Sh*t is going down in Paris—and to Roy Wood Jr. it’s the story of a lifetime. Or at least one big enough to get him to consider a temporary return to The Daily Show.
The backstory: The Paris Olympics are set to begin next month, with some swimming events scheduled to take place in the city’s famed Seine river. However, Parisians are concerned about the cleanliness of the river, despite the government spending $1.5 billion to sanitize it. So Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and President of France Emmanuel Macron announced they’d take some dips of their own to show everyone just how lovely it is.
The political stunt didn’t sit well with locals, who came up with a unique way to make their point: organize a mass pooping protest (which is, unfortunately, exactly what it sounds like).
Word spread in part via the hashtag #JeChieDansLaSeineLe23Juin (translation: “I sh*t in the Seine on June 23”), which immediately caught the attention of Wood.
The former Daily Show correspondent shared a TikTok user’s video recap of the saga on X (formerly Twitter), writing “Dawg, I’ll come back to The Daily Show on a 10 day contract/Veterans Minimum, AND pay my own travel just to talk to ppl actively shitting in a river.”
(For the record: We would absolutely tune in to see Wood report on that.)
For better or worse, there’s nothing for Wood to report on—yet.
Without citing the threats of a fecal free-for-all, both Hidalgo and Macron quietly announced that they would be postponing their swims in the Seine for now due to “political reasons.” They did, however, state that their respective plunges will happen “eventually.”
With the Olympics scheduled to kick off on July 26, there’s not much time left. Which means that the planned protest could still happen—and that not all hope is lost for Daily Show viewers hoping to see Wood covering the scene on the ground (and hopefully far from the water).
Wood, who joined The Daily Show in 2015, stepped down from his role as correspondent in October 2023. His departure came on the heels of Comedy Central’s extensive search for a host to replace Trevor Noah. (Wood’s exit came before Jon Stewart’s unexpected part-time return to the show.)
In March, Wood spoke with fellow Daily Show alum Samantha Bee about his decision to leave the series, explaining: “I’ve had the gift of choosing to jump out the window a couple times and being kicked out of windows a couple times over the course of my career. I have more control if I jump, because I know where the grapple hook is.”
Since leaving the show, Wood has booked a film role, launched a baseball history podcast with NPR, and just last week served as a field reporter for the MLB Network. Wood has also continued his standup career.
However, he has always left the door open for a possible Daily Show return if the circumstances were right. Chances are, few people would have guessed that a Parisian poop extravaganza might be the inciting event.
