Last night on “The Daily Show” Jon Stewart made a bet that he knew he couldn’t win. Stewart entered into a push-up contest with Paula Broadwell, who attended West Point, competes in triathlons, and worked the last year as a journalist in Afghanistan, that would see the loser donate money to the charity Team Red, White and Blue.

Needless to say, Stewart lost.

But he didn’t do as bad as you might think. Stewart did 40 push-ups in a row at the end of “The Daily Show” last night. Paula stopped at 60, but probably could have done another 100.

Paula said:

“I proposed that we both do push-ups and whoever loses has to pay $1000 to make up for the push-up gap… How much money are you willing to give up? Because I can do like a hundred.”

Stewart enrolled the help of Paula’s husband Scott, but it doesn’t look like anyone counted Scott’s push-ups.

The Military Times reports that Stewart’s weary arms managed to write a check shortly after the contest to Team Red White and Blue, which supports wounded veterans.

Here’s the video of the push-up contest on “The Daily Show.” (NSFW – Language)

Are you impressed with Jon Stewart’s push-up abilities?

Jon Stewart Loses Push-Up Contest, Gives $20,000 to Charity [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Do you want to know about current events? You can’t go wrong with the New York Times, NPR, or even “The Daily Show.” One thing you might want to avoid, however, is Fox News. A new poll shows that people who watch Fox News are less informed about current events than people who don’t watch any news.

Researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson University asked 612 people from New Jersey about recent current events. Dan Cassino, a Fairleigh Dickinson professor who served as an analyst for the poll, said that the poll contained questions about the Arab Spring, the current GOP candidates, the Occupy protests, and several other major news topics.

Cassino said that Fox News viewers were 18% less likely to know that Egyptians toppled their government compared to people who don’t watch any news. Fox viewers were 6 points less likely to be aware that Syrians hadn’t overthrown their government.

“Because of the controls for partisanship, we know these results are not just driven by Republicans or other groups being more likely to watch Fox News… Rather, the results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions that those who don’t watch any news at all.”

The report also notes that people who get their news from a print source like the NY Times or USA Today, were 12 points more likely to know about the situation in Egypt. NPR listeners also had good scores on the poll.

According to the poll, those who watched an Sunday morning news show were the most knowledgeable about international issues.

Cassino said:

“Sunday morning news shows tend to spend a lot more time on a single issue than other news broadcasts, and they are less likely to degenerate into people shouting at each other. Viewers pick up more information from this sort of calm discussion
than from other formats. Unfortunately, these shows have a much smaller audience than the shouters.”

Cassino also praised Jon Stewart and “The Daily Show” for being an informative program. People who watched “The Daily Show” were 12 points more likely to identify the Occupy protesters as Democrats. Cassino said:

“Jon Stewart has not spent a lot of time on some of these issues. But the results show that when he does talk about something, his viewers pick up a lot more information than they would from other news sources.”

What do you think about the poll? Is no news really better than Fox News?

No News is Better Than Fox News, Says Study is a post from: The Inquisitr

Pat Robertson is known for making comments which some would deem extreme. But even the Christian Evangelist preacher is offended by the far right rhetoric of the GOP candidates. On “The 700 Club,” Robertson warns the GOP candidates that if they don’t stop with their extreme right ideas, they’ll lose the election.

Roberston said, according to Christian Post:

“I believe it was Lyndon Johnson that said, ‘Don’t these people realize if they push me over to an extreme position I’ll lose the election? And I’m the one who will be supporting what they want but they’re going to make it so I can’t win.’ Those people in the Republican primary have got to lay off of this stuff. They’re forcing their leaders, the frontrunners, into positions that will mean they lose the general election… You appeal to the narrow base and they’ll applaud the daylights out of what you’re saying and then you hit the general election and they say ‘no way’ and then the Democrat, whoever it is, is going to just play these statements to the hilt. They’ve got to stop this! It’s just so counterproductive.”

So000 Robertson isn’t saying that the extreme ideas are wrong, he’s just saying that expressing those ideas is going to scare away voters. In other words, Robertson’s advice to the candidates it to keep their agenda a secret until they win the election. Then once they’re president, they can electrify all the fences, ban all the gay marriages, and criminalize all the abortions they want.

Last night on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart attacked Robertson’s advice for the GOP.

Stewart said:

“Is that Pat “gay people cause hurricanes” Robertson expressing concern for how extreme the Republican party has gotten?… Pat “liberals are akin to Nazi” Robertson believes that Republicans are staking out a position that may be to unappealingly extreme.”

Here’s a clip from the Daily Show. [The Pat Robertson part starts at about 4:10.]

Do you think the GOP’s extreme rhetoric will cost them the election?

Pat Robertson: GOP Candidates Too Extreme, Need To Tone It Down [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Daily Show is very entertaining, but not often “laugh out loud” funny.

Last night was a very notable exception, as Jon Stewart addressed at length leaked chat transcripts featuring his old college buddy Rep. Anthony Weiner and digi-foreplay that heavily leaned on doggy-style Daily Show viewings. Oh, yes. Watch the clip:

[Video] Jon Stewart Addresses ‘Daily Show’ Foreplay in Weinergate is a post from: The Inquisitr

The New York Times is reporting that Viacom will be pulling The Daily Show and The Colbert Report from popular online TV  streaming service Hulu. The move is set to occur next week.

As the story goes, Viacom realized that a huge demographic of Hulu subscribers were watching both shows and they demanded a ridiculously large amount of money to keep the shows on the service. Rumors are also stating that they demanded an upfront payment for their programming.

In the meantime TheDailyShow.com and ColbertNation.com will continue to rebroadcast their shows past episodes. The deal, while not a big blow to Hulu, does show a big problem the company faces in terms of attracting third-party network providers to their service, companies which could help build the site into a major online player of digital content should they stay or  come on-board.

With this recent jumping of ship by Viacom we expect to see a more viable pay model from Hulu in the near future or they could end up as nothing more than a wasteland for second rate programming. [Gizmodo]

Viacom Pulling Colbert and Stewart From Hulu is a post from: The Inquisitr

Comedian Rob Riggle is leaving Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show after a 2 year stint.

Riggle is best know for a short stint on Saturday Night Live, but has entertained viewers on The Daily Show since late 2006.

Riggle is best known as the ex Army Guy. Before his career on TV, Riggle was a major in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, and served in Liberia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. He is currently a public affairs officer with the New York City Public Affairs unit and is a recipient of the Combat Action Ribbon.

Here’s the full clip of the announcement:

Rob Riggle leaving The Daily Show is a post from: The Inquisitr

No matter what you think of Obama, he can take a joke, and can give as good as he gets.

Videos below + full transcript.

Part 1

Part 2

Jon Stewart: My guest tonight is a United States Senator representing the great state of Illinois. He is also the Democratic nominee for president. Joining us now via satellite from Sunrise, Florida, please welcome back to the program, Senator Barack Obama. Senator, nice to see you

Barack Obama: Hi, Jon.

Jon Stewart: How are you, sir? Hold on one second. I’m sorry. He’s not actually here. He’s on the satellite. Our audience very excited, sir. Clearly our show is not a swing show, if you will. Thank you so much for taking the time. How are you holding up? How are things going?

Barack Obama: You know, I’m doing great. We are now counting down every single day. And, you know, the crowds are terrific. And you know, I think we’ve got a good shot at this thing.

Jon Stewart: Where are you right now?

Barack Obama: I am in Fort Lauderdale, and we are going to have a rally tonight, and actually, we’re going to go to Orlando. We have an 11:00 p.m. rally with William Jefferson Clinton which I think is going to be terrific.

Jon Stewart: William Jefferson Clinton and you in Florida. Now, I know Florida, many of my people go there to retire. You might want to hold the rally early. They don’t like to miss their shows at night or the early-bird special at the diner. So, whatever you can….

Barack Obama: No comment on that, Jon. I’m trying to win Florida.

Jon Stewart: What a wise man. I thought that at this point, you would be doing sort of a four corners offense, playing kind of a delay game, but you really are going at it. Tell me about this half-hour special that aired earlier tonight. What is this?

Barack Obama: Well, this is the Obama infomercial. I’ll tell you a quick story. We’re buying time on a lot of the stations. I was describing this to Michelle and my daughters, and Malia who is ten, she said “Hold up a second. Are you saying my programs are going to be interrupted?” I said no we didn’t buy on Disney. She was relieved, but for everybody else who wants to watch, they’re going to have a chance to take a look at not just sort of a pitch for me but really what we try to do is tell a story about what’s happening in families all across America. We’ve got four families that we feature. All of them have great hopes, but all of them are struggling too. We want to talk about what the next four years would mean for them.

Jon Stewart: Will it annoy us? Or will we like it? Afterwards, will we think, did he just sell me a Shamwow? What the hell just happened? Or will we feel comforted and, you know….

Barack Obama: I hope what people will come away with, I hope they’ll say to themselves you know what? This election is really important. These families that have been featured remind me of either myself or people I that know. I hope they’ll have a better sense of exactly what I want to do as president. That’s all you can do. At this stage, everything that needs to be said has probably been heard by a lot of voters. What you want to do is remind them one more time. Here’s what I’m going to do, not oversell, let people make up their minds. That’s how democracy works.

Jon Stewart: So much of this has been about fear of you. An elitist, a celebrity, a Muslim terrorist sympathizer. A Socialist, a Marxist, a witch. That’s right. They’ve been calling you a witch. They’re saying if you do win, is that a mandate for Socialism in this country? Has any of this fear stuff, do you think it’s stuff with the electorate? Are you finding that on the trail?

Barack Obama: You know, it just hasn’t. I mean, I think, there’s a certain segment of hard-core Sean Hannity fans that probably wouldn’t want to go have a beer with me, there’s no doubt about that. But I think for the average voter, they’re saying to themselves, what’s all this stuff about? I’m trying to figure out whether I can hang on to my house or who is going to help me get a job or what about my health care, my premiums have doubled over the last couple of years. So I don’t think that they’re paying too much attention to this stuff. And the whole Socialism argument that doesn’t fly too well. The evidence of this seems pretty thin. I said today that I think they found proof that when I was in kindergarten I shared some toys with my friends. That’s clearly a sign that of subversive activity now, I can tell you, Jon, that being on your program I think is further evidence of these tendencies.

Jon Stewart: (laughing). The polls have you up but then they keep talking about this Bradley Effect this idea that white voters when they go to the polls, they’ll tell pollsters they’re going to vote for an African-American but they won’t actually do it.

Barack Obama: Yeah, they’ve been saying that for a while. We’re still here. I don’t know. I don’t think white voters have gotten this memo about the Bradley Effect.

Jon Stewart: are you concerned in some respects, you know, and I don’t even know how to bring this up. Obviously your mother is from Kansas. She’s a white woman. Your father, African. Are you concerned that you may go into the voting booth and….

Barack Obama: I won’t know what to do.

Jon Stewart: Your white half will all of a sudden decide, “I can’t do this.”

Barack Obama: That’s a problem.

Jon Stewart: What is it?

Barack Obama: I said it’s a problem.

Jon Stewart: (laughing).

Barack Obama: I’ve been going through therapy to make sure that I vote properly on the 4th.

Jon Stewart: I think that’s wise. Are you, you know, you and Senator McCain have run such a tough race. Is it possible, do you think, in this day and age for you two to be, to like each other afterwards, to be collegial? Do you feel like you would offer him a spot in your administration or he would do the same for you? I mean, what’s that relationship like now?

Barack Obama: Well, look, there’s no doubt that it gets tense in the middle of a campaign. But I’ve said it before. I admire Senator McCain’s service to our country. He is a genuine war hero. And, you know, I hope that after the election, however way it turns out, that we can work together because some of the problems we’re talking about are ones that we’re not going to be able to solve with one party just trying to dictate a solution to the problems. You look at something like global warming, that’s really an “all hands on deck” kind of situation. If we don’t get everybody on board, conservative hawks who are worried about us buying oil from the Middle East, tree huggers and environmentalists who are worried about, you know, the polar bears, bringing all those folks together and saying everybody’s got a legitimate point of view. Let’s figure out how to solve the problem. That’s the kind of attitude we’re going to need going forward.

Jon Stewart: With the kind of issues that face the country now…. (applause) oh, they’re applauding. Very interesting. They’re applauding a spirit of cooperation, which I actually find that to be a rather angry bitter group in this audience.

Barack Obama: Not very funny cooperation.

Jon Stewart: No, that’s nice. Is there a sense that you have, you know, two years ago when you began this journey, the country was not necessarily in the shape it’s in now. Is there a sense that you don’t want this? (Obama laughs) you may look at the country and think, you know, when I thought I was going to get this it was a relatively new car. Now look at it!

Barack Obama: You know, I actually think this is the time to want to be president. If you went into public service thinking that you could have an impact, now is the time where you could have an impact. We tend to be a pretty conservative country. I don’t mean conservative politically per se, but conservative in the sense that, you know, things are kind of going along pretty well and we don’t want to mess with it too much. And then every once in a while you have these big challenges and big problems. It gives an opportunity for us to really move in a new direction. I think this is one of those moments on things like energy and health care and the economy and education where I think people recognize what we’ve been doing isn’t working.

Jon Stewart: A serious moment.

Barack Obama: I think people will be more open to change.

Jon Stewart: Sir, we definitely appreciate you being on the program tonight. We know what a long haul it’s been. You’ve certainly run a remarkable and historic race. I have great admiration for both you and Senator McCain, and I wish you well. Thank you so much for joining us.

Barack Obama: Great to be with you, Jon. Thank you.

Jon Stewart: Senator Barack Obama. We’ll be right back.

Obama Daily Show Appearance is a post from: The Inquisitr