Comedian Jon Stewart is known for his “Daily Show” gig, but what does he do in his down time? Apparently, he goes down to Walter Reed Army Medical Center and hangs out with the wounded troops. “I actually have a life outside of television, where we don’t have cameras and you actually just do things,” Stewart joked to Yeas & Nays. “It’s a whole weird world, a non-reality-TV world.”
Stewart was tapped as the standup act for the Bob Woodruff Foundation’s “Stand Up for Heroes” event that took place Thursday evening at the Ronald Reagan Building. (Woodruff, who works for ABC News, started the group, which helps “heal the wounds of war,” after being injured in Iraq.)
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Looking out into a crowd that included many recovering service members, the “Daily Show” host reminded the audience that it could be worse. “Even in their darkest times, remember, at least they don’t have blurry pictures of their genitals spread around the Internet,” Stewart said. “Although you have to give credit to a guy whose last name turns out to be the part of his body that gets him into all this trouble,” referencing the recent Weinergate scandal.
He then shared his favorite part of the story: the fact that disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner had to call Bill Clinton to apologize. “For what? Copyright infringement?” Stewart asked.
There was a more serious side to the evening, as well. “This night is sort of like a mullet: The business is in the front and the party is in the back,” Woodruff’s wife Lee joked from the podium.
Both Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke, with Gates admitting that when he took the top post at the Pentagon he was not sure he could handle visiting the country’s wounded soldiers. “I frankly wasn’t sure I could keep it together,” Gates said. “I am continually amazed by your grit and your resilience.”
The band Train also performed. Afterward Stewart spent time chatting and taking pictures with every service member who approached him.
