Jon Stewart farewells The Daily Show
Those who want to watch the final Daily Show episode online can check out Comedy Central’s page, which also has video from other shows in Jon Stewart’s final week. (He also used a familiar and much stronger epithet.). The only way to combat the relentless intrusions of dishonest people, Mr. Stewart said, was through vigilance.
“So long jackass”, McCain said with a laugh.
“We owe you because we learned from you“, said Colbert.
And then, for good measure, there was a performance by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
The Daily Show was born in 1996 to spoof late night conventions, but it was only after Stewart took over in 1999 that it grew into The Daily Show we know today, the incisive satire of pundits, politicians and, most especially, the cable news networks they use as their mouthpieces.
“Within months, the president of CNN announced that he was canceling ‘Crossfire, ‘ and he credited Jon Stewart”, New Yorker’s media critic Ken Auletta said.
The Daily Show has become a kind of national sewage treatment plant, filtering our political bile into something entertaining.
As Stewart noted at the top of the show, he is leaving just as the media machinery is mobilizing for the 2016 presidential campaign.
Our reporter Raya Jalabi was on the ground and knows who exactly showed up but … it’d be poor form to spoil the show so we’ll leave things nice and ambiguous for now.
Colbert, who begins in September as David Letterman’s replacement on CBS’ “Late Show“, offered the most heartfelt tribute, saying the accomplishments of Stewart’s troupe members through the years was a testament to the example he set. “You were infuriatingly good at your job”.
Fresh Air pays tribute to Stewart’s tenure on The Daily Show with pieces from four different interviews since 2000, including a 2006 conversation with former Daily Show executive producer Ben Karlin, which you can listen to in the audio link above.
Prior to a recent taping of “The Daily Show”, Jon took time to answer audience questions. But this show doesn’t deserve an even slightly restless host, and neither do you.
“The world is demonstrably worse than when I started”, Stewart wailed. Perhaps no star has been brighter than that of actor Steve Carrell, who many forget got his big break on The Daily Show so many years ago. MStars News has some of the highlights below.
Jon Stewart had been forced to listen to what people think of him.
“He’s been after us for years”, Fox News chairman Roger Ailes told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s being challenged in the courts”. You are a great artist and a good man. “And I’ve made peace with it”.
“Nothing ever ends…it’s been a privilege”. “It’s just a continuation”. “But as you see the 100th montage where Stewart shows how all these cliches are repeated across the board, you don’t look at TV news in the same way”.