Jon Stewart uses second Daily Show appearance to address criticism of first Daily Show appearance

Ours is an age of mass misinformation, so let’s center ourselves with two objective facts. The first: Biden and Trump are both old—at least to be running for president. At 81 and 77 respectively, they’ll be the two oldest candidates to ever grace the ticket, beating the record they already set in 2020. Second: a lot of very loud people on Twitter/X—no matter on which side they’re on—really hate when people use their platform to present any sort of reasoned and measured critique of our country. Last week, Jon Stewart used his first appearance on The Daily Show in nine years to address the first issue. This week, he was forced to talk about the second.

“What’s crazy is thinking that we’re the ones, as voters, who must silence concerns and criticisms,” Stewart said last week, regarding concerns over both candidates’ memory and fitness for office. “It is the candidates’ job to assuage concerns, not the voters’ job not to mention them.” But a certain sect of liberal posters really didn’t appreciate this take. “Wow. So you basically say because Biden is old, he is basically as bad as Trump. Why thr [sic] F do we never learn as a country?” wrote Democratic staffer Chris D. Jackson. Even Joyce Carol Oates weighed in, writing “if this is Jon Stewart’s triumphant return it sounds surprisingly unoriginal, in the vein of what mainstream media has been clamoring for months: ‘too old’—’too old’—’too old’—’both sides identical: too old.’ this is funny or helpful—exactly how?”

But Stewart is sticking to his guns. “Quite frankly, the response to the first show last Monday was universally glowing,” he joked, before rolling a news clip detailing the backlash. “Okay, maybe not universal. But that was on Twitter, everything on Twitter gets a backlash!” The commentator noted that even labradoodles have online haters, a position which quickly earned him a fresh round of criticism from the labradoodle-owning community. Obviously.

“I’m just saying it’s better to deal head-on with what’s an apparent issue to people,” Stewart continued. “But I guess as the famous saying goes, ‘democracy dies in discussion.’ I have sinned against you. I’m sorry. It was never my intention to say out loud what I saw with my eyes and then brain. I can do better.”

But despite Stewart’s “mistakes,” the returning host is committed to learning and growing. “Where do I go to study the particulars of unquestioning propaganda? I would need mentorship,” he lamented before a clip of Tucker Carlson popped up on screen. Looks like The Daily Show will have more than enough material to react to next Monday.