Jon Stewart returns to The Daily Show after a weekend of “AHHHHHHH”

Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show tonight with stories full of contradictions. After a weekend in which the news was routinely bleak, hyping up World War III following Iran’s missile-guided response to Israel, Stewart stuffed as much as he could into the show’s first 15 minutes. He bounced from the U.S.’s arbitrary gerrymandering of the Middle East to Trump falling asleep in court with a single scream.

Stewart often plays the role of audience surrogate, channeling the viewer’s anger and frustration through his own. He vacillates between anger and faux understanding of the often-murky motivations of media figures and politicians. After 48 hours of newscasters announcing that World War III was imminent, he was relieved to find out that the U.S. had shot down 98% of Iran’s missiles. “It just shows how effective a military defense system can be when you funnel money away from health care and education,” Stewart joked. But the U.S. had some unexpected allies. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the U.A.E. also stepped in to help protect Israel, which is, yeah, confusing.

Things weren’t any more comprehensible stateside. As Stewart turns his gaze to the New York courtroom where former President Trump faces trial for allegedly paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels and then allegedly falsifying documents to cover it up, he finds a former president catching some Zs. Stewart, god bless him, tried his best to tie this to Trump’s Gettysburg Address but seemed almost at a loss for this level of scandal. What are we supposed to do with a politician routinely comparing himself to Jesus and Nelson Mandela, who refers to the Battle of Gettysburg as “beautiful, wow,” and who can’t get through a single criminal trial without threatening a judge?

These episodes of The Daily Show are less fulfilling than those where Stewart wraps everything in a neat little bow. His analysis is the engine that drives the show, and without that hard commentary at the end, the opening segment can feel incomplete. Though the comparison between Trump and O.J.? That kind of checks out.