The Daily Show Has a Nancy Mace Problem 

On The Daily Show, last week, host Desi Lydic feasted on Rep. Nancy Mace’s turn into becoming the “transphobic Cruella de Vil.” Lydic scored laughs calling out how Mace’s fixation with Capitol Hill bathrooms wasn’t doing anything to bring prices down. She also noted the South Carolina congresswoman’s past support for the trans community, lampooning a politician’s hypocrisy a few days after Jon Stewart seemingly branded that as an ineffective tool. Though, to be clear, I’m pretty sure Stewart was talking about it in terms of trying to shame and/or reform unshameable and unreformable politicians, not writing off its power as a comedic device. 

Using hypocrisy to undermine Mace in the midst of her performative hate-speech theater was additive to the show’s laugh-through-gritted-teeth comedy. It was also somewhat ironic in that The Daily Show chose not to highlight Mace’s October 2023 Daily Show appearance when she also voiced pro LGBTQ rights positions in an interview with guest host Charlamagne Tha God. 

Perhaps that omission is because of the rest of the interview, which lives on the show’s YouTube with the unfortunate title, Rep. Nancy Mace: “Not Your Typical Republican.” 

The segment is worth a watch if you’ve given your heart to cynicism on all things political and can view it with a kind of awe over the artistry of bullshit. Nancy Mace has a masters degree in journalism and mass communication. She also formerly ran a PR consulting firm. She is made for this moment of disposable ideologies, always-on media manipulation, and outrage surfing. 

Mace backed Trump, backed off after January 6, then didn’t vote to impeach. In the October 2023 segment, she’s reading the political landscape like the Predator, following the heat signature toward centrism at a time when Trump’s success was in doubt. That’s why she was there, presenting as a more palatable “maverick.” 

She debates Dave Chappelle backstage at comedy shows while throwing back tequila shots! She calls out her party when they’re wrong! She is, by her own admission and attempt at branding: “Not. Your. Typical. Republican!”

This is despite the very typical Republican behavior of talking tough about corruption and then, at the end of the interview, avoiding any harsh comment on Donald Trump’s then-looming legal jeopardy. That move garnered big laughs from the audience, but Mace pushed through it and stayed on message. Always on message. 

The point of all of this, I assure you, is not to gush about Nancy Mace’s media skills. It’s to point out a vulnerability with The Daily Show and its weird marriage to the country’s politicians.

The Comedy Central staple is a late night comedy show that wants to sit in the back of the class and make fun of those in power. Sometimes, though, it wants to be an agent of change trying to raise awareness and start meaningful conversations with intellectuals and people in power. (That’s not a complaint, by the way. Fuck yeah, multitudes.) But there is no Voight-Kampff test to determine if a politician is going to offer a thoughtful conversation or act like some kind of talking point cyborg. This presents questions for the road ahead. 

Are politicians just too media savvy to give good or even meaningful interviews anymore to comedians living in the middle space adjacent to actual journalists (who also kinda suck at getting anything of substance out of politicians)? 

With those diminishing returns implied, is The Daily Show hosting politicians just to draft off their supposed legitimacy? Particularly when it’s someone from across the aisle brought on to broaden the show’s usually left-of-center perspective, like repeat guest Sen. Lindsay Graham? 

It feels like The Daily Show is chasing the ghost of a time when politician interviews yielded surprising moments of candor or combat. The latter is a legacy Jon Stewart spoke about in 2020 to the New York Times with some measure of regret. In the interview, Stewart pointed to his verbal lashing of CNBC’s Jim Cramer during the housing crisis as something that set an unhelpful expectation for hostile or gotcha interviews. It persists even if the playing field has completely shifted. 

Most politicians are never going to give Jon Stewart or anyone else from The Daily Show the chance to back them into a corner again. Maybe you stumble onto a worthwhile back-and-forth from time to time, but mostly it’s going to be polite, concise, and devoid of substance. A shrug. So, what’s the point?

Last Week Tonight is a different show in a similar space, but it does quite well without lending guests its desirable platform. I don’t think The Daily Show should do the same thing, but it might not be the worst idea to write off politicians as either bad actors or just bad guests. Instead, stick to interviewing journalists and experts who are more about pushing on official major party and government talking points than regurgitating them.

With all due respect to the show’s best intentions, access has very little to do with good political comedy and increasingly little to do with intelligent debate. 

Letting Nancy Mace on the show last year was a mistake that’s clearer now, because while The Daily Show will certainly continue to mock her, the show seems a little less smart when it’s making fun of people who they’ve previously lent their legitimacy to. The solution might just be to not make that mistake again.