[theme music]
ANNOUNCER: Coming to you from New
York City, the only city in America, it's The Daily Show.
Tonight, wage theft in America, Michael
Strahan, and Sheryl Lee Ralph.
This is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
[cheering]
What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to The Daily Show.
I'm Trevor Noah.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Thank you for coming out in person.
Thank you for being here, everybody.
Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for coming out. Take a seat.
Let's get into this.
We have got a great show for you tonight.
The World Cup is continuing its run of upsets.
Mozzarella sticks are getting sued.
And we'll give you yet another reason to hate your boss.
Plus, we have two fantastic guests joining us on the show.
NFL legend Michael Strahan is going to be here.
And one of the stars of Abbott Elementary, Sheryl Lee Ralph
is going to be here tonight.
So let's do this, people.
Let's just straight into today's headlines.
[cheering]
All right, everybody.
Before we get into the big stories,
let's catch up on a few other things going on in the world,
starting off with the World Cup.
In today's knockout games, Portugal
absolutely obliterated Switzerland, 6 goals to 1.
Yeah, and after this match, now I
guess we see why Switzerland doesn't get involved in wars.
[laughter]
But the major World Cup news of today
is how the North African nation of Morocco
pulled an absolutely stunning upset of--
[cheering]
--against football powerhouse Spain.
And I know this won't make up for the fact
that Spain once colonized a part of Morocco.
But it goes a long way.
It really does.
Oh, in international news, the government of Indonesia
has just officially banned all sex outside of marriage.
Yes, with a penalty of up to one year in prison.
That's going to make for some weird conversation
in Indonesian prisons.
You know?
Guys be like, I'm here for murder.
What are you in for?
A mediocre night with Jason.
[laughter]
Oh, and in some major legal news,
the Trump organization has been found guilty
of 17 counts of tax fraud--
[cheering]
--and other financial crimes.
And you know what that means.
Donald Trump is going to prison--
[cheering]
--to visit all the lower-ranking people
who did this without his knowledge or his permission.
Yeah, because we all know that's how that
works in the world, right?
All the successes in Trump's organization,
they are due to the genius of Donald Trump.
All the crimes, he had no idea.
It's like, (IMITATING TRUMP) that's right, folks.
I have zero control over the things I run,
which is why you should vote for me to run the country.
So I can run it like one of my companies,
which I don't even run.
I don't even run.
But speaking of crime--
[cheering]
Speaking of crime, let's move on to our main story.
In the run up to the midterms, one
of the major issues for voters across the land was crime.
In fact, any time you turned on the news,
you were bound to see stories like this.
Business owners across the country
are stepping up security as they
report brazen shoplifting.
We've all seen the videos.
Shoplifting at supermarkets across the USA
is out of control.
REPORTER: Handbag haul, the brazen bandit who cops say
walked out with all these stolen handbags.
REPORTER: The shoplifting epidemic
highlighted by this viral video at a Walgreens last week.
REPORTER: Shoplifting is up 300%
as video of brazen thieves leaving with their arms
laden with stolen merchandise continue
to shock all Americans.
REPORTER: Shoplifting has gotten so bad this year.
Rite Aid is considering literally putting
everything behind showcases.
Yeah you hear that?
Shoplifting has gotten so bad that they're locking
everything behind showcases.
Oh, and the person who unlocks the showcase,
they're locked behind the showcase too.
Yeah, now you're screwed.
What are you going to do?
But, yes almost every day, every day in the news,
we've seen these horrible stories, you know,
about people blatantly breaking the law
and stealing what doesn't belong to them.
And I don't care what anyone says.
There is zero excuse for shoplifting-- zero excuse,
even in the instances where you find yourself waiting in line
forever, and there's six open registers,
but the store only decided to hire one cashier, which makes
you feel like they're taunting you,
showing you how fast it could be,
but they just don't want it to be, you know?
So then you think, oh, you're just going to go
and use the self-checkout.
But then there's an error because you didn't put
the item in the bagging area or because you put
it in too early or too late.
And now you have to wait for the supervisor
to come over and ask, oh, are you trying to buy this?
No, I just enjoy holding shampoo.
Yeah, that's what I'm doing here.
Yes, I'm trying to buy this.
Yes, I'm trying to buy it.
And then instead of just, like, helping you out,
they give you that look.
They give you that look like, oh, and then
they wave the magical, little key fob.
And then even in that instance, it is not justified.
Even when it's justified, it is not justified to steal.
But what if I told you-- what if I told
you that the biggest theft isn't people
stealing from companies?
What if I told you the biggest theft
is companies stealing from people?
Well, you might ask, how or why?
Well, let's find out in another installment of If You
Don't Know, Now You Know.
[music playing]
[cheering]
When you take a job, you're making a simple agreement
with your employer, right? You do the work.
They give you pay.
That's the very foundation that jobs are built on.
And yet all over the country, all over the world,
in fact, employers aren't holding
up their end of the deal.
Imagine working and never getting paid.
It's a growing problem called wage theft.
REPORTER: Wage theft occurs when a worker is paid
less than they're legally entitled to,
such as when they're denied pay for working overtime
or work off the clock without getting paid
or are denied legal meal breaks.
REPORTER: 67 letter carriers say their paychecks were
changed to make it look like they worked less
hours than they actually did.
REPORTER: Workers at Hardee's and Carl's, Jr. have filed
dozens of state and federal complaints,
including allegations of wage theft, manipulated overtime,
and unfair labor practices.
REPORTER: About 10,000 people are saying
Chipotle forced them to work off the clock
to boost the bottom line.
REPORTER: Wage theft is the costliest crime
in the country, robbing US workers of $15 billion
per year, more than car thefts, burglaries,
and other larcenies combined.
Yeah, that's right.
The costliest crime in the United States
is actually being committed by corporations.
So I guess instead of following Black people around the store,
security guards should be hovering
over CEOs at their desk.
Yeah.
They should be looking over there--
[cheering]
--and being like, I'm going to need
you to go ahead and put that person's salary back
where it belongs.
It's like, oh, sorry.
[laughs] I didn't see that I had that.
Yeah, I bet you didn't.
And I think we can all agree, nobody--
nobody should be doing work that they're
not getting paid for.
Because, I mean, then that's not a job.
Now you're volunteering at a fast food restaurant,
and who would do that? Huh?
Who's there like, oh, me, I--
I'm not in it for the money.
I'm in it for the love of childhood obesity.
[laughs]
And, by the way-- by the way, wage theft
isn't just when companies don't pay employees for the work
that they've done.
In some instances, employers find
really shitty ways to actually make their employees pay them.
For example, there was a restaurant owner
who confiscated his employees' tips at the end of their shift
and called it--
I swear to god--
a cleaning fee.
Yeah.
The NFL Oakland Raiders would dock
their cheerleaders' pay for shit
like wearing the wrong color nail polish.
Yeah, but this example of creative wage theft
might be my favorite of all.
REPORTER: This is Fantasy Gentleman's Club in Grand
Junction, and this is the 24-page class
action lawsuit claiming--
Fantasy Gentleman's Club has been exploiting
these workers for years.
REPORTER: Among other charges, dancers
accused the club of cutting into their take-home pay
with excessive fines.
REPORTER: $50 if dancers don't share tips
with the DJ and security, a hundred bucks
to change the schedule.
There's even a fine for complaining to customers
about their personal lives.
I'm sorry, what?
This is the biggest bullshit of all.
You can't fine strippers for complaining to customers
about their personal lives, all right?
First of all, how can you even tell
that they're complaining and not
just singing along to the Drake song that's playing?
You don't know.
And second of all, if strippers couldn't complain
about their lives, then how would they
be able to convince customers into spending
more than they plan to help save them from this life?
So what you're saying is if we go to the champagne room,
then you can move with me to Chicago.
Is that it?
And there's a lot of reasons businesses are
able to get away with this.
First of all, wage theft tends to target people
with the least ability to fight back like hourly workers
and undocumented immigrants.
Making matters worse, the government agencies
who are supposed to be the watchdogs against wage theft
are understaffed and underfunded.
Oh, and when companies do get caught stealing,
here's what happens to them.
REPORTER: McDonald's has agreed to pay $26 million
to settle accusations of wage theft.
It follows a long-running, class-action lawsuit
at corporate-run locations in California.
REPORTER: The US Labor Department
says Walmart will pay $4.8 million
in back wages and damages to more than 4,500 employees.
REPORTER: Amazon agreed to pay $8.2 million
to settle a wage-theft lawsuit.
And Krispy Kreme was ordered to pay workers more than $1.1
million after investigators found
widespread and systematic failure to pay
workers what they were owed.
Huh, that's so strange.
All of this theft occurred, but there was no mention
of anyone going to jail.
But then how will they learn their lesson?
Oh, and before you say, but, Trevor,
you can't put a corporation in jail.
Says who? Says who?
They always say corporations are people,
so why doesn't America treat them like American
people, huh?
Why not?
[cheering]
Every time-- every single time a company
gets busted stealing their workers' wages,
you know what they should do?
They should say that the company headquarters
should be taken to prison.
Yeah, that's what they should do.
Just take the actual headquarters,
put it in prison.
Yeah, you hear that, Amazon?
Same-day delivery is going to be
a lot harder when have to smuggle that air
fryer in your butthole.
[laughter]
But just because it's all too easy for companies
to steal from their workers, that doesn't
mean workers are powerless.
Wage theft has been one of the issues driving
an increase in unionization.
And California has just passed a law
saying that for the first time anywhere in the country wages
and payment rules for all fast food
workers will be set not by employers
but by a council of experts appointed by the state.
Yes, a council--
[applause]
--of fast food experts.
So, finally, a government job that Trump
is actually qualified for.
[laughter]
But for some workers, waiting for the bureaucracy
of the courts or the government to intervene
just takes too long, which is why one construction
worker in England expressed his anger in a more physical way.
REPORTER: A row over 600 pounds that will end up costing
so much more to put right.
This construction worker was so angry at allegedly not being
paid that he took drastic action, driving
a mini excavator into the newly-finished hotel
that he'd helped build.
[applause]
OK, OK.
I know this seems bad, but is it?
No, because the guy did the work, didn't get paid,
and then he undid the work, right?
Seems like a fair deal to me.
And it reminds me--
[applause]
It reminds me of a very wise thing my grandfather
used to tell me.
He would say, (SOUTH AFRICAN ACCENT) remember,
Trevor, if you want to screw someone over,
make sure they don't own a bulldozer first.
[laughter]
And, yes, my grandfather was Nelson Mandela.
[laughter]
He was, indeed.
So the next time you turn the TV on and see all the news
about people shoplifting from drug stores,
before assuming there is a crime, maybe, just
for a moment, think that they could
just be getting their wages back a totally different way.
And if you don't know, now you know.
Before we go to a break, it's time
to check in on the weather forecast with our very own
Desi Lydic, everybody!
[cheering]
Desi, what's happening in the weather?
I don't know.
My Wi-Fi's down, so my weather app doesn't work.
You know, Trevor, it's interesting.
You're going on and on about the epidemic of wage theft,
meanwhile ignoring the wage theft going
on right in front of you.
Whoa, whoa. No, no.
Desi, what are you talking about?
You're getting paid.
Well, sure, maybe for doing the weather.
Well, actually, you never actually do the weather.
But there is a ton of other stuff
that I do that I'm not compensated for.
Like, I spend hours of the workday selling
my bathtub kombucha on Etsy.
And I haven't seen a dime from this show.
But, Desi, that's not wage theft.
We're not paying you to do that.
Exactly, you're not paying me to do that.
And it's how I spend most of my time in the office at work.
TREVOR NOAH: What?
But it's fine. Don't worry.
You'll read all about it in the lawsuit.
Well, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait.
You're suing me?
Oh, yeah, no, it's been a long time
coming because I work very, very hard at this show.
Do you know that I have never once been paid overtime
for organizing the office supplies
and putting them neatly in boxes
and taking them home to my apartment?
[laughter]
You've been stealing office supplies?
Well, not to mention all the hours
that I spent taking the laser out of the laser printer.
Desi, that's not even how a laser printer works.
Well, I know that now.
But I'm not getting that time back.
TREVOR NOAH: OK, Desi, none of this is actually wage theft.
You realize that.
I'm sorry.
Who made you Judge Judy?
OK. - You know what?
I don't want to do this, but--
like, I didn't want to do this.
I don't think you're going to win a wage theft lawsuit
with us because I have a solid year of video evidence of you
never actually doing the weather,
which is your actual job.
[laughter]
Oh, OK, OK.
Is that how it's going to be? - Just saying.
You want to play hardball, huh?
Fine, I get it.
I get it.
Yeah, Desi, look, I'm sorry that you feel that way.
All right?
I'm sorry that you feel that way.
I'm just saying, if anything, it
sounds like you are the person who's stealing from the place
that pays your wages.
You know?
So I don't think taking this case to the court
is the right idea.
It's just like, it's one of those things--
[motor running]
Wait, Desi?
Desi, what are the-- Desi, what are you doing?
Desi?
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
[cheering]
That's right.
You had your chance, Trevor.
Now it's time for bulldozer justice.
And, by the way, I'm charging extra for this.
TREVOR NOAH: No, no, don't do it, Desi.
No. No, Desi!
No!
All right, we're going to take a quick break while everyone
evacuates the studio.
Desi Lydic, everybody.
When we come back, the legendary Michael Strahan will
be joining us on the show.
So don't go away.
[cheering]
[music playing]
Donald Jumanji Trump.
Donald Jabberwocky Trump.
Donald Jamaican Me Crazy Trump.
(IMITATING TRUMP) You got 5G, then 6G,
and then, of course, there's Kenny G,
the smoothest of the G's.
Hunter Biden's laptop exposes the whole Russia hoax.
The election was rigged.
Mazel tov on your bar mitzvah.
Pussy, my favorite topic.
Thank you for bringing this up.
Let's talk about it.
You stole my idea.
And, by the way, stealing stuff is also my idea.
Read the news.
Read it and weep.
Harry, move those classified documents so I can illegally
hide them from the FBI.
But, first-- but, first, let's all wave
at that blinking red light and tell it our names.
Donald J. Trump, the J stands for genius.
[music playing]
[cheering]
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My first guest tonight is Pro Football
Hall of Famer who hosts Good Morning
America and Fox NFL Sunday.
He's here to talk about a new podcast
he's produced called American Football--
How the Gridiron Was Forged, which
is now streaming on Audible and wherever
you get your podcasts.
Please, welcome Michael Strahan.
[music playing]
[cheering]
Hello, hello!
Hey, what's up, everybody?
Michael Strahan.
Hey, before you ask me one thing--
Before I ask you--
I'm-- before you ask me, I'm going to say you're brilliant.
- Oh, thank you. - You're brilliant.
Thank you. Thank you.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
And, you know, you're going to be-- if you ever get,
like, tired of not doing this, my living room is always open.
Come over. - Can I--
Any time.
That would be so much fun, just
The Daily Show for one person. - I'm not paying you though.
That's the thing. - You're not paying me?
[laughter]
I'm not paying you, man.
You just got to show up and do it.
I think that would be fun. I would do that.
It's like Daily Show for one person at their house.
I'm actually-- that's actually an idea
that I'll just do that. Individual shows would be cool.
I like that.
TREVOR NOAH: Just be addressing it to you.
Perfect.
TREVOR NOAH: But, first, Michael, let's kick
things off with the story. - Let's go.
You can even ask questions. Welcome to the show.
Thank you, man.
I feel like you make that offer to me,
but you wouldn't have the time for me to come to your house
and do that.
Because there are few people I know who
have more jobs than you do.
You retired from football--
Yeah.
TREVOR NOAH: --to do everything else.
To not--
TREVOR NOAH: To do everything else.
I retired to get more jobs.
TREVOR NOAH: That's essentially what you did, right?
So you're working in television.
And it's all types of television.
You got, like, morning television.
You've got sports television.
You've got a clothing line.
You know, you've got a skincare line now.
You've got a podcast.
So let's start with the podcast because that's
one of the newest aspects of what you're doing.
Talk me through the History of the NFL because so many sports
are popular. - Yeah.
TREVOR NOAH: But football has a special place in America.
What do you think it is about football that makes it what
it is in American history?
It's violent.
TREVOR NOAH: Wow.
[laughter]
I'm joking, man.
It's controlled aggression.
OK.
I call it controlled aggression.
But I think we love football so much because it's American--
again, American football, the podcast,
and it goes back to the origin of the game.
And football was a white-collar sport back in the day.
TREVOR NOAH: Yeah, I was shocked to find that out.
But they wouldn't let the blue-collar guys play.
So they created their own league to compete.
And now it's kind of turned into it's
blue collar guys playing, getting
paid white-collar salaries.
Huh.
It's kind of-- if you think about-- the game has changed.
But we dove back into things that I know
about the game of football.
I just kind of assumed I'm a player.
I love the game.
But when you go back and look at the origin,
how it was founded, and the ways
that they had to go and get around the system
to create some of these teams, and to have Kate Mara come in
and narrate it-- TREVOR NOAH: That is amazing.
--who was a part of two football dynasties,
the Giants and the Steelers through her family, it was
like a dream project for me.
Because without the NFL, I wouldn't
be sitting here with you.
It gave me a completely different life
than I ever expected.
But to dive back into the history of the game
and understand how far it's come, but where it began,
and it's totally different than what I expected.
I hope people will tune in so that they can learn
a little bit more about what we love so much,
which is American football.
TREVOR NOAH: But what I love about the podcast
is that it's not just about the sport.
So if you don't like the sport, the podcast
is still amazing because it delves into history.
It delves into classism.
It delves into these battles between--
Everything.
TREVOR NOAH: --who has and who doesn't and who should
and who shouldn't be.
It's a fascinating story.
And as you talk about the progression of football,
it made me wonder.
You're one of the few people who has had the span of career
that you had in football, playing for what, 15 years.
MICHAEL STRAHAN: 15 years, yeah.
That's insane.
MICHAEL STRAHAN: Yeah, tell me about it.
I know. It's crazy.
[applause]
So I would love to know.
As somebody who witnessed the game, like,
up close for 15 years, would you change
anything about football now?
If you could-- if you could wave a magic wand
and change three things about football tomorrow,
what would they be?
I would wave a magic wand and make it so that I
could play for a lot longer.
[laughter]
So you're going back.
Yeah, I want to go back.
My body, man, you know what you miss?
You know what you miss?
You miss physically dominating another man.
TREVOR NOAH: OK, OK.
Someone's going to clip that sentence
and take it out of context.
[laughter]
I mean, you enjoy it.
I love it.
[laughs]
Because mine was like, I miss hugging another man so hard.
It was cut--
And just loving him as hard as I could.
But I do miss that.
I miss the competitiveness of it.
I miss the physicality.
I would probably wave my magic wand and--
you know, I like what they're doing, though,
when it comes to injuries and the brain and all
these different things.
I like what they're doing there.
There's not much-- I don't know how
much you can change the game.
Because I almost feel like in some aspect,
you change it so much--
it takes away from what it was.
TREVOR NOAH: OK, what would you change in and around the game?
So, for instance, one of the things that always threw me--
and I might be wrong on this, but--
Yeah, you tell me.
What throws you about football?
Well, no, I was always thrown by this
is the fact that, like, if you got injured playing football,
it was just over for you.
And then you don't get the money
that was promised to you, but you
got injured playing the sport.
MICHAEL STRAHAN: You don't get guaranteed
contracts unless certain guys now are getting them.
OK, so that changing.
Or you get as much money as you
can up front in your signing bonus
so they can't release you so early
because they're going to get some money out of you
by making you play. - Oh, OK, OK.
And that was the one thing.
Yeah, I would probably change the guarantees in contracts
because basketball had them. TREVOR NOAH: Yes.
Baseball has them. TREVOR NOAH: Right.
But the problem with football that they see is that
if you guarantee the money, there are
60-something guys on a team.
So if you have that many guys on injured reserve,
how can you economically afford to have that many guys--
TREVOR NOAH: But they make billions.
I know. That's their argument.
I didn't say they were right.
TREVOR NOAH: OK, OK, OK.
Trust me.
I would have loved guaranteed money.
I'm just saying, anyone who has billions going like--
[whining]
Where am I gonna get it from?
You have billions.
Can you get this cup of coffee?
[laughs] Before I let you go, I want to talk
about one of your latest ventures,
which is your skincare line.
Yeah, man.
TREVOR NOAH: You know, you have beautiful skin.
Thank you.
TREVOR NOAH: You really do.
[cheering]
And this is another opportunity I don't think a lot of people
would have thought of a long time ago.
People would have said, like, a football player, Michael
Strahan, bah, bah, and then it's like,
the skincare line of Michael Strahan.
I like this.
It's all sides of you.
Yeah, the guys who like to dominate other men, yes.
[laughter]
It's skincare now. - Yes.
But you know what it is?
It's like, to me--
Dominate other men with your skincare.
- Yes. - Look at these pores.
Look at them!
[laughs] But, you know, it all started
with the clothing line.
And it was like, OK, I'm on TV.
I'm always in suits and stuff.
So it was like a confidence thing, man.
TREVOR NOAH: Yes.
You want to feel good like you.
You look good. You feel good, right?
You perform better.
And I think that skin care was a missing link, at least
for me, because everything I've done
has always been about my life and my lifestyle.
I don't do anything that isn't authentically me.
TREVOR NOAH: Right.
So it was about skincare and having
a routine that is easy to do.
Because I'm kind of lazy about that.
TREVOR NOAH: Which I think is most men.
Like, every single friend of mine, every woman I
talk to who's a friend, I go--
they go, what do you do for your skincare.
And I go, eh, wash the face, and I leave the house.
And-- [gasps] - Yeah.
Like, it's always the shock and the what's your routine.
I'm like, there's no rou-- and then I got taught.
Like, no, you need to respect it and treat--
MICHAEL STRAHAN: You've got to respect it.
So what's the routine? How many steps?
- So we have five products. - Yeah.
- So we have a face wash. - This would be great.
You could do one of those YouTubes like,
so everyone's been asking me how about my skincare routine.
I'm Michael Strahan.
You could be doing that right now.
I think it would be amazing.
- In circles.
Right.
So tell me, what is your routine?
- So we have the face wash-- - OK, we start, obviously--
--which every day, easy routine.
You take a shower.
Oh, we start-- we wash the face.
- You wash your face. - Yes, right.
And then you have the face and neck moisturizer.
You get out. You--
TREVOR NOAH: Face and neck moisturize product.
Yup. So, you know--
TREVOR NOAH: You put neck as well?
Yeah, you can do it. TREVOR NOAH: All right, fine.
OK, I'll do the neck. - All up in here.
All up in here. - OK.
Look at my neck. I'm 82 years old.
Look at that neck.
[laughter]
So you got the face and neck moisturizer.
TREVOR NOAH: OK.
And then if you have a beard, like I got a beard,
I put the beard oil on.
TREVOR NOAH: You've got beard oil?
Beard oil, yeah. TREVOR NOAH: Wow.
Gotta keep that beard silky and soft.
You don't know who you may rub up into.
You know what I'm saying?
[laughter]
So that's the second thing I did that could be--
I'm loving this!
That could be messed up, man.
I'm loving this.
And then after that, we have our saving
gel, like a saving lotion.
TREVOR NOAH: OK.
And it's clear so that you can
actually see when you shave where exactly you're shaving.
TREVOR NOAH: Oh, OK.
Because that was always the thing.
I finish shaving.
Like, one's up here.
The other's down there.
And then we have our postshave balm, so nice, easy put on,
doesn't really sting your face.
TREVOR NOAH: OK.
But it's very simple thing, man.
And, for me, takes less time than brushing my teeth.
TREVOR NOAH: [laughs]
So-- I always say, they may not be together,
but they're clean.
I can tell you that.
[laughter]
- But, dude, thank you again. - I appreciate you, man.
Thank you for joining me on the show, as always.
Thank you for being so wonderful.
Michael Strahan, everybody.
Stay tuned.
When we come back, one of the stars
of Abbott Elementary, Sheryl Lee Ralph
is going to be joining me on the show.
You don't want to miss it.
[cheering]
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My next guest is a Tony-nominated and Emmy
Award-winning actor who stars in the hit series Abbott
Elementary, which airs Wednesday nights on ABC
and can be streamed on Hulu.
Although I did not participate in the gift
exchange, I did get you the humanely-harvested
poinsettia you asked for.
Merry Christmas.
Jacob, it's beautiful and perfect
for Melissa and my annual Christmas lounge dinner.
Every year, it's our tradition on the last day
of school before break.
- We bring in some food. - You have a little wine.
Mm-hmm.
It's our own little slice of heaven,
you know, in between school madness and family chaos.
Oh, actually, I remember you guys doing
that last year when Zach and I were headed
out on our Wildwood vacation.
Where are you two headed this year?
Oh, well, he's going to be with family.
So it's just me here alone, by myself.
Well that sounds fun.
Come on, Barb.
Please, welcome Sheryl Lee Ralph.
[music playing]
[cheering]
Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.
Thank you.
Wow.
The one and only--
Thank you.
--Sheryl Lee Ralph, welcome to The Daily Show.
Let me start with saying congratulations,
Emmy-award winning Sheryl Lee Ralph.
[cheering]
You know, there are many performers in history,
many artists, many actors who audiences have said,
critics alike, this person never got their flowers.
This person never got the recognition that they deserve.
So many people in Black Hollywood
never got the flowers that they deserved.
Yeah.
Talk me through just a part of this journey.
You know, you've done it all.
I mean, Moesha, for me, and then
moving from one to the next.
[cheering]
Dreamgirls for so many people back in the day,
the original Dreamgirl.
Talk talk me through the journey,
and what has kept you being as effervescent as you are?
Oh my god.
I choose to be happy.
I choose joy.
Yeah.
[applause]
I believe that since I am alive,
I might as well get up, get out there, and enjoy it.
[cheering]
Yes.
I'm so happy that God has chosen throughout all
of these years to wake me up every morning in my right mind
so that I can carry on in life.
I love it!
TREVOR NOAH: Amen! - Yes.
Yes.
That's what keeps me going.
That's what keeps me enjoying what I do through all
of the ups and downs, through all of the missteps
and the bad breaks.
I choose to carry on.
I choose to look in the mirror and love what I see.
TREVOR NOAH: We love what we see.
Thank you.
We genuinely love what we see.
Again, I mean, I am a sucker for--
I love all comedy.
Anything that is funny, I love.
You are a master in the way you perform it.
Abbott Elementary has done what many people
said wasn't possible.
People said no one watches live TV anymore.
Nobody likes a sitcom anymore.
Nobody likes these family stories anymore.
SHERYL LEE RALPH: That's right.
And yet Abbott Elementary has gone
and done the exact thing that everyone said was impossible.
You know, Quinta Brunson assembled
this amazing squad of people to come
in and tell real stories-- - That's right.
TREVOR NOAH: --that teachers love
of themselves, of the students, of the American schooling
system. - That's right.
You know, I know it touches everything.
But what do you think it is that brings people
back every single week and watching live, by the way,
sharing it with each other?
I think what they're seeing is their own struggles.
We're just a group of regular people in the show,
going through life.
And we just happen to be in a very challenging situation.
And every week, we are getting over the difficulties,
and we are appreciating what we have together,
working together on the show, in the show,
in the characters, in the scripts.
And people see themselves in it, and they love it.
TREVOR NOAH: They feel it. - They feel it.
TREVOR NOAH: They feel it, and they love it.
- And they tell us. - They do.
Oh, they do. - Oh my god.
Oh, they do.
Oh my god, my life now has turned
into one big photo session.
[laughs]
Anytime I go out into the street,
everybody wants to take a picture.
Everybody wants you to talk to their people.
And everybody wants to tell you how much they love you.
And I am saying, see, that's why I wake up happy every day.
[applause]
You-- you're also the rare breed of human
being who is talented in every aspect of what you do,
you know? TREVOR NOAH: Thank you.
Some people will see you as an actor on screen.
Others know you as the phenomenal performer on stage.
And now you have an album out. - Yes.
- A Christmas album. - Yes.
Sleigh.
SHERYL LEE RALPH: Yes.
TREVOR NOAH: Which I like the play on words,
but talk me through that.
Talk me through why the Christmas album
and why an album in general.
Well, first of all, it was only supposed to be a song.
And before I knew it, we had done 15 songs,
and we have an album called Sleigh.
And people are actually downloading it everywhere--
TREVOR NOAH: People are loving it.
--and loving it. It's crazy.
- People are loving it. - Yeah.
People are--
It's not your mother's Christmas album.
It is not.
We're going to take your mother to church and the club.
Yes.
I did notice that.
[applause]
It is one of the sexier Christmas
albums I've ever heard. - Thank you.
I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie.
Thank you.
TREVOR NOAH: Before I let you go, I would be remiss
if I didn't talk about your moment at the Emmys,
where I always say at every award show,
I feel like there should be an award
for the best award acceptance.
SHERYL LEE RALPH: Aw.
And yours was that.
Because sometimes at awards, it can feel self-indulgent.
It can feel like we're not part of what's happening.
It felt like we won with you.
It felt like people won with your win
even just for their lives.
It didn't feel like a platitude.
It didn't feel like you were just saying it.
It felt like you were embodying it.
And I'd love to know, in that moment, when you're holding
that award, in an industry that everyone thrives
to be celebrated or successful in,
what made you think of talking to the people
and not just talking about yourself?
Because I thought in that moment, you know,
my dad was a great lifelong learner and educator.
And when they called my name, it was like I could hear
my dad saying, there you are.
It's your time.
Come on.
But I couldn't-- I couldn't--
I was so shocked.
I couldn't get the message from my brain to my feet to move.
And my husband kept saying, get up.
Get up.
And it wasn't until I heard Quinta say, it's your name!
Get up!
Then I got up because Tyler came and literally lifted me
up and guided me to the stage.
And I got there, center stage, and there was my dad
again saying, don't you cry.
Don't you cry.
This is your moment.
Let them know who you are and how you got here.
TREVOR NOAH: Wow.
And there's a big screen like that in front of me
saying, stop now, stop now.
And I was like, I haven't even gotten started.
[laughter]
- Oh, I love it. - Yes.
I love it so much.
Thank you for joining me on the show.
Thank you. Trevor.
Thank you so much for everything you do.
- I missed you. - Thank you so much.
- Thank you. - Sheryl Lee Ralph, everybody.
We're going to take a quick break.
But we'll be right back after this.
[cheering]
Well, that's our show for tonight.
But before we go-- before we go,
this holiday season, please, consider
supporting Feeding America, the largest
hunger relief organization in the United States.
If you can support them in their amazing work of getting
nourishing food to the people who
need it most, then, please, donate at the link below.
Until next time, stay safe out there.
And, remember, the next time you
walk past a major corporation, you
might want to clutch your bag.
Now here it is, your Moment of Zen.
[cheering]
[music playing]
JOHN KENNEDY: It's easy to recognize the wokers.
They hate George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,
Dr. Zeus, and Mr. Potato Head.
Most of them eat food only fit for rabbits.
They almost always enter a swimming pool by the stairs.
They're kind of like Dwight on The Office.
They walk around with Ziploc bags of kale.
I don't eat kale.
You know why?
Because kale tastes to me like I'd rather be fat.