Trevor Noah had a difficult time on Monday’s “The Daily Show” understanding the logic behind Joe Biden’s weird, old-timey new Democratic primary campaign slogan, so he called out correspondent Michael Kosta to explain it, leading things to go, well, pretty much exactly where you’d expect.
Over the weekend, Biden unveiled the “No Malarkey” tour bus, which also includes a definition of the word for people who might never have heard it before. (Biden’s definition, by the way, is “insincere or foolish talk”; we suggest “a non-profane synonym for “bulls—.”)
Noah joked about “malarkey” that “unless you’re over the age of 80 is a term you definitely had to Google.” That’s when he brought out Kosta, wearing a beige trench coat and brown Fedora with a “Press” tag in the hatband as though he was a depression-era journalist.
“Doesn’t the slogan ‘No Malarkey’ make Biden seem a little dated and out of touch?” Noah asked.
“That’s a load of horsefeathers, Trevor,” said Kosta, affecting a very 1930s New York accent similar to actor Edward G Robinson. “That slogan is the cat’s pajamas see, and anyone who says different is just screwy in the noodle. Nyaaa.”
Noah asked why Kosta was talking like that. “I have to, nyaa,” Kosta said. “Everyone with the ‘No Malarkey’ bus is required to talk old-timey, you get me? So either get on the trolly, or Big Joe is gonna take you out back behind Bell’s soda shop and give you the old one-two, buckle my shoe.”
Noah brought things back to the weirdness of the word, and asked Kosta what Biden will do if “Joe’s strategy of ‘old-time real guy’” flops. That’s when Kosta took the gag to its logical conclusion.
“What are ya, nutty? These Biden guys, they’re no palookas. If old-timey slang don’t work, they’ll just go further back in time.” At that point, Kosta took off his Fedora and replaced it with an Elizabethan feathered cap, then started speaking in faux-Shakespearean terms.
“Forsooth, mayhaps the language of The Bard shall catapult Lord Biden to Columbia’s fair district,” Kosta said. “Dost thou comprehend the ruse, or doth it not pass through the dark skin of a Moor.”
“I’m sorry, did you just say I can’t understand politics because I’m black?” Noah demanded, prompting Kosta to swear it wasn’t him being racist, just his character.
“Ok Mike, well my character is gonna cut your Christmas bonus this year, that’s what’s gonna happen,” Noah replied.
Watch the clip above.