Jordan Klepper Heads to the Front Lines of Activism in “Klepper” – Comedy Central’s New Documentary Series Premieres Thursday, May 9 [Video]

Jordan Klepper is not behind a desk in New York City. He’s sinking in a boat with environmental protesters in a Louisiana bayou. He’s packing moving boxes with one of the nation’s first Native American Congresswomen in New Mexico and he’s posting bail at the Fulton County Jail.

The premiere episode features Klepper getting body-slammed by a vet dealing with PTSD in Texas. In Comedy Central’s new docuseries, Klepper leaves the comfort of the studio and embeds on the front lines of America’s push for change. Punctuated with his self-deprecating wit and lots of way-harder-than-I-thought reality checks, the all-new immersive documentary series Klepper debuts May 9 at 10:30PM ET/PT on Comedy Central.

“When Jordan said he wanted to travel the country to explore our most pressing issues and talk to the people on the front lines fighting for change, little did we know that he would capsize a boat in the Bayou or get arrested in Georgia,” said Sarah Babineau and Jonas Larsen, Executive Vice Presidents and Co-Heads of Talent and Development for Comedy Central. “But we think that his super funny, poignant, and provocative portrait of America, was (almost) worth the bodily harm and criminal record.”

“As I learned from middle school basketball, you only experience so much from the sidelines,” said Klepper. “Riding shotgun with America’s resistors, contrarians and dreamers, I saw firsthand our country’s fighting spirit. Affecting real change, left or right, is way harder than clicking the donate button. That being said, donate if you can, poster board doesn’t grow on trees.”

In addition to veteran care, environmental activism, and education challenges for undocumented students, Klepper will also explore veteran deportation, discrimination in the burgeoning marijuana industry, Native Americans’ struggle to gain visibility, the contemporary space-exploration landscape, and guerilla activists’ use of firearms. A full list of issues covered is below. Each episode is accompanied by a filmed podcast in which Klepper and series producers will discuss everything that went on in front of the camera and behind the scenes, and how their perspectives have changed as a result. Then, Jordan continues the conversation with subject-matter experts to uncover the greater implications of the issues at hand.

Episodes of Klepper will be available the day after premiere via On Demand, the Comedy Central App and cc.com. In addition, episodes will launch the day after each linear premiere on iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Microsoft Movies & TV, VUDU, Sony PlayStation Video, and Verizon Flexview, and clips from the series will be available on the Comedy Central YouTube channel and Comedy Central web and social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and cc.com.

Klepper is best known as the host of The Opposition w/ Jordan Klepper, for his one-hour investigative comedy special Jordan Klepper Solves Guns, and for his memorable appearances as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, which he joined in 2014 under Jon Stewart and continued with after Trevor Noah took over as host in 2015. Klepper’s work in the field is a hallmark of his comedy, exemplified by his on-location pieces at Trump rallies, his special Opposition episode spent “chaperoning democracy” with activist teenagers in a Maryland private home, and his Solves Guns deep dive into the legislative red tape and partisanship obstructing progress on gun reform.

ISSUES COVERED IN THE KLEPPER DOCUMENTARY SERIES

WRESTLING PTSD – premiere episode airs Thursday, May 9

Jordan jumps in the ring with Valhalla, a group of military veterans who use professional wrestling to deal with PTSD. In Killeen, Texas, home to America’s largest military base, he learns that veterans struggle to get the care they need to deal with the transition of returning home from war. For the guys in Valhalla, wrestling is more than a physical outlet, it’s a rally point for all veterans to come together and slam their trauma-and potentially Jordan-through a table.

BATTLE IN THE BAYOU – airs Thursday, May 16

Jordan goes overboard in Louisiana when he joins a direct action protest of a major oil pipeline. Camping out with environmentalist group L’eau La Vie, Jordan meets the brave activists who chain themselves to bulldozers to protect the swamp. However, he soon learns that not everyone in the bayou supports these illegal protests and that most locals would prefer a job.

UNDERGROUND UNIVERSITY- airs Thursday, May 23

Jordan goes back to school with undocumented immigrant students banned from enrolling in colleges in Georgia. At Freedom U, young Latinx immigrants attend class in secret and fight the state’s Board of Regents for their right to an education. After spending time with the kids in Atlanta, Jordan joins an act of civil disobedience that ends with a TMZ mugshot and a new perspective on privilege.

INVISIBLE NATION- airs Thursday, May 30

Jordan follows Representative Deb Haaland (D-NM) as she makes history as one of the first Native American women elected to congress. Inspired by a study that exposed staggering inequality experienced by indigenous populations, Jordan heads to Michigan, Wisconsin and New Mexico to understand modern Native American invisibility and his own role in a damaging stereotype.

DEPORTED F**KING VETS – airs Thursday, June 6

Jordan crosses the border into Tijuana to meet US military veterans who have been deported. From a cinder block bunker, the exiled vets fight to appeal to America’s supposedly limitless support for the troops but issues of immigration, criminal records, and old-fashioned politics block their path home. Jordan learns that the Vets only advocate might be a 70-year old marine driving across the country in an RV.

THIS IS MY GUN, THESE ARE MY RIGHTS – airs Thursday, June 13

Jordan and Kobi Libii head to Texas to join two different groups of activists who use guns to get their message across. In Gonzales, Jordan meets second amendment die-hards who see themselves as civil rights activists just like Martin Luther King Jr. Meanwhile, Kobi embeds with Guerilla Mainframe, an African-American group that uses guns and provocative tactics to draw attention to police violence against minorities.

AMERICA FIRST, MARS NEXT – airs Thursday, June 20

Jordan visits the front lines of America’s new space race and is sad to see how far we have fallen. As a kid, he idolized NASA in all its glory, from Apollo to shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral to freeze-dried ice cream. Today’s program is defined by clunky bureaucracy, private billionaire spaceports, and begging Russia for a ride into orbit. However, there is hope: an IG-friendly teen in Florida and a grumpy old astronaut in Houston are taking a new moonshot, and Jordan’s biggest ally might be none other than the President of The United States.

THE NEW WEED WAR – airs Thursday, June 27

Jordan heads to the home of The Chronic to meet African-American entrepreneurs trying to break into the marijuana industry. While the west coast’s current reputation for liberal drug laws and progressive politics makes headlines, the reality of legalization-and who benefits-more closely resembles America’s discriminatory past. In anti-pot Compton and bud-loving Oakland, Jordan tries to square the chronic of his youth with the inequality of today.