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Jon Stewart: ‘Behind Closed Doors I Only Quote Rabbinical Texts’

The Daily Show host plugs his new film Rosewater on The Colbert Report

by
Stephanie Butnick
November 21, 2014
Jon Stewart attends 'Rosewater' premiere on November 12, 2014 in New York City. (Robin Marchant/Getty Images)
Jon Stewart attends 'Rosewater' premiere on November 12, 2014 in New York City. (Robin Marchant/Getty Images)

“If you want to have a Talmudic discussion, I’m happy to have it,” said Jon Stewart last night on The Colbert Report, when The Daily Show host visited his old friend Stephen Colbert to promote his new film, Rosewater.

“I remember things you said behind closed doors,” Colbert, who got his start on Stewart’s show says, begins by saying, threatening to reveal his longtime boss and friend’s secrets.

“I’m going to say something to you, and you know this,” Stewart replies gravely. Behind closed doors I only quote rabbinical texts. You know that. There is no dark secret, there is no hidden agenda, I am merely an arbiter of biblical law.”

You can see his old Jewish man/Talmudic sage impression, which is how he says he opens every meeting, in the clip below. You should also watch Part 2 of the interview, in which he discusses his new film, Rosewater, which tells the story of Iranian-born journalist Maziar Bahari, who was arrested in Iran and and tortured for 118 days. My grandparents saw the film and “recommend it without reservations.”

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.