I am still not over the break-up: Though it has been over a year since Jon Stewart announced his retirement, I still miss him every Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m. 42 weeks out of the year. I understand that break-ups are never easy. You get your heart broken, you mourn the loss, you go through some rebounds and eventually you move on. But I have come to realize that there are two reasons why I might never move on from Stewart: First, his recent TV reappearance reminded me, once again, that his brand of political commentary is completely unique and irreplaceable. Second, the rebound guy just isn’t filling the shoes that Stewart left empty — suddenly and badly timed.
Recently, Stewart joined Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” to tell the American media to get its groove back and to remind all of us that without Stewart, American audiences have lost their groove too. During his brief appearance, he gave us everything we had been craving in our state of Stewart withdrawal: He performed an unrestrained impression of President Trump, made Colbert sweat a little by yelling about Tom, Drudge and Breitbart “doing anal” and dished out some tough love, telling the media to “take up a hobby, perhaps journalism.” It was all very frank and provocative, descriptions that I consider synonymous with Stewart — almost exclusively so.
Ever since I bid farewell to my side bangs and Green Day t-shirt as a seventh grader in Turkey, I have been invested in political news. Stewart’s segments on “The Daily Show” allowed me to follow news cycles in a country that imposed serious limitations on free press. Like so many audiences around the world, I was immediately and devotedly drawn to his bold and unapologetic humor, unabashed partisanship, dutiful scrutiny and poignant criticism. I didn’t need Stewart to get my news — I needed him to tell me what to think about it.
But as someone who never needed additional encouragement to keep up with political news, I wasn’t the most significant object of Stewart’s magnetism. The truth is that millennials don’t vote, and they couldn’t care less about politics. Yet Stewart somehow got my notoriously disaffected and apolitical generation interested in politics! He did so by making the radical claim that, since political news is often unsettling and emotive, its delivery can and should be opinionated, angry, loud and, at the very least, substantial.
He didn’t just hit the highlights of the daily newspapers and throw in a couple of puns attacking the Republican Party ad hominem. He selected issues that personally affected him and the American audiences he was so stubbornly devoted to stirring. He never denied being opinionated in his delivery, but he remained conscious of the impact his brand of opinion authorship had and used his power very carefully.
It is no secret that Americans live and breathe television. In a 65-year life, the average American spends nine years staring at a TV screen. Viewers overwhelmingly trusted the “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” as their source of news: More than one in 10 young adults said they trusted “The Daily Show” or its now-departed spinoff, “The Colbert Report,” to tell them about political news. It is safe to say that many Americans got the truth, not from the heavily rhetorical, stale speeches of politicians, but from the precious moments when Stewart’s quick wit caught them off guard and provided us with glimpses of honesty.
Stewart’s successor, Trevor Noah, is more comfortable on TV, on camera and in the studio. While Stewart twitched, twirled, snarled and oozed exasperation in his seat, Noah occupies the same seat with an aura of sleek, easy charisma. At 33 years old, he is much more marketable in his stylish suits and his melodic South African accent. His composed voice rarely even grazes the peaks and troughs that Stewart’s frantic rants used to reach on a daily basis. Cool and collected is an understatement when describing Noah in relative terms. But what made Stewart so engaging and relatable was precisely his discomfort, not only in relation to the political fiascos he discussed, but also in his position behind the camera. With Stewart, “The Daily Show” always felt like a heated conversation at the Thanksgiving table, whereas with Noah, the audience is constantly aware that he is just a charming guy reading a script on camera.
I gave the rebound a fair chance. Noah has had a year to gain some confidence and experience, become invested in American politics and grow out of his caution and timidity. And yet, save for his truly amazing Ben Carson impression and his decidedly insightful handling of issues related to race, he still falls flat. Perhaps most disappointing are the constant strikeouts at the interview portions of the show, which used to always be highlights during the Stewart era. I remember watching the episode in which Noah interviewed former President Barack Obama — and that’s about it. I’m certain that I watched the entire thing — and with high expectations, given that the interview came at such a critical time in Obama’s tenure — but I recall nothing from the substance of the interview due to the uninspiring, open-ended and vague probes Noah tossed the former president’s way.
So there it is: I still miss Jon Stewart. I miss him because his courage and knack for inspiring, relevant and constructive political insight made him irreplaceable. I miss him because Trevor Noah still hasn’t found his voice or his guts. But most of all, I miss him because American audiences (as well as audiences worldwide) need his reprimands and advice now more than ever in the backdrop of today’s climate — dangerously far-right, extremist populism coupled with political apathy, desensitization and compassion fatigue.
Naz Akyol ’17 can be found watching old segments of “The Daily Show” at the Rock. She can be reached at naz_akyol@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
