Jon Stewart stepped down as The Daily Show host in 2015, and in the five years since, he’s made his directorial debut, testified before the House Judiciary Committee to secure funds for 9/11 first responders, and, very importantly, rescued two goats that were wandering on the subway tracks. He’s now getting ready for the release of his second feature, which finds him returning to a genre he knows as well as anyone: political-comedy. To promote Irresistible, which stars Steve Carell, Chris Cooper, Mackenzie Davis, and Rose Byrne, Stewart spoke to the New York Times interviewer extraordinaire David Marchese about, among other topics, the “worst legacy” of The Daily Show.
When asked how feels about Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson replacing frequent sparring partner Bill O’Reilly as the worst that Fox News has to offer, Stewart replied, “I think they’re just the next level. As things progress, to get the same dopamine hit, you have to push it further. Although O’Reilly pushed it pretty far. The question was always, ‘Why would you talk to him? Why do you have him on the show if you can’t destroy him?’ If you want to talk about the worst legacy of The Daily Show, it was probably that”:
“That’s the part of it that I probably most regret. Those moments when you had a tendency, even subconsciously, to feel like, ‘We have to live up to the evisceration expectation.’ We tried not to give something more spice than it deserved, but you were aware of, say, what went viral. Resisting that gravitational force is hard.”
Marchese brought up Stewart’s evisceration (in internet speak) of Jim Cramer, a takedown so epic (and again) that it has its own Wikipedia page. But while Stewart might have regrets about The Daily Show dipping into takedown culture, there’s one evil, irredeemable target that we can all agree deserved to get owned: deep-dish pizza.
“This is an aboveground marinara swimming pool for rats.” Harsh, but fair.
(Via New York Times)