Probably one of the biggest surprises,
they say, apparently, of the Winter Olympics
is that Norway is leading the medals table.
Everyone was thinking it's gonna be America
or China or, like, Canada,
and then, like, Norway is crushing it.
And then I went to the medals table,
and I looked at the events, and I was like, "Guys."
This is... It's unfair. Like, forget doping.
Norway shouldn't be in the Winter Olympics
'cause all the shit they're doing
is, like, what Norwegians consider normal life.
Like, they're not, like, competing, you know what I mean?
They'll just be like, "Oh, what event was this?"
"Oh, yeah, this is where, like, the people
have to go cross-country on skis."
Yeah, that's just Tuesday in Norway.
I bet at the end of the race,
they're like, "Well done. Gold medal."
It's like, "What? I was just going to school."
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, Prince Andrew pays up,
Willie O'Ree,
and Jessica Kingdon.
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.
♪ ♪
We kick things off
with the news about the British royal family,
the only people who think chess is a representative game.
"Look, there's me. And there's you.
And there's the people who pay us."
(chuckles)
Yesterday marked Queen Elizabeth's
70th year on the throne,
making her the longest-serving monarch
in British history.
Which must be nice
for all of those people who've been shouting,
"Long live the queen!"
Yeah, 'cause now they can be like,
"Yeah, you see? We did that."
Now, as part of the anniversary observance,
the family has announced
that if and when Queen Elizabeth dies
and her son Charles becomes king,
his wife, Camilla,
will be crowned alongside him as queen.
And I don't know if you remember,
but when Camilla first started dating Charles,
people said that she could never be queen
because their relationship started as an affair.
So this is huge. This is a huge, huge deal.
And I also think it's the right move,
because can you imagine how awkward
it was gonna be otherwise
if every time Charles and Camilla walked in a room
and the royal announcer would be like,
"Presenting the king of England
and presenting, uh, his sidepiece?"
But while I'm sure the royals would love
to be focusing on the future of the family,
unfortunately, they've been forced
to deal with a scandal from their past.
You see, for decades,
Elizabeth's second son, Prince Andrew,
he was rolling deep with Jeffrey Epstein.
And after years of fighting allegations
that he had done anything wrong,
it looks like he's finally throwing in the towel.
NEWSMAN: Tonight, Prince Andrew
dramatically averting a court battle,
not admitting liability but not clearing his name.
Virginia Giuffre claims she was sexually assaulted by the prince
when she was 17 years old, trafficked by Epstein.
NEWSMAN 2: The 61-year-old prince
will pay his accuser, Virginia Giuffre,
a reported $10 million
and make a substantial donation
to her charity in support of victims' rights.
Of course, questions saying, is it Prince Andrew's money?
We know that he sold his Swiss ski chalet,
reputedly for about 18 million,
but many people saying the queen is helping to foot the bill.
Yeah, that's right. After years of fighting,
Prince Andrew has finally settled with Virginia Giuffre.
And although it's not perfect justice,
I mean, it is something. You know?
To be honest, I almost feel like this guy got off easy,
because, yeah, it is $10 million,
but you're from the royal family.
Think about it.
$10 million is, like, one jewel from one of their crowns.
And this has got to suck for the queen.
Like, imagine having to use the money that you earned
to-- I guess she didn't, like, earn it,
but, I mean, imagine, like, working hard your whole life--
Well, I mean, she doesn't really work.
Um, you-you get what I'm saying. You get what I'm saying.
The point is the queen didn't get into the royal business
to do stuff like this. Right?
She got into it to steal spices from India.
It's about that life.
And I can tell you now, this is probably where she misses
the days when she could just chop off people's heads.
You know? 'Cause, back in the day,
with this thing happening with Andrew,
the queen would have just been like,
"Andrew, I dropped my contact lens.
Would you bend down and pick it up?"
"Where, Mummy?" (chopping sound)
"10 million saved."
Oh, and, by the way, the next time your mom complains
about you asking her for rent money,
you should just show her this story and remind her
it could be way worse.
But let's move on.
If you're tired of the same old, same old dating app scene
where you swipe right on the cute guy,
he swindles you out of thousands of dollars,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, then good news--
Tinder is now offering a Blind Date feature on the app.
Yeah, because, usually, when you're scrolling through people,
you first see their picture, right?
And then you decide right away
whether you're too good-looking for them
or they're too good-looking for you.
But now Tinder is just gonna ask you questions.
And then what they're gonna do is they're gonna match you
with someone based on your responses.
Then you have a chat with them.
And then, if you both like each other,
Tinder will show you their pictures.
Which is great,
because if they stop talking to you at that point,
then you know immediately that you're ugly.
And, you know, it's so funny how tech companies
came out like, "They're the future.
They're gonna show us new things."
But then, as time goes on,
they seem to invent stuff that already exists.
Like blind dates-- "it's the future of dating."
No. People in the Middle Ages were like,
"All our dates are blind."
And, I'm sorry, but you can't really recreate blind dates
unless you also recreate the part where your mutual friend
tries to talk the other person up
whilst also avoiding their faults.
That's a key part of blind dates.
"Yeah, he's, like, super good at cooking
and he loves to read."
"Interesting. So, does he have a job?"
"As I said, he loves to read."
"Huh?"
I also have to mention
that this blind dating scheme that Tinder's running,
this is discriminatory towards hot, dumb, boring people.
You realize you're taking away their greatest asset.
People with good personalities--
they're gonna do fine in this situation.
They can meet people in person, they can charm them.
All some people have is a six-pack.
They don't even know that they have a six-pack
because they can't count that high.
All right, but let's move on
to a story coming from my home country--
South Africa.
Yeah, it's not the most creatively-named country,
but you always know where to find us.
It has been almost ten years
since the passing of South Africa's first
democratically-elected president, Nelson Mandela.
And for those of you who don't know,
Nelson Mandela was basically the Martin Luther King
of our Harriet Tubmans.
And everywhere you go in South Africa,
there are reminders of how great he is.
Like, there are statues, there are bridges named after him.
There's whole neighborhoods that bear his name.
But now, there's a new, fancier way
for people who want to celebrate his legacy.
The former home of Nelson Mandela is now a luxury hotel.
It's called "Sanctuary Mandela,"
and it was Mandela's first home in Johannesburg
after being released from 27 years in prison.
South Africa's first Black president lived there
for six years.
It now can host 18 guests, and 18 guests rather,
and is adorned with Mandela memorabilia.
Even Madiba's former cook is on staff there
helping to prepare meals.
Rooms range from $250 to as much as $1,000 a night.
Yeah, that's right.
Nelson Mandela's old house has been turned into a luxury hotel.
And I mean, I guess this is just the fate
of every historic building now, right?
'Cause if you think about it, half of the old buildings
around the world are now either a bank,
an Apple Store, or a CVS. That's it.
I wouldn't be shocked if in, like, a 100 years,
the White House is going to be turned into
Jeff Bezos' dog's weekend place.
Now, some people think that it doesn't make sense
for the home of the man who fought inequality
to be turned into a luxury hotel.
But it does. It actually does.
And it really does if you remember one
of Mandela's most famous quotes when he said,
"Do not judge me by the color of my skin,
"but rather judge me by the thread count
"of these Egyptian cotton sheets.
"Balling out of control.
Hey. Hey. Hey."
-It was a powerful speech. we cried that day. -(laughter)
We cried that day.
Also, you know, when you're staying
at the Nelson Mandela Hotel,
good luck fighting the minibar charges
that you think are unfair.
Just gonna be at the front desk like,
"Hi. Excuse me. I think I was unfairly charged
for a bag of pistachios."
Madame, let me tell you about unfair charges.
So, yeah. look, this is gonna come with its pros and its cons.
People are going to be for it and against it.
And I guess it will be good for the people who work there
and maybe some of the community.
But you got to admit, man, at the same time,
it does feel a little disrespectful for everything
that Nelson Mandela went through, you know?
Just gonna pay some money, and you can sleep in his house?
You know what he had to do to get to that house?
You know what they should do? They should-they should say
for every night that you stay in the hotel,
you should also have to spend the night
in an apartheid prison. Yeah.
Now you're getting the full experience.
You know, I actually hope that they do this
with African dictator homes, too. 'Cause, like, yeah,
Mandela had a nice house, but forget him, man.
African dictators-- those dudes lived lavish.
They should make that an experience. Can you imagine
soaking in Idi Amin's Jacuzzi?
Chilling on his giant couch? (whoops)
Dressing up in the skin of his enemies? Talk about a honeymoon.
You like this, baby?
All right, finally, let's move on to some news
from the world of religion.
Since we were young, many of us have been taught the same story.
Right? Be good, pray every day,
and you'll get into heaven.
What your grandmother probably didn't mention
is that a paperwork issue could send you to hell.
A Catholic priest in Arizona has resigned
because of a mistake the church says he's been making
for more than 20 years. During thousands of baptisms
he used the phrase "we baptize" instead of "I baptize."
The Vatican says that one word change makes
all the baptisms he performed invalid.
The priest has apologized and, again, resigned.
Wait, wait, I'm sorry, what?
All the baptisms are invalid because of one w--
no, one word?
This is, like, the worst thing I Catholic priest has ever done.
But for real, people, I cannot believe that the Vatican
is gonna say all of these baptisms--
all of them, like, what, 2,000 are invalid--
just because the priest said "we"
instead of "I."
Like, don't get me wrong, I'm glad to hear that
the Catholic Church cares about people's pronouns,
but this seems like a minor mistake to me.
You know, like, I would understand
if the priest accidentally cleansed their souls
in White Claw. That, I would get.
But this doesn't seem like a huge deal.
And what's gonna happen to all the people
who weren't actually baptized? What happens to them now, huh?
Are they gonna go to hell for someone else's mistake?
That's so unfair.
Everyone else who gets to go to hell
goes there because they got to have some fun first.
You know? Now they're all gonna be down in the fire pits like,
"Well, I'm being burned forever
"but it was worth it for the orgies! (laughs)
What are you in for, man?"
"My priest made a typo."
"Oh sure, whatever. (laughs)
"You probably killed some puppies or something,
you sick (bleep). Yo, let's torture this guy extra hard."
So, now-- Wait, sor-sorry, sorry, hold on.
I'm hearing from my producers that...
Well, that-that can't be right.
We have an interview with God Himself?
Is that even possible? How...
Uh, all right, can we-can we patch him in?
-♪ ♪ -Yeah, yeah, turn over that cable.
-Oh, my Lord. -Hey.
Hey, Trevor, it's me, God. God indeed, baby. How you been?
Well, this is amazing. God, thank you so much
-for joining me on the show. -Hey, baby, happy to be here.
Look, we got to make this quick, though.
I'm working on creating a new animal.
It's like a horse but it's got flippers
and it's got fangs. I gave it one wing.
Ooh, boy, it's gonna mess y'all up.
Oh, God, I have so many questions,
First-first of all, I, I didn't know that this is how you look.
Oh, no, thi-this-this is just how I look to you.
I don't look like this when I'm talking to white folks.
I want to surprise 'em when they get here.
(laughs) Oh, man, God, I-I just...
Oh, oh, I also have another question,
and this is a little embarrassing, but...
No, I'm not helping you with Wordle.
How did you know that that was what I was gonna ask?
Tired, tired of you asking about Wordle.
You tweet about Wordle all the time.
You need to get a life, man.
Yeah, but The New York Times made the words...
Anyway, God, let's talk about the issue at hand.
What's your position on this priest in Arizona
who's been messing up baptisms?
I'm gonna be honest, I-I got no idea what you talking about.
Uh, there's a priest in Arizona who said the wrong word,
and now the Vatican is all upset and they're saying
that the people might be going to hell now.
You-you haven't heard about this?
No, man.
I don't pay half as much attention to Earth
as y'all think I do.
I'm having too much fun.
Look at me, I'm in heaven.
We got Prince, Whitney Houston, George Michael.
Every day up here is a Super Bowl halftime show.
Wait, hold-- so, hold...
-Worried about Earth. -You're saying that you're not really
focused on every single thing that's going on down here?
No, I ain't worried about everything going on...
Do you realize how many worlds I have created?
I can't keep track of every single one.
You think Shonda Rhimes know what's going on
in every single one of her TV shows?
She got the firefighter show, she got the doctor show,
she got the one where everybody having sex in the 1700s.
It's impossible to keep track of, impossible.
I-I mean, that makes sense, but are you saying
that even if this priest messed up the baptisms,
you, you would still accept these people into heaven?
That's right.
People, don't sweat the small stuff.
Look, this is all you got to do, Trevor.
All you got to do to get into heaven is be a good person.
I just want people up here
who aren't going to ruin the party, all right?
Now, if you'll excuse me, it's trivia night
and Alex Trebek is on my team.
Trebek, baby, let's get these Bitcoins.
Hell, yeah.
Wow, man.
Heaven sounds like a lot of fun. I can't wait to see it one day.
-This is... -Oh, don't worry. You gonna see it real soon.
Wait, what? Wh-What does...
H-How soon? What does that...
What does that...
You know what? Let's take a quick break
So I can figure out what that meant.
And after the break, I'm gonna be talking to Willie O'Ree,
the first Black hockey player ever.
You don't want to miss it.
When he said "soon," do you think that was a threat
or do you think it was an invitation?
How you turn off this webcam?
-Hit the button? -Oh, God, you have to press the...
Lord, it didn't... (stammers) If you... it's on the t-top right.
The top right of the-- if it's-- Is it a touchscreen?
-You've got to hit the top right. -Hang on.
-No, it's, uh... -Leave meeting.
No, you're still here.
-Lord, y-you haven't left. -Leave meeting.
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My first guest tonight is a hockey legend
by the name of Willie O'Ree.
He integrated the sport of hockey
by becoming the first Black player
to compete in the NHL in 1958,
for which he will be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
MAN: Making sports history in hockey
as Jackie Robinson did in baseball,
Willie O'Ree of the Boston Bruins,
a native of Fredericton, New Brunswick,
is the first Negro to play in the National Hockey League.
WOMAN: In his first time out,
his team won against the Montreal Canadiens.
In the Bruins dressing room after the game,
Gord Sinclair Jr. of CFCF
pressed through the crowd for this interview.
SINCLAIR: It must be quite the exciting thing, isn't it,
to get into an NHL game for the Boston Bruins.
What do you feel about it, uh, Willie? Anything unusual?
O'REE: No, it was the greatest thrill of my life,
I believe. I'll always remember this day.
"I'll always remember this day." Mr. Willie O'Ree,
-welcome to The Daily Show. -Thank you very much.
It certainly is a pleasure to be here.
Oh, the pleasure's all mine. I mean, I'm talking to a man
who's a legend on so many counts.
I mean, you-you're a legend
because of what you did for the sport of hockey.
Uh, you're a legend because you were
the first Black player in the NHL.
And, for me, you are a legend because you are a Black person
who chose to play on the ice.
I-I don't meet many Black people who willingly go to the cold,
Mr. O'Ree, so, uh, you're a... you're a legend personally
for me as an African. Welcome to the show.
-It's good to have you. -Thank you, sir.
Um, let's talk a little bit about your journey.
You know, it-it...
it wasn't anything that anybody had done before.
You know? You talk about this in your life
and how you had a dream.
You said, "I want to play in the NHL.
I want to be a professional hockey player."
Nobody had done it. Nobody thought anybody could do it,
and yet you set your mind to it.
I'd love to know how you-you had this idea
of doing something that had never been done before
with the clarity that you had.
Well, when I was 14 years of age,
I decided I wanted to become a professional hockey player
and then hopefully one day in the, uh...
play in the National Hockey League.
And I have to give credit to my older brother
who was not only my brother and my friend but he was my mentor
and he taught me a lot of things that I would need to know.
So I started playing organized hockey.
Uh, and at 14, I left my hometown
to go up to, uh, Quebec, Canada,
to play junior-junior hockey with the, um, Quebec Frontenacs.
Uh, played there that, uh, one year,
and then I went and played, uh,
in Kitchener, Ontario, the second year.
And that's when I had, uh, an unfortunate accident.
You know, none of the players wore any helmets,
no face shields, no cages.
And, um, I was struck in the right eye with a puck
and lost 97% vision in my right eye.
-Wow. -And the doc-- the doctor told me
I'd never play hockey again.
But, uh, I kept it a secret
and, um, turn-turned pro in 1956
and was able to play 21 years with one eye.
W-Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's--
Okay, now we-- now we need to add
an extra layer of legend to the story.
You lost some of your vision,
and the doctor said that you were legally blind.
You keep this a secret,
and then you go on to play--
I-I don't-- I don't even understand how that's possible.
I can't follow the puck.
I've been to hockey games.
I love watching hockey games,
but it's like I can't follow the puck.
But you're telling me you were a professional player
who was legally blind.
I don't understand how you did this.
Well, you know, um... (clears throat)
I-- When I went to the hospital and, um,
I-I was in my recovery room and the doctor said,
"Mr. O'Ree," he says, "you're gonna be blind
and you'll never play hockey again,"
well, the two goals that I had set for myself,
well, seemingly, were gone.
But I got out of the hospital and, um,
within the next five, uh, weeks, I'm back on the ice,
practicing and playing.
Now, I'm a left-hand shot and playing left wing.
But, to compensate, I-I had to turn my head
all the way around to the right to pick the puck
and pick the play up and look over my right shoulder.
-Wow. -And I...
And, consequently, I was overskating the puck
and missing the net, and I just said,
"Willie, forget about what you can't see
and concentrate on what you can see."
So, the season ends and, uh, I go back to my hometown
-and I kept my fingers crossed... -Mm-hmm.
...that I'd be contacted by a professional team.
And I waited and waited, and finally, I got a call
from Punch Imlach who was the coach and general manager
of the Quebec Aces,
the Quebec professional team up in Quebec City.
So, to make a long story short, I go to training camp,
I make the team, I don't tell them that I am blind.
I don't have an eye exam so I says,
"Well, if I don't take an eye exam, just-just play."
And we won the championship that year,
so that's what gave me the extra confidence that I needed.
-And I said... I said... -(laughing)
Oh, man, I mean, that's...
Yeah, if anything qualifies somebody to be a legend,
I think that story makes it.
Um, let's talk about the sport itself.
You know, you talked about back then what it was like
being in the league as the first and only Black player.
You had teammates who supported you,
you had fans who cheered for you, but there was also
the fans who really could only think of the color of your skin
as the reason that they didn't like you.
You know, they were shouting slurs at you on the ice,
or they were shouting slurs at you from the stands.
I'd love to know how you blocked out that noise.
You know, I mean, that truly affects you
as a human being, but you found a way to persevere.
Was that something you had just grown up with in your family,
or did you put your head down, and...?
Like, how did you do that?
Well, I just put my head down. I was called the "N" word
every time I stepped on the ice by players on the opposition,
by fans in the stands.
If I had a penalty, and I went in the penalty box,
I could hear them saying the "N" word,
but I just blocked if out,
thanks to my older brother, again.
And he told me, "willie, if they can't accept you
"for the individual that you are,
"because you have the skills and ability
to play in the league at this particular time,"
he said, "forget about everything else."
He said, "Just go out, stay focused on your goal
and work hard." And basically, that's what I did.
But I mean, I... It was really rough at the beginning, Trevor.
It really was, but finally, I gained the respect
of the players and the oppos... and the fans.
Man, I can... I honestly can't even imagine
how hard it must have been, you know, being in that world.
Um, there are over a hundred Black players, you know,
who have now played in the NHL.
Many of them have either talked about your story
or they've talked about your journey
in some way inspiring them,
but they've also talked about how difficult it can be
being the only Black player on a team, you know,
the only Black player who's representing a franchise.
You know, were there any tips that you gave
to any of these players or were there any tips
that you learned that would help you
not-- almost carry the entire burden
of being the only Black player on a team?
You know, being able to fail for Willie
or being able to succeed for Willie
and not always worrying that it, you know, it represents
all of Blackness at the same time, which it did and didn't.
Well, I met a lot of the Black players and players of color
that are playing in the league at the present time,
and, you know, some of them that I have met, they said,
"Willie, I just can't imagine what you had to go through
to make it possible for players like me to play in the league."
He says, "I just-- I have the highest respect
and the highest admiration for you."
He said, "What you-what you had to do, you must have
had to turn your cheek a thousand times."
And I said, "I just stayed... I stayed focused
"on what I wanted to do. I-I worked hard.
"And I told myself 'I'm good enough to play
"'in the league and, uh,
'"just-just work hard
and, uh, stay confident.'"
Let's talk a little bit about the future. You know, you...
We're celebrating you and you've been celebrated
for such a long time as being not just part of
Black history but part of, also, the NHL's history.
You have now been an ambassador for the National Hockey League,
getting Black players into it, players of color,
you know, kids who would have never thought that this could
be their sport or maybe they wanted to get into it
but couldn't-- it's an expensive sport to get into, you know?
Your skates and-and all the equipment that you need
to-to be part of-- it sometimes becomes a bigger barrier
than even the color of your skin.
When you're-when you're meeting with new kids and you-you're
talking to these children who want to join in,
how do you inspire them to get into a sport
that sometimes might be just out of their reach?
Well, we have, uh, organized programs
all over North America.
And when I first started, um,
there were ap-approximately five.
We have about 36 now.
And-and before the pandemic
I was traveling around to these cities
and, uh, uh, talking to the, uh,
elementary schools, middle schools,
junior high, high schools,
um, Boys & Girls Clubs, YM/YWCAs,
juvenile detention facilities to let them know
that there is a sport that they can play if they want to,
and, uh, all you have to do is come to the rink
and, uh, we-we'll learn you how to skate.
And, uh, if you, if you follow,
we'll get you on an organized, an organized team
where you're able to, able to play.
I mean, uh, hockey's a fun sport...
but I tell these kids, if you're not having fun, don't play it.
Uh, find another sport.
-(Noah laughs) -But, uh,
I... I can honestly say
that, uh, the clinics that I've conducted over the years,
once I get these boys and girls on the ice,
I've not had one boy or girl come up and say,
"Um, nah, Mr. O'Ree, I don't like this.
-I'm not coming back." -Wow.
So it's a nice feeling to reach out
and even-- and just touch one individual
and make a difference in their life.
Well, that's why you are who you are.
That's why you are receiving not just the medal
but all the praise, and we celebrate you.
Thank you so much, uh, Mr. Willie O'Ree.
Thank you so much for joining us on the show,
thank you for what you've done, and, uh, thank you
for the joy that you've brought to the sport and to the world.
-We appreciate you. -Thank you.
All right, don't go away, because after the break
I'm gonna be chatting to Jessica Kingdon,
who's made a documentary that takes us into China
and shows us what some of their challenges are
that we may not know about.
You don't want to miss it.
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My guest tonight is filmmaker Jessica Kingdon.
She's here to talk about Ascension,
her Oscar-nominated documentary
that examines the contemporary Chinese dream.
Jessica Kingdon, welcome to The Daily Show.
Thank you so much for having me.
It's a complete honor to be here.
Well, let's talk about the film.
It's very seldom that you see China,
and it's very seldom that you see China
not from China's perspective
and not from, like, the West's perspective
but just in China. So let's start with that.
How on earth do you get to make a documentary in China
in all the places that you got to make the documentary?
Because the film itself is not politically...
overtly political
and we're not filming in any, um, "sensitive areas."
-Right. -So we were able to be extremely straightforward
about what we were doing,
and a lot of it was just simply asking these locations.
"Hey, we're an independent American documentary film crew
"coming to make a film about China's economic rise.
"Can we come and film in your factory?
Can we come and film in your manner school?"
Et cetera. Surprisingly,
the thing that people were worried about
is not something I anticipated.
A lot of factory managers, um, were worried
that we were gonna scam them
and try to get money out of them.
-In what way? -Like, to hit them up with a bill
-for appearing in our movie later on. -(laughing)
-(chuckles) Yeah, it was amaz... -Wait, are you being serious?
I'm dead serious.
Another suspicion that happened was in the textile man...
one of the textile manufacturing companies.
He thought that we were there trying...
from a corporation trying to, um, take the technology secrets.
You were trying to steal their tech
-and then go and make your own textile... -Yeah.
-Exactly. -It-it feels like what also makes this film different
is you're not telling us anything.
You're just showing us things.
You know, there's no one who's narrating.
There's nobody who's giving you their opinion.
You see, like, you know, low-income workers,
we see the middling class that's burgeoning,
and then we see, like, wealthy Chinese people.
You even take us into, um, a-a factory
that is making very advanced, um, sex dolls,
and I-I just want to play a clip of that.
♪ ♪
So, two things for me.
One, I didn't know sex dolls had gotten that advanced.
Genuinely.
Like, when I was a kid, I remember sex dolls
were, like, these inflatable things.
But, two, I-I don't know if you did this on purpose,
but that whole scene in its entirety is-is--
has so many paradoxes, in a way.
When you were making the film, weren't you ever tempted
to step in and go, like, "This is what this means"?
Or-or you-- Were you happy for us, the viewer,
to just watch for ourselves and decide?
I don't think I could even say what it means,
to be honest with you.
I mean. I think there are so many meanings that are...
-can be found within that one clip even. -Mm-hmm.
But like you said, something that struck me
about this place was the paradox of it, where on one hand,
-it seems like one of the most exploitative factories. -Right.
There are these, um, replicas of bodies
literally made for exploitation.
But on the other hand, the women are handling the dolls,
and also working together, with a certain type of tenderness
that I found very touching.
And the conversations that they're having with one another,
too, are, um, almost accidentally poetic sometimes.
And so, I found that really beautiful, and, um,
that was a paradox that I was really trying to lean into,
-and look for and draw out. -Mm-hmm.
And it wasn't something that I had to go in
and try to manufacture.
It was just something that was already there.
And I think a lot of this type of filmmaking
is about the patience to sort of sit
-with these sort of moments... -Oh, yes.
...and allow them to-to emerge,
instead of trying to go and, um, you know, prove a certain point.
It's wonderful to just see,
just a world happening, but in a way
where it doesn't feel A-- like you said-- manufactured,
but also, where something is happening.
You know, there's a lot of stories
that happen in how people live.
And it was nice to watch that in a documentary--
just see people living-- but then also,
-there's a story being told by how the people live. -Right.
It's just the art of observing and seeing what comes up.
-So... -Yeah. No, you're a better filmmaker
than I would ever be. I'd always be tempted
to, like, jump in, just be...
I was very tempted a lot of the times.
It took a lot of discipline.
-You didn't see the outtakes, yeah. -Okay, okay, okay, okay.
You know, the China I had known for so many years was just
all industrial and very-- and in this documentary we start to see
a new world that is forming where people are now learning
how to be influencers and the culture is changing.
Would it be safe to say that there's almost, now,
"the Chinese dream" like the American dream,
where people are going, "We want to ascend in how
-we live, earn, create"? -There's a lot of similarities
with the Chinese dream and the American dream.
I mean, the one thing that they both have in common
is this idea, uh, this quest for upward mobility
and this belief in the system
that you will be rewarded materially for your hard work
and, you know, are able to work yourself up
to a middle-class lifestyle, which, of course, we know
is not true for everyone. Um, but within China,
I-I found that it was just interesting to see
how a lot of it mirrors American style capitalism as well.
There's so many different parallels that we wouldn't
necessarily see on the surface, but if you kind of look closer
you see a lot of it's echoed with one another.
One of my favorite moments in the documentary
is where you are in the factory where there are--
where they are making
the Donald Trump "Make America Great Again" hats.
They're, like, they're making the MAGA hats,
but you saw them making the "Keep America Great,"
and you thought-you thought they were messing up.
Like, you thought they had totally messed up the-the...
-the slogan. -That's right. This was, um, during
Trump's re-election campaign.
The manager told us, "Oh, you know,
"all of the, uh, MAGA hats are gone
because they were bought out by the Canadians."
-Not something I would have expected. -(laughs)
But okay, sure, Canada, uh, MAGA hats.
Um, but instead, "Hey, we're actually making, um,
Keep America Great, um, scarves,"
and I thought that that was kind of maybe a mistake
-or a mistranslation or something. -Yeah.
But we shot it anyway and they said,
"No, no, this is his, um, new campaign slogan."
And sure enough, six months later or whatever,
we were seeing it everywhere, so...
There's a saying that businesspeople in Yiwu,
the city where we were shooting, are ahead of the curve,
ahead of the political trends
because they are kind of like the base of manufacturing
-where all of these global issues first come. -Wow.
-Yeah. -I definitely want to go.
I just want to see what my future is.
-Yeah. -What shirts are they making about me?
-Exactly. -What, "Free Trevor Noah"?
I'm-- wait, I'm gonna be in prison?
Um... (laughs)
Jessica, congratulations again on the Oscar nomination,
and, um, thank you for making, really,
one of the most fascinating documentaries out.
Oh, thank you so much.
This has been an absolute honor.
All right, people, Jessica's documentary Ascension
is now streaming on Paramount Plus.
Trust me, you want to watch it.
It's gonna teach you so much.
We're gonna 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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Until tomorrow, stay safe out there,
get your vaccine, and remember:
if you're not sure that your baptism went through,
you better find yourself a bird bath
and dunk your head, just to be safe.
Now, here it is, Your Moment of Zen.
Additionally, if you open this up to ice fishing, well--
and on the surface it sounds good,
then what happens next year?
Does someone come back and say, "I want an ice shanty"?
-On Hudson Spring's park for X amount of time? -I don't know.
And I you then allow ice... fishing with shanties,
then that leads to another problem:
prostitution.
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