WATCH: John Oliver sizes up Iran's new president-elect

(Image credit: Daily Show)

last updated 8 January 2015

Week Two of John Oliver's tenure as stand-in Daily Show host starts with an intentionally mixed message on Sarah Palin's return to Fox News. Oliver begins by half-lamenting Palin's return to Fox, only five months after her contract wasn't renewed, followed by a bit of Palin-poking and, ultimately, a slightly disingenuous-sounding plea to just ignore Palin. "Oh, Sarah," Oliver concludes. "If only it were as easy for us to quit you as it is for you to quit... everything."

Oliver then introduces a new segment, "How Should We Feel About This?" — which, he says, is America's favorite game whenever a not-friendly country goes to the polls. Unsurprisingly, the pundits have differing opinions. There is, though, "one positive aspect of this election that we can all agree on," Oliver says: That Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the "chief antagonist to the entire planet," is on the way out.

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To celebrate Ahmadinejad's imminent departure from the world stage, Oliver replays a highlight reel of the Iranian president's "crazy, crazy, crazy" utterances, then... well, watch above.

Next, The Daily Show turns from foreign to domestic religious conservatives, with correspondent Samantha Bee looking into evangelical Christian complaints about being bullied by gay-rights advocates — or even beat up by groups of gay men. To call the segment evenhanded would be a stretch, but it never gets ugly, and Bee at least gives an evangelical preacher and radio host space to make his case. 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.