The past year or so has essentially been a tear-begging fest of raw emotion and legitimate mourning in the wake of several of American comedy's greatest auteurs succumbing to one or both of life's most tempting inevitable chapters: future-nodding change and/or flat-out retirement. First, we lost the character Stephen Colbert to the actual person Stephen Colbert, thus permanently putting to rest the still-so-genius-I-cry-about-it-regularly The Colbert Report. Of course, Colbert has simply taken his brilliance to the Late Show throne, inheriting it from a now very much retired David Letterman.
The salt in the wound, nay, the biggest wound of all? Jon Stewart departing The Daily Show, thereby bequeathing its cerebral rewards to Trevor Noah. Today is Thursday, meaning we're six days deep into August, meaning I'm crying (and so are you) because the final Stewart-helmed Daily Show airs later this evening. However, Stewart made adequate space for one more semi-regular interview on Wednesday's show to welcome longtime friend and fellow titan of comedy Louis C.K.
"I'm thrilled to be your last dude," Louis tells Stewart in the tastefully nostalgia-heavy clip above. "I came on behalf of comedy to say, you know, nice job." Almost immediately, Stewart launches into the details of his recent return to stand-up at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan and its role in forming his friendship with Louis. "[This show] is really one of the great comedy accomplishments of all time," Louis tells a somber Stewart. "I'm really amazed by what you did here."
The final Stewart-led Daily Show airs Thursday evening (tonight!), so feel free to fake sick and miss work tomorrow so you can adequately digest your emotions.
