Since retiring as host of The Daily Show last year, Jon Stewart has, with a few exceptions, kept his voice out of the 2016 election’s comedic discourse. But he’s entering the fray once again to attack Donald Trump.
Stewart performed at Stand Up For Heroes Tuesday night, an annual fundraiser for veterans held by the Bob Woodruff Foundation and the New York Comedy Festival, now in its 10th year. It’s always a star-studded night full of comedy and music, but for Stewart, it was a chance to unload on Trump, whose candidacy he once celebrated with glee.
Back when he was simply a real estate mogul and an Emmy award-losing reality TV host in 2013, Trump tweeted that he was smarter than Stewart, called him “totally overrated,” and used his real last name in what many at the time perceived as an anti-Semitic attack, which kicked off an old-fashioned Twitter feud between Trump and Stewart. It soon birthed one of the most infamous and longest-enduring Trump insults in a throwaway line Stewart used in a segment about Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
And because Trump couldn’t leave an insult alone, Stewart got Trump to actually tweet about “Fuckface von Clownstick”—at least twice. Stewart replied that he had hit a “Fuckface von Nervestick.”
Amazing how the haters & losers keep tweeting the name “F**kface Von Clownstick” like they are so original & like no one else is doing it…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2013
What’s funny about the name “F**kface Von Clownstick” — it was not coined by Jon Leibowitz– he stole it from some moron on twitter.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2013
For those who remembered it at the time (and those who were refreshed during one of the many times his old tweets resurfaced), it might be nothing new. And hearing Stewart tell the story with gusto and existential dread that comes with the realization that Trump could potentially become the next president is worth the rehashing alone. But then Stewart reveals how it ended, something people are less familiar with—and it’s all too familiar for those keeping up with the news cycle.
Stewart’s message at the end? Go out and vote.
