Jon Stewart covered the Olympic bids closely on his terrific comedy/news series The Daily Show. He also spent time here recently filming Death To Smoochy with Robin Williams and director Danny DeVito. At Montreal's Just For Laughs fest, Stewart and Jim Slotek discussed the vibe of the little world-class city that could(n't).

THE SUN: When you returned to the show you told your viewers you had the impression you could kick Canada's ass.

JON STEWART: (Scratching his chin pensively) I think I could, yeah.

THE SUN: So what was your impression of Toronto?

STEWART: I've said this before, and I mean no disrespect, but I do believe Toronto is a city that has ordered the tuna melt and was brought a fish sandwich and said, "Ah, that's okay, we'll eat it anyway." There's a sense that whatever we get, we'll get, so we'll continue to go along and find some pride in the fact that, y'know, we're awfully pleasant and quite diverse. I mean, what is there to compare it to?

THE SUN: I don't know, maybe Chicago with healthier food.

STEWART: It's like Chicago without the insane vibe. The big difference is, when you go to Chicago, people aren't concerned with whether you like it or not. They don't say, "You're not from Chicago? Well, it's pretty nice, right?"

THE SUN: Hey, we're new at this. It's only the last 10 years or so everybody's been dropping by to film movies of the week.

STEWART: It's interesting. Y'know, there's an awkward pride I'm not sure how to take. You didn't stand a chance on the Olympic thing -- look what you were up against. You wanna go, "Y'know what? You're a good lookin' city. Don't worry what everybody thinks. Go out there and you knock 'em around."