Jon Stewart's final message: 'watch out for bulls--t'

Jon Stewart bowed out after 16 years at The Daily Show on Thursday night, to cries of dismay across liberal America.

Famous faces including Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell, who both started out as Daily Show correspondents, joined Stewart in his swansong, and incoming South African host Trevor Noah also crept in to start measuring the desk ahead of his take over in the autumn.

In 2013 Stewart took an extended break from the show for work on his directorial debut film 'Rosewater', based on the memoir of Maziar Bahari, an Iranian who was imprisoned and tortured by the Iranian government after appearing on The Daily Show in 2009.

Stewart has stated in interviews that he is ready to move on to other projects and the prospect of covering another election "depresses him".

During the last taping, Stewart repeated a mantra that has stood him well throughout the years:

I say to you, friends, the best defence against bulls--t is vigilance. So if you smell something, say something.

Stewart thanked everyone who had worked on the show for an "amazing" 16 years before the band started up.

An artist I really admire said that he thinks of his career as a long conversation with the audience. A dialogue. And I really like that metaphor for many different reasons. But the main one is, because it takes away the idea of finality.

This show isn’t ending. We’re merely taking a small pause in the conversation. A conversation which, by the way, I have hogged ... I’ve really been dominating this in a really selfish way. So rather than saying goodbye, or goodnight, I’m just gonna say: I’m gonna go get a drink, and I’m sure I’ll see you guys before I leave.

There it is: his moment of zen.

Watch the clip below for Stewart's goodbye: