Summary: Despite what you may think of the man's politics, he capably puts a diva in her place, passing her shit test with aplomb and winning over her friend.

Video

Unlikely source right? Most people know Jon Stewart as bit of a bleeding-heart, darling of the left who kind of mugs at the camera after a politicians says an asinine thing to the raucous cheer of his fans. Despite this, his lightening wit is pretty undeniable, and evidenced very well here.

Before he was interviewing presidents and the like, the show was a lot lower profile, but still scored impressive guests, including two of the Spice Girls, at the time one of the biggest pop acts in the world. Invariably, they were on the descent as one girl had already departed and this visit was in promotion of their final album. Further, the fact that they were forced to do press like this clearly rankled the girls, as you'll see from the behavior throughout.

Watch the whole thing, note the one of the right, Posh, is pretty dismissive of his opening jokes. At around 1:45 there's a playful smack following a tease, which he continues when he talks about how it took 14 months to record the album, She starts to return fire at 2:50 questioning him about his lack of a ring.

It really gets good at 3:50 when she drops the biggest one yet, 'you aren't that funny'. To a comedian, this is pretty much as serious as it gets. Watch him then tear her apart subsequently.

First, he deftly compares his 'low humor' to British legends like Benny Hill, then he puts her on the spot to define funny - which she says requires sarcasm and irony. He then incredulously asks her if she's missed the sarcasm which every question to this point has been tinged with - she says she hasn't missed it, and then he offers maybe its funnier when shes not the butt of the joke, but Americans are. Cue daggers, and the other girl who's now a bit uncomfortable jumps in as peacemaker. Stewart's having none of it and he disqualifies her lack of approval, as it's clear her problem with him is her problem alone. The clip closes with him teasing her on her professional indifference to him as an interviewer, framing his relevant lack of commensurate fame as a strength rather than a weakness.

Lessons Learned

The main one is holding frame is so g'damn important.

Posh thought he'd wither under simple challenges given his outward clown persona and wasn't prepared for his strong defense and quick retorts.

Going after a comedian's funniness is as serious an insult as you can muster, and he stands up for himself deftly, turning an otherwise routine interview adversarial, but in the process elevating himself and winning over the other girl, who's probably see the bitch act time and time again.

When she subsequently cracked smiles during his reply, her whole point was invalidated and his barbs hit home doubly so.

By the end of it, he'd won and was doing a victory dance with the pull out couch line.
Interested in hearing other people's thoughts on this interview.