Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show Monday night with criticism for both likely 2024 presidential candidates but especially slammed Joe Biden’s reaction to the special counsel report.
The comic opened with a 20-minute monologue on the election before doing a segment with the show’s ‘news team’ and then conducting an interview with Economist Editor Zanny Minton Beddoes.
As he went along, he kept pitching humorous taglines for the show’s ‘Indecision 2024’ coverage.
Some of the proposed kickers were ‘Electile Dysfunction,’ ‘American DeMockracy,’ ‘Antiques Roadshow’ and ‘What the f**k are we doing?’
Stewart, who is returning to the Comedy Central staple on Monday nights after retiring in 2015, is often characterized as left-leaning but especially slammed Biden’s press conference and unwillingness to do a Super Bowl pre-game show interview.
Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show Monday night with criticism for both likely 2024 presidential candidates but especially slammed Joe Biden’s reaction to the special counsel report
‘Fire everyone!’ Stewart declared after revealing that instead of doing a sitdown with CBS before the big game, his team started a TikTok account.
‘How do you go on TikTok and look older?’ Stewart reacted to the video they posted of Biden discussing the Super Bowl.
He saved some criticism for Trump – whom he called as ‘similarly challenged’ as Biden – and his team for what he saw as their own lack of memory when deposed for trial and Trump’s outrageous comments at rallies.
‘Biden’s lost a step but Trump regularly says things at rallies that would require a wellness check,’ Stewart cracked.
The comedian played clips of Trump and his children being deposed and repeating that they couldn’t remember things, saying: ‘It turns out that the leading cause of early onset dementia is being deposed.’
He then showed the footage of the embarrassing press conference Biden held Thursday after a damning Justice Department report emerged last week claiming Biden’s failing memory and ‘diminished faculties’ as a reason not to charge him in the classified documents case.
‘So Joe Biden had a big press conference to dispel the notion that he may have lost a step and, politically speaking, may have lost three to four steps,’ Stewart joked.
He then played clips of various Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, saying that Biden was sharp.’
The comic opened with a 20-minute monologue on the election before doing a segment with the show’s ‘news team’ and then conducting an interview with Economist Editor Zanny Minton Beddoes
As he went along, he kept pitching humorous taglines for the show’s ‘Indecision 2024’ coverage. Some of the proposed kickers were ‘Electile Dysfunction,’ ‘American DeMockracy,’ ‘ Antiques Roadshow ‘ and ‘What the f**k are we doing?’
The audience greeted Stewart with wild applause and a standing ovation
‘Did anyone film that?’ he asked. ‘That would be good to show to people.’
Stewart then laid out a case against the age of both candidates, as Biden, 81, and Trump, 77, are the oldest candidates in history.
‘These two candidates, they are both similarly challenged,’ Stewart declared. ‘And it is not crazy to think that the oldest people in the history of the country to ever run for president might have some of these challenges.’
‘We’re not suggesting neither man is vibrant, productive or even capable,’ he added. But they’re both stretching the limits of being able to handle the toughest job in the world.’
He demanded a space for making both candidates’ age and mental acuity an issue in the election, while frequently joking about his own aging.
‘What’s crazy is thinking that we’re the ones, as voters, who must silence concerns and criticisms. It is the candidates’ job to assuage concerns, not the voters’ job not to mention [them],’ he said.
‘We have two candidates who are chronologically outside the norm of anyone who has run for the presidency in the history of this country — breaking the record that they set!’
He also made it clear to his traditionally liberal audience that he didn’t see Biden and Trump as equally bad.
Stewart laid out a case against the age of both candidates, as Biden, 81, and Trump, 77, are the oldest candidates in history
‘We’re not suggesting neither man is vibrant, productive or even capable,’ he added. But they’re both stretching the limits of being able to handle the toughest job in the world,’ Stewart said of Biden and Trump
Stewart demanded a space for making both candidates’ age and mental acuity an issue in the election, while frequently joking about his own aging
‘Look, Joe Biden isn’t Donald Trump,’ he said. ‘He hasn’t been indicted as many times, hasn’t had as many fraudulent businesses or been convicted in a civil trial for sexual assault or been ordered to pay defamation charges or stiffed blue collar tradesman.’
However, he said: ‘The stakes of this election don’t make Donald Trump’s opponent less subject to scrutiny. It actually makes him more subject to scrutiny. If the barbarians are at the gate, you want Conan [the Barbarian] standing on the ramparts, not chocolate chip cookie guy.’
Stewart made the masses laugh for 16 years as host of The Daily Show with his impersonations of George W. Bush and comedic exchanges with correspondents Colbert, Oliver and Samantha Bee.
His satiric take on the day’s events often provided more insight into reality than some mainstream news stations. He left the show in 2015, handing it over to Noah. The Daily Show has not had a permanent host since Noah left last year.
‘Jon Stewart is the voice of our generation, and we are honored to have him return to Comedy Central´s The Daily Show to help us all make sense of the insanity and division roiling the country as we enter the election season,’ said president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios Chris McCarthy.
Jon Stewart is returning to The Daily Show as a weekly host and executive producer through the presidential election cycle
The comedian made the masses laugh for 16 years as host of The Daily Show with his impersonations of George W. Bush and comedic exchanges with correspondents Stephen Colbert , John Oliver and Samantha Bee
Stewart hosted The Daily Show for 16 years then handed it over to Trevor Noah in 2015
The Daily Show has not had a permanent host since Trevor Noah left last year
‘In our age of staggering hypocrisy and performative politics, Jon is the perfect person to puncture the empty rhetoric and provide much-needed clarity with his brilliant wit.’
Under Stewart’s leadership, The Daily Show won more than 20 Primetime Emmy awards.
Stewart posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, ‘Friends. After much reflection I have decided to enter the transfer portal for my last year of eligibility. Excited for the future!’
Noah left The Daily Show after seven years at the helm during which the late-night infotainment show’s viewership declined dramatically.
Since his departure comedians such as Kal Penn, Charlamagne Tha God, Leslie Jones, Sarah Silverman and Marlon Wayans have rotated hosting the show.
During the Emmy awards last week Wood was caught mouthing a subtle message as Noah accepted an award.
Lip-readers realized that as Wood stood next to South Africa-born Noah accepting the Emmy, he was mouthing the phrase: ‘Please hire a host.’
Wood confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter: ‘I was saying, ‘Please hire a host.’ I probably shouldn’t have done it, but this has been going on too long. Get it together!…But I’m so happy that [Noah] won.’
He first took over the show in 1999 and under his leadership The Daily Show won more than 20 Primetime Emmy awards
Apple has cancelled Stewart ‘s follow-up to The Daily Show, The Problem with Jon Stewart
Stewart apologized for openly mocked transgender Caitlyn Jenner after she publicly transitioned into her new self when he hosted the show
Hasan Minhaj was reportedly a top contender to replace Noah, but was taken out of the running when the New Yorker published an interview where he admitted to fabricating many of his stories.
Minhaj hit back and said the claims were ‘needlessly misleading’ and promised he is ‘not a psycho.’
In October, Apple cancelled Stewart’s follow-up to The Daily Show, The Problem with Jon Stewart.
The weekly series touted itself on taking a deep dive into important issues through interviews and discussion.
However, the show was blasted as dull and stuck in the past by critics who said it didn’t make them laugh once, and that it harks back too much to his old Daily Show.
The show only briefly made headlines for an episode where Stewart issued a formal apology for old jokes of his that mocked transgender people.
This is a developing story.