WATCH: Stewart, Colbert return to tackle Hurricane Sandy [VIDEOS]

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Though Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman performed to empty studios during the superstorm that ravaged New York and New Jersey, fans of "The Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" had to wait until Wednesday night for the comedic duo's take on Sandy's aftermath.

Big Apple-native Jon Stewart opened his first post-Sandy show with a cutting one-liner about his hometown: "Did you ever have one of those days where everything you loved as a child was underwater?" Stewart's team also hit on Sandy's lopsided damage to different parts of the city, joking that downtown Manhattan looked like "Little North Korea," while uptown's Serendipity dessert bar had "run out of mocha sprinkles." [Video above.]

Stewart and co. also praised government officials response to the disaster in a later segment called, "Tribute to Institutional Competence."

"Once you remove political and partisan gamesmanship from a situation, performance improves dramatically," Stewart said.

Stephen Colbert hit back at Sandy with his customary bravado, encouraging audiences to donate to the Red Cross while offering up some of his own suggestions for getting the city back on its feet: