Not long after the financial crisis, Stewart had Jim Cramer of CNBC’s “Mad Money” on the program and made the host of the stock trading program appear like a huckster in the eyes of many. Stewart implied that the stock market was rigged and is a “game you know is going on.” Ratings for “Mad Money” dived following Cramer’s appearance on The Daily Show and signaled a blow to CNBC’s credibility.
The other network Stewart enjoyed going after was, of course, Fox News, and in response to Fox News host Glenn Beck’s 2010 “Rally to Restore Honor,” Stephen Colbert and Stewart organized the satirical “Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear” on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
Stewart could be serious as well, and was a source of comfort to his audience after 9/11. He made a solemn declaration after the choke hold death of Eric Garner, “We are definitely not living in a post-racial society, and I can imagine there are a lot of people out there wondering how much of a society we are living in at all.”
The Daily Show became a breeding ground of comedic talent with spin-offs including “The Colbert Report,” which ended last year as Stephen Colbert was picked to replace David Letterman as a late night talk show host; “The Larry Wilmore Show” and John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight.” Comedian Wyatt Cenac these days works with Amy Schumer and has his own hour long shows on Comedy Central. Cenac recently recounted the painful incident leading up to his departure from The Daily Show, which began with a disagreement between Jon Stewart and himself over the former’s impersonation of Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.
“I don’t think his (impression) is from a malicious place, but I think it is from a sort of naive kind of ignorant place … It’s like ‘Oh no, you just did this and you weren’t thinking about it. It was just the voice that came into your head,’” Cenac told Hollywood Reporter, concluding, “and so it bugged me.”
As the one black writer on The Daily Show, Cenac said, “I felt like I had to speak for all the minorities, because there is nobody speaking for them.” When he asked Stewart, “Are you sure you want to do this,” Cenac said The Daily Show host got “incredibly defensive.” He said, “What are you trying to say? There’s a tone in your voice.” When Cenac told Stewart it bothered him, Steward responded screaming, “F*** off! I’m done with you!” and stormed out.
Cenac admitted to weeping immediately after the incident. “That is how I feel. That is how I feel in this job. I feel alone.” He added, “I represent my community. I represent my people. It try to represent them the best that I can. I’ve got to be honest if something seems questionable, because if not, then I don’t want to be in a position where I am being untrue not just to myself, but to my culture, because that is exploitative.”
Trevor Noah, the son of a Swiss-German father and a half-Jewish South African mother, will host The Daily Show starting in late September. He has made no bones about the fact that his Daily Show will likely have a different feel.
“Jon is a white, 52-year-old Jewish guy who grew up in New Jersey. I am a 31-year-old half-black, half-white, South African who has lived in America a few years on and off. So the way we’d look at the same story will be completely different.”
Noah adds that politics and media will still be targets of the show, though it may have a different direction.