In a move that sure looked like it had been coordinated with his friend and former co-star, Jon Stewart had a message to Paramount Global following the cancelation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”: “Go f— yourself.”
But unlike Colbert, who said it almost laconically about Donald Trump during his own monologue on Monday, Stewart sang it with the help of a gospel choir backing him.
Stewart wasn’t just singing “go f— yourself” to Paramount though, but to the companies and figures in business and media who are in his words “bending the knee” to Donald Trump in order to “protect your bottom line.”
Watch the whole segment from “The Daily Show” below:
Stewart got there first by bringing up the topic of “The Late Show,” kicking the commentary off by paying tribute to Stephen Colbert at length. He noted their decades of working together first from 1999 to 2005 on “The Daily Show” and then with Colbert as the host of “The Colbert Report.” He also praised Colbert’s success in leaping from basic cable to a major TV network and eventually having the number one late night talk show.
Stewart also acknowledged the changing economic environment for network television and for late night TV, but then made it clear he does not buy Paramount’s explanation that canceling “The Late Show” was purely about money.
“My God, when CDs stopped selling, they didn’t just go, ‘Oh well, music, it’s been a good run.’ The fact that CBS didn’t try to save their number one rated network late night franchise that’s been on the air for over three decades is part of what’s making everybody wonder, was his purely financial, or maybe the path of least resistance for your $8 billion dollar merger?” Stewart said, referring to the planned merger of Paramount Global with David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
CBS and Paramount “killing a show that you know rankled a fragile and vengeful president, so insecure, suffering terribly from a case of chronic penis insufficiency,” feels suspect, Stewart told his audience, because “CBS lost the benefit of the doubt two weeks prior when they sold out their flagship news program to pay an extortion fee to said president.”
“I understand the corporate fear. I understand the fear that you and your advertisers have with $8 billion at stake,” Stewart went on, “but understand this truly: The shows that you now seek to cancel, censor and control, a not insignificant portion of that $8 billion value came from those f—ing shows… shows that take a stand, shows that are unafraid…”
Stewart then made the case that seeking to reach deals or kiss up to Trump never protects anyone, using as his example the fact that Trump is now suing the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal.
“Donald Trump is suing Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, the man other than Biden maybe most responsible for getting Trump elected,” Stewart joked. “Fox spends 24 hours a day blowing Trump and it’s not enough. Imagine suing someone mid-blow.”
“So here’s the point: If you’re trying to figure out why Stephen’s show is ending, I don’t think the answer can be found in some smoking gun email or phone call from Trump to CBS executives or in CBS QuickBooks spreadsheets on the financial health of late night. I think the answer is in the fear and pre-compliance that is gripping all of America’s institutions at this very moment, institutions that have chosen not to fight the vengeful and vindictive actions of our pubic hair doodling commander in chief,” Stewart continued.
This led him to the aforementioned “go f— yourself” gospel performance.