A deadly pig virus — yeah, the one from last summer — has now spread to 22 states, and people are worried. But it’s gonna be OK, because Jon Stewart is here to talk you through it. “The porcine diarrhea virus? We’ve all been there,” Stewart joked in a segment earlier this week.
But rather than poking fun at the runs, he threw in some incisive digs at factory farming and America’s obsession with meat. The pig segment starts 12 minutes in (but we won’t tell anyone if you watch it all):
After a news clip about the porcine diarrhea virus shows a pig comfortably grazing in a big pen, Stewart is quick to point out factory farming is way less idyllic. “Whose pig luxury penthouse did you shoot your footage in? Because from what I recall, the typical pig facility has a little less elbow room and a whole lot more excrement,” he says. After a sad shot of confined pigs, the audience moans, to which he quips:
Hey, it’s your fucking bacon. Look at it! That’s how they make it! It’s not some pig in a giant loft playing shuffleboard and inviting over a spider that writes messages.
Zing! How cool is it that Stewart is getting bacon-lovers to think about their role in factory farming (and thus the pig virus)?
