Jon Stewart Rules On ‘The Late Show’ That Central New Jersey Does Indeed Exist

I grew up in Northern New Jersey, frequenting Quick Chek, munching on subs and Taylor Ham, egg and cheese sandwiches, and loving the Yankees and Giants. Now I live in Central New Jersey, a foreign land where people buy coffee at Wawa, subs are sometimes called “hoagies,” Taylor Ham is called simply “pork roll” and there are a fair number of Phillies and Eagles fans.

But at least it’s not South Jersey… or is it? Does Central Jersey even exist? Stephen Colbert, a resident of the North Jersey town of Montclair, tried to find out on The Late Show Thursday night.

Why would anyone outside of the Garden State care about this segment? Well, because Colbert gets a lot of comedic mileage out of it by interviewing the state’s new governor, Phil Murphy, who seems a lot more smiley and game to roll with the punches than his predecessor, Chris Christie, did.

Murphy, from the appropriately-named township of Middletown, says that Central Jersey does indeed exist, takes the tack of saying that the state’s signature salty breakfast meat is called “Taylor pork” and that its famous long-rolled sandwiches are “either subs or hoagies.” Considering this is the former Goldman Sachs executive’s first public office, he seems to already have the polished political skills of a smarmy 12-term member of Congress.

But the debate also gave Colbert a chance to bring back Central Jersey native Jon Stewart to render his judgement. Stewart grew up in Lawrenceville, not far from Princeton; he likely had his share of sandwiches from Hoagie Haven and got soda and smokes from his local Wawa. But he’s also a Mets fanatic, so he knows how mixed up life in The Middle (of New Jersey) can be.

He renders his verdict, in such a funny way that he once again makes me want to see him on my TV on a regular basis. Can’t he leave his rescue farm to do a show on HBO, say, once a month? Please? We in Central Jersey need you, Jon.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.