Jon Stewart Signs Off From ‘The Daily Show’ For The Last Time, Correspondents Return For Sendoff

Jon Stewart said farewell to The Daily Show on Thursday night, ending his 16-year-run skewering the media and politicians at Comedy Central.

Jon Stewart Farewell From ‘The Daily Show’

“Bulls–t is everywhere,” Stewart said in his final The Daily Show monologue that revolved around the topic. Encouraging his listeners to continue noticing it and calling it out after his show wraps, he advised, “If you smell something, say something.”

During the show, Stewart welcomed a slew of former Daily Show contributors to the stage, including, Steve Carell, Larry Wilmore, Mo Rocca, Kristen Schaal, Ed Helms, Olivia Munn, Rob Riggle, Rob Corddry, Jason Jones, Samantha Bee, Lewis Black, his successor Trevor Noah and his recent detractor Wyatt Cenac.

Daily Show Correspondents Return

It was perhaps Stephen Colbert, who recently left his post at The Colbert Report to replace David Letterman on The Late Show, who delivered the most heartfelt goodbye of the night.

“You said to me and to many other people here years ago, never to thank you because we owe you nothing. It is one of the few times I’ve known you to be dead wrong,” Colbert said. “We owe you, and not just for what you did for our careers … we owe you because we learned from you.”

“You were infuriatingly good at your job, ok?” Colbert added. “All of us who were lucky enough to work with you for 16 years are better at our jobs because we got to watch you do yours — and we are better people for having known you.”

Providing much of the night’s humor were the politicians and media personalities that Stewart often mocked, including Bill O’Reilly, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, who said, “So long, jacka–,” to a Jon Stewart puppet.

Stewart signed off Thursday night calling on his audience to continue the conversation that they’ve been having together for nearly two decades.

“This is just, it’s a conversation,” Stewart said. “This show isn’t ending, we’re merely taking a small pause in the conversation — a conversation which, by the way, I have hogged, and I apologize for that.”

“Nothing ends. It’s just a continuation. It’s just a pause in the conversation,” Stewart added. “Rather than saying goodbye, or goodnight, I’m just going to say: I’m gonna go get a drink. And I’m sure I’ll see you guys before I leave.”

After his closing remarks, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed “Land of Hope and Dreams” and “Born to Run.”