Comedian Jon Stewart was in no mood for jokes Thursday evening in the wake of the shooting in a Charleston, S.C., church that left nine people dead.

The satirical news host opened The Daily Show with a solemn commentary, and condemnation, of the violence and the public response to it.

"I honestly have nothing other than sadness ... of the depraved violence that we do to each other," he said in the opening segment.

"I'm confident, though, that by acknowledging it, by staring into that and seeing it for what it is ... we still won't do jack shit," he continued. His comments elicited some muted, sardonic laughs from the audience.

Stewart condemned politicians' responses to the tragedy that he said he doubted would lead to any substantive change, and lamented the Emanuel AME Church's history of being targeted by attacks fuelled by racism.

"This is a terrorist attack," Stewart said. "This wasn't a tornado. This was a racist."

Stewart had no comedic takes on the news for the rest of the episode, instead spending the remaining two segments for a feature interview with Nobel Peace Prize-winning teenage activist Malala Yousafzai.

His Moment of Zen featured Pastor Clementa Pinckney, one of the shooting's victims, giving a sermon from October 2013.