Jon Stewart Has the Last Laugh About No-Show Beyoncé During The Daily Show’s Live DNC Wrap-Up
Jon Stewart kicked off Thursday’s live edition of The Daily Show by acknowledging the sad elephant in the room.
“The anticipation was high tonight, and not just for Kamala Harris,” he said. “Speculation was running wild today that there would be a surprise guest. Did they deliver?”
He then cut to a clip of… Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin.
“Everybody thought that it was going to be Beyoncé coming out there, but it was Slotkin all along,” Stewart exclaimed, as he declared himself a member of the #BeyHive #SlotHive. He then told his audience that — surprise, surprise — Queen Bey would not make an appearance on The Daily Show either.
When a member of the studio audience responded with an audible groan, Stewart shot back, “Tickets are free, motherf–ker!”
Though there had been whispers about Beyoncé making an appearance this week, there had been no official confirmation from the Democratic National Committee. But on Thursday evening, TMZ alleged that Queen Bey was in Chicago, and would perform before Vice President Harris accepted her party’s nomination.
Then at 10 pm ET, as the convention entered its final hour, Beyoncé’s team put the rumors to rest. “Beyoncé was never scheduled to be there,” her rep told The Hollywood Reporter. “The report of a performance is untrue.”
To quote the great Beyonce: We gotta lay our cards down, down, down … we got this one wrong.
— TMZ (@TMZ) August 23, 2024
Beyoncé, of course, is no stranger to politics. In 2009, she sang at the Inauguration Ball as Barack and Michelle Obama took their first dance as President and First Lady of the United States:
Four years later, she performed the national anthem at Obama’s 2013 inauguration ceremony:
The 32-time Grammy winner’s 2016 hit “Freedom” has become the official anthem for Harris for President following its use in her first campaign ad (as seen below). Though she didn’t perform Thursday, the DNC featured musical numbers by The Chicks, who sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” (watch here), and Pink, who performed “What About Us?” with her 12-year-old daughter Willow (watch here).
