If Internet headlines in the twilight of his sixteen-year tenure as host of The Daily Show are to be believed, Jon Stewart is a destructive man. The subjects of his scrutiny — right-wing figures and the media outlets that covered them, usually — were, the headlines read, “destroyed,” “demolished,” or occasionally “eviscerated” by Stewart’s indignant brand of comedy.
On Thursday night, just under a year after he handed the Daily Show reins to Trevor Noah, Stewart returned to the nation’s screens, joining his old friend Stephen Colbert on the main stage of The Late Show. He wore a T-shirt and a scruffy grey beard — the joke being, of course, that retirement normally means earlier bedtimes.
But Thursday night was a warranted exception. It was hours after Fox News CEO Roger Ailes — a frequent Stewart target — announced his resignation following accusations of sexual harassment, and mere minutes after the end of Donald Trump’s bombastic final speech at the Republican National Convention.
“You feel that you’re this country’s rightful owners,” he said, addressing those in the right-wing media who he said have enabled Trump. “There’s only one problem with that. This country isn’t yours. You don’t own it.”
Read More: Donald Trump Is The First Nominee Since 1960s to Have Not Spoken at a Prior Convention
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