Watch The Daily Show pooh-pooh the Chris Christie bridge scandal

(Image credit: Comedy Central)

On Wednesday night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart tackled the big political story of the day: The emails showing that top aides to Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) apparently blocked traffic to the George Washington Bridge last September in retaliation for Fort Lee's Democratic mayor refusing to endorse Christie's re-election bid. Most commentary is focusing on whether this scandal will derail Christie's 2016 presidential hopes.

Stewart went there, too, crudely suggesting that news of Christie's first big scandal means "you can probably now see Paul Ryan's boner from space." But that wasn't his big takeaway. After noting Christie's disavowal of all knowledge of the vindictive lane closures — "clearly somebody is getting thrown under the bus here; fortunately for them, the bus isn't moving, it's stuck in terrible, terrible traffic" — Stewart turned for analysis to Senior New Jersey Correspondent... Jon Stewart.

In this role, Stewart was decidedly unimpressed with Team Christie's "piss-poor, third-rate quality of corruption," when New Jersey is universally renowned for its "piss-rich, first-rate quality of corruption." After running through some of the colorful scandals that put Jersey on the corruption map, Stewart chided Christie's aides for using non-coded lingo, calling them "an embarrassment to dialog." Have you seen New Jersey's flag? he added. "There is literally a severed horse's head on the state flag!" Stewart concluded his humblebrag about New Jersey corruption by quoting — who else? — Bruce Springsteen:

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In the wild-card segment of the show, Aasif Mandvi cast a jaundiced eye toward the efforts to promote ObamaCare to 20-somethings through ads featuring bros doing keg stands and women celebrating their access to birth control. "Brosurance before hosurance," Mandvi summarizes to the earnest young adman who helped come up with the brosurance campaign.

The Daily Show's focus group of earnest 20-somethings wasn't impressed. Neither were ObamaCare opponents, who rightly pointed out that young people don't like to be talked down to. Their opt-out campaigns aren't much better, though. Then, Mandvi hit upon a solution. Watch:

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.