When Jon Stewart Saluted a Grieving Boston

After 16 years on The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart will sign off for the last time tonight. Countless takes have been written about both his departure and his tenure—he’s overrated, he’s underrated, he changed everything, he changed nothing, he’s a liberal shill, he’s America’s most trusted news source. Someone even wrote a take on the overabundance of Jon Stewart takes. We offer this without any intention of stirring the pot—just a little gratitude.

In the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, Stewart took to the airwaves on April 16 and began his show with a display of solidarity:

Once again, having to start under just horrific events here in this country. I really hate the fact that I can cross-reference my thoughts to so many other events that have occurred over the years of a similar ilk, so I’m not going to. I’m just going to say this to Boston: thank you. Thank you for once again, in the face of gross inhumanity, inspiring and solidifying my belief in humanity and the people of this country. So thank you for everything that you’ve done. That’s quite a little city you’ve got going on up there.

And you know, New Yorkers and Boston obviously have kind of a little bit of competition, often times the two cities accusing each other of various levels of suckitude. But it is in situations like this we realize that is clearly a sibling rivalry, and that we are your brothers and sisters in this type of event. As a city that knows the feeling of confusion, anger, and grief, and chaos that comes with these events, I can tell you from personal experience, you’ve got a hell of a city going there. And you’ve done an incredible job in the face of all this.

Happy trails, Jon. You had a hell of a show going there.