By Bill Mann

The most promising media and political event this year may have already happened: The talented and funny Jon Stewart is coming back as host and exec producer of Comedy Central’s Daily Show starting Monday. Also important: he’ll be Exec Producer of the show he hosted for 16 years and will choose hosts for the other nights. 

Stewart left the show in 2015, just before Trump first sullied the national stage. I’ve always felt that, had Stewart stayed on at Daily, it might have affected the fateful 2016 election, at least in a small way. One thing Trump hates (besides many women, of course) is ridicule — something that Stewart, a specialist, will pound him with in the next few months. 

Stewart’s recent Apple-TV show has a small audience and has largely ignored The Orange One. But Stewart will now become a main target of Trump’s vitriol, which Stewart will reverse engineer as comedy. 

Stewart’s successor as Daily host, Trevor Noah, was pleasant enough, but hardly delivered must-see TV. Trust me — Stewart will.

Comedians, I soon learned in covering the San Francisco comedy scene for the Oakland Tribune (I was a judge in the SF International Comedy Competition), tend to be almost universally quite bright, sharper than most other performers. I met Robin Williams, Kevin Pollock and Bobby Slayton, among other smart guys, backstage at the competition. 

But Stewart is as sharp as any of them, and he’s also a great physical comic at the anchor desk. Another bright guy I’ve never heard Stewart mention on the air is his sibling, Larry Liebowitz. Larry was CEO of the New York Stock Exchange. Quite the family.

I had the chance, as the Tribune TV columnist, to interview Stewart at the Silverado Country Club in Napa, just before he got the initial Daily Show gig in 1999 and became famous. Stewart was temporarily between TV gigs. We were sitting in a darkened lounge, and I asked him what he’d been doing in the interim. 

“I’m writing a book about Hitler’s little-known career as a footwear salesman,” Stewart said. 

“Ok, I’ll  bite,” I replied, expecting a gag. So … what’s the title? 

Stewart flashed a sly grin. “Mein Comfortable Shoes.” 

I’ve just returned from a month in not-so sunny Northern California, and am eagerly awaiting Stewart’s debut next week. I phoned a fellow newspaper TV critic I’ve known for years and asked him what he was currently watching. Brad’s never failed me, and he didn’t this time either. 

His suggestion: Loudermilk, now on Netflix. It’s a cynically humorous show about a former rock critic and author (I can relate) who now heads a support group for fellow recovering alcohol and drug abusers. The show is set in Seattle, but was actually filmed in Vancouver. It costars the talented Ron Livingston and Will Sasso (from Mad TV) and Canadian actress Laura Mennell.  The three-season show is highly addictive, with nonstop dark humor. I highly recommend it for your winter viewing pleasure. 

And if you’ve spent much time up there, as I have (my son lives there), it’s also fun looking at glimpses of Vancouver in Seattle drag. 

PT humorist and comedy aficionado Bill Mann is also known as Newsmann9@gmail.com.