Top 10 Daily Show moments,
When he leaves The Daily Show on Thursday after hosting nearly 2,600 episodes, Jon Stewart will have logged many great moments. Here are 10 worth remembering: Hail to the chief December 2000: Reporting on George W. Bush’s remarks as he clinched the presidency, Stewart replayed Bush declaring, “I was not elected to serve one party,” to which he retorted, “You were not elected.” Then back to Bush saying, “I ask for you to pray for this great nation.” To which Stewart added sombrely, “We’re waaaaay ahead of you.” Grief-stricken September 2001: On his first show following the Sept. 11 attacks, Stewart, with his emotions barely in check, delivered a soul-baring statement of grief, “so that we can drain whatever abscess is in our hearts and move on to the business of making you laugh, which we haven’t been able to do very effectively lately.” No monkey business October 2004: Stewart appeared as a guest on CNN’s quarrelsome Crossfire, where he startled its hosts by criticizing them for their “partisan hackery” and “doing theatre when you should be doing debate.” When host Tucker Carlson invited him to drop the serious act and be funny, Stewart shot back, “No, I’m not going to be your monkey.” Hollywood turn March 2006: Stewart hosted the Oscars twice, in 2008 and 2006, when in his monologue he noted that two of the nominated films, Good Night, and Good Luck. and Capote, were about “determined journalists defying obstacles in a relentless pursuit of the truth. Needless to say,” he added, “both are period pieces.” Funny business March 2009: Stewart took on CNBC, unreeling video of the financial news network’s personalities making howlingly wrong forecasts for market behaviour. Then, after Mad Money host Jim Cramer booked appearances on CNBC sister networks NBC and MSNBC to rail against Stewart, the Daily Show host “responded” with make-believe appearances on other Viacom series, inserting himself into MTV’s The Hills and Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer. Beck-ola March 2010: Then still a major draw on Fox News Channel, Glenn Beck was lampooned by Stewart in a virtuosic impersonation of the conservative champion, complete with Beck’s theatrics, Byzantine pronouncements and many blackboards as he battled his volatile emotions. Rally big show October 2010: Aired live on Comedy Central and staged at Washington’s National Mall, The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was staged by Stewart and Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert as a goofy, star-studded three-hour variety show with a serious social message: Americans aren’t as divided and at odds as the politicians who represent them or as the media portrays them. Key of F-word June 2010: Having let loose during an earlier comic tirade against Fox News with a simple bleeped proposal that the channel (bleep) itself, Stewart returned to the subject a few nights later, leading a hallelujah chorus in a rousing musical reiteration urging that Fox News, for preaching “fair and balanced” but seldom delivering it, should indeed (bleep) itself. Winging it March 2014: After Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared, CNN, with so much time to fill but scant information, decided to “go nuts,” as Stewart summed up in a segment lampooning the dubious news judgment of wall-to-wall coverage with nothing new to say, yet ample use of “big fake airplanes, little fake airplanes, holographic airplanes.” Alien reasoning June-July 2015: Stewart made the most of Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy. On one show, he recalled Trump having said he “assumes” that not everyone illegally entering the U.S. from Mexico is a rapist. “By the law of averages,” Stewart explained, a few of those immigrants are “unable to rape for medical reasons” or maybe are “all raped out.”