Daily Show fans who aren’t ready to embrace the Trevor Noah era will be able to find salvation at the Newseum. The museum announced Wednesday that it will take possession of the set used by current Daily Show host Jon Stewart, who hosts his last episode of the satirical program on Thursday.
“We are thrilled to accept the donation of these artifacts to the Newseum collection,” Cathy Trost, the Newseum’s senior vice presidents of exhibits, says in a press release. “They are part of America’s cultural and media history, telling an important story about how political satire and news as humor made the Daily Show a trusted news source for a generation.”
The Newseum describes Stewart, who was born in 1962 at the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation, as “the Walter Cronkite of the millennial generation.” (Noah, 31, actually qualifies as a millennial according to most demographers.)
Stewart’s 16-year run on the Daily Show included several moments that upended Washington’s media establishment, from an appearance on CNN’s Crossfire that played an instrumental role in that program’s cancellation to the countless embeddable Daily Show clips that websites like the Huffington Post and Vox use to pad their traffic. Stewart’s retirement comes perhaps when his talents are needed most: his final broadcast will air just minutes after the first Republican presidential debate, featuring front-runner “Fuckface von Clownstick,” better known as litigious hotelier Donald Trump.
The Newseum has dabbled in fake news before, including a year-long exhibition of props from the film Anchorman. Newseum spokesman Jonathan Thompson says there is no date yet for when Stewart’s desk will go on display.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
