Here's the "Daily Show" Clip About the Redskins That Upset the Fans Who Participated in It

True to the toxicity of the Washington NFL team’s name, even a Daily Show segment about the controversy over the franchise’s name and logo was controversial days before it aired, with fans who participated in the sketch griping to the Washington Post that the Comedy Central series was “disingenuous” and left them feeling “defamed.” On Thursday night, it finally aired.

Jon Stewart prefaced the clip by reminding viewers that The Daily Show won’t air something if its subjects are deceived. “If we find out that someone in a piece was intentionally misled, or if there comments were intentionally misrepresented, we do not air that piece,” he said. “We would not air that piece. So that being said, I hope you enjoy the following piece.”

But that doesn’t mean the burgundy-and-gold diehards featured in correspondent Jason Jones’s sketch come off well—they mostly seem like boors spouting off Dan Snyder’s talking points. The flipside of the segment is eight Native American activists—including Amanda Blackhorse, the lead plaintiff in the case that led to the US Patent and Trademark Office’s invalidation of the football team’s trademarks—giving the usual reminders about why the team’s name is offensive.

The segment’s filming turned pear-shaped when Jones brought in the activists to confront the fans—an instance that led one of the fans to call the police after feeling threatened by the encounter, according to the Post. The Daily Show only wound up showing a few handshakes between the groups and none of the audio. Still, at least two of the fans interviewed come away saying they’d still unquestionably support Washington’s football team even if it gets a new name. (Perhaps they should check out these fan-generated redesigns.)

Compared to the other thing that happened to Washington’s football team last night, The Daily Show wasn’t really that bad.

Benjamin Freed

Staff Writer

Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.