How Nicola Sturgeon went head-to-head with Jon Stewart

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon went head-to-head with the king of the US satirical chat show, Jon Stewart, when she appeared on Comedy Central's hit programme The Daily Show.

The SNP leader began the interview by saying she was excited and scared to be on the show, especially as its website had billed her as a comedian.

She said: "You've raised all these expectations that I'm going to be funny. I'm a politician and as you know politicians are very rarely funny."

However, the first minister traded banter with the veteran comedian in an interview that touched on subjects such as the Edinburgh Fringe, Twitter, oil and haggis.

The General Election result

Stewart explained to the US audience that the SNP had won an "unprecedented" 56 out of 59 seats in Scotland at the general election.

Nicola Sturgeon joked: "I have ordered an inquiry into why the SNP did not win the other three. It's reporting directly to me."

Stewart said: "What do you think you are, Saddam Hussein? You get 99%? 56 out of 59 is pretty good."

Sturgeon said: "Always aim for more."

The big question

Having settled Ms Sturgeon, the host went straight for the big question he needed to address.

He asked: "You have pledged for Scotland greater self-determination, more financial independence, but now after the election that has crashed head-on with the reality that Westminster still controls the purse strings and still believes in austerity. My question to you is this first minister. What is haggis? Why would anyone eat that?

Ms Sturgeon said haggis was delicious.

"It is spicy, it is tasty, it is absolutely delicious and you get vegetarian haggis as well. So another reason to come to Edinburgh."

How to get independence

Stewart told the first minister that the US went through a similar process to get away from the UK.

Ms Sturgeon said: "You were a bit more successful, although I don't think we'll try to do it your way."

Jon Stewart said: "Let me tell you what they hate. They hate when you throw their stuff into the water."

"That's where we went wrong," Ms Sturgeon said.

Heading off a US invasion

Jon Stewart asked where the money would come from if Scotland were to become independent.

Ms Sturgeon said: "We've got a brilliant economy. We are an oil producing country."

Stewart replied: "You have oil? May we invade you?

Addressing the audience, Ms Sturgeon gave the host a taste of his own medicine when she said: "This is progress. You just heard there, Jon, presumably on behalf of the United States, asking for permission to invade an oil-producing country. It doesn't usually work that way."

"See that, you are funny," said the host.

Seceding from Twitter

The US chat show host asked the first minister how bad the divide got in Scotland over the independence referendum.

He said: "I know it was bad on Twitter. Have you thought of seceding from Twitter?"

Ms Sturgeon replied: "I think about seceding from Twitter every day."

She added: "You know what? We hurl insults at each other on Twitter occasionally but the independence referendum was entirely democratic. It was peaceful and it has had an amazing legacy in Scotland.

"In Scotland now, we are really interested in politics. Imagine that. People actually want to vote in elections. They want to get involved. They want to get their politicians on the spot and make sure they deliver for them. That's a fantastic thing. Democracy has really been strengthened by it."

Jon Stewart said: "Our democracy here is so strong that we don't even need to pay attention to it."