During the listener Q&A portion of Comedy Central’s The Weekly Show podcast on Thursday, host Jon Stewart absolved himself of any responsibility if The Daily Show is viewed as “political diabetes.” According to Stewart, the show puts out “healthy food” that revolves around the “things that are contemptible that need to be attacked.”
Co-producer Brittany Mehmedovic set the scene by wondering, “I listened to you on Michelle Obama's podcast, and do you really think the Daily Show is giving the country political diabetes? Like, come on, brother.”
Stewart responded by backtracking, sort of, “I don't know. I think the point was I don't know. Like, you don't know what—here's the thing. We think we're making healthy food. But we don't—you don’t know the overall—you can never know. All you can control is what you're making. You can't necessarily control how it's being digested, what the downstream effects may ultimately be. And all those things. Do I think that? No.”
Jon Stewart backtracked, sort of, on his recent comments wondering if The Daily Show is political diabetes, "I don't know. I think the point was I don't know. Like, you don't know what—here's the thing. We think we're making healthy food. But we don't—you don’t know the overall,… pic.twitter.com/G6DL131zZC
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) September 11, 2026
He further claimed, “I think that at our best we can identify the space between what you see on camera and television and what's actually happening in the rooms where that is planned. The best sort of insight and satire. But at its worst it can create a gamified atmosphere of disdain that is not—it's sort of like, you know, everything can't make you outraged.”
The Daily Show is supposed to be a satire of a cable news show, and while some elements of that still exist, it is mostly just another liberal insult comedy show that exists to make fun of conservatives or Democrats it views as insufficiently left-wing.
Nevertheless, Stewart insisted his goal is not to be an outrage merchant:
You have to always try, and the difficulty when you're iterating a show that often is to make sure you've adjusted your governor that you've synchronized everybody's watches so that you're not—it's—I used to say it was the Snuggles the Bear problem where—you ever seen comedians that will, like, go on stage and be like, ‘If I see that Snuggles the Bear commercial one more time!” and you're just like, 'Really?' The Snuggles the Bear things really got you? You don't want to be an ungrounded outrage machine. And so you're always trying to calibrate that. Because if that's what you become, then it's just Morton Downey Jr.
That is hard to claim to make while hosting The Weekly Show. The podcast may be a Comedy Central product, but there is no comedy to it, but there is lots of outrage. Nevertheless, Stewart further defended himself by adding:
And where you think that wasn't justified or that, you know, you always want to make sure that fairness and veracity and good faith is being—and context is a part of—that doesn't mean that the tools of satire: hyperbole and, you know, juxtaposition and, you know, adjectives that are not kind can be used because there are things that are contemptible that need to be attacked. But you want to make sure that the targets justify the deployment and the amplification of the tools you're using. And you hope that the downstream effect of that isn't a caricaturing, even though caricature and stereotyping are such a tool of satire. I don't know if that made any sense.
The problem for Stewart is that while he wants to claim he is attacking things that deserve to be attacked, he often finds himself offering up serious opinions on subjects he is unqualified to speak on.
Stewart wrapped up with a bizarre claim, “But that's—the point is we're definitely not trying to give you diabetes, but we also don't think we're curing anything if that makes sense.”
If Stewart doesn’t think he is curing anything by hosting both The Daily Show and The Weekly Show, then why is he doing it? With that response, Stewart reverted back to his “clown nose on, clown nose off” routine, where he wants to be taken seriously as a political commentator but without any of the consequences or responsibilities that come with the job.
Here is a transcript for the September 10 show:
Comedy Central The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
9/10/2026
BRITTANY MEHMEDOVIC: Jon, I'm really mad at you.
JON STEWART: No, come on. I've been on vacation. All right. I'm here.
MEHMEDOVIC: I listened to you on Michelle Obama's podcast, and do you really think the Daily Show is giving the country political diabetes? Like, come on, brother.
STEWART: I don't know. I think the point was I don't know. Like, you don't know what—here's the thing. We think we're making healthy food. But we don't—you don’t know the overall—you can never know. All you can control is what you're making. You can't necessarily control how it's being digested, what the downstream effects may ultimately be. And all those things. Do I think that? No.
I think that at our best we can identify the space between what you see on camera and television and what's actually happening in the rooms where that is planned. The best sort of insight and satire. But at its worst it can create a gamified atmosphere of disdain that is not—it's sort of like, you know, everything can't make you outraged.
You have to always try, and the difficulty when you're iterating a show that often is to make sure you've adjusted your governor that you've synchronized everybody's watches so that you're not—it's—I used to say it was the Snuggles the Bear problem where—you ever seen comedians that will, like, go on stage and be like, “If I see that Snuggles the Bear commercial one more time!” and you're just like, “Really?”
GILLIAN SPEAR: Where do you go from there?
STEWART: The Snuggles the Bear things really got you? You don't want to be an ungrounded outrage machine. And so you're always trying to calibrate that. Because if that's what you become, then it's just Morton Downey Jr.
So, the thing that we try to do—and I think it was what I appreciated with Jonathan was saying, he tried to do—is post more the reality of what you're doing and how you're doing it and how you're executing it. And where you think that wasn't justified or that, you know, you always want to make sure that fairness and veracity and good faith is being—and context is a part of—that doesn't mean that the tools of satire: hyperbole and, you know, juxtaposition and, you know, adjectives that are not kind can be used because there are things that are contemptible that need to be attacked.
But you want to make sure that the targets justify the deployment and the amplification of the tools you're using. And you hope that the downstream effect of that isn't a caricaturing, even though caricature and stereotyping are such a tool of satire. I don't know if that made any sense.
SPEAR: No, it did. It absolutely did.
MEHMEDOVIC: It really did.
STEWART: But that's—the point is we're definitely not trying to give you diabetes, but we also don't think we're curing anything if that makes sense.
