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alt title(s): Daily Show; Jon Stewart 
When news breaks, we fix it!
Long-running satirical news program on Comedy Central.
Instead of a straight-up news parody, a la Weekend Update, the news is merely read in a humorous tone, with special attention paid to the hypocrisy and gaffes of politicians and public figures, as well as the reactions of major news shows (particularly 24hr news channels) which range from the theatrical to the absurd.
The main anchor is currently Jon Stewart (who took over in 1999, replacing Craig Kilborn), but it's launched a few careers. Steve Carell, Lewis Black and Ed Helms are successful alums, and Stephen Colbert has gotten his own spinoff program called The Colbert Report (a parody of confrontational talk programs such as The O'Reilly Factor) which became a runaway success. Two more Daily Show alums have since been given their own Comedy Central shows, Lewis Black's The Root of All Evil and the popular Important Things With Demetri Martin (hosted by former contributor Demetri Martin).
Before you dismiss it as foolish nonsense, a test was given during the 2004 presidential election of people and the various news programs they watched (essentially, to see how well people knew various candidates and policies). People who claimed to watch The Daily Show scored higher- on average- than the viewers of other, more "serious" news shows. Stewart himself has to constantly remind viewers that it's still just a "joke news show" whose information is one day out of date. This is despite the fact that they get some astonishingly important guests - former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, John Kerry (when he was running for the U.S. Presidency in 2004), Barack Obama (ditto, 2008), John McCain (many, many times, incl. 2008) and Joe Biden (2009, while sitting vice-president) to name a few.
It can be watched online for free . In Canada, it is available at the Comedy Network's site. Just beware of Archive Panic.
And if you're British, well... shite. We used to be able to get it, but that dried up sometime in 2009, leaving us with just the one week backlog held at 4 On Demand.
This show contains examples of:
- Acceptable Targets: Parodied when Jon Stewart checks a huge book on comedian ethics to see if it is OK to make fun of a 14-year-old speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (it isn't).
- A Glass In The Hand: Parodied in this clip as Jon handles a series of bad news about the Wall Street bailout by breaking a champagne glass, then the accompanying bottle, and finally his "comically convenient fish tank."
- Alter Kocker: As part of the 2008 election cycle, Wyatt Cenac is sent to cover the opinions of a group of Jewish retirees in Florida during the debates. Eventually, the political discourse devolves into them all arguing with each other over trivialities, with the increasingly bewildered correspondent unable to get a word in edgewise.
- Anachronism Stew: Right here.
- Angrish: After some clips, Jon will be incapable of speaking English for a few seconds due to disbelief or rage.
- Archive Trawl
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: "It's like a combination of 'gay' and 'radar'. It's called The Homometer."
- Artifact Title: The "Indecision (year)" series would seem to be this, but "Indecision 2000" was actually coined before the months-long "too close to call" fiasco, all the way back to the satirical coverage of the 1996 race by then-Comedy Central series Politically Incorrect.
- Ascended Meme: On Aug 19, 2009, Jon officially called the Waaaaahhhhhbmulance on Fox News Channel.
- Author Filibuster: The "Meet Me at Camera Three" segments.
- Back To You Dave: "Jon."
- Beat: If you notice, in his opening monologues, his blue paper shuffling and tapping often serves to properly time out the comedic beat.
- Berserk Button: Jon has a few, including bad journalism and homophobia. But do not, do not, do not imply that New York or other big cities are less American than small towns and rural areas.
- Better Than A Bare Bulb: In response to CNN putting together a discussion panel to discuss simply what they'll discuss after the 2009 election in NY's District 23rd, TDS's ensuing speculation-on-speculation panel provides four full minutes of Lampshading goodness. (Starting near the 5min mark)...
- Big No: Just one example.
- Butt Monkey: Stewart is routinely insulted and abused by correspondents (and occasionally guests).
- John Oliver (of The Bugle fame) gets this as well (usually when Stewart reminds him about his visa expiring). See the example under Pirates.
- Wyatt Cenac, as the youngest member of the team, often gets this as well: for instance, while everybody else was given their own promotional advertisements, Wyatt was forced to make his own (with things like Wyatt saying "laser sounds" in place of actual laser sounds), and is forced to stop at the end to allow Jason Jones to shoot additional footage for his own ad atop a horse surrounded by models.
- Steven Carell usually filled this role when paired with Stephen Colbert. Aside from their memorable Even Stevphens segments, there was an episode where Colbert took him out drinking and got him so drunk he admitted the he thought Antonio Banderas was very sexy.
- Canada Eh: Samantha Bee, whose Canadian-ness has often been fodder for jokes. Her equally-Canadian husband, Jason Jones, doesn't get anywhere near this kind of treatment.
- Sam's entries in America (The Book) are parodies of excessive Canadian politeness, usually prefaced by the header "Would You Mind If I Told You How We Do It In Canada?" and full of apologies.
- Cast Herd: With the exception of a key few (Lewis Black, Samantha Bee and Jason Jones), correspondents and contributors tend to come and go at the rate of +/-1 a year.
- The Cast Showoff: Somehow, even this show can do that. The 6 October 2009 episode features Larry Wilmore doing some pretty awesome (if fairly standard) card tricks while discussing how to play the race card. Who knew he was a magician.
- Which means...Uh-oh...
- Lampshaded where Jon says that the only reason Larry is doing this segment is to show off the magic tricks he's been trying to get on the show. Larry responds by playing the race card.
- Chroma Key: Combined with Stock Footage to put correspondents "live at the scene". The background once notably changed in the middle of one of these sketches.
- Citizenship Marriage: Parodied here. Poor John Oliver...
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: In the 3/17/2010 episode, John Oliver frantically implores Jon and the studio audience to do this to save the life of a rose named Reagan, the final breath of American freedom.
- Content Warnings: On the Global Edition only, as it airs on serious news channels in some countries.
The show you are about to see is a news parody. Its stories are not fact checked. Its reporters are not journalists. And its opinions are not fully thought through.
- A disclaimer that is becoming more and more of a misnomer as the show goes on, to the point that it's almost an insult to the show. For instance, they just sent a correspondent to Iran, and not only effectively brought the normality of the Iranian people into view, but interviewed several people that ended up becoming enemies of the state and kidnapped by the government shortly after the interviews.
- Jon will still insist it's not real news, though.
- Furthering the dissonance with regard to this issue is the increasing frequency with which Jon Stewart conducts discussions with his guests that are so intensive and engaging that they run well beyond the time-limit allotted by the show's half-hour format with the entire interview then being posted on the Daily Show's website. In addition to this is the fact that guests of the show include not just various experts and academics with books to promote, but representatives, senators, presidential candidates, diplomats, and the heads of state from various countries. Furthermore, Jon Stewart does not simply use these appearances by important people as the fodder for even more comedy, but instead conducts serious, in-depth and well though-out discussions with these people like a real journalist (although he does manage to get some laughs along the way). Jon Stewart... comic genius or master journalist... or both... you be the judge.
- Cluster F Bomb: Done quite humorously while discussing Obama's first State of the Union address.
- Couch Gag: The scrolling list of cities at the beginning of the show.
- Cowboy Bebop At His Computer: Subverted.
- Not entirely. This Troper personally knows someone who once repeatedly referred to Stewart as John Daily.
- Crossover: Applied liberally during the writer's strike, culminating in a brawl between Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Conan O'Brien.
- Crouching Comic Hidden Badass: A good portion of the show could be construed as cutting, but pretty average, criticism of subject X. But, interviewees beware: if you try to weasel out of, outright deny or fire back at the allegations raised, you will get schooled.
- With elements of Badass Bookworm, Awesomeness By Analysis and Beware The Silly Ones. Yes. He has read your damn book. He knows what you've said. He also knows what you said three weeks ago. And what you said to the NRA in 2003. And where you worked when you said it. So answer the damn question.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: There's a very, very good reason why Jon Stewart was voted America's most trusted newscaster after Walter Cronkite passed away. Some choice moments:
- With his blank, nearly despairing expression never leaving his face, Stewart utterly castigates the two fools on CNN's "Crossfire" before the 2004 election. Exposed for the vapid nothingness it was, the show folded three weeks later.
"I fought the law, and the law lost!"
- Recently 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!"
- CNN was recently 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 underestimated 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."
- 3/12/09: Jim Cramer. Owned. Jon broke CNBC's "Mad Money" host in the clearest, most brutal explanation of the financial crisis I've seen yet. Comedy Central: the place to go to watch two guys have a serious discussion on finance.
- Here is the link to the unedited interview. And yes, he did not only predict every defense Cramer was going to make, but prepared video clips of Cramer himself contradicting that position.
- In terms of interview pwnage, this discussion with Mike Huckabee over gay marriage certainly qualifies as well.
- He does it again to Betsy McCaughey, a think tank-ish person who was against various provisions in a proposed health care reform bill, the interview being here. At the beginning of the interview, she walks out on stage 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.
- Jon's speech right after 9/11 definitely qualifies in this troper's opinion.
- For a CMOA of a completely different kind, check out 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.
- One of his more recent examples can be found here. In this segment, 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."
- and then there's the very recent one where Sean Hannity "messed up" on his show and spliced in footage from Glenn Beck's protest rally in with another protest and Jon Stewart called him out on it. The Daily Show then 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...
- Again on December 8th, 2009, calling out not only Fox News for making up numbers in a poll (which added up to 120%), 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 from Stanford, studied abroad at Oxford, and is a virtuoso violinist, very much at odds with her on-screen persona. One wonders how much she's being paid...
- And in a recent episode, Jon called 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.
- The moment when a comedy show, hosted by comedians and written by comedy writers, become 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, I think that is the Daily Show's true moment of Utter Awesome.
- Jon deconstructing political pundits from both sides of the aisle, in their own unique styles: Keith Olbermann and Glenn Beck.
- It should also be noted about the response. As the "#1" segment on the following episode of Countdown With Keith Olbermann, he played the entire segment from the show... and apologized.
- Couldn't find a relevant trope, so feel free to move this entry around, but after Jon's recap of the Bipartisan Health Care Summit of 2010, Stewart and John Oliver proceeded to explain in great detail a hypothetical system where legislators could come together, sit down, and talk about relevant issues. OH WAIT, THAT'S CONGRESS.
- Jon utterly eviscerating Glenn Beck over a course of sixteen minutes. "Burn" isn't the correct term. "Flamethrowered then napalmed" is. Also see below.
- Crowning Moment Of Funny Larry doing card tricks to illustrate the usage by Right wing pundits of the "Race Card".
- And it was awesome.
- Jon's attempt to illustrate the rough intellectual capacity that the Republicans and Democrats are displaying with the Mass. Special election:
- Jon trying out Chatroulette, and encountering, among others, Diane Sawyer, Keith Olbermann, Katie Couric and Brian Williams.
- Jon showing, via Glenn Beck's methods of reasoning, that Bert is Hitler
- Crowning Music Of Awesome Done for comedy in the "Tiger Woods Newzak" segment on 12/2/09 certainly qualifies for setting the inane questions to an elevator-music version of Bohemian Rhapsody - that and another Take That to the national media for an obsession with a trivial event when actual news is going on. Let ESPN and E! cover it, folks.
- Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: The Moment of Zen on the first Daily Show episode following the 9/11 attacks.
- Deadpan Snarker: Almost the entire staff.
- Deconstruction: On Thursday, March 18th, 2010, John, playing the role of Glenn Beck, tore apart Beck's tactics and hysterical persona.
- Department Of Redundancy Department: Stewart to John Hodgman in a "You're Welcome" segment - "Why, that's so crazy - it might just be fucking crazy." (In response to Hodgman's plan to shirk off America's debt by faking a 300 million passenger car crash).
- Detournement: "And here it is, your Moment of Zen."
- Since the election of Barack Obama, a common gag has been showing the blatant hypocrisy of Fox News by airing their defenses of George Bush immediately before/after the exact same circumstances with a Democratic president (ie. denouncing protests as "temper tantrums" in 2004 yet calling them "inspiring" in 2008).
- Does This Remind You Of Anything: Here's a fairly good example of it.
- Double Entendre: the "Jon Stewart (insert double entendre here)" segments.
- Dramatic Pause: A frequent gag. Here's an example.
- Election Night: Heavily spoofed whenever it rolls around.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Stephen Colbert
- Everyone Is Bi: Everybody on the show has either shown bisexual tendencies on screen, or simply hinted at having had sex with both genders.
- Expy: Often a source of them, as Jon and the other correspondents will take other acting roles in quite a similar vein as their characters in the show. Jon himself played an Only Sane Man news anchor in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back and Ed Helms showed up as the quite similar Andy Bernard on The Office (which, of course, stars former "reporter" Steve Carell.)
- Face Palm: A favorite reaction of Jon when confronted with the most egregious logical fallacies.
- Fake Brit: Averted
- Fan Community Nicknames: Stoned slackers, appropriated from Bill O'Reilly.
- Fauxtastic Voyage: A gag using the Chroma Key.
- In one memorable example, two correspondents are supposedly at a remote location, but one of them demonstrates that his (real) footage is being used as the fake background for the other's shoot.
- Film At Eleven
- Flame War: The Even Stephvens debates which at one point attempted to prove which religion was the right one by holding a "Smite-off" (praying to either God or Mohammad to smite the other Ste(v/ph)en.)
- Fox News Liberal: Notable aversion. Though a decidedly liberal-leaning program, the Daily Show often hosts conservative guests. When it does, Jon Stewart treats them with respect and actually attempts to understand their point of view, and thus help the audience to do the same.
- In addition, despite the assumed viewpoint that he would go "easy" on the Obama administration, he is perhaps one of its most vocal critics. Yes, they are pulling for them to have success and find ideological similarities, but that merely colors his criticism, which is expressed more as disappointment when the administration fails to follow through on something they claimed. In other words, it bases its views not in a party, but for progress.
- And let me tell you, the new way is way more effective. It's gone from "You're all idiots!" to "You're not supposed to be idiots."
- I agree. It says a lot when somebody regardless of their political leaning can actually acknowledge when the people they've backed have dropped the ball, and it really throws a giant wrench into anybody's complaint that The Daily Show was unfairly biased (which makes one wonder why someone would be so butthurt over a comedy program aside from the fact that it's comedy that brings up the facts)
- Fridge Brilliance: With the running gag involving "Jon Stewart innuendo involving children" segments, it could be an enormous Take That at Mallard Fillmore, which ran this strip - implying that Jon Stewart was a pedophile - 8 months after America The Book came out, due to its parody of Mallard Fillmore in the Comics section.
- Fun With Acronyms: The NAMBLA Running Gag.
- Funny Aneurysm Moment: Saying that Bob Novak contains "the cure for the cure for cancer", only for it to be revealed a week later that the man
has had brain cancer, could not have been what Jon Stewart intended.
- Sending Jason Jones to Iran just before the 2009 elections for interviews that would air the week after led to some last-minute editing workarounds when they couldn't not air the material, but the prominent opposition supporters they had interviewed in typical Daily Show style had since been rounded up by the government.
- And Maziyar Bahari actually had the footage used against him while he was in prison.
- Oddly enough though, that became a Reverse Funny Aneurysm when they had him on the show - ironically, of course, as there was nothing inherently funny about the situation.
- Funny Foreigner: Both played straight and subverted with John Oliver. There are plenty of times where his British-ness is used for laughs, but it's also heavily implied that he wants to be taken seriously as a journalist, but is forced to play the Funny Foreigner role for Jon Stewart's personal amusement.
- On the other hand, it's usually not brought up with Canadians Samantha Bee and Jason Jones, unless the subject turns to Canada.
- Gag Dub: Whenever you hear a voiceover, trust me, it's fake.
- By the same standard, if Jon has to strenuously emphasize that the voice-over is real, trust me, it's real, no matter how unbelievable it might be.
- Game Of Nerds: Jon has openly admitted to being a Mets fan.
- Guest Host: The correspondents, when necessary.
- Jon Stewart is perhaps one of the most dedicated news anchors on TV. In one instance, despite losing his voice for three days, he refused to not appear on the show, even though he had to speak up (and therefore lengthened his recovery by abusing his already abused vocal cords).
- Hilarious In Hindsight: "Indecision 2000" started as a funny play on words, then got funnier when it turned out to be the perfect title for that particular election.
- And recently, with the underwear bombing, there was this.
- There's also a segment from a 1991 HBO comedy special with Jon Stewart talking about the first Gulf War and complaining about how short it was when the pundits were fearing it would become 'a second Vietnam'. Twelve years later...
- Hilarious Outtakes: Frequently left in. For instance, Jon Stewart stumbling all over the camera placement while talking with Gitmo.
- Hostile Show Takeover: On Election Night 2008, Stewart and Colbert co-hosted a live show reporting on the results (in between humorous bits and interviews, of course). After Ohio went to Obama, it became obvious he was going to win the election. The Daily Show's two black correspondents, Larry Wilmore and Wyatt Cenac, took this as a sign that they could do "whatever they want", and tried to host The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, respectively. It was over by the commercial break.
- Kristen and Samantha also once tried to take over the show when Jon went to the toilet, because they felt it was time for a female host.
- Ho Yay: Played for humor many times, especially between Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
- Hypocritical Humor: "Yes, it's cathartic - it can be so therapeutic to publicly ridicule those whose views you find repugnant when they are in no way able to respond."
- I Am Not Shazam: The host of the show is Jon Stewart, not Jon Daily. There was actually one time that Jon referred to himself as that, though.
- I Love Nuclear Power: Alluded to during the Alexander Litvinenko poisoning.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: He warned the Audience after they laughed at this that, because it was positive reinforcement, he would use more of these in the future.
- I Need A Freaking Drink: Jon begins his interview with Mike Huckabee about abortion by pouring them both shots.
- Informed Judaism: Part of Jon Stewart's material since his stand-up career, with a combination of pride in his Jewishness and Self Deprecation at being not very good at it.
- But for the most part Jon subverts that trope. He clearly knows his Judaic lore and customs, but chooses to make part of his act about his choice to live as an ultra-assimilated, intermarried New York Jew.
- Interspecies Romance: John Oliver/Orangutan OTP!
- Innocent Innuendo: An open-shirted Jason Jones was on Chat Roulette looking very relaxed while his arms were making jerking motions. He turns out to be playing Wii Craps while masturbating.
- Insane Troll Logic: Played brilliantly straight in the manner of Glenn Beck. Watch it on video here. Comes complete with spoofing Hitler Ate Sugar.
- Irishman And A Jew: The Daily Show is headed up by Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Liebowitz); its sister show, The Colbert Report, stars Stephen Colbert, who self-identifies as Irish-American, despite the French-sounding name. Like many other instances of such pairings, the Jewish half is sarcastic and exasperated with a world gone mad, while the Irish half is blustering and self-assured, but oblivious to the problems around him.
- Jews Love To Argue
- Join The Army They Said: Rob Riggle apparently joined the Marines because he thought he could kill flaming demons with a sword.
- Kent Brockman News: Most of the correspondents
- Leno Device: The Daily Show popped up in the middle of Evan Almighty. Bonus points on that one, since the star of that movie, Steve Carell, started out as a Daily Show correspondent.
- Magical Negro: Referenced by the Genre Savvy Larry Wilmore.
- Memetic Mutation: "Roll 212!"
- Misaimed Fandom: Quite a few people get their news from the show, much to the chagrin of the producers.
- Muppets: A Running Gag that when
Governor Mitt Romney or GOP Chairman Michael Steele are mentioned, a clip of a similar-looking Muppet will be shown.
- Or when he was trying to pronounce the name of the island "Mah Na Mah Na"...
- Don't forget Gitmo! Never thought that Elmo's cousin (or whatever) was a member of Al-Qaeda, but it's a small world, I suppose.
- When then-Prime Minister Tony Blair was "Harumphed" (heckled) by Parliament, Stewart noted that "The act of harumphing dates back to the Earl of Statler and the Duke of Waldorf."
- Name's The Same: Don't confuse the host, Jon Stewart, with the Justice League character John Stewart.
- Or the late folk singer John Stewart.
- New Media Are Evil: Spoofed in this sketch.
- Usually spoofed in some way in Demetri Martin's Trendspotting segments.
- News Parody
- Not Making This Up Disclaimer: "— and this is true —" Jon has to do this with disturbing frequency.
- Once Acceptable Targets: Subverted. Jon Stewart (A Jew) gives all his correspondents passes to make as many Jew jokes as they please.
- One Man Army: Former correspondent and all-around Bad Ass Lt. Col. Rob Riggle, USMCR.
- Only Sane Man: Jon Stewart, with the insanity provided either by correspondents, or clips of real life politics.
- Paedo Hunt: Running Gag.
- Painting The Fourth Wall: When discussing ways to grab the attention of younger viewers, Demetri Martin created pictures, sparkle and rainbow effects, and a ticker with hand gestures while the person he was interviewing, stared at him, confused.
- Pass The Popcorn
- Perfume Commercial
- The Pete Best: Remember when Craig Kilborn was the host? Yeah, me neither.
- Pirates: "Yo ho ho, the piracy epidemic requires a long-term solution..."
- Pixelation: Whenever someone makes a rude gesture, and everything Dick Cheney touches.
- Porn Stash: John Oliver, with his life supposedly in danger, not only lists the location of the porn in every room he has, but also:
In the bedroom you'll find a box marked porn...it's not porn, Jon, it's erotica! It's my legacy! That has to go to a library!
- Precision F Strike: Done with beauty while commenting on CNBC's having had a guest - Sir Allen Stanford - on the show who was being investigated on allegations of running a Ponzi scheme (arrested one month later) and they get to the final question... Cut to 7:50.
- Another example, in the unsubtly-subtle vein, occurred on 11-18-09 segment about Sarah Palin's surge in popularity (accompanied by book-signing). Bernie Goldberg stated that "[Sarah has a son who] has Down's Syndrome. Liberals certainly don't - don't allow that to happen!" Cue a pause from Jon, who shuffles around some papers on the desk prior to holding them in front of his mouth and coughing "Go fuck yourself!"
- Done in the same vein on 02-07-2008 with perverse deliberation.
- Real Song Theme Tune: "Dog on Fire" by Bob Mould, as covered by They Might Be Giants.
- Refuge In Audacity: Many of the segment titles can fall under this, including goodies such a kid-friendly piece titled, "Jon Stewart Touches Children", to a piece about Cheney's poor memory titled, "Is Our Dick Going Soft?"
- Retroactive Wish: Jon after Crossfire got canceled: "According To Jim is hurting America." It took a while, but his wish was finally granted in May of 2009.
- Rousing Speech: John Oliver's rousing defense of moats during the 2009 British MP expenses scandal (during which one MP was found to have used public funds to preserve the moat on his property) comes complete with Lampshade Hanging:
Jon Stewart: You're going Richard II on us?
John Oliver: F--k yeah, strap in!
- Rule Thirty Four: Constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation on a Betsy Ross carpet with the Magna Carta stroking its wax seal.
- Running Gag: The unfortunate subtitles given to certain segments. At one point it was "Jon Stewart Touches Kids", and on the June 21, 2009 broadcast, a segment was entitled "Jon Stewart Jizz-ams in Front of Children". Both of these gags fit well with the NAMBLA running gag
- Jimmy Dean Blueberry Pancake and Sausage on a Stick.
- Baconnaise! (and Lite Baconnaise!)
- Also, Jon Stewart unsuccessfully attempting to fist-bump Larry Wilmore at the end of Wilmore's segments, which they apparently resolved with a high-five.
- Jon plays a clip of some pop culture figure insulting someone, and then goes "Oh, snap!" and launches into a sequence of not especially funny "your mama" jokes.
- The latest version of the one mentioned at the top: "Uncle Jon Has Something Special To Show Kids". He thought that didn't sound right, so he had it replaced with "Jon Stewart's Windowless News Van For Kids".
- Jon Stewart's Story Hole!
- Self Deprecating Humor: Jon, at both himself and the show. He even gave kudos to a man with a very unfortunate name for putting up with "this juvenile bullshit."
- Shown Their Work: Jon's interviews.
- Skyward Scream: A failed attempt can be seen here.
- Spit Take: Both used straight and spoofed regularly. Here's an example.
- Subverted here (about 3:05 in) when Jon obviously sets himself up for a spit-take...and then nonchalantly keeps on drinking from his mug.
- didn't they do one where it seemed like he was going to do one and instead he bit into the cup?
- Basically, he's played this straight, deconstructed it, reconstructed it, and exploited it for all its worth. And it's still kind of hilarious.
- Squee: After showing President Obama having a candid talk at a GOP conference, and President Obama completely blowing away every one of their talking points, Jon Squeed.
- *In high pitched voice* "...Holy S**t! They're gonna air this!? This is gonna be awesome!"
- Stacys Mom: Made fun of in their sketch about "cougars".
- Strawman Political: Everyone appearing on the show, including the audience. Read more in the article's examples.
- The Stoic: Of all the possible people, Colbert had a moment of this during the 2008 elections. When Obama locked up California and, thus, the elections, the entire crew started freaking out and wondering what the post-Bush world must be like. So, they head outside and start gushing over the fact that the sun is shining, children are at play, etc. Meanwhile, Colbert just stands there, and firmly reminds them that Bush is still president for two more months, killing the mood of the others.
- Stuffed Into A Locker: John Oliver, reporting live from inside Malia Obama's locker.
- Take That: Several times over, typically directed at various news networks for failing in the investigative portion of "investigative reporting." Among them are the much-maligned Fox News (typical fodder for the show), followed by CNBC (over bad financial advice), and most recently, CNN, for "Leaving it there".
- Tear Jerker verging on Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming bordering on Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Jon Stewart's post 9/11 speech
I want to tell you why I grieve... But why I don't despair!
- Time Travel Tense Trouble - done, amazingly, without actual time travel, when Stephen hijacked one of the "And on tonight's Colbert Report" segments.
Jon: You're hurting my brain, Stephen.
- Tranquil Fury - Jon's evisceration of "Crossfire"
- What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: "The best f*cking news team ever. We have a rocket. CNN doesn't have a rocket."
- Who Writes This Crap: right here.[1]
Jon Stewart: In a segment we like to call "Jon Stewart's Story Hole". Remember, it's our little secr-who wrote this?
- Yiddish As A Second Language: Jon's been known to pepper his lines with Yiddish, and (as part of Jon's grant of N Word Privileges), so do some of the correspondents.
- Also, note this exchange between him and Brian Williams:
Stewart: What's with the Yiddish tonight? What's with the — "shmaltzy", and the "just gave me a little schpilkis, but" — "I took my punim over there", bing bang boom —
Williams: Joey Bishop, ladies and gentlemen.
- You Fail Logic Forever: thoughtfully provided by the "Large Hadron Collider will destroy the world" pundit/high school science teacher.
Teacher: I'd say there is a 50/50 chance. It will either destroy us or it won't.
John Oliver: I'm not sure statistics work that way.
later
John: After the apocalypse, we should try breeding. (the teacher is male)
Teacher: I don't think that will work.
John: It either could happen or it won't.
- They recently had a field day with people claiming that snowstorms proved global warming wasn't real.
- Zombie Apocalypse: in 2029, of the Those Wacky Nazis variety. It's at about 7:30 here.
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