Jon Stewart lives, laughs, and criticizes corporate pinkwashing on a new Daily Show

Jon Stewart kicked off the second episode of The Daily Show’s annual Pride Month spectacular with an update on the “hollow corporate pandering” that has haunted the endcaps at Target for the last few Junes. Running through the confusing, unnecessary, and shockingly overthought advertisements, promotions, and sex-position-themed Whoppers, Stewart watched Kid Rock machinegun a table of Bud Lights, a talking horse discussing the American spirit, and a right-wing rumor that shopping at Target makes you “gay and a pervert.” The ebb and flow of celebrating diversity before placating conservative values is a nauseating up and down that should not be. To wit, Stewart offered a simple plea on tonight’s show: Corporate America, please stand down.

Pride Month always becomes an awkward battleground for corporations. It is there that corporate America hopes to wow employees, customers, and future employees with their concerns over three of the most bone-chilling words in the English language: diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yet, as soon as people aren’t looking as closely, these valiant organizations upon which this great country was founded shutter DEI programs because, yeah, saying you care about equality doesn’t do shit for your bottom line and tends to make the loudest, most annoying customers even louder and more annoying. Principles aren’t really corporations’ forte. They’re much better at making money by selling products at inflated prices.

Thankfully, by frequently slipping into his blue-collar, Jersey boy accent, Stewart was able to properly harness our collective exhaustion with pinkwashing efforts and the fight against them. Simply put, no one looks over their shoulder at an imaginary graphics box better than Stewart, and tonight saw him in fine form. His authentic and seemingly spontaneous reactions continue to give the show added energy. He is such a natural fit for the role that it never seems like he’s reading cue cards, even as he refers to them for a classic Arby’s dig. Like Steve Harvey on Family Feud, Stewart can cause the audience to erupt in laughter with the slightest tilt of the head.

The weak point was the button sketch starring Desi Lydic and Michael Kosta, which too closely resembled the crutch often used by Last Week Tonight. These sketches tend to recap all the points made in the meat of the segment but rarely elevate the episode. Nevertheless, it offered a window into a better world where corporations return to their roots by “making products as cheaply as we can and selling them to you at the highest price possible.” Happy Pride!