Jon Stewart: Authoritarian governments a menace, not comedy

Jon Stewart, accepting the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, warned Sunday evening that hypothesis about the way forward for comedy amid elevated viewers cultural sensitivity was ignoring a real and enduring menace: authoritarian governments around the globe.

“Comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s a bellwether,” Stewart mentioned. “When a society feels under threat, comedians are who gets sent away first.”

Stewart pointed to Egyptian comic Bassem Youssef, whose Stewart-inspired political comedy present earned him each fame and self-imposed exile. Youssef’s story is “an example of the true threat to comedy,” Stewart mentioned.

The intersection of comedy and politics was the primary theme as celebrities and comedy royalty gathered to honor Jon Stewart, who set the trendy template for mixing the subjects throughout his 16-year run internet hosting TV’s The Daily Show.

Stewart, the twenty third recipient of the prize, was honored in testimonials from fellow comedians and former Mark Twain Prize recipients. Stewart himself spoke throughout Dave Chappelle’s Mark Twain ceremony in 2019, and Chappelle returned the favor.

“It is a miracle to watch you work. You are a cure for what ails this country,” mentioned Chappelle, who famous that Stewart stepped down from The Daily Show one yr earlier than the election of Donald Trump as president.

The 59-year-old Jon Stewart — born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz — rose to prominence as a standup comedian and host of a number of failed discuss exhibits earlier than taking on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show in 1999. He turned a cultural and political drive as he educated his satirical eye on politics and an more and more polarised nationwide media.

Several of Sunday’s audio system had been former Daily Show correspondents, together with Samantha Bee, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver.

Jon Stewart on the Mark Twain ceremony. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Carell described his time on the present as stuffed with “excitement, fear, physical distress and laughter.” He famous that Stewart appeared to please in sending him on weird assignments that included consuming Crisco, coping with a trailer of snakes, and consuming Long Island IceD Tea till he vomited. Stewart, he mentioned, was “always supporting us and always cheering us from the comfort and safety of his office.”

Oliver, in the meantime, despatched in a video message noting that the actual Jon Stewart would by no means spend “two hours squirming in his seat listening to people tell him how much he means to them.” Therefore, Oliver concluded that Stewart have to be lifeless and he proceeded to ship an prolonged eulogy.

Fellow New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen carried out an acoustic model of “Born to Run” and praised Stewart as a patriot decided to talk fact to energy.

Jon Stewart’s affect was felt far past America’s borders. Youssef, an Egyptian coronary heart surgeon, began up a modest YouTube present that was straight modelled on Stewart’s and have become an iconic determine throughout and after the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

Describing his present as “clearly a very cheap knockoff” of The Daily Show, Youssef detailed how he appeared on Stewart’s present in 2012 and Stewart got here to Cairo to do the identical in 2013.

Two weeks after that look, the Egyptian navy overthrew a democratically elected Islamist president amid mass nationwide protests. Youssef mentioned he requested Stewart tips on how to navigate the shifting political local weather, and Stewart suggested him to stay to his ideas even when it brought on bother or price him reputation.

Youssef, whose present was finally cancelled and who now lives within the U.S., started cursing Stewart from the stage. “I could have been a very rich sell-out by now!” he yelled in mock anger.

Since retiring from The Daily Show in 2015, Stewart has change into a vocal proponent of quite a lot of social causes and one of the vital distinguished voices in assist of well being look after September 11 first responders in New York City. He not too long ago returned to tv as host of The Problem with Jon Stewart on Apple TV Plus.

Jon Stewart and his spouse Tracey Stewart on the Mark Twain ceremony. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Jon Stewart’s political affect was obvious Sunday from a visitor record that included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Pelosi, on the purple carpet earlier than the ceremony, mentioned she had interacted with Stewart on a number of events whereas he was lobbying on totally different causes. She praised his “level of commitment and knowledge” that far outstripped the same old celeb political involvement.

She additionally laughingly mentioned that Stewart is “not a patient man” when he feels his trigger is simply.

This was the primary Mark Twain ceremony since Chappelle’s in 2019. The award skipped 2020 and 2021 as a result of Covid-19 pandemic. Aside from that two-year break, the prize has been offered yearly since 1998, with Richard Pryor receiving the primary honour.

Other recipients embody Carol Burnett (the oldest recipient at age 80), Tina Fey (the youngest at age 40), Eddie Murphy, Jonathan Winters, George Carlin and Lily Tomlin. 2009 recipient Bill Cosby had his prize rescinded in 2018 amid a number of allegations of sexual assault.