Stewart Struggles To Say Daily Show Is Beneficial, But Says It's 'Good Faith'

Alex Christy
August 27th, 2026 11:30 AM

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Jon Stewart joined former First Lady Michelle Obama on her IMO podcast on Wednesday and struggled to say that political comedy shows, such as The Daily Show, are beneficial to America. But before Stewart was able to achieve full self-awareness, he would say that they are because they are made in “good faith," and any good faith discourse is worth it.

Obama wondered, “Do you think comedy helps or hurts the political climate? ‘Cause here's what, you know, like, I mean, sometimes I just can't watch anything political, right?... I wonder what you think because it—sometimes I think is it good that most young people are getting their news from The Daily Show or that they, you know, they want you to run for president, or you know, I mean, that we’re in that position of, where, you know, especially with social media. It’s like, ‘The funny guy—’”

 

 

Stewart responded by claiming that “I never confuse cultural power with power. I learned early on that the—one of the frustrations of—one of the joys of it is catharsis and being able to express yourself and do that thing that we talked about, like, 'What do you want to be as a comic?' I want to be—I want my personal thoughts and dreams and whatever to be filtered through whatever art form it is that I'm pushing through.”

However, Stewart wasn’t sure a liberal comedy show should be exalted the same way a liberal activist should, “Second item of it is but it's impotent and does it—is it an opiate? Is it creating a, you know—and having worked on some of those things on Capitol Hill and all that, I know the difference now, which I didn't before. The difference between activists who are in the trenches doing that day-to-day work trying to bend that arc of the moral universe slowly towards justice not realizing there's a bunch of people trying to bend it back.”

The comedy shows are like opiates. On one hand, the usual “Republicans are dumb” or “Trump’s a fascist” quips don’t make anyone smarter or more well-informed and when they try to talk about serious policy issues, they end up just outing themselves as people who have passionate opinions about subjects they know nothing about.

As it was, Stewart kept rolling, “I wish there was a double-blind study where you could find out like, am I hurt—like does this help? Does it corrode? Does it pervert? Is it something to be—is it ultra-processed, you know, food that's given the country a kind of political diabetes?”

However, Stewart ultimately decided his profession is good because it is, according to him, sincere, “You know, I don't know. I think I also have to step back on—it may not be an honorable thing we do, but we do it as honorably as we can in that it is not in bad faith. So the way that I try and judge it is any good-faith art, material, speech, talk that goes into the universe, I feel like is a win. There's so much bad faith, and I try to hold that but I can't sit here and honestly answer, like, ‘It's a win for society.’ Like, ‘What I've done over these past 25,’ — you know, I don't—I'd hate to think, obviously, but there's many people on social media who would tell me, you know, that that is the case.”

 

 

In his rambling response, Stewart mentioned “that arc of the moral universe," and earlier in the show, Obama made it clear which side she thinks she is on because, once again, Obama has made it clear that the country has disappointed her:

What we were saying about the rolling back of women's rights. I mean, you know, if—when things are okay it's easier to take what you have for granted and to think, ‘Wow, there will always be somebody there who wouldn't possibly do this.’… Because, you know, our kids didn't witness much of the struggle at all, right? They didn't experience it, and that's, you know, that's the kind of growth you would hope for the country that each generation everything gets better and better and better, and that was actually happening, right? Until we get to a point where there's a generation that didn't even remember what was wrong in the first place? Never saw it, right?”

Ironically, that is another problem with the comedy shows. It would be one thing if the comedy shows were equal opportunists in skewering the powerful, but they are not. They are just daily airings of liberal talking points with clapter increasingly replacing laughter as the language of affirmation.

Here is a transcript for the August 26 show:

IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson

8/26/2026

MICHELLE OBAMA: What we were saying about the rolling back of women's rights. I mean, you know, if—when things are okay it's easier to take what you have for granted and to think—

JON STEWART: Right.

OBAMA: “Wow, there will always be somebody there who wouldn't possibly do this,” you know—

STEWART: Right.

OBAMA: Yeah, “we've never had somebody who would do this, right,” and you just assume that's gonna be the way it is. I think at some level we were there as a country just a little unclear, just a little, like, “Maybe we can get a little more,” you know, "Maybe I can get more of a tax break—

STEWART: Right.

OBAMA: —you know. Maybe we can get richer than we are. You know, maybe we can get rights changed faster than ever before, right?” Because, you know, our kids didn't witness much of the struggle at all, right? They didn't experience it, and that's, you know, that's the kind of growth you would hope for the country that each generation everything gets better and better and better, and that was actually happening, right? Until we get to a point where there's a generation that didn't even remember what was wrong in the first place? Never saw it, right?

…

OBAMA: Do you think comedy helps or hurts the political climate?

STEWART: Oh, wow.

OBAMA: ‘Cause here's what, you know, like, I mean, sometimes I just can't watch anything political, right?

STEWART: Sure, sure.

OBAMA: Especially then because—

STEWART: Sure.

OBAMA: —it was like, “Is this is this funny?”

STEWART: Right. Right.

OBAMA: You know—

STEWART: Well, it’s personal.

OBAMA: —or is it—yeah, yeah—

STEWART: Yeah, yeah.

OBAMA: —but I, you know, I wonder what you think because it—sometimes I think is it good that most young people are getting their news from The Daily Show—

STEWART: Right.

OBAMA: —or that they, you know, they want you to run for president—

STEWART: Right.

OBAMA: —or you know, I mean, that we’re in that position of, where, you know, especially with social media—

STEWART: Right.

OBAMA: —it's like “The funny guy—“

STEWART: I mean, social media has—look, I think the shows that that we do now, they go out on social media on the thing—

OBAMA: Yeah.

STEWART: —but to a large extent because we are infrastructure heavy we are—we do—we are in some ways a relic of a previous era where it's sort of like I'm running a Blockbuster, a video store inside of a Tower Records, you know what I mean, where people just be like, “So you sell what now? CDs?”

OBAMA: Yeah. Right.

STEWART: But in other ways, it has more reach because social media places at everywhere—

OBAMA: Yeah.

STEWART: —the question is what does—I never confuse cultural power with power.

OBAMA: Yeah.

STEWART: I learned early on that the — one of the frustrations of—one of the joys of it is catharsis and being able to express yourself and do that thing that we talked about like “What do you want to be as a comic?” I want to be — I want my personal thoughts and dreams and whatever to be filtered through whatever art form it is that I'm pushing through. Second item of it is but it's impotent and does it — is it an opiate? Is it creating a, you know—and having worked on some of those things on Capitol Hill and all that, I know the difference now, which I didn't before.

OBAMA: Yeah.

STEWART: The difference between activists who are in the trenches doing that day-to-day work trying to bend that arc of the moral universe slowly towards justice—

OBAMA: Yeah.

STEWART: —not realizing there's a bunch of people trying to bend it back—

OBAMA: Yeah.

STEWART: —and so, you know, I wish there were metrics. I'd almost — I wish there was a double-blind study where you could find out like, am I hurt—like does this help? Does it corrode? Does it pervert? Is it something to be—is it ultra-processed, you know, food that's given the country a kind of political diabetes?

You know, I don't know. I think I also have to step back on — it may not be an honorable thing we do, but we do it as honorably as we can in that it is not in bad faith.

OBAMA: For sure.

STEWART: So the way that I try and judge it is any good-faith art, material, speech, talk that goes into the universe, I feel like is a win. There's so much bad faith—

OBAMA: Yeah.

STEWART: —And I try to hold that but I can't sit here and honestly answer, like, “It's a win for society.” Like, “What I've done over these past 25,” — you know, I don't—I'd hate to think, obviously—

OBAMA: Yeah, yeah.

STEWART: — but there's many people on social media who would tell me, you know, that that is the case. 

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