Jon Stewart tackled Russian President Vladimir Putin's New York Times op-ed Thursday night on "The Daily Show," during which he snarked about Putin's choice of publication and chided him for his diatribe against "American exceptionalism."
"First of all, New York Times? That's how you reach out to Americans? You're not familiar with BuzzFeed?" Stewart joked. "Or, I don't know, 'Duck Dynasty,' maybe?"
Putin's op-ed, which was placed with the help of the PR firm Ketchum, rankled the White House and members of Congress. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it made him "want to vomit."
Stewart cast Putin as the "Larry David of international diplomacy"— just when relations between the U.S. and Russia seemed to be working on Syria, "you had to go to say one more thing."
But after acknowledging Putin's "reasonable" disagreements on Syria policy, he couldn't take Putin's scolding on "American exceptionalism."
"You want us to go 'Rocky IV' on your ass?" Stewart said.