Consuming enough cable news to lose your sanity is just a typical day for Desi Lydic — but at least it comes with a few Emmys. For more than a decade, Lydic has been an integral part of The Daily Show and last year hit a career high when she won three Emmys: Outstanding Performer in a Short-Form Series for Foxsplains (her sharp, satirical digital segment that deconstructs Fox News), alongside Outstanding Talk Series and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series as part of The Daily Show team.
Lydic says she is grateful to be part of a show that’s still going strong and just celebrated its 30th anniversary. “The news cycle is just feeding us with content,” she says. “We hardly need any filler at all. We are doing very well for our age.”
Lydic, who shares hosting duties with Jon Stewart, Ronny Chieng, Jordan Klepper, Michael Kosta, and Josh Johnson, has been working in the entertainment industry since she was 19 years old and has some choice words for anyone who may have doubted her journey — including her 10-year-old son. She recalls FaceTiming him while driving to the Emmy Awards ceremony last year.
“He goes, ‘Mom, look, I got you something,’ and he held up this beautiful moonstone that he picked out, and he goes, ‘This way, if you don’t win, you’ll have something special. It was so sweet,'” she says. “And so I got home and I slammed that Emmy right in front of him and I said, ‘Don’t you ever, ever f–king doubt me again!'” she jokes. “No, I didn’t really.”
Gold Derby sat down with the writer and multi-Emmy winner to discuss her favorite segments, advice from Jon Stewart, and how she unwinds from the grueling news cycle.
Gold Derby: Between your roles as a host, correspondent, doing field segments, and helming Foxsplains, do you have a favorite?
Desi Lydic: You’re going to make me choose my favorite child? I came up in the business. I moved to L.A. when I was 19 to act and waited tables for seven years. I was doing extra work just to get my health insurance and my SAG card, so I know what it’s like to go from job to job. To have a job for this amount of time feels incredibly lucky. I’ve been there for 10 years, and getting to try different things within that role and learn different skill sets is such a blessing. I love going out into the field because we get to talk to real people. Hosting has also been a dream come true — I never thought I’d get the opportunity to do that. And then Foxsplains is just the most fun outlet.
For Foxsplains, you have to watch significantly more Fox News than the average person. What has been the psychological toll of that?
The fact that we have to watch so much Fox News to do our jobs makes me think the Emmys should really go to all of our therapists. That would seem more appropriate, right? I should really dedicate my Emmy to my therapist and just hand it over to her.
What is the best piece of advice Jon Stewart gave you about hosting The Daily Show?
I was very nervous coming into it — I think all of us felt nervous following Jon Stewart every week. Early on, he just took the pressure off. He said, “Don’t worry about any of this stuff going on. Just go in and try to make the funniest, smartest show that you can every night, and try to keep your humanity intact.” I remind myself of that all the time. It really helped take the pressure off so I could just enjoy the process and the humanity component of it.
Which of your co-hosts makes you laugh the most?
We probably have a three-hour blooper reel somewhere of me just breaking. All the boys make me laugh. When Michael Kosta and I do sketches together, I can never keep it together. I’m on the verge of peeing my pants all the time, and he knows it. As soon as it starts to happen, everyone on set goes, “Oh, boy, here we go.” But honestly, it’s my favorite part of the job. I get to sit around with my funniest friends, and they humiliate me and make me laugh that hard.
A lot of the audience’s biggest laughs come from the expressions and reactions you give after a news clip plays. Do you practice those all-knowing looks in the mirror?
No, although it would be funny if every morning I was just practicing looks in the mirror. I have one of those faces that is really bad at masking how I’m feeling. You can ask my kid or my husband — they will tell you. It comes pretty naturally to not be able to cover up what’s happening on my face. But that’s why having the right footage, shots, or newsreels is so important, because that’s how our audience follows along with the story. It’s a huge part of our show. We have an incredible team of studio producers who seek those clips out and get it right.
After consuming so much intense news for work, how do you unwind and escape it all?
I’ve been watching sciatic nerve adhesion release videos. I know you thought I was going to give you a TV show! But lately, I’ve been dealing with a little sciatica, and I’ve been obsessively looking at stretching videos on Instagram. Now my algorithm knows me well, so it keeps feeding me these sciatica release videos featuring some kind of a therapist. Well, I don’t even know if they’re credentialed, to be totally honest. Most of them are wearing Grateful Dead T-shirts and chokers.
You’ve been with The Daily Show for a decade now. Looking back, what has changed the most?
Over the course of 10 years, I think we’ve been through so much. The world has been through so much. When I started, it was Trevor [Noah]’s first day, so it was the new version of The Daily Show with his vision, which was so exciting. Then there was a pandemic, the writers’ strike, and the SAG strike. We went through the first Trump administration, the subsequent elections, and now the second Trump administration. We’ve had many different versions of the show. I am just so grateful that I’m still there and that I love it as much as I do. It’s a testament to our showrunner, Jen Flanz, and our entire team. They are so good at their jobs and so skilled at riding these waves. As things change in the industry and the world, we’re still out there just doing the best we can.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
