Fresh off his interview with President Biden, The Daily Show temp host Kal Penn attacked him from the left as he accused Biden and ConoccoPhillips of some “Silence of the Lambs serial killer shit” for a new oil drilling initiative in Alaska.
Penn began the show by playing a clip and asking viewers to recall Biden campaigning in 2020 on the idea of “no more drilling on federal lands. Period. Period. Period. Period.”
Reacting to the clip, Penn reacted by reporting, “Period! Period! Period! Comma. Because now Biden has approved a major oil drilling project on federal land in Alaska.”
After some booing from the audience, Penn launched into a bizarre digression about Biden’s sex life, “No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. This guy [bleep].”
Mercifully moving on, Penn further reported that, “The crazy part about this drilling project is that they'll be installing a device called a thermosiphon that keeps the permafrost solid enough for drilling, while it simultaneously melts due to global warming.”
Not impressed, Penn declared that “I guess ConocoPhillips has an irony division? I mean, keeping the permafrost alive so they can kill it slowly, that's, like, some Silence of the Lambs serial killer shit. Would you [bleep] The planet?’ ‘I'd [bleep] The planet.’ I worked at the White House.”
Penn is clearly one of those comedians who wants to use his show to advance his politics and during his interview with Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, he continued trying to advance the green agenda, “What are the plans on addressing climate longer term? This almost goes back to my first question about you being a young leader in Pakistan, I would imagine you feel this issue a lot more than others might.”
Zardari replied that, “First of all, I am very proud of the fact that my mother’s manifesto in 2007 before she was assassinated, she was the first Pakistani politician to have climate on her agenda, and I often think that if we had started addressing things in 2007, 8, and 9, maybe we wouldn't be here today.”
It seems like a stretch that Benazir Bhutto’s preferred policies could’ve prevented one-third of the country from being underwater, but Penn naturally didn’t press him on that, as Zardari continued, “But despite all of that, I was not the most hyper of climate activists. Like, okay, I got it, we'll do some wind, we'll do some solar and hopefully things will be fine. My worldview changed overnight when my home, the villages around it, the people that I know, it was suddenly just water as far as the eye could see. It--and now, yeah, frankly, go, Greta.”
He further lamented, “it’s not on the agenda, it is not in the media conversation.” Maybe the media in Pakistan is different, but the media in the U.S. won’t stop talking about it where you have people like Penn accusing other people of acting like serial killers.
These segments were sponsored by Red Lobster.
Here is a transcript for the March 14 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show
3/15/2023
11:01 PM ET
KAL PENN: Okay, let's kick things off with a big announcement from President Joe Biden. You remember during the 2020 campaign, Biden said this.
JOE BIDEN: By the way, no more drilling on federal lands. Period. Period. Period. Period.
PENN: Period! Period! Period! Comma. Because now Biden has approved a major oil drilling project on federal land in Alaska. Which is disappointing, but hey, when you're that age, that's the only kind of drilling you can do.
No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. This guy [bleep]. The crazy part about this drilling project is that they'll be installing a device called a thermosiphon that keeps the permafrost solid enough for drilling, while it simultaneously melts due to global warming.
I guess ConocoPhillips has an irony division? I mean, keeping the permafrost alive so they can kill it slowly, that's, like, some Silence of the Lambs serial killer shit. "Would you [bleep] The planet? I'd [bleep] The planet."
I worked at the White House.
…
PENN: What are the plans on addressing climate longer term? This almost goes back to my first question about you being a young leader in Pakistan, I would imagine you feel this issue a lot more than others might.
BILAWAL BHUTTO ZARDARI: So, there’s two things. First of all, I am very proud of the fact that my mother’s manifesto in 2007 before she was assassinated, she was the first Pakistani politician to have climate on her agenda, and I often think that if we had started addressing things in 2007, 8, and 9, maybe we wouldn't be here today.
But despite all of that, I was not the most hyper of climate activists. Like, okay, I got it, we'll do some wind, we'll do some solar and hopefully things will be fine. My worldview changed overnight when my home, the villages around it, the people that I know, it was suddenly just water as far as the eye could see. It--and now, yeah, frankly, go, Greta.
I’m completely—I think it is-- we’ve been forced from—until it, you, until it doesn't happen to you, you don't really know what’s coming. And now that it has happened to us, the thought that this could happen regularly, it devastates me, because I have never felt so disempowered in that moment.
It was the most difficult period in my public life and it’s not on the agenda, it is not in the media conversation, but on the ground it's-- we’re feeling this, like, severely.
