Jon Stewart Unleashes on Colbert’s Cancellation, Trump’s Epstein Doodles, and Media Cowardice in Explosive Daily Show Episode

In a jaw-dropping episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart tackled the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show and the latest eyebrow-raising allegations swirling around Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein – all with the razor-sharp wit that made Stewart a late-night icon.

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After welcoming viewers in his trademark sardonic style, Stewart teased the audience about late-night’s “big media news,” promising to get to it – but not before lampooning Trump’s now-infamous “bawdy” birthday card doodle sent to Jeffrey Epstein. The card, reportedly featuring a crude drawing of a naked woman with Trump’s own signature doubling as pubic hair, set Stewart off on a hilarious tirade.

“Have you no decency?” Stewart exclaimed, lampooning news coverage that fixated on Trump’s ‘bawdy doodle’ as if it were Victorian-era scandal. He poked fun at Wolf Blitzer’s squirming news delivery – “pubic hair!” – and offered his own pointed punchlines: “What building in New York City has pubic hair?” Stewart even ribbed Trump’s weird denial (“I don’t draw pictures”), only to debunk it by showing a Trump-signed doodle of the New York skyline from 2008.

But Stewart quickly cut through the absurdity to the serious core: “It’s troubling that Team Trump’s defense isn’t ‘why would anyone think he’d write a creepy letter to a pedophile,’ but rather, ‘he can’t draw or use big words.’” Stewart reminded viewers of Trump’s disturbing past comments and legal controversies involving underage girls, then lambasted the administration’s attempt to change the subject by releasing unrelated files as distractions—like “firing off countermeasures from Air Force One.”

The episode turned deeply personal when Stewart addressed the “elephant in the late-night room”: CBS’s sudden cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Stewart, himself a Comedy Central and Daily Show alum alongside Colbert, waxed nostalgic – and furious. “Colbert challenged himself taking Letterman’s mantle. I… quit. And Stephen exceeded all expectations, becoming number one in network late night.”

“Now,” Stewart continued, “Stephen has been canceled for purely financial reasons. CBS axed their top-rated late night show after over three decades. Is this really about money, or something else?” Stewart raised the specter of media institutions’ growing tendency to appease political bullies and the dangers of pre-emptive self-censorship – “pre-compliance” he called it – amid mega-mergers and Trump’s vengeful pressure campaigns.

“Corporations and networks,” Stewart thundered, “think they can serve up something so bland, so innocuous, that they’ll never again be on the boy king’s radar. Why will anyone watch you? And you’re wrong. This is not the moment to give in.” Stewart then led the studio in a powerful singalong to “Go Fuck Yourself” – a musical middle finger to censorship and fear that had the audience cheering, laughing, and sharing the moment across social media within minutes.

Stewart’s emotional and brutally honest monologue closed with a call to artists, networks, and institutions: “We must continue to have humans make things that inspire and provoke other humans!” For one night, The Daily Show wasn’t just comedy – it was a barn-burning wake-up call to fight for truth, art, and the voices that matter.