Jon Stewart first appears on camera as a prisoner in an alarming black hood, guided by two tough looking customers. It appears that he’s been taken prisoner, which explains his long absence from ‘The Daily Show.’
Not to worry, Stewart is among friends, appearing as a guest on “Al Bernameg” (The Program) the Egyptian equivalent of ‘The Daily Show, hosted by Bassem Youssef, whom you may have seen on one of his appearances on ‘The Daily Show.’ Only the first minute or two is in Arabic. Jon talks about ‘Rosewater’ the film he created and will be directing until his return in September.
Stewart conceived the idea for Rosewater after a Jason Jones ‘interview’ ‘Minarets of Menace’ in which he questioned Maziar Bahari. If we’ve learned anything from this episode, it is that the Iranian comedic sensibility could not be further from our own. Bahari who appeared to answer questions about the Iranian opinion of Americans, was thrown in prison afterwards, for his contact with an ‘American spy’ – Canadian comedic correspondent Jason Jones. While Bahari was imprisoned for 118 days, he was roughly interrogated by a brutal man who smelled like rosewater. Jon later interviewed Maziar Bahari and conceived the idea for the film.