Tucker Carlson's attempt to get back at Jon Stewart goes very badly wrong

Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson has reignited a near 20-year feud with Jon Stewart after launching a bizarre attack on the former Daily Show host's appearance.

On Thursday's edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, the right-wing American firebrand listed off several deeply personal insults aimed at Stewart over his advocacy of healthcare for US veterans.

As The Huffington Post first reported, this included one jibe where Carlson suggested his rival 'looks like a guy who lives in the men's room at your public library, eating imaginary insects out of the air'. Watch his outburst below:

He then went on to claim that the 59-year-old funny man, who left The Daily Show in 2015, looks like a 'homeless mental patient'.

“He’s shrieking and disheveled and very short...really short. Too short to date. Was he always that short?” Carlson added.

While obvious political adversaries, given that they sit on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, Carlson and Stewart have been trading blows for a lot longer than people may think.

Their first encounter on national television came back in 2004, on an episode of Carlson's former show CNN show, Crossfire.

While the new face of Fox News may be a household name today, back then Stewart was very much the star out of the two men, as he was at the very peak of his comedic powers.

On the now famous episode, Stewart took issue with Carlson's line of questioning, leading him to call the host a 'dick', before urging the conservative politico to go back to journalism school.

There have been several flashpoints between the pair in the elapsing 19 years, but the latest outburst from Carlson seemingly comes out of nowhere, as Stewart hardly commands the type of audience he previously did.

However, the comedian's decision to support ex-US servicemen and women in their fight for healthcare appears to have rubbed the 53-year-old the wrong way.

Stewart took to twitter on Friday in response to the unprovoked attack, drawing people's attention to Carlson's continued support for Hungary's far-right authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban.

"Friends. Tonite I am sad. @TuckerCarlson believes me too short to date…and yet somehow, miraculously, I remain tall enough to not know what Victor Orban’s a** tastes like!" he wrote.

The now-viral Tweet garnered over 128k likes at the time of writing, with plenty coming out in support of the liberal comic.

Some users compared his sharp retort to the TV star's witty comebacks in their original 2004 TV encounter.

Since leaving The Daily Show over seven years ago, Stewart has gone on to launch The Problem With Jon Stewart, a similarly satirical current affairs series that is now available on Apple TV.

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