Jon Stewart Reignites Long-Running Arby's Feud With Fresh Jab

When Jon Stewart finally joined Twitter in January, the former Daily Show host immediately revived his long-running feud with the fast-food chain Arby's. In fact, Arby's Twitter page is the only page he follows. On Monday, the comedian kept the joke going by comparing its sandwiches to Coca-Cola's much-maligned Dasani water brand.

"Dasani is the Arby's of water," Stewart tweeted. Arby's has not responded. Stewart's tweet was a reference to the long-running hate people have for Dasani. During the first two months of the coronavirus pandemic, people panic-bought almost everything in grocery stores, but photos of unbought Dasani bottles sitting on shelves went viral.

Dasani is the Arby’s of water.

— Jon Stewart (@jonstewart) May 31, 2021

As Distractify points out, one reason people turned against the Coke product is that the company revealed years ago that Dasani is just tap water that is factory-filtered and enhanced with minerals before water. Dasani labels also list these minerals as "salt." Many people also don't buy bottled water because single-use plastic bottles are bad for the environment.

While hosting The Daily Show, Stewart famously took jabs at Arby's, sharing fictitious slogans and making fun of their beef sandwiches during his last two years on the show. Arby's embraced the jabs, though, even releasing tribute videos to Stewart when he left The Daily Show in 2015. In an interview with the Associated Press, Arby's then-chief marketing officer Rob Lynch claimed the company sent Stewart free lunches every time he insulted the company on the show. However, Stewart said the feud was "invented" and he never even tried their food.

"We had to make a tough decision," Lynch said of the first time they heard Stewart insulting the company. "Do we send him a letter saying, 'We can't believe you're doing this — we use the highest quality ingredients.' Or do we play along? So we sent him and his crew lunch, and they sent us back a letter saying, 'Usually when we make fun of people, they send us nasty letters. You sent us lunch. That's awesome.' We were like, 'Yes! They loved the food, they like us. That was the perfect decision.'"

After leaving The Daily Show, Stewart focused on his advocacy for 9/11 first responders and war veterans. In January, he joined Twitter, where he is following Arby's. "Hello old friend," the Arby's Twitter page wrote. "Yes...I've come back up on you...much like one of your nasty nasty sandwiches," Stewart replied on Jan. 29. Later this year, Stewart's new show, The Problem with Jon Stewart, will debut on Apple TV+. One of those problems might just be the Arby's sandwich he tried to wash down with Dasani water.