Jon Stewart opened “The Daily Show” on Monday night with a shocking revelation: his name appears in the Epstein files.
“Of course, to get ahead of the story, I am also in the files,” Stewart said with a nervous laugh. “We all searched our names, right?”
But, it’s not as bad as you might think — Stewart’s name was simply mentioned in a correspondence between Epstein and Barry Josephson, who produced “Enchanted” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
“I take you to the scene: It is midnight, Aug. 29, 2015,” Stewart said, displaying a screenshot of the email in question. “Jeffrey Epstein lies wide awake, his mind turning with ideas.” Stewart explains that Epstein and Josephson were discussing the next career move of someone named Woody, which Stewart surmises is director Woody Allen.
“You all know which Woody, right?” Stewart said. “It’s the Epstein files — it ain’t Harrelson or the cowboy from ‘Toy Story.’” The email message from Epstein reads: “I suggested to Woody that he do a new stand-up routine for either Apple TV or Amazon.”
“Jeffrey Epstein always had his finger on the pulse of what America was clamoring for in 2015!” Stewart joked. “But Barry Josephson, thinking like the out-of-the-box television professional that he was, pitched this idea. This is true, quote: ‘Make a true biographical experience with his stand-up being the capper. Somebody like Jon Stewart could host/narrate the biographical part.’”
Stewart then feigned shock, exclaiming: “Excuse me? I am offended! Somebody like Jon Stewart, or Jon Stewart?! My point is, do I have the offer or is this an audition?”
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Later in his monologue, Stewart turned to Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s mentions in the files. “Ever since those revelations, Elon has been, how do the kids say it? Crashing out,” Stewart said. “He’s posted about the Epstein files more than 85 times over the last two days.”
Of Trump, Stewart said the Department of Justice releasing the files is actually protecting him from any accountability. “Look man, we always knew that the people at DOJ releasing these documents weren’t on a fact-finding mission, they were running interference,” he said. “And the guy they’re running interference for seems very satisfied with these results.”
Watch Stewart’s full monologue below.
From Variety US