Jon Stewart has made an explosive return to the Daily Show by skewering Joe Biden over his handling of the DOJ report that questioned his mental competency.
The comic, 61, immediately ripped the 81-year-old president for his disastrous public appearances since special counsel Robert Hur’s findings were released.
He hilariously dubbed him ‘chocolate chip cookie guy’ after the commander-in-chief’s bizarre comments in his first video on his new TikTok page.
Stewart demanded he ‘fire everyone’ and asked how he’d joined the social network that is so popular with young people and somehow now ‘looks older’.
Despite unloading on the president, the host also dedicated large parts of the show to taking apart Donald Trump.
He aired clips of the ex-president and his family being interviewed where they failed to recall events, before joking ‘the leading cause of dementia is being deposed’.
Stewart returned to the Daily Show for the first time in nine years, taking over part-time from Trevor Noah who oversaw a huge ratings slump since 2015.
His comeback was lauded for restoring even-handed political comedy, providing balance to the left-wing SNL, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.
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
Stewart opened his Monday night show, called ‘Indecision 2024: Electile Dysfunction’, by saying: ‘Now, where was I?’
He then quickly delved into the blockbuster political talking point of the last week of Biden’s mental capacity.
The comic launched a 20-minute monologue on the 2024 election and the huge pitfalls of both Biden and Trump.
‘Fire everyone!’ Stewart declared after noting how instead of doing a sitdown with CBS before the Super Bowl, Biden’s 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 then showed the footage of the disastrous presser Biden held Thursday after the DOJ report said his memory was failing and he had ‘diminished faculties’.
‘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?’
‘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.
The audience greeted Stewart with wild applause and a standing ovation
‘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 laid out a case against the age of both candidates, as Biden, 81, and Trump, 77, are the oldest candidates in history
‘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.’
But 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.’
‘If your guy loses, bad things might happen, but the country is not over,’ he added. ‘And if your guy wins, the country is not saved.’
He then offered a bit of self-reflection in reaction to Trump’s rise after he retired from the show in 2015.
‘I’ve learned one thing over these last nine years and I was glib at best and probably dismissive at worst about this.
‘The work of making this world resemble one that you would prefer to live in is a lunchpail f**king job day in and day out, where thousands of committed, anonymous, smart and dedicated people bang on closed doors and pick up those that are fallen and grind away on issues until they get a positive result.’
‘So the good news is: I’m not saying you don’t have to worry about who wins the election,’ Stewart finished.
‘I’m saying you have to worry about every day before it, and every day after, forever. Although, on the plus side, I am told that at some point, the sun will run out of hydrogen.’
In the second segment, Stewart interacted with members of the show’s fake news team – Jordan Klepper, Desi Lydic, Ronny Chieng, Dulce Sloan and Michael Kosta – who satirized campaign reporting from rural diners.
Finally, Stewart – whose show lasted much longer than the 30 minutes it traditionally ran during his first tenure – interviewed Economist Editor Zanny Minton Beddoes about how Biden is often closed off and shepherded away from the press.
Jon Stewart is returning to The Daily Show as a weekly host and executive producer through the presidential election cycle
Stewart made the masses laugh for 16 years as host of The Daily Show with his impersonations of George W. Bush and exchanges with 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.
Steward spent much of the last eight years campaigning more funding for veterans who had been exposed to toxic burn pits.
He has become one of the nation’s most high-profile and powerful campaigners for veterans’ health since stepping down from The Daily Show.
He previously said that 20 years of war had created ‘an overflow’ of sick veterans from the conflict.
Jon Stewart demonstrated in front of the Capitol on Monday to urge senators to pass legislation providing more funding for veterans who had been exposed to toxic burn pits
‘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.
‘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.
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
He first took over the show in 1999 and under his leadership The Daily Show won more than 20 Primetime Emmy awards
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.’
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.