Jon Stewart's Global Competitors

Jon Stewart's The Daily Show on Comedy Central has inspired other comedians around the globe to come out with their own version of the popular U.S. program, which also has a weekly half-hour international version. Pakistan's Saad Haroon has adopted Stewart's stand-up-comedian-turned-political-satirist approach on his irreverent British show, in which he often makes jokes about the war on terror (which he refers to as "twat"). Toronto-based Rick Mercer is known for his non-partisan attacks, inviting politicians onto the show and forcing them to do embarrassing things. In Tokyo, Hikari Ota has a standup routine that is Japan's closest thing to a news satire show, but don't count on him poking fun at the Japanese emperor.