Jon Stewart for NJ Senate?

Stewart talked his plans for retirement on Wednesday night's episode of the Daily Show.

Jon Stewart at the Rally to Restore to Sanity and/or Fear at the National Mall in Washington D.C. on October 30, 2010. Courtesy of Flickr user Cliff066.

On Wednesday night’s episode of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, guest Judge Andrew Napolitano, senior judicial analyst for Fox News Channel, suggested Stewart should go for a new career path: the New Jersey state Senate.

This past spring, Jon Stewart announced his 16-year stint as the host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show would come to an end on August 6, 2015.  Stewart’s work with the Daily Show has earned him 18 Emmy awards, and many have protested the loss of his satiric voice from late night television.

But Stewart is ready to retire from the limelight. During Wednesday’s episode, correspondent Jessica Williams joked about his desperate need for an extended vacation. When he claimed pay phones were still common, she asked, “When was the last time you spent time outside?” He shrugged, “Recent… ’97 maybe? Point taken.”

Guest Judge Andrew Napolitano praised Stewart as the “smartest person on television” before pronouncing:

“Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to run for the United States Senate for New Jersey.”

When the audience burst into applause, Stewart shook his head:

“Here’s the thing. I can comment on society, I can poke fun at it, but it’d be like saying to the guy on ESPN, talking about the Green Bay Packers, like ‘Ah, Aaron Rodgers should have done that!‘ and then being like, ‘When you’re done with this, you should be quarterback of the game—That would not work out.”

The celebrated media personality grew up in Lawrenceville and dabbled in several fields before making it big, including contingency planning for the New Jersey Department of Human Services and bartending at the City Gardens punk club in Trenton. His plan for retirement is certainly idyllic: Stewart and his wife Tracey purchased a farm in New Jersey to care for rescued abused farm animals.

Watch the segment here.

Do you think Jon Stewart should try for politics? Share in the comments!

By submitting comments you grant permission for all or part of those comments to appear in the print edition of New Jersey Monthly.

Required
Required not shown
Required not shown