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

(Image credit: The Daily 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

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.