On Monday night, the longtime host of the Comedy Central news satire kicked off his new tenure in classic form.

Jon Stewart returned on Monday night as host of “The Daily Show,” the Comedy Central news satire he turned into a cultural force before leaving in August 2015. It was the beginning of a plan, announced in January, that will bring Stewart back to the show on Mondays through the presidential election. He will also serve as an executive producer.

“Why am I back?” he said. “I have committed a lot of crimes. From what I understand, talk show hosts are granted immunity — it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but take it up with the founders.”

Stewart’s first night back found him grayer — at one point he used his own wizened face as a prop in a joke about the presidential candidates’ ages. But he was otherwise in classic form.

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    4•11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Jon Stewart returned on Monday night as host of “The Daily Show,” the Comedy Central news satire he turned into a cultural force before leaving in August 2015.

    Opening with “Now where was I,” Stewart mixed silliness and absurd, often self-deprecating, jokes with righteous indignation as he kicked off the 2024 edition of one of the show’s signature franchises, its “Indecision” election coverage.

    Later he anchored a bit that found the show’s correspondents Ronny Chieng, Desi Lydic, Michael Kosta and Dulce Sloan reporting from the same diner, a goof on the campaign coverage trope.

    In one sense, Stewart is the latest in a line of celebrity fill-ins who have hosted “The Daily Show” since Trevor Noah left in December 2022.

    It was also a prolific talent incubator: Alumni including Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Samantha Bee and Hasan Minhaj went on to host their own shows.

    “The Problem” never got much traction, aside from generating a few viral interview clips and receiving an Emmy nomination last year for outstanding variety talk series.

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