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What Now? with Trevor Noah

Oobah Butler: The Digital Mirage

What Now? with Trevor Noah

SiriusXM & Day Zero Productions

News, Comedy, Society & Culture

4.64.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2026

⏱️ 124 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Trevor and Eugene sit down with journalist and filmmaker Oobah Butler, whose work lives at the intersection of prank and social experiment. From creating a fake top-rated restaurant to exposing how easily online systems can be manipulated, Butler has made a career out of blurring the line between perception and reality. Together, they explore the rise of “scam culture,” how algorithms quietly shape what we believe, and just how much of the modern world is built on illusion. It is a funny, unsettling look at how easy it is to fake almost anything—and how hard it can be to tell what is real.

Transcript

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0:00.0

where did you grow up i grew up in a little village called feckham in uh in england sorry

0:09.9

that's ridiculous i'm sorry feckonem is like why do you look at me no come on you can't tell me you

0:14.7

didn't enjoy that feckonem you seem like you from feckoning in fact from now i'm going to say that

0:19.2

about you uh my friend eugene from feckon him you've been feckoning. In fact, from now I'm going to say that about you. My friend Eugene from feckonim.

0:24.0

You've been feckoning my whole life.

0:26.5

You're a feckonim if I saw one.

0:28.8

As you say this, I can't wait to clip that for my mom and dad.

0:32.1

Trevor Noah's saying, feckonom.

0:33.9

It's just, I'm already, I'm cooked it. I'm done. I'm already I'm cooked it I'm done I'm happy

0:38.0

This is what

0:40.0

This is what now

0:45.5

With Trevor Noah

0:46.6

Solitary Solitary athletes

0:58.6

It's sort of like they are paying for their wife to be able to be their companion in the world

1:06.4

so that it's not a solitary anymore.

1:08.3

So now when you're riding a bike in the mountains preparing for the, you know, during the off-season, you're not alone. Yes. And then when you have to fly to the Alps to go and ski every day to prepare for the thing, you're not alone. And you know what I mean? Yeah. Because the fundamental truth is, if she has to work. So you won't be there. She just won't be there. And then you will, you, like, you know what it was like, comedy on the road. Yeah. That was not. Lonely. Yeah, it's, it's, the amount of comedians who committed suicide in like a random hotel room somewhere. Jesus. It's actually like a really high number. If you look at the industry, it would always be like random comedian, dead by themselves.

1:47.3

It's always them alone.

1:48.6

Yeah.

1:48.9

Do you know what I mean?

1:50.4

So I can see that way it's like it's more them going.

1:55.3

Yeah, I'm like sort of paying for her to be able to do this.

1:58.6

Let's go.

...

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