To take one obvious case, it's quite relevant for Americans to know that the 'land of the free' ranks second in the world (behind, bizarrely, the Seychelles) when it comes to the percentage of its population locked up in prison at any given time. Especially when you look at how vast the differences are; to take three other major countries, the US has 1.5 times Russia's rate, but 5 times that of the UK and more than 8 times as many people in prison, per capita, as Germany.

There may be good reasons to be an outlier in international comparisons - whether it's conscious choices to do things differently, or just unintended but logical consequences of cultural or physical differences. But if you don't make the comparisons, you can't know if there are logical reasons for them, or if in fact they suggest that there may be more efficient ways to organize a certain aspect of society, without violating the national principles and preferences. Which I would say is most certainly the case with the American incarceration rate.

That said, I haven't seen the show you mentioned and it's entirely possible the guy was just being a jackass.