Jordan Klepper makes a habit of angering MAGA supporters. The Daily Show correspondent, known for going into the field and asking Donald Trump’s diehard supporters hard questions and creating comedy out of their responses, shared how he pulls it out without getting his “ass kicked” by the crowd, some of whom are known for easily resorting to violence.
In a sit down with Jon Stewart at a recent FYC event for Emmy voters, Klepper said that being a “white guy” is a big help—but he has even more protection than that.
“Being a correspondent is one of the most difficult things you can do because you have to be versed in so many different things,” Stewart said, kicking off the discussion. “You can take on these certain characters that you play, usually the high status idiot or one of those types of things, or you go out in the field and you do improv scenes with people that don’t realize they’re in an improv scene.”
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Klepper interjects with an important distinction: “Armed—armed people who don’t realize,” he added, before sharing his secret to keeping ass free from kicking, as asked by moderator Matt Belloni. “Well, I have a couple things. One, I’m a white guy at a Trump rally. It helps.” On top of that, he added, “I’m a tall white guy.”
An even bigger help though? He said he has ”four security guards” when he’s out interviewing MAGA supporters, which he admitted “is wild.”
“I will say when we started doing this, going out in the field, you didn’t need a security guard because you were an improv teacher a week and a half ago,” he joked, “so the idea that somebody would want to kill you or murder you seemed asinine. And yet—here we are, walking into spaces to talk about politics with four armed guards, but that’s what comedy wants in 2024.”
Klepper recently pow-wowed with MAGA immediately following both Trump and Hunter Biden’s guilty verdicts, where one loyal supporter said she’d donated thousands of dollars to Trump every time Trump he was found responsible for a crime. That same supporter said that she supported the ex-president because we “need to save our country from the border surge.”
He then asked innocently whether she was “sick and tired of [her] money going to people who committed crimes,” as she responded, “That’s right”—a shining example of how Klepper’s able to combine his improv and correspondent skills to prove a point without inciting the mob.
For more, listen to The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper on The Last Laugh podcast.
