Jon Stewart appears on Colbert's 'Late Night': How duo changed pop culture, politics

Stewart, Colbert's former 'Daily Show' colleague, appeared on Colbert's show Tuesday to discuss recent actions by President Trump. The duo had a big impact on pop culture and politics during their time on 'The Daily Show' and 'The Colbert Report,' respectively.

Jon Stewart, former host of the influential Comedy Central program “The Daily Show,” recently appeared on the CBS program of his former colleague Stephen Colbert.

Mr. Stewart appeared on CBS’s “The Late Night with Stephen Colbert” on Jan. 31 to discuss President Trump’s recent actions. 

Pretending to read an executive order as Mr. Trump, Stewart said, “We have never faced this before. Purposeful, vindictive chaos. But perhaps therein lies the saving grace of my, Donald J. Trump's presidency. No one action will be adequate. All actions will be necessary. And if we do not allow Donald Trump to exhaust our fight, and somehow come through this presidency calamity-less and constitutionally partially intact, then I, Donald J. Trump, will have demonstrated the greatness of America, just not how I thought I was gonna.” 

Stewart and Mr. Colbert both appeared on “The Daily Show” beginning in the late 1990s. Colbert then starred on his own Comedy Central program, “The Colbert Report,” beginning in 2005. He moved to CBS in 2015. 

Stewart is not currently on a program, though HBO programming president Casey Bloys said near the end of 2016 that a previously announced animated show by Stewart that will depict what goes on at cable news could be set to go “maybe by February or March.”

While hosting “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” respectively, Stewart and Colbert had an enormous impact on pop culture and politics. BBC writer Jennifer Keishin Armstrong wrote in 2015 that “Jon Stewart changed the world.… Under Stewart’s leadership, ‘The Daily Show’ evolved from an obviously tongue-in-cheek parody of TV news presenters to a show that seriously critiqued the underlying messages of news programmes themselves and truly skewered those in power, often confronting politicians in person with questions pure news shows were too polite to ask.” Ms. Armstrong noted that Stewart came in at number one for Time Magazine’s 2009 “most trusted newcaster in America” poll. 

Meanwhile, Newsday writer Verne Gay wrote that “Colbert Report” had “an impact on the political zeitgeist that is well-nigh incalculable.”