Jon Stewart ended his tenure as host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” Thursday night with a profanity-laced rant about detecting hypocrisy in politics, the media and everyday life.
“Bulls–t is everywhere,” Stewart said, turning to camera three for the last time. “There is very little that you will encounter in life that has not in some ways been infused with bulls–t.”
The comedian went on to say that not all of it is bad, and “your general, day-to-day, organic, free-range” BS is often necessary to keep “people from making each other cry all day.”
According to Stewart, there are three kinds of hypocrisies to look out for: bad things being made to sound good, bad things hidden under mountains of bureaucracy and rhetoric and an unwillingness to enact change until all the facts are laid bare.
“We cannot take action on climate change until everyone in the world agrees gay-marriage vaccines won’t cause our children to marry goats, who are going to come for our guns,” Stewart said, illustrating his third category.
He argued the best defense against this “is vigilance,” adding, “If you smell something, say something.”
The rest of Stewart’s last show was devoted to recognizing Stewart’s achievements as host of “The Daily Show,” which mostly involved parading out a cavalcade of former correspondents ranging from Vance DeGeneres to Steve Carell.
It also involved allowing frequent Stewart targets, including John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, to send in brief videos sarcastically expressing their relief that he was leaving.
John McCain even brought out a Jon Stewart puppet and offered some gentle teasing before a tongue-in-cheek, “So long jackass.”
Stephen Colbert finished the segment, giving a heartfelt, off-script goodbye to his former boss.
“We learned from you, by example, how to do a show with intention, how to work with clarity, how to treat people with respect,” the former “Colbert Report” host and future “Late Show” host said. “You are infuriatingly good at your job!”
After a bit involving more feces references, Colbert summed up the sentiment that he believes everyone who has ever worked with Jon Stewart has about his departure from his “Daily Show” desk.
“I know you were not asking for this,” Colbert said, “but on behalf of so many people whose lives you changed over the last 16 years, thank you.”
