Jon Stewart had a fun surprise for viewers on Monday’s “The Daily Show,” an unannounced appearance by beloved former cast member Jessica Williams, who showed up for a debate over the coverage of the ongoing Donald Trump criminal trial.
Stewart roasted it, noting with example after example how shallow and overblown the coverage is, and mocking outlets for learning nothing from how Donald Trump was covered in 2016.
But then Williams showed up to deflate that by mocking Stewart for hating fun, and describing at length — with a hilarious flurry of penis puns — why “we need this messy bulls— spectacle.” Watch the whole amusing segment at the top of the page now.
Trump is of course on trial for his role in the well documented hush money payments given to former porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep a prior sexual encounter between them a secret from voters in 2016. The existence of the payment and Trump’s knowledge and participation in making it are well-documented; the trial is to determine if Trump committed crimes doing so. He’s charged with multiple counts of business fraud.
Stewart got into the topic right at the start, first by noting how the media maintains a pretense of needless objectivity by reporting Trump’s denials as if they have real merit. “Oh, that’s right. This is a classic case of the state of New York versus ‘nu-uh,’” he quipped.
“His trial will obviously be a test of the fairness the American legal system, but it’s also a test of the media’s ability to cover Donald Trump in a responsible way. A task they have acknowledged they’ve performed poorly in the past,” Stewart continued, before cueing up a montage of media personalities making said acknowledgements.
Then he rolled clips of trial coverage featuring exaggerated, overblown and even hugely pretentious rhetoric that is often also deferential to Trump. One particularly cringe example was an ABC news report of Trump arriving at court as a reporter said, “arriving at this intersection of American history, with defiance.”
Stewart laid into this in detail. “The brilliant juxtaposing of the gravitas of the moment with simple traffic terms, was,” Stewart said as he made the ‘chef’s kiss’ gesture/
“Seriously, are we going to follow this guy to court every day?” Stewart asked. “Are you trying to make this OJ? It’s not a chase, He’s commuting!”
Stewart ran through more examples like, eventually getting to the matter of the way courtroom sketches have been covered, which inspired a small rant. “At some point in this trial, something important and revelatory is going to happen. But none of us are going to notice, because the hours spent on his speculative facial tics as the media tries to make us feel like the most mundane bulls— is earth shattering. We won’t believe you when it’s really interesting,” he said.
Arguing that trials are mainly boring — making Trump’s repeated courtroom naps understandable — Stewart warned that the way this trial is being covered is a repeat of how Trump managed to eke out an electoral college victory in 2016.
“We got a long ways to go here. It’s the first day of the first of his 438 trials to come. Pace yourself. And if you’re bored, you can always start planning how you’re going to f— up covering his next trial, and the sober mea culpas you’ll deliver during his next term as president because of the kinds of things that you are talking about now,” he said, at which point Jessica Williams interrupted him.
“Ok we get it,” she said as a delighted Jon Stewart asked if she was here to give a report from the court house.
“Here’s my report. John Stewart hates fun. This trial rocks Why you gotta be all get off my lawn about it?” Williams asked.
“You’re killing me,” she continued after some fun banter. “My poor sweet, naive, older than I remember John. We need this messy bulls— spectacle. Every other news story is a massive bummer. This Trump trial is like an open window on a Greyhound bus full of farts, while you try to close the window. John, why are you trying to make it smell farts?”
Calling a criminal trial related to Donald Trump’s attempt to conceal his sexual history “a gift,” Williams pointed out, “John, the first witness is named David Pecker.” This inspired an amusing series of penis-related puns as she reiterated that Pecker is a slang word for penis.
The sketch continued with some fun banter and even some expressions of friendship between Stewart and Williams. As we said, watch it above now.
(And sidebar, Jessica Williams would still make a very excellent “The Daily Show” host.)
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