Given a choice between laughing at and crying over this crazy election cycle, we'd pick the first one every time -- and soon, Jon Stewart may do us all a favor by returning to his comedic throne.

The former "Daily Show" host signed a four-year production deal with HBO to make "a few minutes of content now and again" back in November 2015. While the show's format has not been fully revealed, it will focus on short-form videos geared toward the HBO Now platform, the network's stand-alone streaming option for cord-cutters. (It might look a little like this.)

Until now, we had no idea exactly when we could expect Stewart's return to television after leaving "The Daily Show" in August.

But HBO CEO Richard Plepler stated he is "hopeful" that Stewart's new show would debut on the network before the general election in November at a Paley Media Council talk in New York on Thursday.

Surely the 2016 election cycle is providing a temptingly rich trove of material to work with, so we'll be keeping a keen eye out for Stewart's HBO debut in the coming months.