WASHINGTON — No exaggeration. Jon Stewart will be missed more than any other TV personality of this young millennium.
The longtime “Daily Show” host not only gave us a crop of new stars, from Steve Carell to Stephen Colbert and from Ed Helms to John Oliver.
Not only did his opening monologues routinely best David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien and Bill Maher.
Not only did he keep cable news in check for 16 years, compiling montages of right-wing blowhards on Fox News and left-wing blowhards on MSNBC to quite literally make them eat their words.
He was also a damn good interviewer, always prepared with tough questions, loaded with intelligence, overflowing with historical perspective and able to crack a joke on a dime.
How could fate craft a more fitting commentary on real vs. fake news? His curtain call comes just as the nation’s most “trusted” newsman, Brian Williams, is suspended for exaggerating the news.
Truth is always stranger than fiction, and it seems the universe is in on Stewart’s joke. It always has been.
Still, what I’ll miss most about Jon Stewart is not the laughs — and there were many side-splitting moments — nor the graciousness he showed during our “Rosewater” interview, where it was becoming increasingly apparent that the Comedy Central fixture was growing restless.
I’ll most miss the eloquent voice of reason during times of trouble, ushering an entire generation of millennials through a myriad of concerns, from fakes scares (Y2K) to horrifically real ones (9/11):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXcmc2AZ6ZE
We’ll miss the nightly fun. We’ll miss the nightly perspective. We’ll miss the nightly reality check.
And now, good sir, at long last, your moment of zen.
