Jon Stewart broke down in tears during The Daily Show last night, as he announced that his dog Dipper had died the day before.
The host spoke to the camera and the live audience about his beloved brindle pitbull, saying, “In a world of good boys, he was the best”.
“I thought I’d get further,” he said as his voice cracked near the beginning of the segment. He recounted the moment that his children went to an animal shelter to raise money and met the one-year-old Dipper, who had lost a leg after a road accident.
Stewart went on to say that the dog used to accompany him to tapings of The Daily Show, adding: “We’d come to tape this show, and Dipper would wait for me to be done. He met actors and authors and presidents and kings. And he did what the Taliban could not do, which is, put a scare into Malala Yousafzai.”
Confirming the sad news, Stewart said: “Dipper passed away yesterday. He was ready. He was tired, but I wasn’t.”
“My wish for you is one day you find that dog, that one dog that is just the best.”
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Stewart made his return to The Daily Show on Comedy Central two weeks ago, when he heavily criticised both Donald Trump and Joe Biden ahead of the upcoming presidential race. “We have two candidates who are chronologically outside the norm of anyone who has run for the presidency in the history of this country – breaking the record that they set!” he said.
In his second episode, he turned fire on Tucker Carlson’s trip to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin, savaging the former Fox News anchor for failing to challenge some of Putin’s assertions, and for disingenuously arguing that Russian citizens have an advantage over Americans because groceries are cheaper, something that Carlson claimed made him feel “radicalised”.
“You’re such a dick,” Stewart retorted. “It will radicalise you, unless you understand basic economics,” he continued. “See, $104 for groceries sounds like a great bargain, unless you realise that Russians earn less than $200 dollars a week.”
On last night’s show (February 26), he covered the Israel-Palestine crisis, and the ongoing bombing campaign in Gaza that has followed the October 7 Hamas attacks.