Jena Friedman: Colbert, Trump, Epstein, and More
The Last Laugh
The Daily Beast
4.6 • 661 Ratings
🗓️ 23 July 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This is a fraught time to be a political comedian in America. It’s something Stephen Colbert learned when CBS suddenly canceled ‘The Late Show.’ And it’s something comedian Jena Friedman experienced in an even more visceral way the last time she crossed the border back home to the U.S. In her fourth appearance on The Last Laugh, Friedman weighs in on the end of the late-night show that served as her very first TV writing gig and tells the harrowing story of being grilled about her jokes by U.S. Customs and Border Security. She also talks about putting together her new TED talk on comedy and AI, recalls the time she nicknamed her fetus “Jeffrey Epstein” on Colbert’s show, and previews her new stand-up hour ‘Motherf---er’ about becoming a mom and losing her own mom at the same time.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is The Last Laugh. |
| 0:06.0 | I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast, and today, returning to this podcast for her fourth appearance is a comedian and writer whose work I have enjoyed for so long. |
| 0:15.4 | She just put out a new TED Talk called The Jokes AI Won't Tell, and she will be working out her new stand-up hour this |
| 0:21.5 | August at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. |
| 0:24.1 | Jenna Friedman, welcome back to The Last Laugh. |
| 0:26.4 | Thanks for having me. |
| 0:28.3 | So thrilled to be here. |
| 0:29.6 | I'm so happy to have you back. |
| 0:31.3 | Yeah. |
| 0:32.6 | So I wanted to have you on now. |
| 0:34.6 | I thought of you immediately after this big news about Stephen Colbert |
| 0:39.1 | getting fired. Right. Because you wrote for the late show towards the end of Letterman's run. |
| 0:46.2 | And Colbert's late show has been pretty big and important in your career as well. I saw you posted |
| 0:52.6 | something about your experience, your first time on the show, which |
| 0:55.9 | was during that insane live election night special in 2016, which I know we've talked about |
| 1:00.8 | before. But can you talk about, you know, why you wanted to post that and what's been going |
| 1:07.1 | through your mind with this news? Well, like everything, or like a lot of things right now, |
| 1:14.1 | you know, there's no definitive truth, |
| 1:16.2 | or we don't know exactly why the show was canceled. |
| 1:20.2 | Was it for ratings? |
| 1:22.8 | Was it because of political reasons? |
| 1:26.5 | I mean, I definitely have my thoughts, |
... |
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