You're listening to Comedy Central now. Hey, what's going on, everybody? Welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show. I'm Trevor Noah and we're back with back after the Labor Day weekend. And I really hope you found a safe way to hang out with your friends and reconnect with people. You know, personally, I had an amazing break. Yeah, I really did. I went on a boat ride that turned into a swimming lesson. Me and my crew went to a private island, all tested negative multiple times, hash tag where a mosque, then a dude was trying to fly into my house with a bunch of balloons.

So I shut it down. Oh, and I gave Nancy Pelosi a blowout. But don't tell anyone she'll get in trouble. And the best part of all is I had great seats at the US Open and Novak Djokovic even gave me the match ball.

I can still feel it, but we're back now. And on tonight's show, we're going to meet the new Rachel Dolezal. We look at how a gender reveal party destroyed California and why Putin and Trump are in a race to release the world's least trustworthy vaccine. So let's do this, people.

Welcome to the daily social distancing show from Trivers Koch in New York City to your couch somewhere in the world. This is the Daily Social Decency Show with Driven On. Here's a. Let's kick things off in California, the only state where Botox is considered an essential service. This year's wildfire season has been one of the worst in history, with dozens of fires burning a record two million acres. And now we're finding out that one of this weekend's biggest blazes started and one of the dumbest ways possible.

Crews continue battling dozens of raging wildfires in California. Officials say one of the fires, the El Dorado and San Bernardino County, started after pyrotechnics were used at a gender reveal party. Flames have scorched nearly 10000 acres since Saturday. Fire officials say the blaze was only seven percent contained as of late last night. No word if any charges will be filed related to this fire.

OK, people, I've said it before and I'll say it again. These gender reveals have gone too far. Ten thousand acres have burned and it's not even the first time this kind of thing has happened. I mean, at this point, gender reveal party is now one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations. It's ISIS, Al. Taylor Swift fans and gender reveal parties not in that order. Calm down, Swifties, because this has to stop, right?

What if you insist on a gender review? You should do something that helps the situation.

The water's pink. It's a girl. And aside from all the damage it can cause, celebrating a baby's genitalia is starting to feel very outdated. Like given everything we are learning about gender, gender reveal, parties should only happen when the child is old enough to know the actual gender and to pitch in some cash for the fire damage. And honestly, I don't even know why we need gender reveal parties. You know what we do need, though? Race reveal parties.

A bombshell confession from an African-American history professor at George Washington University who claims ties to the Bronx. Jessica Krook revealed in a blog post that she is a white Jewish woman who has been pretending to be black for years.

She feigned being black and Latino. Now a white woman is saying that she is canceling herself, revealing decades of deception. Crew has been teaching African culture and history at the school since 2012, often posting as Puerto Rican. The 38 year old, born to white parents and raised in suburban Kansas, is seen here addressing the New York City Council in June.

Thank you much power to all my siblings who are standing up by black and brown siblings.

Crew is apologizing and says her whole life has been based on a lie.

OK, first of all, you can't say your life was based on a lie when you are the one who made up the life. That's not how it works. Your life is only based on a lie when someone else told you to lie low.

Are you your father? No. My life was based on a lie. That's how you use it.

What's so crazy about the story is that unlike Rachel Dolezal, who fought like hell to hang on to a black hottie, Jessica Krog just came out and cancelled herself harder than anybody could cancel her. She's like, I'm scum of the earth. I'm a leech. You need to cancel me. I didn't even know that was a thing. I did not know you could self cancel. I mean, in a way, she's making history, which I can't wait to celebrate during not actually Black History Month.

Now, if I'm completely honest, I kind of feel sorry for this woman. No, I mean it. I do. Because, I mean, she spent most of her life being black and now she has to adapt to being white. That's not easy, you know. I mean, all of a sudden, she has to learn all the lyrics to Sweet Caroline. She's going to have to pretend to enjoy farmer's markets and she has to drive an old car, even though she can't afford a brand new one.

It's just fiscally responsible. Of course, black people have bigger concerns right now than white ladies self-governing themselves, because yet another video of shocking police brutality has come out, this time in upstate New York. Protests in Rochester were peaceful last night. Protesters marched to the steps of city hall where they announced their demands, including the firing and prosecution of the officers involved in the death of Daniel Prude. Plus the resignation of the mayor and the police chief there.

The peaceful demonstration followed days of highly charged clashes between protesters, which began with the release on Wednesday of body camera footage from crude's arrest. The footage from the March twenty third encounter showed him placed in a spit hood on the ground because officers believed he had covid. He went into cardiac arrest and died a week later.

Several restaurants on the East End closed this weekend after dealing with damage from protesters. But the owners say they stand with those who are standing against injustice and should.

Answer yes, sir. OK, guys.

No, no, no, no, I'm sorry, but no, I'm all for the Black Lives Matter movement and fighting against systemic racism and police brutality. But it's not acceptable to storm a restaurant and just flip over tables. First, you introduce yourself. Hi, my name is Shaun and I'll be your protester this evening when you flip over the tables. Manners, people.

Now look, jokes aside. We are living through one of the most stressful times in modern history, right? And in order to have any honest conversation, we have to acknowledge everything that's happening. You have a pandemic with people losing their jobs and people losing their lives. On top of all of that, you have a nation that has been inundated with images of police brutality day in and day out, people who are experiencing it all the time. Here's what I think.

I think sometimes in society, people get more focused on the symptoms than the cause, because right now everyone's talking about what's the right way to protest, what is the right way to protest. I think the real question people should be asking is why does that need to be a protest in the first place? Because if I had a magic wand, I wouldn't be trying to fix protest. Yeah, I'd use it to get the police to stop brutalizing black people.

That's why the protests are happening. How they're happening is another conversation. That's what I'd do if I had the magic wall. I mean, first I'd make Apple stick with one type of plug, then I'd make the police stop brutalizing black people, because sometimes I think I've got the plugged in. It's the small one. Then they went from the big one to the small and they change the thing that I'm like, you know what I mean? And finally, let's have a little bit of like news with jelly bellies, the perfect gift for when you forgot to get a gift until you landed at the airport, because now they could be your ticket to a world of pure imagination.

The founder of Jelly Belly is taking a page out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with his own Willy Wonka s golden ticket. Hot David Kline says he is hiding necklaces with coated golden tags across the country. Most winners will get five thousand dollars each, but the big winner gets the key to their very own candy factory.

I don't know about this story. This dude is just giving away a candy factory. Something seems fishy to me, he's probably going to hand over the keys and be like, the factory's all yours, kid, by the way, jelly bellies are made out of asbestos by me.

And another thing. Why do we still act like Willy Wonka was a fun dude? How many kids died in his factory? If you think about it, Willy Wonka was just basically jigsaw in a top hat. Yeah, he killed people off an increasingly elaborate ways. But because he did it while singing show tunes, everyone was like, man, this guy's whimsical. Where's that kid from? Germany. I don't know. This song is so catchy. All right.

We're going to take a quick break.

But when we come back, we'll tell you why Trump and Russia are both pushing current vaccines a little too hard.

Don't go away. If you think you may be depressed or you're feeling anxious, stressed or overwhelmed, better help offers online licensed professional counselors who are trained to listen and help, better help. Counselors have expertise in a broad range of areas such as anxiety, grief or loss, depression, difficult relationships, trouble sleeping, LGBTQ struggles, trauma, anger, family conflicts, self-esteem and more. Better help can give you access to help that may not be available from a therapist in your area.

Getting started is simple and stress free. Fill out a questionnaire to help assess your specific needs and get matched with a counselor in under 48 hours. Everything you share is confidential and you can request a new counselor at any time at no additional charge. In fact, so many people are using better help that they're currently recruiting additional counselors in all 50 states. The Daily Show is proud to endorse better help as an affordable, easy way for listeners to talk to mental health experts.

Better help is an affordable option. And Daily Show listeners get 10 percent off their first month with the discount code eres get started today at better help dotcom ears. That's better h e p dotcom ears. Talk to a therapist online and get help today. All birds is on a mission to leave the planet in better shape than they found it. Obote's recently started listing the carbon footprint for all of its products before they offset them to zero. What makes up that carbon footprint?

No premium natural materials, the energy consumption of assembly factories, the energy that Obote's owners use when they wash their shoes because all Uhlberg shoes are machine washable and the impact of the shoes breaking down after a customer is done with him. All birds knows we can create a more sustainable future, but only if we hold ourselves accountable. Producers at The Daily Show love wearing Albert's shoes because they're comfortable from working from home, working in an office or working on the go.

Wherever you go, Ortberg shoes can go to. And if you've made a personal goal recently to make more sustainable purchases, Obote's is a great place to start because these shoes are a sustainable purchase that will make an impact every day you wear them. Just like team members at The Daily Show have. You can bring some joy to your quarantining wardrobe with great shoes made by a team that cares about the Earth as much as they care about making great products with Obote's.

Feel confident knowing you're wearing a product that's doing right by your feet and the planet. Learn more about their sustainable practices and find your pair at all. Bird's dotcom today. Welcome back to the daily social distancing show. Believe it or not, it has now been nine months since the coronavirus was first unleashed into the world by George Soros from a reverse engineered dinosaur DNA. It's not that well, that's what I read on Facebook. Anyway, let's catch up on where the pandemic stands now in our ongoing segment, The Pandemic.

Are you sure it wasn't DNA? As of today, the United States has had more than six point three million confirmed cases of covid-19, and while transmission rates have declined from the peak in July, there are still new hotspots popping up all over the country, most recently on newly reopened college campuses across the country.

More universities temporarily switching to virtual learning, with only some students staying on campus as college towns around the country are quickly becoming epicenters for the virus.

In Georgia, Mississippi and Utah, thousands of students and hundreds of teachers have recently been asked to quarantine.

Many universities are taking drastic action to ensure that students, teachers and staff, that they're safe all along the way. And one of the harshest punishments imposed to date, 11 first year students at Boston's Northeastern University were dismissed and declined a refund for their thirty six thousand plus dollar tuition after crowding together in a hotel room.

That's right. Some schools are kicking out students for partying, but keeping their tuition, which is insane.

I mean, if you waste thirty six grand on college, you should at least leave with a communications degree. And I do hope colleges get all these outbreaks under control soon because going to college remotely is just not the same. There's so many things about the college experience that only work if you're there in person. I mean, imagine imagine trying to do a frat hazing on Tsou, grab your bottle of hot sauce from your fridge and chug it. Oh, I don't have hot sauce, but I have apricot lecroy.

I can chug that. Yeah, you're damn right you'll chug it. Get ready to feel refreshed, bitch. Anyway, if you're a high school senior right now, there is only one thing you should be looking for when applying to colleges. Find out which schools avoided coronavirus outbreaks and do not apply there. Most people do not know how to party.

So this is just one more reason that we really can't have a vaccine soon enough. But another problem is that we also can't get one too soon.

The latest CBS News poll finds the majority of Americans are skeptical about a vaccine. Sixty five percent say if one became available this year, they'd consider it rushed. And fifty eight percent say they would consider getting one. But but wait to see what happens.

Kamala Harris was asked if she would trust a Trump administration vaccine. It would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the the efficacy and the and the reliability of whatever he's talking about. I will not take his word for it. He wants us to inject bleach. No, I will not take his word.

Look, I get why people are skeptical. There are a lot of things where I'll take Trump's recommendation, how to write an NDA, how to do the smooth criminal leak with a set of stairs are too slippery. But vaccines is not one of his areas of expertise. Like you don't want Trump involved in this deal. It's like going on Shark Tank and getting an offer from Roberts. Yeah, you're just going to be like any other office.

Mark Laurie. You know what? I'm good guys. I'm just going to go bankrupt. Thanks. Thanks, Neal. Robert, thanks for that. Either way, it's cute how people think it'll be up to them, whether they get Trump's vaccine guys, it's going to be up to Trump. And knowing him, he's going to turn it into a quid pro quo. I'll give you one share for one piece of dirt on Joe Biden. What do you.

What do you say? And let's be honest, this skepticism isn't just coming out of nowhere. President Trump has given people pretty good reasons to think that his timeline might not be based strictly on the science during a Labor Day news conference that sounded more like a rally from the White House grounds.

President Trump was all but giving away his own October surprise, suggesting there will be a coronavirus vaccine ready by Election Day.

You could have a very big surprise coming up. So we're going to have a vaccine very soon, maybe even before a very special date. You know what I'm talking about?

Why is he talking about Election Day like it's a weird sex innuendo? You know what data I'm talking about? Going to stick your big hard vote and that ballot box just put it right. I mean, obviously, we know what date he's talking about. What of the date would Trump possibly remember besides Election Day, his kids birthdays, his anniversary, a date from a history book? Trick question. He doesn't know any of those things. But this is why people are skeptical.

Trump keeps talking about this vaccine as if the goal is to get it out before Election Day. And any normal president would at least pretend that the vaccine will be released based on science. But Trump doesn't even pretend that he's got the worst poker face in the world, which is why he would probably be the best and worst person to play poker with. Yeah, you always know when he was bluffing, so you'd probably beat him, but then there would be no point because he'd never pay up.

Not to mention he drew boobs on all the queen cards. So with Trump making everybody nervous, the companies competing to make the vaccine while actually getting to. Whether to try and calm all this shit down, a major development in the race to produce a coronavirus vaccine and something very unprecedented, some of the country's most well known drug makers now presenting a united front, saying they will not rush out a vaccine without proper testing and approval.

These are some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world. They are typically fierce competitors, but they are coming together with what they have called a historic pledge to try to shore up public confidence in a possible covid-19 vaccine.

The CEOs of nine pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer, say they will commit to high ethical standards and sound scientific principles as they work toward developing a vaccine. The statement includes a pledge to always make the safety and well-being of vaccinated individuals our top priority.

Yes, people are so skeptical about this vaccine that the drug companies had to come out and pledge that they're not going to rush things. That's how bad Trump is. He's managed to make big pharma turn into the good guys. And that's saying something. I mean, Johnson and Johnson sold talcum powder that gave people cancer. AstraZeneca and Merck had to settle for claims by Medicare and Medicaid. Sanofi overcharged the Veteran Affairs Department. GlaxoSmithKline hid safety data from the FDA.

Pfizer has that unnecessary it. I mean, that's unethical as shit. If I see a P followed by an F. That better be followed by a Chiang's, otherwise I'm out.

The point is, it is so important for people to trust that any vaccine that comes out is safe and effective before it is distributed, because if a government rushes one out for political purposes, you get, well, something like what's happening in Russia right now.

Russia's health ministry says the first batch of its so-called Sputnik five coronavirus vaccine has been produced for use in the general population. Health officials outside Russia, however, have raised concerns that the shot was approved even before clinical testing had finished last week.

Still unproven, it still hasn't finished human trials. And as we found, it's still widely distrusted.

It's been made available to key frontline workers like doctors and teachers. But few, if any of those Russian teachers have actually taken up the vaccination competition that you need to see today. It is obvious for our scientists that this vaccine form stable immune resistance. Antibodies appear in the blood, just like in the case of my daughter. And it is harmless.

My daughter feels well, yeah, guys, of course Putin's daughter feels well. She knows the consequences if she doesn't.

Hey, maybe we don't need a vaccine at all. We just need Putin to go around issuing veiled threats to anyone who thinks they've got covid.

So do you have got the real credit, Mr. President? All right.

We have to take a quick break. But when we come back, I'll be talking to the one and only Malcolm Gladwell.

Stick around. This episode of The Daily Show is brought to you by Les Mills, with so much of the world in lockdown, regular exercise will go a long way towards maintaining physical and mental well-being. To help you stay active and workout at home during lockdown, Les Mills is offering all Daily Show listeners free access to Les Mills on demand with an exclusive 30 day free trial of their fitness app. Les Mills, called the Netflix of Fitness, provides a high quality video streaming experience for all workouts and makes customized versions of their popular fitness classes.

Taught live with workouts ranging from 15 minutes to 55 minutes. There is no excuse not to exercise, and you can fit in your workouts in and around a busy schedule. Les Mills offers over 1000 online workouts, including iconic programs like body pump and body combat, as well as strength training, hit yoga, dance, cycling and kids fitness. So you are certain to find something to love. Les Mills cares about your individual health and well-being, which is why they go the extra step to create an online global fitness community that provides motivation and support.

All this and more is why The Daily Show endorses Les Mills on demand as your online workout source. Right now for listeners, we have a special offer from Les Mills on Demand, where you can get 30 days free access to their fitness app. So don't wait and go to try. Les Mills Dotcom Slash Trevor that's try Élysées M-I LLC Dotcom slash Trevor to get this special offer again. Go to try Élysées m i. L l. S Dotcom slash Trevor.

Welcome back to the Daily Social Distancing Show. So earlier today, I spoke with one of my favorite authors and a best selling author, Malcolm Gladwell. We talked about his podcast, Revisionist History, and how you can teach yourself to think the way you don't think.

Check it out, Malcolm Gladwell. Welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.

Thank you. I'm very flattered to be to be on it. I'm honored to have you here because I said this to you before we started recording. But I'll say it to you again while people are watching. So there's witnesses. You are one of the people who has taught me to always question what I think I know about the world. And you're an expert in doing that in your books. You you create and tell stories about things that are seemingly unconnected.

And then by the end of the story or by the end of the book, we start to realize how everything is connected or how everything affects something else in a way that we never thought possible. Your podcast does that as well. And one of my favorite episodes in the podcast is where you talk about elections. And what was really mind blowing for me was getting to a place where I realized as human beings, we are horrible at predicting who is going to be a good leader.

And so I found myself at the end of that episode of the podcast going like, wow, maybe maybe elections should be lotteries. Maybe we should have no elections, no money being spent, no people campaigning, just a lottery system. Of all the people who want to run should run. Do you still stick by that, though?

Is that something that you believe in when you look at elections, the cues we use to predict who's going to be a good leader, our fall or faulty? Do I think that should be true of a presidential campaign? No, but I do think there is a way to restructure our elections where we do cast the net a lot wider and maybe at a local level we should go with lotteries as a way of picking who our leaders should be. I think there's something to that right now.

America is going through a really, really tough time. I think it's exacerbated by coronavirus. The George Floyd protests have now swelled into a nationwide movement where people in the country are saying we want to see change predominantly within the police force for those who think they have an idea of police, police reform, defunding the police or even abolition, what do you think some of the unthaw thoughts should be about this whole process?

Well, my question would be we've done a very good job, I think, in the last couple of months, focusing on what reform of police behavior in this country looks like right now. I think it's time for us to turn the attention on ourselves.

What are the kinds of things we can do non police officers can do to make the job of policing better in this country? And I think that's the part we've neglected. We make the police in this country deal with things like mental illness and homelessness. Why? Because we have radically underfunded the social support mechanisms for those two social problems. The cops get the get that job by default. It's a really hard job. They are not trained to do it and they don't want to do it.

Right. And so what we're doing is we've taken a group of people who already have an insanely difficult job. We've made it a lot harder. Why? Because we're too cheap and we're too unfeeling and we're too lazy to build adequate support systems for people who are very much in need in our country. So there's a case where I think stage two is is is time for people like me and you and all of us to stand up and say, OK, I am willing to support greater funding for homeless services for the mentally ill in order to improve the quality of policing in this country, among other groups.

Right. That's where I think we should be headed right now. And I feel like if if people in the police department saw that, they would be much more willing to embrace reforms because they would say, you know what, we're all in this together. It's a very different place to start a reform conversation than a conversation. It's all about, here's what you're doing wrong.

It's interesting because actually you're the perfect person for me to ask this, too, because there's a puzzle that I've been trying to solve in my brain. And the puzzle that I have is around protest right in America right now. There's an interesting conundrum. People go, what is the correct way to protest? And although I'm distilling it down, this seems to be two schools of thought. Protest should be something that doesn't disrupt the status quo, doesn't like break anything, doesn't put anybody out of their way.

Another school of thought is not the very definition of protest, is that it is meant to make society itself uncomfortable and not be able to live its life as if everything is normal. And I think to myself, protest in many ways is defined by your standing in life. So the more you have, the less of a tolerance you will have for protest in all your studies and in the work that you look at and the ideas, have you come across anything or do you even think the mind of Malcolm Gladwell can go like there is a definitive answer to this?

Or is this something that society has never, ever figured out?

Yeah, there is no definitive answer. I mean, it's funny, you you you said what? You said that I would be the perfect person to ask. I would say, actually, you are. You're South African. The best contemporary example of how to handle a successful protest reform movement last twenty five years is Nelson Mandela. Right? And what does Mandela have in common with other successful historical examples? Martin Luther King. We could make a list.

Gandhi, that they are their protest is purposeful and disciplined. What I would like to see from the protests that we have now is that same discipline and purposefulness. I think we have it in large part, but there are times when it doesn't seem to be either of those things. When a bunch of people get out of control and just start breaking windows, then I say, I don't really know what that is achieving. When I see people, those kinds of protests that were in New York or in major cities where, you know, tens of thousands of people would march purposefully and peacefully with one voice demonstrating the world that this is not some.

Minor niche group in society that's upset everyone that to my mind, I had a number of people who study police reform very closely to say to me that that had tremendous impact in moving and getting people like Congress to take police reform seriously.

So that was that's one side of my brain. There is another argument, though, and that is that without that side of the protests, they wouldn't have been seen as the the reasonable person to deal with the reasonable. You know what I mean? People say Martin Luther King Jr. needed Malcolm as much as the other needed. That's the puzzle I'm playing with in my head as I go. Like, is is it is it the peaceful protest that works or is it the fact that the peaceful protest is seen as peaceful relative to another protest?

You get them saying so. For instance, Colin Kaepernick was protesting peacefully. He was met with the utmost resistance that anyone could be met with. And I'm sure now if he Nield, people will say, well, that's a much better way to protest than breaking a window.

Yeah, I do think there is something to what you're saying. I would only add that to my mind. There is an immediate existential threat to all of this, which is the possibility that Trump gets re-elected. And all I care about right now is that we get to this election intact. You know that an awful lot of what we're seeing that is malignant and pathological in America right now is simply a result of this guy in the White House. So, you know, my fear I don't know whether it's legit fear or not, but part of me worries that the more violent kinds of protests have the effect of aiding Trump's reelection.

Before I let you go, you have done a lot of work looking at the way human beings see each other, the way human beings interact with each other, and how that can define progress or a stagnant society. Is there a better way for us to communicate specifically, I should say, with people we don't agree with? And I'm not talking about Nazis. I'm just talking about people who we just have like some some political disagreements with.

We need to find a way to communicate, to understand the complexity of the people we're talking to. So you and I could come could make a list of all of our identities. You know, you are South African, you are biracial. You are a comedian. You are a successful author. And you and I may have profound disagreements along one of those lines, but we may agree on six of them. And I feel like what's happened in our society now is, you know, you'll talk to someone who's a who loves Trump and you'll assume that's the most important dimension in their life and that the difference between you and that person politically is irrevocable.

There's no way you can bridge that gap. But then if you talk to them for a little bit longer, you would discover, you know, they're a massive basketball fan and so are you and they love you.

And I think a lot of times those other identities are a lot more important than the ones we spend all of our time obsessing over.

And I think it's time for us to start looking for ways to find common ground with people and getting beyond the most kind of obvious and salient of their identities.

I could talk to you for hours, but luckily I've got the podcast for that. I've got the books. Thank you for taking the time. Congratulations on another wonderful podcast season and I hope we'll be seeing many more.

Thank you, Trevor. Thank you so much again, Malcolm. When we come back, I'll be talking to one of the stars of New Girl about his brand new show. That's right, Limone. Morris is on the show. Don't go away.

Welcome back to the Daily Social Distancing Show. So earlier today, I spoke with the actor and comedian Lamont Morris. We talked about his brand new role as a black cartoonist in the Hulu comedy series WOAK. Welcome to the show, my dad. How you doing?

Oh, my God. I'm just chillin. I'm just relax and living life, enjoying the moment, kind of.

I don't know if the cool is the right word, but nobody has to look like this in an interview that I've ever done with them in my life. I'm not going to lie to you.

Feel free to go ahead and say, cool. That's that's that's a phrase I'll say.

And I feel like this is Lemon. You know, this is a this is what you you see look at this.

Let this be the takeaway. If you learn nothing from today other than damn, he looks fresh all while solving racism, just, you know, keep that in your mind.

What is that silc this is silk. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

One hundred percent silk for thousand thread count. So to myself this is my own collection.

I like that. I like it has it has a nice feeling. It's like it's got like half pajama, half like life swag to it. That's what it has.

I'll be honest with you Trevor. I sit around all day, I lay on the couch, I have my my titties out and I just kind of I just have to go just to live my life, especially during the pandemic. Got the kids out.

One that you say that, but you work a lot men. But then what they don't realize is that Lamont is secretly creating a television show that's going to drop on Hulu that's called WOAK.

And what I mean by the looks of it, it looks like a show that comment specifically on what's happening right now in America. But as I understand, this was created before the George Floyd movement, before the Black Lives Matter protest really built up again. Talk me through why you made this show and why you decided to go with the title, because that title I mean, the word woak has become I mean, on one side, it's corporate. On the other side, it's like one of the most contentious phrases you can use.

I mean, New Girl was one of those shows that was just pure fun. You know, we tackled some subjects and sexism at the workplace. We hinted on racism a bit. I know I wrote an episode about that. But when we were done, I kind of wanted to be a part of something that meant something was based on the life of Keith Knight and a real cartoonist who kind of walked a very similar walk that I did. You know what I mean?

Politically, where I didn't really know where I fit. I just like I said, I kind of wanted to just lay around with machetes out and just enjoy life. But then you see someone, you know, going through some sort of injustice or you see all these things. And then you for some reason, one day you just wake up to become activated or woke as you as you call it, gaged, you know what I mean? And so that's kind of why I wanted to jump on this show, because it meant something to me that folks will look at it and watch it.

Maybe they'll learn something, know, maybe they'll just laugh. But at the end of the day, I could feel good about contributing something to the conversation.

You know, I always talk to my friends about how one of the major signifiers or one of the major experiences of being a black person is that even if you do not choose to engage in the conversations around how black people are treated, at some point you will be treated like a black person to mean.

And then at some point.

The very black nature of your skin means you are involved in something that you didn't choose to be involved in and the character you're playing had that he was a cartoonist, was just having fun, making fun, lighthearted cartoons, and then the police tackled him in the street because they thought he looked like the mugger that they were looking for and his life changed overnight. What were you trying to do in telling some of those stories?

Well, there's multiple sides to this coin, you know what I mean?

I feel like I think black is on a spectrum. You know, it can be anything. My looks into different types of music. I dress a certain way and constantly I'm hit with these these micro aggressions. You don't sound black or. And I've heard that from black people. From white people. I've had white people tell me that they're blacker than I am. I like I like I feel like sometimes we're hit with this stigma or the stereotype of who we are, which can then lead to stereotypes, racism.

It can lead to all kinds of negative things towards our skin tone. I think that when people watch the show, it's not just for the people who don't know. It's also for that black kid who feels like maybe he doesn't necessarily fit in or he dresses certain he can identify himself with something. Hopefully they can they can get some sort of motivation or activation to address the elephant in the room. And when you do that, it causes other people to get in on the conversation.

And you can't change something unless you're faced with it. Right. I believe that's the quote. So if you you know, until we're faced with, you know, then things will probably remain the same. Hopefully this show will help towards that conversation.

Well, I hope people will start by watching your show because I honestly think entertainment is one of the most powerful tools that gets people into it. And so I feel like if there's more shows that are funny, entertaining, interesting, and at the same time tackle ideas of racism and race and all the concepts we deal with, I think you can have a lot of people who are a lot more educated than they thought they could be just by watching TV.

So congratulations on the show. Thank you.

Congratulations on that silk outfit. I please just to get the kids out, I can I can truly say we have never seen anything like this on the show and I think television will never be the same.

Well, you still want me to come closer to the screen legislature? I like those things.

Look at those things. I appreciate it.

Well, that's our show for tonight. But before we go, I wanted to remind you that there are less than two months until the election. Yeah, I know. Two months now. America is facing a nationwide poll worker shortage. And because most poll workers are over 60 and coronavirus is still in the air. They are understandably not showing up.

But fewer poll workers means fewer polling stations are going to be open and it means the lines will be longer and not everybody can afford to wait, especially in poorer communities. The good news is, though, most people working as paid and in some states you can be as young as 16 to do it. So if you're interested and you have the time, this is your chance to make some money, protect democracy and save your granny at the same time.

The Daily Show with Criminal Lawyers edition once The Daily Show weeknights at 11:00, 10:00 Central on Comedy Central and the Comedy Central Watch full episodes and videos at The Daily Show Dotcom. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to The Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and more. This has been a Comedy Central podcast now.