Jon Stewart's 10 Greatest 'Daily Show' Beefs

Jon Stewart's had a lot of beef over the years.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

In the decade and a half that Jon Stewart has sat behind The Daily Show desk, we've grown to view him as America's coolly neurotic uncle. The man cares deeply about politics, but his disappointment with the system is usually channeled into a hand wave or a bad accent. Post-9/11 and post-Newtown humor failed, and he delivered thoughtful, sad addresses instead. Rarely does the man express anger on stage.

And yet, there are some subjects and guests who bring something out in Stewart. Maybe he sees them as great sparring partners. Maybe they just piss him off enough to lull him out of his comic pose. Whether they're conservative pundits he views as a mirror image or fame-mongering blowhards he can't resist taking shots at, there are just some people that get under Jon's skin, or maybe, more accurately, he loves getting under theirs. Let's relive Jon's greatest Drake-Meek Mill moments with his 10 Greatest Daily Show Beefs.

Donald Trump

Not Available Interstitial

The night after Donald Trump announced his candidacy, Stewart could barely contain himself. He rushed through the news of more serious candidates to get to his Trump coverage. Once he finally got his chance, Stewart launched into a masterful take down, culminating in his description of Trump's candidacy as "America's id running for President."

Stewart's savage mockery of Trump's candidacy wasn't the first time that he took shots at The Donald. Here's a 2011 piece on Trump and Sarah Palin eating shitty pizza on Palin's national tour.

There are number of other great Stewart Trump-busting moments. Each time Trump made the news, whether it be for the controversial comments, the Birther movement, or his reality show, Stewart has been there to mock his fellow notable New Yorker.

The most civil moment of this feud was back in 2004, when Trump was first a guest on The Daily Show. Trump had a softball guest spot to promote The Apprentice and the exchange was amiable. But, even then, while Stewart treated Trump with kid gloves, you got a sense of what Stewart doesn't like about Trump. At one point, Stewart playfully hinted at Trump's egomania, saying, "You need a boost of self-esteem. I'm not a psychologist, but you need a hug."

Jim Cramer

Not Available Interstitial

Normally, Stewart finds himself tangling with right wing politicians and pundits, but one of the greatest beefs in his Daily Show tenure was with CNBC host Jim Cramer. After The Daily Show criticized CNBC for CNBC employee Rick Santelli's comments that homeowners facing foreclosure were "losers," the feud began. Stewart doubled down on his criticism of CNBC and Cramer during a Letterman appearance. Cramer responded several days later with a statement on Mad Money. Finally, Cramer agreed to come on the show to hash things out. The result was a twenty-two minute interview in which the two hosts attempt to reckon with the financial collapse.

Most media agreed that Stewart destroyed Cramer in the interview, and that was the end of the feud, at least publicly. Cramer told The New York Times in 2011 that the interview stuck with him for most of the year afterwards. In an interview with Howard Stern last year, Stewart expressed regret at how intensely he went after Cramer and how incredibly public and hostile the feud became.

Crossfire

Not Available Interstitial

One of Stewart's greatest moments came relatively early on in his tenure in 2004. When he was a guest on the left vs. right political argument show Crossfire, Jon took the opportunity to tear apart the premise of the show on their own air. The resulting coverage was such an embarrassment (the YouTube video below has 9 million views) that the show was canceled soon after Stewart's appearance.

The show's cancelation resonated across the media landscape. More than a decade later, former Crossfire hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala have been asked to weigh in on Stewart's torpedoing their show. Carlson, for his part, still doesn't understand what Stewart was talking about.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

 

Glenn Beck

Not Available Interstitial

While Stewart has often been able to find common ground with politicians and pundits on the other side of the aisle, Glenn Beck and Jon Stewart's relationship could never be described as positive in any way. In Beck's heyday, the two hosts had a pretty constant back and forth, calling each other out on their shows, and rallying their audiences against one another. The Daily Show called out Beck for everything from his botched interviews to his promotion of gold companies; Stewart was mockingly quoted on Beck's book jacket for Arguing with Idiots.

In 2010, Stewart dedicated the majority of an episode to a straight-up parody of Beck's show, sending up Beck's tendencies towards professorial monologuing, and even mocking Beck's trademark backboard.

Stewart dusted off his Beck impression again the next year when ol' Glenn finally talked his way off of Fox News.

No, there has never been any love lost between these two. Predictably, when Stewart announced his departure from The Daily Show, a dour takedown piece went live on Beck's site.

The War on Christmas

Not Available Interstitial

Many conservative talking heads have found themselves with Daily Show targets on their backs over the years, many because of the "War on Christmas," a ridiculous right-wing concept that Stewart made sure to mock every year. 

Here's Stewart taking on the "War on Christmas" in 2013:

Here he is in 2012:

And in 2011:

And in 2010:

And here he is way back in 2006. 

We will deeply miss Jon Stewart's annual mockery of Fox News's perception that Christmas is being made a mockery of. Sorry to make you think about the fact that the War on Christmas is over. Here's an academic paper that's been written on Stewart's war with the War on Christmas to help you through these trying times.

Seth Rollins

Not Available Interstitial

Last February, Stewart took a break from his regular feuding with right-wingers to beef with someone, well, a little more beefy: WWE superstar Seth Rollins. After Stewart announced his retirement from The Daily Show, Rollins claimed that he would be the perfect replacement.

Rollins interrupted one of Stewart's "Moments of Zen" in late February.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

And he took the opportunity to invite Jon to appear on WWE Raw the following Monday.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

Unlike most of Jon Stewart's beefs, this conflict didn't come with the depressing side effect of highlighting the terribly broken aspects of our political system. And unlike most of Stewart's feuds, this one ended on good terms. On July 31st, Rollins returned to The Daily Show and presented Stewart with a championship belt.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

Arby's

Not Available Interstitial

With Seth Rollins' brief stint on The Daily Show, Stewart and his team took the opportunity to remind us of another great feud that Jon has been a part of that has transcended politics: Jon Stewart hates Arby's.

Towards the end of Rollins' most recent Daily Show appearance, the WWE superstar introduced a supercut of all of the mocking and fake-shilling Stewart has done for corporations over the years. No one has been been given as much sarcastic love by Stewart as Arby's.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

An Atlanta newspaper (Arby's is headquartered in the ATL) has tracked a steady trend of Arby's mockery from Stewart since 2013. Arby's has been name-checked as the go-to terrible food of The Daily Show so often that there has been some speculation that Arby's paid for this negative product placement. This seems pretty unlikely, as when Arby's tried to capitalize on Stewart's attention via social media, he struck back in short order.

Sarah Palin

Not Available Interstitial

No Republican political figure has drawn the ire of intellectual liberals quite like Sarah Palin. Her folksy nonsense and soccer mom smile that she uses to mask her special brand of American exceptionalism-infused bigotry has driven many on the left crazy. Jon Stewart is no exception.

Stewart's most memorable takedown of Palin came in his 2011 segment, "Petty Woman."

But this clip is just one of hundreds that The Daily Show has produced over the years. Just last month, Palin provided new fodder for Stewart's joke mill.

Perhaps the greatest shame of Stewart's 2015 retirement is that it comes just a couple years shy of a solid decade of Sarah Palin mockery.

Bill O'Reilly

Not Available Interstitial

O'Reilly and Jon Stewart have a long and complicated history. When O'Reilly first stopped by The Daily Show, both hosts behaved like O'Reilly was doing Stewart a favor. At that time, O'Reilly was at the top of his game, and Stewart hadn't yet become the liberal hero he is today. As the years wore on, they took pot shots at each other, appeared on each other's shows frequently, and disagreed on most major issues of the day, but there was always mutual respect between the two men. They both understood their unique roles as entertainers and media watch dogs, and that despite their incredible political distance, few people could understand each other as well as they did.

The climactic moment of the Stewart-O'Reilly relationship was their 2012 "Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium," a debate held at George Washington University with the bulk of the proceeds being donated to charity.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

Splitsider has speculated that O'Reilly will make an appearance on Stewart's last show, and given their long, contentious history, we too hope Papa Bear shows up.

Stephen Colbert

Not Available Interstitial

The fake feud between Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart has been one of the most entertaining aspects of The Daily Show over the years. The sniping between their time slots, in which Colbert played the role of the arrogant blowhard and Stewart the confused, aloof veteran, always linked the two programs seamlessly. Sometimes the beefing bled over into entire glorious segments and even running gags, as was the case with their 2008 "Who Made Huckabee?" three-way beef with Conan O'Brien. The feud (actually a clever way to fill their shows with content during the writer's strike) was all about whose "bump" had driven Mike Huckabee to national prominence.

Though "Who Made Huckabee?" may have been the apex of Colbert and Stewart's fake feuding, they've taken plenty of other opportunities to extend their fictional beef over the years. The two late-night icons have "fought" over who's a bigger Star Wars fan, who's more deserving of an Emmy award, the purpose of their anti-Glenn Beck rally, and ice cream, among many many other things. 

It's fitting that Stewart is stepping away from his desk shortly after Colbert left The Colbert Report, as it will always be difficult to imagine one without the other.

Latest in Pop Culture