Jon Stewart leaving The Daily Show is the kind of thing whose impact will only be felt afterward, when there is no one left of his magnitude to shine a humorous light on the mad-man antics of our government officials. His news was satirical and absurdist, but it matched the tone of the often wonky world we lived in. He was ruthless, too. Especially after 9/11 when he led the comedic charge (mostly unassisted) into the den of mixed messages that Hunter S. Thompson, famously, prophesied in this way, “The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for peace in our time, in the United States or any other country.”
The beacon of laughs has been around since ‘96 when Craig Kilborn still had that swift running current of blonde hair. His show was, well, less funny. And so Jon hopped into the chair in ‘99, sometime after The Faculty slipped and fell in a pool of it’s own terribleness. Some seats are made for people, and The Daily Show ushered Jon into the American consciousness, tickling our intelligent funny bones along the way. Since, he’s won 18 Primetime Emmy awards and been on the pulse of almost everything, including Hip Hop.
Then on February 10, 2015, he abruptly told the viewing public he’d be resigning from the show sometime later this year.
We’re not sure what stage of grief we’re on, somewhere between anger and depression, but what better way to deal than to laugh through it? So to transition through our grief, we’ve decided to plum the Comedy Central depths for eight of our favorite Hip Hop moments from the channel. With, of course, a segment or two from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
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*Artwork by Tim O’Brien for Esquire
Wu-Tang Clan Rocks The “Rusty Trombone” On “Crank Yankers”
Crank Yankers is a show that revolves around the premise that all puppets do all day is make prank calls in their hometown of Yankerville. Which, of course, is completely discriminatory against puppets. These aren’t your average Sesame street-brought-to-you-by-the-number-9 puppets, though.. Not when they’re voiced by the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Corolla and Daniel Kellison. The show had its fair share of guests, and of those guests, a pretty hefty percentage were some of Hip Hop’s top Constituents. Our favorite Hip Hop moment, however, was when the Wu-Tang Clan took over the “Rusty Trombone” for a very dope performance.
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Started From The Bottom In “Broad City”
Broad City is the birth child of Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson. The show was developed from their web series and boasts Leslie (Amy Pohler) from Parks and Rec as one of the show’s executive producers. The storyline is pretty simple: It follows these two women through all their misadventures in New York City. Our favorite Hip Hop Moment from the show is when Abbi’s character runs to the bank to cash a check for “Eight F****** Thousand Dollars.” Anyone who’s been young and fairly poor in a big city knows intimately what it’s like to walk through that bank with what you believe is a large check, no matter how hilariously run-of-the-mill it is in the grand scheme of things.
Ice-T & Puppies On “Key & Peele”
Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, or more commonly known as Key & Peele, are the masterminds behind this sketch comedy show. The show won a 2013 “Peabody Award” and was nominated for a “Writers Guild Award” in 2013 as well as a NAACP “Outstanding Comedy Series” award in 2014. Key and Peele fit a series of sketches into every show, some focusing on societal commentary and others coming from bizarre scenarios the two cook up. Our favorite Hip Hop moment on the show comes from the duo’s thoughts on what happens when you grab a puppy with personality of Ice-T.
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Dylan, Dylan, Dylan & Lil Jon Talks To Lil Jon On “Chapelle’s Show”
Chappelle’s Show has become as iconic as the artists that performed on it. Dave Chappelle abruptly left the show in 2006 despite being offered $50 Million to continue. Chappelle left the show saying it was due to being burned out and losing creative control. It’s become one of the most talked about Hollywood stories of our day, but not before giving us three seasons (we don’t really count the third season but whatever) of sketches we won’t likely forget any time soon. Rather than listing every single Hip Hop moment on the show, we narrowed it down to our two favorites: Making the Band gave us Dylan, and the rest is Chapelle’s Show history. And, Lil Jon was everywhere and anywhere during the years that Chappelle’s Show was on air, so he was, without a doubt, one of the shows targets. One of the most memorable moments comes from what Dave imagined what would happen if Lil Jon spoke to himself.
Wu-Tang Clan Performs On “The Daily Show” & Jon Stewart Throws Up The Roc
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Out of all the Hip Hop moments on The Daily Show two stood out for us. When they somehow got the entire Wu-Tang Clan to hop on the stage with Jon and state their names because anyone else asking the Wu to reintroduce themselves would have left that stage on a stretcher. And when Fox’s Sean Hannity (he of the dull, sheepish grin and howling non-sequiturs) said that Mayor De Blasio met with a former drug dealer (Jay Z) to talk policy. For the second turn, Jon entrusted Jessica Williams with the task of cutting Sean down to size. She did not disappoint.
Kendrick Lamar Gives “The Colbert Report” A Proper Send Off
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As Stephen Colbert Gears up to take on his new role in television as the host of Late Night, He wraps up his last episode of The Colbert Show with Kendrick Lamar as his final musical guest. Before Kendrick took the stage he sat with Colbert for a quick interview. One in which he revealed that the track he is about to perform is actually untitled. Once Kendrick took the stage, he delivered a performance that would eventually rock the Hip Hop world, raising the temperature even further on his official sophomore release. Recently, however, Terrace Martin revealed that the song performed that night had only been made the day before.
