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'The Daily Show's Jon Stewart Teaches Corruption For Dummies

By Erick Massoto

Published 5 days ago

Tip: don't Google how much your bribe is worth.

Image via Comedy Central

The Big Picture

On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart takes aim at political figures on trial, highlighting the corruption charges against New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez.
Stewart introduces a new segment, "How Dumb Is You," to critique corrupt practices like insider trading among US politicians.
The Daily Show switches gears to discuss the movie Babes with Ilana Glazer, which centers on the portrayal of motherhood and female friendships.

For a second there, The Daily Show made us believe that we'd dive back into the whole Donald Trump trial business, but it turns out there are other political figures on trial that Jon Stewart could focus on. The host opened up by talking about New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, who is currently on trial for accepting bribes in exchange for political favors.

The funny thing about it is that Stewart isn't angry at the alleged corruption charges per se, but rather about the way it was done. According to the charges, Menendez accepted gold bars, furniture, exercise equipment and cars in exchange for... wait for it: pressuring the Department of Agriculture so that Halal could keep its monopoly over the importation of meat. It gets worse — the police found evidence that, after a trip to Egypt, the Senator went on Google to search for "how much is one kilo of gold worth."

This prompts Stewart to start a new segment in his show called "How Dumb Is You." The host makes the case that there are several subtler ways to be corrupt in America, and Menendez could have chosen any of them. The episode singles out insider trading, which many politicians take advantage of due to the fact that its interpretation is a massive gray area. One example is the fact that politicians discover news and developments way before they are announced to the public, which helps them make decisions about the movement of the stock market. Stewart takes shots at other figures that took advantage of their positions, including Utah Senator Mike Lee, Iowa Senator Chuck Brassley and Hunter Biden.

Jon Stewart and Ilana Glazer Are Total 'Babes'

In the interview segment, The Daily Show did a 180 to talk about entertainment. He welcomed Ilana Glazer (Broad City) for a conversation about her new comedy movie Babes, which she costars with her longtime friend Michelle Buteau (Survival of the Thickest), Hasan Minhaj (No Hard Feelings), John Carroll Lynch (Big Sky), Oliver Platt (Chicago Med) and Elena Ouspenskaia in her first movie role ever.

Stewart and Glazer were hyped about the fact that Babes depicts motherhood and female friendships in ways that we don't normally see in movies. The writer and star revealed that putting that on the screen wasn't easy, though.

"As we were writing and collaborating it, we put a list together of the most surprising and absurd experiences we were having becoming parents. And we couldn't believe that these things hadn't been covered in film, you know? And we sent the script out to the industry or whatever to see if anybody wants to make it. Some people got it and some people thought it was really gross, really blue. And it's like... no, it's just real. This is how women talk to each other and this is how pregnancy is."

Babes premieres in select theaters on May 17. You can watch the interview with Ilana Glazer below: