If you've watched The Daily Show regularly over the years, you may have noticed that Jon Stewart has a tendency to ask his guests if he can... ask them a question. You haven't? Allow us to present to you 12 years of Stewart's pre-question questions in less than three minutes. Spoiler: nobody ever says no.
Although a proposed tax rate increase for top-level earners would reduce America's budget deficit by about $700 billion over 10 years, right-wing pundits on Fox News and elsewhere have decried it as "class warfare" that would only put a small dent in the national debt.
On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart had gay marriage on the mind. Stewart started off by mocking Rick Santorum for the lame analogies he turns to whenever he's asked to explain why he's against same-sex marriage. Stewart's focus then shifted to President Obama's apparent flip-flop on the legality of the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act. "Ah, the best of both worlds!" said Stewart. "The administration won't defend the indefensible—they will, however, enforce the indefensible."
President Obama left Washington yesterday aboard a $1 million armored black bus for a three-day trip across three states. The Obama administration is touting the bus tour as a way to focus attention on job creation and insists it's not a campaign trip. But Jon Stewart wasn't too convinced on tonight's Daily Show: "I'm sure the president just had some frequent Greyhound miles he had to burn by the end of August."
Ron Paul came in second in last weekend's Iowa straw poll, finishing less than 200 votes behind Michele Bachmann. Why is the longtime Texas congressman, an early champion of many of the ideas that are so popular with Tea Partiers at the moment, not considered a serious contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination? That was the question on Jon Stewart's mind tonight on The Daily Show. A clip of the segment is above.
Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly returned to her show, America Live, on Monday following a three-month maternity leave. Kelly's first order of business? To shame talk radio host Mike Gallagher for calling her maternity leave "a racket." On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart pointed out that Kelly hasn't always been such a big supporter of moms on maternity leave—and he brought out the archival footage to prove it. Video of the segment is above.
Jon Stewart opened tonight's Daily Show with a segment on the downgrading of the U.S. government's credit rating by Standard & Poors on Friday, which led to yet another stock market plunge today. Not surprisingly, Stewart had many targets at which to direct his rage and, as you'll see in the clip above, he took full advantage of the opportunity to do so.
In the days following 9/11, rescuers discovered a cross-shaped steel beam in the rubble. The cross became a symbol of hope at Ground Zero over the years and was recently installed at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, but its placement there was threatened last week by a lawsuit filed by an atheist group. On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart wasted no time declaring what side he was on when he blasted the atheists, asking, "Why do you give a shit?" Video of Stewart's segment is above.
On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart briefly celebrated the fact that, despite the fight it took to get there, Congress finally reached a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling. But then Stewart noted just how little the deal will actually reduce the deficit, at which point he gave the "spoiled children" in Congress a piece of his mind.
During a Daily Show segment about the News of the World phone hacking scandal on July 20, Jon Stewart included footage of Britain's parliament. But when the show aired in the U.K. last week, the segment was absent, apparently due to a law that prevents the airing of parliamentary proceedings in a satirical context. Stewart didn't appreciate the censorship, and he took to tonight's program to air his grievances.
On Tuesday, federal officials concluded that there wasn't enough evidence to link cases of cancer in 9/11 first responders to the duties they performed at Ground Zero. Consequently, the bill providing health care to the responders will not include coverage for cancer treatments. On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart, who has long advocated for the bill's passage, made no secret of his anger over the news. Video of Stewart's segment is above.
On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart brought up the effort by Fox News and conservative pundits to push a narrative that paints liberals as bullies who do nothing but victimize pure, innocent Christians. But then Stewart played clip after clip of conservatives using bullying tactics against liberals, and it all fell spectacularly apart. Video of the segment is above.
One day after lambasting Congress for letting partisan interests get in the way of solving the debate over raising the nation's debt ceiling, Jon Stewart opened tonight's Daily Show with an equally critical take on President Obama's address to the nation yesterday. Video of the segment, during which Stewart took particular issue with Obama's suggestion that the American people take matters into their own hands to solve the crisis, is above.
The stalemate between congressional Republicans and Democrats over raising the nation's debt ceiling has gotten so bad that President Obama addressed the nation tonight in an attempt to publicly shame them into reaching a deal. And on tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart angrily piled on Obama's message with an anti-Congress rant of his own. Video of the segment is above.
Jon Stewart opened The Daily Show tonight with a check on the fundraising successes (or failures) of the many Republicans vying to replace President Obama in 2012. From dead-in-the-water (or in the Tiffany showroom) Newt Gingrich to migraine-afflicted Michele Bachmann, video of Stewart's assessment is above.
Rupert Murdoch appeared before a British parliamentary committee yesterday to testify about his knowledge of the News of the World phone hacking scandal, a subject Jon Stewart touched on during last night's Daily Show. Stewart returned to Murdoch once again tonight, but this time he focused on the crime-fighting abilities of Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng, as well as the shoutfest that is Parliament itself.
Rupert Murdoch appeared before a British parliamentary committee today to testify about his knowledge of phone hacking at News of the World. On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart took the opportunity to poke fun at the 80-year-old media mogul—and praise wife Wendi Deng for defending him against a pie-wielding assailant—before mocking Fox News's efforts to downplay the scandal.
