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Jon Stewart’s ‘Daily Show’ Return, Peace Offering From Arby’s

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 02:14 PST, Dec 16, 2015

Jon Stewart returned to the Daily Show last Monday night, but not to stay. According to the Daily Beast, this was to the relief of the new host, Trevor Noah, who feigned worry that Stewart might be returning for good.

“I can’t believe it! This is awesome! Oh, wait, wait, wait, s**t. Are you here to take the show back? I heard about this in American TV.”

But Jon Stewart assured Noah that he was not going to take the show back. Instead, he was there to talk about an issue that is very important to him.

“I have this issue I care about very deeply and I was wondering — I want to get attention paid to it but I was realizing I don’t have a show, and nobody gives a sh*t anymore. So I thought, you have a show, and maybe I could come and…”

Jon Stewart showed up on the Daily Show, dressed casually and sporting a beard, having left the show just four months ago. According to CBS This Morning, Stewart returned to the show to advocate for the 9/11 first responders.

“So back in 2010, okay, after far more lobbying than should have ever been necessary, Congress passed what was called the Zadroga Act, funded healthcare for 9/11 first responders who’d gotten sick working at Ground Zero.”

Jon Stewart went on to explain that the healthcare provision expired in September.

“It’s soon going to be out of money. These first responders, many sick with cancers and pulmonary disease, had to travel at their expense to Washington, D.C., hundreds of times to plead for our government to do the right thing.”

Stewart believes that the 9/11 first responders have all but been forgotten by the American government.

“So right now there are 67 senators sponsoring the bill, 260 representatives, which even by stupid Senate and House math is more than enough to do this.”

And to prove his point, Jon Stewart had first responder Kenny Specht as a guest, one of four men he interviewed five years ago and the only one of those four men who is well enough to appear on the show now.

“Just you and I. Five and a half years ago we did a show. Seventy-five percent of the panel is no longer here. Two of the people have illnesses and John Devlin, who sat at the last chair, an operating engineer, passed away since our show. So I think we brought the statistics to show that when we did the show five and a half years ago, four men sat here. It’s you and I.”

Jon Stewart promoted the hashtag #worstresponders, urging people to tell the Senate Majority Leader to pass the 9/11 Zadroga Act.

Despite his humanitarian efforts during his time as host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart did his share of feuding with corporate entities, particularly Arby’s. Vulture reports that Stewart frequently insulted the food chain, which worked out to be good publicity for both parties. Arby’s Chief Marketing Officer Rob Lynch explains to the Associated Press that they had to decide how to handle Jon Stewart’s remarks, so they decided to go with it.

“So we sent him and his crew lunch, and they sent us back a letter saying, ‘Usually when we make fun of people, they send us nasty letters. You sent us lunch. That’s awesome.’ We were like, ‘Yes! They loved the food, they like us. That was the perfect decision.’ And then it happened again. And it happened again. And again. Every time, we sent them lunch. Sometimes it was easier, and sometimes it was harder.”

They even wished Jon Stewart farewell by sending him a video montage of his insults to the company.

This was perhaps one of the friendliest feuds in corporate history!

[Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images]

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