The Daily Show Jon Stewart CNN - H 2012
Comedy CentralSummer break is over and Dad is home.
Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show on Tuesday night after a three-month absence, where he feigned ignorance of the news, allowing the audience the entertainment of seeing him react to some of the summer’s biggest stories.
Here is THR‘s five top moments of Stewart’s triumphant Comedy Central return.
1. Becoming American again
Stewart spent his summer in the Middle East directing the Iranian political feature, Rosewater. When we first see him in his dressing room at the top of the show, John Oliver, who filled in as interim host over the summer, discovered Stewart was no longer “acting American.”
Stewart spoke in a Middle Eastern language, prompting Oliver to try to re-Americanize his boss by blasting him with a defibrillator encased in two Big Macs.
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“Obamacare can suck Paula Deen‘s [bleep] for all I care,” a hillbilly-looking Stewart said, before going through a series of American incarnations. Finally, Oliver called in the big guns, bringing down Stewart protégé Stephen Colbert (wearing a biohazard suit) to return him to his old self.
2. Carlos Danger!
Oliver broke the latest sexting scandal news about Anthony Weiner to Stewart. During the summer, Oliver had taken fondly to shouting Carlos Danger, the name Weiner gave himself in an illicit online message with a young woman. Oliver shouted the name for Stewart, and the pair instinctively danced to Mystikal’s 2000 hit “Danger,” as Oliver had done so many times before. Stewart was baffled why that was his natural response.
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3. What will be Jon’s first fun story back?
Stewart gleefully imagined what hilarious political shenanigans he’d get to lampoon for his first story back — and was crestfallen to learn he’d be covering massive casualties in Syria. Oliver attempted to leave at this point, but Stewart tried to hold him back, insisting they could make this funny. Oliver said they couldn’t, though later in the episode Stewart was able to pick apart President Barack Obama‘s justification for authorizing a limited strike on the country by playing clips of former Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush‘s justifications for intervening in the Middle East. Stewart asked why Obama was choosing to intervene now, after more than 100,000 Syrians had died, and dredged up a clip of the president from last August saying the U.S. would not tolerate the use of chemical weapons. That this was the red line the U.S. would not allow Syria to cross seemed a little silly to Stewart.
“You can’t use chemicals to kill your own people. You have to do it organically,” Stewart said.
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4. Crossfire is back!?
Stewart famously humiliated the hosts of CNN’s Crossfire live on their own show back in 2004, and the political debate show was canceled shortly after. But Crossfire is coming back on Monday, and Oliver broke the news.
Stewart’s response?
“MOTHER F–KER!!!!!!!!”
5. The idiot parade
Stewart donned a bandleader’s hat and held a baton after bemoaning the parade of pundits — including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — who were calling for strong action in Syria.
“Shut the f–k up! Shut the f–k up! Shut the f–k up!” Stewart sang rhythmically. “I just wrote that song today.”
The Daily Show airs at 11 p.m. ET/PT on Comedy Central.
E-Mail: Aaron.Couch@THR.com
Twitter: @AaronCouch
