A bit out of date, still wanted to re-post what I wrote in FB a few months ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/…/jon-stewart-a-sarcastic-critic-of-…
I am sure this article does a much better job, but I wanted to do my own eulogy of Jon Stewart's departure from Comedy Central's Daily Show.
I am depressed; not that I have been able to watch a lot of him these days from India and especially when I am jaded about American politics. When I started watching him (more than 10 years ago?) he blew my mind away. Behind the humor (mostly good but at times crass) and silliness, there was a very intelligent political satire. He brought some refreshingly new templates to the game of political satire. Exposing politicians' and the media's hypocrisy by juxtaposing what they are saying now with what they said a couple of years ago.
His targets were not just politicians, but also mainstream media (CNN), the political right and of course his arch enemy Fox News. He has had multiple famous exchanges with Bill O'Reilly from Fox News, with each appearing on the others' shows. There is general consensus that Jon won most if not all of those debates. But you also got the sense that they had some grudging respect for each other. Another great format is his reporters giving fake news reports from a "remote place" (while they are clearly standing on another corner of the studio). There are also actual reports produced with tongue in cheek interviews which Jim Colbert was great at before he left the show.
During the last Indian elections, there was a 5-part report which was absolutely hilarious; it balanced multiple things - backhanded compliments and respect to the massive Indian election machinery including the 100 % electronic voting (which incidentally the US still doesn't have) and of course lots of fun at the expense of some hapless bureaucrats. Like any great entertainer, Jon has groomed a lot of talent that has left his show and started their own very successful shows - Jim Colbert's Colbert Report (pronounced of course as Colbeir Repor) and more recently John Oliver's Last Week Tonight.
I am sure most people on the right side of the political spectrum hate him, often with good reason. But I am sure they wish they had someone intelligent like him on their side (to complement the perennially angry loudmouths they have). His political bias did not stop prominent figures from the right from eagerly lining up to come to his show; his show had huge ratings and any kind of visibility can't hurt; he would invite the more reasonable people and I thought he generally treated them with due respect - I remember a very civilized interview with Mike Huckabee on abortion.
Oh well, this is definitely an end of an era. Will miss you Jon.
