Friday, August 28, 2015

An Open Letter to Jon Stewart as He Begins His New Life

Dear Jon Stewart,

I write this with the full knowledge that you will most likely never see it. Admittedly, this isn’t a typical fan letter but nonetheless, since I have survived roughly three weeks with you or The Daily Show, I felt I deserved to reach out to you.

First of all, congratulations on a job exceptionally well done and best of wishes on your future plans. I just wanted to take the time to personally thank you for 16 years of incredible work at Comedy Central. I’ve no doubt you’ve heard compliment after compliment (and angry diatribes from your critics, which also count as compliments) over the years and especially in recent months. So I’m sure you realize you've bowed out with a bang.

Still, it would feel wrong for me to not at least attempt to explain how important your time at The Daily Show has been to me and my family.

I’ll try not bog this down with rambling details so long story short, my dad is in the final stages of Alzheimer’s. I’m sure that was a twist you didn’t see coming in this, right? Sadly, we all saw it coming and now that it’s full blown, it’s getting scarily easy to reminisce about the past. I was never one for nostalgia but when the man you know as your father has been replaced with an entirely different, weaker, more vulnerable individual who can no longer communicate, it becomes one of your favorite pastimes.