Most of the time Comedy Central’s The Daily Show is a reliably liberal show, but on Thursday, host Jordan Klepper decided to shake things up a little bit and become a communist show when he did his best Hasan Piker impression and welcomed writer, director, and self-described communist Boots Riley to promote his new movie that promotes shoplifting.
Klepper, who has also tried to normalize Piker, put the ball on the tee when he wondered, “For people who haven't seen this, what is I Love Boosters?”
It takes a special kind of tone deafness to ignore all of communism’s crimes and epic failures and consider yourself a communist in 2026 while wearing a giant purple hat, but that is what Riley did, “Well, boosters are folks that shoplift and sell at a discount price. So it is something that, as a broke rapper for many decades, I have definitely had to have around me in order to stay fly because staying fly is part of the job requirement.”
The Daily Show has its Hasan Piker moment as it promotes a new film by self-described communist Boots Riley about shoplifting that Jordan Klepper describes as "'Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure' if it were directed by Karl Marx with a bunch of Molly in the background." pic.twitter.com/dzmFNbbLNy
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) May 15, 2026
Riley, who has claimed the American flag stands for “oppression, slavery, and murder,” also claimed, “I wanted to write about stuff from the perspective of these folks, that, kind of, hold the community together, right? We have, you know, fashion is—the big fashion houses are inspired by stuff from the street, by black communities, by people of color, things like that. But those communities cannot afford it, right? So this was a way to talk about fashion that I hadn't seen or talked about before.”
People may roll their eyes at conservatives calling people communists, but not only is Riley proud to call himself a communist, Klepper also was happy to suggest Karl Marx would approve of the movie, “It talks about fashion. I mean, this movie talks about fashion, it talks about capitalism. It is super funny. This feels like, sort of, a Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure if it were directed by Karl Marx with a bunch of Molly in the background.”
For all the talk about Paramount turning into Trump TV, The Daily Show keeps platforming actual communists. If Paramount’s bosses really wanted to make a big change, they should say to The Daily Show, "No more communists," because the point of any news show—whether it's comedy, straight news, or opinion—is to make the viewer smarter than they were before the show began, but communists don’t educate people; they make them dumber.
Here is a transcript for the May 14 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show
5/14/2026
11:26 PM ET
JORDAN KLEPPER: For people who haven't seen this, what is I Love Boosters?
BOOTS RILEY: Well, boosters are folks that shoplift and sell at a discount price. So it is something that, as a broke rapper for many decades, I have definitely had to have around me in order to stay fly because staying fly is part of the job requirement.
JORDAN KLEPPER: Yeah.
RILEY: And so I wanted to write about stuff from the perspective of these folks, that, kind of, hold the community together, right? We have, you know, fashion is—the big fashion houses are inspired by stuff from the street, by black communities, by people of color, things like that. But those communities cannot afford it, right? So this was a way to talk about fashion that I hadn't seen or talked about before.
KLEPPER: It talks about fashion. I mean, this movie talks about fashion, it talks about capitalism. It is super funny. This feels like, sort of, a Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure if it were directed by Karl Marx with a bunch of Molly in the background.
RILEY: With Looney Tunes.
