People have an amazing ability to ignore the basic lessons we learned as little kids. I can not count how many times I have seen a fully-grown adult struggle with the idea that “Life isn’t fair” or that “You can’t always get what you want.” Yet many people still choose to ignore these basic fundamental pillars of our society, and they have good reason to do such a thing. These life lessons can hurt, and we often do not like to think about them a lot.
As much as I thought I was above all of that, I got a cruel reminder of a rough one: “All good things must come to an end.”
Longtime host of “The Daily Show” Jon Stewart announced his imminent retirement and man, did it hurt. Right off the heels of Stephen Colbert’s exit from his own show, this was the second strike in a deadly one-two punch to both political satire and my late-night television routine.
I could talk for hours and hours about how much Stewart meant to me personally for days on end. “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” has been broadcasting since I was four years old, and over the years it grew to mean a lot. When I was in middle school, I dreamed of one day being a satirist just like Stewart was because, well, I was a really weird kid. “The Daily Show” was one of those comforting constants in my life, always being there when I needed it and a surefire bet for at least a half hour of happiness.
However, losing Stewart means a lot more to the nation than it does to me, especially for the media. Since he first came on air in 1999, the world of politics and the media surrounding it has grown more and more ridiculous. Stewart serves as a vital purpose in this world order. He is not just a voice of reason, but more accurately, a voice against insanity.
Stewart is an anchor of logic and reason in a world where both 24-hour news coverage and politicians are quickly losing their grip on reality and constantly embellishing the truth. He is vicious, armed with a sharp wit and a crack team of news clip editors that knew how to get their point across.
Stewart has a voice that needs to be present. Throughout his career, politicians and anchors had to tread more carefully, knowing he was ready to tear apart any illogical things that they would say. Seeing him lampoon every time Fox News lost its mind or George Bush forgot how grammar works sent a clear message to the political world: they would not be able to speak without thinking what they were going to say first.
Stewart is an icon and he will be hard to replace. I am not sure if they will be able to, especially seeing how poorly Larry Wilmore is doing in replacing Colbert, but at the same time we need to replace him. The world needs a voice like his, one that can keep parties in line and serve as a guiding voice for the American public and leaders.
