You! Hi Radio Atlantic listeners, this is Isaac Dauver, staff writer at the Atlantic.

This week we thought we'd take a bit of a break and do something fun.

For this episode we're talking with comedian Jordan Clepper about the state of

political comedy. This past weekend was the White House Correspondents Dinner and it

was the first one in years that didn't involve a comedian.

Instead, historian Ron Chirna spoke and perhaps feeling sympathy for the White House Press Corps,

Chirna only tried his hand at a few jokes.

Comedy has been struggling to adjust in the

Trump era. Are things too serious, too biased, too absurd? Is any of it funny

anymore? Kleper was a correspondent for the Daily Show for years. He briefly hosted a show of his own called The Opposition following Trevor Noah on Comedy Central.

And in the mold of Colbert, Kleper played a parody character that went by his own name.

While Colbert copied Bill O'Reilly,

Klepper took on the persona of an Alex Jones-style conspiracy theorist.

The opposition ended after one season, but now he's a new show coming out this month called simply,

Kleper. But now he's a new show coming out this month called simply, Clepper.

The new documentary style series is on the opposite end of the series spectrum.

Clepper is his real self and he's out in the world with people engaged in real fights,

veterans using wrestling to battle PTSD, indigenous protesters

trying to stop an oil pipeline, and undocumented students trying again in education.

I'm really glad to have him here to talk about political comedy at this moment and where we're

headed.

So Jordan Klepper, thanks for joining us here on Radio Atlantic.

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