Awesome / The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

This is the page for Awesome Moments from Jon Stewart's run on the show. For examples from Trevor Noah's run, please see here.

---

In General

• As 16 years and 23 Emmys will tell you, there's a very good reason why Jon Stewart was voted America's most trusted newscaster after Walter Cronkite passed away.^note (although he points out in stand-up that anyone could've won against the competing choices)
• The moment when a comedy show, hosted by comedians and written by comedy writers, became a respected news source and considered to be the watchdog of other news shows and channels — their statements taken as valid opinions, and the show given actual credibility. Again, these are not journalists, reporters, or newscasters. These are comedians (a fact that drives the rest of the News Media community up the wall). While in some aspects it is a very disturbing commentary on our society, one can think that is the Daily Show's true moment of Utter Awesome.
  • Jon himself responded to this with "If it's true, it's terrifying. We're not really watchdogs, we're the kind of dogs that lick each other's balls." A pretty funny response, but oddly enough, it speaks volumes about his character — he's been called the Mark Twain of our time, but he's absolutely determined to never let it get to his head, which is a quality that is very admirable.
• Jon Stewart, a man who has no experience as a journalist beyond conducting humorous interviews of several influential people, was NBC's first choice to succeed David Gregory as host of Meet the Press in 2014.
• Providing a launching pad for performers like Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Larry Wilmore, Samantha Bee, and Hasan Minhaj, who had their own acclaimed programs The Colbert Report, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, and Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj respectively. Not to mention Ed Helms, Josh Gad, Olivia Munn, Jason Jones, dozens more, and a fellow you might've heard of by the name of Steve Carell.
• Part of why Jon has so many awesome moments under his belt is he never does anything halfway. Any subject he's talking about with his guest, he does the research beforehand so he can speak righteously on the topic. If his guest is there about a book (or in the case of Betsy Mc Caughey below, a 500-plus page congressional bill), he reads it cover to cover so he can discuss it in depth (or in the case of Betsy Mccaughey below, eviscerate them mercilessly). Most talk show and news hosts just go off a primer summary with a few canned questions, but Jon rolls up his sleeves and actually does the work most of his contemporaries don't. On a show that runs five times a week. And he's doing work you'd expect from Pulitzer winners. Not without reason was Jon voted the most trustworthy newsman for several years running...as a comedian.

2000

• December 13th: During George W. Bush's acceptance speech following a month of gridlock and recounts, Jon sets the record straight:
  George W. Bush: I was not elected to serve one party.
  Jon Stewart: ...you were not elected. (the audience loses it) ... (stage whisper) I hit a nerve.
  • And when Bush asks everyone to "pray for this great nation":
    Jon Stewart: (dead-eyed) We're waaaaaay ahead of ya.

2001

• September 20th: Jon's speech about 9/11 definitely qualifies, along with being a Heartwarming Moment as Stewart visibly holds back tears and talks about the strengths of America. (WARNING: If you're not planning on bawling your eyes out, this is not the link to click.)
  • This more so than anything else probably marks the point where The Daily Show became more than just a joke news show.

2003

• April 28th: A foreign policy debate between two very powerful men with deeply opposing viewpoints. The Daily Show presents: President George W. Bush (2002) v. Governor George W. Bush (2000)! Ah, flip-flops. Such a boon for comedy.

2004

• October 15th: Stewart's appearance on CNN's debate show Crossfire before the 2004 election to promote his book America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. With his blank, nearly despairing expression never leaving his face, Jon utterly castigates the two hosts, including now-former Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson. Exposed for the vapid nothingness it was (with the live studio audience clapping for his requests they stop hurting the country rather than in favor of the hosts), the show was canceled three months later.
  Jon: I fought the law, and the law lost!"
  • Probably the best part was how Stewart countered Carlson's argument that he had also failed journalistic integrity. His earlier comment about how if the major news corporations are looking to Comedy Central for guidance, that they're in big trouble rings particularly true.
  Jon: The thing is, you're doing theatre when you should be doing debate. [...] What you're doing is partisan hackery.
  Tucker: You have John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne, and you're accusing us of partisan hackery?
  Jon: Absolutely.
  Tucker: You've got to be kidding me!
  Jon: You're on CNN! The show that leads into me is puppets making prank phone calls! What is wrong with you!?
  • In September 2013, made even more awesome by having a new show segment named "Crossfire" appear (using the original Crossfire's same logo and opening graphic(!)). Jon's reaction? "hey! That's a good name for a show! Someone should use that!"
• October 18th: Jon's rant about Crossfire the Monday after his appearance.
  Jon: and then we decided to go over to this place, Crossfire, which is, uh, it's a nuanced public policy analysis show that is named after the stray bullets that hit innocent bystanders in a gang fight. So I go to Crossfire and, let's face it, I was dehydrated — it's the Martin Lawrence defense; I hadn't, perhaps, my proper water that day — and I had always in the past mentioned to friends... and... people that I meet on the street that I think that show... blows. So I thought it was only the right thing to do to go say it to them personally on their program. But here's the thing about confronting someone with that on their show... they're there. Uncomfortable! And they were very mad, because apparently, when you invite someone on a show called 'Crossfire' and you express an opinion... they don't care for that. Apparently, my opinion was not— I've seen this show! That's all they do is express opinions! They just shout at each other! But apparently if that opinion is not one of your standard right/left opinions, they just... bwuh! But I did, I told them that I thought their show was... uh... hurting America, and they came back at me pretty good. They said that, uh, that I wasn't being funny. And I said to them, "I know that. But tomorrow I will go back to being funny, and your show will still blow."''
  • For bonus points on the Crossfire appearance, at one point when Tucker Carlson is trying to shut Jon down by calling for a commercial break, he says "You're not as funny on our show as you are on your show", which makes Jon lose his temper and say "You're as much of a dick on your show as you are on any other show!" This, after all the time Jon has spent trying desperately to get even a single neuron to fire in either of the hosts' heads, is the point at which Carlson cheers up and says "Yeah! Now you're gettin' into it!"

2005

• June 16th: A look back at the Hitler reference. Stewart no likee.
  Jon: So to sum up, please stop calling people Hitler when you disagree with them. It demeans you, it demeans your opponent, and to be honest, it demeans Hitler.
• August 18th: During the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Rob Corddry speculates on why God gave his most devout worshipers a rather unattractive area of land.
  Rob Corddry: I've been here for a couple of days, now, and if God gave me this particular spot of land, I'd be wondering what I'd done to offend God...
• December 7th: Jon and Samantha Bee calling Bill O'Reilly on presenting year old footage of a joke as a recent attack on Christmas. With a very pregnant Samantha Bee, who was noticeably slimmer the year before.

2006

• October 11th: On his second field piece, as he charged towards the South side of a Civil War re-enactment, John Oliver tripped and broke his nose.
  John: And we called back to the office. And the - I guess this was the point I knew what I was letting myself in for with this show. The first thing they asked was: Did you get it on camera? And we said, yes. And they said, good. Was it funny?
  • That is dedication to comedy.

2007

• Week of August 20th: Operation Silent Thunder began with Aasif Mandvi claiming he's live in Iraq with Rob Riggle by green-screening Aasif on top of the footage— except Rob, who was in the Marine Corps Reserve at the time, was actually in Iraq for a USO tour. He entertained troops stationed there and filmed stories while embedded with them.
• September 11th: Jon tears apart David Petraeus' Senate testimony on Iraq.
  • Mildly ironic, as apparently Jon later had an amicable interview with Thomas Ricks, author of The Gamble (a sort-of sequel to Fiasco) which gave a not-nearly-as-negative picture of Petraeus. Also ironic to see (bottom of the link going into the top of the next page) how badly Joe Biden failed at doing so himself. Stewart would also go on to interview John Nagl, one of Petraeus' advisors.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Paula Broadwell, Petraeus' biographer (and mistress), used the "turning water into bottled water" line in her January 25th, 2012 interview.

2008

• February 7th: Utterly castigating Mitt Romney for his reasoning for dropping out of the 2008 Presidential candidacy. In short, his candidacy will divide the party, thus allowing a Democrat to get swept into the White House... which is, by his definition, submission to terrorism. Jon was not pleased:
  Stewart: You know, I'm sorry... normally we have all our writers we've got a big room of people kicking that sound byte around, but right now, it's just me. So... (taps pen against desk) let me just see if I can very quickly whip something up here... (thinking noises) Ooo! Ooo, ooo! I've got something! Uh... FUCK YOU.
  (raucous Studio Audience cheering as Jon pauses to adjust his suit)
  Stewart (nerdy voice): Still Got It~!"
• September 5th: The "Small Town Values" report, in which The Daily Show's correspondents ask the RNC attendees what "small town values" really are. First we get John Oliver asking the question:
  Woman: It's real people, real values... common sense...
  Oliver: Can you be more generic?
  • He is later topped in a true Moment of Awesome by Jason Jones, who talks with a man attending the convention about gay marriage... and later gets to kiss him. On the cheek, on the cheek.
  Man: Can you do that on cable TV?
  Jones: Of course I can! I can do a lot more than that...
• October 17: Jon performed at the homecoming festivities at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. During the performance, he comments on Sarah Palin regarding small towns as pro-America.
  Jon: She said that small towns, that's the part of the country she really likes going to because that's the pro-America part of the country. You know, I just want to say to her, just very quickly: Fuck you!
  • After several people continued on the small town vs big city mentality with some people saying that Ground Zero happened to be godless and New York City is elitist, Jon decided to add to his previous quote regarding Palin:
  Jon: "We're all a little chafed here about this whole 'some parts of the country are real and American' and other parts are not. This weekend I was performing at Northeastern and I just read the statement that Sarah Palin had made about the 'pro-American' parts of the country and I...in response to that, I think I might have said, you know, 'Fuck you!' That's just my way of saying that I think that's a profanity to say, and I was answering with a profanity. But it's not really fair, and it makes it seem like I'm just addressing Governor Palin about this, and I'm not, it's just this whole entire theme that there's more American areas, or some people love the country, some people don't. So what I meant to say is, 'Fuck all y'all!'
• December 9th: In terms of interview pwnage, this discussion with Mike Huckabee over gay marriage certainly qualifies.

2009

• January 5th: Jon's take on the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip that began in late 2008, which was refreshing when so many politicians were repeating the mantra that Israel was just defending itself.
• March 12th: Jim Cramer gets owned. Jon broke CNBC's Mad Money host in the clearest, most brutal explanation of the financial crisis yet. Comedy Central: The place to go to watch two guys have a serious discussion on finance. And yes, he did not only predict every defense Cramer was going to make, but prepared video clips of Cramer himself contradicting that position.
  Jon: Roll two-twelve!
  • Watch Cramer's face when Jon calls for Two-Sixteen. You can see the precise moment where Cramer realizes that Daddy Jon is home, and he is about to administer a spanking.
  • This, of course, came after Jon spent a good chunk on an episode the week before eviscerating CNBC's financial coverage because Rick Santelli (who could be pinged as one of the sources for the Tea Party movement, as he led other stockbrokers in protest of the fact that federal money was going to bail out mortgages on the floor of the Stock Market in a segment for CNBC) dropped out of an interview.
• April 7th: Jon strikes back at the conservatives calling Obama a tyrant.
  Jon: I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing. And I feel for you because ah... I've been there. A few times. In fact, one of them was a bit of a nailbiter. But see, when the guy that you disagree with gets elected, he's probably going to do things you disagree with. He could cut taxes on the wealthy, remove government's oversight capability, invade a country that you thought should not be invaded, but that's not tyranny. That's democracy. See, now you're in the minority. It's supposed to taste like a shit taco. And by the way, if I remember correctly when disagreement was expressed about that president's actions when y'all were in power I believe the response was "why do you hate America?", "watch what you say", "love it or leave it", "suck on my truck nuts".
• June 18th: For an MOA of a completely different kind, this interview with Mike Huckabee over the subject of abortion in which Jon shows his true mastery of public discourse in a deep and extensive, yet respectful discussion with the former governor on the views of pro-life vs pro-choice. To put this in perspective, after crushing Crossfire with its shallow attempts to make discussion and debate into nothing more than cheap entertainment, Jon Stewart turns right around and shows those chumps how it's done.
  • Which is probably why Huckabee continues to appear on the show, even though he and Stewart clearly have opposing views on just about everything. It's about respect, people.
  • In fact, several conservatives have stated that they love going on the Daily Show, simply because Jon is so respectful to them. They know they're not going to get berated for their opinions. In the April 6, 2011 interview, Jon flat-out tells Huckabee he loved him because he forces him to challenge his perceptions, and he's obviously not talking about the bad way.
    • Play along, know your stuff, don't pull a Betsy McCaughey and overtly skew the facts, and The Daily Show is a platform from which you can talk pretty directly to people who would never listen to you otherwise. It's probably the only show in which disagreement with the host is encouraged and celebrated. Jon rarely wins conclusively when his "opponent" genuinely knows what they're on about; they get equal talking times, they make their points and listen carefully to the other, and then Jon breaks the mood with a stupid joke and the band plays them out. It's glorious.
• August 20th: Betsy McCaughey, a think tank spokesperson who was against various provisions in the proposed health care reform bill, the interview being here. At the beginning of the interview, she walks out onstage with a binder holding half the proposed bill in untranslated legalese, and states that it says doctors must provide mandatory end-of-life care (i.e. providing counsel designed to eschew health care in favor of dying peacefully). She even comes equipped with the page numbers that the language is on. Jon immediately rips into her, saying that the word "mandatory" isn't in the bill at all, stating that it doesn't require doctors to force people into choosing end-of-life care over preventative measures, and then demanding that she look up the language in the bill. It takes a commercial break for her to find it, and then he immediately rips apart her interpretation as ill-advised and just plain wrong. It's definitely worth seeing just for the embarrassment she is forced to suffer through as she's thoroughly denounced by a comedian.
  • And just to top it off, she resigned from her job the day after. Keep in mind this is one of the people associated with defeating "Clintoncare", and a comedian made her back down in shame.
  • Even better in the extended version:
    Jon: You have no evidence of this!
    McCaughey: Of course I do, b-
    Jon: WHERE?!
  • The best part is when he rips out the page she claims has her proof. "Let me take that, because you clearly don't need it."
  • It helps that she clearly just wanted a chance to rant at the audience; she constantly interrupted Jon, talked over him, looked at the audience instead of the person who was interviewing her, and tried to use irrelevant anecdotes to gain sympathy, and carrying in the bill when she obviously had no intention of consulting it (or she would have had the page marked) was just grandstanding to make herself look smarter. So seeing him absolutely eviscerate her Insane Troll Logic-dependent arguments comes across as just desserts for treating his show as a platform to preach from.
    • Lampshaded by Jon near the end of the interview, when she yet again looks at the audience. "WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?!" Nick Naylor, she ain't.
    • On September 11th 2014, they had a Call-Back to this. Jordan Klepper interviewed various people hit by the "Obamacare Apocalypse" and he sat down to talk to Betsy McCaughey. But she took one look at him, glared at him for a few seconds, then got up and took off her microphone. It might have been a scripted joke, or Ms. McCaughey is still not over it.
    • He was on something of a roll. Around a month before that he got conservative commentator Bill Kristol to say the average American citizen doesn't deserve the best possible health care the country is capable of providing, because that's provided to soldiers by the government and he's against government-run health care.
• October 12th: CNN was defeated again when Jon raked them over the coals for fact checking an SNL sketch while failing to fact check other stories. As an example, in one of the stories, interviewee Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council overestimated the population of America by almost 23 million and CNN let that go unchallenged despite being, as Jon put it, "Off by a factor of Australia."
• October 29th: Jon lays the smackdown on Fox News like never before, utterly crushing every argument the network has ever attempted to use to justify its slogan of "Fair and Balanced."
• November 5th: Jon deconstructs political pundit Glenn Beck in Beck's own unique style.
• November 10th: The time where Sean Hannity "messed up" on his show and spliced footage from Glenn Beck's protest rally in with another protest and Jon called him out on it.
• November 12th: The Daily Show proceeded to have even more fun at Hannity's expense when they announced they had made an error and that "Jon Stewart was right." It's almost like Fox News is intentionally messing up...
• November 19th: Jon calls upon "Senior Asskicker" Mick Foley to act as the personal bodyguard of a young boy who refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance in support of gay rights.
  Jon: You know what...? This is a very valuable child.
• December 8: Jon calls out not only Fox News for making up numbers in a poll which added up to 120%...
  Jon: Yeah, actually, in the spirit of fairness, we should mention that this Rasmussen poll seems to have a margin of error of ±monkeyfuck-ridiculous.
  • ...but also Fox & Friends anchor Gretchen Carlson for "dumbing down" to fit with the network's anti-intellectual bent. She was the valedictorian of her high-school class, was Miss America in 1989, graduated with honors from Stanford, studied abroad at Oxford, and is a virtuoso violinist, very much at odds with her on-screen persona (who, live on the air, has had to Google the definitions of words such as "ignoramus", "double-dip recession" and "tzar", and still got the definition of "ignoramus" wrong). One wonders how much she's being paid...
  • Insult to injury? the actual source for the numbers in the poll Fox News showed actually has the numbers presented as follows: Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Americans say it’s at least somewhat likely that some scientists have falsified research data to support their own theories and beliefs about global warming. Thirty-five percent (35%) say it’s Very Likely. Just 26% say it’s not very or not at all likely that some scientists falsified data. Fox News removed the "At least" part and also failed to take into account that the three numbers could have come from 3 different samples.

2010

• January 14th: The time that, right after the Haiti Earthquake, when Jon called out Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson for their total insensitivity and heartlessness in the face of such unspeakable tragedy, as well as Rachel Maddow for politicizing the relief efforts^note after which Maddow pointed out she hadn't deserved it, which Jon agreed with (and then made it funny). He even responded to Robertson by quoting the Bible at him.
  Jon: Have you read this book?! It almost sounds like it's about fucking EARTHQUAKES!
• January 21st: Jon deconstructs political pundit Keith Olbermann in Olbermann's own unique style. The "#1" segment on the following episode of The Countdown with Keith Olbermann had Olbermann replaying the entire segment from the show...and apologizing.
  Olbermann: "A fetid swamp", you say, sir? This from a guy who reached a professional apex when he was the host of Short Attention Span Theatre, 1991? You want some "baseless name-calling"? You are a...nah, you know what, you're right; I have been a little over the top lately. Point taken...sorry.
• March 18th: Jon utterly eviscerating Glenn Beck over a course of sixteen minutes. "Burn" isn't the correct term. "Flamethrowered then napalmed" is. Also see below.
• March 29th: Wyatt Cenac's take on Right Wing violence as a reaction to the Health Care Vote: "Bring it on, we've got guns too." He goes on to say that if a vote that you disapprove of entitles you to use violence, then what is he entitled to do in response to your violence?
• April 20th: You know you're creative when you manage to not only communicate a thorough rebuttal leading to a reiteration of "Go fuck yourself"...but you do it in gospel choir.
  Jon (with the choir backing him up, preacher-style) Bernie Goldberg, I don't need to satisify your version of what fair satire is or should be. I'm not fair! I'm not balanced! You're criticizing me for not living up to your tagline! And you dismiss any criticism as further evidence as how the rest of the media persecute you. You like to pretend, Bernie Goldberg and Fox News, that the relentless conservative activisim of Fox News is the equivilant of the disorganized liberal influence you find on NBC, ABC, and CBS. But Fox News - you may be able to detect a liberal pathogen in their bloodstream, however faint. But Fox News has such a crazy over-reaction to that perceived threat. You're like an auto-immune disorder. I'm not saying the virus doesn't exist in some small quanity; but you're producing waaay too many antibodies. Fox News...you're the lupus of news. So, I guess what I'm sayin' is this:
  Choir GOOOOOOO...
  Jon ...as long as fair and balanced is how you sell yourselves...
  Choir FU-(BEEEEEEEEP)...
  Jon ...I GUESS WHAT I'M SAYIN' IS THIS!
  Choir ...YOOOURSEEELVEEES. (Jon and chorus sing phrase over and over while dancing around)
  • April 22nd: Two days later, Jon (after some hesitation due to using it against respectable groups like Fox News Channel) fires the same thing at revolutionmuslim.com for their veiled death threats against South Park while hiding behind the same rights they were trying to deprive South Park of. View the awesome-ness here.
• May 12th: Lewis Black's finest moment on the show: "Glenn Beck has Nazi Tourettes!"
• June 9th: Tying into the long-running narrative against the idiocy the national media can display, we get this lambasting. Instead of confronting the serious issues ("What's the line between opinion, and opinion journalism? When does America's unwavering defense of Israel begin to compromise our unwavering defense of free speech? Does our media demonstrate a casual bias against the Arab world and the suffering of Palestinians? These are the hard questions reporters must be asking themselves in the wake of Thomas' departure."), cue numerous clips of news organizations talking not about those questions...but who gets Helen Thomas' seat in the front row.
  Jon: It's fun to see politicians and the people we count on to hold them accountable...super-soaking each other. Fighting over who gets to sit shotgun in the White House briefing room. Jockeying for an invitation to barbecues. Are you journalists, or are you rushing a sorority? What I'm saying is this — if the public wants reporters to start holding politicians accountable for their actions, then I guess the public just needs to really start throwing better parties, or having better perks.
• June 15th: The whole episode, wherein Jon takes President Obama to task regarding how he promised to end the Bush administration's treatment of detaining terrorists without trial as well as putting a stop to Extraordinary Rendition, only to take both of those things even further than Bush did. He ends by making a comparison to The Lord of the Rings, claiming that Obama has essentially become like Frodo did once he reached Mount Doom (especially hilarious since Colbert is usually the one who makes such comparisons).
• July 7th: When the babbling freakshow that is Fox and Friends decided to take shots at President Obama for once again reaching out to the Muslim world, and others at Fox News decided to pile on to the anti-Muslim sentiment, Jon once again took them to task for their rampant hypocrisy, and once again, t'was awesome.
• July 28th: Jason Jones questioning a homophobe's sexuality after the latter argued the Nazis persecuted the gays to hide their sexuality. Also, listing all the countries who allow gays in the military, which is a lot.
  Scott Lively: The Nazis did persecute homosexuals to distract public attention away from their homosexuality.
  Jones: So that which you hate the most...you secretly are.
  (Beat)
  Lively: I am not gay.
  Jones: I didn't say you were.
  ...
  Lively: In terms of activities on the battlefield, you just don't want to have people there that have no moral restraint.
  Jones: So how do the other countries that have gays serving openly in their military control their soldiers? You know, countries like...Argentina, Austria, Australia.
  Lively: I don't think that that's been going on for very long...
  Jones: Hang on, I actually wasn't finished...Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, the Czech Republic, DenmarkEstoniaFinlandFrance GermanyIrelandIsraelItalyLithuaniaLuxembourgMaltaTheNetherlandsNewZealandNorway...
  Lively: (talking over Jones): I have—I have—I've been to many of those countries...
  Jones: ...RomaniaRussiaSloveniaSouthAfricaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTaiwanUnitedKingdom and Uruguay.
• July 26th: Upon hearing of Shirley Sherrod's firing, Jon utterly lambasted all those involved, taking viewers mistep by mistep through the scandal. This is one of his most thorough jobs in recent memory. He nails the administration for watching only a contextless edited clip of Sherrod's supposedly incriminating speech and attempting to avoid admitting real fault by admitting only to bad methods of firing her, rather than bad actions in firing her at all. Then he nails the NAACP for claiming to have been "snookered" into believing Sherrod racist, though it was they who neglected to watch the full interview, and to realize that the edited clip had been made by a self-proclaimed hater of the institutional left, and thus might be a trap. Finally he skewers an Obama rep for, instead of apologizing and moving on, attempting to bookend his fleeting apology with a reprimand to...well, pretty much the rest of the world, for not spotting their error before they made it. To top it off, he and Oliver then parody the situation even further, and manage to tie it into the oil spill disaster at that.
• August 4th: The GOP's inexplicable refusal to pass the Zadroga Bill (a.k.a., the 9/11 First Responders' Bill, which would grant those people health benefits as it pertained to diseases they contracted due to inhaling debris when the Twin Towers were destroyed), as well as the Democrats' inane and ultimately shallow reason to make it so that only a 2/3 Senate majority could pass the bill, was a story that fell under the rubric of the show's latest segment: I GIVE UP.
• August 19th: After Fox News reporters play a shaky "guilt by association" game against the Imam in charge of the Ground Zero Mosque, Jon does the same with Rupert Murdoch. He then plays an 11-year-old clip of Charlton Heston perfectly summing up the situation, follows up with a clip of the show from that time of himself objecting to it, and coming back to say that he was wrong back then.
• August 23th: Then, the following week, Fox News inexplicably did the same thing, this time connecting the Imam to "terror sympathizer" Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud, the same Saudi Prince that Jon had connected to Rupert Murdoch, and who owns 7% of Fox News' parent corporation! Jon, Wyatt Cenac, and John Oliver had a field day.
  • It should be noted that they never mentioned Al-waleed by name, and instead referred primarily to his organization, but mentioning that it's "headed up by the guy who tried to give... 10 million dollars after 9/11, which was sent back" "he funds radical madrassas all over the world-" "and he funds this Imam." Needless to say, Oliver and Cenac had another field day with this one, wearing "Team Stupid" versus "Team Evil".
  Jon: That's right! The guy they're painting as a sinister money force owns part of Fox News!
  • That report deserves bonus points of awesome for using Fox News' own logic to show that the only way to cut off funding to the "terror Mosque" is to, as a nation, stop watching Fox News.
  • In that vein, Aasif Mandvi's takedown of the opposers of a proposed Muslim community center in Murfreesboro, TN. In the middle of an anti-Muslim ramble, he interjects "You do know I'm Muslim, right?" and spends the rest of the interview pretending to be calling a terrorist fellow Muslim on his cell phone.
• September 16th: Jon's interview with Bill Clinton is a rare example where the awesome moment goes to the interviewee. Clinton does most of the talking in the interview, but he's not trying to talk over Jon, and Jon in fact defers to him most of the time. Why? Because unlike, say, Betsy McCaughey, Clinton backs up all his claims with concrete facts and numbers, outlines and reiterates his points in an intelligent manner, and demonstrates repeatedly that he knows what the hell he's talking about. The extended interview is even better, because he outlines a plan for bringing the country out of the recession in a way that makes sense and doesn't rely on vagueness. Not only that, but the reason he came on the show in the first place was to promote Clinton's Global Initiative, an annual conference whose sole requirement for getting invited back is to actually go out and do something between meetings. If it wasn't for the sex scandal, people might have paid a bit more attention to what he was saying back when he was President.
• October 27th: A self-proclaimed comedy show manages to score an interview with President Barack Obama.
• October 30th: The best moment for the show and Jon was the entire Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear. Among that was Jon's reactions to the rally's critics (most of whom were from the left, oddly enough) saying that he disagreed with their assesment of the rally's message and apologizes if they feel he was less than clear in his stated purpose. He then goes on to state that people are allowed to have their own opinions and interpretations.
  • The Rally was a march on Washington of moderates to remind politicians that not everyone is a pyromaniac prone to making Hitler comparisons. 215,000 people showed up instead of the expected 60,000, they brought out a number of celebrity guests including Ozzy Osbourne (who played "Crazy Train" as part of a Funny Moment), and Oprah Winfrey made a video appearance on The Daily Show to hand out tickets. Jon's speech at the end of the rally was just incredible. A perfect balance of humor, logic, and hope.
• December 13th: Jon declares the Republicans' "monopoly" on 9/11 to be over, then shows a montage of Republican senators praising the heroism of the 9/11 first responders interspersed with clips of them refusing to provide them funding for healthcare while Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" plays in the background.
  Jon: Guess what, Republicans? Here's the deal—your "We're-the-only-party-that-understands-9/11-and-its-repercussions" monopoly ends. Now. So...no more co-opting 9/11 imagery to get yourselves elected.^note A political ad for George W. Bush is shown, with plenty of 9/11 imagery No more using 9/11 as the date when magically all your policies became "right."^note Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) suggesting anything going back to "a pre-9/11 mentality" can and will fail No more using 9/11 to micromanage Manhattan's zoning decisions.^note Newt Gingrich vocally objecting to the proposed mosque several blocks away from the WTC memorial/plaza No using 9/11 as an excuse for why your Bush tax cuts never stimulated the economy in the first place...^note "I wish we had a smaller debt—I wish we hadn't been attacked on 9/11or 9/11 as an excuse to do what you were going to be doing anyway.^note George W. Bush discussing invading Iraq No more using 9/11 as a price point.^note Rudy Giuliani tried to solicit donations of $9.11 from potential fundraisers You know what, Republicans, you use it so much, if you don't owe the 9/11 responders healthcare...at least you owe them royalties!
  • The whole epic Take That! and What the Hell, Hero? in general, really, directed almost as much against genuine media for not speaking up about it as it is against the Republican party for its hypocrisy.
• December 16th: On the last show of 2010, Jon had a panel discussion of now-disabled 9/11 first responders on, and had them offer opinions on Mitch McConnell's tearful goodbye to a Congressional colleague. Among other things.
  • And many credit that episode, and Stewart in general, as the reason why the 9/11 first responders bill finally passed. The New York Times even went as far as comparing Stewart, a comedian, to Edward R. Murrow! It also served as an effective rebuke to those critics of his who thought the Rally To Restore Sanity was ridiculing political activism.
  • No, no, the real awesome moment was getting Fox News to side with him. And you know what, they were the ones calling the Republicans bluff.
  Shepard Smith: Who's gonna hold these people's feet to the fire when we - you know, we're able to 52 story building so far there at Ground Zero, we're able to pay for tax cuts for Billionaires who don't need them and is not gonna stimulate the economy ^note Yep, he actually said that., but we can't give health care to Ground Zero first responders who ran right into the fire? Went down there to save people?
  • You can see the rest here.

2011

• January 10th: Jon's reaction to the Arizona shootings was tear-jerkingly awesome, and probably the most level-headed thing to come out of the tragedy.
• January 13th: ...And his chewing out the people commenting on the mourning service as if it was some sort of performance, such as calling the Native American who gave a blessing and prayer in the ceremony for being "weird", along with the students whooping in the middle of Obama's speech as if it was a rally.
  Jon: Ever been to an Irish wake? I've never been sadder and laughed harder in my life.
• January 20th: After the shootings in Arizona, a new call spread across the nation for people in public forums to abandon poisonous language, senseless hyperbole and constant Nazi comparisons. Representative Steve Cohen was among those who embraced this call to reasonableness...and then a week later started comparing Republicans to Nazis. Jon immediately called him out on this. Of course, the people on Fox News were all to happy to jump on the bandwagon for slamming Cohen for his lapse...
• January 24th: But when Megyn Kelly tried to get away with claiming that no one on the network uses Nazi comparisons, Jon sprang into action. He then proceeded to show four specific examples of Nazi comparisons in connection to the network. One of a comparison made within hours of Ms. Kelly's accusation (made by everyone's favorite saurkraut himself, no less), one with Bill O'Reilly making the exact same comparison as Rep. Cohen, an exerpt from a newspaper article of Roger Ailes (the guy in charge of Fox News) explicitly comparing Democrats to Nazis, and, most damning of all, one of a comparison made 10 months prior to Ms. Kelly's accusation...MADE IN FRONT OF HER FACE! So, case rested, sealed and closed. Right?...
• January 27th: WRONG!! Now, cue Bill O'Reilly trying to defend his above example by claiming that his (Bill's that is) use of the Nazi analogy was justified and that Jon had taken it out of context. When presented, said context does not actually justify O'Reilly's use of the Nazi analogy and still does nothing the refute Jon's actual argument. Naturally, Jon's answer was devastatingly concise and to the point.
  Jon: Contrary to what your colleague, Megyn Kelly, was suggesting, the FOX commentators do use Nazi analogies, and your point seemed to be, "Yeah, but I had a good reason." Problem with that is, everybody thinks they have a good reason. Steve Cohen thought he had a good reason. It's like speeding. I yelled at Steve Cohen for speeding. Megyn Kelly yelled at Steve Cohen for speeding, and then she said, "Good thing we don't speed," and I said, "Look at all them fuckin' people speedin' right there!" and then you said, "You took that out of context; I was late."
  • O'Reilly and Stewart have always been good friends, despite being on opposite sides of the political opinion spectrum (at one point, O'Reilly even considered that Stewart's own criticisms of him generalizing democrats might be valid, but his guest Bernie Goldberg proceeded to ignore that, leading to the famous "Go Fuck Yourself!" clip). They even had a jointly-hosted debate called "The Rumble In The Air-Conditioned Room" at one point. Considering this, O'Reilly seems to have taken those words to heart, as no Nazi comparisons have been made by him since. Pity the same can't be said of the rest of the network.
• April 12th: Response to Donald Trump saying that Obama's birth announcement in the Honolulu newspapers was planted? "His mother was American, you fuckwad!"
• May 2nd: Each segment on Osama Bin Laden's death, with Jon declaring that Al Qaeda can't intimidate America anymore, not that they can last much longer anyway.
  Jon: The face of the Arab world in America's eyes for too long has been bin Laden, and now it is not. Now, the face is only the young people in Egypt, and Tunisia, and all the Middle Eastern countries around the world where freedom rises up. Al Qaeda's opportunity is gone. For the last 10 years, Al Qaeda had the world's attention. They apparently wanted an ideology competition, and for all of our rights and wrongs, and the world's rights and wrongs, all Al Qaeda seems to have come up with is, "Uh, all right, we'll kill some Americans. How about killing some British people? Uh, maybe bombing Yemen or something. Shoe bomb doesn't work? How about an underwear bomb?" They have nothing. Can they still do damage? I'm sure. But we're back, baby.
• May 5th: John Oliver was interviewing a pastor and directly set him up to say that an imam would never let Christians worship in a mosque, before cutting away to a clip of an imam letting Christians worship in a mosque and Oliver popping in the clip to directly insult said pastor. The clip was prerecorded, too.
• May 11th: Jon tore Fox News apart for their attempt to drum up a controversy about rapper Common appearing at a White House poetry reading. Here, he shows a clip of the foxnews.com team interviewing him just a few months ago and praising his work and then goes off on them for basing their argument against him on one poem he wrote that appears to paint himself as a Scary Black Man but if they'd actually read the entire thing, they'd have seen that at the conclusion, he actually doesn't want to be that guy and wants to bring peace and prosperity to the community. And then here, Jon shows clips of George W. Bush giving a National Arts & Humanites Award to Johnny Cash, even though Cash has several songs containing explicit violence, eviscerates Sean Hannity for being offended at Common's poem but defending Ted Nugent after Nugent was shown calling for violence against Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ^note (specifically, saying the following while holding a pair of machine guns: "Obama, he’s a piece of shit. I told him to suck on my machine gun. Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch.") during a concert in 2007 and finishes it off with his own spoken word piece, taking to task a bunch of Fox contributors and their constant obsession with trashing anything involved with the President and capping it by saying they blow.
  • Weirder still is the fact that not long after this, on May 16th, Mike Huckabee had Ted Nugent on as a guest, almost seeming like a subtle and passive-aggressive Take That! against Jon's point. When Jon said "Oh, well maybe they'll be having a discussion on violence in music" and called it "a teachable moment". Upon finding out that they instead opted to have Huckabee play Cat Scratch Fever with Nugent, including lyrics like "I make the pussy purr with a touch of my hand, they know they're getting it from me.", Jon then mentioned that the subtitler must have been wondering if this was the same network that made a big deal over Common.
• May 12th: Ored to Death, Aasif Mandvi's piece on a Quebec asbestos mine. One major asbestos disease awareness group hailed the segment as heroic, and another said it accomplished a decade's worth of awareness work in five minutes. Also notable for the epic HA HA HA—No Mandvi pulls on the mine owner, pretending to go along with the man's laughing assertion that asbestos sales to India are OK because Indians are just used to pollution, then abruptly dropping character and firing off a genuinely disgusted Precision F-Strike.
• June 1st: Jon schools Donald Trump on the finer points of pizza-eating in NYC.
• June 7th: Jon breaks a glass and cuts his hand, then continues the show for the entire sketch, noticeably bleeding.
  Oliver: And as for you, Jon...(Stewart corpses)...and your visibly, visibly injured hand—that's a genuine problem. That's a genuine problem! Don't—that's...
  (Jon Stewart holds up his bleeding hand, walking towards the camera showing it off)
  Stewart: (walking back) Fuck!
  Oliver: ...yup.
  Stewart: We better hurry up the fucking bit, because I am bleeding out, motherfuckers!
  • Hey, anything having to do with the Weiner scandal, really, considering how clearly hard it was for Jon to do this at all. Keep in mind that he and Weiner were friends in college.
• June 20th: Jon Stewart manages to get Chris Wallace to admit on-camera that Fox News is neither Fair nor Balanced. That sound? That's the sound of pigs flapping their wings.
  • The entire interview is pretty much a 20 minute long moment of awesome for Stewart.
  • So awesome for Jon that Fox actually shot down the pigs later by coming out and saying, as Jon put it "I accidentally told the truth and now wish I could take it back."
• June 21st: Jon had to apologize and admit he was wrong over his statement that Fox News' viewers are the most misinformed, when the website politifact.com proved that they were always near the bottom but not always at the bottom. Heck, they claim that Daily Show viewers are less informed. He then says the following:
  Jon: I defer to their judgement, and I apologize for my mistake. To not do so, would be irresponsible, and if I were to continue to make those mistakes and misstatements and not correct them, specially if each and everyone of those misstatements happen to go in one particular direction on the political spectrum, then that would undermine the integrity and credibility that I work so hard to pretend to care about.
  • But always one to be fair and balanced, he wonders if politifact.com has ever fact checked on Fox, then took this chance to show just a number of facts that Fox News have gotten wrong. Starting with the site giving the statements that "Health Care Reform is a government take on Health Care" and "Health Care Bill includes death panels" the 2010 and 2009 lie of the year award respectively, to giving the "Pants On Fire" rating to the statements that "Halting Gulf Drilling cost 8 billion a day in imports" and "Nobody on Fox News ever said you're going to jail if you don't buy health care insurance" and ending there being so many examples there was literally no more room on the screen.
• June 27th: Jon rips a new one on Chris Wallace when he tries to work around his own admission about Fox News being neither fair nor balanced, and take the opportunity to decry the Right-Wing Media rhetoric:
  Jon: ... and that narrative of conservative victimization is the true genius of what Fox News has accomplished: any editorial judgement in news, or schools, or movies that doesn't favor the conservative view is "elitism" and is evidence of "liberal bias", Whereas any editorial judgment that favors the conservative view is evidence of fairness and is done to protect them from liberal bias. And if you criticize Fox for this game, guess what that is evidence of? How right they are about how persecuted (Righties are). It is air-tighter than an otter’s anus
  • Later this same show, Jon showed a colossal montage of recent Fox News footage of the anchors decrying him as having a liberal leaning (which anyone who watches would know is probably true, but not harmfully so) and also saying that his joke about Herman Caine not liking to read was a racist joke because he did a "black voice" for it. He didn't respond by tearing the argument apart as painfully easily as he could have, he simply responded with his own huge montage... of every stupid accent and impression Jon's ever done on the show, proving that Herman was just butthurt and playing the race card.
  • It's somewhat telling that he made that joke at the beginning of June, but it only seemed to be reported around the time he had that interview.
• July 27th: After the Norway terrorist attacks, Jon blasts Fox News for downplaying/dismissing the religious motivations of Christian extremists while emphasizing similar motivations of Muslim extremists.
• August 1st: Jon calls out the Tea Party for somehow being unsatisfied with the deal reached on the debt ceiling, despite having had nearly all of their demands met.
  Jon: Government isn't perfect, but some people wish it was better, not gone.
  • Later in that same show, he thanked the troops that he met while touring with the USO in Kandahar, capping it off with a letter from a member of the 655th TC, specifically:
  Jon: We cooperate and we fight as hard as we can, because there will perhaps be disappointment, but there will be no shame.
• August 8th: John Oliver gets to have an interview with a young couple, a rookie lawyer, a moving truck, and a sheriff to foreclose Bank of America in Florida. He then tells the tale to other people.
  John Oliver: You know this is a movie, right? This is a movie.
• August 15th: Ali Velshi comes in and dissects the financial crisis calmly and rationally and offers the explanation that at the root of the problem is not any one policy, but an ingrained opinion that government is bad and cannot be trusted. A very sobering interview.
• September 12th: The Daily Show remembers 9/13/01, the day we forgot the lessons of the day we had sworn we would always remember.
• September 22nd: Lewis Black rips into the hypocrisy of the complaints about Chaz Bono joining Dancing with the Stars by pointing out how no one complained about all the dancing convicted criminals and other sleeze that has appeared on the show.
  Lewis: I don’t know if letting your kids watch Chaz Bono will turn them into transsexuals, but I’m pretty sure letting them watch Keith Ablow will turn them into assholes.
• September 26th: Jon's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the Republican base for constantly shuffling between various nominees that fail to meet their warped, unrealistic expectations.
  Jon: It's like the Republican base is at war with its own talking points. I want someone who's gonna cut taxes, and balance the budget! Someone who's a skilled orator, but doesn't talk all fancy. A child of poor immigrants, who will build a fence to keep them out of this country. Someone who's strong enough for a man, but pH-balanced for a woman. Someone who will roll up their sleeves, but not show their arms. I feel like if this guy came along today, the Republican response would be, "I don't really go for those Hollywood types." [...] You guys need to take a long hard look in the mirror. You need to take a long hard look in the mirror, and not come away thinking, "You know, there's something wrong with this mirror."
• September 27th: While once again pointing out the silliness of people complaining about Chaz Bono being on Dancing with the Stars (primarily pointing out that the kids everyone insists his being a participant will confuse, will just think he's a guy dancing on a show because they're too young to know what a gender-change is), took another strike at a Fox commentator who insisted that children need to be told that changing your gender is wrong. "Now kids, I know you didn't ask me, but let me explain hetero-normative behavior to two people who still believe in cooties."
  • It's in the clip dedicated to how after Nancy Grace spent so much time whining about Chaz, she ended up showing a full boob on the show.
    • And then he tore apart the Fox commentators, who after pointing out Chaz had a knee injury that might have led to his bad performance and the female commentator (possibly seeing where this was going) said "Okay, let's move onto the Senate," the men started joking about Chaz's injury and sex change in a way that led Jon to compare them to seventh graders bullying you for lunch money. Epic.
• October 17th: Jon owns the religious debate of the GOP, not only calling the Perrys on their "religious persecution", but also pointing out the hypocrisy of a party centered on wealth claiming to also uphold the ideals of Jesus, while quoting the New Testament at them. Keep in mind that Jon is Jewish.
• October 26th: Aasif Mandvi vs. a Republican strategist on climate change. The entire time he is clearly being sarcastic, but she doesn't seem to understand this, and keeps pushing the idea that science is a conspiracy because the only people who are qualified to determine if science is accurate are other scientists.
  • She also insists that people be allowed to vote on what parts of science vs. creationism (and other things) are taught: "The American people should decide what is true." Just because a ton of people think 2+2=22 doesn't mean it's a fact.
• December 5th: Herman Cain announces his campaign ending, which results in a montage of "Big No's" from Se7en, Steel Magnolias, Tough Guys Don't Dance, and The Room (2003). He fixes it by saying the nine greatest words ever to be spoken by a politician..."I believe these words came from the Pokémon movie." Jon Stewart then proves that he and his crew are complete and utter nerds by spouting numerous references to the movie in question and the franchise.
  Jon Stewart: First of all, it's not the most motivational quote from the Pokemon movie. Mewtwo?
  Mewtwo: I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.
  Jon Stewart: Well said, well said, magic Japanese cat monster who was created as the result of a genetic experiment and therefore has psychic powers that far exceed those of its fellow Pokemon, Well said. Of course, considering what led Cain to drop out of the race, this is the Pokemon 2000 line he really should have quoted.
  Slowking: I could use pants.
  Jon Stewart: To be fair to Herman Cain, we can't all be as wise as Slowking when he's wearing the Shellder of knowledge. Look it up, bitches.
  • It's safe to say any Pokefan watching had a tiny nerdgasm as Jon (or, at a minimum, his writers) showed off their nerd streetcred.
• December 6th Jon declares War on Christmas the very next show, imitating presidents all the way.
  • His response to Bill O'Reilly, two days later, saying Jon's going to hell? "Your hell doesn't scare me. I make my living watching Fox News eight hours a day. I'm already ''in'' hell!"
• Dec. 8th: Aasif Mandvi does it again, exposing Allegedly Free Game "Tap Fish" as an iPad app that makes a million dollars a month since people pay money to resurrect fish or buy better ones.
  • Nightmare Fuel for parents: 3 kids spent $1500 of of their dad's money on it, maxing out his credit card. While it's not mentioned how they did this, it's probably because iTunes stores your credit info (including the security number) and just needs your password to charge you.
  • And a child psychologist pointed out that kids won't make the connection that the game saps money due to just focusing on the bright fishes. This was pretty much proven by the older son laughing about how much he and his siblings spent and commenting on how if there was a "max out your dad's credit card" game they would win for sure. He also admitted that they "only" spent $1500 because that was all their dad had on the card.
  • In short, when Aasif told the CEO he was essentially a drug dealer—he was entirely correct.
• December 13th: Jon's barely contained rage at the controversy surrounding All American Muslim. Specifically, the Florida Family Association (or "FAAAH-fafafafaaa") complained that it didn't show Muslims as terrorists because "it's inaccurate".
  David Caton: (Executive Director of FFA) This program creates an image that's harmful education-wise to the belief structure and memories of millions of Americans who will look at this and say, "Well, all Muslims are like that," when it's not accurate.
  Jon: This show is harmful education-wise to your belief structure. (Beat) Is that not the purpose of education vis-à-vis belief structures? To replace your belief structure with facts? I don't like the show Nova because it is harmful to my belief structure that the ocean tides are controlled by monsters. The balls on this guy! "This show challenges the stereotype I have about Muslims, so I guess I could no longer accept that stereotype, or, if it pleases the court, you could just replace these Muslims with some ones that more-aptly fit my narrow view. I'm also troubled why no one on your show Little People Big World whistles while they work or makes candy for Willy Wonka. Sincerely, Your Friends at FAAAH-fafafafafa..."
  • Don't forget Jon's Take That! in that same episode to the child beauty pageant show Toddlers & Tiaras.
  Mother: You're not a stripper, but shake your butt a little bit.
  Daughter: Now why would you even say that?
  Jon: Because, honey, she's a terrible mother.

2012

• January 5th: Jason Jones finds a Muslim Republican is not allowed into the official party. And one of the men who made pamphlets against him was the head of the local Americans Against Hate organization!
  Jason Jones: What is your definition of against?
  • Though Jones doesn't quite sympathise with the Muslim in question, either.
  Jason Jones: After all that... you still wanna be a Republican?
  Nezar Hamze: Yeah.
  Jason Jones: That... is so nonsensical... that it actually makes me think that you're a Republican.
  • After he gets to compare their political stances, we get this gem:
  Jason Jones: He is... in a lot of ways like you. Big business, small minded...
  • John Oliver explains why the American political system doesn't work.
  Oliver: This is what you rejected constitutional monarchy for.
• January 17th: Jon and Stephen do not coordinate on the Super-PAC (aka coordinate in a mildly weird but still usable way) to demonstrate how easy it is for candidates with lawyer Trevor Potter advising over the phone.
  • Notable is that Trevor said no one has ever gone to jail solely for coordinating with their Super-PAC but were instead fine 4 to 6 figures, and when Jon asked Trevor said that yes, the fine could be paid through the Super-PAC.
  • Jon and Stephen's faces during the whole routine where they discuss the ad space they've bought so far and how they've used it.
    • Since Herman Cain dropped out, some ads declared that any votes for Herman Cain would also be counted for Stephen.
• January 18th: Jon Stewart speaking out against the absurdity of SOPA and how practically none of the congressmen understand how the internet really works. Made even more awesome by the fact that Viacom, Comedy Central's parent company, supports SOPA. He even compared Viacom to Jabba the Hutt. That took balls.
  • Also for calling out the Senators who apparently think that there are no such things as computer experts, only nerds, smugly claiming that only they could explain that whole Internet thing.
  Representative: Maybe we ought to ask some nerds what this thing really does. Let's have a hearing and bring in the nerds...
  Jon Stewart: Really? Nerds? You know, I think the word you're looking for is "experts" to enlighten you, so your laws don't backfire and break the internet.
• January 25th: For all his constant self-deprecation, Jon manages to do 38 push-ups as part of a charity contest for wounded veterans. He still loses, meaning he'll donate about $20,000.
• January 31st: Jon talks to a Yale professor about the dishonest business practices perpetrated by companies like Bain and actually gets him to admit that the laws surrounding those practices are ridiculously lax.
• February 2nd:
  • Aasif Mandvi's interview with Representative Scott Plakon (R) who supported a Florida bill requiring urine samples to get government benefits. After Plakon goes on a long diatribe explaining people who receive taxpayer money should be happy to be drug tested, no matter what their hardships, Aasif takes him down with one question: "So who pays your salary?" The deer-in-the-headlights look on Plakon's face as he realizes what's coming is priceless! The whole piece is a beautiful exposing of hypocrisy, but that one moment was almost all that was necessary!
  • It gets better when, at an actual press conference Aasif asks, in front of everyone, for Gov. Rick Scott to please pee in a cup. And the cup is passed forward.
  • And in a Hilarious in Hindsight moment, Congressman Trey Radel (R-FL), was arrested for cocaine possession in 2013. While not interviewed, he had pushed this bill on a National level.
• February 13th: Jon takes the argument about "a war of religion" and some pastor on Fox News failing Godwin's Law and goes utterly berserk with it. Do not invoke Hitler Ate Sugar to a liberal Jew unless you want to get spanked on international television.
  • The whole rant is beautiful, but the one line that summarizes the whole thing: "You've confused a war on your religion with not always getting everything you want."
  • How about the time he called out the Republicans on the contraception issue and influenced Democrats like Harry Reid to go on the offense about it?
• March 5th: Jon's response to when Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a slut on his radio show, and the resulting media storm. Fluke had testified before Congress advocating the expansion of health insurance coverage for female contraception, and various conservative pundits complained about having to pay for women's promiscuous sex. As Jon points out, "this isn't about paying women to have or not have sex. It's an insurance mandate from the government covering contraceptive medication." and "your tax money doesn't pay for it!"
  Jon: To the people who are upset about their hard earned money going to things they don't like: WELCOME TO THE FUCKING CLUB!! Everyone, everyone pays for shit they don't want to all the time. You know what? Reimburse for the Iraq War and oil subsidies and diaphragms are on me!
  • The entire rant is a thing of beauty.
• March 6th: Jon criticizes AIPAC for accepting nothing less than lockstep support of Israel by American politicians, to the point that saying nothing about Israel is treated as being anti-Israeli, even though most leaders' opinions can get summarized as either "I unequivocally support them, and might bomb Iran!" or "I unequivocally support them, and will definitely bomb Iran!".
• March 12th: While still trying to stay respectful, he rips apart the basic issue with Grover Norquist's "no raising taxes pledge" that he had gotten many politicians to sign (namely that taxes pay for things like stoplights and roads and other public works).
  • At the same time, Grover argued calmly respectfully, making an civil, logical argument and citing evidence for his conclusions. Despite he and Stewart disagreeing on some very fundamental issues, they had a civil discussion and made their points respectfully; Grover argued that taxes are too high, and that when politicians are allowed to raise taxes they'll do that instead of the more difficult and politically risky maneuvers of cutting spending tax reform. Stewart argued that taxes are far too low, and that the absolutist opposition to tax increases was unfeasible because 1) it's to simple a policy for dealing with a complex system, and 2)he feels that people won't follow up on the second part of Grover's plan (Tax Reform) while applying the first as a political cudgel, and 3) the subtlety of Grover's message is lost because it resembles the extreme, hyperbolic rhetoric common to the far right without getting across the subtleties that Grover expressed on the show. The fact they had a civil discussion despite their extreme differences is a moment of hope in and of itself.
• March 13th: Jon rips Fox News for their hypocrisy in claiming that comedians (Bill Maher to be specific) use the "Just Joking" Justification as a shield against criticism, even though Rush Limbaugh does that frequently. He also used several examples to show that, contrary to what some say, comedians do face repercussions from jokes that cross the line.
  • And then Will Ferrel came out wearing his comedy helmet.
    • And in a strange bit of serendipity it's a baseball helmet.
• March 15th: John Oliver's expose on the U.S. pulling funding for UNESCO for working with Palestine over a law 20 years ago that could be easily repealed and the hypocrisy surrounding it.
• April 2nd: One sentence from Al Madrigal completely shows the racism and hypocrisy behind Arizona's ban on Mexican-American Studies (that according to "hearsay," teach resentment of white people): "I'm a black kid. Teach me about slavery without me feeling resentment towards white people."
• April 3th is an episode of awesome. From utterly and eloquently deconstructing Sarah Palin to a smart discussion on the new strip-and-search law, ridiculing it along the way.
• April 4th: Larry Wilmore urges everyone to take a "racist time-out", refraining from making accusations about racism, while talking about the Trayvon Martin shooting, thereby creating a calm, fair environment for discussing that fateful evening.
• April 23th has John Oliver interviewing Herman Cain. After roasting Cain for most of the show, Herman Cain does a short speech on an alien invasion. Oliver and the audience applaud the speech.
• May 1st: Jon ripping apart the Right for bitching about Obama "spiking the football" by using the fact he killed Osama bin Laden as a campaign commercial by rightfully pointing out the only reasons Republicans were bitching is because they were not able to run an ad like that themselves.
• May 3rd: Aasif Mandvi strikes again. A Missouri state rep proposed a bill to prevent employers from discriminating against gun owners (despite the fact that no known cases have ever been brought forward and the protections of the Second Amendment). Mandvi then interviewed the only known gay legislator in the state, who pointed out that the same person rallying against the nonexistent injustices towards the gun owners voted against making it illegal to fire a person simply due to them being LBGT. He goes back to the legislator and when she starts playing dumb about anti-gay employers, starts reading her a list of real people who have been fired due to being gay, and grilling her to tell him a single case of a gun owner being fired for his/her decision to be armed as counterpoint.
• June 19th: Jon unleashes his inner Columbo.
• July 23rd: Jon tears down ABC newsman Brian Ross for accusing Aurora, CO Tea Party member James Holmes of being the perpetrator of the The Dark Knight Rises shooting, but not offering an apology when it's pointed that this James Holmes is different from the Holmes that committed the deed.
• August 1st: Jon rips apart Harry Reid for making up "facts" about Mitt Romney's tax returns and saying his father must be disappointed in him. He then reloads and tears down Fox & Friends for going after Reid about making things up and not fact checking.
• August 29th: Samantha Bee at the Republican Convention asking delegates what they think of Mitt Romney being against the party's platform against abortion and getting them to use an individual's right to choose as a defense.
  • Jon busts the convention's Catchphrase "We built it!" for not just misconstruing a statement by President Obama, but also overemphasizing individualism and enterprise and ignoring how government makes stable environments for businesses to thrive within.
• August 30th: "Mitt Romney, A Human Being Who Built That." Narrated... by Leonard Nimoy.
• August 31st: In these three clips, Jon NAPALMS the RNC for their depiction of Obama. There were no survivors.
  Mitt Romney: [Barack Obama] was not the choice of our party, but Americans always come together after elections... I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed.
  Jon Stewart: BULL. FUCKING. SHIT!!!
  • Followed by a segment where Jason Jones, John Oliver, and Al Madrigal learn that Republicans want the government run like a business, so they talk to many states that are in heavy debt, explaining how they're up for termination, eventually leading to firing Wyoming from the union.
• September 5th: Just like the RNC segment on August 29th, Samantha Bee and Jason Jones challenge the DNC's platform on tolerance by exposing how a good number of them aren't tolerant of the Tea Party or "redneck hicks".
• September 19th: Jon scales "Bullshit Mountain" and levels it to the ground.
  • It should be noted that for this one segment, they didn't censor the word "bullshit".
  • Related: October 8th, 2012: The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium. Jon does a half-gainer into a People's Elbow off Bullshit Mountain and onto Bill O'Reilly's head. One particular highlight is when Stewart makes O'Reilly backpedal off a claim simply by reaching into his coat, because O'Reilly knew he was about to pull out the official documentation contradicting his statement.
• September 25th: "Why Barack Obama is the luckiest dude in the world".
• September 26th: Jon discusses the NFL Replacement Referee controversy, during which he consults John Oliver portrayed by Patrick Stewart.
• October 6th: Jon debates Bill O'Reilly in The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium. A funny and substantive hour and a half of debate between two men who respect each other despite their different views.
• October 8th: When Fox News tries to dismiss ''Sesame Street" and similar shows as insidious leftist propaganda to support Mitt Romney's declaration to cut money from PBS, Jon rips them a new one with the following:
  Jon: I see. So Fox News is upset that empty-headed puppets are trying to brainwash and indoctrinate Americans. Perhaps I could tell you...perhaps you could sue them. The charge could be copyright infringement.
• October 18th: Barack Obama comes on the show as a guest again.
• October 22nd: Once again, Jon strikes Bullshit Mountain for stirring up an empty controversy over another Obama misquote, this time the term "Not Optimal" from the October 18th interview.
• Nov. 7th: Each segment of "Post Democalypse: America Takes A Shower" as seen in these clips.
  Jon: There was an avalanche on Bullshit Mountain.
  • Highlights also included Jon pointing out that all of the attacks Obama used against Romney originated from the other Republicans who competed with him for the nomination, saying his campaign was an example of "auto un-erotic asphyxiation".
  • Their new slogan for Fox News.
  Jon: Fox News Channel: Math You Do as a Republican to Make Yourself Feel Better.

  • Although props must go to Megyn Kelly for coining the phrase to Karl Rove's face live on Fox News.
  • During the interview with Nate Silver:
  Jon: Have you ever wanted to just yell, "I AM NATE SILVER!! LORD AND GOD OF THE ALGORITHM!!"?
• November 15th: "It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Best of Times." Bill O'Reilly and Bernie Goldberg lament the downfall of "traditional America" (as represented by 1950s sitcom Leave It to Beaver) and changing U.S. demographics. Jon points out the hypocrisy of two guys named O'Reilly and Goldberg complaining about the downfall of an ethnic establishment. See it here.
  • And the show's Moment of Zen? Jason Jones playing a right-wing, anti-Irish and anti-Semetic pundit using an old-timey adaptation of O'Reilly's own format.
  • Jon goes after Papa John's CEO John Schnatter and other businessmen that threatened to lower their employees' wages if Obama was reelected, suggesting that the only reason they're upset is that they've got businesses that can't get outsourced.
• December 3rd: Jon debunks the so called "War on Christmas". Right here
  Jon: Christmas is so huge it's eating other holidays. Watch your ass, Halloween.

2013

• January 7th: Jon started 2013 strong, calling out the Republicans that voted "no" on a bill that would provide over 9 billion in relief funding to Hurricane Sandy flood victims. Including Paul Ryan, who voted no due to "pork-barrel" spending (which it didn't have) and Rep. Steven Palazzo who last year demanded relief funding for the floods caused by Hurricane Katrina, which happened seven years ago.
  • Capped off by Jon saying that the Republicans in the House are assholes and, while he says not all problems are caused by them, they certainly make it harder to deal with.
• January 14th: John Oliver pries open the story of how real news organizations are losing their investigative journalists, and famed CNN journalists have to wait to have their stories run on HBO miniseries. The awesome part is how the actor then gives a speech that no matter where he is, his noble work will come through somehow.
• January 16th: Jon breaks down the NRA and GOP for their multiple measures to cripple the ATF (the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) and the additional measures being done to prevent fixing the ATF.
• January 17th: Jon points out the hypocrisy of the Right calling Obama a tyrant for his gun control measures by showing them agreeing with Bush's wiretapping and ant-terrorism measures, which were far more extreme.
• January 21st: Larry Wilmore takes several people to task for using Martin Luther King Jr. to make a point in their arguments. One highlight being, "Fuck you, Arizona."
  • During the same segment, criticizing Occupy Wall Street for shouting down and shunning US representative John Lewis, a man who actually worked with Dr. King, moments after clips of protestors saying Dr. King would approve of what they were doing.
• January 22nd: In a segment about the coverage of the Presidential Inaugural Address, the coverage of the mention Stonewall included clips of a Fox News anchor's talk about it. Also doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.
  Pat Buchanan: That's a bar-room brawl in Greenwich Village in 1969. Does that belong in a Presidential Inaugural?
  Jon: For the losing side of history, I'm Pat Buchanan.
• February 5th: Jon takes the RNC to task for trying to "re-brand" to party, but not being willing to change anything about the party. Also mocking them that they are basically attempting to cheat to win the 2016 election.
• February 12th: Jon calls out former vice president Dick Cheney over criticizing President Obama's acts as president, pointing out how awful his decisions as vice president were, showing a montage of his incorrect predictions.
  Jon: This guy was wrong every time! Every time he analyzed it, he was wrong! You try that at work. See if you get to keep your job and be wrong every fucking time!
• February 20th: Calling out Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain for their hypocrisy regarding the confirmation hearings of Chuck Hagel. Especially McCain's petty feud on Chuck Hagel, his attitude over the Iraq War, using Benghazi to fuel outrage while failing to attend an important informational meeting regarding Benghazi, and seemingly to defend President Bush now it's a well known fact that he very much dislikes Bush. This is the kicker:
  (shows a picture of John McCain's in his 2008 campaign stop)
  Jon: [Your personal payback] is the antithesis of your stated campaign slogan. Pardon me sir, but I think it needs an update.
  (changes the campaign slogan from "Country First" to "Cunty First")
• March 4th: Going after Republicans for allowing the Sequester to happen, then taking one last good shot at the Romney's for their first post-election interview. He even caps it off with a hell of a burn on Donald Trump for good measure.
• April 1st: John Oliver calls out a pro-gun activist protesting against a gun buyback program.
  Charles Heller: I'm in favor of a gun law to stop government from destroying guns.
  (John stares in confusion as Heller nods confidently)
  John Oliver: So you're against regulation to protect people from guns, but FOR regulation to protect guns from people?
  Heller: ...Yes.
• April 10th: Jon points out that, because of the NRA/Senate's refusal to sign onto a UN gun treaty, they are now in the company of the only other three countries not to: Iran, North Korea and Syria. Jon points out that America has essentially become one of its own enemies.
• April 11th: Larry Wilmore busts Rand Paul's speech at Howard University, in which he wondered how the GOP has lost the black vote over the past 50 years, noting how the GOP willfully alienated them by appealing to the Dixiecrats^note Southern Democrats who opposed civil rights laws..
• April 15th: Jon gives a classy salute to the people of Boston for their resilience and generosity in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.
• April 17th: Jon's segment on the review of the use of torture by the Bush Administration.
• April 18th: Jon crosses the Despair Event Horizon on the gun control debate and surmises that the government cares so much about stopping terrorism because killing Americans is a job for Americans. It's followed by John Oliver crushing the Insane Troll Logic of a Gun advocate.
• April 23rd: John Oliver interviews Australian politicians responsible for sweeping gun control after a tragic shooting, basically proving that American politicians are cowards that care more about being re-elected than actually making a difference in their country. The segment ends with Oliver crossing the Despair Event Horizon and walking into the ocean.
• April 24th: Jon takes Fox News to task over how much they supposedly cherish the Constitution, but are more than happy to dismiss the entire Bill of Rights except the second amendment when it comes to prosecuting the surviving perpetrator of the Boston Marathon bombings.
• April 25th: John Oliver finishes his interviews with Australian politicians and the Gun Advocate, the latter of whom tells him that guns aren't the problem, people are. Oliver point blank tells him that after interviewing him, he honestly sees that is true.
• May 6th: Jon covers the NRA convention doing a redux of CPAC, including pointing out the total hypocrisy of proudly filibustering a Senate gun control bill then complaining when the exact same thing happens to them.
• May 13th: Jon's response to the IRS scandal is somehow even better when you consider how much he used to support Obama before this. And he didn't stop there, either.
• May 15th: Jon lays the smackdown on Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney when they accuse President Obama of being dishonest about Benghazi, twisting the facts to suit his purposes.
  Jon: You don't get to use the "L"-word. In fact, you don't even get to watch The L Word...
• June 17th: John Oliver says Sarah Palin is better ignored and we should just stop giving her attention.
• June 18th: The WWE enters the immigration debate.
  John Oliver: What beautiful dream of television is this? Not only was that technically more articulate a debate than anything we heard from Congress, but it came with half-naked men fighting! It's like C-Span with elbow drops!"
  • Later, when wrestler Zeb Colter mentioned John Oliver's filling in for Jon Stewart (as part of the "Immigrants are taking our jobs!" mentality), Oliver got into the act, challenging Zeb Colter to come down to the Daily Show studio to debate immigration...with Daily Show's some-time Senior Asskicker Wrestling/

Mick Foley! Also served a heaping portion of Mundane Made Awesome.

• June 21st: Meanwhile, somewhere in Egypt, Jon appears on Bassem Youssef's show to say if a regime can't take a joke they don't have a regime.
  • Just the fact that an American Jew gets a standing ovation in Egypt.
• July 15th: John Oliver utterly DESTROYS the jury who gave George Zimmerman a "not guilty" verdict, pointing out how ridiculously out of date and generally stupid Florida's laws are. He then goes on to denounce it as the worst state (judicially) in America.
• July 17th: Lewis Black's "Fuck You Texas" commercial.
• August 14th: John Oliver goes berserk when CNN claims that billionaire Elon Musk was the inspiration for Tony Stark, even though Iron Man was created in 1963 whereas Musk was born in 1971.
• September 17th: Jon rips CNN apart for its horrifically haphazard style of newscasting that is completely uninformative.
  Jon: My final, not my initial conclusion is... This is deliberate. The chaos. The vomit onto the screen. The very thing we thought news organizations were created to clarify is a feature, not a bug.
  • When the President of CNN seems perfectly fine about it, because ratings during the Boston Marathon bombing of April 2013 were at an all-time high, Jon has this to say:
    Jon: Oh, my God... The lesson they take from this is: "It doesn't matter how much they betray our trust, we'll keep coming back." We're in an abusive relationship with CNN, and it's time we kick these bastards to the curb! Because we have to remember: this network was created by Ted Turner, not Ike Turner.
• October 3rd, 2013: Jon telling the viewers of their own Awesome Moment by getting The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism to Amazon's #1 spot after watching the segment on it.
  • Jon returns to Bullshit Mountain, comparing the Republican party to Navin Johnson from The Jerk in how they claim they don't need any federal government except for the few things they themselves want - especially on-the-nose as this was day 2 into the shutdown, and they were trying to pass piecemeal funding bills to alleviate political pressure.
• October 8th, 2013: Malala Yousafzai getting a near minute long round of applause after she spoke with Jon. Then, just before the Moment of Zen, Jon saying that she was one of the finest examples of the human spirit and that he was so honored to have spoken with her. Doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.
  • Just prior to that, Jason Jones tries to talk to a Republican Advisor, only for him needing to bring in an expert hostage negotiator to help him talk to her. At the end of it, the hostage negotiator simply gives up as well.
  Voss: In all my years, I've never seen anything like this.
  • Nikpour tells Jones that Obamacare is going to be one of the worst things in American history. Jones' response is made of win:
  Jones: "One of the worst things in American history." (picks up megaphone) DO YOU REMEMBER FUCKING SLAVERY?
  • And for bonus points, the Republican advisor was the same "strategist" (Noelle Nikpour) as Aasif Mandvi interviewed in October 2011 about climate change (seen in that section of this page).
• October 22nd: Jon takes Karl Rove and John McCain to task over denouncing the Tea Party members they previously welcomed into the Republican Party.
• October 23rd: Aasif Mandvi interviews a GOP chairman from North Carolina who all but admits that the new state voting laws are designed to suppress Democratic and black voters. At one point, Aasif asks "You know we can hear you, right?". The next day, the chairman resigned from his position.
  • Three years later this bit is sited in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision to strike the law down.
• October 28th: Jon spontaneously goes into a gospel solo. Twice.
• October 29th: Al Madrigal showing that, while Mississippi and Alabama politicians are intolerant homophobes, citizens of each state are generally accepting and friendly to a gay couple.
  • Before that, Jon once again tore into CNN. This time for the network dumbing down news even further by asking "Is it a good thing or a bad thing?" to every point, right down to telling corespondents not to explain and to simply put it in black and white terms.
• October 31st: After the media (once again) uses Jon's jokes as "evidence" that whatever he makes fun of is a failure (while blissfully ignoring anything he criticises that they like), he brings out the gospel choir for another rendition of "Go fuck yourself".
• November 13th: The speech that he gave against Chicago for not only making the largest tower record a competition—said tower being the Freedom Tower built on the World Trade Center site—but for also saying that Chicago deep dish pizza is better than New York pizza. Here's the clip.
  • Of course, what directly preceded SAID speech is him shattering a wine glass with his hand! Without it bleeding! Clearly, Jon Took a Level in Badass from the LAST time he shattered a wine glass in his hand.
• November 20th: When Jon's rant on Chicago-style/deep dish pizza outraged Chicagoans, Jon invites Chicago pizza maker Marc Malnati to share some some pizza, agreeing to a truce and bonding in a mutual loathing of California-style pizza.
• December 2nd: His epic takedown of the owners of a bed-and-breakfast by quoting from the Bible.
  • During the same episode, pointing out the hypocrisy of saying that Obamacare's website crashing is indicative of a massive failure while WalMart's website crashing during Black Friday is indicative of a great success.
• December 5th: The entire "Amazing Raise" segment, where he busts the arguments against raising the minimum wage.
• December 12th: Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly says Santa "just is white". He destroys the argument with a simulation of what St. Nicholas (from the region known today as Turkey) most likely looked like. Then, after she says that Jesus (a Hebrew from what would today be Israel) "was a white man too," Jessica Williams joins in on the fun.
• December 17th: Jessica Williams strikes again at a Forbes columnist that proposes cutting food stamps, effectively proposing the equivalent of The Hunger Games instead.
  Columnist: We don't hear about the poor starving on the streets in this country.
  Jessica: I wonder if there are any programs currently in place that are stopping people from starving...
  Columnist: I wonder too.

2014

• January 9th: The Slumdogs vs. Millionaires segment, where Jon takes on the Rights views on "Government Handouts" and the "Entitlement Nation". After pointing out that no matter what is done, the Right will have an issue with it (ie. Raise minimum wage to make unemployment less desirable, no because someone out of high school doesn't deserve $15 an hour or "there's welfare fraud so get rid of it all", but with fraud on Wall Street you can't punish the whole system) Jon finally summarizes the whole argument:
  Jon: All right, so when it comes to Wall Street you can't judge everyone by a few bad apples. I mean, who hasn't had a couple of bad apples or actors, right? But, when it comes to the unemployed, if you find a few bad apples napalm that fucking orchard. I think I'm beginning to get it...if it's a policy that benefits the rich it shouldn't have to be paid for, should last forever and is good for America. But if it's good for the poor we can't afford it, we should end it as soon as possible and it will destroy our nation from within. Because, when you give money to people who don't have it, it corrupts them. But, people who are already rich have a money immunity built up already. Hand outs don't hurt them! Money is the root of all evil for anyone who doesn't have any! Just like small pox is to the Native American community!
• January 15th: Jon's epic rant against Congress's incompetence following the opposition to the Iran nuclear deal and calling out all the politicians who are making Congress into "the Justin Bieber of our nation"- be they on the left or right.
• January 21st: Jason Jones interviews two Vietnam Vets who are being denied government benefits because they were less than honourably discharged due to PTSD which they got...in Vietnam! The reason they are being denied their benefits? PTSD was not diagnosed until the 80's, therefore it couldn't have existed in the 70's. Jason even crosses the Despair Event Horizon because of the stupidity and injustice of the situation.
• January 27th: When Sean Hannity says he's going to leave New York because the governor said ultra conservatives aren't welcome in New York, Jon offered to carry him out. Then, when he said he wanted to go to Texas, Jon showed footage of Rick Perry saying if gays/lesbians don't like Texas' marriage laws they can leave. Then, when Hannity fessed up that taxes were the reason he was leaving, Jon decided someone as wealthy as Hannity must stay. So he shows a video of dozens of New Yorkers saying they'll change to fit Hannity's ideals, including Tim Gunn, Nathan Lane and the entire cast of Jersey Boys. Finally, Nathan Lane ends the video by saying they actually don't care what the fuck Hannity does.
• January 29th: Jon utterly thrashes the Republicans after Obama's State of the Union Address, pointing out that they made it their specific goal to stop Obama from getting anything done. When they criticized Obama for threatening to go around Congress to get things done, Jon sums it up thusly:
  Paul Ryan: If he does this, you know, "my way or the highway" and goes around congress, we are going to have a big problem.
  Jon: No. No you won't. Because you already had a big fucking problem.
  • Jon's takedown of NY Congressman Michael Grimm, who was caught threatening a NY1 reporter while the cameras were still rolling.
• February 3rd: Jon teaches Mayor de Blasio how real New Yorkers eat pizza! And then remembers Bloomberg is gone and pulls out a soda Big Gulp.
• February 4th: When President Obama, after an interview with Bill O'Reilly, calls out him and all of Fox News for their bias against him, Fox launches into another round of "Obama is distracting from the real issues/scandal". Jon delivers a beautiful rebuke of their claims, best summing it up, and perhaps summing up all of Fox News, with this quote:
  Jon: You know the President doesn't work for Fox, right? He can divert from your script.
• February 6th: Jon bashes Fox News for distorting the Congressional Budget Office report on Obamacare to make it seem like it would cost 2.5 million full-time jobs, when it would actually allow people to choose to work part-time instead of full-time and keep their coverage. He then goes over how often their rhetoric puts corporations over people.
  • Same episode, Jon bashes the backlash against Coca-Cola's Super Bowl ad playing "America the Beautiful" in different languages, pointing out how our ancestors all came from somewhere else and we should celebrate diversity in America. And, of course, pointing out the irony of someone griping about how the song should only be sung in English, while referring to it as the National Anthem. Frosting the cake? A rendition of "America the Beautiful" by the languages of the last great wave of immigrants - Italian, German, Russian, Yiddish, etc - with a pastiche of 1920's era anti-immigrant advertisements and signage.
• February 10th: Jason Jones' "Behind the Iron Closet, Part 1" segment is located so far in Refuge in Audacity, it is a marvel to behold. He even manages to "interview" Mikhail Gorbachev, seemingly much to the latters surprise.
  • On the February 24th episode, Jason Jones and the producer that traveled to Russia openly stated that they were able to get Gorbachev by going through the black market to get his number.
• February 12th: "Behind the Iron Closet, Part 2" has Jason interview one of Vladimir Putin's top aides, whose Insane Troll Logic on the subject on Russia's anti-homosexual laws befuddles Jason to the point where he admits he may have to apologize to Rick Santorum. He then finds several Russian citizens who agree with the anti-gay sentiment before finally finding an old Russian woman that is standing up for Gay Rights. He tells her he has nothing witty to say and simply wants to give her a hug.
  • From the same episode, when Stewart notes (while showing clips) of recently appointed ambassadors (Argentina, for example), and each clip shows each of the nominees stating that they had never been to the countries that they were appointed to. At the end of the segment when Stewart is poking fun of the newly retired Russian ambassador, he states that he's found a person who's suited for the position...Sean Hannity. Stewart quotes that he (Hannity) wanted to leave anyways (See the January 27th entry).
• February 18th: After the Michael Dunn trial, Jessica Williams offers her opinion of the Stand Your Ground defense.
  Jessica: Stand Your Ground is like bleach: it works miracles for whites, but it will ruin your colors. (Mic Drop)
• February 19th: Jason Jones continues his investigation of Russia, and finds it's everything American conservatives could want: anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-abortion, anti-immigration, pro-gun and pro-Christianity.
• February 24th: Jon and Larry Wilmore delivers the "denunciation proclamation", taking Andrew Napolitano to task for repeating the state's rights/tariffs argument for the Civil War and in particular the argument that the Civil War could have been averted by Lincoln simply buying all the slaves.
• February 26th: Jon takes down the Arizona Republican party for fervently pushing a bill that would allow discrimination of others, particularly LGBT people, due to "religious beliefs", then suddenly taking it back. He's particularly unamused by their various explanations about why they're taking it back, instead of the one, simple explanation: that it's morally repugnant.
• March 6th: Aasif Mandvi's interview with a critic of Obamacare. "Owned" does not even begin to describe the smackdown he lays on the man. When he confronts the critic, who says that American health care is the best in the world, with the startling information that the "third world country" he visited with deplorable health care was in fact Knoxville, Tennessee, it almost appears as if the critic's brain goes into emergency shutdown.
  • Jon criticizes Republicans for calling Obama an ineffectual, spineless leader and a tyrannical dictator all while praising Vladimir Putin, who actually exhibits dictatorial characteristics.
• March 11th: After a discussion with judge Andrew Napolitano about Lincoln's role in ending slavery and his responsibility for the Civil War, they decide to turn the argument into ''The Weakest Lincoln", a game show. And, well... just watch it
• March 13th: Fox News pushes Jon's Berserk Button when they attack him for him making fun of their coverage of food stamp "abuse", causing him to launch into a searing counterattack. Jon points out that the money put into the food stamp program amounts to about 3 billion dollars, which Fox calls an unacceptable amount, whereas they are totally fine with the incredibly large amounts of money that are lost through tax breaks for oil companies and loopholes for corporations. It's rare to see Jon this angry about something.
  • And for his second segment, just to lighten the mood, he creates the #mcconnelling meme, where people set Sen. Mitch McConnell's 2014 campaign ad to music of their choosing, and includes a few hilarious examples.
• April 22nd: After showing the hypocrisy of several news anchors making critiques of Hilary Clinton and other female politicians, while pointing to those same critiques as strengths to male politicians, Jon sums the situation up thusly:
  Jon:...it's okay to act like a pussy...as long as you have a dick.
• April 23rd: When Sean Hannity attacks Jon for his coverage of Hannity's support of Cliven Bundy, the farmer trying to fight the government, who are trying to get money from him due to him breaking the law, Jon launches into a Take That! to end all others. Hannity claims that Jon must be obsessed with his show and Jon admits he is, because much like the Pacific Garbage Float or the Double Down he can't wrap his head around why Hannity's show can exist in this day and age. He then finishes by pointing out that, for all Hannity's patriotic fervor, his views actually make him anti-patriotic.
  • The capper, though was when Jon pointed out that even Glenn Beck, as conservative as he is, couldn't take the rancher's side in the dispute.
• April 28th: Larry Wilmore retorts Cliven Bundy's claim that African-Americans were better off under slavery.
  Larry: Um, I want to tell Cliven Bundy one thing I know about the Negro. Our two choices in life aren't between picking cotton and picking up welfare checks. The President of the United States is black, so fuck you.
• April 29th: Jon criticizes Sarah Palin and the NRA for constantly fostering an atmosphere of fear where every problem is supposed to be solved with "buy a gun", also noting how Georgia state passed a free-carry law allowing guns everywhere except the state legislature building.
• May 5th: After taking apart Fox News and Conservatives anger at people not being outraged by the revelation that Benghazi was a preventable tragedy that involved a cover-up and lying, Jon points out that Fox and Conservatives were not outraged by the lies and cover-ups involved in the Iraq War. He then closes with:
  Jon: So, if I may say, your hypocritical outrage and sanctimony aside, the reason it's hard for everybody to get outraged by this terribly tragic and ultimately preventable disaster that was Benghazi is that everybody in this country has seen this movie before. Only that movie was on an IMAX.
• May 12th: Jon lambasted the extremist Islam group Boko Haram for kidnapping girls going to school in Nigeria. After seeing their leader Abubukar Shekau gloating over his crimes, Jon suggested a title for the next Iron Man movie: Iron Man 4: The Punching of Abubukar Shekau. He then declared that, for all Boko Haram's macho posturing, they've only proven that the students were the real badasses:
  Jon: Compared to a teenager who knows that her desire for an education could get her dragged into a snake-infested jungle to be sold as a bride by some demented stick-chewing cartoon villain, but still gets up and goes to class every day, fully aware of that danger, compared to their courage, I'd say Boko Haram is a bunch of little girls, but you know what—you don't deserve that compliment.
• May 22nd: Jon's coverage of "America's 200 year tradition of honoring our veterans, then fucking them over when they give back their guns."
• June 26th: Jon takes down the GOP for always being willing to spend money on foreign military interventions but never using a penny for domestic causes.
  Jon: I’m really worried about the Republicans. Their inability to wean themselves off of military intervention. They have a culture of defendency, if you will. And I believe it’s turned them all into warfare queens. And I think we need to cut them off for their own good.
• July 21st: Jon played a number of clips of conservative commentators (and politicians) deriding Obama for not responding fast or harshly enough to the missile strike against the Malaysian airliner over Ukraine. Most of them compared it to Ronald Reagan's "immediately flying back to the White House and cutting his vacation short" in 1983 after the Soviet Union shot down a Korean passenger plane (carrying 53 US citizens including a sitting Congressman). However, a clip then airs of Chris Wallace, host of "Fox News Sunday", mentioning that he'd been actively covering Reagan at the time, noting that he was "very reluctant" to cut his vacation short, doing so only after 4 days of persuasion from his advisors. Then, Jon reads from Reagan's own diary about the incident - "It was heartbreaking - I was really looking forward to those last 3 days".
  • Jon satirizes the fiercely pro-Israel bias in mainstream media by starting to talk about Israel, only to be shouted down by the correspondents, being called a "self-loathing Jew" at one point. This leads Jon to calmly state that being critical of Israel's actions does not imply supporting Hamas' actions.
    • Which is then followed by the correspondents shouting him down for ignoring the plight of the Palestinians.
• July 23rd: Jon challenges Senator John McCain to come on the show so they can have a "Wrong Off" where each lists everything the other got wrong. He then tells the sound effect of a large truck to wait since McCain's not here yet. And what's the penalty for losing? They have to spend a whole day listening to the person they unleashed on the world. Jon with Stephen Colbert and McCain with Sarah Palin. Jon admits he knows that gives him the better deal.
• August 26th: After listening to Fox commentators (nearly all of them white) complain about the Ferguson protests being a racial issue, John calmly points out how prevalent and deeply-ingrained racial discrimination still is in the United States and how basically every non-white person living in this country has experienced some kind of discrimination/violence/abuse/slander because of their skin color.
  Jon: Race is there and it is a constant. You're tired of hearin' about it? Imagine how fucking exhausting it is living it.
• September 22nd: Jon takes down the heads of the House Committee of Science and Technology over being willfully ignorant about climate change, using a cup of water and ice to explain why it's dangerous.
• September 25th: Jon succinctly sums up his feelings about Fox's faux-outrage to Obama trying to salute with a coffee cup in his hands.
  Jon: Fuck you, and your false patriotism!
• October 9th: Jon eviscerates former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg for suing the US federal government after the government gave them a $182 billion bailout during the 2008 recession and saved them from the trash heap, because the Feds took a 92% share in their company until A.I.G. could pay them back.
• October 13th: Matt Bai discusses the sensationalism of mainstream media, and how it hurts politics by driving otherwise decent leaders out of office after the slightest transgression(s). A sobering examination about how the perception of a person tends to overshadow the person themselves.
  Matt: I do think we lose people who don't want to put themselves through this unendurable process, or their families through it. I think we drum good people out of politics who are defined by the single worst thing they have ever done as opposed to the context of their public life, and I think we make it much, much easier for people who have no business holding office, to enter the process. Because when you are not talking about ideas, world views, and agendas, when you are talking about character and personality, it makes it very easy for for someone to float through the process, without ever having to explain themselves or demonstrate what they know.
• October 29th: Shortly after Koch Industries starts advertising on the show, Jon strikes back with a new version of their ad that has a more truthful voiceover. Biting-the-Hand Humor at its best.
• November 6th: Jon annihilates Mitch McConnell for offering a plea of bipartisanship to President Obama, after having long declared his goal to be obstructing and undermining the President.
• November 17th: Jessica Williams covers the city of Detroit shutting off water for residents who hadn't paid their water bills... while the city simultaneously did nothing to large businesses that (collectively) owed the same amount as all those residents did.
• December 1st: After Fox News repeatedly makes claims that the protests about the events Ferguson are the faults of race-baiting demagogues who rouse people and make them afraid... To which Jon points out all the times they do it.
• December 3rd: After the Eric Garner case (tl;dr black guy in NYC died from chokehold/headlock from police, shit hit the proverbial fan), where the cop responsible was let free with no charges, just a little bit after a grand jury also let Darren Wilson (tl;dr cop in Ferguson, MO shot black guy who was either running away at full speed, on his knees begging for his life or assaulting said cop depending on who you ask), go free without any charges, Jon is so upset and frustrated by the case.
  Jon: I mean maybe to look at the bright side, we are about to save ourselves a shitload of money on cop camera vests. But damn, we are definitely not living in a post-racial society. And I can imagine there are a lot of people out there wondering, how much of a society we are living in at all.
• December 4th: Jon rebukes Senator Rand Paul for trying to suggest that the biggest issue in the Eric Garner incident was taxes for cigarettes rather than the fact that a police officer used disproportionate force.

2015

• January 7th: Aasif Mandvi manages to comment on the Charlie Hebdo massacre by finding and reporting on a story about Nazi cows and actually manages to make it funny.
• January 13th: Jon reports on marriage equality happening in Florida but state courthouses closed in multiple counties to prevent marriages both gay and straight because of it. Then he sums ALL the infamous weirdness of Florida and that while all that is happening, gay marriage is a bigger issue to the State officials as Jon points out while summing up the weirdness that happened in the state:
  Jon: You live in a giant cockroach-choking, hazard-infested, hooters-dining, reptile-abusing, Everglades-draining, elections-ruining, stripper-motorboating, ball sweat, genitalia-shaped, 24-hour mugshot factory. You’re basically telling me, you’re not going to perform weddings for these people... *shows a montage of same-sex couples happily married* ...so as to preserve the sanctity of your courthouses for these people. *shows montage of mug shots of Florida citizens such as George Zimmerman*
  • And for added hilarity, this is how he introduces Florida Senator Marco Rubio who thought it was Actually Pretty Funny.
• January 19th: Jon calls out Mike Huckabee in his face on his shaming comments on Beyoncé when he had Ted Nugent on his former show singing Cat Scratch Fever while playing bass with him! Then when Huckabee argued that he agrees with Nugent on guns and that his music was aimed at an adult audience, Jon Stewart doesn't buy it and says this:
  Jon: Do you see my point? You excuse that type of crudeness because you agree with his stance on firearms. You don't approve of Beyoncé because she seems alien to you... You can't single out a corrosive culture and ignore the one that you live in because you're used to it.
• January 20th: Aasif Mandvi meets with Alabamans who voted for an anti-Sharia law amendment. Aasif asks if they can name any aspects of Sharia law, but nobody is able to. So, Aasif lists some aspects before mentioning those are actually from the Bible. When it's mentioned that the amendment technically prohibit "foreign" laws, Aasif notes that by definition, that would also include the Bible. Cue Oh, Crap! reactions.
• January 21st: Big Speech 6. Jon absolutely torches the bipartisan attitude in DC during the State of the Union address, pointing out that Republicans would not applaud for lines that most people would applaud on basic moral levels, simply because Obama said them.
• January 26: Jon calls out the GOP's Double Standard attitude on Mitt Romney; they don't think he should be allowed anywhere near the 2016 Republican Presidental Nomination yet all the potential candidates are basically using his rhetoric and campaign promises that ultimately didn't get them the White House, despite all their cries reinvigorating the Party with new blood.
• February 3rd: Jon takes the news about a measles outbreak in the United States, after some boneheaded parents refused to vaccinate their children on the most idiotic grounds possible. Using an analogy that compares zombies to a measles outbreak a la Night of the Living Dead (1968), he points out just how stupid you'd have to be to subscribe to this logic and utterly shreds it in less than a minute.
• February 4th: On a related story, Jon calls out North Carolina senator Thom Tillis who suggested that restaurants shouldn't make their employees wash their hands, only warning customers of it instead, pointing out that despite supposedly fighting for a free market, is ultimately trying to replace one kind of regulation with another.
• February 11th: When Kansas governor Sam Brownback issues an executive order intended to curtail LGBT rights, Jon suggests that Brownback's name be turned into an online sexual term much like Rick Santorum's name.
• February 23rd: Jon rebukes Rudy Giuliani for accusing President Obama of not being a "true" American, as well as other conservatives calling Obama "weak" with handling ISIS, pointing out that they're not offering any solutions and are only interested in looking tough.
• February 25th: The entire "Better Call Foul" segment. When Fox News and other Right Wing associates accuse Jon and the Daily Show of obscuring facts and editing footage in a misleading way to "poison the Republican message", Jon launches a crushing counterattack and destroys every one of their arguments, including showing a Vine with 50 stories that Fox and the Right has misrepresented to further their agenda. It culminates with Jon saying that to them there is no right/wrong or good/bad, just stories that further their agenda and ones that need to be ignored.
• March 3rd: Jon's takedown of Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress, chewing out both John Boehner for blatantly disrespecting President Obama by inviting Netanyahu without informing him, and Netanyahu for using the same fearmongering about a nuclear Iran for the past 19 years, one instance which helped sell the War in Iraq, where he actually declared that there'd be no adverse consequences of invading Iraq.
• March 19th: Jon rips apart Fox News for demanding an apology from public figures protesting the civil rights crisis in Ferguson and systemic racism in the rest of the nation after the Department of Justice debunked "Hands Up, Don't Shoot", a popular protest slogan, as being not based on the actual circumstances of Mike Brown's death. He does this by flipping back the channel's own rhetoric, pointing out the misleading, "divisive, anger-stoking narrative" Fox perpetuated about Benghazi for two years while ignoring all reports that contradicted their story and attacks on the Obama administration. He then punctuates it with this:
  Jon: There's really only one difference between the two phenomena: systemic racism actually exists. *cue Mic Drop*
• April 28th: Jon blasts the 24-hour news networks, especially CNN, for constantly appearing shocked and alarmed by protests like Baltimore's, even though such riots have been happening frequently for the past few years.
• May 28th: Jon defending Bernie Sanders announcing his candidacy for the U.S. President election in spite of the dismissive publicity afforded to him by much of the mainstream media. He compares Bernie's honesty to the vapid publicity that the media affords to extreme right-wing nominees running for office and Hilary Clinton having media consultants inform her on how to appeal to voter demographics through superficial posturing instead of presenting thoughts on how to resolve major national issues.
• June 2nd: Jon's entire "America in the Middle East: Learning Curves are for Pussies" segment, where he takes the argument that America should arm the enemies of ISIS in the Middle East and shows that the exact same tactic has created a horrible closed loop situation in the region that has culminated in ISIS to begin with.
• June 15th: When Rachel Dolezal, the head of the Spokane, Washington branch of the NAACP, was revealed to be a white woman, Jessica Williams explains why she thinks what Dolezal did was wrong.
  Jessica: You can't just appropriate persecution just because it's cool. We don't need oppression cosplay. We need allies, not replacements.
• June 18th: In the aftermath of the Charleston Church Massacre, Jon blasted the hypocrisy over the government and media's treatment over the whole issue. All while trying to contain the anger that was boiling inside of him.
• June 22nd: After Fox News complained about President Obama supposedly "politicizing" the Charleston shooting, allegedly attacking guns and gunowners, Jon shows clips of Fox News politicizing the deaths of 2 NYPD officers last December, accusing NYC mayor Bill De Blasio of supposedly promoting an "anti-cop" agenda.
• June 29th: Jon's takedown of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia's blatant hypocrisy, alternating between saying that the Supreme Court shouldn't override the majority of Americans while simultaneously supporting cases that the majority of Americans oppose, effectively overriding them.
• July 27th: Jon manages to effectively lay the smackdown on Mike Huckabee for his off-taste trangsgender joke and comments comparing the CIA to the Gestapo Iran nuclear deal to the Holocaust - all without saying a single coherent word.
• August 3rd: During Jon's last week, he took some time out to take on Fox News one more time, pointing out that he has been more crtical of Obama's administration than Fox News ever was of George W. Bush. He then proceeded to throw a fake grenade and napalms the set!
  Jon: ADIOS MOTHERF***RS!!!
• August 6th: Jon's final show. Most of the correspondents from over the years came Back for the Finale to thank Jon.
  • Jon narrates what it was like to work at the show all this time...in a homage to Goodfellas. Right down to using a tracking shot to move throughout the studio and shine the spotlight on all of the people who have worked behind-the-scenes.
  • Arby's showed incredible class and a great sense of humor as they gave Jon a Worthy Opponent style send off with this video, tipping their proverbial hat to their playful "Arch-Enemy" on his final episode of the series.

2024

• February 12th, 2024: Jon returns to The Daily Show on Mondays throughout 2024 to deal with the then-upcoming 2024 Presidential election. However, he gives a speech towards the end that says no matter who wins, The Real Heroes are the people who don't get any credit for making America run every day.
  Jon: Look, the next nine months or so — and maybe more than that, depending on the coup schedule — they're going to suck. [...] And it's all going to make you feel like Tuesday, November 5, is the only day that matters. And that day does matter. But, man, November 6 ain't nothing to sneeze at, or November 7. If your guy loses, bad things might happen. But the country is not over. And if your guy wins, the country is in no way saved. 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 lunch pail fucking 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 till they get a positive result. And even then, have to stay on to make sure that result holds. So 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.
  • During the same segment, he takes the two presumed candidates, incumbent president Joe Biden and Donald Trump, to task for their questionable mental acuity at their advanced ages, and also their supporters, particularly Biden supporters, for their refusal to recognize their preferred candidate's flaws.
    Jon: It is the candidates' job to assuage concerns, not the voters' job not to mention them. [...] 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 standing on the ramparts, not "chocolate chip cookie!" guy.

• February 26th, 2024: Aside from being brave enough to touch upon a subject as controversial as the Israel-Hamas war after purposefully avoiding it back in 2014, Jon takes a moment to call out Benjamin Netanyahu on his "peace plan" for post-war Gaza — which would involve a full-blown military occupation of the territory, with Jon half-jokingly pointing out that such military and cultural repression is in part why groups as radical as Hamas come into existence in the first place.
  Jon: (in the most unprovocative tone he can muster) So your peace plan is… a siege. A military sie— you really think a military solution ends this cycle?
  Netanyahu: Victory is within reach, and you can't have victory until you eliminate Hamas.
  Jon: But… oh, okay? But your plan to eliminate Hamas by destroying all of Gaza, uh… doesn't that just make more Hamases? Is that the plural of Hamas? Hamasi? I mean, it's an idea. Palestinian liberation is an idea. Unless you have a bomb that kills ideas. Do you have a bomb that kills ideas? I mean, how long would it even take to bomb the shit out of an idea?
  • After having spent the show calling out parties that insist that the only way to end the war is if one side of the conflict is destroyed (i.e. Israel's government, Hamas, radical Christian groups) or parties that have done nothing but the bare minimum to address the suffering of Palestinian civilians (i.e. the United States, the United Nations, Saudi Arabia), Jon makes a short speech to condemn the fatalistic attitude everyone has towards the conflict between Israel and Palestine:
    Jon: I think we have to get real here. The status quo cycle of provocation and retribution is predicated on some idea that one of these groups is going to go away. And they are not. If we want a safe and free Israel, and a safe and free Palestine, we have to recognize that reality. And I know that there is a twisted and much contested history in the region that has brought us to this point. But we are at this point. And anything we do from here has to look forward.
  • The special guests for this show are The Intercept's Murtaza Hussain and The Atlantic's Yair Rosenberg, an Arab and a Jew that are allowed to have a balanced conversation about the Israel-Palestine situation. No fighting, no sensationalization, the two are simply given room to talk like reasonable adults in spite of their differing opinions.

• March 11th, 2024: Jon spends the segment making fun of Donald Trump being completely explicit about his dictator-like aspirations and desire for legal immunity as president. Near the end, however, he doesn't slam on Republicans for supporting Trump, but rather for supporting those very aspirations while framing them as patriotically following the ideals of the Constitution. It comes off as more respectful compared to how a lot of media has had a reputation for bashing Trump supporters indiscriminately, while still addressing the issue at hand.
  Jon: Remember "We the People"? You know there's more words after that, right? Smaller font, still binding. Look, if you wanna love Trump, love him. Go to the rallies. Buy the sneakers. You wanna give him absolute power? You want him to be the leader über alles? You want him to have the right of kings? You do you, but stop framing it as patriotism. Because the one thing you cannot say is that Donald Trump is following the tradition of the founders. He is advocating for complete and total presidential immunity. His words, not mine. That is monarchy shit. And it's your right to support it, but just do me a favor for historical accuracy. Next time you wanna dress up at the rallies, wear the right fucking colored coats.

• April 8th, 2024: Jon points out the hypocrisy in how the US government has handled the Israel-Hamas war: while elected officials are perfectly willing to condemn Russia (their rival) for causing a famine, repressing journalism or taking territory by force in their war with Ukraine, they come off as soft at best and outright complicit at worst when Israel's government (their ally) does those exact same things in their conflict with Palestine — starving the people of Gaza, banning news agencies they view as a "threat", and planning to annex 2,000 acres of land from the West Bank.
  Jon: Why do we tiptoe around on eggshells!? They slap America in the face, and our response is, "Well, if anyone slapped us in the face, it'd be concerning, that's for sure. I mean, raising a hand to a delicate body part of the face… if true." The verbal gymnastics that the American government must undertake so as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of a country we provide most of the weapons for, is YAAUGH! Every time America tells the world that there's something we won't allow, Israel seems to say, "Challenge accepted!"
  • Afterwards, a compilation of John Kirby's repeated urgings for Israel to be more "cautious" and "deliberate" in their war in Gaza is played to hammer in the point of how empty these statements are and how worthless the usual song and dance is, especially in the context of the United States only bringing more weapons to Israel despite their documented war crimes and rising condemnation from the international community.
    Jon: What the fuck are we doing here? The subtext of all this is, "America knows this is wrong." But it apparently doesn't seem to have the courage to say it in a straightforward manner. America and Israel both know that you cannot bomb your way into safety. We learned that lesson in Iraq and Afghanistan. They learned it in southern Lebanon. They laid siege there, occupied the southern area for twenty years; all it did was birth and strengthen Hezbollah. And they're about to do it all over again, and we are letting them. Real friends take the fucking keys, because friends don't let friends… bomb that much. And after this recent week, with so much horror, perhaps America finally finds the need for a new approach with Israel. With more justice and less cruelty.
    CNN report: The US and Israel are closing in on what would be their largest weapons deal since the war in Gaza began.
    Jon: Well, I don't know about you, but if that's true, I find it concerning.

Other

• Jon's tour of duty is over, but he's still fighting the good fight to get the 9/11 bill made permanent. He did it — again.

---