BREAKING NEWS: Rob Riggle is NOT in Iraq

Shocking news to report at this hour: Rob Riggle is safe at home in New York City. I attended today's taping of "The Daily Show" to see what all the fuss about this Barack Obama guy is and ended up stumbling upon The Daily Show's dirty little secret. As you probably know by now, Rob Riggle went to Iraq last week to perform for the troops with UCB Theater all-stars Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, and Horatio Sanz. Riggle was supposed to stay in Iraq this week and report live each night for "The Daily Show". The rest of the crew came home early. I spotted Horatio at McManus this past Sunday, but I'm not sure if he came back with everybody else or left separately. I'm pretty sure Riggle was actually in Iraq during Monday's broadcast. But last night's "live" report from Riggle seemed like it was taped in the studio. It looked the same on screen as tonight's report did- a camera effect was used to make Riggle's image grainier and he waited a few seconds before answering each question to make it look like there was a satellite delay. Judge for yourself.



As soon as I saw Riggle come out today and get in position for the bit I thought they would pretend he was in Iraq and then have him walk behind Jon or do something in Jon's shot that would indicate he was back in New York. But they made no mention of it in the "live report" and didn't say anything about it to the audience. Jon even said "Be safe" at the end of the segment. Before Riggle left he gave a mischievous smile and a wave to the audience. So what's the deal? Why the lies, wiseguys?

Related: My first visit to "The Daily Show"