Jessica Williams reminds Jon Stewart of his privilege on ‘The Daily Show’

Former correspondent Jessica Williams popped into The Daily Show on Monday to remind host Jon Stewart of his privilege.

“Jessica, is it really you?” Stewart asked, as if she were Jacob Marley come to get all A Christmas Carol and introduce him to some ghosts.  

“Don’t be sad, Jon.” the Shrinking star said. “Everything’s going to be okay…for you, a white guy — a rich, old white guy.”

“You think my rich-old-white-guy privilege will save me?” he asked.

He got a weak “maybe” out of her, then she accused him of having a “terminal D…a termy disease. Are you dying?” When he asked why she would think that, Williams, who last appeared on the show in April, said, “Just your general vibe and this whole face thing — woof. I mean, I get why you aged so much: It’s been a whole last year of you grinding it out every single day on the show.”

Stewart sheepishly replied: “I only host on Mondays.” 

“Oh really? Damn. Okay, double woof,” Williams said, as Stewart stifled his laughter. “Look, it doesn’t matter, okay? No, come on. It doesn’t matter because for non-old white people, for people of color, and women, and queer people, it’s gonna be a completely different story, all right? Now, let me give you some advice: Look, Jon, I know you’re exhausted. Hell, I’m exhausted. Everybody’s exhausted. Anger and disappointment in our political discourse is exhausting, but it’s easy to throw up our hands and be like, ‘Fine! F— it! I’m tired. Go ahead and take people’s rights. I’m just going to plow through a case of Trulys and bench 52 episodes of Love Island.'”

“I just want to be clear, all right?” she continued. “Do not let them exhaust you. Don’t let the constant, draining bulls— wear you out. Do not turn away. Look right down that barrel and say, ‘Not today, apathy! I’m only having half a case of Trulys.’ And no matter what happens, we have to throw our arms around the people who need us the most and hang the f— on. All right?”

Williams then reassured Stewart that she is there for him (and The Daily Show). When he reminded her that he just extended his contract for another year, she wondered aloud if his health would allow it. 

Williams appears at around the 15:04 mark in the YouTube video above.

Stewart will appear as host of The Daily Show every Monday through 2025. He will also host a live hour-long election night special on Tuesday, Nov. 5, starting at 11 p.m., called “The Daily Show Presents A Live Election Night Special With Jon Stewart: Indecision 2024: Nothing We Can Do About It Now.”

The Daily Show airs each weeknight at 11 pm ET/10 C on Comedy Central and streams on Paramount+ the next day.

A new season of Shrinking is now streaming on Apple TV+.