Olivia Munn returned to Comedy Central for Jon Stewart’s final monologue Monday, surprising him with a special performance she had saved for a farewell she missed for Stephen Colbert—complete with a song, playful teasing, and a scheduling story that made Stewa
Jon Stewart closed out his monologue on Monday with the kind of smile that comes when a crowd already knows it’s the end. Then Olivia Munn walked in and the room shifted.
Munn, a former correspondent for “The Daily Show,” had previously worked on the program between 2010 and 2011. As Stewart tried to wrap up, she stepped forward for what she called a special number—one she framed as a farewell “saved for Stephen Colbert.”
“Bravissimo. Wow, I am telling you, this is what I’m going to miss,” Munn said while clapping after Stewart’s final monologue joke. “Jonathan, tonight is about you. I am here to honor you, on one of your biggest final special sendoff shows.”
She added that Stewart deserved a big production too. “Just like Colbert had big production, huge stars — everyone loved it — I’m here for you, for that.”
Stewart, visibly thrown, attempted to steer the moment back to the actual schedule. He told her Monday’s show was “not our final show,” calling it “just a normal Monday show.” Munn wasn’t buying it. She joked that Stewart was “so dumb” for not realizing “how fragile this industry is.”
“No, no, I realize,” Stewart replied. “Just, it’s not the last show.”
That didn’t stop Munn. She said she had written Stewart a song. Then she sang: “Nobody can fill your chair. You’re the one and only Jon Stewart,” and followed with lines about “your glasses and your dark brown hair when you host ‘The Late Show with Jon Stewart.’”
Stewart cut in at the punchline, pointing out the rhyme issue. “All right, clearly, ‘Stewart’ doesn’t rhyme with ‘hair’ or ‘chair’… All right, clearly, Olivia, that wasn’t even written for me. That was written for Stephen Colbert.”
Munn agreed with the adjustment and kept it light, quipping, “no one cares if you leave.”
Then she explained what she’d been holding back. “But sadly, Jon, I missed out on saying goodbye to Stephen,” she continued. “There was a scheduling conflict. I was available. They gave a hard pass. Instead, they went with Paul McCartney, the guy from Wings. I mean, like, where did they dig him up?”
Stewart responded by comforting her, assuring her she’d always be welcome on his program. Munn sounded genuinely grateful, saying, “there’s really not a lot of options left.”
“It’s basically just you or the Hot Ones guy,” she added, then admitted she doesn’t have taste for the band’s signature style: “I don’t know if you know this. I don’t like wings, the food or the band.”
The bit played out in front of the audience during Stewart’s sendoff moment, and the performance has already made the rounds online. “The Daily Show” airs weeknights at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.
In one exchange, Stewart’s insistence that Monday wasn’t the true finale met Munn’s insistence that the industry doesn’t wait for anyone. The result was a farewell within a farewell—part song, part scheduling story, and fully Stewart’s kind of comedic chaos.
Olivia Munn Jon Stewart The Daily Show Comedy Central Stephen Colbert Paul McCartney Wings The Late Show with Jon Stewart Hot Ones farewell song