- Music
- 12 Feb 15
The satirist is calling time on his 16-year tenure as host of the Comedy Central programme.
Since taking a break from The Daily Show to work on his accomplished debut film feature, Rosewater, rumours have been swirling about the possibility of Jon Stewart leaving the award-winning satirical show, after helming it for seventeen years. Under his guidance, the show became an unmissable nightly event where the absurdity, hypocrisy and hilarity of U.S. politics was brilliantly eviscerated. He also surrounded himself with some of the best international comedians working today, including Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, who of course hones their skills for satire and political analysis so well that they moved on to host their own shows, The Colbert Report and the superb Last Week Tonight.
In case you missed Stewart’s emotional announcement, we have it here:
We also thought we’d celebrate a few of our favourite Jon Stewart moments, including his incredible double-hander with Stephen Colbert as they presented an award at the Emmys.
And for a tear-jerker we return to every year, Stewart’s first monologue after 9/11 still remains in our minds as one of the most genuine and emotive moments in television:
And if you haven’t seen Rosewater yet, we urge you to; the dramatized true story of journalist Maziar Bahari, who was falsely imprisoned in Iran, partly in connection with an interview Bahari did with The Daily Show in 2009. Emotive, championing free speech while never over-simplifying or demonising Bahari’s capturers, Rosewater is not a perfect film, but it captures the essence of what Stewart has stood for, for so many years: a search for truth, justice and a voice for too many people silenced, lied to and lied about. We're looking forward to his next big screen effort, and will greatly miss him on our small screens.