Jon Stewart Says ‘The Daily Show’ Would Be “Delighted” To Host Elon Musk & Mocks Notion That He Is “Too Partisan” To Do So

Jon Stewart had a couple of matters to tend to as he kicked off today’s episode of The Daily Show, addressing both his injury from the week prior and Elon Musk’s claim that he would appear as a guest “if the show airs unedited.”

Presenting his finger to the camera and joking that the tiny cut — since patched up — “nearly brought an old man down,” Stewart revealed a sippy cup version of the “World’s Most Dad” cup from last week’s show.

“I am not allowed to have big-boy mugs anymore,” he said, adding that there was an “actual meeting” with parent company Paramount’s safety department. “No more ceramic for Mr. Stewart.”

Addressing Musk’s tweets, Stewart said: “I thought about it, and after a prayerful week with my family — well, a family, family hall pass situation … I thought, ‘Hey, that’s actually how the in-studio interviews normally air, is unedited.’ So, sure. We’d be delighted. As a matter of fact, let me sweeten or unsweeten the pot — the interview can be 15 minutes, an hour, two hours, whatever. I’ll be honest, I don’t think this network [Comedy Central] makes any other programming, so we can do whatever the f— we want as long as we wrap before the new season of South Park, which comes out like May or June of 2026.”

The host also addressed Musk’s claim that he is “much more a propagandist than it would seem” and “is too set in his ways. He used to be more bipartisan.”

“So I am game, I think it’d be a very interesting conversation, but then I checked X again and I saw another tweet from Elon because, uh, you can’t not, and he then said … ‘Jon Stewart cannot be trusted’ and that I am a propagandist,” he added, to audience boos, “and that I am not bipartisan.”

He continued, “Again, the guy who custom-made his own dark MAGA hat that he wears to opine in the Oval Office with the president who he spent $270 million to elect thinks I’m just too partisan.”

Stewart would be fine with either outcome, but he maintained “can we just drop the pretense that you won’t do it because I don’t measure up to the standards of neutral discourse that you demand and display at all times? Because, quite frankly, that’s embarrassing,” eliciting loud audience cheers.

A bulk of Stewart’s subject matter this evening concerned the disastrous meeting between president Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which typical standards of diplomacy rapidly disintegrated. During the segment, the comedian outlined how the incident was an unsurprising culmination of a GOP plan set in motion by former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s own playbook, because “Trump and the Republicans like Putin better.”

In critiquing MAGA’s claim that Zelenskyy was striving for World War III during negotiations, Stewart found a way to tie in the Oscars, taking shots at Emilia Pérez, which won for Best Original Song for “El Mal.”

“Everything sounds better if the only other option you’re presenting us is World War III. You can listen to the Emilia Pérez composer freestyle another f—ing verse at the Oscars — or World War III. Eventually, you will agree to hear another verse, by a hair,” he said.

Watch the episode below: