The Daily Show takes on World of Warcraft government spying

After new documents released yesterday showed that the United States National Security Agency infiltrated World of Warcraft to hunt terrorists, Jon Stewart used his pseudo-news program The Daily Show to roast the government agency. He did this on the air last night by interviewing "reporter" Aasif Mandvi, who pretended to be Greychalk the dwarf paladin from World of Warcraft.

The segment's jokes involve Mandvi pretending not to know that people sometimes lie about who they are online.

"The idea that people are joining World of Warcraft and then misrepresenting themselves is unthinkable. Yes. This place is all about trust. If we thought that people might not be who they say they are, the whole world would fall apart," he said.

Joking about the American and British surveillance agents creating World of Warcraft characters to seek out intelligence targets, Stewart said, "Well I guess that does make some sense; how Islamic terrorists do like to be surrounded by 72 virgins."

Check out the full clip on Comedy Central's website.

Stewart and company, however, also appear to be the butt of the joke. As viewers point out, Mandvi is dressed as a night elf rather than a dwarf. What's more, his spellbar is for priests, not paladins, and he is depicted in the wrong starting zone.

After the reports came out, World of Warcraft creator Blizzard Entertainment claimed it had no idea that any surveillance was taking place. And if it was, such surveillance would have been conducted without the company's knowledge or permission, Blizzard said.