Jon Stewart Talks Sense

Jon Stewart opted out of his standard comedic opening last night - except for a short bit featuring John Oliver dressed in adult panda pajamas - in The Daily Show's first show since the shootings in Arizona on Saturday. As the founder of the Rally To Restore Sanity, Stewart certainly has the bona fides to shout "I told you so!" and blame overheated partisan discourse for the tragedy. Instead he was, well, reasonable in admitting that when it came to the question of whether "the toxic political climate" was responsible for the attack on Rep. Gabriel Giffords, the proper response was "I have no f----- idea." He did acknowledge that "it would be really nice if the ramblings of crazy people didn't resemble the way we talk to each other on TV," but chose to find something almost positive in the round-the-clock media reaction since Jared Loughner fired thirty rounds from his automatic pistol in Tucson. "At least we haven't lost the capacity to be horrified," the comedian said. Later on Comedy Central, Stephen Colbert was also very serious, then a little bit funny, on the subject.

Previously: Killing The Blues