More than 300 people tried to squeeze into The Chapel for the final episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, spilling over into the Elixir and Skylark and sipping “The Donald” cocktails as they watched the GOP debate while waiting for Stewart’s last show.
It was a hard goodbye for the Mission.
“He’s kind of like the Dalai Lama of comedy,” laughed Mo Isern, one of the organizers of the event. The viewing was put on by Comedy for Good, an effort to “curate, create, and celebrate” comedy with a political or social consciousness.
Isern’s co-organizer Deborah Schneider said, however, that tonight’s celebration was bittersweet. “The only problem is that after tonight, Jon Stewart is leaving.”
Schneider remembered going to the 2010 Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington D.C. put on by Stewart and Colbert.
“I totally remember the minute he went onstage,” she said. “I basically went totally crazy. I went ‘Ah!’ and started screaming my head off.”
At Elixir, a bartender called attention to the room before the show, saying he had seen significant moments from the Giants winning three world series to the recent Warriors victory, but that the final Daily Show would be “legendary.”
Many said they preferred when Stewart showed his serious side, like when he debated Jim Cramer on the show, excoriating him for hypocrisy during the financial crisis, or when he dropped any semblance of humor after the Charleston shooting and told his audience “I honestly have nothing.”
Though others appreciated his regular shtick.
“Honestly my favorite moment was the day after Dick Cheney shot a man in the face,” said Brian Bizier. “The first 11 minutes were just them repeating that Dick Cheney shot a man in the face. It was a great episode.”
Still, others admitted, somewhat embarrassingly, that they were not die-hard fans at all.
“I’m a fairweather fan,” said 23-year-old Carly Rickards, though she added that “every episode I’ve seen I’ve liked.”
A fair number had seen the show live. Jamal Alokasha once cued up for two hours outside the Stewart’s New York building.
“I just loved how dirty he was off camera,” he said of the experience. “He is just one of those original comics.”
George Chen, a Bay Area comic, recounted his own run-in with the host.
“I used to work for [Dead Kennedys’s lead singer] Jello Biafra,” Chen said. Stewart called Chen’s then-boss to wish him a happy birthday, but got Chen on the line instead.
“I remember being in the office, picking up the phone, and I hear ‘Oh sorry, I was just trying to leave a message,’” he said. “I knew it was Jon Stewart. I let him leave a message.”
“For one second I was on the phone with Jon Stewart,” he added.
At the Chapel, the group yelled “Turn it up!” when they saw the signature Daily Show globe spinning and heard Stewart exclaim “Welcome to The Daily Show, my name is Jon Stewart!” for the last time.
Notably, former correspondent Wyatt Cenac made an appearance despite last month’s revelations that Stewart once told him to “fuck off” after a racial sketch. Though most seemed oblivious to the significance, some like Chen who knew the backstory cheered loudly and banged the wall when Stewart asked “You good?” and Cenac responded “Yeah, I’m good” in an awkward exchange that seemed to bury the hatchet.
The group quieted down when Stephen Colbert went off-script, telling the misty-eyed host how much he had done to not only start the careers of the many comics he has employed but also teach them his comedic ways.
“You are infuriatingly good at your job,” Colbert said.
No one in the Mission disagreed.