‘Daily Show’s’ Michael Kosta: Mocking Trump and ‘Lucky Loser’

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The Daily Beast

Tv & Film

4.5 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

‘The Daily Show’ has undergone a lot of turmoil in the two and half years since Trevor Noah shocked even his closest colleagues by giving up the host chair. And even Michael Kosta can’t quite believe that he has emerged as one of four rotating hosts—along with Jon Stewart on Monday nights. In his return to the podcast, Kosta talks about his experience taking the reins of the long-running political late-night show every few weeks and how he’s striving to make it more than just a mouthpiece for the #Resistance. Kosta also discusses learning Jon Stewart, the backlash to his recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and his new memoir ‘Lucky Loser,’ which tells the story of how he went from a semi-successful professional tennis player to achieving his wildest comedy dreams. But Michael Kosta’s ‘Lucky Loser: Adventures in Tennis and Comedy’ Follow Michael Kosta on Instagram @michaelkosta Follow Matt Wilstein on Bluesky @mattwilstein Follow The Last Laugh on Instagram @lastlaughpod Highlights from this episode and others at The Daily Beast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Last Laugh.
0:07.0	I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast.
0:10.0	And today on the show, I am thrilled to welcome back on the podcast, fresh off a week of hosting the Daily Show, Michael Costa.
0:17.0	When Michael was first on this podcast back in December of 2020, he was just a lowly
0:23.1	correspondent on The Daily Show. Now he is one of four rotating hosts, not including John Stewart,
0:29.5	who has been taking the reins every Monday. And on top of that, Michael just put out a new memoir
0:34.2	called Lucky Loser, that traces how he went from being a mildly successful
0:38.6	professional tennis player to a very successful stand-up comedian and now late-night host.
0:44.4	Because he just spent the past week hyper-focused on America's completely off-the-rails political
0:49.2	news cycle, we do get into some Trump stuff in this episode. So with that in mind, let's listen to a clip
0:54.9	from one of Michael's Daily Show monologues last week.
0:57.6	This one about Trump's threats
0:59.3	to somehow serve a third term as president.
1:03.0	The second Trump administration is off to a roaring start.
1:06.6	If you don't count the economy, inflation,
1:08.9	rampant corruption, cyberbullying of ally nations,
1:11.9	and we're all going to die of measles. So it makes sense that on Sunday, he said he's considering
1:17.5	running for a third term. But of course, the liberal media is freaking out.
1:26.7	New fallout after President Trump did not rule out the possibility of a third term.
1:31.3	A move that would require breaching the two-term limit outlined in the Constitution.
1:35.3	Caroline, what method would the president use to potentially run for a third term?
1:39.3	Look, you guys continue to ask the president this question about a third term,
	...

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