TVSquad

Jon Stewart started off by stating, "Everyone is welcome here at The Daily Show except... Belgians. I hate them so much". The audience was laughing it up, while I tried to dig through my head for any Belgian current events that he might be mocking. In the end, I came to two possible conclusions: It was yet another pre-show warm-up reference for the audience to enjoy (Belgian visitors, I guess), or Jon really does hate Belgians. The former seems more logical, but the latter is a lot funnier to imagine... I will go with the latter. Jon also remarked on the funky weather that New York has been having (about 60 degrees one day, 20 degrees the next). "I believe that God... hates us," he said. "I feel like He's hazing us".

And, no surprise, Jon brought up the Cheney/Whittington accident (complete with his Penguin/Cheney impression), making it a full TDS week of coverage. Fox News has been steadily fighting other media networks and press for making such a big deal about the accident. Aren't there bigger things to worry about? Yeah, Fox News, you're right. Let's see what they covered after bitching out the other media. Ah. Neil Entwistle coverage. So... we shouldn't pay attention to who our Vice President shot but we need to mind Neil Entwistle? Alright then. Just making sure.

Time to mock some Republicans... The annual House GOP retreat was last week, and the National Republican Committee thought it'd be funny to show a spoof that they created, called "Election Wars". Hey, guess what film they were parodying? The spoof featured House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as "Darth Nancy". Jon pointed out an interesting fact... The Republicans still like to depict the Democrats as the evil overlords. At best, Democrats are Ewoks... Guess what, Republicans? You're not fighting the Democratic Empire. You are the Empire. Jon then called the Republicans out for using such an outdated, nerdy reference, only to be interrupted by the a Princess Leia hologram repeating, "I know you masturbated to me in the 70s". Hee.

The blasephemous cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed is still not holding out so well over in the Middle East. Rioting has continued... They even destroyed a local KFC when they was a perfectly burnable CBH (Copenhagen Boiled Herring) nearby. We didn't do the cartoon, remember?! America-hating is on the upswing right now because there's a new Turkish film that broke the opening weekend record in Turkey, Kurtlar vadisi - Irak (or Valley of the Wolves - Iraq)... The film is all about American soldiers killing children and harvesting organs. They ran a clip (someone said that the people in the back of the truck would all suffocate... the American soldier took his machine gun and turned the truck to Swiss cheese and then calmly said something like, "Now, they won't suffocate") and the crowd was absolutely stunned. It was a bit unnerving, I must admit... It's definitely different from Turkey's other hits (Ottoman Pie, Ottoman Pie 2, Herbie Goes Bananas, and, my favorite, Kurdishack). Billy Zane and Gary Busey star in this film... What. The. Hell.

"Know Comments": Before the commercial break, they showed a clip of Scott McClellan refusing to answer a question. Then, they let us guess what he was refusing to talk about? The Plame case? Katrina? Cheney/Whittington? The list paused after a few options ("A... B... C..."), only to pick up again and continue through "I" as the commercials started. Then, when the commercials came back on, it was still listing options. It finally stopped at the Greek letter Delta. The answer, in case you were wondering, was the Plame investigation. Brownie points if you caught it.

"Back in Black": Lewis Black and his slightly skewed tie were back for a new installment. He covered the news about a recent scientific expedition to a remote rain forest untouched by man. There, scientists discovered many specials of flora and fauna that were either completely new or previously thought to be extinct. That's actually pretty neat. He also briefly touched upon the many space activities that we have started and from which we are now waiting for results... Couldn't Black find some material to be angry at? Rain forests and Pluto don't seem like appropriate fodder for him...

The night's guest was Ed Harris, star of the new film Winter Passing (select cities on Friday). The clip showed Harris with crazy hair, sitting at a dinner table with Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell (aww, they were cute in Elf together... seriously... it was kind of weird). Harris and Jon discussed the craft of acting and Harris offered Jon a role in a new western he's writing. I guess Harris doesn't know how weird Jon is onscreen. After a little bit of Oscar-talk, Harris told Jon that he's glad that he's the host of this year's ceremony because Jon's a funny guy and he'll ease the tension. Yeah, Jon, all the celebrities are trying to not to throw up on themselves out of nervousness and you're their only hope. But no pressure.

Moment of Zen: Darth Nancy is coming to get you!