Stewart says his ‘Daily’ goodbye

David Letterman signed off from CBS in May, to be replaced this fall by Colbert. “I can’t thank Comedy Central and the people who work here enough”.

“I’ve been banging it out 22 minutes a night, four days a week and I don’t think anybody can keep up that kind of pace”, said Stewart during his talk with Schumer.

Finally, Stewart introduced the final moment of zen, which was a musical send-off from one of his favorite musicians, Bruce Springsteen who along with the E Street band performed “Land of Hopes and Dreams” and “Born To Run”.

Leselle Hatcher, 27, was also there on Wednesday.

Stewart, 52, announced last winter that he was getting restless and it was time to move on. In the “Destroyer of Worlds” segment, Stewart quips, “The world is demonstrably worse than when I started”.

Towards the end of the finale, Stewart taught us the historical trend of, well, bullsh*t, closing out his comments with, “The best defense against bullsh*t is vigilance”. “It was a really successful example of where Stewart wanted to take the show and then the fact that the 2000 election went into that insane recount in Florida just made their point for them”. A taped message from Bill O’Reilly said, “Have fun feeding your rabbits, quitter”.

But Stewart hit back, saying he has regularly criticised the actions of the President and would continue to do so regardless of any meetings between the two.

In recent days some commentators have even compared him to Walter Cronkite.

Stewart’s final time behind the anchor desk was exactly what the show has been since he took over: Hilarious, poignant, intelligent, goofy and important all at the same time. Rick Melli, 58, said he especially loved a comedic rant by Mr. Stewart in 2011, responding to a visit to a New York pizzeria by Donald Trump and Sarah Palin that garnered a flurry of television-news coverage.

Cue former correspondents Aasif Mandvi, Al Madrigal, John Hodgman, Lewis Black, Kristen Schaal, Samantha Bee and Steve Carell, who revealed he never actually left the show. “I started when I was 14 and I’m 31 now”. If you had one you enjoyed that we didn’t list above, let us know below.

But Comedy Central does. The New York Daily News called him “The comic who became a conscience”. The last people that Stewart thanked were the audience, as well as his wife and kids. Comedy Central gave a heads up to fans taping it on DVR that the episode would run past the normal half-hour allotment.