Jon Stewart Returns as ‘The Daily Show’ Host, Roasts Biden, Trump and Himself

livemint.com:

“Now, where was I…" Jon Stewart said in his return to “The Daily Show," which he left in 2015 after 16 years as the anchor of the satirical news show. It was the premiere of the show’s 29th season, which Stewart will host on Monday nights through the presidential election in November.

After warming up with a bit about Super Bowl conspiracies, Stewart kicked off the show’s election-season coverage with a roughly 20-minute volley of jokes and commentary on the mental infirmity and elderly status of both presumptive candidates for president. He juxtaposed examples of President Biden’s memory lapses under questioning by special counsel with old clips of Donald Trump citing spotty memory during depositions.

“Turns out that the leading cause of early-onset dementia," Stewart said, “is being deposed." The host also parsed Biden’s recent press conference, widely considered disastrous, then took aim at the president’s debut on TikTok with a clip of Biden talking about cookies. “How do you go on TikTok and end up looking older?" Stewart said.

The 61-year-old host mocked his own advancing age (“Perhaps it was my mistake for sleeping in a meat dehydrator," he said) before building up to a nonpartisan—if not exactly optimistic—message about the grueling work of maintaining democracy. “The good news is, I’m not saying you don’t have to worry about who wins the election.

I’m saying you have to worry about every day before it and every day after, forever," he said. Later segments featured members of the show’s election coverage team planning to spend the next nine months at a Michigan diner, a desk segment with veteran “Daily Show" correspondent Jordan Klepper and an interview with the editor in chief of the Economist, Zanny Minton