The bit in which he showed Fox News suggesting that people might take advantage of the solar eclipse to sneak into the US was a return to an old standby of his, which was point out their idiocy and hypocrisy.
The Truth never goes out of style.
I noticed that in his time as host, Trevor Noah pretty much ignored the subject of Fox News. (And also, Fox News itself is less than it used to be; many of the worst offenders, on and off camera, are gone and its influence is much less, particularly in the Age of Trump.)
Well, even in Rome, Caligula fell.
Excellent episode this week from Jon, he’s absolutely right about the fallout from the Trump conviction, bizarreness of Trump claiming he’s never said “lock her up” and (sadly) the bizarreness of Biden’s response to the question. And the point about the courts was great.
But this is the Pit, so I do have some notes:
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When journalists ask Republicans whether they’ll accept the results of the forthcoming election, that’s not a wacky hypothetical that they’ve made up for this election. It’s a pretty standard question, asked all around the world, to establish that all major parties respect democracy and will participate in good faith.
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It’s appalling what Republicans have done, and are trying to do to Fauci, and I wish Jon had given more full-throated criticism of it. But this might be related to my next point…
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At the start he jokes about how “we’ll never know” about the covid lab leak hypothesis. I had to google it, because I hadn’t heard that Stewart had endorsed that hypothesis previously (yes, with caveats, but still). Obviously I would much rather he come out and say either he was wrong to jump to conclusions, or say what good grounds he has for believing that.
The way he left it, the clear impression is “I still believe this, but I’m not allowed to say it”
FTR I’ll state my position: I think the lab leak hypothesis is highly unlikely, but let’s not litigate that here, there have been many threads.
link to recent daily show episode: https://youtu.be/qmxzQJt80XI?si=W0dqdgP1cxyjc14L/
(I still “can’t embed media items”)
Meh, the Biden thing is nothing big, and I’m sure Jon knows it. Most likely, Biden was just considering saying something (probably snarky) and then decided it was better to keep his mouth shut. It happens to people all the time.
Jon just wanted something light to tease Biden about–perhaps as a contrast to the serious stuff with Trump. The only sad thing about it will be the MAGA conspiracy nuts who try to make it into some coded message.
You had me concerned Biden had really said something stupid that I had missed.
Yeah I didn’t mean to imply it was a big deal.
Just that Jon’s right that it was a bit of a weird moment.
Let’s be honest, I am a Biden supporter, an enthusiastic one in 2020 and I’m just as happy to do so in 2024, but I’ll admit Biden has plenty of weird moments.
Anyone suggesting that Biden has “weird moments” is nothing more than a lying dog-faced pony soldier!
That’s it.
Pushup contest.
Right. Now!
OK - half a pushup, from the up position.
Ready?
Down!
I thought his interview of Buck was as bad as JS has ever done.
I really wanted to hear from Buck about why he quit, when he did, the dynamics re: the Speaker, etc. Or even exploring why Buck thought Trump unqualified and dangerous, and insight as to how ostensibly upright Rs feel about supporting him. All we heard from Buck was superficial mention of being primaried - he could’ve even gone into more detail on that. Instead, JS did most of the talking, and focussed almost entirely on Buck’s description of the recent conviction as a bad precedent.
Buck impressed me as what would previously have been thought of as a reasonable opponent. It would have been an opportunity to show the manner in which reasonable opponents could agree and cooperate, rather than just the framework for another extended JS rant. We all KNOW hos JS feels about these things…
Just a real missed opportunity. He’s always been pretty bad at interviews. This was one of his worst.
Disagree, I actually thought the back and forth was better than usual, especially for Jon who I do agree is weaker on interviews.
When Buck said, “How many people in America believe what a politician says?” was quite a moment.
My response to that would have been that it depends on the politician. If Barack Obama told me the sky was blue, I could trust that he was telling me the truth. If Donald Trump or Marge Greene told me the sky was blue, I’d open a window and stick my head out to be sure.
Overall, I didn’t care particularly for that interview because it seemed kind of pointless. Buck at one point jokingly complained that Stewart was putting him in a position to defend Trump; nobody put a gun to your head and made you do that, Kenny.
Well, I guess we just viewed it differently. Of course, “better than usual [for JS]” is a pretty low bar.
In response to that comment, I would’ve pointed out that a great many people seem to believe in Trump, no? Or - in the case of elected officials - if they do not believe it, they are apparently willing to claim they do.
I actually just played the interview with a stopwatch running. (Yeah - slow day, bored w/ work.) Interview was just over 24 mins long.
Being VERY generous to Buck, I had him talking for approx. 9:15 of the 24.
Moreover, for the first 8 mins, it was almost 50/50, with Buck talking for about 4 of the 8.
But for the final 16 minutes, Buck had only 5:15.
The final 2/3 of the “interview” was a whole lot of JS spouting his views, getting applause, and, IMO, posing several complex questions which he then did not allow Buck to answer before JS went into something else.
My favorite phrase from the interview was JS’s observation that Trump received “due-ier process” than most receive! 
I guess I was just disappointed that JS didn’t ask more about the ins/outs of Congress and Buck’s decision to quit - topics Buck was uniquely positioned to discuss. As opposed to the legitimacy of Bragg bringing charges, Bragg campaigning saying he would “get” Trump; and the legitimacy of the Hunter Biden prosection. I guess the “shameful precedent” was a fine starting point for the interview, but JS really had a hard time getting off it.
Oh well, that’s why he gets paid the big bucks rather than I.
I have to say that I actually loved that response. It mixes the political no comment official response with a Dark Bidenesque “Oh yeah baby” personal response. But opinions may vary.