Could 2021 include some top-tier tweeted takes from none other than Jon Stewart, whose once-ubiquitous pop culture presence has been deeply missed for years?
As you may have noticed on your timeline this morning, the former Daily Show host has arrived on Twitter to share his thoughts on the ongoing controversy surrounding the Reddit-inspired stock surge of GameStop and other companies. Stewart, in an apparent reference to those (including Robinhood and others) whose responses to the boom have been widely panned, said "this is bullshit" in a tweet shared Thursday night.
"The Redditors aren't cheating," he said, adding they're simply "joining a party Wall Street insiders have been enjoying for years." Instead of making moves to shut them down, Stewart joked, they could "maybe sue them for copyright infringement." The StewBeef-signed tweet also included mention of the 2007/08 financial crisis, which notably occurred during Stewart's Daily Show years.
A few hours later, Stewart thanked Twitter for the "warm welcome" and vowed to only tweet "in a sporadic and ineffective manner" moving forward.
Ultimately, Robinhood partially walked back its decision earlier this week to restrict trades after getting widespread criticism, notably from political leaders including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Shortly before markets opened on Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it will "act to protect retail investors when the facts demonstrate abusive or manipulative trading activity that is prohibited by the federal securities laws."
Stewart, of course, hasn't exactly disappeared since his Daily Show tenure came to a close. While his near-daily dose of politics-centered satire are behind him, he's made appearances on Stephen Colbert's Late Show and just last year wrote and directed the Steve Carell-starring Irresistible.