The race between billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos to make civilian space travel a thing has repeatedly been likened to a “d— measuring contest” over the past few weeks. Now, a star-studded promo for Jon Stewart’s Apple TV+ show, “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” imagines a world where that is literally the case.
Stewart shared the promo video — which was briefly posted, deleted, then re-uploaded — on Twitter Tuesday, writing, “Sorry for the aborted launch!! I’m a bad twitterer. Enjoy this small step for man!”
The video dramatizes the “billionaire space race” as if it were a new sci-fi flick called “Cum Dog Billionaires,” with Branson, Bezos and Elon Musk duking it out for galactic dominance with rockets shaped like their own, um, executive assistants.
The faux trailer features Jason Alexander as Bezos, Adam Pally as Musk and Tracy Morgan as “diverse friend that would never actually hang out with Jeff Bezos.” Branson and Mark Zuckerberg are portrayed by a mop and a stray cat, respectively.
“I’m going to ride a rocket to space and it’s going to look just like my d—,” a bald Alexander announces, to which the Branson mop counters, “I too will be riding my big old d— into space.”
The video includes a number of jabs at the space-faring billionaires, from Bezos saying, “One small step for mankind, one giant leap for me personally,” to a title card reading, “Executive Produced by American Taxpayers.”
Branson became the first billionaire to travel to space on a craft he helped fund weeks ago, but Bezos’ launch took place mere hours ago, with the Twitterverse lampooning the rocket’s phallic appearance. Stewart and his team did not have to scramble to recreate it, though — in this case, reality proved just as strange as fiction. According to Chelsea Devantez, head writer at “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” the skit was filmed weeks ago. Well, at least the scene with the hat.
Although it’s unclear how the sketch will fit into the series itself, “The Problem with Jon Stewart” is slated to premiere in September. Apple announced back in April that the show would be “a multiple season, one-hour, single-issue series” and each season will have a “companion podcast” released alongside it.
