One ofFull Frontalsmost fascinating segments this year came from a visit to Russia in the fall.
What were they like in person?
Whats with the ski masks?
And the ultimate question: Could they be trollingFull Frontal, too?
Click here for more Best of 2016 coverage.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Lets start with your pitch.
A lot of people that are doing something we might disagree with are proud of what they are doing.
If you listen to the woman troll, she doesnt think shes doing anything wrong.
There was nothing to convince her of because she thinks were as wrong as we think she is.
We certainly never lied to them or told them we would misrepresent them, or do anything bad.
I just assumed because of the masks that they didnt want to necessarily identify with what they were discussing.
So if not by shame, how did the masks come into play?
GHALAYINI:I would say the masks werent a shame thing as much as a security thing.
KAHN:[Laughs]So maybe a little bit of shame.
A little bit of shame, and a little bit of fear, to be honest.
Can you tell me how much they made?
KAHN:That we can: It was in Bitcoin and about $3,000 a month.
They have usernames so they dont know whos in it with them, and then they get a target.
So its a highly organized situation.
What were they like off-camera?
GHALAYINI:They were really, really friendly and nice.
They were curious and interested in what we were doing.
It really was super friendly.
KAHN:It was definitely never a contentious interview.
There was frankly a lot of laughter, and they were genuinely very nice people.
Its a little more underground.
Its not just Twitter there.
Is there any chance they could have been trollingyouin all of this?
Did you consider that maybe they were lying about everything they told you?
KAHN:But that, in a sense, means that theyre still trolls!
Like if theyre lying to us from this, then theyre trolls anyway, so it doesnt matter.
We just cant give up the name of our source.
Well, how did they find the troll?
He was wearing a mask, so they never explained how they found them.
The only way they would have known who he was was probably if they were following us.
Any final thoughts on how you felt both segments about Russia came out?
KAHN:I am so proud of these pieces, in part because of the timing.
For me, it was a sharp warning about where we can go if we dont watch ourselves.
And then comedy happened, somehow.
How did you manage to insert anything funny into this?
Somehow you were able to find humor in it.
KAHN:Its Sams talent, its the talent of our writers, and our producers and our editors.
We can make our point unironically or non-sarcastically and we would be straight news.
Sam is a big part of it.
Sam just frankly makes everything awesome.
So we offered those trolls respect when we sat down with them.
We didnt belittle them.
See an additional web-only segment fromFull Frontals coverage in Russiahere.
