the daily show

Last night, Jon Stewart hosted his final turn on The Daily Show, marking an end to the 16-year run that turned the nightly satire into a cultural force.

The evening began with a regular report on the GOP debate from earlier in the night, then turned into a revolving door of big names and old friends. They thanked Stewart for his work, gave some advice and made him cry. Much feels.

Vox recapped much of the proceedings:

Fittingly, then, the "star-studded" portion of the evening was right at the top. Beginning with three of the show's current correspondents — Jessica Williams, Hasan Minhaj, and Jordan Klepper — claiming to be on the ground covering the night's Republican debate, the segment grew and grew, until it encompassed essentially every major voice in the show's history, dipping all the way back to figures like Mo Rocca and Vance DeGeneres, from Stewart's very early days, and even working in original Daily Show host Craig Kilborn. It was like the alt-comedy version of This Is Your Life. There was even time for a visit from Stewart's biggest targets.

But the biggest moments were for Oliver and Colbert. The former, now on HBO, gently mocked his old boss for continuing to work within the constraints of basic cable, pretending to have no idea what commercials were. The latter made Stewart tear up, first with an elaborate analogy where Colbert was Sam and Stewart Frodo Baggins, then with a heartfelt speech about how much Stewart had meant to all of them.

All those correspondents had one final story on which to report — a group hug.

Can you feel the fake news love?



Stewart finished the night with an endearing entreaty, imploring everyone to beware the staggering amount of bullsh*t that sits around the world.

My rough transcript of Jon Stewart's extraordinary "bullsh*t is everywhere" speech. pic.twitter.com/guXBbIDD9g

— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) August 7, 2015

There was one more final thing that had to happen: Born to Run, performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

We've known it's been coming for months now, but it's hard to get ready for the end of an era.

Tonight Jon Stewart will come out from behind the desk of The Daily Show and leave the program to his replacement Trevor Noah.

The past couple months have seen remembrance after remembrance, but there's no more putting it off. It's happening.

The final show tonight remains much of a mystery, although there are rumblings that politicians like Sen. John McCain and Sen. Chuck Schumer will make an appearance.

But before he takes that final bow, Stewart wanted to look back at his 16 years of success on the penultimate show last night with his new segment called: "The Daily Show: Destroyer of Worlds".

"What the f*** is going on here?!" Stewart screamed while banging on his desk. "The world is demonstrably worse than when I started. Have I caused this?"

"Hath my efforts all be for naught? As I shuffle off this basic cable coil, must I discover my years of evisceration have bettered nothing? Sixteen years of barbs and jeers spurred none to greatness."

It will be a little bit harder to swallow the bitter pill that is the world without Stewart's sugar coated cynicism to embody the rage we feel night after night. But somehow, we will move forward. <

Jon Stewart is just as disturbed as you are about the Eric Garner decision.

Following the announcement that a grand jury would not indict the police officer who put unarmed Eric Garner in a chokehold resulting in his death, people across the country expressed shock and disbelief. Many taking to Twitter with the hashtag #ICantBreathe

In New York, swarms of protesters blocked major roads and intersections, tried to shut down the Rockefeller tree lighting, and held "die ins" at various parts of the city including Grand Central Station.

And since the news broke before the taping of "The Daily Show" on Wednesday, Jon Stewart had an opportunity to chime in. But don't expect much humor from him here.

"I don't know," said Stewart. "I honestly don't know what to say."

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell recently released a video montage of him doing various daily activities that are boring, but look great in a political ad. The video contained no words and was dubbed over with some generic techno music.

Seeing this, Jon Stewart dubbed over the video and then issued the challenge out to the internet to make more. All you have to do is add your own soundtrack over his creepy political video.

Here are some of the best videos so far:











Did you know Mitch McConnell was originally on Full House but at the last minute walked away to pursue his famed political career?