TVSquad

"Leonar-D'oh!": Jon Stewart started with some important news about the upcoming Da Vinci Code film. He somehow managed to take advantage of the word "Cannes" and work it into a "Khan!" joke. What a geek. Anyway, loads of religious groups are really angry over the film, staging protests and hunger strikes, just like Gandhi did to protest the Gold Diggers of 1933 (this joke gave Jon an excuse to dance/twitch rhythmically to Indian music). Apparently, some albino groups are pretty irked, as well. Jon said that religious groups always get attention for their huge protests, so it was good to see albinos get their moment in the sun -- um...

"Back in Black": Wow! I wasn't expecting another Lewis Black segment so soon. And I definitely wasn't expecting the opening: "I'm Lewis. I'd like to talk to you for a minute about Jesus." I almost had a heart attack. Black ranted about the number of people sucking up to religious groups to gain appeal, using examples like Howard Dean appearing on the 700 Club ("Well, he's on his knees... but I don't think he's praying!"). Then, Black got pissed off at Reverend Fred Phelps and shouted, "I can only pray that when he gets to Heaven, St. Peter looks like this!" Haha, the thought of Freddy Mercury as St. Peter made me very happy.

Resident Expert John Hodgman explained the government's $70 billion tax-cut extension. Such legislation is meant to benefit the citizens, or the Uncle Pennybags of the country, leaving people like TDS's viewers (college students, bloggers, panhandlers, deadbeats, etc.) out in the cold. These people are known to the government as flesh-eating "morlocks". And everyone knows that morlocks don't need tax-cuts. I loved Hodgman's joke about Dick Cheney being obscenely wealthy but visibly unhealthy, stating Cheney must be visited by more than three ghosts a night (Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, Future, Pluperfect, Subjunctive... at least).

The night's guest was Ramesh Ponnuru, author of The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life. This interview turned into a pro-life/pro-choice debate. Of course, the audience loved Ponnuru's nervous attempts to start a setence when Jon made a really strong point. Although the debate was pretty interesting, my favorite part was listening to the audience react. Whenever Jon said something really good, the audience would cheer and hoot as if some trash-talker just delivered a really sharp "Yo momma!" joke.

Jon/Stephen: No Stephen Colbert check-in... No explanation why... Hm. Moment of Zen: A clip from Jesus Decoded. Apparently, some readers like to take The Da Vinci Code as fact. Y'mean there really isn't an evil albino running around killing people?