the fate of daily show There has never been more uncertainty than in the weeks leading up to Comedy Central's Hail Mary decision to bring back Jon Stewart as Monday night host until the 2024 presidential election.
Meanwhile, the show just won its first Emmy since Trevor Noah took over from Stewart in 2015. But on the other hand, more than a year after his exit, there was still no permanent replacement for the South African comic.as daily show “Hire a host,” correspondent Roy Wood Jr. pointedly reminded viewers from the Emmy stage.
Then, after Comedy Central postponed the post-Christmas return of the show from early January to February 12, effectively ending a yearlong search for a host, one show official said the network Time until Paramount might merge to completely scrap the show that foretold to me that it might run out.
but daily show On Monday night, when Stewart returned to his desk as host for the first time in nearly a decade to rapturous applause from the studio audience, he was still alive and well, desperately trying to recapture some of the magic he once had. Ta. He started with the line, “Well, where was I?”
Stewart will use the reclaimed platform in the coming weeks and months to speak about China and artificial intelligence, two topics that reportedly led Apple to cancel programming on the service. I teased that it would be a big deal. Israel and Palestine. But on his first show back, he used Sunday night's Super Bowl as a way to cut to the chase on the Joe Biden-Donald Trump feud: “You motherfuckers?!”
Over the next 17 minutes or so, Mr. Stewart accused Mr. Trump of “unable to recall'' various basic facts during his own deposition, especially after Mr. Biden was labeled a “well-intentioned remark.'' He explained the battle between the two men using footage of him and his adult children. An elderly man with a poor memory,” Special Counsel Robert Hur said last week. “Yes, it turns out that the main cause of early-onset dementia is being ostracized,” the host joked.
Stewart equated Biden's age-related gaffes with Trump's, from the president's unfortunate mix-up during an angry press conference to address concerns to the bizarre TikTok video he decided to post. He emphasized that he would actively ridicule them. It just made him look “older.”
After briefly pointing out that President Trump is also aging, Stewart asked, “Guys, what the hell are we doing here?” Biden has “lost a step” while Trump “regularly says things at rallies that justify health checks,” he said, but the conclusion was that Trump “has similar challenges.” ”.
“One thing we know for sure is that there have been two candidates in the history of this country who have been chronically substandard in terms of running for president.” Stewart said, adding that both men were “beyond human limits.” You can do the toughest jobs in the world. ”
He pushed back against the idea that voters “must silence concerns and criticism,” arguing that it was the candidates' job to do so. Finally, citing the lack of criminal charges, he conceded that “Joe Biden is not Donald Trump,” adding, “But the stakes of this election do not diminish scrutiny of Donald Trump's opponent. ” he said.
“If the other side loses, bad things may happen, but the country is not finished,” he said. “And even if your man wins, the country will not be saved.”
Later in the show, Jordan Klepper, the only current correspondent who joined the company under Stewart, jokingly criticized his boss's “sarcastic and double-sidedness.” He imagined Mr. Stewart boiling down his 2000 election as “George Bush is stupid!” Al Gore is really boring! ” Before that, he added, he is “just brainwashing voters who might take to the streets to affect change into accepting a corrosive status quo.”
It was an interesting twist for Klepper to change his tune after learning he would be hosting the rest of this week's show, but Klepper has a point.
Stewart famously left. daily show In 2015, Trump was still a joke candidate who had recently come down the golden escalator. And while no one, including Stewart, believes his comedy work has done anything to stop Trump from becoming president, this year he hopes to have some impact on the discourse in 2024. He says he wants to return to comedy work.
So far, the shake-up appears to include using his old platform to tell the American people that the president's two options aren't all that different and are just as bad. is.
