Jon Stewart claps back after Tucker Carlson mocks his height and calls him ‘demented’

Comedian Jon Stewart has struck back after Fox News host Tucker Carlson mocked his height and called him “demented”.

Mr Carlson targeted the former Daily Show host on his programme on Thursday night, saying that he looks like a “mental patient”.

“He’s shrieking and dishevelled and very short. Really short, too short to date. Was he always that short? What happened? Where's he been in the last seven years? If you know, let us know. We want answers,” he added sarcastically.

“Friends. Tonite I am sad. @TuckerCarlson believes me too short to date … and yet somehow, miraculously, I remain tall enough to not know what [Hungarian Prime Minister] Victor Orban’s a** tastes like!” Mr Stewart tweeted later on Thursday. “Is it goulash Tucky? Seems like it would be goulash.”

Mr Carlson praised Mr Orban last year, saying that he’s the only “elected leader who publicly identifies as a Western-style conservative”.

Mr Orban spoke at CPAC in Texas on Thursday, saying that “we have seen what kind of future the globalist, ruling class has to offer. But we have a different future in mind”.

“The globalists can all go to hell, I have come to Texas,” he added.

The speech came amid controversy for the Hungarian far-right leader after a speech he gave in Romania last month in which he said “these countries are no longer nations – they are nothing more than a conglomeration of peoples”.

“We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race,” he added, according to a translation by the Associated Press. “Migration has split Europe in two — or I could say that it has split the West in two.”

Zsuzsa Hegedus, a longtime aide, resigned shortly after, writing in her letter of resignation that not even a “bloodthirsty racist” could accept such comments. She added that the speech was “a pure Nazi text worthy of [Propaganda Minister Joseph] Goebbels”. She later appeared to backtrack on her comments.

Mr Stewart has spent several days in Washington DC over the last week pushing lawmakers to pass the PACT act, a healthcare bill for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.

On Monday, he was filmed yelling at far-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, whom Mr Stewart said was a “f***ing troll” and that he was not acting “in good faith”.

Mr Carlson shared the video on his show, saying that Mr Stewart looked “like a guy who lives in the men’s room at your public library, eating imaginary insects out of the air”.

“What’s really the most interesting part of [the video] is not the policy debate, but Jon Stewart himself. He’s totally unrecognizable. He looks demented,” the Fox News host added.