Jon Stewart agreed to Elon Musk’s terms that, if he goes on “The Daily Show,” his interview will be unedited, further noting that’s how most of the in-studio interviews for the Comedy Central show air. But that’s not all Stewart offered.
“As a matter of fact, let me sweeten or unsweeten the pot: The interview can be 15 minutes, it can be an hour, it can be two hours — whatever,” Stewart said on Monday night. “I’ll be honest, I don’t think this network makes any other programming. So we can do whatever the f–k we want as long as we wrap before the new season of ‘South Park,’ which comes out May or June of 2026.”
Last week, after Stewart mocked Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, Musk posted on X that he would be interested in going on the late night show. But soon after, he hedged his interest, posting that “Jon Stewart is much more a propagandist than it would seem” and “Jon is too set in his ways. He used to be more bipartisan.”
Stewart took issue with that assessment, largely because of who it was coming from. “Again, the guy who custom-made his own Dark MAGA hat that he wears to opine in the Oval Office with the President who he spent $270 million to elect thinks I’m just too partisan,” Stewart said. “I’m really not sure what he thinks bipartisan means, but it’s generally not, ‘I support Donald Trump and also Germany’s AFD party.’ That’s not bipartisan. That’s just the same s–t.”
The late night host then addressed Musk directly, saying that he has criticisms of DOGE but that, in general, he believes in the idea of governmental efficiency.
“If you want to come on and talk about it on the show, great. If you don’t want to, sure. But can we just drop the pretense that you won’t do it because I don’t measure up to the standards of neutral discourse that you demand and display at all times? Because, quite frankly, you know it, I know it — bulls–t,” Stewart said to the applause of his studio audience. Watch the full segment, above.
