Jon Stewart Delivers Masterful Commentary on Our New and Sad Normal Response to Tragedy

I have never appreciated Jon Stewart’s return to occasional hosting of The Daily Show more than last night.

As usual, the jokes were sharp and funny. But it was his serious and insightful commentary on the horrific assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump that really struck a chord.

Like all great comedians and cultural commentators, Stewart knows precisely how and when to make with the funny, and when to turn to a more poignant reflection that provides some emotional and intellectual sign-posting for a disoriented nation still processing last weekend’s events.

The opening segment of Tuesday night’s show covered a lot of topics, with Stewart making hay out of JD Vance getting the VP nod, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s strange speaking affect , and Joe Biden going toe to toe with Lester Holt .

The last four minutes were reserved for the raging debate over what constitutes irresponsible political rhetoric in an America prone to spasms of high-profile violence.

“This entire debate over rhetoric is happening because of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump over the weekend at a rally in Pennsylvania, which was obviously terrifying and disorienting,” Stewart said, before joking, “And I think I learned that in an emergency when shit hits the fan in this country, the internet is a great source of information.”

“For instance, within minutes, I found out that this was staged, and then I found out that it was actually an inside job. And then I found out that it was Joe Biden who ordered it. And then I found out that this guy is the shooter. Great job, internet, you did it!” Stewart sarcastically exclaimed. “Except it turns out that that guy is an Italian football commentator named Marco Violi, who, just to be fair, looks a little shooter-ey. But I can only assume I was in Italy, sipping Aperol Spritz on the piazza when you got a call from his Nonna, ‘Marco, Marco, why Marco?'”

It was a funny fucking bit that nailed the rare shared experience America went through in the hours following news of Trump’s shooting, which led to an examination of the peculiar environment these insane times have led us to: the eagerness, from people of all stripes, to learn that the assailant wasn’t a member of their own personal tribe:

And I have to say, and I mean this and I’m not … I have a slight confession to make, and I am not proud of this in any way, shape or form. But I am following social media during all this to find out who did it, because it’s this pattern I feel like we now have in the country when we hear about a horrific event.

You’re on pins and needles in this sort of reverse demographic lottery to make sure that the psychopathic shooter doesn’t belong to one of your teams, you know, or you just sit there going, please, no Democrats, no liberals, no progressives. It’s like that Press Your Luck game: No Jewey, no Jewey, no Jewey, no Jewey.

And we’re all doing it. We’re all doing it because we have to know what our posture will be on the tragedy. Will it be a haughty? ‘I told you!’ Or perhaps a circumspect  ‘Well, let’s not rush to judgment. We shouldn’t generalize.’

And then it ends up being someone we can’t even figure out in the first place: a bullied loner white guy, registered Republican, donated to a blue PAC, argued conservative causes is a dude. But if you flip his picture upside down, kind of looks like an old lady. I don’t know what’s going on with this guy. It’s a jump ball. We don’t know yet who’s got dibs, who wins, and none of us knows what’s going to happen next, other than there will be another tragedy in this country self-inflicted by us, to us. And then we’ll have this feeling again.

I remember it on 9/11, this disorienting, ‘Holy shit, stop the world, I would like to get off feeling.’ And in that moment, there will be some incredible Americans who, in the midst of it, for some unknown reason, rushed towards it. And get us back to some sort of equilibrium. And we’ll count on those folks to hold us together again.

Stewart then deftly pivoted to a lovely memorial to the man who lost his life Saturday evening, local Fire Chief Corey Comperatore , who died while literally shielding his family from stray bullets aimed at Trump.

“And it does remind us that by a hair’s breath, we dodged a catastrophe. But it was still a tragedy because one of those first responders lost his life. His name was Corey Comperatore. He was a retired fire chief in the area. He had given his life in service to his community, and he died literally shielding his family,” Stewart without a trace of saccharine flare.

“He’s a reminder that in those moments of crisis, there are helpers,” Stewart said, with the added authority of a figure who has spent his career working to protect America’s first responders.

“We can all make a choice to try and be one of those people,” he summed up, “or you can be one of these guys,” airing a now-deleted Forbes article bearing the odd headline: “Will Surviving Gunfire Be Donald Trump’s Next Appeal To Black Voters?”

“Not helping!” Stewart exclaimed.

Watch above via Comedy Central.