That's right - with the new president on the job less than a day and riding an enormous emotional high - "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" decided to end any speculation that in the Obama era there would be softballs instead of switchblades. Stewart and company deftly took some of the keynote themes of the new president and showed that they were uncannily similar to the keynote themes of the outgoing president.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? Not exactly. But in showing - as "The Daily Show" often does - that politics is politics no matter the party, Stewart made everybody laugh. Uncomfortably, of course. But they laughed. And then he mocked the fact that he had to do it, that his job - maybe even his nature - meant that he had to skewer the rhetoric, even when so many of the show's Obama-supporting fans were still basking in the glory of Inauguration Day.

Stewart has also been getting a ton of laughs just by virtue of being, like his base, ecstatic about the Obama era. His audience understands that there's humor in both being happy (because it continues eight years of George Bush bashing in a backhanded manner), and also in being too happy. Fans of "The Daily Show" get the joke - all the jokes - even when they're not used to the punch line being directed at the person they voted for.

When you think about it, concern about whether Stewart and his show could thrive under a new president was flawed and simpleminded from its inception. Stewart is a comedian first, political partisan second. Satire and mockery are in Stewart's comedic DNA - of course his show was still going to be funny under Obama.

Then again, maybe worrying about the issue in the first place is just a reflection of how fractured political discourse is in this country.

That said, if you were a fan of the 43rd president, "The Daily Show" probably wasn't the place to go to see your man in the best light. But what makes Stewart and his merry band of satirists so scathingly funny every night is their relentless pursuit of political pompousness. Republicans and Democrats alike are held accountable for their inane words, ridiculous talking points, lies, contradictions and pretty much anything else (wardrobe, facial tic) that will get a laugh.

The genius of the show is exposing politicians for what they are - double-talkers and changelings, for the most part. If only the nightly network news, the cable chatter-heads and even the Sunday political shows were as diligent as "The Daily Show" in digging up video that contradicts positions so effectively.

President Obama, Vice President Biden, Hillary Clinton and tons of others will no doubt be subjected to the rules. They may be a welcome change right now to Stewart and his fans, but a laugh is a laugh no matter which party produces it (just ask Rod Blagojevich, ongoing subject of "Scumdog Million-Hairs," a blistering (albeit almost too easy) takedown of the now ex-governor.

Stewart's Comedy Central stablemate, Stephen Colbert, would seem to have an easier task ahead of him on "The Colbert Report," since he's playing a faux Republican talk show host who despises anything Democratic or even remotely anti-American. And Colbert has, post-election, had some especially funny and creative bits, particularly when President Obama did an interview with Al Arabiya and Colbert thought the president had been kidnapped by terrorists. And Colbert, fully in character, wanted to make it clear that he never said he didn't want Obama to be president. "That's not true. I just didn't want him to be president of America." On Inauguration Day, Colbert said, "We can officially stop calling him president-elect and start calling him the source of all our problems."

And yet, as funny as Colbert can be in this character, it might be that a real-life character will undercut him - Rush Limbaugh. When it comes to politics and humor, sometimes you can't make this stuff up.

E-mail Tim Goodman at tgoodman@sfchronicle.com. You may also read his TV blog, the Bastard Machine, at www.thebastardmachine.com.

This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle