U.S. President Barack Obama chats with The Daily Show host Jon Stewart during a commercial break in Washington D.C, on Wednesday, October 27, 2010. (Roger L. Wollenberg/Abaca Press/MCT)Comedian Jon Stewart announced Tuesday he will be ending his run as host of ‘The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. Stewart will leave behind an incredible body of work that brought calm to a chaotic and sometimes ugly country. Whether you love him or hate him, it’s impossible to deny his influence on a shady and narrow-minded political world, bringing a fast-witted and aggressive satirist persona to his interviews. Here are three of his most powerful moments:
The 9/11 Monologue
Stewart delivers a clearly improvised speech about the horrific Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. He does his best to bring laughter to his usually comedic show, but takes a serious turn in his opening monologue, providing an inspirational rant on how a goofy program like “The Daily Show” can help heal people in times of trouble or despair. This is without a doubt one of Stewart’s defining moments, proving that he could speak to the American people about unimaginable tragedy while still maintaining his composure in front of a live audience. That he broke down crying in the middle of the broadcast only added to the segment’s greatness.
Catering toward his mostly liberal audience, Stewart brutally picked away at former President George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign, which ended in a voting controversy that led many to believe the 43rd president of the U.S. shouldn’t have been elected. Stewart runs a clip of Bush saying, “I was not elected to serve one party” in his victory speech and then hits Bush with a jab, claiming the president wasn’t even elected. “I hit a nerve,” Stewart whispered to his audience, fully aware of his biting satire.
Stewart once again refers to his show as a way of “processing emotion” in a passionate speech about the treatment of African-Americans in the U.S. and their relationship with the country’s police force. He specifically refers to the failure of gaining an indictment charge against the officer involved in killing Eric Garner, a resident of Staten Island, New York, who was seemingly choked to death in a shocking and viral YouTube video filmed by witnesses in the area.
“I think what is so utterly depressing is that none of the ambiguities that existed in the Ferguson case exist in the Staten Island case, and yet the outcome is exactly the same,” Stewart said, referring to the also controversial Michael Brown death in Ferguson, Missouri. Once again, Stewart shows his uncanny knack for delivering the blunt truth of the issue at hand, a skill many of today’s reporters lack. And remember, Stewart is just a comedian, right?
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