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After 18 Primetime Emmy Awards and a GRAMMY, Jon Stewart's 16-year contract with The Daily Show is about to run out in 2015, and he's not sure if he wants to renew it. The political satirist recently sat down with New York Magazine to discuss what it was like to make Rosewater, his directorial debut, reflect on his time at Comedy Central, and chat about the future of The Daily Show. Here are our 10 favorite quotes.
On Staying Busy
“It was more like—do you know how sometimes when you were a kid, if you had a shitload of stuff to do, you felt like you got it together? If you had soccer, you would go to school, you’d go to soccer, and then you’d get home and you’d actually get your homework done. But when it wasn’t the soccer season, you’d just find yourself waking up in a puddle of SpaghettiOs in front of Bullwinkle.”
Source: New York Magazine
On Following Your Gut
“It’s similar to how I would say to John Oliver or other people on the show, 'Trust your discomfort.' If you have discomfort, try and articulate where that’s coming from because it’s probably not your imagination. There’s probably something in the scene that’s not working.”
Source: New York Magazine
On Activism vs. Sarcasm
“[The Daily Show] was designed as a mouthpiece for our point of view. It’s a relatively selfish pursuit. Maybe it is a weird form of sideline activism, if that’s even a thing. Of just pointing shit out and going, 'Hey, somebody should get over there! Come on, get somebody over there! But we’re not doing the work. Activists do the work, and they’re slogging it out day in and day out in the trenches of those terribly bureaucratic and corrosive and corrupt societies…But I never try and confuse what we do on the show with what real people do to change the system. We are part of that ecosystem, maybe, but in a very peripheral way.”
Source: New York Magazine
On Working on The Daily Show for Two Decades
“Doing anything for 16 years, there is going to be a level of sameness to it that is difficult, I’m sure, for an audience, but also difficult for a performer.”
Source: New York Magazine
On News Networks
“I still think there is room for the type of network that would be purely based on the functioning of government as opposed to the drama and the daily dalliances and story lines. Rooting out corruption could be a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week business. I think that could be interesting. It does not exist. That’s why we make fun of CNN, because they are an opportunity squandered.”
Source: New York Magazine
On Having No Friends
“We’ll do certain bits that would be disqualifying in terms of that person ever talking to us again, and I’ll say to other people on the staff, 'You know, what’s nice about this show is that when I leave, I’ll leave with no friends but you people.'"
Source: New York Magazine
On Being Offered the Job as Host of Meet The Press
“I’m 51, I have young kids. I think that it’s not something that would be sustainable for me, either through passion or interest or ability, so it would be a bad choice for them and for me. Being up for a job is different from necessarily having the ambition for that job, if that makes sense.”
Source: New York Magazine
On Knowing When to Reconfigure
When asked if covering the election would affect The Daily Show's return after Stewart's contract is up, he replied, “Part of the thing to remember is this is not the only process by which you can work material, and sometimes it’s more important to step back and reconfigure a conversation than continue the same conversation because you know how to do it.”
Source: New York Magazine
On the Diversity of His Cast and Crew
“I wanted a wider and deeper pool of people to draw from.”
Source: New York Magazine