
In last nightâs penultimate The Daily Show With Jon Stewartâwhich reverts back to simply The Daily Show after tonightâJon Stewart did a segment called âThe Daily Show: Destroyer Of Worlds,â which set out to destroy, instead, the idea that The Daily Show has had any effect on the world at all. In showing clips plucked from Stewartâs 16-year-plus run as host (and targeting depressingly similar targets), the segment served the dual purpose of re-emphasizing the streak of self-deprecation the now-former host has always maintained (even as his cultural influence has inarguably grown), and continuing the Daily Showâs mission of letting the air out of hyperbole, wherever it occurs.
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That showâs guest, the similarly venerated comic icon Louis CK, with his signature no-nonsense authority, touted Stewart, saying âyou were a voice of reason, and you were funny, and this was one of the most impressive comic achievements of all time.â Yet Stewartâs exasperated statement from the end of his opening bit still hung in the air, as it has through all the celebratory hoopla in this last week of showsââThe world is demonstrably worse than when I started this!â Itâs the same maddening, soul-sapping futility that all political satirists share, eventuallyâno matter how cleverly they turn a phrase or hold power up to ridicule, in the end, the practical effects of all their efforts are too easily swept aside by humanityâs capacity to be just plain awful.
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And yet.
What Stewart brought to The Daily Showâtheretofore a fitfully funny outlet for former host Craig Kilbornâs outsized, snarky comic persona (and ego)âwas a sense of mission. And, very simply (and hopefully), that mission was to make things better. While unabashedly âof the left,â Stewartâs targets are, first and always, those who seek to manipulate the truth for political gain, be they politicians orâequally and perniciously powerfulâthose of the news media, especially those employed at Fox News, dubbed lastingly by Stewart as âBullshit Mountain.â (Another on-target bit from last night was a montage of Fox and others introducing stories about Stewart being critical of President Obama with, âEven Jon Stewart criticized the PresidentâŚ,â leading Stewart to ask if they couldnât just leave off the âeven.â)
For all the partisan sniping from his critics that Stewart isnât being fair (to say nothing of balanced), what draws the ire of Stewart and his staff most are those whose intellectual dishonesty reduces governmentâwhich should, itâs implied in Stewartâs comedy, be a rational institution pushing for a wiser, more just worldâto a childish, partisan slap-fight, subsidized by the wealthy and powerful, and devoted to nothing but its own continuance. Thatâs what makes the end of Jon Stewartâs run so dismaying, especially on the eve of the first, predictably pandering and ugly Republican presidential debate of the seasonâthereâs just so much bullshit left to shine a light on.
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Stewartâs incoming replacement, Trevor Noah, has a lot of pressure on him, much more than simply that of being the new guy. Notwithstanding the lingering backlash over some of his more ill-considered social media jokes from years past, viewers of The Daily Show look to it as a half-hour, four-times-a-week oasis of sanity amid the incessant babble of televised self-interest, hypocrisy, and outright chicanery thatâs become the bread-and-butter of our public discourse. Stewart may look back and half-seriously declare that his nearly 17 years in the chair havenât improved the American political landscape. But they have. When failed Republican candidate for president Mitt Romney was caught on hidden camera disparaging â47 per centâ of America in a speech he thought was only for the ears of wealthy (white) donors, Stewartâs epic takedown sprang from the heart of that missionâon The Daily Showâs watch it was no longer possible for policy makers to say one thing to the people who agreed with them, and another for public consumption.
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Stewartâs final episode manages to convey that feeling of optimism without sacrificing the showâs central idea that the mission isnât over, all in the shape of a joyous party. Considering the show aired on the same night of the first GOP debateâwhich, whew, youâre welcome, Trevor NoahâStewartâs opening conceit that his last show will take the form of an extended dissection of such prime comedy fodder gives way (at least partly because, you know, the show was actually recorded hours ahead of time) to a parade of nearly every correspondent ever on any incarnation of the show. (Hi, Mo Rocca and Vance Degeneres!) Itâs one of those expected ideas that nonetheless turns into an escalating, giddy delight, with everyone getting their moment to do a bit, all leading to Stephen Colbertâs apparently unscriptedâand heartfeltâpaean to his erstwhile boss:
We owe youâŚbecause we learned from you by example how to do a show with intention, how to work with clarity, and how to treat people with respect. You were infuriatingly good at your job, okay. And all of us who were lucky enough to work with you for 16 years are better at our jobs because we got to watch you do yours. And we are better people for having known you. You are a great artist and a good man.
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That Stewart tries, twiceâand tearfullyâto shut down Colbertâs speech could come off like simple showbiz fakery, if the whole finale werenât marked with that sort of generosity and spontaneity. Stewart leads a Goodfellas-inspired tour of the backstage, just so he can individually spotlight everyone who works on the show (and Martin Scorcese, who berates him for ripping off his movieâStewartâs favoriteâyet one more time). And the end of the show sees Stewart ceding the spotlight to fellow New Jerseyan Bruce Springsteen, whose two farewell numbers run well in to the eponymous starting time for @Midnight. Clearly, Comedy Central was content with letting the party run, a happy choice that sees the cast, crew, and all the collected correspondents dancing with abandon and snapping pictures while the E Street Band plays the show out with âLand Of Hope And Dreamsâ and âBorn To Run.â
Unlike Colbertâs last show, which, in keeping with the characterâs heightened artificiality, ended with a choreographed (if still undeniably delightful) singalong of âWeâll Meet Again,â Stewartâs sign-off took the form of a spontaneous block party, with all his assembled troops in the showâs mission dancing and hugging and saying goodbye to one of the most influential political satirists in television history.
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But, as Stewartâs last monologue succinctly puts it, âBullshit is everywhere.â And, after outlining the three categories of bullshit people need to watch for (âmaking bad things sound like good things,â âhiding the bad things under mountains of bullshit,â and âthe bullshit of infinite possibilityâ), Stewart concludes with the optimistic benediction that âbullshitters have gotten pretty lazy, the best defense against bullshit is vigilanceâand itâs also pretty fun.â
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Indeed.
Stray observations
- My tally of the Daily Show correspondents on hand to say goodbye: Aasif Mandvi, Al Madrigal, John Hodgman, Lewis Black, Jessica Williams, Jordan Klepper, Hasan Minhaj, Kristen Schaal, Samantha Bee, Steve Carell, Nancy Walls, Vance Degeneres, Mo Rocca, Dave Attell, Matt Walsh, Dan Bakkedahl, Larry Wilmore (angry that The Nightly Show got bumped), Jason Jones, Rob Corddry, Nate Corddry, Darth Vader (angry about being compared to Dick Cheneyââthereâs the dark side and then thereâs whatever he calls his sick thingâ), Bassem Youssef, Michael Che, heir apparent Trevor Noah (measuring the setâand Jonâs inseam), predecessor Craig Kilborn, Olivia Munn, Rob Riggle, Ed Helms, Gitmo, John Oliver, and Colbert.
- Oh, and Wyatt Cenac, whose well-publicized conflict with Stewart is addressed in a bit that defuses the story simply through Cenacâs good-sport presence. The loaded nature of the Cenac-Stewart situation has been one of the unspoken clouds over Stewartâs goodbye tour since the story broke last week that Stewart once blew up over Cenac questioning the hostâs Herman Cain impression on racial grounds. While Cenacâs appearance here doesnât erase the lingering uneasiness over what Daily Show executive producer Steve Bodow admitted were âblind spotsâ surrounding Cenacâs time on the show, itâs a nice gesture on Cenacâs part to make such a public show of addressing it. Plus, seeing Cenac join in on the exuberant correspondent scrum around Stewart after the segment is a hopeful sign that he and Stewart have had more of a meaningful conversation than the bit they did here.
- The eyes of the Daily Show staffers tasked with watching Fox News are bleeding.
- Nancy Walls: âHow dare you, Jon, I have two children to raise.â Steve Carell: âAnd I have three.â
- âYou canât stop anyone because they donât work for you any more. Huge mistake, Jon.â
- Pass me my salty goggles, thatâs a wrap on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. Thanks for reading, and hereâs hoping the new kid can pick up where Stewart left off. God knows, we need him to.
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