It's a new year and a new presidency but Jon Stewart has the same unbridled energy to skewer President Donald Trump's inauguration and the high-profile figures in attendance. The comedian began his "Daily Show" opening monologue noticing the tone shift after the inauguration. He grimaced, "I'm your host for this historic vibe shift of a day."
Stewart noted the guests in attendance like the Supreme Court, Trump’s family, Congresspeople and former presidents.
“Also attending were all those people who warned Americans to shun this wannabe fascist dictator called Trump,” Stewart quipped.
“‘Look at me, Ma! Oh, let’s go see Hitler and get a quick selfie first! Hello! Look at us! A quick one for the ‘Gram!’ Former President Obama was there. George Bush seemed kind of there," Stewart said. "Even Mike Pence showed up, I guess to let the crowd finish the job. Only Michelle Obama seemed to have the consistent ethical stance of saying, ‘When they go low, I stay the f**k home.'"
Stewart also highlighted the heads of the tech industry, who had front-row seats to the inauguration — a signal of their close ties to Trump.
Stewart described them as a “plethora of stocky, bald billionaires who also seem to go to the same biohack life extension clinic and say, ‘Give me the Lex Luthor.'” He joked, “Shouldn’t this gathering be happening in a volcano’s lair near Zurich? Or are we just open-sourcing the Illuminati now?”
Tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Shou Zi Chew and Sundar Pichai are "the six guys who maybe control 20% of the world's wealth and 100% of your nudes," Steward said.
But Stewart dropped all pretenses, "Honestly there's not a useful app of communication not controlled by at least one of these individuals and you may not be concerned that they've all ponied up a $1 million to be sitting there and are kissing the a** of a president who openly threatens non-a** kissers."
He added, “Trust me, s**t’s going to get weird.”
One of those billionaires, Musk, made headlines Monday evening after a controversial hand gesture at an event held following the inauguration. During the billionaire's appearance and speech, Musk made a salute on stage which has caught momentum online. Historians have said it is clearly a Nazi gesture.
"Charitably, I’m going to say that was just an awkward 'my heart goes out to you' gesture," Stewart replied after showing the clip and mimicking the hand movement. "You know, listen, it’s a f**king nerve-wracking day, you’re not normally a public speaker, it’s a one-off gesture. Please try not to use it again."
Then the show continued the clip of Musk repeating the gesture at the rally.
“Son of a b***h! You really want to make sure that people in the back can see it. I’m just going to be generous and say maybe it was Elon’s attempt at dabbing on the haters.”
"The Daily Show" airs Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central and streams on Paramount+.
