Mets fan Jon Stewart appeared on “The Daily Show” for the final time Thursday.
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However, the host signed off for the last time on Thursday night by assuring the audience it wasn’t goodbye.
“Stewart shows himself hip to how cool it is to self-deprecate…[his] early overeagerness, his evident desire to do well, was not at all in keeping with current notions of cool…[he]seemed uncomfortable running the show.”
Upon further consideration, the network boss said he might be able to find Stewart a job as “a stagehand”.
“You could really feel the emotions of all the cast and the crew, especially when all the correspondents came out”, said Ari Ole, 31, who traveled from Chicago for the show.
Of course, Stewart has many detractors as well – people who say he took cheap shots and showed too much of a progressive point of view. Stewart, 52, exclaimed, beginning his final minutes behind the anchor desk. A conversation which, by the way, I have hogged, and I apologize for that. “Rather than saying goodbye or goodnight, I’m just going to say I’m going to go get a drink…so here it is, my moment of zen”.
“I knew you’d run this thing into the ground”, Kilborn said.
PHOTO: Jon Stewart hosts “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” on August 6, 2015 in New York City.
It was a satisfying conclusion to Stewart’s influential run, which has aroused endless tributes since he announced his departure in February.
Oliver joined The Daily Show in 2006 as its Senior British Correspondent.
“The world is demonstrably worse than when I started”, Stewart wailed. But there also seemed to be a surprise for Stewart, as Colbert went off script to deliver a heartfelt thank-you take-off on Stewart’s insistence that his former co-stars don’t owe him anything.
“This show isn’t ending, we’re merely taking a small pause”, Stewart said just before Bruce Springsteen closed out the broadcast. “This is the most handsome place I’ve ever been and I’ll never have that again”.
The Daily Show will return September 28 with a new host, the South African comic Trevor Noah, and a new set.
“Whenever something is titled freedom, family, fairness, health or America”, he said, “take a good long sniff, chances are it may have been made in a factory containing traces of (bull)”.
Springsteen, a fellow New Jersey native and one of Stewart’s favorite troubadours, closed the show with a performance of a most appropriate song, “Land of Hope and Dreams”.
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After the collective appreciation for Stewart’s contribution to comedy, it was his turn to thank his staff and crew.
