[theme music]
ANNOUNCER: From New York City, the only city in America,
it's the show that invented news.
This is The Daily Show with your host, Wanda Sykes.
[cheering]
Hey, what's going on, everybody?
I'm Wanda Sykes, and I'm back--
I'm Wanda Sykes, and I'm back for day
two of hosting The Daily Show.
I thought we covered all the news yesterday, but turns out
there's more.
So let's get to it.
[cheering]
Our first story, the 2023 Oscar nominations
were announced this morning.
Yeah.
[cheering]
And if you're wondering how they picked
the nominees this year, they basically just went, hmm,
let's see.
Who's not going to slap nobody?
[laughter]
That's my pick.
Now, as usual, there was good news and bad news.
Good news-- Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman
nominated for Best Actress.
[cheering]
But bad news-- no women were nominated for Best Director.
[booing]
Yeah, but, remember, they gave it to Jane Campion last year.
So I guess this year they thought,
eh, that should hold you broads for the next 50 years.
And, personally, I'm a big Woody Harrelson fan.
So I was happy to see some nominations
for Triangle of Sadness.
Yeah.
[cheering]
Which is not just a good movie, it's also what
Mike Pence calls a vagina.
[laughter]
But speaking of Mike Pence, guess what
they just found at his house.
Yes, classified documents.
Yes, him too.
First Trump, then Biden, now Mike Pence.
At some point, the FBI is just going to have to be like, OK,
I'm gonna close my eyes and count to 10.
And if there are classified documents on this table
when I open them, no one gets in trouble.
[applause]
All right, let's move on to news out of Washington,
to the biggest crisis the country is facing right now.
Finally, there's something that Republicans and Democrats
seem united on, and it's this, the Taylor
Swift ticket fiasco.
Today on Capitol Hill, senators held a hearing
to examine the lack of competition
in the ticketing industry.
REPORTER: The bipartisan hearing
comes in the wake of a technology breakdown
on the Ticketmaster website during the presale for Taylor
Swift's upcoming tour.
Superfans known as Swifties faced hours-long wait
times and website crashes.
(CRYING) I just really wanted to see Taylor.
I'm not getting tickets.
[laughter]
Shame on you, Ticketmaster.
Look what you did to these emotional young people.
Hey, you know what?
It's about time someone held Ticketmaster accountable.
And the Swifties are the only ones who can get this done.
They're the most politically-organized group
in America.
Yeah, it goes Swifties, the Teamsters,
and somewhere way all the way down the list
is the Democrats.
[laughter]
These hearings are so popular.
I bet Ticketmaster screwed up tickets to that too.
You got kids outside crying.
[sobs] I'm the Senate's biggest fan.
I just wanted to see Dick Durbin!
But, ultimately, there's only one way to fix this problem--
get rid of online ticket sales.
Go back to waiting on line in person out in the cold.
[cheering]
Make people earn that shit like we used to.
You're not a real fan unless getting a ticket
gave you hypothermia.
Hey, I almost lost two toes just to see Johnny Gill.
And I'd do it again, damn it.
And, finally, Ticketmaster isn't the only company that
needs to make some changes.
Down in Florida, Disney World is
bringing one of its most popular rides
into the present day.
Well, a Disney ride that many people experienced
as a kid is no more.
Disney World in Florida has officially
closed Splash Mountain.
And Disneyland in California will be following suit.
Splash Mountain features characters
from the 1946 Disney film Song of the South,
which critics say portrays racial stereotypes.
Splash Mountain will be turned into a new ride based
on the 2009 animated film The Princess and the Frog,
which features Tiana, Disney's first Black princess.
Yeah, that's right.
Disney says it's going to get rid of "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah"
and turn it into a ride about The Princess and the Frog.
You know they're just going to keep the song, though, right?
They're just going to change the lyrics.
(SINGING) She's a Black princess
unless she's a Black frog.
I mean, I appreciate the effort from Disney.
But you're going to make the Black ride the one
where we get our hair wet.
That's just more racist than before.
So for more on this controversy,
we go to Roy Wood, Jr., who is live at Disney World.
[cheering]
Yes, what's up, Wanda?
Roy, you're at ground zero of this controversy.
How are people feeling about these changes?
Oh, Wanda, these changes are long overdue.
All that racism was ruining the simple pleasure
of Splash Mountain, which is to fall
into a giant pool of piss.
But if you ask me, this doesn't go far enough.
We need Disney World to close more rides
like them damn mad teacups.
Close them-- close them teacups.
Why?
Is that ride racist too?
No, but when I was eight, I got on that ride
and threw up on my crush, ruined Stephanie's dress.
Reese's Pieces all over the place, everywhere.
You know that ride.
The teacup be spinning.
I was like a vomit sprinkler.
[babbles] I'm sorry, Stephanie.
I'm so sorry.
Roy, Roy, nobody gives a shit about your digestive system.
We're just glad Disney is trying to remove
racism from its parks.
With all due respect, Wanda, I disagree.
I don't think we should be removing
the racism from the rides.
In fact, we should be adding racism.
Why in the hell would we want to add
racism into Disney World?
Because Disney World might be the only place
left in Florida where kids can learn about racism.
It's a mad place.
[cheering]
You see what DeSantis is doing down here.
DeSantis taking Black History out of the schools,
cracking down on AP classes.
Pretty soon, he gonna ban the word Black.
We're going to have to start saying
super gray or dark white or something.
[laughter]
I see what you're saying.
The kids come in for the fun, and then we
sneak in the education.
Exactly, exactly.
That's what we do, sneak it in.
Like, you know those bumper cars
they got in Tomorrow Land.
Tomorrow Land got them bumper cars, right?
Add some cops in there pulling Black people over to teach
the kids about traffic stops.
What you mean I was driving recklessly, sir?
This is a bumper car.
And don't tell me my tail light was out.
There is no tail light.
Mama!
Well, you know what?
You might be on to something, Roy.
I'm telling you, Wanda, we put a little racism
into these rides.
The kids are going to learn.
And you know how they do that parade down at Disney,
all the Disney characters.
And that's fun for everybody.
Set the parade in Selma.
Walk Mickey Mouse and them across that Edmund Pettus
Bridge with Buzz Lightyear on the other side,
waiting to beat their asses to infinity and beyond.
That's better than any textbook.
[applause]
Damn, Roy, I mean, this is getting a little harsh, right?
What they've done to us was harsh, Wanda!
I'm being fair.
Oh, how about this?
You know what?
You know they got Main Street USA down there, right?
It's a beautiful collection of shops
and successful businesses, and they're
bustling and doing well.
Uh-oh, I see where this is going.
Bomb that shit just like they did
Black Wall Street in Tulsa!
People need to know the truth about this shit, Wanda.
I think bombing people is a bit
much for an amusement park.
You're entitled to your opinion.
Last idea-- best idea, Epcot Center--
Epcot Center should be whites only.
What's that going to teach them?
It won't teach them nothing.
Epcot just boring as hell, and I don't want to go.
It's just a big-ass golf ball with an elevator.
Listen, Wanda, I gotta roll.
I'm up next for the teacups, and I got something to prove.
Stephanie, if you're watching this, my stomach is strong.
I'm a man now.
I can eat this food and still ride the ride.
I won't vomit on you, Stephanie.
Please, hit my DMs. Come on.
Good luck-- Shoot me a DM, Stephanie.
--with that, Roy.
Roy Wood, Jr., everybody.
All right, when we come back, we'll
find out what's going on with George
Santos and his lying ass.
So don't go away.
[cheering]
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
Tell you, it's been a bad week for George Santos,
or as he calls it, a good week.
He's already been caught, like, 50 lies.
He lied about his career.
He lied about his name.
He lied about running a pet charity.
And now he's getting caught in a new lie.
According to an ex-friend of George Santos's from Brazil,
the openly gay New York Congressman used to perform
in drag back in the day and even had his own drag
queen persona named Kitara.
REPORTER 1: Photos and video reveal that Santos performed
in drag several times over at least three years
despite his claim that it was something
he did just once for fun.
REPORTER 2: Congressman, were you
ever a drag queen in Brazil?
[scoffs] No, I was not a drag queen in Brazil, guys.
I was young, and I had fun at a festival.
Sue me for having a life.
Sue me for having a life?
No, man, we should sue you for lying.
[cheering]
You know, but the drag queen part is pretty cool.
I like Kitara.
Kitara, you stay.
George Santos, sashay away.
[cheering]
Now, with all these lies, it's no surprise that 59% of New
Yorkers want him to resign.
But that does raise the question,
how could it only be 59%?
Who are the people who don't want him to resign?
Well, lucky for us, they just released an ad.
You've probably been hearing a lot
in the media about our new Congressman, George Santos.
But now it's time that you hear from us,
the people who voted for him.
We here in New York's third district
voted for Congressman Santos because he's a fighter--
and not just as a politician, but as a boxer
who beat Muhammad Ali in 1972.
A great fight.
Come on, Tommy!
I stand with George Santos because when
my apartment building was collapsing,
he held it up with one arm.
I support George Santos because, simply
put, he's a war hero.
Also invented the window.
I'm voting for Santos because he cares about seniors.
And as an 87-year-old woman, that's important to me.
I stand with the brother George Santos
because he invented the cure for COVID.
Just wish he had done it before I died from it.
I stand with Santos.
Yup, even me, Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman.
As a Christian woman who's never
had sex because I'm saving myself for marriage,
I know George Santos shares my values.
Why do I support George Santos?
Because we're both proudly Jewish.
Jew-ish.
I stand with George Santos.
Now watch me eat this meatball sandwich.
Mm.
I stand with George Santos, who's-- who's
Anthony Devolder.
I stand with Anthony Santos Devolder.
D-- George Santos--
I stand with George Santos.
I stand with George Costanza.
Anthony DeVito?
George Michael.
John Stamos.
Whatever his name may be, I--
I'm with h-- I'm with her. I'm with him.
Can I call him Rick? I want to say Rick.
I stand with Rick.
Y'all know who he is.
ANNOUNCER: Paid for with money you
sent to a dying dog probably.
[cheering]
All right, stay tuned because when we come back,
the renowned feminist Katha Pollitt will
be joining me on the show.
So don't go away.
[cheering]
[applause, cheering]
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My guest tonight is an award-winning columnist
for The Nation.
She's written a number of books, including Pro--
Reclaiming Abortion Rights.
She's here to talk about abortion politics and
the fight for women's rights.
Please welcome Katha Pollitt.
[applause, cheering]
Hi.
You look good.
Thank you so much for being here.
Oh, thank you so much for having me, Wanda.
Appreciate it.
So you've been an abortion rights advocate for decades.
And it seems like we keep having this same debate
for, like, over 50 years.
So how has-- has it changed any?
Or is it the same conversation?
That question makes me feel very old.
[laughs] But I think the conversation
has been stuck in several ways.
And one way I want to mention is that a lot of people
have voted anti-abortion legislation because they
thought it would never happen.
So they would vote in state legislatures
for these wild things, thinking, well, Roe is there,
it's not going to be so crazy.
But now it is.
So they're thinking, oh, my God, what have I done?
At least some of them are.
But I think the other thing is that Dobbs, which--
which overthrew Roe, has woken up pro-choicers in the most--
and women who maybe didn't know they
were pro-choice in the most amazing way.
[cheering, applause]
It was very important in the last election
in several races.
And abortion rights won in election.
Yes, it did.
[cheering, applause]
And what's-- what's especially interesting is that there were
six states in which there was anti-abortion
stuff on the ballot.
It went down in every case, including in Kansas--
[cheering, applause]
--in very, very red Kansas and very, very red Kentucky.
So that tells you something.
It tells you people aren't really down
with the idea of banning all abortion
and making women suffer.
OK.
But that's--
[applause]
It's interesting what you said at first.
It's like, they didn't really want it to happen at first.
It was just kind of like performative.
It was just like, hey, let's put this out there,
and it'll draw the other people in to vote for us
so we can pass more things that's, like, about taxes
and stuff. KATHA POLLITT: Exactly.
- Right? - Exactly.
It is-- it's like a signal that, you know,
I'm a good Christian.
But in real life, it served other purposes as well
of just being very, very reactionary
on a whole range of issues.
OK.
And now the terminology that they use,
it's like scare tactics.
Like, you know, like partial birth
abortion and abortion doctors.
Like, no one goes to college and go, you know,
what you going to be?
I'm going to be a cardiologist.
What you doing?
Ooh, I don't know, I think I'm going to work with feet.
What about you?
Abortions, that's all that I'm doing, just abortions.
I mean, there's no such thing as, like, an abortion doctor.
Well, they used to--
they used to call them abortionists.
OK.
So that's, like, really not a real doctor.
You don't want to go to an abortionist.
WANDA SYKES: Right.
Abortion doctor is a demeaning term.
OBGYN is a good term.
Providing care for women--
WANDA SYKES: That's an even better term.
--that's a good way to put it.
WANDA SYKES: Right.
[applause]
And it's all intended to make it seem as though abortion
is not part of health care.
And the very important thing that everybody
has to think about is abortion is part of health care.
[cheering, applause]
Absolutely.
Now, I'm glad you're saying that--
to hear that young women are active and they're voting
because we need them, because the House Majority Leader
Steve Scalise said that "Roe's reversal"--
and this is a quote-- he said, "Only
the first phase in the battle.
Now the next phase begins."
Like, what is that next phase?
What do you think that means?
I think it means contraception,
going after contraception--
[audience muttering]
--that there are right-to-lifers who believe
that the birth control pill is what they
call a "chemical abortion."
They think the morning-after pill, which you can--
which you take to prevent a pregnancy,
is actually an abortion.
They think the IUD is an abortion.
It's like, it's in there.
It's performing abortions every day.
[laughter]
They have their own-- they have their own facts.
And I think that we're already seeing that contraception,
which should be part of the--
if you're against abortion, you should
be in favor of contraception because that will prevent.
WANDA SYKES: Right.
[applause]
But we're already seeing moves to make
contraception harder to get.
So these-- they have no idea how a woman's body works.
That's so true.
Science.
That's so true.
There was recently a state legislator in a very red state
of Idaho or Utah, I think, and he said, I raise cattle,
I know all about what goes on.
I've walked behind cows.
And I'm thinking, so you've looked up a cow's behind,
and you think you understand what happens with women.
I mean, how crazy is that?
[laughter]
- Ugh! - I know.
- That's terrifying. - It's terrifying.
It is.
So-- and it's such a polarizing issue.
How do we change minds?
How do we sway them?
Or is it education?
Or is it like a personal experience?
What is it?
Well, I think it's all those things.
I think personal experience, if people know
someone who's had an abortion, they
start to think differently.
And there's actually a sociological study
that shows this by a sociologist named Sarah Cowan,
who found out that even very, very anti-abortion people,
if it's someone in their family, if it's a friend,
they'll be kind a lot of the time.
They might even drive that person to the clinic,
even if they think it's the wrong thing to do,
because they can relate on a human level
to the difficult situations that women who have abortions
are often in involving poverty and abuse and health problems,
all kinds of stuff, having other things that they really
want to do in their life, like hold a job,
go to college, all that.
So people are not as evil as they seem.
People are not as evil as they seem.
That's my mantra.
WANDA SYKES: That's a good mantra.
I hope you're right.
[applause]
But you mentioned poverty.
Isn't that who it's going to affect and hurt the most?
Yes.
This is so terrible, that people don't know this.
When I was on tour for my book, I found the two most
important things to tell people that really, I think,
do have power to affect how people think is this.
One is that about half the women who have abortions
are poor.
They live at or below the poverty level.
And that shows you how difficult their lives are.
The other, which is fascinating,
is that 60% of women who have abortions are already mothers.
So there goes the stereotype of, oh, she's
just a young slut out to have fun,
or she's a child-hating career woman.
Those are the two big stereotypes.
But neither of them are true, and you
can explain that to people.
Yeah, it's like, she has kids and knows, I got enough.
This is enough.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Well, I think maybe if they, like,
create an abortion pill that also maybe heals
erectile dysfunction or something, you know,
make it a two-for-one-- KATHA POLLITT: Yeah, yeah.
--a little something for you, a little something for them,
then the guys will be happy about it.
You won't have any problem getting access to it then.
I think we need a chemist who gets
to work on that right away.
WANDA SYKES: Exactly, exactly.
Well, thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for having me.
Pro-- Reclaiming Abortion Rights is available now.
OK, we're going to take a quick break.
We'll be right back after this.
[cheering, applause]
[cheering]
That's our show for tonight.
But before we go, please, consider supporting
Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit.
They have been serving LGBTQ+ young
people experiencing homelessness
for more than two decades.
They currently provide housing, health care, a food pantry,
a drop-in center, and more.
If you can, please, support them in their work
at the link below.
Now here it is, your Moment of Zen.
It is a story Taylor Swift fans know all too well.
Fans of Taylor Swift and Ticketmaster
are never ever, ever getting back together.
Sounds like there could be (SINGING) trouble, trouble.
Ticketmaster-- you know, they are trying to shake it off,
but that is--
REPORTER: Oh, oh.
ANNOUNCER: MTV.