The Problem with Jon Stewart (2021) s02e06 Episode Script

[audience applauding, cheering]
Mmm.
Hey! Boom!
How is everybody?
My name is Jon Stewart.
Let me ask you this question.
How you feeling?
[audience cheers]
[growls] Mmm. Mmm.
It's done. The midterms are done.
Good for America? Bad for America?
Nobody fucking knows.
-[audience laughs]
But the only thing I know is that finally
when I'm watching my shows,
and I watch my shows,
I will not be reminded
every eight to nine minutes
of rampant crime and nonstop abortion.
That's all I care about.
I can just go back to knowing
that if I want to clear my eczema
They want to warn me,
it could cause me diarrhea.
That's what they tell you.
-[audience laughs]
Look, el-- elections are always stressful.
But this year, holy sh--
They had us on edge.
It's a midterm election with the prospect
of potential violence hanging out there.
The threats to our elections
in, what, two-and-a-half weeks,
are so pervasive and they are so dire
and they include violence.
Democrats are bracing
for the worst-case scenario.
This is going to be a bloodbath.
A red tsunami is gonna crash
upon our shores.
Forget democracy, they're going
to take this country by force.
Violence, chaos, crime, drugs,
uh, the border chaos,
uh, not knowing who's in this nation.
Uh, the chaos around the world.
Vote for the Democrats, you will get more.
[audience laughs]
So, you don't want the latte?
Is that what you're saying?
[laughing continues]
I just wanted your order.
This is a Starbucks.
Holy shit! What is going on?
These-- The-- The violence, the chaos,
you know, I was scared.
To be quite frank, I was-- I was
frightened to turn on, uh, the television.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Uh, going into the midterms
the country was on DEFCON 1.
And-- And so,
it was with great trepidation
that I bravely tuned in to the coverage.
And stepped into the breach once more.
We'll have to see what happens.
We're still waiting for more votes
to come in.
There is a lot coming in
as far as raw vote total,
but those are all too early to call.
And, yet again, we've been waiting
for more clarity in Arizona,
and really not much has changed.
We're gonna be dying to see
what's happening here,
especially in Philadelphia,
but we're just going to
have to be patient.
So we still have no votes there
even counted at all.
Just wanna pop in some of this.
See, we have no votes counted at all.
It's been a very quiet day in many ways.
There's been the lines that we expect
in some places, some greater than others.
So, Tuesday night was not the explosive
action flick we were promised.
It was more of an indie two-hander.
And over the course of the evening,
we watched some of our favorite
characters grow and change.
On Fox, a bully learned a lesson.
Republicans need five to take control.
And it's looking like a good night
for the Republicans,
as we look at it now across the country.
A searing indictment
of the Republican Party.
Democrats win independents
in a non-presidential year.
No poll saw that coming.
And it was 'cause these women
just went crazy.
Yeah.
-[audience laughing, exclaiming]
They just went nuts.
Those women just went nuts.
I mean, you take away the right
to choose what happens
inside their own uteruses
and they're all like--
[shouting, groaning]
Don't mind me, I be shopping.
[shouting, groaning]
[audience laughs]
Over on MSNBC,
the nerds got their revenge.
A very different vibe here
than was expected tonight,
uh, by all the House Republicans
and Republican strategists
I've been talking to leading up to today.
Can I ask you a technical question
about something
that's over your left shoulder?
Which is, it says,
right behind that podium
You can try.
-"Take back the House."
Is it painted or projected?
'Cause if it was projected
they could just turn off the projector,
but if it's painted
they're gonna have to put up a tarp.
[imitates sizzling]
-[audience laughing]
[sizzling continues]
Uh, can I ask you a technical question?
Uh, does Kevin McCarthy
want his [baby voice] blankie?
[audience laughs]
'Cause he really sad.
Does he want a Binky?
[normal voice] And of course, on CNN--
I honestly don't know what the fuck
they were doing on CNN,
other than math.
Almost 11%, 56,735 votes.
Ninety-nine percent.
It's less than one half of 1%.
Seventy percent to 29%, or 69%.
You add a couple hundred here,
you add a couple hundred here.
Can't round that up just yet.
Thirty-nine points.
Yeah. Almost 40-- Almost 40 points.
Yeah, an even 40. It is 40 points.
I'm sorry, I don't think
the fire hose of data
you forced down our gullets all night
made any sense.
And I think your own network agrees.
All right, votes.
These are votes coming in
and it's gonna go back and forth
and back and forth.
[audience laughing]
That right there,
just say it, just say that.
Or better yet don't say anything
and just make that phrase
the CNN test pattern.
"I don't know, votes come in,
they go back and forth.
Maybe you should just go watch Jeopardy!
I don't know."
-[audience laughs]
For months the media
political industrial complex
has put us through a high stakes,
emotionally manipulative simulation,
designed to frazzle our nerves
and exploit our anxieties.
You motherfuckers cry,
"Martial law, red tsunami, blue tsunami,
criminals and perverts,
dictators and drag queens.
A country lost."
[exhales deeply through teeth]
[audience laughs]
And it turned out the story
of the election was individuals
who went to the polls and
voted on issues and candidates
that they thought
best represented their ideals.
What do you have to say for yourselves?
What-- What was our motto yesterday?
We were gonna put it on the mugs.
It was a good one.
-[anchor] Oh.
Uh-- Everything--
-All of this is wrong.
[all] All of this is wrong.
-[anchor 2] Yep. It was.
It's our way to cover ourselves 'cause we
said you never know what's gonna happen.
[laughing]
[audience laughing]
We always know what's gonna happen.
Jake.
All right, votes.
These are votes coming in
and it's gonna go back and forth
and back and forth.
[audience applauding, laughing]
That's it.
So
But the voting is over.
The feeling in the country
is seriously like fucking
Singin' in the Rain out there.
If you walk down the streets
of New York City,
people are, like, baking pies
on their windowsills.
Like, it's-- It's crazy out there.
Most of the results are in.
And we wanted to try something
a little different tonight.
Joining me now to talk about
how these midterms, uh, turned out.
You know them, and you love them.
They're two of our writers, Kasaun Wilson
and Jay Jurden. Come on out, guys.
[laughs]
Oh. Okay. [laughs]
-Oh, wow.
[laughs]
I didn't-- I didn't realize.
-Wow.
I didn't know we were doing this.
-I didn't know.
[audience cheers]
Oh, wow.
-[laughs]
Wow.
Hey.
-[Jurden, Wilson] Hey.
I-- I didn't know.
-Oh. Well, Jon, you know what they say.
Once you go Kornacki, you never go backy.
[audience laughs]
What a coincidence.
-I did not.
I did not know that.
Can I say this, is-- I-- I--
This is the first time I've seen
this little line up here.
It is-- We look like a group on our way
to a charter school convention.
[panelists, audience laugh]
How are you guys?
What-- What are the observations
from last night?
What did you see? What was your mindset?
[Jurden] We have to talk about Georgia.
I think Herschel Walker said it best.
"If you vote for me,
you believe in redemption."
And that's, like, a big talking point.
Every time Herschel Walker
wanted to bring something up,
he was like, "Oh, so my opponent's
gonna say I'm not smart.
My opponent's gonna say
I don't have any experience."
And, you guys, he's right.
-[audience, Stewart laugh]
Good night, have a good one.
Everybody that's come out, it's been nice.
They asked him, they said, "Excuse me,
Mr. Walker, there are allegations
that you held a gun to a woman's head.
Uh, do you have anything that
you would like to say to that?
And this man said,
"That was 14 years ago."
[all laughing]
He also-- That was--
I mean, that was
the same situation when he said,
"You think I'm gonna make some woman
I don't know get an abortion?"
They went, "Well,
you do know it's your ex-wife."
He went, "You got a picture?"
-Oh.
There's no sense.
In fact, he got asked
if he wanted to provide some policy
and this man, out of his mouth,
out of his-- Unprovoked, said,
"You know, Democrats don't have a answer.
But I do and I would tell you,
but Democrats would take credit for it.
So I'm just gonna keep it
to myself for right now."
[audience laughs]
That was--
That's the Donald Trump playbook.
Yeah. The place where there was
no question mark was Florida.
Last night watching Fox News go,
"Yeah, Pennsylvania. Okay. That's sad.
Yeah, Michigan. Okay. That's sad.
But let's look at
beautiful Florida once again."
They loved deep,
ruby red Florida last night.
They love it.
Ron DeSantis is the new idol.
But speaking of Michigan,
we're gonna go to right now--
Uh, with all the talk of the red wave
and the red tsunami,
uh, we had talked to a congresswoman
from Michigan, Elissa Slotkin,
who was in a very tough race up there.
Very vulnerable.
Uh, and we spoke with her
on the podcast a few weeks ago.
Let's welcome her now, uh,
to check in on how things are going.
Congresswoman.
-[audience applauds, cheers]
How are you?
-Hey there.
[Stewart] First of all
-I'm great.
Uh, thank-- Thank you so much
for joining us.
This is our new nerd boy band
that we've assembled.
Uh, thank you.
-[Slotkin] Great.
I know you-- you've got to be exhausted,
but let me ask you this.
Uh, you were very concerned
a couple of weeks ago
that, uh, crime and inflation
were the only things
that were on the voters' minds.
They weren't caring about abortion,
they weren't caring about socialism,
anything like that.
Tell me what happened.
You won your race.
It was close, but you won it handily.
[clicks tongue] Yeah.
I mean, I think we always--
In Michigan, the countervailing winds
were inflation and abortion.
I mean, I think inflation
really took center stage
when gas prices started to go up.
Um, and people stopped talking
as much about abortion.
But I think the thing that we're really
seeing now in Michigan,
which had a fantastic night, um,
was that while a couple years ago,
we were undercounting Trump voters
and I think this election,
we were undercounting women voters
and how strongly they felt
about losing the right
to have an abortion in this country.
So, um, it was a great night
for our governor, our attorney general.
Up and down we codified Roe on our ballot.
I mean, we flipped the House
and the Senate in Michigan.
We knocked it out the park.
-[audience cheering, applauding]
How is it--
How is it that the media
is so disconnected
from real voter concerns
and that the narratives that they drive
are so overblown and hyperbolic?
I mean, when we talked to you,
I-- I guess it was a couple of weeks ago
you were feeling furious
that it seemed like
there was a misrepresentation
of what the voters that you talked to
actually care about.
How does that--
How does that misconception happen?
-Yeah.
And does it actually change
narratives and facts on the ground?
Yeah, I think, uh, a lot of it starts
with the fact that we just don't have
local media the way we used to.
So the people who would normally,
like, have their finger on the pulse
of real trends on the ground
are just not there.
And we get a lot of really wonderful
journalists who parachute in for 36 hours,
um, talk to, like, a few people
in a, you know, coffee shop
and then sort of make their assessment
as opposed to really knowing
what's going on.
And then it gets amplified
like you were, you know,
covering earlier, just tenfold.
Um, and something
that might have been anecdotal
becomes this, like,
screaming story on cable news.
So, um, we see that a lot.
And yes, it--
it affects the mood of the voters.
It's like a loop, right?
So then people are watching TV,
and they're like,
is there gonna be a problem?
Is there gonna be, you know, violence
at the polls? Are we gonna see all this?
And-- And it creates this, um,
you know, not very good situation
where people feel pessimistic
and sort of down about things,
even though they're just
out there living their lives
and, um, you know,
not necessarily feeling those trends
in their own lives.
-[Stewart] And feeling--
And feeling terrified to some extent.
I mean, my-- my feeling about,
uh, the coverage of this election
was they were doing their best
to make sure that Americans
felt like we were on the precipice,
not just of an unusual election,
but of a civil war.
[inhales deeply] Yeah.
I-- I do though [stammers]
want to be honest
that I think the country
is going through something.
I think we were--
We did have a-a strong election.
It was boring, as you say,
gloriously boring.
But I don't wanna undersell the fact that,
especially in a place like Michigan,
where we're very purple, you know,
where in my own family,
in my own neighborhood,
our coworkers have very different
political views from us.
Um, where it's gotten so much more
angry and so much more polarized
that people do feel some of that stress.
And so I don't think
it's completely fabricated.
Um, but I-- I just think
what ends up happening
is-- is, um, fear sells,
and it becomes the story,
it becomes clickbait,
and suddenly, um, you're--
you have the media
sort of pushing that story,
um, in an amplified way
from what is really actually happening.
I wonder if social media is such
a new phenomenon for people
in the way that radio
destabilized the world in the '30s.
Are we going through
an adjustment to just knowing
what the worst of us thinks all the time?
And once we come through that
and recognize, neighbor to neighbor,
it's not really like that.
Will some of this ebb?
Do you have a thought on that?
I-- I think that's part of it,
and I think we may be going through
a little bit of a perfect storm here
where social media is
amplifying all these things.
But I wanna be super clear.
-[Stewart] Mmm-hmm.
Leadership climate is set at the top
and we have leaders, very senior leaders
who have created a climate
of literally training people
to look at people
with opposing views as enemies.
A strategy of dividing Americans
on purpose in order to win elections
in order to further a-- a cause.
That, combined with social media,
I think is creating that instability
or this moment,
this change that you're talking about.
We have been given permission
by leaders with bad behavior
to act that way with each other,
and it's freaking people out in Michigan.
And I think that
combined with social media
is a much bigger story for us.
Well, Congresswoman,
I congratulate you on your victory
and I just want to say,
if you're freaking out people in Michigan,
we've gone astray because
they're very pleasant people.
I've been up there,
and they're so pleasant at times,
I almost thought
they were being sarcastic.
[audience laughs]
We are not sarcastic,
we're just that awesome.
Oh! I know.
Congresswoman Slotkin,
thank you so much for speaking with us.
Uh, much appreciated.
Congratulations to you.
You take care.
Uh, take a-- take a quick
little gander at this.
We get things wrong
all the time because
the polls are never right.
But we use that
-to gin up
fear and excitement
so you tune in
-every night.
Red wave.
-Blue wave.
Pink, green
-purple wave.
Red tsunami.
Blue tsunami.
We know absolutely nothing
about what is going on.
We just
-look at the polls.
Watch the polls
-points to the polls
focus on the polls
trust the polls
-question the polls
think about the polls
-ignore the polls.
Red wave.
-Green wave.
Pink, green
-purple wave.
Red tsunami.
Blue tsunami.
We know absolutely nothing
about what is going on.
We just
-throw together
focus groups or
talk to
-folks in diners.
Almost any
kind of poll
-we'll do.
We'll even
-talk to
[reporter] minors.
Red wave.
-Green wave.
Pink, green
-purple wave.
Red tsunami.
Blue tsunami.
We treat it
-like a game
because we think you're
-a bunch of dummies.
[audience laughs, cheers]
All right.
[cheering continues]
Now as we saw there,
and, uh, gentlemen,
I think you'll agree with me,
uh, uh,
polling is a tool
for forecasting election results,
uh, that we all know by now
can be wildly inaccurate.
So why is the media
constantly reporting on polling?
Well, it's different really
for different networks.
For the so-called mainstream media,
we'll-- we'll call them the MSNBCNN cucks,
non-speculative information
is a bit of a snooze.
So the constant up and down
of polling adds zazz.
Poll after poll shows the economy
is one of the top issues
for voters right now.
Abortion was at the very bottom
and now it's rising.
[reporter 1]
Abortion and the economy were tied
[reporter 2] Threats to democracy
have overtaken jobs and the economy
[reporter 3] Abortion has now
become the top issue.
[reporter 4] Crime has surpassed abortion
gas prices
-climate change
[reporter 5] gun violence
-preserving democracy.
Crime is a top issue.
Inflation, inflation, inflation.
This is down to the wire.
[audience laughs]
-[mouths indistinctly]
The winner is the advertisers.
Excuse me while I go buy
some unregulated supplements
and an Untuckit shirt.
Yes.
I always wanted a shirt
that won't get caught on my balls.
[laughing continues]
We didn't-- See, now-- [laughs]
I didn't know that was a problem.
You don't know about it now
but trust me, in 20 years
Gra-- Gravity comes for everybody.
Oh. [laughs]
I'm not used to having friends
out here with me. [indistinct]
[exhales deeply]
-[Stewart] All right.
But what about the other side?
Let's call them the January 76ers.
Polls are a little more
strategic for them.
Another tool in their effort
to gain political power.
Here's Fox in early October.
Numbers are overwhelming when the voters
are asked who's better on crime.
It is, uh, Republicans.
They're the party that is tough on crime
whether you are Republican or not.
It is the truth.
A recent Fox poll found
more voters believe the GOP
is better equipped to handle the issue
over Democrats.
Wow. That's interesting.
So the polling says that
the GOP is better at crime
than the Democrats.
That's early October.
Let's go now to Fox News
post learning that information.
Violence is bleeding
from once shining cities
into suburbs and beyond.
Crime way up in small towns
and big cities.
People are being randomly attacked
and killed in the streets.
There is crime and disorder
everywhere you look.
Random violence is not supposed
to happen in suburbia.
Our children are not even safe
trick or treating anymore.
My God.
The streets are awash with tiny
out on cashless bail Minions
coming to your house to kill you
and make your candy gay.
How would you make candy gay?
I don't even know--
I think it's Skittles, right?
Maybe same-sex Kit Kat bars.
-No, no, no, no, no.
I think I know where you're going there.
I was gonna say Twix
but I guess that's bi.
All right.
[laughing continues]
Get your hands out of my shot.
Get your own shot, Kasaun.
And lo and behold!
What does that do to how big a concern
your voters think crime is.
New Fox News polling showing
that rising crime will be at the top
of voters' minds in November.
Huge shift of women voters
to the GOP in the last several weeks.
Uh, crime is one of the major issues.
Yeah, no shit. You caused it.
And while their strategy
was not successful this time
and the polls led us astray yet again,
the one thing we can be certain of is
What's he going to do in 2024?
It's 8:37, David.
I'm surprised it took us
this long to say 2024 tonight
because that's what this race
is very much about.
[laughs]
Fuck all of you.
Is that-- Did that
drive you guys nuts at all?
I'm-- I'm watching these polls
over and over again telling us--
What they don't tell you
is they're bending the narratives
by reporting on certain things ad nauseam.
Well, when you live in New York
and you watch anything like that,
your first thought is,
"Do I need a bayonet?
Do I need a musket?
Do I need a bazooka?"
-What crime are you fighting?
Here's my thing on crime.
Say it.
You sure?
-Say it?
Wanna do that?
-Say it. Say it.
All right. Politicians,
when it comes to crime
[Stewart] Yes.
-just say Black.
We can hear you. Just say-- No, Jon, no.
You came in my shot. No, Jon.
You come back.
-Can I just say this? Can I say this?
The Jews are in enough trouble as it is.
I don't need-- I don't need to have it--
Kanye, Kyrie?
-No, no.
I don't know what--
I don't know what this is.
I don't know what he's talking about.
Crime is not---
There's gonna be a still of this episode
where it's like, well,
Jon's surrounded by crime.
Just say Black.
We can hear you.
We know you're talking about us.
We can hear our names being called.
Even if the "N" is silent, we know--
But, also, I will say this.
Also the polls got one big thing wrong.
They talk about social media all the time.
They underestimated
the amount of young people
who just don't feel like
answering unmarked numbers,
who don't go all the way
through polling questions.
It's a very-- Listen,
these are very good points.
But-- But the point being,
polling has not caught up
with the modern day.
It reminds me of Nielsen ratings.
It's antiquated. It never captures it.
And yet I have never seen, uh,
news organizations use them more
as foundational items.
-[Wilson] Yeah.
They lean on them harder,
the more tenuous they become.
And that is a real problem going forward.
Because it helps to make a story.
It helps sell the soap opera.
That is the TV show.
You have a structure. You have a skeleton.
It's not a coincidence that the cycle
is crime, crime, crime, crime, crime.
Election Day.
I feared you to go into the polls
and then the day
that Election Day is over,
no more crime.
We don't hear about crime.
It's-- It's dead-on true.
And, uh, uh,
perhaps this will clarify as well.
Take a look.
Good evening. I'm LeVar Burton.
And if you don't recognize me, I'm sorry
that your parents didn't love you.
It has come to my attention
that my master classes
have gotten a little woke
for some of y'all.
For this lesson,
let's just keep race out of it.
The topic
America is a representative democracy,
but our systems allocate
a disproportionate amount of power
to the rural states
with lower populations of a certain
[inhales deeply] homogeneous persuasion.
The Electoral College was designed
to give outsized electoral influence
to slave owners via the three-fifths--
Oh, shit.
This is really hard!
Redistricting. Poll tax. [grunts]
States' rights. The Supreme Court.
Voter suppression. Shit!
I don't even know why I bothered
putting this back on the shelf.
This All Started with Slave Labor.
Jim Crow. Voter ID. It's all in here.
Read the damn book already.
And one last thing
fuck the filibuster.
Let's just put that bitch
to rest already, okay?
Kunta out.
[audience cheering]
I gotta say
There is--
There is something spectacular
about having LeVar Burton say,
"Put that bitch to rest already."
[laughs] I never thought I'd see the day.
It took my breath away. [chuckles]
-[Stewart] It did. It's--
It's really been a hell of a night,
and no place more
than in Michigan and in Arizona.
Uh, when we did the show on elections--
That was last week or two weeks ago
or three weeks ago--
I don't watch this show.
Um
-[Jurden] He still doesn't have Apple TV+.
But we heard a lot about, uh,
the polling centers
in Michigan and Arizona,
how things played out on the ground.
We talked to two people, uh,
from those states,
and we wanted to
check back with them again.
They're returning guests
from previous episodes.
Teresa De Graaf, a clerk
for Port Sheldon Township, Michigan.
And Adrian Fontes, former county recorder
for Maricopa County, Arizona,
now the Democratic nominee for
Arizona's secretary of state.
And depending, uh,
what time you're watching this,
he's perhaps already
secretary of state elect,
or, uh, he's not.
Teresa and Adrian, thank you so much.
Welcome! How are you guys?
-[audience cheering]
Good. Thanks for having us.
-First of all, uh,
I can't thank you enough.
I know you're probably both exhausted,
so thank you so much for being with us.
Teresa, I'm gonna go to you first.
Talk to me about, in Michigan,
you were in charge of
the different polling workers.
We talked a little bit about the fear
that everybody had leading into this.
How did things go off in Michigan,
and what was your overall feeling
about the way
this election in Michigan was run?
Um, everything came out so clear.
It was so uneventful.
I think all of Michigan
had very few problems.
It went through without a hitch.
With that said,
the voter turnout was incredible.
I think all of the speculation,
all of the media hype,
um, caused a lot of people
to be passionate about voting.
And to me, as an election administrator,
that's the best thing that could happen.
Big voter turnout.
Teresa, I'm so pleased.
-[audience cheering]
Uh, and I just want to say,
I don't know if you're tired,
or if in Michigan they're giving
election workers post-election gummies,
but either way
-[audience laughs]
you, my friend, have earned your bliss.
[De Graaf chuckles] Thank you.
Adrian Fontes, what's going on in, uh--
Maricopa County
started out a little bit shaky.
I guess 10%, 15% of the voting machines
weren't registering,
or weren't registering the printed copy.
Uh, what happened there
and what's been going on now?
Well, they're still trying to
figure out the details on that.
But at the end of the day, we live,
we learn, and we move forward.
Solving problems. That's how
election administrators work.
We had some amazing turnout
on Election Day across Maricopa County
and the entire state of Arizona.
Folks are doing well here.
And it's gonna be another
couple of days before
some of the big races are finally decided,
but that's how we do it in Arizona.
We get it done right, not quickly.
[audience murmuring, applauding]
I gotta tell you, Adrian,
they clapped, but they weren't so sure.
[all laughing]
[Fontes] Well, Jon--
-They knew you didn't do it quickly.
Now, you are in the race against
Mark Finchem, who is an election--
Uh, someone who said that the election
was stolen from Donald Trump, is he not?
He's someone that says that?
Yeah, that's the guy
I'm running against, yeah.
And we're doing okay right now.
I'm hoping the trends
stay where they're at,
um, and I feel pretty good
about everything.
But we should know by the end
of the day Thursday, or Friday.
You know, this is Arizona,
the weather's great, the food's amazing.
And we're just gonna hang out
and see what happens.
[Jurden] It's very relaxed.
-[Stewart] It is--
The both of you are really
I wanna go to a rave right now,
I don't know why.
-[audience laughing]
[Stewart] Uh--
This has gotta be the exhaustion.
So, Jon, I do wanna say this
really quickly though.
It's folks like Teresa
and tens of thousands of people
across the entire country
that have made this process smooth.
They've made it work well
for all of our voters across America.
They're the ones
who should be given kudos to.
Regular Americans, Republicans,
Democrats, Independents.
It's a big team that makes
American democracy work.
The deniers are getting
beaten all over the place.
And hopefully I'll beat mine.
And that'll be that.
Yeah, we should know, in your case,
by Friday or maybe Saturday or Sunday or
[audience laughing]
-or maybe Monday.
Teresa, when we talked-- you know,
you talked a little bit about--
what I thought was so interesting
about your situation was,
these are your neighbors.
You know, so much of this
are the people that you live with
day in and day out.
And you said people had stopped
sort of trusting each other.
Have you seen, even in
the small amount of time,
now that this has
gone off without a hitch,
and there hasn't been the kind of
trial and tribulation associated with it,
is there a crack in that dysfunction?
Are you seeing people
come back a little bit together?
I've been too tired to notice.
[Stewart laughing]
-But-- [laughs]
But, um, what I can say is I sure hope
that all of the poll challengers
and all of the folks that
kept a watch over the election
learned how safe and secure the election
in Michigan and all over this country are.
And I hope that they actually tell people
that they witnessed no fraud
and no crime and no problems
instead of just keeping quiet
about what they witnessed.
So I'm hoping that brings the country,
and Michigan,
and my neighbors back together.
Well, Teresa and Adrian,
I can't thank you guys enough.
You know, it is clear, and I hope also
what people take away from it is,
how much you both,
and people across the country,
have given to this democratic process.
And boy, you have both earned
well-deserved R and R.
And it's as though
you've come to a crossroad,
but I can feel the pride
and the satisfaction
coming off of both of you.
And thank you so much
for all your hard work in all of this.
[audience cheering]
-Teresa De Graaf, Adrian Fontes.
Good luck with everything.
That's it. Look at us.
We did our-- We did our little show.
Can I tell you something real quick
before we go?
What?
Doesn't this seem like we run
an unusual muffler company?
[audience laughing]
Am I wrong about that?
We run-- We run an unusual tire shop.
It's Manny, Moe and Irving.
I shaved. And if I take off my glasses,
now it just looks like they're
a very progressive couple.
[audience laughing, applauding]
This is what you voted for, America!
This is what you get!
Come and bring your cars
to Pep Proud Boys anytime.
No! We can't-- To hell with that!
We're right in Jersey City.
Come and check us out.
Oh, my God.
Uh, I had a blast with you guys tonight.
I had a blast with the audience tonight.
I feel, uh, released
from this incessant terrorizing
that the media and those
political commercials were doing to us.
I cannot wait to go home tonight
and catch up on Bachelor in Paradise.
I've missed
I can't tell you how many episodes
while this was going on,
because I believe
in that process of people
that are trying to find their person.
-Yeah.
Yeah.
-It's a journey.
You know, they're just on a journey.
-Old-fashioned love, right?
They're on a journey
and then for like a day--
And then some other person comes in
and they're like,
"Oh, I'll fuck that guy too."
[audience laughing]
-Then they do that.
And that's how the Georgia runoff
will be handled.
[all laughing]
All right. That is our show.
What a show it was.
What does this all mean
for the future of America?
Hopefully, God willing
it'll be safe to say Merry Christmas
in this country again.
I truly hope we take this back.
We'll be back early next year
with more episodes of The Problem.
Uh, if the country
still has problems by then.
I don't know, otherwise it's just me
complaining about traffic.
In the meantime, we have a podcast
which you can check out.
Which is like, uh, microdosing the show.
Or, uh, what are those chocolate bars
with the mushrooms in 'em? Delicious.
Uh, and now
-[Jurden] He's heard.
[laughs] Yes, I've heard.
And now for a man who was booed
in his own state's World Series parade.
Here it is, your moment of Cruz.
A wave is coming.
We are taking our country back!
We are defending the Constitution.
We are defending the Bill of Rights.
And together
we will save this great nation.
God bless you.
["The Star-Spangled Banner" playing]
[audience cheering]