you have a party with a bunch of cowards without spines and you have a bunch of people following because the people in power are lying to them, which is a real freaking bummer. And I think you are right, until the king moves on or craps his pants in public, I think you have a lot of people marching to the beat of pretty shitty, deceitful leaders. And comedians are going to try their best to get through, but I wish some leaders would try a little harder too.
Wood Jr.: I think that to a degree, comedy is really not that different from politics in the sense that it’s just a fight for the middle. The people in the center, who could be swayed one way or the other, the undecided voter, the person who voted for Trump because he passed laws that benefited their self-interest, versus someone who delusionally believes a person, or a platform that’s running on archaic ideology. No, I don’t think you’re going to have a golden joke. There’s no golden joke that will sway anyone’s opinion. But if done properly, you can educate people a little bit more, and then if they still want to make a decision to believe that, yeah, the election was stolen, you’re not going to change those people’s minds. They’re diehards. I will say though, I’m 50-50 on the FBI being a part of stirring up January 6th. As a Black person, it is hard for me to just say that the FBI is a bunch of great dudes with a good agenda. You almost swayed me on that one. I’ll say this, if someone says the election was stolen, I don’t want to hear it. But if you’re telling me the FBI did January 6th, I will simply say, “Tell me more.”
Klepper: (Laughs) Fifty-fifty, right? You’re going to get a coin flip odds.
You can’t even go like 60-40? 50-50?
Wood: No, 50-50 on the FBI. If you’ll put crack into entire neighborhoods and set up civil rights leaders, I am willing to see… I just need to see documentation.
I think, can we agree though, that if Trump crapped himself in public, that it would become a trend. You’d have at least 60% of the people in the House shitting themselves all the time.
Klepper: (Laughs) Yeah, it would be a new trend. Mitch McConnell will be so relieved. He’ll be like, I’ve been doing this for years. Thank God it can be cool again.
Exactly.
Wood Jr.: He would love that.
With regard to late night, so many of the shows have a political bend to them or they’re informed by the headlines to some degree. Is it surprising to you that there aren’t more options out there that are more in the silly space? Conan used to not really involve itself in politics too much. Craig Ferguson really didn’t get too deep into politics.
Klepper: When I look at late night, what I see is, yes, there’s a reason that there is a lot of politics on late night right now. It’s because of the weird fucking times we’re in right now. And like I always say, the comedian’s job is to read the room, and the room is scared and they’re talking about the end of democracy. So I do think there’s space for late night shows to talk about what’s happening right now because that’s what a late night show does. It talks about what’s happening right now, and frankly, I think there’s more space for these shows to go deeper into what is happening right now.
As far as silly shows in late night, I don’t know, I love Conan. I grew up on Conan, but I see the ethos of what is so funny and silly about Conan O’Brien in Tim Robinson’s sketch show, and there’s other formats now to get some of that silly and play, and I would love to see that in late night. There’s really smart, funny, silly bits in Amber Ruffin’s shows. She had some really great stuff there too. But I don’t necessarily think the future of late night looks like something that has a silliness that can live effectively on a bunch of other mediums. I think late night should own what it does, which is respond to the news of the day and what is happening right now with insights and swiftness and a budget in a way that other places can’t. And so I guess when I look over the next couple of years, that’s what I imagine.
I hear you, but sometimes I just want to clock out and watch a masturbating bear.
Klepper: Totally. I totally get that. But I think you don’t need to see Hollywood guests be interviewed after the masturbating bear. I think now you’re going to just go to YouTube and find whatever the new version of that silliness is. It’s not going to be attached to this 1950s or earlier format that had to sell you the latest movie that’s coming out and give you standup jokes. I think that format actually is being phased out and the thing that it still serves best seems to be topicality over silliness.
I think the key is to have the celebrities interviewed by the masturbating bear whilst eating hot wings.
Klepper: Now you’ve got it.
Wood Jr.: I just think that we’re more politically divided, so you’ll be hard-pressed to create a television show that addresses politics in a way where, and I’ve quoted him a million times on this, but as Mike Birbiglia said, “Comedy only works if everybody agrees on the premise.” So with politics, people don’t agree on the premise sometimes, whereas even at the height of Bush fumbling the Iraq invasion, we all agreed he was the elected president. Even at the height of hating Obama, everybody agreed he was at least the elected president. So if you can’t even get past that, then how do you get into any satire, the administration and the laws that they’re making?
So I just think that networks are trying to figure out a way to have something that, like Jordan said, that’s cost-effective and reaches a good number of people that want to hear that style of humor. And I think we have become more politically divided just in general. So that genre of late night has to become a little bit more either divided or unifying. And I feel like The Daily Show remains to be a unifier. It’s not like Gutfeld! in that sense. But then you look at what Gutfeld! does on Fox — it has the best ratings. But maybe that’s the way. I don’t know. I think networks are always looking at what the audience wants. And they’re always trying to be both sides and both sides are getting further and further apart and what they want and the premises that they choose to agree on.
I just wonder if it’s a chicken or egg thing, whether it’s we want political comedy, we want all this commentary on politics or it’s just everybody thinks that’s what we want, and so we just keep getting it. I don’t really know. What’s the driving hand there?
Klepper: Well, I also think there’s a market for it as well, right?
Yeah, but that’s the thing. So many shows popped up after Jon Stewart went off the air that were political in nature, and a lot of them kind of went away.
Klepper: The old man in me points the finger at what had happened the last five years is the explosion of social media. And if you look at the incentives across the board it’s what gets eyes, what gets attention, what gets clicks? And the answer to that is outrage. It’s hyperbolic takes and thoughts. And frankly, what I will say is what news is news is something that you can amp up to outrage. You throw that thing in a furnace and it gets hot and outrageous real quick. I don’t know if a lot of other topics burn as hot.
And so I do think part of that is because we live in a little bit of an inferno when it comes to our political discourse right now. Another part of it is, yeah, that’s the thing that burns really hot, so entertainment looks at it. It’s like, “Oh, well, if I need my late night show to travel online, the only thing that’s going to travel online is primarily going to be something that either is culturally really fun in a way that breaks through,” maybe you’ll get a carpool karaoke, but more often than not, you’re going to get the hot take, and that burns hottest on the platform that we’ve created.
The thing I quote too often is Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves To Death because this is the problem in the entertainment structure we’ve created: it’s all the incentives are killing us, and it pushes us to be outraged and to have only clicks. And because of that, it affects the discourse that we have and the way in which we can interact with one another. And so you look at a form like late night television, and any linear television is going through Herculean changes, and you look at it right now, and it still has these old artifacts about celebrity interviews and classic monologues, but all being digested through clicks online and likes and retweets, and the only method for those likes and retweets is often outrage or insight. And so it keeps heading towards those two things. I’d love there to be a place where the world of silliness and playfulness is incentivized in the way that perhaps it used to be, but I just don’t think it is anymore.
Again, I think the solution is clear: the masturbating bear interviewing celebrities while eating hot wings. I think we’ve learned that.
Klepper: I don’t hate.
Find out more about ‘Roy Wood Jr. and Jordan Klepper: America, For The Last Time’ here.
