The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper puts on his hyperbole HAZMAT suit and heads to NYC’s anti-vaxxer protest
In this clip from Jordan Klepper Fingers The Pulse, doublespeaking Klepper tries to understand what vaccine mandates will lead to, communism or fascism or both
TV Features Jordan Klepper
A year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, and at the tail end of “hot vax summer,” we’re still dealing with the ever-shifting ideologies of anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. Unwilling to believe in COVID-19, the effectiveness of masks or vaccines, or decide on what, if anything, they actually believe in, these so-called patriots aren’t satisfied with the 4.4 million deaths around the world and 628,000 here in the United States. At this point, it’s clear that they love death and want more of it. Hence the whole a year-and-a-half into the pandemic business.
But if we must understand the increasingly confusing belief systems and decisions of people who equate putting a light cloth over the mouth when going to get Thai food with being a Holocaust victim (which is *chef’s kiss* pretty rich coming from the conspiracy theory crowd), then maybe we let Jordan Klepper do the reporting from now on. The impeccable doublespeak of Klepper, which he honed over his years on The Daily Show, comes out in full force in this latest clip from the Emmy-nominated Fingers The Pulse. With a smirking sincerity, Klepper tries to follow the logic of the people protesting New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccine mandate, a mandate that thankfully got stronger since the protest, and uses that logic against the protesters—something we all yearn to do but know it’s a waste of time. The Big Apple is not the first place he looks to when he wants an “angry mob of people, screaming anti-science, deep-state, vaccine microchip conspiracy jazz.” But apparently, coastal elites aren’t immune to the allure of Facebook’s public misinformation landfill.
In this clip from Fingers The Pulse, Klepper finds out why some young republicans are tired of the “we live in a society” and “we, the people” sloganeering; why the lore of vaccine-fan George Washington isn’t applicable in this situation; and why we need to nip some problems in the bud before they get to Pennsylvania (vaccine mandates are the problem to be nipped, not COVID-19, mind you). But if we have to find out what these people think, we might as well have a few laughs along the way. Unfortunately, the reality of what anti-vaxxers are doing (endangering the lives of everyone in their community and prolonging the pandemic) is maybe a little too sad to face without a little gallows humor.
61 Comments
This was so hard to watch, and Keppler is good a framing his follow-up questions in the most devastating ways to people who don’t even realize what’s happening (in life or in the interviews), but the best part of this was at the end, because pad see ew is definitely the go-to order at a new york city Thai restaurant. The rest if usually hot garbage.
It’s extremely hard for me to watch. It’s just a black screen that says “The uploader has not made this video available in your country.”
the weird thing is, I was in NYC the first weekend that the vaccination mandate was in place and we did not get asked for proof of vaccination once at ~4 different places, which was irritating because I carried my actual card around with me the entire time, crapping my pants the whole time that I might lose it.
Love me some Klepper. He has an uncanny ability to turn idiots against themselves. Too bad his only platform is a now subpar Daily Show.Dude deserves his own traveling interview / reporting show a la Channel 5 (All Gas No Brakes).
Ah, but they gave him his show (and it was great). I don’t know what happened, it just sort of fizzled out.
I chalk it up to bad timing, really. It was the great satirical Colbert Report format, but during the rise of the MAGA movement, where everyone lost all sense of irony. Tbh, same thing woulda happened to Stephen if he hadn’t left when he did.
Klepper’s show was funny but a little too on the nose for its time, which was sad, because he’s hilarious. But the point about Colbert not surviving is good because you’re right, Colbert was genius and better than Klepper but I don’t see how he could have dialed it back to survive the death of irony. Instead all Colbert does now is remind me on an almost nightly basis that T***p is still out there even if he’s not the president any more.
I chalk it up to bad timing, really. It was the great satirical Colbert Report format
He wasn’t as good as playing the other side the way Colbert way, though. And, to be fair, I had to stop watching Colbert during the final Bush years. I just couldn’t take it anymore, even if I knew it was satire.
Larry Whitmore’s show was just starting to get good and they canned him. Its apparently very tough to have a 2nd half hour after The Daily Show.
is crossballs not on anymore?
If I remember the interview correctly, Klepper said he ended it himself. Like, the reality of the whole thang was sucking out his soul. He had to step back to limited segments to stay sane.
Comedy Central should have its ass kicked for cancelling The Opposition. It was SO much better than the current iteration of The Daily Show. I wish another streaming service would pick it up.
Klepper should get a shirt that says “Idiots are on the left” with an arrow and start wearing that for these interviews. If they ask, he can says it means “The Left”, and not the idiot that he’s interviewing.
But if we have to find out what these people think, we might as well have a few laughs along the way.I don’t find these videos remotely funny anymore. Shit’s too real out there.
I think the real, sad part is that they won’t be viewed by the very people who need to view them, to see just what kind of idiots they are.
Yeah, I used to find them really funny, at least in a cringey way… but now they just depress me.
Yeah, Keppler is great at these, but it was a lot more enjoyable when he was confronting people protesting, like, zoning laws or banned books with gotcha retorts, and not people willfully courting an infectious disease spouting regurgitated talking points that they don’t understand and are also wrong. It’s just sad.
Spouting regurgitated talking points only, I hope.
I didn’t understand this statement–do we HAVE to find out what they think? because can’t it all be summarized as WRONG, in which case no, we don’t HAVE to find out what they think? I am content to ignore their nonsense forever.
It’s all pretty funny until you remember that these people are allowed to vote and every one of their votes counts just as much as yours.
Sometimes more, somehow, in gerrymandered places and shitty electoral college spots.
Yeah, only humor I can find is “It’s funny because I want them to spontaneously die.”
Sadly this type of news, as it always has, gives a more accurate reading of current events then main stream news networks.
True, but at least attempting to understand does have some value.
They’re animals. Don’t believe them. Don’t trust them.
That’s basically the same they feel about us, but we are better than that. I choose to pity the ignorant, not hate them.Let nature take it’s course, but learn from it.
I could never forgive them for the death of my boy.
If you’re trying to rescue someone from a burning vehicle but they’re fighting you the whole time and insisting that the car isn’t actually on fire and even if it is the fire was started by Bill Gates, eventually you’re gonna let go before they get you killed along with them.
Wasn’t that Matt Gaetz’s origin story?
Im tired of wasting my time and energy to get to these people because honestly, they arent going to change. The best thing I have done is cut off family and friends that think like this. They are endangering our future and will not listen to reason. I say, fuck them. Ban them from doing anything in public until they get a vaccine
Jim. They are dying.
Leave animals out of this.
It does. I’m just fucking exhausted from trying to convince my kids that we aren’t all doomed when we’re doing everything we can to end the pandemic, (and avert total climate catastrophe, preserve a functioning democracy, etc., etc, ad infinitum) and we’re sharing the country with people like this who are working for the exact opposite.
Dude, I hear ya. I have enough trouble convincing myself that every day. Can’t imagine doing so with kids.Just gotta try to enjoy the ride I guess (at least that’s what I tell myself anyway).In the end, I guarantee we’re happier than those ignorant, negative fucks. Self-delusion is far more exhausting.
What’s there to understand? They are avoiding a safe and effective vaccine because Tucker Carlson and a couple of chiropractors told them to. There’s nothing to understand, they are stupid, ignorant, and more married to their politics than to staying alive.
I’m always wondering, “Are the Trump cultists and anti-vaccine folks crazy, or just stupid?” and I watch something like this and am reminded, it can be both…
once again, maybe THE big learning experience for me the last 4+ years is finding out just how willfully, aggressively stupid and nihilistic and susceptible to cult mind control a disturbingly large percentage of the country is, and if you point that out to them, they take it as a blow to their ego and double down on it, up to and including their deaths.
Yeah, this past year just broke me. I always had this bone-deep belief that, in spite of all the stupidity and bullshit, that when the shit really, truly hit the fan that we’d collectively get our shit together and do what we had to do to overcome the challenge.
Well, it happened. And a good 40% of the population decided to act like spoiled fucking children and threw a goddamn tantrum over the most basic possible precautions while people died. My hope is gone. These fucknuts will watch the world fucking burn down while screaming “but muh freedums” the whole goddamn way.
They’ll suck on vape pens all day long but they won’t get a shot “because we don’t know what’s in it”.They’ll stuff their faces with fast food and energy drinks but they won’t get a shot “because my body is a temple”.They’ll make fun of Olympic athletes for being “weak” but they won’t wear a piece of cloth on their face for 10 minutes.Maybe I’m generalizing, but I don’t give a fuck anymore.
I’ve also heard plenty say “I have the blood of Christ” to heal me. It’s like, “What the fuck?”. Do Christians never get sick from anything or have I been living under a rock?
I noticed at least one of the screamy anti-vaxxers was covered with tattoos.*Shrug* Go ahead and die, then. I just feel bad for the very young and the elderly and immuno-compromised in your life.
I STILL remember telling myself in late 2017 “they’ll come out of this when Dipshit declares war against North Korea for an insulting tweet, right?” And since then I’ve realized, no, he inflamed that completely undeserved sense of superiority and self-righteousness to such a degree that they can’t go back now, because that would admit again that the liberals were right, so they’ll essentially condemn themselves and people around them to an unpleasant death to avoid that feeling. It would be sad and pathetic if they did it to themselves in a vacuum but because it implicates me and a lot of other people I care about, I have zero sympathy for whatever happens to them. In those rare occasions when a cultist wants to “play” and get me to tell them one thing I liked about T***p (because in their simplistic black/white minds, admitting I hate every single thing about him-which I freely admit I do-makes me the same as them), I just disengage, because I’m just done with them.
This.
This over and over and over and over and OVER AGAIN.
Breaking my heart each time.
I think: this is the moment where they realize they’ve been had, that we’re all in this together, the world is a disease ridden wasteland and let’s save what we can, but no.
Over and over again: no.
When I used to watch biological apocalypse movies, or read those books, they frightened me, but then I’d read about how our government has pandemic plans, and I’d have a teensy eensy bit of hope.
And then Trump comes along and demonstrates what a godawful fool I’ve been.
I mean, if you think about it, it’s already built into them because they believe in religion. That’s the catalysts for inane thinking and beliefs like they have.
The lady at the 2 minute mark is the best. And by best I mean worst. And by worst I mean actually the worst.
If we don’t do something about education in this country, we’re done for. These are adults who can’t distinguish communism from fascism! How does one get through high school without learning that? I learnt germ theory at my mother’s knee. This is so embarrassing, and not at all funny. (The quotes lady did make me laugh.)
Schools are forced to focus on mandatory testing these days instead of teaching. You end up with a ton of people with knowledge, but no critical thinking skills. Just students told what to focus on and memorize information instead of understanding why
“OK everyone. There’s this new virus out there and we don’t know alot about it but it’s really serious and really scary and we need everyone to just stay home for a bit to minimize spread and let us figure things out.”“No.”“Well, that was a big ask, I know. But look, if you just wear a mask when you’re out, we have so many studies that show just wearing a mask reduces spread dramatically—”“Also, no.”“OK well this nothing short of a miracle but we’ve managed to produce a vaccine. It’s free and readily available anywhere and if we all take it it really minimizes the chance of a variant that would be even more lethal . . . ““Nope.”Every step of the way these fuckers have made it worse. There’s been so many turning points in this thing where if we could just collectively do the right thing for some inconveniences, the worst could be averted and literally thousands of lives would be saved. But a hard 40% have fought every single time and made this worse. And there’s no price they’re paying for it.
if anyone would take to passive aggressive tantrums to feel special again, it’s Cult 45. Look at who their leader is.
*hundreds of thousands of lives (in America…millions globally)
Seems to really piss you off that people do what they want and you can’t force them to do what you want Must be hard when you don’t get your way
The GOP is dying every day. Most of the Covid deaths are Republicans. I’m just pointing out facts—the vast majority of the people dying in this country are right wing. To quote Covfefe, it is what it is. They’re killing off their own base. They’re a death cult.
If the partisan divide between “science is real” and “the vaccine turned my uncle into Magneto” keeps widening, eventually the bulk of the deaths are going to be on one side. And then we’ll have to ask ourselves if natural selection is really all that tragic. I’m all out of empathy for these people.
They never seem to die quickly enough tho, like those drunk drivers who always kill their passengers.
Ive long been out of empathy for the anti-vax, but I’ll remain pissed until children can get vaccinated and this turns into something more like those measles clusters a few years ago that were more targeted.
Terrifyingly fuckin stupid
Stupid fucking geolocked videos. The Internet is a global platform, for fuck’s sake.
Is dressing up as the Joker still a thing?!