April 09--"Daily Show" host Jon Stewart took Chicago to the woodshed Wednesday night for re-electing Rahm Emanuel to a second term as mayor.
"Chicago, congratulations, you Rolling Stoned that (expletive)," Stewart said of Emanuel's win, in an apparent reference to Rolling Stone magazine's badly bungled, since discredited article about a campus rape.
Stewart noted Emanuel's "terrible record and a universally recognized abrasive personality," and that he faced challenger Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, who Stewart called "America's fourth most famous Chuy." He showed a graphic with pictures of Garcia, the Chewbacca character from "Star Wars," chewy granola bars and Chuy, the sidekick from the TV show "Chelsea Lately."
After running news clips about Chicago's continued financial problems and stubbornly high violent crime under Emanuel's watch, Stewart said, "things are looking up, and by things, I mean the amount of money they don't have, and crime."
Stewart also showed clips from the two mea culpa campaign ads Emanuel ran before the election, comparing them with the Domino's Pizza ads in which the company admitted its pizzas weren't very good and promised to do better.
The host pointed to Chicago's history of "blatant crimes against humanity" while a graphic of deep-dish pizza materialized. That's a reference to the 2013 pizza feud that Stewart ignited after New York's One World Trade Center was named the tallest building in the country, knocking Chicago's Willis Tower to No. 2.
Emanuel got into the act on the pizza fight, sending Stewart two deep-dish pizzas with anchovies in a nod to the dead fish he once sent to a pollster.
jebyrne@tribpub.com
