Speed Reads

The Daily Showdown

Jon Stewart welcomes the Koch Brothers, The Daily Show's newest sponsor

Well, welcome may be too strong a word. But on Wednesday night, Jon Stewart noted that Koch Industries, the huge industrial conglomerate owned by conservative super-donors David and Charles Koch, has started running ads during The Daily Show, presumably to soften their image among what Stewart called "our audience of not-yet-dying-off voters."

Stewart showed the sunny commercial that ran on Monday night's show, calling it "the kind of an ad that a company usually makes when a byproduct of their manufacturing process is giving young, pubescent males talking nipples." Then, after walking viewers through the Koch brothers' political money machine, he added: "Now that we know the Koch brothers are pouring an unending waterfall of money through a cleverly masked network of unaccountable organizations to peddle electoral influence, the ad sounds less inspiring."

But it also left a few things out, Stewart said, "so to welcome them to the Daily Show advertising family, we did make some minor adjustments." You can watch the remixed ad below. It makes Stewart's frequent, gratuitous knocks on Arby's seem downright friendly. --Peter Weber