Jon Stewart had a bit of a rough night on “The Daily Show” this week. In the middle of an intense rant about government waste, he smashed a coffee mug on his desk — and ended up slicing his hand open.
The whole thing happened while he was going off about the billions of dollars in pharmaceutical subsidies that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) seemed to be ignoring.
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Not exactly how he planned for that segment to go.
Jon Stewart reacts angrily to government inefficiencies
To make his point about how inefficient the U.S. government can be, Stewart played a clip of President Joe Biden celebrating a deal to lower the price of just ten commonly used prescription drugs.
Stewart, playing along as if he worked for DOGE, held a coffee mug and a calculator, pretending to do the math. He wasn’t impressed.
Pharmaceutical subsidies push Stewart over the edge
“The companies we subsidize with billions of dollars are allowing us the privilege to negotiate the price of 10 of their drugs,” Stewart said, his voice dripping with fake excitement.
“And ten is all of them, right? It would be embarrassing if it was a small drop in the bucket, and that the American people didn’t expect that we should negotiate for all their f*ing drugs, because we have already paid for them with our subsidies! It is f*ing insane!”
Stewart smashes a mug in frustration and gets injured
Clearly fed up, Stewart slammed his mug onto the desk, shattering it into pieces. But as soon as he did, he realized he had cut himself. He quickly moved his injured hand out of sight before joking, “I will be going to the hospital soon.”
DOGE’s priorities come under fire
Before his little accident, Stewart had been playing accountant, breaking down all the wasted government spending that DOGE could focus on instead of going after “200,000” federal employees.
Oil and gas companies get billions in subsidies
“How about we just take $3 billion in subsidies we give to oil and gas companies that turn billions in profits,” Stewart said. “How long did that take?”
Stewart exposes flaws in the carried interest loophole
“Oh, wait! How about we just close down the carried interest loophole on hedge funds? That’s $1.3 billion a year.”
He calls out wasteful spending on outdated fighter jets
“Or how about we stop the $2 trillion dollars we’ve given to defense contractors to build a fighter jet that blows, when everyone knows the next war is going to be fought with drones and blockchains, whatever that is!
“Holy sh*t! I can’t believe it! I just saved us billions of dollars in 11 seconds!”
In true Jon Stewart fashion, he made his point loud and clear — just with a little more blood than expected.
