Jordan Klepper Wants to Be a Colbert for the Breitbart Era

Mr. Klepper got the chance to dive deeper into this fever swamp at the end of last year, when Comedy Central approached him about developing his own late-night show.

The opportunity would not have arisen if not for the failure of “The Nightly Show,” a short-lived companion series to “The Daily Show.” Hosted by Larry Wilmore, a comedic commentator on race and politics, “The Nightly Show” was introduced in January 2015 and canceled in August 2016 because of low ratings.

Kent Alterman, the Comedy Central president, said he and his colleagues were not looking for another “Daily Show” spinoff, and they spoke to a wide range of talents — some already on the network — as they reappraised the 11:30 p.m. slot.

The network’s selection of Mr. Klepper drew some condemnation, partly because it added another white guy to the largely homogeneous ranks of late-night TV hosts, and partly because, in the eyes of some critics, Mr. Klepper hadn’t done enough in his time at “The Daily Show” to distinguish himself from the pack.

But Mr. Alterman said that Mr. Klepper was chosen because he seemed to have the right take for the right time. “The relativity of reality has become so commonplace it’s disconcerting,” Mr. Alterman said. “Facts don’t seem to matter. Reality doesn’t seem to matter. It’s what you will it to be or what you say it is. Jordan is particularly adept at mining that for comedy.”

Photo

Mr. Klepper does not deny that his character-based approach to satire will inevitably draw comparisons to “The Colbert Report,” the acclaimed series that Mr. Colbert hosted from 2005 to 2014 in the guise of a fatuous right-wing commentator named Stephen Colbert. (Mr. Klepper even addresses his viewers as “couch warriors,” just as Mr. Colbert called them “nation.”)

“Colbert showed that you can do a character as a sustainable way in which to attack that landscape,” Mr. Klepper said. But where Mr. Colbert modeled his alter ego on the Fox News stalwart Bill O’Reilly, Mr. Klepper said “The Opposition” was doing something different: “We have to tell our stories through a different mind-set, a different filter,” he said. “We have to make it about now.”

The hope is that eventually “The Daily Show” and “The Opposition” will interact with and play off each other, as Mr. Stewart’s and Mr. Colbert’s programs did in their heyday.

Mr. Noah, who is also an executive producer on “The Opposition,” said he still had a lot of learning to do at “The Daily Show,” but would try to offer Mr. Klepper any wisdom he has gained from his modest head start.

“We’re in a very similar position, just separated by a few years,” Mr. Noah said. “I’ve told him, ‘I can remind you of what makes you the funniest version of who you are, when you forget it.’”

Photo

But Mr. Noah also said that Mr. Klepper needs to find a voice and some territory for “The Opposition” that are distinct from those of “The Daily Show.”

“One thing I’ve said is, ‘If you’re covering or doing the same thing that I’m doing, then you’re doing the wrong thing,’” Mr. Noah explained. “And we both know that.”

Stuart Miller, another executive producer of “The Opposition” and one of several staff members who are veterans of “The Daily Show,” said that past experience would carry them only so far.

What was crucial, he said, was preparing as much as possible for the rigors of making real shows four times a week.

“We have a clock in a very real way,” he said. “When the show needs to be in rehearsal, when it needs to be delivered. Every minute we’re finding is precious. Ten minutes can make all the difference in the world.”

Back at the warm-up show, Mr. Klepper returned from a fake commercial break to perform a monologue about Disney’s controversial decision to cast a white actor in a live-action remake of “Aladdin.”

As his character, Mr. Klepper proclaimed: “The left-wing team is charging onto the field of ignorance without facts. And once again, we must meet them there.”

Mr. Klepper seemed pleased with the laughter this line elicited. Reverting to himself at the end of the run-through, he told his colleagues, “We might just keep making TV.”

Continue reading the main story