Jon Stewart hosted NBC Nightly News anchor and managing editor Brian Williams last night for the newsman's fourteenth appearance on The Daily Show. Their ensuing discussion, which touched on the passing of Walter Cronkite and the overtures made via email to Mark Sanford by various figures in the media, alternated between the cordial and the cordially biting. Let's focus on the latter part, obviously!
Dovetailing off his opening segment, which blasted the various media figures who pitched their own variety of Argentinian woo to get Mark Sanford on their shows, with the promise of an easy ride floated as an enticement, Stewart asked Williams what he does to "seduce" a public figure like Sanford. Williams parried the shot, saying, "You'll have to ask the individuals whose names are on these emails, Jon." Stewart was quick to point out that his colleague, David Gregory, was one of those names:
STEWART: How do you seduce a subject? How do they? What is his name, David Gregory, for your organization, NBC. He sends one that says come on my show, you can frame the conversation the way you want to?
WILLIAMS: Free to frame it, but David can then knock the house down.
And that's the incredibly true story of how Brian Williams told the funniest joke on The Daily Show last night!
Though Stewart got in some goodies, as well, especially after Williams awkwardly segued to a discussion of Walter Cronkite.
WILLIAMS: We lost a great man last Friday night, Jon.
STEWART: That cannot be your segue. Is that your segue?
WILLIAMS: I thought that might educate our segment.
STEWART: Are you talking about Billy Mays?
WILLIAMS: We've had a tortured relationship.
STEWART: We have had a tortured relationship. You're right. Walter Cronkite is a giant in the industry. Is that a man who you looked up to?
WILLIAMS: The guy I wanted to be when I was a kid.
STEWART: Really?
WILLIAMS: It was like Carrot Top to you.
STEWART: So how does it feel to fall so short?
[Arm wrestling ensues.]
WILLIAMS: I think that ended up about even.
STEWART: It always does, doesn't it?
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Also explored last night, how does frenzied animal coitus compare to the media's courtship of Mark Sanford? Pretty favorably, actually!
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