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So long, Jon: Stewart’s best Daily Show moments

Not even Barack Obama wants to see him go, but after informing and entertaining viewers for 16 years, Jon Stewart has presented his final episode of The Daily Show.

“Let me make something clear, I’m not dying,” Stewart joked as fans wondered how they could follow a new presidential race without him slamming the candidates four nights a week.

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Loved by liberals as a voice of reason, distrusted by conservatives for his left-of-centre perspective, the 52-year-old is a unique voice in American broadcasting.

Stewart dissects politics, journalism and entertainment, hosting a show that skewers politicians, the ways of the world in general and sensationalist cable news coverage in particular.

Since 1999 he has been a liberal conscience, from the end of the Clinton presidency and the arrival of George W Bush, through the 9/11 attacks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the financial crisis.

The Daily Show is watched by around 1.5 million Americans a day, and hundreds of thousands of others watch online, particularly the young who are disenchanted with politics and do not watch TV news.

Some see Stewart as a rock in times of crisis.

He was there after the September 11, 2001 attacks, incapable of holding back tears and asking viewers: “Are you OK?”

When George W Bush was elected president in 2000, he renamed the controversial recount in Florida “Indecision 2000”.

His criticism of the war in Iraq — almost alone in the media at the time — fanned doubts about the 2003 US-led invasion.

His political guests saw him as a platform to reach a younger audience. But they never got an easy ride.

“Can you ever not disappoint us?” he asked of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate in 2014.

“Whose team are we on in the Middle East? Who are we bombing?” he asked Mr Obama during the president’s last appearance on July 21.

“How could the US not be there?” he asked when the American president nor the secretary of state went to Paris to take part in an international march in January against the Charlie Hebdo killings.

In June, with the utmost seriousness, he condemned the “terrorist attack” on a black church in Charleston and denounced the continued flying of the Confederate flag.

Over the years, his critics assailed him.

Stewart was no fan of the Fox News network and regularly mocked its “fair and balanced” slogan while presenting news tailored for a conservative-leaning audience.

The network in turn singled out Stewart for criticism, often by pundits like Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. From time to time Stewart and O’Reilly appeared on each other’s shows and had heated and frank discussions.

But Stewart’s 2011 parody of then-Fox commentator Glenn Beck remains a high-water mark for Daily Show fans.

In a parting shot, Fox News alleged last week that Stewart had had two “secret” meetings at the White House with Mr Obama in 2011 and 2014 and was colluding to bolster the president.

Stewart ridiculed the idea the meetings were secret.

“We spent about five to seven minutes with Obama kind of scolding me not to turn young Americans cynical, and I spent five to seven minutes explaining to him I am actually sceptically idealistic,” he said.

“Was the president of the United States trying to influence or intimidate or flatter me?” Stewart asked. “My guess is, uhh-huh. Did it work? Might’ve.”

But it seems almost counterintuitive that Stewart is handing over the reins at The Daily Show as the 2016 presidential election campaign — a comedy gold mine — heats up.

Stewart, who is widely credited with having transformed US political comedy, has dubbed next year’s elections “Democalypse 2016”.

Donald Trump, the billionaire businessman turned Republican White House contender, has become Stewart’s favourite target as his tenure winds down.

Other presidential candidates may also be breathing a sigh of relief, as The Daily Show has made merry with the consternation Mr Trump has caused within the Republican Party, as well as Jeb Bush’s campaign, the Bush family dynasty and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

So what will he do after The Daily Show, which in September will return with new host, the South African comic Trevor Noah?

In February, Stewart said he wanted a more flexible schedule, citing a desire to spend more time with his children, aged nine and 11.

After directing the 2014 film Rosewater, adapted from a memoir by Canadian-Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari, he did not rule out returning to the world of stand-up comedy, where he started in the 1980s after getting a degree in psychology.

“That’s how I started and that’s, I’m sure, that’s how I will end,” he said.

The Daily Show has won 22 Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards. It has also been a springboard for new talent, launching the television careers of comedians such as Stephen Colbert.

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