You know, the one that was going to be the right wing’s answer to the Daily Show, And what about Dennis Miller’s show? I haven’t heard much about it lately or has FOX just decided to keep Miller around as Bill O’Rilley’s stooge for news humor?
I haven’t seen the show, but God its pathetic watching Dennis Miller kiss Bill O’Reilly’s ass every night. If Red China every overruns the US, I’ll bet Dennis will be on Mao’s nightly show, kissing his ass as well. Gawd what a sellout.
It apparently is. I usually flip back-and-forth between MTP and This Week on Sunday mornings, and George Stephanopolis always plays exactly four clips from the comedy shows (usually TDS, Colbert, Maher) and late-night monologues (Leno, Letterman, Conan or Ferguson).
My brother and I have always joked that the producers require the use of at least one Jay Leno clip, no matter how unfunny it is. But the last two weeks they’ve thrown in two (painfully) unfunny clips from the Fox show that nobody watches.
How to write a joke for The Half Hour News Hour:
Step 1: Mention Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama or John Kerry and focus on something mundane like John Edwards’ haircut.
Step 2: Canned laughter.
Step 3: Invent a straw-man argument for how Democrats think, and create a character based off of it.
Step 4: Take a joke that would be almost funny if it lasted for 30 seconds and stretch it out over 3 or 4 minutes.
Step 5: More canned laughter.
I did see one sketch from it that was actually amusing. It was about workplace sexual harassment, and they had a lady counselor on to physically demonstrate different kinds of harassment. I almost felt bad laughing.
Hmmm, I found this funnier.
How to write a joke for The Daily Show:
Step 1: Mention George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove or WMDs and focus on something mundane like GW saying nu-cu-ler.
Step 2: Canned laughter.
Step 3: Invent a straw-man argument for how Republicans think, and create a character based off of it.
Step 4: Take a joke that would be almost funny if it lasted for 30 seconds and stretch it out over 3 or 4 minutes.
Step 5: More canned laughter.
Your point? 
Even if it is meant flippantly, you can’t really hold up The Daily Show as a mirror to its “rival” can you? From what I’ve seen (on Youtube 
) so far that is.
Daily Show laughter isn’t canned. And they don’t usually streach out a joke to 30 seconds nevermind 3-4 minutes.
I gave News Hour a try when it first aired, but the fact that a show with a studio audience still needed a laugh track weirded me out and I never watched past the first episode, maybe I’ll give it another try. Do they ever replay it after Sunday? (the website doesn’t appear to give showtimes)
Have you ever actually watched “The Daily Show”? The one with Jon Stewart? You seem to be describing a different show.
There’s no canned laughter on Jon’s show. It’s live. I used to think he was extremely biased, but since the Democrats have taken over, he’s been ripping them new ones practically every show. Same for CNN, which he rips at least as much as FoxNews. Maybe more. Gotta admit, I was wrong.
Republicans should look on it as a badge of pride, they were only being ripped on when they were in power after all 
I knew he wasn’t biased long before. Given all the rips he takes on Canada, the Bastion of Liberal Thinking (So liberal your Democrats would be Conservatives here ) I knew he was an equal opportunity comic.
Let me be sure I understand: I’d say Stewart’s relatively unbiased in the sense that he is not apparently beholden to any person or party, but I’d say he’s certainly biased in the sense that he espouses clearly Liberal (in the contemporary USAmerican sense) political views.
This sound right to youse?
-FrL-
That sounds right. We all have our opinions, but comedy becomes dreck when the only target is an opinion that is not yours. The best comedy comes from the willingness to slaughter everyone’s sacred cows.
Same for me. I still don’t think his type of humor is as worshipful as some here seem to think, but at least he’s an equal opportunity smiter.
Very much so. I get the feeling that Stewart himself swings pretty well to the left, at least for an American, but he is not above letting liberals have it when they do stupid stuff, which is pretty often. 
Stewart and Colbert (or at least their writers and staffs) are smart and funny guys. The joke writers for the Half Hour News Hour… not so much.
In fairness, Miller has been expousing “conservative” views for some time now. I fail to see how he’s selling out. He believes in his point of view so where’s the sell-out? It’s not like he’s done much of a 180.
It seems to me that the staff of TDS start the day looking at the news or, more often, how the news is being covered, and the show is written around that. You never get the feeling that they begin with “how can we make fun of Bush today?” While THHNH and Miller always seem to begin with “how can I make fun of Democrats?”
If you watch closely, they spend more time pointing out what a poor job the “real” news networks do of covering the news, than they do making fun of the administration.
I’m sure there’s a liberal sensibility in the writing room, but while Stewart is probably a Democrat (or at least a liberal independent) I don’t think he’s as far to the left as people seem to think – I think he’s reacting to (and conservatives out there can disagree with me) an administration that is pretty far to the right. He certainly never held back from going after the Clintons (and still doesn’t).
Miller may have always been conservative, he just got more strident and one-sided in the late 90’s. For a political comedian to declare allegiance to one side is to give up half of his potential material.