Jon Stewart has gotten into a trend of having extended Daily Show interviews that get split into two parts, one that runs on television when the show airs, and one that exists only digitally onThe Daily Show’s website. These interviews occur semi-frequently, but the one consistent bit is that they’re usually with people you’d have no interest in listen to talking for 12 minutes, like Jim DeMint or Robert Reich, or as Jon Stewart himself puts it in last (Tuesday) night’s show: the guy who’s “written a book on the construction of the Pentagon.” Meanwhile, no matter how much fun an actor or comedian might be as a guest, they leave when their allotted seven minutes is over, with a quick plug of their movie, book, or cause.
So last night, I was expecting that Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) would be another case of Jon and a Republican die-hard speak at cross-purposes at each other, only to find that Rubio had been held up by a Senate floor vote and that Denis Leary had been drafted into service instead.
And it didn’t disappoint. Leary and Jon immediately begin by making fun of each other, talking about Leary being confused for Willem Dafoe (and how embarrassing it must be for Dafoe when he’s confused for Leary’s part in Operation Dumbo Drop) as well as Jon’s many Jewish comedy personas.
But the best part is that at the end, Denis Learydemands Rubio’s extra web time, meaning that there’s another five minutes of Leary and Stewart riffing on each other (it begins with Jon with his feet up on the interview desk, telling Leary to “entertain us”).
You can watch Part 1 below, and then go to the website to pick up Part 2:
curlyfries
12/05/2012
Jon Stewart and Denis Leary have so much hostility between the two of them that it’s painful to watch. I don’t care HOW long the two have known each other- that often means more time to get to hate someone anyway- the way they attempt to hurt each other’s public image is not “all in good fun”.
Both of them are willing to KILL a joke, or destroy a bit, just to watch the other squirm. Last time I saw Leary on he would NOT let go of the fact that Jon mispronounced the name of a foreign dignitary, and spent a disproportionate amount of time basically calling him a fraud, no matter how hard Jon tried to steer the conversation towards something that fit the tone of the show.
This time Jon WOULD NOT stop belittling Leary’s book, basically calling HIS hard-ass schtick fraud.
It’s not fun, it’s uncomfortable, and I don’t know how anyone could believe the two are friends. Part of me suspects that attempts to frame their interaction this way is just damage control. I posted a comment like this to another article describing these guys as “old friends”, and it mysteriously disappeared by the very next day…