‘Honest, critical, sane’: Jon Stewart’s welcome return to The Daily Show

When Comedy Central announced that Jon Stewart would return once a week to the Daily Show desk, left hostless for more than a year since Trevor Noah stepped down and heir apparent Hasan Minhaj became embroiled in fabrication controversies, it seemed to symbolize all the wrong things. A show that was supposed to be charting a path forward had circled back to its own past, unable to offer an option more inspiring than another helping of whatever the public approved of during the Obama years. In the worst-case scenario, the failure of imagination that ushered a 61-year-old Stewart back to the fore of a drastically changed political reality could have been an unfortunate parallel to the DNC, hurtling toward a dead end as they refuse to cultivate young talent in the party and cast their lot with a dug-in gerontocracy.

Oh we (me?) of little faith. The difference between Stewart and every other talking head has historically been an allergy to BS, and, as he settled back into the throne, that included his own. The opening segment tackled its unflattering subtext – a desperate bid to give the people something safe and agreeable – head-on by addressing America’s wider tendency to cling to a hidebound status quo. By taking aim at the mental acuity of the two octogenarians competing for the office of president, Stewart cannily separated himself from them, and came off looking sharp as ever: honest, critical, sane and, most importantly, attuned to the frustrations of his voting viewership. After all this