Little C: Farewell to Jon Stewart

It's almost time. I've know that the end was coming up for months, but I still don't feel ready. Tomorrow, Jon Stewart will host his last episode of The Daily Show. I grew up watching Jon as he explained political stories and news stories with his biting sense of humor. His episodes weren't perfect, but as I sat through the dark world of a post 9/11 America, his show was 30 minutes every day where I could laugh. 

Comedy is necessary to our lives. I'm not trying to say that the world is a wholly depressing place, but it is so easy to get hung up on the dark places. It doesn't help that the news has found out that it's most profitable to report on disasters and deaths and scandals. It's been years since I watched the news on a regular basis because it's easy to filter out the stories that will send me into a depression if I'm clicking through headlines online. But for the last ten years, whenever the big dark stories are unavoidable, I look forward to watching The Daily Show to see what Jon has to say about it. I could always count on him to bring a little levity to a terrible situation. 

Over the years, Jon has been in a very public punching match with Fox News. As one of the hippie liberals that Fox likes to blame a lot of things on, this war of words has been immensely fun to watch. What strikes me most is the level of sophistication he used in his critiques. Mixed in with dick jokes because it's still on Comedy Central. What we are losing in 36 short hours (she typed through tears), is one of the most talented comedy hosts and sharpest political commentators we've ever had on television. 

Through the success of The Daily Show, many careers have launched. Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert started as "correspondents" as well as my new favorite Jon Oliver. There was so much talent in the writing and presentation of the show, and I loved the way it used the graphics and changed up its format to keep every show engaging. For a long time Jon took advantage the fact that The Colbert Report was after him and they interacted, tying the shows together and creating a seamless block of programming that I watched every night with my dad, all the way through high school. When Colbert retired the Report, I called my father up and we spent a good hour reminiscing and we ended it with Dad saying "At least we've still got The Daily Show..." 

I'm counting on Colbert's version of The Late Show. I'm holding tight to the fact that John Oliver has managed to do a new story every week that is both interesting and makes me smile. But I can't lie, I'm dreading the days when I don't have Jon Stewart to look forward to. Tomorrow night, the world is going to get a little less funny. I'll miss you, Jon. Thanks for the laughs. 

Stay funny,

Little C