A Canadian got to sit in Jon Stewart's chair of The Daily Show last night.
Was it Samantha Bee? Jason Jones? The ghost of Peter Jennings?
No, the lucky person in the chair that kicked off Thursday's The Daily Show was 16-year-old Justin Bieber, of the pop singer Justin Bieber. Bieber was born in London, Ontario and grew up in Stratford, Ontario.
Stewart and Bieber had a parody of the Freaky Friday type movies where they switch bodies. So Bieber did the intro, then Stewart came out (as Bieber). Shortly thereafter, Stewart regained the host chair.
You could tell that Stewart was someone else because he had a New York Yankees hat on when regular viewers know Stewart is a Mets fan.
While Bieber spent the most time of any Canadian in the host chair, technically, he was the second Canadian ever to sit in that chair.
On October 1, 2008, Kristen Schaal, Samantha Bee, and Stewart played off a marvelous setup that mocked the John McCain/Sarah Palin/Hillary Clinton saga in the 2008 campaign. Along with Foreign Affairs' Gideon Rose, they had a lovely time focusing on who would be hosting the show paralleling the political moment of the time.
At the end of the segment, Bee — a Canadian — ends up in the chair, but not for long.
There have been a few times in the 12 years where there was a pinch-hitter for Stewart: Stephen Colbert (before he got the Colbert Report) and Rob Corddry (both Americans). No Canadian has still held the chair for longer than a couple of minutes.
The current mark goes to Bieber, who was 4 when Stewart took over for Craig Kilborn in 1999.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart airs in Canada on the Comedy Channel at 11 pm Eastern and on CTV at 12:05 am local time.
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