Jon Stewart's return to 'The Daily Show' seemed familiar to those who missed him during his absence

NEW YORK No, Jon Stewart wasn't actually sitting at his desk at Comedy Central for the last nine years, waiting for someone to turn the lights back on.

Yet it was almost that feeling during Stewart's return to The Daily Show on Monday night. His blunt satire, facial grimaces, incisive use of video and occasional lectures were all intact. Public figures are being told that the media's most successful bull detector is back to work.

Stewart said that the lack of a comedic outlet for his observations during the course of the presidential campaign largely motivated his decision to reprises his most memorable role, one night a week during the elections. The much diminished Comedy Central, unable to find a successor to Trevor Noah as host, welcomed him with joy.

Questions about the future of late-night television, which is rapidly losing viewers and losing influence, won't be answered in a single night. Nor will this evening prove that Stewart can regain the prominent position he walked away from in August 2015.

But it was a promising start.

Are you already disappointed? Stewart said after a sophomore joke about naming the Daily Show's election coverage, Indecision 2024: Electile Dysfunction.

HE DIVED DIRECTLY INTO THE NEWS OF THE DAY

Stewart seemed to take inspiration from MSNBC Rachel Maddow when she turned a daily host role into a weekly one. Both resisted the idea of ​​doing too much, cramming a week's or, in Stewart's case, nine years' worth of material into a single show. He quickly delved into the news and updates on President Joe Biden and his Republican rival.

In Biden's case, that meant directly addressing questions about his age and fitness for office, something the president's supporters surely want to avoid. He examined Biden's press conference last week intended to counter characterizations contained in special counsel Robert Hur's report on classified documents found at Biden's home.

Joe Biden held a big news conference to dispel the notion that he may have lost a step and, politically speaking, three or four steps, he said.

He talked about Biden aides who thought it was a good idea for him to turn down a Super Bowl interview in favor of a TikTok appearance: fire everyone.

Stewart showed recordings of administration officials, like Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats, testifying to Biden's toughness and suggested it might be a good idea to film the president in these meetings so so that the public can see it.

Yet Stewart also used a tightly edited videotape of Donald Trump and his family during his depositions, claiming they couldn't remember things to counter the idea that Biden is the only one showing problems of memory during legal proceedings also under pressure. The Daily Show even found one in which Trump said he didn't remember talking about how good his memory was.

His main point: Concerns about whether Biden, 81, or Trump, 77, are up to the world's toughest job should not be swept under the rug.

It's the candidates' job to allay concerns, not voters' job to not mention them, Stewart said.

IT WAS RIGHTLY WELL RECEIVED BY CRITICS

Based on just one night, a handful of critics highlighted Stewart's seamless transition.

Alison Herman of Variety wrote that it almost seemed as if he had never left, a phrase repeated in the headlines of reviews from NPR critic Eric Deggans and CNN Brian Lowry.

From the show's first moments, Stewart sat in the host's chair without missing a beat, throwing out jokes with a familiar style that made it seem like he had left a few weeks ago barely, rather than 2015, Deggans wrote. He brought a confidence that the series sorely needed.

Jeremy Egner of the New York Times wrote That Stewart's first night found him grayer, at one point he used his own withered face as a prop in a joke about the ages of presidential candidates. But it was otherwise in classic form.

The comparison between Stewart returning to The Daily Show and two contestants likely to stage a rematch was too obvious to pass up. Correspondent Dulce Sloan, speaking pointedly about discouraged voters, said they need someone new, more than just old white guys coming back to get jobs.

We're talking about elections, right? » said Stewart.

The campaign interlude allowed Stewart, and viewers who had moved away from The Daily Show after his departure, to get to know unknown actors. An on-set interview with Jordan Klepper, who will host the show for the rest of the week, was less successful.

During his absence, Stewart spent time as an activist fighting for benefits for September 11, 2001, responders and two years hosting The Problem with Jon Stewart on the Apple TV+ streaming service. He made a subtle allusion to the latter on Monday, saying he would make jokes about China and AI, topics that would have made Apple uncomfortable before deleting the show.

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David Bauder covers media for the Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder