Jon Stewart ready for a drink after ‘Daily Show’ farewell

Stewart even earned acknowledgement from one of his most frequent targets – Fox News. For the past 16 years, the two have been satirists-in-arms, lampooning the ludicrousness of our political system side-by-side and, once Colbert got his own show, back-to-back, on Comedy Central. “Nightly Show” host Wilmore complained that his 11:30 p.m. show “got bumped” for the extra-length “Daily Show” finale.

Stewart closed with an emotional thanks to his co-workers and the Daily Show audience, who he said kept him going on days he felt like the show wasn’t all there.

What started as a comedy show in 1996, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart morphed into one of the America’s most influential voices of satire. It is one of the few times I’ve known you to be dead wrong. Noah showed up with a measuring tape, and Stewart asked, “Could you give me, like, 20 more minutes?” He is a contributor who joined the show last year, according to Comedy Central.

Colbert came out last to compare his and Stewart’s relationship to that of best friends Sam and Frodo from The Lord of the Rings. On Thursday the channel took out a full-page ad in The New York Times to pay tribute to Stewart.

The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, played Stewart out, and rather than go into goodbyes, the comedian left us saying he’s “just going to get a drink”.

For his final monologue, Stewart addressed the camera and announced that “bullsh*t is everywhere”, running down various issues that the U.S. and world at large are now facing.

“You’re infuriatingly good at your job”, he told Stewart during an extended and honest thank you. “So here it is, my moment of Zen”.

“It’s the end of an era, just like when David Letterman retired”, said Jennifer Robinson, 37, who arrived from Missouri on Wednesday.

Politicians and media personalities who had regularly been lampooned by Stewart also made cameo appearances.

Stewart, who was born in New York but grew up in Lawrenceville, NJ, was clearly moved at the end of the show.

“The show isn’t ending, we are merely taking a small pause in the conversation – which, by the way, I have hogged”, said the host.

The seat and the desk and the whole Daily Show set as we know it are being donated to the Newseum, an interactive news museum in Washington, D.C.