“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart on Monday night tore into President Donald Trump for bringing the nation to the brink of war with Iran, but then the monologue took an unexpected turn.
Stewart mentioned the Supreme Court decision against Trump on tariffs, which caused the president to attack the justices and call them “fools” and “unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution.” But the loss didn’t seem to deter Trump at all as he immediately unveiled a new set of tariffs based on a different line of legal reasoning.
“It’s so dispiriting,” Stewart said. “You know what we need? We need one of them stuffed comfort monkeys that poor Punch has.”
Punch is a baby macaque living in a Japanese zoo who was abandoned by his mother and has been clinging to a plush orangutan instead. Although the audience “awwwed” in unison, Stewart wasn’t having it.
“Although, and no disrespect, but clearly, there is probably something wrong with that fucking monkey,” he said.
Stewart agreed that the images of little Punch and his plush companion were “adorable,” but added: “Who are we to question the wisdom of the tribe?”
Audience members loudly groaned, but Stewart continued.
“No, I’m just saying, they’re the ones that know him best. They’ve decided he’s problematic,” Stewart said.
While some people in the audience laughed, others groaned.
“What the fuck?” Stewart fired back. “You know better? You know monkeys better than the monkeys, is that it? All the little monkey experts all decided, in the middle of a blizzard, to come here tonight…”
At that point, the audience was back to cheering and applauding, but Stewart still wasn’t having it.
“No!” he fired back. “Fuck all y’all! Who are we to question their lived experience?”
He didn’t stop there, either.
“I’m sorry, I’m standing by this,” he said, then offered a prediction on what would happen to the plush companion once Punch reached puberty.
While Stewart eventually steered the monologue back to Trump and Iran, it wasn’t an easy turn. He started to laugh and briefly hid behind his sheaf of papers.
“I gotta work on the segue,” he admitted.
Check it out in his Monday night monologue:
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