An Ode to Jon Stewart

5.31.15

On February 10th of this year, Jon Stewart announced that he would be leaving the Daily Show after seventeen years of piloting it. Since then, my nightly viewings of the show have been tinged with the sadness of knowing what’s to come. I tried living in denial, but reality was unavoidable, with speculation as to who would take over and what Stewart would do next spreading all over the Internet soon after his announcement. Now, as his departure is a mere 35 episodes away, it’s time for all of us to come to terms with the end of an era.

As a kid, I used to hang around while my dad watched The Daily Show and laugh along, pretending to understand what was going on. A little before I went into high school, though, I started becoming truly interested in what Jon Stewart had to say. His coverage of the 2012 election drew me in, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

“Where will I get my news every night?” tweeted Bill Clinton following Stewart’s announcement. Many of us have been wondering the same thing. Stewart is certainly left-wing and his show is satirical, so it has been accused of providing “fake news”, but he has often called out politicians (including Democrats and Obama himself) on lies and hypocrisy way before “serious” media outlets have. He’s also engaged viewers using his effortless humor with topics that would seem dull otherwise. His correspondents are frequently featured in amusing skits that explore important issues by interacting with important people as well as ordinary citizens, and his interviews with celebrities, politicians, and scholars have left viewers not only entertained but also better informed.

“Stewart didn’t degrade politics and the press. He walked through a degraded landscape, a tour guide who’s also a smartass,” wrote Timothy Egan for the New York Times. This quote basically sums up the show for me. I will dearly miss Stewart’s commentary: his frantic coverage of the “Democalypse”, his silly puns, the expressions he makes in response to racism, homophobia, or sexism. Seriously, I have never seen a human being as skillful at the art of altering his facial features to convey true meaning. I will miss his impressions of politicians and reporters, especially the turtle-like demeanor he puts on when imitating Mitch McConnell. I will miss his relentless torment of other news outlets, like Fox News, which is starting to seem like it really just exists to provide fodder for The Daily Show. (Just kidding. I just asked my dad to read over this article and he informed me that Fox, while it may sometimes be a little wacky, is the most successful network in America.) Most of all, I’ll miss the way he finished each story with hard-hitting statements that make you sincerely consider the way this nation and this world work. He is insanely adept at pointing out the things that we all really need to see, and in doing that, he has changed his audience in a significant way. He’s leaving behind not only a legacy of laughter and comedy and information, but also millions of viewers who will now question rather than accept, who will talk instead of staying silent about the things that really matter.

Stewart told his audience he’s not sure where life will take him after his last show, which will be on August 6th. “I’m going to have dinner on a school night with my family, who I have heard from multiple sources are lovely people,” he said. I would really like him to know how much spending time watching his show together has meant to my own family. Thanks to night after night of spending time with him with a box of Special K cereal by my side, it really feels like he’s a good friend of mine. The show will live on with Trevor Noah as its host, but I’ll never forget Jon and the ways in which he has affected my life and changed the world.