Jon Stewart, a born and bred New Yorker, kicked off his Monday night installment of The Daily Show celebrating the momentous victory of the Knicks, shouting out sanitation workers and the community of NYC for coming together to celebrate the team’s triumph for the first time since 1973.
Describing an “overwhelming sense of joy and solidarity and diversity and community and a good amount of crying and a lot of contact high,” Stewart mocked right-wing media’s depiction of the festivities as violent, apologizing that they couldn’t live up to its depiction of a “peaceful gathering” like the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“Although, to be fair to that mob, you know, they lost. So, anger justifiable,” he quipped.
Acknowledging that some hooliganism did take place, it was a “record low” for a Saturday night, the late-night host added, maintaining, “Where you see a mob destroying a school bus, I see people of all faiths and creeds and colors and sexualities coming together to destroy a school bus. It ain’t a melting pot until you light that bitch on fire!”
The comic then transitioned to the other major sports event of the weekend outside of the Knicks win and World Cup — the White House‘s UFC Freedom 250.
“What a god-awful mockery of an event that somehow managed to find a way to devalue both combat sports and our national dignity,” he began. “Who even aired this embarrassing shit?”
After playing a news feed that announced Paramount+ as the streaming partner, The Daily Show cut back to an overly penitent Stewart: “And what a fine event it was. Once again, the leaders of Paramount+ providing us all with incredible content at reasonable prices,” he said, flashing a thumbs up. “I am proud to stand with the Paramount family and whatever shows they decide to either cancel or put on.” (The Daily Show‘s cable channel, Comedy Central, is owned by Paramount Skydance.)
“You know, the average American, they don’t want their White House to stand for certain morals and values,” Stewart stated. “The regular people in this country want their president to live in a slightly more violent Hooters, or a slightly less violent Waffle House.”
In wrapping up his monologue, the two-dozen-time Emmy winner concluded: “The real division in America isn’t between cities and rural areas or suburbs or heartland values and coastal elites or liberals and conservatives, it’s between people anywhere who find joy in community versus those who seem to only find it in fealty. And I know which America I want to occasionally step in dog shit in.”
