After a summer spent in the Middle East directing his first film, Jon Stewart made his big return to The Daily Show last night—and he brought along both the seriousness and the shtick that people adore (and sometimes dislike) about him. The show started with interim host John Oliver enlisting Jessica Williams, Stephen Colbert, Mr. Met, defibrillator Big Macs and lox syringes to try to get Stewart to act more American. A bearded, unkempt Stewart proceeded to cycle through a set of characters including Moses, Sherlock Holmes, Larry The Cable Guy, Freddie Mercury, a Smurf, Miley Cyrus at the VMAs, and Hitler (by way of Mel Brooks) before returning to normal.
Stewart sounded excited to be back: "You don't know what it's like out there in the real world," Stewart said. "Nobody applauds every stupid thing you do!" He recounted all the things he appreciated about being home in NYC: "Hello dildo shop near a school." Oliver proceeded to catch him up on all the fun stuff he missed over the summer, including Paula Deen's career meltdown, Sharknado, the royal baby, and of course, Carlos Danger.
There were no fun stories for Stewart yesterday though: he got right back to business by jumping into the very serious Syria situation with "Uncle Jonny Stew's Good Time Syria Jamboree." As he put it: "Wow, America taking military action against a Middle East regime. It's like I never left."
