Klepper Claims Daily Show Is 'Not Partisan', Calls 'Balls and Strikes'

Alex Christy
August 4th, 2026 10:18 AM

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Comedy Central’s The Daily Show recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, and on Monday, Jordan Klepper and Ronny Chieng sat down on the show’s podcast to look back at the show’s history. At one point, Klepper proved that denial isn’t just a river in Egypt when he claimed the show is “not partisan,” that it just calls “balls and strikes,” and to “put pressure on the bullshit.”

Chieng wondered if Klepper has noticed a shift from the shows early days to its current version, “But, like, when you watch the early versions of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and, you know, maybe three or four seasons in, do you feel that it was as divisive as it feels now? 'Cause I always feel The Daily Show was always something that called balls and strikes, more or less, you know. And so, do you feel like that, you know, when you watched it as a college kid, did you feel like it was balls and strikes, or do you feel like it was on your team or, you know, what do you feel?”

 

 

In 2025, Chieng and Klepper were the second and third most consistently liberal of The Daily Show’s rotational hosts, behind only Josh Johnson, who had a more limited sample. Nevertheless, Klepper agreed, “Now, I didn't have a team growing up. And so, I think balls and strikes is a great way of calling it.”

According to Klepper, when The Daily Show obsesses with President Bush and Trump, it is not because of partisanship, but in calling out the BS, “I would say like the Iraq War, it became not partisan, but, like, focused on one big thing. Like when I think of it, now I think of like the Trump era that we are in. And I do think like the ethos of the show is like you call bullshit where it is.”

Klepper then tried to claim that this isn’t confined to Republican presidents:

And I do think like when Jon came back as well, and as Biden was aging, like it was very important for the show to articulate like what everybody fucking saw, which I think what became, that's where you see where you got critical of media, where like it does feel like media that sees itself as nonpartisan is purposely, like, not calling out when everybody feels, which is like the age of this candidate here. And our job here is to, and we articulated this, we talked about this. Jon talked about it. The show talked about it, like this is an emotional time. The job is not to articulate a cause that you feel. The job is to put pressure on the bullshit that you see.

There is a difference between joking about Biden’s age and related gaffes and what Klepper described with Bush and Iraq or spending every night claiming Trump is a threat to democracy. The Daily Show really only decided to throw Biden overboard after the debate.

Shifting back to Trump and Bush, Klepper continued:

All of these parties and these people can stand up for themselves and their job to articulate that point of view. And so there's times where we feel so consumed by Trump. But I think that's more a reflection of like it being such a consuming and consequential part of the storyline right now. And so the Iraq era for me felt like that as well. I remember watching it. And it was like, ‘Oh, this doesn't feel like let's weigh Democrats versus Republicans.’ It feels like a show that's like, ‘This is happening in the world. There's discussions about weapons of mass destruction. There feels like the wool is being pulled over our eyes by an administration.’ The show is going to keep talking about that because it is the elephant that is in the room.

The Daily Show takes positions on issues all the time. Later in this podcast episode, Klepper and Chieng rewound to 2013 to hype John Oliver’s field trip to Australia to promote gun control. The show routinely promotes left-wing causes, including abortion, transgenderism, Gaza, health care, attacking capitalism, promoting actual and self-described communists, insisting America is still racist, comparing Republicans to Uncle Toms, and more. Klepper’s man-on-the-street segments are designed to make Trump voters look stupid. When The Daily Show goes after Democrats, it is usually because it views them as insufficiently left-wing. The Daily Show is not an umpire. It is a player for the blue team.

Here is a transcript for the August 3 show:

Comedy Central The Daily Show: Ears Edition

8/3/2026

RONNY CHIENG: But, like, when you watch the early versions of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and, you know, maybe three or four seasons in, do you feel that it was as divisive as it feels now? 'Cause I always feel The Daily Show was always something that called balls and strikes, more or less, you know. And so, do you feel like that, you know, when you watched it as a college kid, did you feel like it was balls and strikes, or do you feel like it was on your team or, you know, what do you feel?

JORDAN KLEPPER: Now, I didn't have a team growing up. 

CHIENG: Right. Right.

KLEPPER: And so, I think balls and strikes is a great way of calling it. 

CHIENG: Right.

KLEPPER: And I will say when there were, like, defining cultural moments–

CHIENG: Yeah.

KLEPPER:  – I would say like the Iraq War, it became not partisan, but, like, focused on one big thing. Like when I think of it, now I think of like the Trump era that we are in. And I do think like the ethos of the show is like you call bullshit where it is. 

CHIENG: Yes. Yes.

KLEPPER: And I do think like when Jon came back as well, and as Biden was aging, like it was very important for the show to articulate like what everybody fucking saw, which I think what became, that's where you see where you got critical of media, where like it does feel like media that sees itself as nonpartisan is purposely, like, not calling out when everybody feels, which is like the age of this candidate here. And our job here is to, and we articulated this, we talked about this. Jon talked about it. The show talked about it, like this is an emotional time.

The job is not to articulate a cause that you feel. The job is to put pressure on the bullshit that you see. 

CHIENG: Yes.

KLEPPER: All of these parties and these people can stand up for themselves and their job to articulate that point of view. And so there's times where we feel so consumed by Trump. But I think that's more a reflection of like it being such a consuming and consequential part of the storyline right now. And so the Iraq era for me felt like that as well. I remember watching it. And it was like, “Oh, this doesn't feel like let's weigh Democrats versus Republicans.” It feels like a show that's like “This is happening in the world. There's discussions about weapons of mass destruction. There feels like the wool is being pulled over our eyes by an administration.”

The show is going to keep talking about that because it is the elephant that is in the room.

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