

Jon Stewart during “Democalypse 2014: South By South Mess” at ZACH Theatre on October 28, 2014 in Austin, Texas. (Rick Kern/Getty Images for Comedy Central)

“The Daily Show” is spilling all sorts of behind-the-scenes secrets before Jon Stewart signs off for good this week, and on Tuesday night, the show answered one of the most commonly-asked questions: Seriously, are those people in the field pieces real?

You know the ones: Where the correspondents go out and interview people who say things like “If you’re poor, stop being poor” or “We’ve started a new philanthropy called ‘Guns for Cats'” or “I do exorcisms on Skype.” And it turns out the answer is yes — they are very real. And surprisingly, the majority of the 2,800 people featured over the last 16 years don’t have regrets about being on TV and sharing those thoughts.

[Jon Stewart tells Amy Schumer she made the right call turning down ‘Daily Show’ hosting job]

Senior Correspondent Correspondent Jessica Williams confirmed this on Tuesday’s episode. “They are real and they do know who we are and they don’t care because we bring a camera with us,” Williams told Stewart. “It’s like ‘Girls Gone Wild’ except they flash us their controversial ideas.”

Jon Stewart and Jessica Williams (screengrab via Comedy Central)

Last week, Williams visited with some of the people formerly featured in the segments, starting with Harlem Pastor James David Manning, who appeared in a “Daily Show” field piece in 2009 and said President Obama was the next Hitler. Repeatedly.

“I could only imagine how ‘The Daily Show’ edited Dr. Manning to make him say something so outlandish,” Williams explained, so she brought him a cake that said “We’re sorry.”

But there was no need for cake! Manning didn’t lose his congregation after the episode aired. “But they screwed you,” Williams told Manning apologetically. “They edited it so you said Obama was Hitler. That’s bananas.”

“It isn’t bananas, and I did say Hitler, yes,” Manning countered. However, he said, his opinion of President Obama has changed in the last six years: “The things he has accomplished are ultra evil. It takes a certain amount of evil spirit and demented, if you will, personality to do what he has done.”

“I’m leaning more towards Obama being more like the son of Satan,” Manning concluded.

Williams was stumped with that one. Later, she asked if he regretted going on the show.

“Absolutely not, no. Because I understood when you asked me to be on the show exactly what it was going to be about, it was going to be an attempt to make my ideas seem buffoonery,” Manning said. “But I agreed to do it anyway because I didn’t think you would succeed at it, and you didn’t.”

“You think we didn’t succeed at it?” Williams asked.

“Absolutely,” Manning confirmed.

“That’s because you did it yourself,” she explained.

[Jon Stewart’s friends, enemies and frenemies through the years]

Next visit: Attorney Noel Flasterstein, who appeared a few months ago to explain why Florida needed to enact a law that barred doctors from asking patients if they owned guns. “If a doctor is keeping a list of his patients who have firearms, the great fear is that if they start correcting this data, it leads to dictators, tyrants, Hitler,” he explained to correspondent Jordan Klepper.

“Holocaust 2,” Klepper deadpanned.

“Holocaust 2, exactly,” Flasterstein said.

“What is it with these boneheads and the Holocaust?” Williams wondered via voiceover, as she traveled to Florida to see if Flasterstein was upset with the show. Shockingly, no.

“Doing ‘The Daily Show’ is great!” Flasterstein said. “Obviously put a link of it on my Web site so everybody can see it and I can show it over and over to the all my friends.”

Williams was suspicious at this claim. “Are you some master of sarcasm?”

“Of course not. I mean, I liked it,” Flasterstein added. “I thought I did well.”

“They didn’t twist your words?” Williams pressed.

“Not at all….I’m 100% positive. I mean, maybe some people would see some humor in my views, but I don’t,” he said.

Turns out, he’s one of the many. “In fact, in our experience,” Williams added, “The vast majority of ‘Daily Show’ interviewees feel the same way.”

Read more:

– Jon Stewart confirms final guests for his last week on ‘The Daily Show’

– Can we go on without Jon Stewart? Of course we can. He’s shown us how.

– Why Comedy Central thought Trevor Noah was perfect for ‘The Daily Show’