Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

A Farewell to Legends of Comedy

On Tuesday, Feb. 10, Jon Stewart announced his departure from the hit Comedy Central segment “The Daily Show.” As expected, the Internet erupted as Comedy Central President Michele Ganeless bid him farewell and as Jon Stewart confirmed the news on air later that night. Stewart’s departure makes him the third high-profile individual to leave the network in the past year, after John Oliver and Stephen Colbert. As comedians, satirists, political commentators and television geniuses, Stewart and Colbert left behind not only massive voids that Comedy Central now has to fill but also a tremendous contribution to political reporting and political comedy in general.

In the span of fifteen years, “The Daily Show” became one of the most (if not the most) popular segments on Comedy Central and attracted a massive pool of followers comprised of mostly young people. The show also featured countless guest appearances from many professions, including movie stars, singers and musicians, officials, generals, senators and presidents. This boosted certain correspondents’ and contributors’ careers to fame and stardom. Steve Carell and Ed Helms left the show in 2005 to play Michael Scott and Andy Bernard respectively in the award-winning NBC series “The Office.” Stephen Colbert had his own Emmy- and Peabody-winning show, “The Colbert Report,” that has its roots in Colbert’s segment on “The Daily Show. John Oliver left the show in December 2013 to host HBO’s “Last Week Tonight.”

When Jon Stewart took the post in 1999, the United States began to enter a new global era. Over the years, his show has dealt with issues such as the Sept. 11 attack, the war with Iraq and the rise of the Internet. Jon Stewart and his team competed with major media outlets that had already been in the game for decades and produced something far more extraordinary. They sorted through the heavy news traffic, picked the stories, planned the report, executed the bit and completed meaningful news segments in 22 minutes on a daily basis. Stewart and his team did not simply present stories the way news teams across America did; “The Daily Show” put them in perspective with twists, comparisons and its own style of investigative journalism and delivery.

Much like Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show,” Stephen Colbert and his team of writers also did news segments on a daily basis, but they used different styles of delivery. Colbert employed an ignorant, ultra-right-wing conservative persona as a platform to raise important issues and to ask valid questions on social prejudices, the economy, foreign policies, science and ethical conduct. From its coverage on the loosely regulated Super PAC to its recurring stereotyped Arab character of “Suq Madiq,” “The Colbert Report” engaged its audience with wits and humor and, most importantly, challenged the viewers to take in new information with a grain of salt.

Stephen Colbert even went as far as speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2006, a performance that many have dubbed the “roast of George W. Bush,” referencing Comedy Central’s roasts in which celebrities make offensive remarks about one particular person. Colbert stayed in character throughout the entire speech and heavily criticized the Bush administration about almost everything: Bush’s alleged average intelligence, his record low (at the time) approval ratings, Dick Cheney’s shooting accident, the rationale behind the Iraqi invasion and of course the “fair and balanced” Fox News. While there have been many comedians at previous correspondents’ dinners, only Stephen Colbert can boast about truly insulting and offending the leader of the free world while being ten feet away from the man. His honesty, intrepidity and humor were what Americans, and viewers from around the world, had come to love.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will be greatly missed, not only as political comedians and satirists but also as the ones who transformed the landscape of political reporting. Their shows were aired on a comedy channel geared towards young people, yet their 22-minute segments have been considered with as much gravity as any other serious evening newscast. Their satirical segments stirred discussions, invoked passions, provoked emotions and brought up meaningful questions much more often than serious news on cable networks do.

So here’s to the legacies that these two outstanding people have left behind, and to the teams of writers, correspondents and contributors that made these shows possible; and best of luck to Colbert’s replacement, Larry Wilmore, and Jon Stewart’s replacement.

Duy Mai is a freshman in School of Foreign Service. The Worldernist appears every other Thursday on thehoya.com. 

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