Jon Stewart takes over Stephen Colbert's monologue, savages Trump's GOP convention

Jon Stewart takes over Colbert&#039;s Late Show, savages GOP convention

(Image credit: Late Show)

Stephen Colbert began his live coverage after Thursday's final night of the Republican National Convention not with Donald Trump's speech, but with the news that Fox News chief Roger Ailes is out of a job. "Now, I just want to say that although I spent well over a decade making fun of his network, and him, and the damage I think he did to the world, the news of this man losing his job gives me no pleasure," Colbert said with a straight face. Then, "hey Jimmy, could we cut the camera off me for just a second, please?" And after a minute of audible off-screen celebration, he returned. "If only there was someone I could share this lack of pleasure with."

That's when Jon Stewart popped up from behind the desk — to the shock and awe of the audience — and did a similar off-camera dance at Ailes' downfall. Then he kicked Colbert out of his chair and delivered a very Jon Stewart takedown of Trump's speech and the GOP convention.

"Well, the convention's over," he began. "I thought Donald Trump was gonna speak — Ivanka said that he was going to come out, she said he was really compassionate and generous, but then this angry groundhog came out, and he just vomited on everybody for an hour." As for the rest of the convention, "Republicans appear to have a very clear plan for America," he continued. "One, jail your political opponents. Two, inject Rudy Giuliani with a speedball and a Red Bull enema. And then three, spend the rest of the time scaring the holy bejeezus out of everybody."

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Stewart went on to dissect the "contortions" conservatives will have to go through to embrace in Trump the things they've spent eight years complaining about in President Obama — "a thin-skinned narcissist with no government experience — yes, that sounds exactly like... Barack Obama." And he used Sean Hannity to trace those contortions. He ended on a note of righteous indignation: Conservatives really just want Trump "to give you your country back, because you feel that you're this country's rightful owners. There's only one problem with that: This country isn't yours; you don't own it. You don't own patriotism. You don't own Christianity, you sure as hell don't own respect for the bravery and sacrifice of military, police, and firefighters."

Stewart will reportedly be back next week to Jon Stewart the Democrats.

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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.