It's been a very long goodbye, but US comedian Jon Stewart ended his 16-year stint at The Daily Show last night, leaving little hint of what he will do next.
Stewart, who announced his departure in February, leaves grieving fans and an outpouring of media tributes debating his legacy as America’s most popular political satirist.
"Why Jon Stewart might be irreplaceable," wrote Hollywood trade paper Variety this week. The New York Daily News called him "The comic who became a conscience".
With its biting satire, juxtaposed TV news clips, "fake news" correspondents, and "Moment of Zen" sign-off, The Daily Show's influence on political life and pop culture far outweighed its small (under two million) nightly Comedy Central audience.
More than 200,000 people turned out for Stewart's 2010 Washington "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" with Stephen Colbert. The Daily Show won 18 Emmy Awards in as many years.
“When he is going on all cylinders, that show could be absolutely breathtaking and really informative and important to the civic conversation,” said Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture.
TV news cliches
“People used to watch some of this goofy stuff that goes on in TV news and didn’t think anything about it,” Mr Thompson said. “But as you see the 100th montage where Stewart shows how all these cliches are repeated across the board, you don’t look at TV news in the same way.”
Stewart, a stand-up comedian who last year wrote and directed his first movie (the political drama Rosewater) has given few clues as to what he will do next.
“I’ve been doing this too long,” he said, announcing his departure in February. “Honestly, it’s breaking me. I’m broken.”
When Stewart took over Comedy Central’s late night slot in 1999, replacing Craig Kilborn, the show was on a little- watched cable network, with some nightly 350,000 viewers.
That number grew year after year. At its height, in the 2008-09 season, The Daily Show drew 1.6 million viewers a night, many of them young and left-leaning.
Self-righteous
Stewart is far from a universally loved figure. His viewership, though a boon for Comedy Central, was much smaller than that of the network late-night shows. Critics, even on the left, said he could come across as pompous and self-righteous.
Fans, many of whom have grown up relying on The Daily Show as their main source of news, are distraught.
“I’ve watched @TheDaily Show from the start which was also my 1st yr of college. I’ve grown old w him,” tweeted Lauren Cummings on the “#jonvoyage” Twitter handle set up for farewell tributes.
Alys Arden wrote that Jon Stewart leaving “is starting to feel like a boyfriend breaking up with me”. – (Agencies)