How real are the stories on the Daily Show? I am talking about when they go out and interview “real” people. Are these “real” people or they actors? I saw a rerun today with a Naval officer who carried one of the “reporters” out of this his office? Was this a real Naval officer?
Hard to say. I think that most of them are “real” and know they’re talking to someone from Comedy Central, after all, but some of them are hard to credit as real…
OTOH, it’s the best news show of 'em all.
James Watson is certainly a real person.
Cite?
They did an interview with notorious Moon Hoax Twinkie Bart Sibrel, and I can unfortunately guarantee that he is a real person. His ideas are imaginary, but he is real.
Ditto with Robert “Milk is Poison” Cohen.
I doubt very much if any of them are actors. You cannot believe how many people in America are weird. And every last one of them wants to be on television…
AND they made him look like a fool, as well. Another good thing about The Daily Show.
Er, just in case Miller isn’t being facetious, James Watson is co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and is currently president of Cold Spring Harbor Lab.
I imagine most people figure any exposure is good exposure. They do interview a lot of “normal” people. Like the Petagon’s press secretary or a Professor at some local university. I suppose unless they’ve strictly forbid any CC interviews it’s relatively easy to get interviews with people like this. Wasn’t that the whole bit with “Ali G.”?
There was an interview many moons ago with Steven Colbert and 3 other anchors from that program. They said that they try not to say which channel they’re from but rather say their from a New York news show or a basic cable network, stuff like that. Plus it seems pretty obvious that it’s heavily edited.
There was a doper who was interviewed by the Daily Show, I think back when the other guy was doing it. They didn’t use it though.
I’m still trying to figure out the bit about the Admirl carrying Cobert out through his office, while “Love Lifts us up where we belong” played in the background. Would a real Admirl do that? I have a hard time imagining it.
Then again, Maybe he did know who/what he was dealing with, considering he didn’t even so much as bat an eye when Cobert called him “Field Marshal”.
I heard that Jon Stewart is a hand puppet and that it’s actually Mike Nelson and Trace Beaulieu under the desk doing all the talking.
HPL
You do realize that they were re-creating a scene from the movie ‘An Officer adn a Gentleman’, right? That is what that bit was. During that interview the Admiral showed a pretty good sense of humor.
However I must point out that most of these interviews are in a way staged but the guest does not know it. They only have one camera so they tape the interview ‘over the shoulder’ of the reporter. Later when the guest is gone they tape the questions. So some of the questions the guest never heard or they were asked in a really different way. They also take lots of footage of the guest and use what ever works as a funny ‘reaction shot’ so the guest usually comes off seeming crazier than a s-h rat when really they are only as crazy as a s-h rat.
The Onion AV Club did an interview with several of the Daily Show reporters a while back, and they all swore that everyone was real. No actors. Some of them were more aware than others of what kind of show they were being interviewed for, but they were all for real.
How sad is it that the show that dubs itself (proudly) “The Fake News” is the onlyplace I trust to get news from anymore?
Hey, it’s either this or Fox. 
No contest.
Another real Daily Show subject – nude driver Dave Wolz. I knew him back in the early 80s as an undergrad. One of the strangest people I’ve ever met.
I think that the vast majority of the people they interview are real but I think a few of them are being completely ‘whooshed’ during the interview. I think that some of them are dense enough to believe that the questions they are asked are serious which makes it even funnier.
As for which ones are defintely real–the one that comes to mind is the guy that shot his snowman in the front yard (can’t remember why) I saw him mentioned on a “real” news show once.
Right there with you, but I go one step further and get the other half of my news from Robin Quivers. I may need to re-examine my life…
On a side note, The New York Times did an article about The Daily Show citing it as the best source for satire during the war in Iraq. Sadly, the link doesn’t give you the full article…(Those bloody capitalist pig-dogs!)
What was the award they won for “Indecision 2000”?
They interviewed my father’s boss at the Council of Foriegn relations. It wasn’t a fake, and it was pretty darn funny (because he seemed sort of flustered and confused). I don’t think the Daily Show actually identifies itself as a humor program when they set these things up: I guess they cover up the “Comedy Central” stickers on their news vans.