Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are back in action, albeit without the written Wørd.
The politically minded funnymen's respective shows returned to Comedy Central on Monday for the first time since the Writers Guild of America went on strike Nov. 5, with both hosts having to hold court without their writing staffs.
And, as expected, neither passed on the opportunity to mine the subject for humorous material.
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is a show we do with our very creative team of field producers and correspondents and studio people and, of course, our writers," Stewart informed his audience. "From now on, until the end of the strike, we'll be doing 'A Daily Show with Jon Stewart,' but not 'The Daily Show.'"
While big-name actors visit The Daily Show and The Colbert Report frequently, those shows are not quite as affected as, say, The Tonight Show is by the controversy over Screen Actors Guild members crossing WGA picket lines, because either cable program is equally if not more entertaining when there's a political figure on the receiving end of the Q&A.
Stewart, for one, marked his first new episode in two months by conducting an in-depth conversation about the strike with Cornell University professor and conflict resolution expert Ronald Seeber.
Afterward, Colbert chatted up author Richard B. Freeman and The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan. Mike Huckabee, who took some major flak from Hollywood for being a guest on The Tonight Show last week, is scheduled to appear on The Colbert Report Wednesday. (The GOP presidential candidate was on The Late Show with David Letterman Monday.)
"I got a problem here," Colbert said haughtily at the beginning of the Report. "There are no words on my prompter."
Then, when informed that it's his writing team that makes the words appear on the screen, and that the machine doesn't magically read his thoughts, the faux right-winger was appalled.
"The writers!" Colbert sniffed. "The guys on the fourth floor with the opium bongs, playing Guitar Hero all day?! I find that a bit of a stretch."
As was the case when Late Night with Conan O'Brien resumed production at NBC's Rockefeller Center studio last week, a small group of picketers gathered outside Comedy Central's digs before showtime.
WGA East president Michael Winship reiterated that the guild's beef wasn't with Stewart or Colbert, who are both WGA members, but with the network and parent company Viacom's continuing refusal to "make a fair and responsible contract" that would allow the writers to go back to work.
Meanwhile, over on CBS, Letterman shaved the beard he had grown during his strike-imposed vacation from The Late Show.
"We have to say goodbye to an old friend tonight, and I'm just sick about it," the hirsute host said before two barbers set to work trimming the beard with an electric razor and then finishing the job with lather and blade.
"Shaving beards on TV—that's what shows without writers do," joked Tom Hanks, demonstrating what sort of guests shows with writers get to book.