The Daily Show: An Oral History

by Chris Smith

We were all so numb. I remember Stephen Colbert said, “I am legitimately asking if a pie in the face is still funny. I’m asking because I don’t know.” He was not joking.

You could say, “Yeah, Fox was really good at what they were doing,” I guess in the same way that you can admire cancer, because it’s a really effective killer.

Right after I started working at The Daily Show, in 2009, the news broke about Letterman and interns and stuff. The PA system comes on in the Daily Show office and it’s Jon, apologizing to any interns he hasn’t slept with. And I was like, “I love where I work!”

One day before he left, Jon called me into his office and he had a pair of shoes and he said, “What do you think of these shoes?” And I said, “Oh, they’re good shoes.” He said, “What size are you?” I said, “I’m a size eleven.” He said, “I’m a size eight.” And he said, “Will these fit you?” And I said, “No.” And he said, “Don’t let anyone ever tell you, you can’t fill my shoes. You’re not meant to fill them.”