In true Chelsea Peretti form, the comedian opened her “Daily Show” interview with correspondent and guest host Ronny Chieng by roasting him for fumbling his words while introducing her Wednesday night.
It all began when Peretti, making the rounds to promote her feature directorial debut “First Time Female Director,” entered stage right to a round of enthusiastic applause — “The people have spoken,” she joked before jumping to asking whether or not her chair vibrated.
“Weird question — I think I saw an ad on Instagram for this,” she said, indicating the chair.
“We try to keep all our guests happy,” Chieng responded. “So the project’s ‘First Time Female Director.’
“Film? You’re also — you’re also a first-time female director,” Chieng said, stumbling a bit. And that slight trip made way for Peretti to throw in a joke at his expense.
“This is going good. Could I get the regular host?” Peretti joked. “We said we wouldn’t roast each other, and look at us!”
“Alright, alright,” Chieng responded, looking at his cards. “I know, look at us going at each other now. Uh, ‘First Time Female Director’ — you had a very Larry David, ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ vibe, right?”
“Docu-style, yeah,” Peretti said, bracing herself for a dig of Chieng’s own.
“Very, very hand-made. Was that intentional, or was that lack of budget?” the host quipped.
Peretti laughed. “I’m trying to spur him to come after me because I’m a big fan of Ronny’s — I just want to say that, I really am.”
“No, I’m a huge fan of yours, too,” the host said.
He continued: “We never met, but you were very nice to me over the pandemic. Over Instagram, and I was a huge fan of yours watching your comedy specials. I love your music album that you released during the pandemic. It was about coffee.”
“Yeah, it was a coffee-concept album — one of those,” Peretti joked. “It was pre-pandemic, and then when COVID happened, I was like, ‘Why did I spend the last eight months of my life making music about coffee? What a waste.’”
In addition to directing “First Time Female Director,” Peretti wrote, produced and stars in the project. The film is centered on an aspiring writer who, after her local theater’s director is fired, is asked to direct a Southern-inspired play called “Rain’s Comin’ In.”
Watch the comedian’s full “Daily Show” interview in the video above.