Jon Stewart tore into Jay Leno, mock-voice and all, after the former Tonight Show host said late-night hosts are “cozying too much to one side or the other” in their political humor.
Leno told the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in an interview recorded before Late Show’s cancellation, “I love political humor, don’t get me wrong,” but “Why shoot for just half an audience all the time? You know, why not try to get the whole? I mean, I like to bring people into the big picture.”
Stewart brought up the comments on his Weekly Show podcast Thursday. Imitating Leno signature’s voice, he said, “‘I don’t understand, why do you wanna offend your audience? Why not just do a show about… why do you have to talk about things you believe? Why do you have to make jokes about things you actually think?’”
Then he went for an even lower blow, adding, as Leno, “‘I’m just gonna go throw myself down a hill and see if I can get a concussion,’” before calling the basis of the veteran host’s critique “f---ing ridiculous.”
Leno has become known for frequently injuring himself and was sporting an eye patch in November when he told TMZ the story behind his latest collection of bruises at the time: He’d fallen down a hill while looking for “a good to place to eat” before his comedy show outside Pittsburgh. “I rolled down the hill. Hit my head on a rock, knocked me in the eye, there you go,” he explained at the time.
Stephen Colbert, a frequent critic of Donald Trump, was blindsided by the news of his firing, which came just days after he’d called out Paramount on air for settling its lawsuit with Trump ahead of its lucrative Skydance merger that required his administration’s approval.
The president gloated about the cancelation on Truth Social. “I absolutely love that Colbert” got fired, he posted. “His talent was even less than his ratings.” While Paramount insisted that ending Late Show was a “purely financial decision,” Trump expressed his “hope” that he played a “major part” in getting one of his many nemeses off the air and that he can get Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel gone next.
Leno has said he wasn’t a fan of Trump’s, but called his 2024 win “a great day for democracy.” He’s made similar comments about “both sides,” telling Variety in November that back in his day, “You’d get angry letters from both sides. Now you kind of have to take a side and, yeah, it’s a little bit different.”
Though Leno’s comments this month were recorded before The Late Show’s axing, they were well-timed for a roasting from Stewart, who skewered Leno right along with Fox News when he hit back at hypocritical calls for less partisanship in late night.
“This is them trying to police and create rules that they would never follow,” he said of conservative media that makes no attempts to conceal its bias. “That’s how Fox is popular! That’s how any of these people, you know, they all talk about [Greg] Gutfeld, ‘It’s the most popular.’ Yet he’s not popular because he’s a both-sides guy… he’s relentless and after a day of watching Fox News and being bathed in their very purposeful propaganda, it’s a great way to top off the night.”
He concluded, “If you look at the social media profile of all the people that complain about the left-wing bias, they’re all right wing influencers. They all make their money—their entire economy is based on how willing they are to attack, and defame, and to crush liberals. The whole thing is bulls--t.”
Stewart also predicted that ousting “liberal” hosts is just one step in MAGA’s plan for media. “Have you met the chairman of the FCC? He’s like, s--tposting Colbert,” Stewart said. “He is probably right now on a search for more right-wing billionaires that can buy up some more of these properties because there’s gonna be an acquisition and merger spree for these kinds of things.”
