NEW YORK — No, Jon Stewart actually wasn’t sitting at his desk at Comedy Central for the final 9 years, ready for somebody to show the lights again on.

Yet it nearly felt that approach throughout Stewart’s return to “The Daily Show” Monday night time. His signature strikes — blunt satire, facial grimaces, incisive use of video and a few occasional lectures — have been all intact. Public figures are served discover that the media’s sharpest bull detector is again on the job.

Stewart has stated that the dearth of a comedic outlet for his observations because the presidential marketing campaign unfolded largely drove his choice to reprise his most memorable function, one night time per week by the election. The much-diminished Comedy Central, unable to discover a successor to Trevor Noah as host, fortunately welcomed him again.

Questions about the way forward for late-night TV, which is quickly shedding viewers and shedding affect, will not be answered in a single night time. Neither will that night time show Stewart can regain the place of prominence he stepped away from in August 2015.

But it was a promising begin.

“Are you disappointed yet?” Stewart stated after one sophomoric joke, about naming “The Daily Show” election protection, “Indecision 2024: Electile Dysfunction.”

He dove straight into the information of the day

Stewart appeared to take a web page from MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow when she turned a each day internet hosting function right into a weekly one. Both resisted making an attempt to do an excessive amount of, to cram per week’s — or in Stewart’s case, 9 years — value of fabric into one present. He moved swiftly into the information, and up-to-date doings of President Joe Biden and his Republican rival.

In Biden’s case, it meant straight addressing questions on his age and health for workplace, which the president’s supporters certainly need to keep away from. He examined Biden’s information convention final week meant to counter characterizations in particular counsel Robert Hur’s report on categorized paperwork present in Biden’s house.

“Joe Biden had a big press conference to dispel the notion that he may have lost a step and, politically speaking, lost three or four steps,” he stated.

He stated about Biden aides who thought it was a good suggestion for him to show down a Super Bowl interview in favor of a TikTookay look: “Fire everyone.”

Stewart confirmed tape of administration officers like Vice President Kamala Harris and different Democrats testifying to Biden’s sharpness and recommended it may be a good suggestion to movie the president in these conferences so the general public can see him.

Yet Stewart additionally used tightly-edited videotape of Donald Trump and his household throughout depositions saying they could not recall issues to counter the notion that Biden is alone in exhibiting reminiscence points throughout such high-pressure authorized proceedings. “The Daily Show” even discovered one the place Trump stated he could not keep in mind speaking about how good his reminiscence is.

His major level: Worries about whether or not both the 81-year-old Biden or 77-year-old Trump are as much as the hardest job on the planet should not be swept beneath the rug.

“It is the candidates’ job to assuage concerns, not the voters’ job not to mention them,” Stewart stated.

He was fairly well-received by critics

Based on one night time, a handful of critics famous Stewart’s seamless transition.

Alison Herman of Variety wrote that “it almost seemed like he never left,” a phrase repeated within the headlines of critiques by each NPR critic Eric Deggans and CNN’s Brian Lowry.

“From the show’s opening moments, Stewart eased back into the host’s chair without missing a beat, firing off jokes with a familiar style that felt like he had left just a few weeks ago, rather than in 2015,” Deggans wrote. “He brought a confidence the show sorely needs.”

Jeremy Egner of The New York Times wrote that “Stewart’s first night found him grayer — at one point he used his own wizened face as a prop in a joke about the presidential candidates’ ages. But he was otherwise in classic form.”

The comparability of Stewart returning to “The Daily Show” and two candidates doubtless staging a rematch was too apparent to let go by. Correspondent Dulce Sloan, ostensibly speaking about discouraged voters, stated they wanted somebody new, extra than simply “old white dudes” coming again to reclaim a job.

“We’re talking about the election, right?” Stewart stated.

The “campaign” interlude allowed Stewart, and viewers who had drifted away from “The Daily Show” after he left, to grow to be acquainted with unfamiliar forged members. An on-set interview with Jordan Klepper, who will host the present for the remainder of the week, was much less profitable.

During his time away, Stewart hung out as an activist preventing to get advantages for Sept. 11, 2001, responders and two years internet hosting “The Problem with Jon Stewart” on the Apple TV+ streaming service. He made a refined allusion to the latter on Monday, saying he could be making jokes about China and AI, topics that reportedly made Apple uncomfortable earlier than axing the present.