Jordan Klepper hosts Comedy Central's The Opposition. Photo / Getty Images
Jordan Klepper, host of The Opposition with Jordan Klepper on Comedy Central, remembers simpler times when news cycles weren't plagued by near-constant scandals and late-night presidential tweets.
"In the Daily Show days, with Jon [Stewart], you weren't always chasing the story of the day. You were maybe prepping stories a couple days ahead of time," Klepper said. "It doesn't work like that any more. ... Like, Donald Trump is picking a fight with Joe Biden. Usually, you could live off that deer for like a month-and-a-half - make a leather coat, feed a family - but right now, no. What's happening? There's a porn star doing an interview on Sunday [Stormy Daniels sat with 60 Minutes this past weekend] ... the budget, and, oh, also, there's a giant march happening in front of his house."
The Daily Show alum was in Washington at the weekend to cover Saturday's (US time) March for Our Lives, the student-led rally to urge Congress to adopt stricter gun laws and end mass shootings. But before Klepper took to the streets, he swung by the Newseum for a conversation about late-night satire in the age of Trump, comedians as thought leaders and common-sense gun laws.
For fans in the audience, it was a chance to see Klepper break face from his fatuous, on-screen persona and discuss politics from his real-life point of view. (Klepper's conspiratorial, conservative character is based off incendiary voices like Alex Jones and Glenn Beck, and alternative-media sources like Infowars and Breitbart - much like how Stephen Colbert channelled Bill O'Reilly in his long-running programme The Colbert Report.)
"We see it as an ability - a freedom - to take crazy and try to find logic behind it when sometimes there doesn't seem to be logic in the Oval Office," Klepper said. "There are always times when [Trump] beats us to the joke and that's frustrating, but I think we view it as more of a challenge."
His larger-than-life character has even attracted attention in Trump's sphere. "People often ask us if there are ever people that don't get what you are doing ... and don't understand the comedy [of the show]. I would often say no, until literally three weeks ago [former Trump adviser] Carter Page walked into our office and said, 'I love your guys' show.'''
"We were very confused. We're like, 'Have you seen our show?' "Klepper added, with a laugh. "It was a little hard to wrap my head around it . . .''
But Klepper is used to conducting interviews with some of the administration's most ardent supporters. "People say yes [to being on camera] because, I think, two things: They want attention and they think they can win."
Klepper has been covering the gun control debate since 2014 and hosted an "investigative comedy'' special called Jordan Klepper Solves Guns last June.
"Since Parkland, there has been a change in the conversation. There are new voices and new people pushing this with passion and with a moral authority," Klepper said. He later added in an interview with rhe Washington Post, "I'm really hoping this is a watershed moment [and] it continues to grow and encompasses all of the people affected by gun violence. ... I think you're going to see something that is going to be hard to shake and I think these kids are going to focus on this all the way through the midterms.
"What I get so frustrated about ... is the people that say, 'You know, you're never going to fix it all!' Klepper told the Newseum audience. "People were dying in car accidents, too, and there's no way to fix that either - you can't get rid of cars - but you can help. Put in seat belts ... Let's show that we are willing to do something without sitting back on our heels thinking, 'If you can't fix it all, it's not worth doing.'''
He's in awe of students getting politically involved and praised the Parkland students' resilience to social media attacks. "This is the era of the troll. It's easier to be against something than it is to be passionate for something."