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Welcome to the Daily Show Ears edition. This is Jordan Klepper, and I'm excited to be joined today by a daily show trailblazer, the great ed Helms. Ed, welcome.

Well, hello. Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you for being here.

That's a pleasure.

What's it feel like to come back into the. The Daily show studio? Enfold, like, what are the first thoughts that run through your head when you come in here?

I immediately barfed when I walked in the door. Lots of tension, anger, frustration.

Decades of just built up anxiety.

Yeah. Contempt. No, I have to say, like, for one thing, the studio is. And not just the studio itself, but the offices, the building, everything. It's so beautiful. Now, back in my day, I'm probably gonna say that a lot. It was. It was just a little more, I don't know, frumpy. And now it's, like, sexy. It's like a cool. It's, like, very, like, a cool workplace, too.

Sexy. Do you get the.

No, no. Like, just right. It's got good. It's got good vibes. And, of course, there's. There are a lot of people that still work here that I know and love, and so it's really just absolute delight to walk back in the door. I cannot overstate how fun it is to see people and even newer folks. And you're not new to the show by any stretch, but you're new by my standards.

Yes. By the long look of time. If you look at that, there's the paleolithic, the Colbert. The helms. The chordry.

Exactly.

Pliocenes. And then. Yes, I'm one of the newer ones.

That you're of the hominid era, and. But you're also lovely, and it's just so cool to meet and connect with new folks, too. So we all share this. This tedious bond.

Yeah, it's a land of. They say the no assholes rule, but there usually is one. Was that. Who was that for you? Who was the asshole?

Gosh, there were a lot of assholes.

I mean, let's be honest. Yeah.

Cordry. Oh, the worst. Colbert, also. Huge asshole. Carell. Big asshole. Every. It was an. It was a no no. Nice people rule, everyone. You had to be an asshole.

Yeah, I take that back. I said the no asshole thing, but I think I meant the direct opposite.

Exact opposite. No, it's a good. It's always. Yeah, it's always been a good vibe.

Do you remember the Daily show audition?

I do, yeah. Very, very vividly.

You were. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, you came from improv, UCB land. Correct to some degree.

But I was also, like, very deep in the stand up community. So at that time in New York, improv was pretty fresh. There wasn't, like a very well established improv scene. The upright Citizens brigade kind of came on strong in about 99, 2000. I had started doing standup in New York around 96. When I graduated from college, I came straight here and just jumped into all the open mics and stuff that I could do. And I was just starting to get some, just the tiniest bit of credibility as a city club comic. Like, just getting tiny little bits here or hosting spots there, but getting up at all of the legit clubs. Meanwhile, the Upright Citizens Brigade really came on strong in about 99. And I was like, that looks really cool and fun, too. So I started doing that also. But it's unclear to me exactly what put me on Comedy Central's radar. I think it was the stand up because Naomi Frisch was the head of talent in New York for Comedy Central, and she was, like, in the comedy clubs all the time. So I think it was more the stand up, but the audition that I went on was an open cattle call, really.

It was massive. Yeah. Everyone in town, everyone I knew was going on this audition. It was at one of the commercial casting companies. I mean, there were hundreds of people.

Yeah, similar type situation. You do essentially what we call the Daily Show a chat. Well, or did you have to write a chat for the audition?

There were two steps. The first was this, like, massive cattle call, and they just gave you a script when you got there, and so you didn't have any time to really, like, prepare for it, and then you just walked in and did it to camera. But I was such a student of the show at that point because I'd been really obsessed with it. And it was like, in my imagination, I was like, I'm gonna be on Saturday Night Live or the Daily show. Like, these are my two, like, north stars. I had two north stars. Most people have one. I had two.

It's tough directionally, aspirationally nice. Directionally, you're fucked.

It's terrible for navigation to have two north stars, but I had been sort of like, cultivating my SNL audition, like, getting that kind of, like, ready to go. And I was like, whichever one comes first, I'm just going to jump at it. So I was really a student of the show, and I was watching it religiously. Vance DeGeneres and Mo Raka and of course, Colbert and Carell were both on, and I watched it every single night. And I got to a point where I was like, I know all the tricks. I know what these guys do. I know how they talk. I know how they arch their eyebrows. I know when they arch their eyes. Like, there's really a craft to correspondenting. And I studied it. I got the audition right at the sort of, like, peak of my daily show preparation, which was a very lucky moment. But I walked into that audition, like, I remember sitting there in the waiting room, and there were tons of people, and I was like, all you suckers. No way. I know what I'm doing. I walked into that audition with a kind of confidence that I definitely did not earn or have any right to have, but for some reason, I just felt prepared.

Was that the case with other auditions you would walk into? Or was it like this one? You were like, I know this.

It's a good question. At that point, I was doing commercial voiceover auditions every day, like, five or six auditions a day. So I really had this muscle tuned, and I could walk into an audition, like, you know, do my best and walk out and never think about it again. Like, and with voiceovers, like, a good booking ratio for voiceovers might be, like, one in 30 auditions, and that's a good ratio. But that's also. You're booking, like, one a week. That means you're a badass voiceover actor, but it also means you're auditioning, like, thousands of times. And so I just had this, like, audition muscle, very, like, finely tuned. And that served me in my daily show audition. So I walked in. I knew the casting director. She was a friend of mine. At that point. I'd been in her office a thousand times, and I just did the audition the best I could. I walked out. I was like, I think I did pretty well. Oh, this is the other thing. They gave me a script that I had just seen Colbert do on the show, like, it was maybe two weeks old. So they're like, we'll throw these auditioners a curveball.

This is from two weeks ago. But I'm like, can't fool me. I've been watching every night. So I had just seen Colbert do this exact script.

Were you in your head about, I feel like that is the challenge in that you study it. You know, the rhythms and, you know, like, the responsibilities of that and where the laughs are.

Right.

But you probably also have Colbert's laughs in your head.

Sure.

Are you. Are you calibrating, like, how do I. How do I balance the helm? How do I understand the Colbert rhythm, but balance the helms in this?

That what you're asking came maybe a year later. In that moment, I was like, how do I do this? In exactly the way Stephen Colbert did it? Truly, like, that's all I thought about was like, he is the sort of, like, perfect version of this job. How do I do it like him? And that served me because I then got the callback, and the callback was a chat in the studio with John, and there were five of us that got callbacks from that massive cattle call. Now I'm really nervous. I was still confident, but I was super nervous. But again, they gave us a script that I had just seen on the show, like, two weeks before, and so I felt like, okay, I know how to do this.

In Salt Lake City, things have gone remarkably smoothly so far thanks to an unprecedented level of security in and around these Olympic games. With more, it's our chief security analyst, Ed Helms. Ed, thanks for joining us. Talk to us a little bit about the security of these games.

John.

These Olympics are undoubtedly the safest ever. The perimeter of the site is surrounded by an elaborate fencing system. Electronic surveillance checkpoints at every entrance, x ray equipment at each venue. Machine gun turrets here, here, and here. Packs of white wolves roaming the grounds freely, devouring everything in their path. Remote controlled laser guided penguins with bombs for heads. The top of Mount Allen pops open, revealing a death ray capable of destroying a small moon.

Okay, moving on to the also 12,000.

Security personnel from federal, state, and local agencies. Agents patrolling the back country, some making rounds on skis, others are employing camouflage.

I guess that's to assist with hazardous materials.

Ice skates and ski blades have been dulled. Hockey pucks are made of some kind of space age nerf and biathlon athletes will hug instead of shoot.

So the hazards are all taken care of, I guess. Everything's under control so we can.

Except for one.

It's winter.

Icicles everywhere. You could stab someone.

It's the perfect crime.

There's no prince, there's no weapon. All that's left is a puddle. Water keeps its secrets, John.

Thank you, Ed.

That audition round, I think me and Cordry and then three other comedy people that we knew were in that last round. And Rob and I got hired.

Did you know it afterwards? Did you like, oh, I got that job?

No, I don't think so. I think it was a day or two later that I got the call. And actually in your bones, though, were.

You like, no, I think I nailed that.

I felt good. I had no idea if I was going to get it, but I had learned through thousands of auditions that if you can just do your best, that's like a home run, because it's really never, ever up to you. And even if you think you're right for something, if the person who's casting it doesn't think you're right for it, guess what matters? That opinion, not yours. And that was something that got beat into me as a voiceover actor was this idea that, like, the audition process is so completely, totally out of your control. And I think it takes a lot of actors a long time to actually internalize that. And that's where voiceovers was such a kind of like Hackley for me, because the volume of voiceover auditions at that time was so massive and I was going on so many. I became a full time voiceover person. It's all I did. I went on from, like 5678 auditions a day. I was in recording sessions two or three days a week for different products, this, that, or the other. Like, sometimes, like little radio spots, sometimes giant ad campaigns. Like, I was a seriously working voiceover guy.

Is your agent from 2000 still taking clients? Is that possible? Can you pass my name along?

I had really, really great agents at that time. Yeah, it was a wonderful little moment in my career. The Cunningham, Escott, Slevin and DePini crew, big shout out and credit to all of them, really wonderful agents.

Then you shift into getting that Daily show gig.

Yep.

You audition. When I went on my audition, they test you on how to be in the studio and be ready in the studio, be able to do a chat, be at the desk. But half of the job of being a correspondent is get your ass in the field and do one of the weirdest jobs in comedy. Totally sit in a chair across from what could be a very important person, what could be a very strange person, what could be a very angry person, and then tell jokes to their face.

Yeah.

How did that feel for you? You come across and seem to be a very kind, nice person. I think Colbert famously asks and has told correspondence to, like, leave your soul on a hanger back in the studio.

Yeah.

That you have to kind of go out with balls and no fear and sit in these rooms and talk to these folks.

In the bar business, liquor and firearms don't mixed.

Alcohol causes conflicts. Firearms resolve conflicts.

It's a no brainer.

Logic tells you that alcohol and firearms don't mix.

Yeah.

If you're a pussy, if you're a.

Pussy, Ernie and I had a delightful chat, a rational exchange of ideas.

All right, you're calling me a pussy. So would you prefer me taking this bottle of beer I got in my hand and cracking it over your face, or do you prefer me reaching to my back, pulling out my firearm, and putting a bullet between your eyes? Which do you prefer?

I would say if you hit me.

Over the face with a beer bottle, then.

Then you're being a pussy.

Was that easy to wear?

No, that was incredibly uncomfortable for me. I am a southern boy raised by a mom and dad who want to make everybody comfortable and keep the peace. And I think my career choice is a bit of a reaction to that. But, of course, I could never fully shed that either. And so that job of being deliberately awkward with someone, being deliberately confrontational, or even at times kind of mean, it did not sit well with me. And it was a challenge every time. And the ones that. Where I had a ton of fun were really the ones where I could just be silly or incredibly stupid or incredibly silly. That, to me, was. It comes very easily to me to be very stupid. But then you kind of get the most affirmation from the ones that are real conflicty. I got good at it. I got to where I could do it. But it always, you know, it always felt like a little bit of like I was giving up something a little bit. And I. And weirdly, I'm actually incredibly proud of a lot of those things and a lot of those moments. But it never stopped being just kind of, like, never stopped feeling like it was just against the grain of my.

Just, like, who I am or something.

No, I always felt that when you could be silly in a field piece or doing something even very public, but where it's very clear the joke is on you, it felt like a form of, like, theater performance.

Yeah, yeah.

You get to be the jester in this big space, and everybody understands the point of view. I remember doing some of my first field pieces and then watching the tape afterwards and having that sense of, I got some midwest nice in me. And that feeling of, like, oh, instinctively with strangers, I want to make everybody feel comfortable in that space.

Yeah.

And I remember Jason Jones telling me at the time, he was like, you have to let them sit in that silence. Yes. And let them fill that with something. That's when they talk and reveal themselves to you. And it was like, well, that's what I feel the worst.

Right, right.

I hate this silence.

Yeah.

I want to cover it up. Even if I snuck that joke in there, I want to keep talking, to move away from the awkwardness of that feeling, and you're like, totally. But that's kind of the goal we're aiming for.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll say two things. I think Carell really paved the way for the silly version of stories like Vance DeGeneres and Colbert were so good at the more sort of, like, sardonic or ironic attack dog kind of angle. And then Carell was so good at the, like, just dumb, like, sweet, dumb reporter that could somehow also be, like, laser sharp satire. And that, I think, also was what was so special about the two of them is that they really weren't doing the same thing. They didn't have the same comedy game. And all of us that came after were always trying to kind of, like, find our game, find our voice as a correspondent. Like you asked earlier, like, it took me a year before I stopped just deliberately imitating Colbert.

Was there something that clicked, or it was just a comfort in the. How you worked within a Daily show setting?

Yeah, I think it was a moment of having some success under my belt and being like, I've kind of earned some. A little bit of credibility, and it's time to, like, enjoy my own instincts here and to kind of, like, take some pride in my instincts. And that might be different from what I would expect Colbert to do or expect someone at Karel to do or whatever. And I think my imitation of Colbert served me very well at that time. It really was a kind of. He created a gold standard. But I think now, and especially watching the show for the last ten years, it's so fun to just see so many correspondents with really unique voices, but really getting the same satire, getting that just good media satire dialed in. Everybody's just crushing it. But I wanted to ask you this on that subject of kind of, like, being uncomfortable with the silence and all that, this happened to me a lot. We'd find some story, we'd start brainstorming and break all these funny questions to ask the person. And then we get there, and it definitely took me probably five or ten segments before I understood that when the cameras are getting set up.

Yeah, don't talk to the subject. Like, do not chill out with them. Don't get to know them. Don't have, like, a cup of coffee and, like, chit chat, because.

Which is a danger, because I feel like I made that mistake, too. Where you'll arrive at somebody's house.

Yeah.

You could have an hour hanging out in their kitchen. Right. And then be like, shit, I gotta. I gotta say some pretty heinous things to this person right now, and you're like, well, now we're becoming friends.

Exactly. The less you know, the better. And you don't want any vibe established before you sit down. You want all of it on camera. That took me a while, because, again, my instincts were to just be like, hey, how's it going? Even if they were some, like, monster, that I'd just be like, they're a person. Let's just chat, of course. And then we sit down for the interview, and we're like, oh, shit. I gotta ask these hard questions. But I also, I would find myself, and I'm so curious, your take on this. Like, sometimes you're interviewing people that are problematic or difficult or have some point of view that seems strange or wild or wrong, and then you have your funny questions. But so often, I would just be like, oh, man. Like, I never get to meet someone like this in my normal life. Like, can't I just. I just want to pick their brain. I, like, I want to have a real conversation. I really want to get inside their head and, like, understand how and why they think. I I had a bunch of moments like that where I was like, hold on.

Am I a real reporter? Am I having, like, real reporter instincts here? That I want to just, like, get to the bottom of this story for real? And so often, I would just find myself in these fascinating dialogs, and I just want to, like, drop the script, drop the game, drop the satire, and just be like, what's your fucking deal, man? Like, who are you? What is it? How do you think? And just get into it with somebody. But of course, you never, ever could do that.

I definitely found myself on multiple shoots with. You are talking to people who are on the extremes and then also talking to people who are experts in fields that you never get a chance to deal with. Right, exactly.

Yes.

There's also an ego thing. There's times where it's like, I'm gonna play the dummy who doesn't know this, but by the way, I've read all your articles. I know all these. I'm smart too. I'm cool. We can hang right with you.

Totally.

That is just my need to be seen by this person as legitimate.

It's so funny.

We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back. How do you know you're made for it. Only when you spend every waking, sleeping, breathing, pushing, repeating, close to totally defeating moment, searching for just one more millisecond, for just one more millimeter will you.

Know, you've got what it takes.

I'm Nicole Turner. I'm Ellen Keene.

We are Paralympians, Toyota proud sponsors of the Paralympics.

We're back with Ed Helms. It has been a little bit interesting in, I do think, like, you know, Daily show as media satire has, you know, Colbert helped create it, as did all of the early correspondence of, like, the archness of the overly confident reporter is sort of the big target of a lot of that initial satire. And I do think what has been curious over the last ten years is the media landscape has changed, and so news doesn't look the same. It's not just all white guys who are telling you what they know about the world, right. That dynamic has shifted, but also even just the structure with which people watch news has changed and what they want from their comedy has shifted. And so there has been this new balance of, like, how do you bring a certain amount of authenticity to who you are? I feel like when Trevor came in, the audience had to know who Trevor Noah was before he could be arch about stuff. And frankly, Trevor didn't love going arch on stuff, and that was more where the correspondence came in. But when he started to bring people on, Archness was a tool they could use.

But he brought Roy Wood junior on because Roy's funny and smart and knows how to play off of that.

Yeah.

And, and can use the report, the tools of reporter satire, but is also going to use the tools of just, like, authentic stand up.

Sure.

It's been interesting to watch how that has shifted. And part of it is, I think, a reflection of, frankly, the news that we are watching.

Yeah.

And what an audience wants from their comedy. They feel like they almost need to know you now, and you can't hide as much behind character.

Interesting. I. I think you're onto something, and it's also, it's also a reason that this new rotating host format, I think, is so successful, because it gives all of you a chance to be genuine and to sit across from an interview subject and have those real moments like, we never had that. And I have to say, like, I can look back on my correspondent character who shared my name. Right. My corresponding character had my name, but was not me. Very different from me.

Right.

And arguably, like, kind of a dick. And that also didn't sit well with me because I had to then, like, move through the world as this, like, you know, and that's. I do give the audience credit. Like, they understood I was being a sort of like dick for comedy sake. But still, I think, what's so cool now? You're exactly right. Audiences want to feel like they kind of understand someone in a little bit more of a genuine, earnest way. And this, what the show is doing now. Like, I really think the show is in a, is in this incredibly special moment for a number of reasons. It has a really great talent pool. You accept it, obviously, but the talent here is so, so good, and the show is responding to a wild cultural moment, and that's special. Like, back when the correspondent crew was just me, Cordri Colbert and Sam B. I feel like we also had the good fortune of being in a pretty wild cultural moment, which was the w years. And that may not have been, like, great for the country, but it was great for the show.

But the world of comedy satire, it really did. I feel like those years kind of crafted the voice of the show that John was able to kind of continue to articulate. Did you feel, it's curious describing how you were a character, very much a character outside of who you were, but on a very successful political satire show, did you feel a burden outside of that? To be political, to articulate political takes outside of your character, whether that's maybe at a personal level, but even more so just on a media level. I feel like part of the, I go out now and I do stand up shows, and I will do a Q and A at the end. And they begin, they're very serious. The Q and A's are very serious.

Oh, interesting.

The political moment. People want answers, and they're frustrated, and they want to articulate where they're at, but they see me coming there as somebody who, they understand the comedy that I do, but very much want to talk to me as somebody who is in the political world and want analysis. Did you feel that burden?

I did. Yeah, I definitely did. And I had a similar experience. I was still doing standup at the time. I did a stand up show at Columbia School of Journalism, and I remember it was weird because I'm telling some dumb jokes, and then I did wind up getting into a dialog with the audience and similar thing. It was just sort of serious, and it became a dissection of, like, the craft of journalism and whether or not it's in a good place. And, you know, Fox News was really exploding at that moment. It was still relatively new, and people were trying to still process it. And I think for kids at journalism school like Columbia, like, they really were curious about what is going on. Like, are we entering a broken industry or, like a broken apparatus? And like, yeah, I don't know. It just was. I do share that when you made.

The choice, you were. Correct me if I'm wrong, but office comes along and there's an opportunity for episodes on the office, but that means you are going to have to leave the Daily show, correct?

Correct.

When that moment happened, did you feel like that was a step away from the political world? Was that a danger? Was that appealing to you at all? Was that a part of your consideration?

Great question. So after four years here, I really was feeling like I've maxed out and not maxed out, like, burnout. I just was feeling like I'm still young and hungry, and there's nothing else I can do here. John's not going anywhere anytime soon, and even if he goes somewhere, like, I'm not necessarily, like, next in line to be host or anything. Like, I kind of had hit a ceiling and there was no, like, upward mobility. And I was starting to feel like. And I think this is just part of my personality. I just got restless. Like, I was like, I feel like I have more to prove as a performer and as an actor. And I think being this very specific kind of character on this show was suddenly feeling like, not enough. Like, I. I wanted to act. I really wanted to do silly stuff. And I was watching Carell. He left maybe five or six months after I started, so we overlapped here for just a little while, and then he left to go do, I guess he did that movie Bruce Almighty, and then watching Ellie, I think, or some sitcom that he got on.

And I just was like, that looks really fun. And it's the same thing that got me to loving the Daily show was like, that looks so fun, right? And it's why I wanted to be on Saturday Night Live. I really just. I wanted a career that I could, like, just love and enjoy and be passionate about. And I was starting to feel like there's more I can do, but I can't do it in this format. And so I started auditioning for sitcoms, and I got a pilot, and it was a really incredible experience. I only had to leave the daily show for two weeks, which was, by the way, a big ask, because there were only a few of us. And, like, it was a big deal. I was like, guys, I got a network tv pilot. Can I go for two weeks? And they're like, I don't know. Okay. And so I went out to LA and I shot this pilot, and it was one of the most incredible experiences. It was a multicam pilot, which it's like a live audience.

Yeah.

It was so exhilarating. It was so fun, and it went amazing. And NBC was like, this is our next big show. We love this show. Da da. And then. And then the entertainment president changed, and they were like, we are going to recast this show, Ed, you're still in it, but we're going to redo the pilot and. Da da da. And so they. We reshot the pilot, and it was a train wreck, and. And then that, it just didn't go anywhere. Yeah, but I had been ruined. I was like, I love this so much. Like, I just wanted to go to LA and be in, in on a tv show, and so I just was sort of, like, putting that energy out and. And cultivating that with my representation and so forth. And the office meeting happened. I met with Greg Daniels, and they already had this character in mind for Andy, and they were like, what do you think? And I was like, oh, yeah, this is great. And we all just sort of started spitballing, and they were like, all right, well, we'll let you know. And. And it was a while later they said, we're gonna try this out, this, like, Stanford branch thing.

And so here's a two week, two episode contract. And I was like, I don't know if I can do that. I don't know if I can leave the Daily show for whatever, because then, like, what if it doesn't work out? And they're like, well, it's gonna be eight episodes. I'm like, okay, so then I really have to quit the Daily show if I am gonna take this. That was a very scary moment because it was like, I can't ask for two months off. I have to, like, either take the plunge and go do this. These eight episodes on the office, which was still a new show. It was season three, but it was still a pretty new show. Cause there were only six episodes in the first season, so it was still, like, gaining momentum, but there was momentum for sure. And I could feel that, like, I knew the office was special. I knew that Steve had been, like, steve's casting in the Ricky Gervais role was, like, a really inspired choice that I believed in the. I just knew he would crush it. And so I felt like that show was special and something special to be a part of.

But it was a. That was a soul searching moment because I knew that if I left to do eight episodes on the office and it didn't work out after that, there was nothing. It was a void.

You're like, but fuck it. I'm gonna take the. I'm gonna take the leap.

Yeah. But I. Then I sort of took the leap. It took me a minute, but once I came around on it, I was like, this is definitely the right choice. And I went and shot those first two episodes, and they were like, yeah, this is going great. We're definitely going to do six more. Okay, eight. And it was just going so well, and it was so fun and exhilarating. And then, like, six episodes in, they're like, I think we want to keep you and Rashida. Maybe we'll take the story back to Scranton. What do you think? And it's like, yeah, that works for me. But so what happened?

Did people end up watching this television show? What was it called?

I'm told that it was, okay.

Office.

No, but you know what's incredible? Here's how I knew that I was doing something right.

Yeah.

Cause that year, I went to the Emmys because both the daily show and the office were nominated, and I was a cast of both that year, and both won best show in their categories. And I was like, okay, this is a good move. Like, this is. This feels like a special moment. Like, what do these shows have in common? This guy.

Do you see this?

Yes.

Do you see this, America?

Yeah. But I was definitely, like, very giddy in that moment and just incredibly proud to be a part of these things.

Yeah.

Can I say a really, really overused and treacly word?

Oh, I want to hear it.

Gratitude. So much gratitude.

I wish you had.

No, but I truly like thinking back on that moment.

Did you say that? Because it felt so gross, bragging about getting two Emmys in one night.

You didn't get the Emmys.

Oh, you didn't get the Emmys.

I didn't get the Emmys. Okay, the show's got the Emmys, but.

You just have gratitude for the Ebbies. Gratitude.

Man, you've been in LA too long.

That's what I'm hearing. I'm getting soft having done all of this in this chaotic time we're in. What interests you now, as you create characters, as you create projects, clearly somebody who has followed their passions and also what is silly and what is fun. It feels like this day and age that's few and far between. What is silly and what is fun.

Yeah.

Like, what are you gravitating toward? What are you hoping to keep chasing?

It's a great question, and I do feel incredibly lucky to be in a position to mostly just chase things that I am psyched about. One of them is my podcast snafu, which is sort of scratching my cultural political itch, which the Daily show kind of also did. Right. Since I left the Daily show, I've always missed feeling like I was part of something that was saying something about culture in a meaningful way. And so this podcast snafu is sort of my own version of that. And I love, love it. It's really fun and it's funny, but it's also very earnest and it's very me. Like, it's just my personality coming through these incredible stories about history. And then I'm also, I have little kids now, and I find myself looking at parts, and I'm like, like, I'll get an offer to do, like, a horror movie or something or even just like, a very intense drama. And I'm like, eh, I don't really want to be in that headspace for three months. Like, I want to be able to come home and giggle with my kids and, like, be a doofus. And somehow this movie feels, like, very scary and dark and weird.

So maybe. But all that is to say, like, I still love all kinds of acting, and I would definitely take a dramatic role that is. That's exciting, but it's gonna be a higher bar. And then on the comedy side, I just, like, I just did this movie with Jen Garner last year, family Switch, which was a really broad Netflix Christmas comedy. It was so fun. Like, it was just ridiculous. I'm a dad now. I'm getting more. And just, like, I think my humor is. I'm just getting. It's, like, more dad humor.

It happens.

So my humor might be declining a little bit, but I don't care. I still love it. I just want to be a doofus. And I was very heartbroken when we didn't get a sequel to vacation when I got to be Rusty Griswold. And that, again, was just such a dumb comedy. But I was so proud of it, and I loved how dumb it was and so silly. And I was like, I could be rusty for the rest of my life if all I did was Rusty Griswold movies, I would be so thrilled. And I'm still. It's not out of the question that another vacation comes up, but at the time, like, it just wasn't, you know, box office stuff was crazy and whatever, but that's the kind of stuff I just love and always have and always will.

I'm curious, with snafu, with the podcast, you do take these moments in history, these giant fuck ups, and also the, in some ways, people who see conspiracies and then are often more than not proven true about what is broken. Has that shifted your perspective on kind of the conspiratorial mindset that is pervasive in this day and age?

Good question. I try to keep an open mind. I think I'm extremely skeptical towards any conspiracy theory. And I think part of that is the first question I always ask when I hear a conspiracy theory is like, well, how many people would be involved in this conspiracy? And usually it's thousands and thousands of people.

Right?

And that right away, I'm like, no fucking way. There's no way thousands of people can keep a secret, period. It just has never happened.

It's never happened.

And so, like, the moon landing, for example, like, not a conspiracy because thousands and thousands of people would have perpetrated that, and somebody would have bragged about it to their bro at a bar. Like, that's an easy one. Now, what's interesting is this current season of snafu. We look into a lot of these activists in the 1970s who thought that the FBI was surveilling illegally, too much surveillance. And that is also very conspiratorial feeling. Right, sure. And it's something that I think a lot of conspiracy theorists now also think and suspect that we're being watched. We're being watched by the NSA or the FBI or Russia or my neighbor or corporations or aliens. There are versions of that that are the clearly conspiratorial or conspiracy theory. And then there are versions that are sort of like, well, there's a reasonable amount of concern that can then expand into conspiracy theory level. But what's interesting about this story in the 1970s is that these people were confronted by mountains of evidence that they were being surveilled. You know, it was a much less technologically advanced time. And so in order to surveil, the FBI would send out agents to actually stand there at rallies, and they would put these guys in crew cuts and wingtips, in tie dye shirts to just stand on the edge of rallies.

A lot of times, the FBI at that time wanted people to know they were being surveilled because it was also an intimidation tactic. So it's a little bit intellectually dishonest to conflate the fear of surveillance in 1971 with a lot of, like, contemporary fear of surveillance. But there is also a rational amount to fear. Edward Snowden revealed that we were being relentlessly surveilled by the NSA. All of us, all of our phones. And that is legit now. That led to more deeper layers of conspiracy theory about it. I think AI is going to really disrupt, or I should say it will just pour kerosene onto the conspiracy theory community. And I find myself starting to go down rabbit holes of, like, oh, geez, what is AI gonna do? You know, deep fakes and all that. And we're not far off from deepfakes starting to happen in real time where, like, you could be on a zoom with someone having a live conversation and they're not there.

Right.

It is a. It is an AI version of somebody having a conversation with you. That's real soon.

That feels like that's a real fear you have right now. That's like. That's an attack.

I don't know if you're real. I am very suspicious, and I am here.

Okay. There's an amount of healthy.

That's exactly what an AI Jordan klepper would say right now.

And I don't know how to make you believe this is actually happening. No.

But I don't know what to make of it right now. But I sort of feel like AI is going to really disrupt our trust in institutions in a pretty scary way, and it's right around the corner, and we are not doing anything about it. I'll tell you, there's a real incredible thought leader in this space, Tristan Harris.

I've done an interview with him. He's wonderful.

He's incredible.

I had to make farting noises the whole time, and that's just.

Oh, I'm sorry. As a character, that was a Daily show interview.

No, I actually know he was definitely somebody I tried to impress with how much I knew about him. My ego came in already.

Yeah. For anyone listening, Tristan Harris is a really. It just has tremendous integrity in how he's approaching tech, really. I mean, he has an organization called Human Technology. Yes. The center for Humane Technology, which is basically sort of holding the social media industry and the AI industry to account. And these are very important things.

Yeah. We need responsible people in those positions.

We do.

Because I do think that misinformation is just wide. Ed, it's been lovely talking to you.

Jordan, a delight.

Look, come on back anytime.

I love it. I'm gonna come. I'll be back here in the morning with donuts.

Please do. Okay. Yes. Ed Helms, thank you so much for joining us on the Daily show ears edition. New episodes of Snafu Medburg are airing weekly on Wednesdays. Listen on the I heart radio app, and everywhere podcasts are heard. Thank you for listening to the Daily Show Ears edition. We'll see you next time.

Thanks for having me.

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