Jon Stewart’s Back. Here’s Why We Should Care – By Derek Robertson (Politico) / Oct 3 2021
The erstwhile “Daily Show” host returns to a very different world, but with a similar bag of tricks for better or worse.
The last time Jon Stewart hosted a regular news broadcast, it was an understandably sentimental affair. On Aug. 6, 2015, after more than 15 years at the helm of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” Stewart signed off amid a parade of celebrity guests and former correspondents. He left the audience with a distilled shot of his trademark common-sense liberal folk wisdom on the way out, and the program touched only briefly on that day’s events — namely, and somewhat poetically, the first debate of the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
If you need a refresher on the extent to which the world has changed since then, I would invite you to peruse the other fine articles on this website, or the comments on Nicki Minaj’s Instagram. As of Thursday, however, one element of the pre-2016 status quo has been restored: Stewart is back on American televisions (or smartphones and other screens) with a new program exclusive to the streaming service Apple TV+, puckishly titled “The Problem With Jon Stewart.”
Clearly, Stewart feels like he needs to be part of the national conversation again. Is the feeling mutual?
When Stewart succeeded the ousted bro-caster Craig Kilborn as “Daily Show” host in 1999, it was a much-needed injection of caustic Gen-X wit. The host winked with his audience at the absurdity of the post-Cold War, Clinton-era imperium, its bow-tied Thunderdome of Gingrich, Gore and grand jury testimony. But the aftermath of Sept. 11, and particularly the Iraq War, sharpened Stewart’s irony into genuine outrage: the walk-up to Iraq was absurd, yes, but also just wrong. By the time he stepped down as host in 2015, citing exhaustion and a desire to spend more time with his family, Stewart had transformed himself from another modestly successful leather-jacketed stand-up into a pillar of American liberalism.
CONTINUE> https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/10/03/jon-stewart-new-show-514924
