Jon Stewart eviscerates himself, overexcited Daily Show recappers, in penultimate show

On Wednesday's Daily Show — the second-to-last one Jon Stewart will ever host — Stewart turned his satire on himself. And on the poor grunts who toil away thanklessly every Monday through Thursday nights, recapping The Daily Show under ridiculous headlines touting Stewart's various conquests.

As he looked back on his time at The Daily Show, Stewart began, "I feel like what we built here was a monument to evisceration. Issues, pundits politicians — we here at the show left no target un-disemboweled." With overwrought headlines filling the screen, Stewart turned the mockery his own way: "And so now, at the end of my tenure, with all my targets pulverized into ash before me, I'd like to take a moment to see my crushed enemies driven before me and hear the lamentation of their women, in our new segment: The Daily Show, Destroyer of Worlds."

What followed was a string of Stewart's pet issues — ISIS, racism, big banks — and a look at how they're doing today. (Spoiler: Fine.) "Perhaps Fox News, the best-known target in our show's proverbial crosshairs, paid the ultimate price," he said, in vain. Finally, the cri de cœur: "The world is demonstrably worse than when I started. Have I caused this?!?" But just as Stewart was about to go all Hamlet on us, bad Shakespearean English and all, he found one note of saving grace. He'll take it. After all, he only has one show left. Peter Weber

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up