The Daily Show has a long roster of seasoned correspondents who could cover an event like Donald Trump’s recent New York City rally at Madison Square Garden. But only one of those roving reporters could talk about taking a dump on Nancy Pelosi’s desk without raising too much suspicion: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
On Tuesday night’s episode of The Daily Show, we learned that Robert Smigel and his lovably foul-mouthed puppet were outside Madison Square Garden on Sunday to engage with—and, yes, insult—members of the MAGA world while they waited to enter the venue. As usual, Triumph did not hold back on his opinions, describing the throng of rallygoers awaiting entry as “a caravan of migrants invading Manhattan” before observing that he “didn’t think it was possible to have more white people here than a Rangers game.”
From there, Triumph proceeded to cause a bit of chaos, including holding up a sign indicating just how “white” you must be to enter the venue.
While some of his earliest insults were of the nonpartisan kind—referring to a man’s Trump-emblazoned button-down as “absurd” and asking a couple from Maryland “Since you arrived in New York City, how many times have you been murdered?”—he then got specific.
While chatting with the man in the “absurd” Trump get-up, Triumph addressed the elephant on the sidewalk: that many people were describing the event as a Nazi rally, which Triumph deemed ridiculous. “This is nothing like a Nazi rally,” he said. “The Nazis were in shape, first of all. They took care of themselves unlike this guy over here.”
“Seriously, when I look at you it makes me think that groceries aren’t expensive enough,” he added (again to the man in the “absurd” shirt).
Among the other topics broached: Inflation (“Can you believe it’s costing Elon Musk $1 million per voter to steal the election?”), abortion (“What would you say to people worried about losing that right, aside from ‘What is it like to have sex?’”), and immigration (“Do you know that just one illegal immigrant caused 6,000 people to lose their jobs at Twitter?”).
Ultimately, Triumph didn’t seem convinced he was connecting with Trumpers as well as he intended, which he rectified with a quick costume change “into something that will command more respect.” That’s when he reemerged in red, white, and blue face paint and wearing a fur hat and horns, QAnon Shaman-style. Which seemed to do the trick.
The reinvented Triumph seemed to recognize one man in the crowd, reminding him that “we both took a poop on Nancy Pelosi’s desk… What a dump! What a dump we took in there.”
Within minutes, Triumph had commandeered the crowd’s attention and used the opportunity to unite them in an original song: “Liberal Tears.” You can watch the full segment below.
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has been weighing in on politics and news-worthy moments for nearly 30 years now. He made his late-night debut on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 1997, where he was a regular guest, then followed O’Brien to The Tonight Show and Conan.
In 2015, Triumph landed a short-lived sitcom on Adult Swim with Jack McBrayer, The Jack and Triumph Show. In addition to The Daily Show, he has also appeared in segments for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and been featured in several standalone specials.