It's hard to imagine anyone being more gracious in defeat that Jon Stewart was on Tuesday night's "The Daily Show" as he congratulated Stephen Colbert and "The Colbert Report" for ending "Daily Show's" 10-year streak of outstanding variety series Emmy wins.
"I have one regret about the Emmys on Sunday night, and that is that I was unable to attend and to share in the joy for my friend Stephen Colbert and those at 'The Colbert Report' who won a well-deserved, long-overdue Emmy," he said as the show kicked off.
And it's hard to imagine anyone being less gracious in victory than Colbert. (OK, maybe it is possible to imagine, since that's the kind of guy the character Stephen Colbert is on the show.)
"As Mother Teresa once said, it's not enough to win; others must lose.' Our victory Sunday night was made that much sweeter when you consider who we vanquished," said Colbert.
After stroking his lucky monkey's paw, Colbert placed a "sincere 'bite me'" call to Stewart ... who wandered into the studio just then. And Stewart had a surprise for Colbert, because — as he noted — a win for Colbert is actually a win for Stewart, since Stewart is an executive producer of "Colbert Report."
He then raced up onto Colbert's stage, snagged one of the Emmys and pumped his fists around as a graphic reading "11 in a row!" flashed on the screen.
"Damn your eyes! Damn your teeth!" shouted Colbert, who really wanted to lord his victory over Stewart. But the two ended up embracing anyway.
Friends in defeat and in victory, all the way.