While not known for his sense of humor, Bill Clinton did prove he had one when he visited The Daily Show recently. He’s been making the rounds of talk shows lately and his appearances have been rather serious. So, a touch of levity demanded by The Daily Show was a nice change of pace. He still displayed his intelligence and pit bull determination to make his points, but seeing him lean back in his chair, laughing out loud and clapping and even grabbing Stewart’s arm several times, felt at least new to the current Clinton repertoire. (Stewart couldn’t resist saying at the end of the interview “[Oh and] that really hurt my arm.”)

Interestingly, he didn’t really talk about The Clinton Global Initiative that he was ostensibly there to promote. Not that laser-focused promotion is even possible on most nights with Stewart.  The appearance was additionally crippled by the fact that there were obvious edits, that one can only guess was due to the fact that the interview must have run long, although Stewart did give an uncustomary double segment. It makes it harder to critique a guest when that occurs because you don’t really see the natural flow of conversation and whether they achieved their goals. In this instance, however, I do believe Clinton allowed himself to be lead through The Daily Show comic minefield more than he expected, as he obviously felt compelled to fully answer the questions posed.

At one point Stewart asked Clinton how much he would win by if HE was running today? “20 points… You’d pretty much crush ‘em! You’ve still got it!” And whatever “it” is, he does… and now with a bit of go-with-the-flow humor, too.