Jon Stuart is the Funniest Guy on TV. The scripted stuff is funny, but his impovised lines top even those of the previous title-holder, David Letterman.
Or “Stewart”.
Whatever.
IMHO WWTBAM sucks:) Id rank that show up with battlebots and sports.
I think Jon Stewart is funny. Does anyone else remember Short Attention Span Theater on the Comedy Channel (before Comedy Central merged with it)? It was an hour-long show of comedy clips.
I thought Craig Kilborn was funny on the Daily Show till I realized that he wasn’t just pretending to be an empty-headed smartass - he really is one.
I too like Jon more than Craig, but what I do miss a lot are the little regular features that would pop up before the commercials–In Denial, Player of the Week, The Box Office Stats (in Italian), etc.
As for Jon, I think he’s funniest when he’s playing off of one of the good correspondents. He and the Stevens can always make me laugh. He has a few mannerisms that grow a little tiresome, but otherwise he’s very good.
CNote, I’ll give it to you that the interviews with celebs tend to be pretty much the same old, sucking up crap. But, when you think about it, can they be anything else?
The reason that these celebrities come on to the show is because they want to plug their movies/shows/books/new brand of silly putty, etc…
They, or their publicists, agree to appear on the show, only because they think they’ll get a good plug out of it. In turn, Comedy Central wants celebs to show up.
If all Stewart did was trash them, not a whole lot of people would want to show up on the Daily Show.
On the other hand, Stewart seems to be at least aware of the cheesiness. Remember the commercial that they did awhile back, where he talked about interviewing celebs? His closing line was “It’s really amazing, you never know where the conversation’s gonna end.” They then proceeded to show 10 seconds straight of him plugging each actor/actresses new gig, which he does at the end of every interview.
So don’t blame Stewart for the crappy interviews. It’s in the format of the show, which is dictated by the network. It doesn’t give Stewart alot of room to work with, and personally, I think he does a good enough job. Some of the interviews are friggin’ hilarious. Ever see the one with Mike Myers?
Celebrities aside, I think that he’s just a funny guy in general. He does the coverage a whole hell of alot better than Kilborn ever did, and you have to give credit to the people who do the interviews with the wackos, just cause they were able to find these nutcases in the first place. “odd, but real,” doesn’t even begin to describe the majority of em.
And have you been watching their political coverage? Absolutely hilarious. One of the funniest things I have ever seen happened completely by accident, on a seperate news station. After the first day of the election ended, NBC’s crack political analyst dubbed the whole process “Indicision 2000”. This is what the Daily Show’s been calling it since the primaries.
I missed the WWTBAM appearance, so I can’t comment, but, in general, all I have to say is that you should lighten the hell up. Stewart isn’t on stage, where he can say anything and everything anymore. He’s in television, where, in exchange for a paycheck he can actually live on, he has to follow a few rules. Deal with it.
Aw, I thought he was really cute.
What didn’t you like?
Man, I used to love SAST. Stewart was funny on SAST, but Brian Regan also used to host the show, and he was flat-out hilarious.
Jester-
In today’s competitive marketplace, it’s not the ‘niceness’ of the host that dictates a celebrities appearance; it’s the shows demographics. Stars don’t sit down and say, “I like Jay Leno. I’ll do three shows for him, and him only.” to promote a new project. No. They do the shows that get the most exposure. These days, it seems like no show is too insignificant, including The Daily Show.
Moreover, not all talk shows have played nice and still had a steady stream of guests to interview. Take David Letterman, for instance. He’s not known as being a nice guy, or even a great interviewer, and he gets a steady stream of highbrow guests.
So the argument that Jon Stewart has to be nice to keep getting guests, is falling on deaf ears with me.
The thing is, Jester, I was criticizing Stewart’s getting stale and boring on both his show and his live appearances. He’s fallen into the comfortable and cozy spot that is the Daily Show. He’s no longer innovative or funny, in my opinion.
I liked him more when he was trying to win a job somewhere. It kept him fresh and witty. Now, he seems bland and routine. In addition, if this is what it takes for him to play in the big leagues, as you seem to imply, than I wish he’d go back to the minors.
Really not a big deal considering some of the other shit on
television I could have focussed on.