The Daily Show has seen a lot of talented comedians come and go under the tutelage of Jon Stewart, and none have followed in his footsteps quite as closely as John Oliver. Well, his footsteps led to HBO instead of Comedy Central, but you get me. The current Last Week Tonight host returned to his former home for a “surprise” interview. Check out his knightly return below.
When one is the host of a chat series, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to promote material; that is, unless one has another former guest host to sit in and take over hosting duties. That’s exactly what happened here, with Oliver popping by to talk to Stewart, correspondent Jason Jones and executive producer Tim Greenburg about Stewart’s directorial debut, Rosewater.
But this was no mere visit, for Oliver, the most sarcastic genie who’s ever lived, was magically summoned by teapot groping! Also by Stewart’s bottle of rose water, his Rosewater baseball cap, a rose water bottle opener and a hand-scrawled note. I’ve done more for less stuff. And it turns out that’s just enough to get John Oliver to give another spin to the non-premium cable host chair. What a trooper that guy is.
Not only was it great to see Oliver back behind the Daily Show desk, but it makes a lot of sense, too. After all, he hosted the show for eight weeks in the summer of 2013 when Stewart was out completely taking advantage of his good friend’s generosity, and was also filming Rosewater. It was Oliver’s success during this stint that locked him the HBO gig, which has gone swimmingly well in creating watercooler talk and viral videos a plenty. It makes one wonder what Jon Stewart would be capable of if he ever left the Daily Show.
You can watch the rest of the interview in the video below, which is pretty insightful on the film’s background. It sadly doesn’t feature the as-if-from-nowhere appearances of Stephen Colbert and Steve Carrell. It’s still pretty funny though.
Catch The Daily Show every night on Comedy Central and watch the equally amusing, if not more so, Last Week Tonight every Sunday night on HBO. And be sure to watch Rosewater when it hits theaters on November 14.
