Someone asked me if I was I was going to the actual
Super Bowl... and I said, "Never.
Again."
More specifically, I said, "Never again.
'Cause I've-- Here's the thing, I've been to one Super Bowl,
and I-I don't understand how anybody watches this, like,
football live.
There's no-- So when you go watch football live, it's just
a bunch of people, and there's a ball,
and you then you don't, like, know what's happening.
And also, there's the-- You forget that the guy
is not talking, so, you know, like, when you watch football,
my introduction to football, is everyone telling me things.
"Well, here he is, Marcus Brown, grew up in, uh, this town.
His mama's a great fan of this and that."
And now there's nothing. Now you're just standing there
and it's just like, people are like,
"Yeah! Yeah!"
Tell me about his family. "Yeah."
And then something happens on the field, I can't see
what's happened on the field 'cause sometimes
it happens on the other side of the field.
And then you just wait for, like,
the ref to come and then gossip. "Yeah, the guy,
the guy-- he touched the ball when he wasn't supposed to."
Stop snitching. I want to see the thing myself.
And h-- The lines-- you know how much more fun it is
to watch the game when you know how far the thing--
It actually made me realize how hard football actually is,
'cause when I watch football on TV
I go, "You idiot, the line was here.
"You saw the line. Then you ran, then the line was just--
If you ran that way, the line was there."
Then, when you go watch football live, you're like,
"There's no line. How does this guy know
how far he's supposed to-- There's no line."
In fact, I think most-most sports-- they make it
look easier when you're sitting at home.
And then, when you get there, you're like,
"Oh, no. Sorry I talked shit from home, LeBron.
"Yeah, from home, it was very simple. 'Cause I saw
"where the opening was-- you should have shot from there.
"On the court you can't see anything.
These guys are, like, seven feet tall in real life."
-♪ ♪ -ANNOUNCER: Coming to you from the heart of Times Square
in New York City, the only city in America,
it's The Daily Show.
Tonight: the tremendous document flush,
Canada's not so nice,
and Questlove.
This is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
Hey, what's going on, everybody? Welcome to The Daily Show.
I'm Trevor Noah. Let's jump straight into today's headlines.
♪ ♪
Our first story takes place in school.
Yeah, remember school?
It's the place where you go to learn things like math
or science or, most importantly,
how to draw that cool S.
But in Florida, the state whose official dress code
is "strip club casual," lawmakers have decided that
there are some subjects
that shouldn't be learned in school.
A controversial bill that would ban school districts
in Florida from encouraging classroom discussion
about sexual orientation or gender identity is advancing.
A Florida senate committee just passed the so-called
"Don't Say Gay" bill. Opponents warn
it would lead to further stigmatization
of gay, lesbian, and transgender children.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis
has indicated support for the bill.
The Republican says it's not appropriate for teachers
to have conversations with students about
sexual orientation or gender identity.
Yeah. I agree with Ron DeSantis. Right?
Kids shouldn't learn that people can be
straight or gay in school.
We shouldn't teach them that.
We should just let them get surprised when they turn 18.
"What?! Two men can do what?! Are you...
"Oh, that's what Lil Nas X was singing about.
I thought he just liked prison."
Now, on the one hand, this is terrible, because many kids
can't talk about gay issues at home,
so school could be the one place where they can learn.
I mean, I guess, on the other hand, this "Don't Say Gay" law
is gonna have some upsides. I mean, it's gonna make it
a lot harder for bullies in school. Yeah.
'Cause they'll in the hallway like, "You're gay." And then
Ron DeSantis is just gonna burst out of a locker, like,
"No! Don't say that!
"You make fun of his haircut. Look at it.
Looks like he fought a lawnmower. Come on."
You know, if you ask me, the real issue here
is that these people are worried that their kids are gonna
learn about being gay and then, all of a sudden,
get converted to gay. That's what the fight's about.
"Don't teach my kids about gay in school
because they're gonna become gay."
That's ridiculous. Learning about the thing
doesn't magically turn you into the thing.
I mean, in school, when I learned about the French,
it's not like I came home that day like,
(French accent): "Mama, I have something to tell you."
(South African accent): "Ah. I knew all along, my child."
(regular accent): Anyway, let's move on.
There's a big story that's coming out of the art world
right now, uh, and if you're one of those people who's like,
"I don't understand modern art,"
well, first of all, congratulations on being basic,
and, second, maybe you should stop complaining
and do something about it, like this guy did.
A security guard was fired from the job at a Russian museum
after drawing eyes on a million-dollar painting.
I want you guys to look closely at this.
The Three Figures painting had a blank space on the faces.
You can see the version on the left.
But reports say the security guard got bored,
decided to grab a pen and just draw a pair of eyes
on two of the three figures.
H-Hold on, hold on.
This-this guy defaced a classic painting
because he was bored?
Like, in a museum, you were bored,
and so you drew... Like, have you not heard of TikTok?
And I know a lot of you basic bitches out there right now
are looking at the eyes on this painting. You're saying,
"That actually does look better."
But that's not the point!
Art is not about what looks better.
Art is about confusing people with a thing that allows you
to feel like you are better than them, a'ight?
And how do we know that this thing
wasn't just a publicity stunt from the museum?
Because I don't know about you, but I've never heard
of this faceless panting in my life.
Now I'm seeing it everywhere.
You know, this could just be, like, a trick.
Maybe this is what all museums do just to get hype.
"Did somebody steal the Mona Lisa's eyebrows?
Come see for yourself."
And finally, let's move on from one piece of work to another.
Donald Johnson & Johnson baby powder Trump,
the ex-president most likely to be a surprise judge
at a wet T-shirt contest.
Yesterday, the government office that keeps presidential records
asked the Justice Department
to investigate Trump's improper handling
of official documents.
And, like, at this point,
I'm wondering if there are any laws
that Trump hasn't broken.
You know? Like, if there was a Guinness Book of World Records
for crime, he'd probably steal the book.
But yeah, according to reports,
Trump would rip up papers after he read them.
Right? He took boxes of material with him to Mar-a-Lago,
and now we're learning that Trump did
the most Trump thing that he possibly could have done
with some of these documents.
We're beginning with breaking news.
Staff members at the White House residence
discovered wads of printed paper in a clogged toilet
on more than one occasion during the Trump administration
and believed that it was the former president himself
who was trying to flush documents.
I learned that staff in the White House residence
would periodically find the-the toilet clogged.
The engineer would have to come and-and fix it,
and what the engineer would find
would be wads of, you know, clumped-up print...
wet printed paper.
Um, you know, meaning it was not toilet paper.
It could be Post-its.
It could be notes he wrote to himself.
It could be other things. We don't know.
But it certainly does add, as you said,
another dimension to what we know
about how he handled material in the White House.
You know, it's so funny how in every scandal
involving Trump and documents,
none of them involve him reading them.
And-and by the way, I will say this.
I know it's easy for us to all go,
"Trump was trying to obstruct justice.
That's what this was."
But you do remember at the start of the pandemic,
there was a shortage of what?
And I don't know about you guys,
but when there's no toilet paper,
state documents start to look mighty tempting.
It also does explain
why Trump was always complaining about toilets.
He always... You remember how he always did that?
People are flushing toilets ten times, 15 times,
as opposed to once.
They end up using more water.
"Yeah, they're flushing them ten times, 15 times."
No, dude, you were flushing toilets
ten times, 15 times,
because you were shoving your homework down the toilet.
I mean, everyone assumed
he was a man who clogged the White House toilets,
but no one ever thought we'd have to ask the question,
"But with what?"
Now, of course, Trump denies all of this.
He says he never clogged any toilets ever.
"Smoothest poo of all time."
So, the big question is who's telling the truth?
Well, luckily, we have an exclusive interview
with the only man who knows what the truth is.
So we're gonna go out live right now
to the White House to chat to that man.
Sir, I understand that you are
the official White House plumber.
(Italian accent): That's right. It's me.
(regular voice): Carl Schwartz. How you doing?
Well, doing well.
-Thank you so much for joining us, Mr. Schwartz. -Uh-huh.
Um, as the White House plumber,
we'd love for you to tell us everything you know
about Trump flushing documents down the toilet?
All right, let me stop you right there, chief, okay?
Sorry to disappoint you, but I can't.
It's the plumbers' code.
-The plumbers' code? -That's right.
It's the iron code all plumbers live by.
One: never tell a toilet's secrets.
Two: always round up the bill.
Three: no visible butt crack.
I'm trying to break that stereotype.
So I'm sorry, but I can't reveal what I know
about Trump's toilet, no matter what.
Aw, come on!
All right, fine, I'll tell you.
I was in Trump's bathroom almost every day
pulling paper out of the toilet.
I unclogged so many classified documents,
they had to give me top secret clearance.
I'm talking CIA briefings,
diplomatic cables,
the medical experiments that created Rudy Giuliani.
Honestly, some of the stuff,
I didn't even understand what it meant.
Like, I found this one document that just says
"Nuke Spain?"
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Y-You must have been pretty frustrated
with President Trump giving you so much unnecessary work.
Are you kidding me? I love President Trump.
He made my job more interesting,
and he trusted me with our nation's top secrets.
Unlike certain other presidents
who just use the toilet to poop or pee.
(whispers): Obama.
I don't know why you said it like that.
You could've-- We knew who the--
Anyway, um, let me ask you this--
was Trump the only one in the White House
who was flushing documents?
Uh, did Vice President Pence do it?
No, no, no. Mike Pence never even used the bathroom.
He actually doesn't have any holes.
Now, if you'll excuse me,
I have an emergency I have to deal with.
Kamala Harris has been locked in the bathroom
for the past year.
Oh, wow. Is that where she's been?
Well-well, good luck with that and thank you so much,
-Mr. Schwartz. -You got it, chief.
Did he say "no holes"?
It's gonna be $6,000.
All right. That wasn't very helpful.
So let's move on to the big news that's coming out of Canada,
America's quiet upstairs neighbor,
or at least they used to be.
Because, as you may have heard,
there is a major antivaccine protest
taking place in Canada's capital city of Ottawa right now.
Now, antivaccine protests are pretty common these days, right?
But these protestors are different,
because they're truck drivers,
which means they have trucks.
And people with trucks have more power
than any other people.
They just do. This is, like, a fact of trucks.
Think about it-- in every heist movie ever,
what do they need to pull off the heist?
A truck. Yeah.
When a Batman villain tries to shut down the city,
they need a truck.
Having trucks just gives you the ability
to outmuscle people who don't have trucks.
And so, even though 90% of Canadian truckers are vaxxed,
this small minority is still able to cause big problems.
They've essentially shut down Downtown Ottawa
for two weeks now.
And if you want to know why these truckers are so fired up,
well, they're more than happy to tell you.
What is the stuff that you can't do right now
as-as a nonvaccinated person?
I live in Quebec, so it's a bit more intense
than other places in Canada.
But, look, I can't go skiing. I can't go to Walmart.
I can't go to Canadian Tire. I can't go to Home Depot.
I can't go to restaurants. I can't go to bars.
I can't go to the gym.
And because you're not vaccinated, have you...
Is there a business, is there stuff you can't do
in Canada now?
Yeah, like, I'm like-- I'm like--
Well, basically, if you want to compare Canada,
uh, to anything, it's like, uh,
Hitler's Germany
and we're like the Jews, eh?
You see, this is why we shouldn't be banning books.
Because now this guy thinks
that the Holocaust is
when you can't take a shit in a Tim Hortons.
I mean, even Marjorie Taylor Greene is looking at this guy,
like, "Dude, this isn't anything like the Holocaust.
There's no soup here at all."
It's actually wild when you think about it,
like, how many different ways
people disrespect Holocaust survivors.
Because some people are like,
"What happened to you didn't happen."
And then some people are like,
"No, what happened to you did happen,
"and it's happening again to me right now,
because I can't go skiing. Team."
But, anyway, the point is, these truckers
and their supporters feel persecuted.
And when this started, it was just a protest
against vaccine requirements for truckers.
But it's now grown into a wider movement
against all coronavirus restrictions.
They want vaccine mandates gone.
They want mask mandates gone.
They want to be free to sneeze into strangers' mouths again,
like the good old days.
But blocking traffic in Downtown Ottawa hasn't done the trick,
so now they've decided to take things up a notch.
NEWSWOMAN: A crucial trade link
between Canada and the United States
was disrupted by protesters for a third day in a row.
The Ambassador Bridge is the busiest international crossing
in North America, linking Windsor, Ontario,
to Detroit, while another border crossing in Ontario
is experiencing an hours'-long delay.
The Ambassador Bridge sees about one-quarter
of all the goods that go between the two countries every day.
On a normal day,
that's about $340 million worth of goods rolling through.
And the impact is already being felt.
Ontario auto plants, including Ford and Stellantis,
reduced production over the last 24 hours
due to missing parts from shipments.
NEWSWOMAN 2: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling
for an end to the protests.
Right now, people in Windsor are suffering
and losing their jobs 'cause they can't get auto parts
across the Ambassador Bridge.
Yeah, you see? You see?
Now you can really see how much of an impact
the truck protest can have.
You just park a bunch of them on a bridge,
just a key bridge. Boom!
International trade slows to a trickle.
Which I didn't even know could still happen, by the way.
You know, 'cause that almost sounds like a story
from medieval times.
You know, when the army would block one mountain pass,
and then your entire village would starve.
Then you'd have to eat your horse, and then your dog,
and then eventually, you'd be forced to eat your own children.
And then, right as you finish eating your last child,
the siege would end, and you'd have to spend the rest
of your life in therapy.
I just feel really bad for eating my own children.
Look, you can't blame yourself.
That path was closed for almost two days.
Like, think about it. Think about it.
If these were just regular protesters on foot,
the cops would have cleared them out by now.
But to move a truck, you need someone who can drive a truck,
which isn't as easy as it sounds.
It takes months of training to be able to sit
in the driver's seat of a truck
and not just honk the horn the whole time.
It's extremely tempting.
So now, these truckers are finding a lot of support
not just from Canadians, but from Republicans
in the United States. Yeah. Rand Paul, Donald Trump,
everyone on Fox News are coming out
in support of these truckers, which I do find kind of funny.
Because all of these people who are cheering on the truckers
are like, "Yeah, shut it all down, truckers!
Bring the economy to its knees!"
Aren't those the same people who said
we shouldn't have any COVID restrictions
because the last thing we wanted to do
is bring an economy down to its knees?
I mean, so, basically what?
It's-it's not worth hurting the economy
just to save countless lives, but it is to make a point?
Then, if you're just making a point, then it's like,
"Yeah, go for it, buddy! You got it!"?
But regardless, these Republicans are now calling
for the trucker movement to come to America.
And it looks like they might soon get their wish.
Ottawa's so-called "Freedom Convoy"
spawning similar anti-vax mandate protests
in cities around the world.
In Australia, protesters assembled
outside the capitol building,
many waving Australian flags and signs asking for freedom.
In New Zealand, protesters camped outside Parliament
for a second day.
And in France, hundreds of protesters
in Nice headed for Paris, waving Canadian flags.
NEWSMAN 2: The Department of Homeland Security is telling
law enforcement authorities it's receiving reports
that a similar kind of convoy could soon begin in the U.S.
NEWSMAN 3: The department has "received reports
"of truck drivers planning to potentially block roads
in major metropolitan cities in the United States."
The protests could begin as soon as Sunday in Los Angeles
to disrupt the Super Bowl, and then travel across the country
to disrupt President Biden's State of the Union in D.C.
on March 1.
Whoa! These guys want to disrupt the Super Bowl.
I don't know, man. That seems like a terrible strategy.
I mean, think about it. You'd be ruining one
of the last things that everyone in America loves. Everyone.
You're going to block the Super Bowl?
What's your follow-up? Driving over Dolly Parton?
And honestly, I don't know how
disrupting Super Bowl traffic is even gonna work.
Right? If you're in Los Angeles on Super Bowl Sunday,
you're the one who is going to be stuck in the traffic.
-(horn honking) -"Come on, move it!
I got to get to the traffic disruption! Come on!"
And not to mention, disrupting the State of the Union
could also backfire on these truckers. Yeah.
They're gonna come there and then, what? Honk their horns?
You realize all those horns are just
gonna help Biden stay awake?
State of the State of the Union. Yeah. Yeah.
-(truck horn honking) -Oh, it's strong.
State of the Union's strong. Come on, Jack!
It's so strong. Super strong, man.
So, yeah, these trucker protesters
from Canada might be coming to America,
and if that's the case, we got to prepare ourselves,
because a lot of things that are big in Canada--
they blow up much more when they come to America, you know?
Drake, Justin Bieber,
those cool weed posters that they got up there.
But I will say this.
The funny thing about the whole protest is that
when it comes to coronavirus restrictions in America,
what are they going to be protesting?
There's not a whole lot left, right?
I mean, coronavirus isn't over,
but everyone has already started to act like it is.
Businesses are open, schools are in session,
and even the bluest states are getting rid of mask mandates.
So I guess what I'm saying is, congratulations, truck drivers!
You did it!
So I guess now there's no need to block the Super Bowl. Please.
Unless the Rams start winning. Then you block that shit.
I bet my house on the Bengals, man.
Block everything. You drive on the field. You just block them.
All right, when we come back, Roy Wood Jr. and Ronny Chieng
are gonna catch us up on all the sports news.
And Questlove is still joining us on the show.
You don't want to miss it.
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
Let's turn to some big news
from the world of sports:
the NBA trade deadline was today,
and it ended with a flurry of blockbuster deals.
And I got to say, man, I love the NBA trade deadline.
Because it just goes to show that everyone--
even the people who run sports teams--
wait until the last minute to do anything.
"Oh, shit! The deadline is today?
"Uh, trade him, uh, get him.
"We'll give you that guy. Here's James Harden.
"Just give me anything. Give me anything for him.
Yeah, I'll take your jacket. I'll take it!"
But there's so much more sports out there,
and for the rest of it, we turn to
Ronny Chieng and Roy Wood Jr. for another episode of
I Apologize For Talking While You Were Talking.
♪ ♪
-Mm... -What's up, sports nuts?
I'm Ronny Chieng. That's Roy Wood Jr.
Roy, are you ready to talk about sports?
Dude, we're standing on fake grass. Of course I am.
-Let's do it! -Great!
Let's start with the Winter Olympics.
I... thought you meant real sports,
like basketball or Wordle. Didn't know...
What? Come on, the Winter Olympics have
all kinds of great sports, like, uh, like skiing
and, uh, cross-country skiing and alpine skiing
and s-snow skiing. And, uh, ski snowing,
-and, uh, ski lift riding and... -Chieng, just stop, stop, stop.
-This is a hate crime. It's too white. -No. No, Roy.
That's not a hate crime.
What is a hate crime is what China did
in the opening ceremony.
I mean, just take a look at this.
NEWSWOMAN: The Winter Olympics now in full swing
after the ceremonial start of the games.
Team USA walking in the parade of nations.
But a controversial ending to the ceremony:
China choosing a Uighur athlete as one of the torchbearers
to light the final Olympic flame.
The host country has been condemned for its treatment
of the Muslim ethnic minority in Xinjiang,
leading the U.S. and other nations
to hold a diplomatic boycott of the Games.
Damn. Trotting out the Uighurs like that.
Do you have any idea the size of the balls that takes?
The Great Wall ain't the only thing
-you can see from space, Ronny. -Mm. I don't even get
what the message was supposed to be here.
China is like, "It's all cool. See? We let them hold fire."
See? See? This is the problem, see?
This is why the Olympics host country
should be a global superpower that's not mixed up
-in all the allegations of human rights abuses. -Mm.
-Mm, yes. Exactly. -Like a good country. You know?
-Like... -Exactly. Like, uh... Like...
-Like, uh... -One...
Um...
What's the one...?
-No, not them. -Uh...
-(exhales) -What... No, they just got in a war.
Uh...
-ISIS. -You know what, let's move on.
Let's-let's just move on.
We'll-we'll come up with one. We'll come up with one.
Because there's still a pandemic going on.
-That's right. -And China's COVID crackdowns
are turning the games into a different kind of spectacle.
NEWSMAN: Everyone who touches down
in Beijing for the Winter Games is greeted
by a hazmat suit-wearing welcoming committee
like this one.
They help you navigate various checkpoints
and not one but two COVID tests.
NEWSMAN 2: When an athlete or reporter tests positive,
they're ordered to put on a full hazmat suit
and taken away by ambulance
to a COVID isolation hotel 45 minutes away.
And the food, some say, is inedible.
One Russian athlete says she was given this tray of food for...
-That's what you're feeding Olympians? -Mm.
How did the chef even go about preparing that?
Eating food and then throwing it up again?
-(imitates vomiting) -No, man.
It's got all the major food groups.
Unsalted potatoes, weird meat, red liquid.
I say bon appétit.
What I can't believe
is that they're making them wear hazmat suits
just for COVID.
Those should be reserved for more dangerous situations,
like-like handling flesh-eating bacteria
or-or using a bathroom on a bus.
I totally disagree with you, Roy.
That's such an American perspective.
When the rest of the world gets COVID, they quarantine.
When Americans catch COVID, they go to Applebee's.
Hey. Hey. Hey.
Bad-mouth America all you want, but what you're not gonna do
is disrespect Applebee's, all right?
They got milkshake egg rolls, bro.
They are so delicious and decadent.
Whatever. But enough about the Olympics.
Let's talk about the Olympics of a sport
that only America plays,
the Super Bowl.
That's what I'm talking about, Ronny.
Finally, we're talking about football.
Cincinnati Bengals, L.A. Rams on Sunday.
And I'm already on layer 83
of my famous 1,400-layer bean dip.
Mmm, mmm, mmm.
I call it the iceberg melter.
What does that mean?
'Cause it causes so much farting.
It mess with the...
global warming and stuff. Out your--
-out your ass. You know? -Okay, that is disgusting.
While you're gambling with your digestive system,
Americans will be doing a different kind of gambling.
The gambling kind.
Millions, literally, of Americans
are expected to place a wager of some type on the Super Bowl.
NEWSWOMAN: And they'll bet an eye-popping $7.6 billion,
up 78% from last year.
That dramatic rise attributed largely to broader access.
Well, since last year, ten states have launched
legal sports betting, meaning 45 million more Americans
can wager in their home state than last year.
$7.6 billion on Super Bowl gambling?
-That could buy you a lot of NFTs. -Whew.
-Mm-hmm. -Or maybe just a few NFTs.
I still don't know what NFTs are.
Here's my thing-- the second they legalized gambling,
it was everywhere.
Day one, day one. Everywhere. Gambling.
The websites were ready. The ads were on my timeline.
So why does every other law take years to kick in?
Joe Biden, put DraftKings in charge
of your infrastructure bill.
By March, everybody gonna have their own bridge.
But, you know, Roy,
the Super Bowl isn't all about gambling and farting.
I disagree, but go on.
It's also about having the worst Monday of the year,
unless you live in Ohio.
NEWSMAN: Cincinnati Public Schools are giving students
the day off after the big game.
The school district tweeted,
"In honor of the Bengals' first Super Bowl appearance
"since 1988,
CPS will not have school on Monday, February 14."
NEWSWOMAN: They say it's so everyone can
"Celebrate what we believe
will be our city's first Super Bowl victory."
NEWSWOMAN 2: They should just make it a national holiday.
I love this! And as someone who grew up in Cincinnati,
I will also be taking next Monday off.
-You're not from Cincinnati. -Yeah, I am.
Name one thing Cincinnati's famous for.
Uh... nothing?
Okay. Lucky guess.
But seriously, this is bullshit.
What is this teaching the children of Ohio?
You're not supposed to get off the day after the Super Bowl.
You're supposed to pretend you have the flu
the day after the Super Bowl.
By the way, Roy, do you want to come over to my place
to watch the Super Bowl?
Nah, I can't, dawg. I got COVID.
What? Right now?
Of course, yes, right now, I have COVID. (clears throat)
Well, then what are we doing here in the studio?
We should be going to Applebee's!
My man! That's what I'm talking about.
Let's do it. Back to you, Trevor.
Milkshake, egg rolls. Trust me, you're gonna love 'em, brother.
CHIENG: I'm going to try that shit today!
Thank you so much for that, guys.
All right, when we come back, the one and only Questlove
will be joining us right here in the studio to talk
about his Oscar-nominated film. Don't go away.
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My guest tonight is the legendary drummer
and co-founder of The Roots,
Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. He's here to talk about
his award-winning documentary, Summer of Soul,
which was just nominated for an Oscar.
MUSA JACKSON: We brought everything to the park.
You know, the blankets, the Vaseline for the knees.
It was the ultimate Black barbecue.
And then you start to hear music.
-And someone speaking... -EMCEE: And now,
-for the first time in Harlem-- Soulville, -and you knew
-USA-- ladies and gentlemen, -it was something bigger.
-The 5th Dimension! -(cheering)
♪ Don'tcha you hear me ♪
♪ Callin' to ya ♪
♪ Don'tcha you hear me callin' to ya, baby. ♪
Aw, man, now I want to watch it again.
-Thank you. -You know? Now I want to-- Welcome to the show.
-Thank you. Thank you for having me. -How you doing, sir?
-How have you been? Yeah? -This is great. I love this.
-Yeah. -There-there are few people I know who-who have had
more jobs than you and excel at more jobs than you.
I know many people who've had more jobs than you,
but for a bad reason. I don't know many people who've had
as many jobs as you have and just done well at them.
I was one of those people, though. Because, at one point,
I thought there was honor in sort of matching James Brown
in the hardest-working man in show business.
Um, once I stopped
doing everything,
then a whole new world of magic
opened that I never knew of, and one of them
is what I call storytelling, or directing.
Which-- This definitely wasn't on my...
my, uh, my bingo card
back in 2005.
But if you look at it,
everything I've done to this point
-is preparing for... this-this point. -This moment.
'Cause, I mean, those-those 40 hours could go...
the 40 hours of the footage
that sat in the basement for five decades...
Yeah, I still don't-- wait a minute, let's talk about that.
I still don't understand this. Because nobody has seen
all of these performances, nobody has seen these moments,
nobody has seen what happened in Harlem in '69.
I need to start with that. So...
How did you even begin to find 40 hours of footage of--
It would be like... It would be like somebody now finding,
"Hey, I found a-a concert with Jay-Z and Beyoncé
and, like, Michael Jackson and, like..." Just, like, everyone.
-Right. -And it was in a basement somewhere.
I-I directed this film, and I refused to believe it.
I get word backstage at The Tonight Show
that these two gentlemen want to talk to me
about this, uh, so-called Black Woodstock.
And I was like, "Black Woodstock?
"And... Well, I'm thinking of Woodstock,
and you're saying there was a Black version of that?"
And then I was like, "Well, wait a minute."
I'd-I'd like to think that I was a music expert
-or knew things. -Yeah.
Like, how come I didn't know
that over 300,000 people gathered in Harlem
for a collective six-weekend affair
with Stevie Wonder? Stevie Wonder.
Sly Stone. B.B. King. Mavis Staples.
Like, how come I didn't know about this?
And, you know, I was, like, calling other...
"You heard of Black Woodstock?"
"No, I never heard of it."
-And so... -I don't understand how that's possible.
I didn't believe it... I didn't believe that it happened.
So the very first meeting, I just thought
that these two were trying to just scam me
-for, like, Tonight Show tickets or whatever. -(laughs)
That's what I thought it was.
And then they came by the next week with a hard drive,
and even then I was like, "Well, the footage must be bad,
-or maybe Stevie had an off day, or..." -Right, right, right.
And everything I saw was magic.
And...
To this day...
The-the reason why...
Even when I agreed to do this,
at first I was just gonna compile, like, 17 songs.
-Yes. Right. -What, like a mixtape.
You know, that sort of thing.
But the curiosity
kept burning me inside that, like...
The question I asked is, "Is Black erasure this easy?"
And that's the thing. I think oftentimes,
when, you know, when we speak of, like, Black Lives Matter
or, uh, you know, is that racist or not racist,
I think people think of the most extreme definition of it.
Like, in their minds, they're saying,
"Well, I've never once hung somebody to a cross
-or castrated them or set them on fire." -Right, right. Mm-hmm.
"So I'm not racist." But there's other...
There's benign levels of racism, as well.
And even as sort of the-the...
sort of the dismissal of like,
"Well, we'll pass."
You know? "We're good."
For a lot of people, their first view of us
was either in blackface
or mired in trouble or controversy
-or, you know, getting arrested, getting hosed down. -Mm-hmm.
And... But Black joy is the component
that shows that we're human.
You know? And...
this could have been that moment,
had it allowed-- been, you know, the spotlight
that Woodstock had-had gotten.
It was also a crucial time as well, you know?
It's the summer of '69. So many things were happening
-in America. -A lot was changing. Right.
You know, a lot was changing in the country.
And I remember watching this.
I-I had never seen it.
I had never seen something like this.
To your point, a lot of what you see
from that time period
is a-- is a very one-dimensional view of Black America.
-Mm-hmm. -So it seems like Black America has only existed
-in strife for a long time. You know? -Exactly.
And ex-- And-and only strife, I should mention.
And then you watch this and you're like, "Man, this is..."
I-I couldn't believe the scale.
I couldn't believe the party people were havening.
I cou-- Having. I couldn't believe, like,
who was there and how they were there,
who was performing and-and what it signified.
When you-- when you told that story,
what do you think the significance of this event was?
(sighs) The-the significance of the event,
at least what I got from it,
was that this was a community trying to heal.
And so, for me,
shall I say, a really beautiful...
uh, gander
into...
the-the infinite possibilities of what a future is.
You're seeing Stevie Wonder
a mere two years before his-his genius period.
You're seeing Nina Simone give one of her very first
non-jazz, non-love song,
non-Broadway musical performance
and, like, Nina Simone stepping into her activism shoes
in real time.
So you're seeing all these artists.
But, really, you're also just watching the people.
And that's the thing, like, when I say, like,
we were robbed of that,
not just as Black people but the world to see,
you know, "Oh, families just like mine.
-Music just like mine. Happiness just like..." -Yeah. Yeah.
And that's... and that's sort of the...
that's sort of the-the missing fiber element
in telling our stories from the civil rights period
-that people don't know. -Right, right, right.
You look at America's story over and over.
It's such a giant country, you know,
where, if people don't have an interaction
with the people on the ground... You don't know a Black person.
You don't meet an Hispanic person.
-You don't know... Do you get what I'm saying? -Right. Yeah.
-You can get into where... -Just knowing someone at your job
-doesn't make you... Right. -Right, right.
And maybe you don't even.
That's what I loved about this documentary--
I think it's to what you're saying--
is it showed a joy, it showed a normality, it showed a...
There's just a human element
that I didn't even know I was looking for.
Like, because I didn't know that this was going
to invoke some sort of emotion out of Marilyn McCoo
-as she's watching herself. -Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
-I'm thinking like, "You hosted Solid Gold." -Right.
"How do you remember this very specific show
back then?" But, you know, when she started
-to really open up about code-switching... -Yes.
...and, you know, something that every Black person relates to
on the professional job, and even I needed to see that.
Like, wow. Even when you're the number-one singing group
in the world, like, you still have to code-switch,
and you still have to always be on guard,
and you're never comfortable, and, you know,
you have longings for just love from your people.
-Right. -Yeah.
You just want to be accepted. I-I won't lie.
I think... I think you deserve every award
that this film has won and is going to win because it's...
-Thank you, Trevor. -You know what it is, man.
-It's telling a story from history that is lost. -Mm-hmm.
It's sharing a joy from history that is... that is lost.
And I think it's something that people need today
where you go like, "Hey, you know, yeah, we can fight,
"yeah, we can argue, yeah, we can... we can deal with
-what we need to deal with." -Mm-hmm.
"But at the end of the day, don't forget joy,
because that's what makes us human."
So thank you, man. Thank you for being here.
-Well, thank you for having me. -Thank you for the documentary.
-Thank you. -And now, I'm gonna watch it again.
I watched the clip, and now, I'm back into it.
Let's go watch right now during the commercial break.
Let's do it right now. Let's do it right now. All right.
Summer of Soul is currently streaming on Hulu and Disney+,
and it will make its broadcast television debut
-February 20 on ABC. -(whoops)
We're going to take a quick break,
but we'll be right back after this.
Well, that's our show for tonight, but before we go,
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They're an organization that sources
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Until next time, stay safe out there, get your vaccine.
And remember-- don't flush your sensitive documents
down the toilet.
First eat them, digest them, then flush them down.
Now here it is-- Your Moment of Zen.
People are flushing toilets ten times, 15 times,
as opposed to once.
They end up using more water.
Ten times, right? Ten times. Bah, bomp.
Not me. Of course, not me, but you, you.
'Cause it's sort of gross to talk about, right?
So, I won't... I won't talk about the fact
that people have to flush their toilet 15 times.
-(cheering) -Okay.
We won't talk about toilets,
but you know that's a ding, ding, ding,
10, 15, but we don't talk about that.
(toilet flushing)