John Oliver Enlists Bobby Moynihan to Roast Chuck Schumer

I follow the world of politics closely, and yet somehow, I did not know about The Baileys. Joe and Eileen Bailey are a middle-class couple from Long Island that Chuck Schumer references often as a way to read the temperature on what the average voter in America is like. Schumer has been citing their positions on issues over his entire career. Schumer says that he has “guided his political life” based on the political beliefs of the Baileys. Schumer first introduced the Baileys in his 2007 book Positively American, where he mentioned the Baileys 265 times in 264 pages.

But here’s the thing about The Baileys. They are fictional. They do not exist. They are made up. Fabricated in Chuck Schumer’s mind to represent what Schumer believes to be the average middle-class voter in New York. They are a manifestation of his target demo, and they have rich, detailed, and gratuitous backstories. They are, according to Schumer, the prototypical voter, the New Yorker that he’s trying to appeal to.

In fact, Schumer believes that the Baileys represent the average voter in all of America. This is who Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, is trying to curry favor with. There’s just one problem, as you can see here when John Oliver casts Bobby Moynihan and The Righteous Gemstones’ Edi Patterson to help us visualize the couple living in Chuck Schumer’s head.

The whole segment is great, but if you want to get to the punchline (which calls back several times to positions the Baileys hold), jump to the 9:35 minute mark.