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What Happened When Jon Stewart Traded Places With Stephen Colbert Is Pure Gold

On Tuesday, viewers were treated to an epic television moment when Jon Stewart interviewed Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. Stewart asked Colbert questions about an array of issues — and the result was comedic gold.

As Colbert explained at the beginning of his show, Tuesday's episode was pre-recorded because the Late Show host is on Thanksgiving vacation. Colbert noted that he wanted to see what it was like to experience being a guest on his show — so he invited some of his friends, including Stewart, to interview him.

The show opened with Stewart, the former host of The Daily Show, sitting at Colbert's desk and then elaborately announcing Colbert's entrance. After Colbert sat down, Stewart asserted, "Obviously I haven't done this in awhile so I'm just going to start with what's on the card." In response, Colbert asserted, "I'm strangely nervous."

Stewart then pointedly asked the Late Show host, "Who the f*ck do you think you are?" Stewart quickly added, "That's not actually on the card." After laughing at Stewart's question, Colbert replied, "[I'm] a little bit like Jon Stewart." The former Daily Show host jokingly pushed back against Colbert's suggestion, saying:

Not at all. Look at you. Look how hale and hearty you look, coming in here every night, taking in the toxins, and spewing back out rainbow-colored sprinkles. Like, that’s your job and you do it beautifully.

Later on in the interview, Stewart and Colbert discussed a topic that Colbert frequently covers on his show — Donald Trump and his presidency. At one point, Stewart asked Colbert what Trump was like when the Late Show host met him before he became president. In response, Colbert described Trump as a fairly normal guy, except for one feature that stood out to him. As the Late Show host put it:

He wasn’t blustering at all ... He’s got that gear of just some guy you would see someplace. That's what he seemed like. He was just some guy ... And orange like you couldn’t believe.

Colbert then briefly turned the tables on Stewart, asking him a Trump-related question. The Late Show host inquired as to whether Stewart missed having a political comedy show now that Trump is president. In his reply, Stewart indicated that he is not longing to return to the political comedy arena, using an extended metaphor about "turd mining" to illustrate his point.

You and I both famously know we were turd miners, we toiled in the turd mines ... So, working at The Daily Show I felt as though I was toiling in the turd mines. And then I finally quit — and a giant turd astroid heads toward the planet. Now, in that instance, if someone said, 'Hey, you were a turd miner, this is the largest turd deposit ever seen. Don't you wish you were in there?' And you're just like, 'I'm out of the turd business, I'm out.'

While laughing, Colbert pushed back and tried to get Stewart to change his mind, joking, "Come on in, Jon, the turd's fine."

Stewart and Colbert's hilarious dynamic was certainly appealing to viewers, with some on Twitter and YouTube expressing that they wish the duo would regularly film segments on Colbert's show. Time will tell whether these fans' hopes become a reality.