Jon Stewart's Leaving 'The Daily Show'

AV Club – Ending one of the most venerable and trusted careers in making a complete mockery of the news, Jon Stewart has announced that he is stepping down as host of The Daily Show. According to sources who were there (some of whom are already passing word along on social media), Stewart let the news slip at the taping of today’s episode, telling those in the audience that he’s retiring. No word yet on when exactly he’s leaving, whether this means he’s ending his time in the anchor chair to focus on being a Serious Movie Director now, or just how much this is Brian Williams’ fault.

Statement from Comedy Central:

Big news popping off at a random time on a Tuesday. Hate him or love him — I’ll go out on a limb and assume there might be a decent amount of the former on Barstool — Jon Stewart’s been the voice of the young liberal media for about 15 years. You can name about 1,000 conservative talk show hosts who’ve risen to prominence in the same period but for the left side the main voice has been a dude who came out and made his point with jokes. Stewart took over The Daily Show in 1999, much longer ago than I’d guess, and it’s kind of crazy to think that an generation’s political opinions have been heavily swayed by a guy whose show began as a relatively throwaway comedy show on a network desperate to fill 24 hours a day. He’s occasionally a blow hard and often too in love with what he has to say but when it comes to balancing a line between entertaining, poignant, and social awareness, the guy has been on the forefront in a lot of ways.

Regardless of where you stand, Jon Stewart’s had a hell of a run and, according to Comedy Central, it all ends at a time TBD later this year.

Here are two of the first clips that came to mind to sum up the best of what Jon Stewart brought to the Daily Show: