Introducing the Bush-whacker

If Rory Bremner is the alternative leader of the opposition over here, in America the same could be said for Jon Stewart.

Many young opinion-makers get their current-affairs fix from Stewart's topical monologues on Comedy Central's The Daily Show. Young opinion-makers here can catch his bitingly funny news send-ups on digital channel More4, but for one Sunday only Stewart was live in London.

This quick trip was essentially to promote the publication of America: The Book, a dense dissection of US history as played out in "the Oval Empire".

Most of the show was given over to underrehearsed yet enjoyable readings from the text by the star plus co-writers Ben Karlin and David Javerbaum and special guest Woody Harrelson, who correctly confirmed that the show was "more fun than Tennessee Williams".

Stewart, who impressed me a decade ago on his first visit, is smart in every sense, expensively dressed and quick-witted. With his grey temples and creamy complexion, he could almost pass for a serious anchorman.

Only the smirk behind the gravitas gives him away. That and the fact that his name does not feature construction material and a breed of horse. As Harrelson explained, anchors should be called things like "Brick Shetland or Chip Clydesdale".

The humour here is closest to cult publication The Onion, all spoof statistics and off-kilter soundbites, with an added dash of deadpan, Swiftian misanthropy. Stewart's survey of life under different types of government was sarcastically succinct.

In a democracy a citizen's typical day should be "Counting your money and deciding which fast food to eat". In a totalitarian regime a day is more likely to consist of "Marching, marching, marching".

Inevitably, however, it was the obligatory Bush-bashing that got the biggest laughs from a sold-out, tourist-heavy audience, who clearly appreciated hearing their President being described as someone "who overcame an incredible lack of obstacles to achieve his success". Stewart's rise, however, confirms that political comedy is very much alive and kicking.

Jon Stewart