There’s witty banter, there’s political crosstalk, there’s incomprehensible oddity; it’s all there when Larry King interviews Jon Stewart.
STEWART: Can I tell you something, I appreciate you acting interested in me the night after you had the president on. I think that’s really sweet.
KING: Hey, wait a minute.
STEWART: You’re focused like this.
KING: Each night is a new night. That’s past. This is present. I focus on you. You count.
STEWART: That is the most profound thing I think I’ve ever heard in my life. But I will say this, I do think you are phoning in a little bit, because if I may just to the people, there’s nothing in my cup. You have coffee, you’re taken care of, you’re pampered and you’re in the good chair with the nice comfy and I sit…
KING: There was something in Clinton’s cup.
STEWART: I’m sorry, did the president drink everything?
Is that what happened?
KING: No, he had diet something, Diet Pepsi or Coke something.
Are you mad?
STEWART: I’m not mad, it diminishes me.
KING: It was not my fault. Maybe the crew has let you down.
STEWART: Well, I established my war cabinet, you know, years ago when we talk about this sort of thing. You know, there have been four justifications that I’ve heard so far for the war and you tell me if I’m wrong about this. There was the weapons of mass destruction. There was the ties to al Qaeda. There was the oppressed his own people. And there was one other in there somewhere. Weapons of mass destruction, ties to al Qaeda, possible nuclear. OK.
KING: Support terrorism.
STEWART: That describes like five countries. So if that is the standard that we’ve set to go into a war, shouldn’t we also be…
KING: North Korea.
STEWART: Iran, Sudan, aren’t they all doing the exact same thing and have maybe closer ties to al Qaeda, even?
KING: How do you know they’re not next?
STEWART: What have you heard?
KING: We’ll be right back. We’ll take your calls later for Jon Stewart.
STEWART: Am I being drafted?
KING: Toronto, hello.
CALLER: Hello.
KING: Yes, go ahead. Speak up
STEWART: They’re bilingual.
CALLER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
STEWART: Oh, is that a delay?
KING: Yes, we have a delay.STEWART: What he said was…
KING: Don’t say what he said.
STEWART: He praised us.
KING: Here’s what he said.
STEWART: What he said was. What he said to us was.
KING: What a great show.
STEWART: He basicly paraphrased Dick Cheney to Pat Leahy, but was to referring to us instead.
KING: Yes, he was referring to us instead.
STEWART: Surprisingly to see that from Canada. They’re typically very pleasant.
KING: I know.
…read the complete transcript here.