Posted in: Comedy Central, TV | Tagged: the daily show

The Daily Show Shares 30 Years of Audition Tapes: Oliver, Bee & More

In honor of its 30th anniversary, Comedy Central's The Daily Show released audition tapes for John Oliver, Samantha Bee, and many more.

Though Comedy Central's The Daily Show won't be back on the air until September 8th, the long-running comedy-news program has been dropping some cool things over the past few weeks to help pass the time – but this one might be our favorite. With The Daily Show celebrating its 30th anniversary this year (July 22nd, to be precise), fans are getting a chance to check out the early audition tapes from some of the show's famous correspondents. That's right, you're getting a chance to see how "The Best F***ing News Team on Television" came to be. We've got looks at Jordan Klepper, Desi Lydic, Ronny Chieng, Michael Kosta, Josh Johnson, John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Jessica Williams, Roy Wood Jr., Rob Riggle, Michael Che, Wyatt Cenac, Jason Jones, Ed Helms, and Rob Corddry.

The Daily Show: Elmo Willing to Go Homelander for Knicks Bet Help

As New York Knicks fans deal with a Donald Trump-attended Game 3 loss in the NBA Finals, Comedy Central's The Daily Show host Jon Stewart was giving Sesame Street mainstay Elmo an opportunity to answer for himself. Here's what happened: Elmo made the mistake of wishing both the Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs good luck during the best-of-seven series, hoping that both teams "have fun." Well, with Elmo and Sesame Street pretty much viewed as an NYC thing, let's just say that a whole lot of folks were expecting Elmo to be proudly sporting a Knicks jersey – and he got to hear about it on social media (though we were impressed how folks seemed to remember it was Elmo, so things didn't get as Twitter/X toxic as they usually get).

Welcoming the felt fellow onto the show, the Stewart-voices and operated Elmo revealed that he had a very vested interest in both teams doing their best. "Elmo loves the Knicks, and Elmo loves the Spurs. Elmo wants both teams to have fun, try their hardest… and Elmo just wants them both to hit the over," he revealed – with that last part clearly getting Stewart's attention. It seems that Elmo has gotten himself banned from every betting app out there, so he had to go old-school: loan shark Big Ricky, who stems from "a part of Sesame Street Elmo had never been to before." And Big Ricky wants his money.

While Stewart tries addressing the heart of Elmo's problem (dude has a gambling problem), Elmo lays out his master plan for a comeback – a plan that Stewart could help him with. With a whole lot of betting apps assuming that Stewart is going to the Knicks-Spurs game, there's a lot of money to be made if Stewart doesn't go. That's when things got very "The Boys finale-Homelander"-like. After Stewart turned down his plan to ditch the game to make a few bucks, Elmo looked to sweeten the pot. "Please, Mr. Jon! Elmo can't go back to the streets! Elmo will do anything, Mr. Jon! Anything!" In case you're questioning if there was any innuendo there, the hand-mouth gesture on Elmo's part put that to rest. Shocked, Stewart says that Elmo is "embarrassing" himself – and that's when things got really dark. "You're not better than Elmo! Elmo will remember this! Elmo will haunt your f***ing dreams! F**k you, Stewart!"

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