September 20th, 2001. Nine days after the tragedy of September 11th and The Daily Show’s first episode back. Jon Stewart starts with a question, “Are you okay?”
And so begins the most important episode of The Daily Show he will ever do. What follows is eight minutes of Jon Stewart baring his soul to the people of America during the blurred days after the towers went down. Something so perfectly spoken, the teleprompter must have just read blank.
I was one month away from being five years old when the towers went down. I remember my mother calling me into the living room and I remember watching both towers fall. But, as I think back on that memory, I can’t imagine having to speak. What do you say? What even is left to be said? President Bush found the right words in, “I can hear you,” but, as ironic as that may seem now, the rest of the country fell silent.
And then came Jon Stewart, back on The Daily Show. Bush had told weary New Yorkers that the world could hear them and Jon was back in his chair where Bushisms practically wrote portions of the show themselves. What does he say? What even is left to be said?
“I wanted to tell you why I grieve, but why I don’t despair.”
It was easy to think of Jon Stewart and the crew of The Daily Show as different from us. It was easy to use the screen and the writing as a way to forget that they were people too. That they had personal opinions and families and just wanted to make people laugh. It was easy to accuse them of reporting fake news or of trying to sway people to “their side.”
But, in this moment (and several others through the many years), Jon Stewart cries. On camera. On his comedy show. He rips down any walls that may be standing between himself and the viewer and he becomes just a regular guy.
He then offers a story, “One of my earliest memories is of Martin Luther King being shot. I was five. And if you wonder if this feeling will pass… When I was five and he was shot, this is what I remember about it: I was in a school in Trenton and they shut the lights off and we got to sit under our desks.”
This episode is important not for the event it came after nor is it important for the connection Jon Stewart has with his audience. This episode is important because he says what I haven’t heard anybody repeat. What he says with purity and fumbling clarity are the words we should all remember.
“Any fool can destroy. But, to see these guys, these firefighters and these policemen and these people from all over the country, literally, with buckets, rebuilding -- that… that is… that’s extraordinary. And that’s why we’ve already won.”
The 9/11 attacks took a toll on all of us. Whether you were five or 55, it has affected every single day of our lives since. People are still angry and people are still mourning the lost 2,977 souls. With each passing day, I think it’s important to remember Jon Stewart’s words. We did already win. Coming together to rebuild, coming together to build a monument to the lost and coming together to accept that we can come out the other side stronger and better.
America has been tested many times before: through the MLK and JFK assassinations, the Oklahoma City bombings, hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and Sandy Hook. But there lies a constant in all of these disasters: hope. We never lost hope. We came together and fought back. We came together and built up all that was torn down to be greater.
This episode of a political satire show on Comedy Central is one of the most important episodes of television ever shot. Jon Stewart’s unshakable optimism and his giving of hope transcends all barriers inherent within his medium. His speech highlights the ability of people to come together in times of tragedy and to become stronger for it. The absolute silence that fell upon us in the wake of the 9/11 attacks was destroyed when Jon Stewart told us, with tears welling in his eyes, to have hope. And his words ring true to this very day.
“So, we’re gonna take a break and I’m gonna stop slobbering on myself and the desk. We’re gonna get back to this. And it’s gonna be fun and funny and it’s gonna be the same as it was and… I thank you.”
Find the whole video here.
