From Kendrick vs. Drake to Elmo vs. Rocco, there’s been no shortage of pop culture feuds in recent years. But no celebrity drama can ever truly measure up to one of the greatest conflicts of all time: Jon Stewart’s beef with Chicago deep-dish pizza.
During a special live broadcast Thursday night, the Daily Show host—who took “The Best F*cking News Team” on the road to cover the DNC in Chicago this week—revisited the Windy City’s signature dish, and it turns out his position hasn’t changed.
Stewart tried his best to keep Thursday’s monologue on topic, sticking strictly to jokes and observations about the convention itself. However, that all changed when he turned to Fox News commentators who have accused Democrats of focusing too much on “vibes” over policy. “You can’t eat good vibes,” Fox host Laura Ingraham remarked.
Apparently, those were the words that broke the camel’s back. “I think,” Stewart said in response, “you might be confusing vibes with the tomato-infused, soup-adjacent fondue, weapon of mass lactation that this city calls [bleep] pizza!”
“Yeah! That’s right, mother-[bleep]!” he shouted, climbing on top of his desk as the crowd dissolved into a mixture of boos, laughter, and applause. “Come on! Come on! You want a piece? You want a piece?!”
Longtime Daily Show fans know that Stewart’s impassioned rant didn’t just come out of nowhere. The late-night-host, who calls New York home, has long been vocal about his disdain for Chicago’s pizza. It all began over a decade ago when Stewart infamously went on a long, charged tirade against the city’s deep-dish style.
“Deep-dish pizza is not only not better than New York pizza. It’s not pizza,” he declared in 2013. “It’s a [bleep]ing casserole. I’m surprised you haven’t thought to complete your deep-dish pizza by putting some canned onion rings on top of it. It’s a cornbread biscuit, which you’ve melted cheese on. And then in defiance of God and man and all things holy, you poured uncooked marinara sauce atop the cheese. The sauce naked, cold on display like some sort of sauce wh*re.”
He compared Chicago pizza to “sex with a corpse made of sandpaper,” “tomato soup in a bread bowl,” and even an “above ground-marinara swimming pool for rats.” “Here’s how I know I’m right,” continued. “You call it Chicago-style pizza. You call it deep-dish pizza. Stuffed pizza. You know what we call it? Pizza.”
The segment sparked backlash from Chicagoans, many of whom didn’t appreciate their pizza being compared to a swimming pool for rats. “Apparently, Chicago has television,” Stewart joked. Local news stations reported on the controversy, Twitter/X users reportedly sent Stewart death threats, and even then-mayor Rahm Emanuel got involved by delivering a pizza to The Daily Show with a note that read, “Jon, Deep dish with dead fish. Love, Rahm.”
Stewart conceded in a later segment—which The Daily Show aptly titled “Strife of Pie”—that he may have “overreacted” with his rant. He did, however, remain firm in his conviction that New York-style is inherently superior, airing a pre-recorded video of Matthew Broderick and Steve Buscemi praising NYC’s “magic” pizza. “I love Chicago,” the Ferris Bueller star said. “You might remember I once led a parade there. But when it comes to pizza, no one beats New York.”
Stewart extended an olive branch to Chicago by bringing on Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria chef Marc Malnat, who had publicly responded to the show’s rant, to apologize. And with that, he seemed to put the matter to bed, sampling a slice of deep-dish pizza from Malnati on air and allowing that it was, indeed, “very tasty.”
“At least, let’s face facts, we’re not California,” Stewart said. “I mean, California pizza, that is sh*t. I say this with all due respect to California, that is a pile of sh*t.”
Yet, old habits apparently die hard—even in 2024, Stewart just couldn’t help but remind everyone that he still very much hates Chicago-style pizza. While true peace may never be achieved when it comes to the thin-crust vs. deep-dish debate, there is one thing that Chicago and the Daily Show host can agree on. “The bar pies are good,” Stewart admits.
