Tonight was the second presidential debate, the first featuring a new participant, Vice President Kamala Harris. Those who spent the June debate worrying that their candidate was too old to be president can now enjoy the schadenfreude of that being someone else's problem. That's not to say that the debate wasn't filled with some big moments of shock, awe, and brain-poisoned tirades about animal abuse, Marxism, and whether or not someone has the concept of a plan for replacing the Affordable Care Act in the works. But for The Daily Show's purposes, it provided an excellent opportunity to play that clip from Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life of Mr. Creosote barfing into a bucket. You know the one.
Stewart returned to the desk tonight immediately following ABC's debate simulcast but before Taylor Swift released her endorsement of Harris. It was a live show, so there's a good chance that Stewart didn't even know that the fortunes of every living being on Earth were about to change. Hence, he waited until after the first break to announce, with tears in his eyes, "Taylor Swift and I were watching TV at the same time."
But before that, it was all business, nothing but jokes about the restrictive garments of young men at Sydney Sweeney film festivals and vomiting after a clip of Kamala Harris bragging about a Dick Cheney endorsement. "Seriously, fuck that guy," Stewart said. That's the strategy, apparently. So, while Harris was accepting the endorsement of the architects of the Iraq War, Trump was being told not to talk. He didn't listen.
When the debate started, though, Stewart reached a level of "we're so back" glee not often seen on The Daily Show. It was a joy for Stewart to behold two debaters actively refusing to answer questions rather than doddering at the podium, proudly announcing, "We beat Medicaid." However, his criticism of mealy-mouthed answers on climate change and the economy was quickly dispelled by Trump and Harris' answer on Roe V. Wade. Trump told the American people that everyone in America wanted abortion rights to go back to the states, even though that's not true, so he repealed the very popular Supreme Court decision. And Harris responded by telling him that nobody wants women to suffer a miscarriage and be stuck "bleeding out in a car in the parking lot," because insurance won't cover treatment because they don't want to go to jail. "Holy shit, she crushed that," the host eloquently added. "This is like Groundhog Day, where you get to go back and fix the bad way something happened earlier in a good way."
Stewart also seemed delighted by Trump's string of answers relating to "the dogs being eaten," another classic example of racist misinformation that the former president lobs whenever backed into a corner. Well, everyone had a good time with an answer that was so obviously ludicrous that it left The Daily Show powerless. All they can do is what the rest of us do: rely on the early seasons of The Simpsons to make our jokes for us. It's easy to compare an elderly man screaming, "They're eating the dogs!" to Abraham J. Simpson. But, hey, sometimes the easiest move is the right one.
Despite not having much time to craft one of his cathartic final arguments about the debate, Stewart did finish strong, reminding the audience that these debates are in the eye of the beholder. What one person sees as a win, another sees as a loss, and unless you're one of those rascally undecided voters, such as Taylor Swift, until an hour ago, the sides are pretty much set. But what grinds Stewart's gears is how easily Trump brushes off January 6 and how we keep letting him get away with it. "In any other country, the lack of accountability would be disqualifying," pointing to the time Trump "riled" up his base into a frenzy and had them run rampant throughout the Capitol. He was the one who invited rioters to D.C., promising "will be wild." What's wild is that the race is still this close. It's enough to make you vomit into a bucket.
