# Jon Stewart needs a vacation
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 30, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585 "2011-11-30T18:28:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/1 "2011-11-30T18:28:26Z")
His shtick is getting really shrill lately. Either he’s losing it or he’s trying to make what the writers write funny. Which it hasn’t been of late.
---
### Author:  [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/2 "2011-11-30T18:38:45Z")
Really? I honestly caught myself finding the show funnier lately than I have in a while. Maybe that’s because I’m childish as all get out and I can’t stop laughing at his take on the constant stream of Republican candidate antics.
I’ll grant you that he’s had a few more very serious moments than I’d prior noticed, but it’s hardly anything exceptionally notable.
---
### Author:  [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/3 "2011-11-30T18:51:54Z")
I think the problem with the show is that all his correspondents suck, so most shows Stewart carries the whole thing and his constant mugging gets old. Back when Colbert, Helms and Carrell were on, you would get a lot less of Stewart per episode. Now, his show is kind of that thing that is on before Colbert.
---
### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/4 "2011-11-30T19:01:27Z")
> [@madmonk28](#):
>
> I think the problem with the show is that all his correspondents suck, so most shows Stewart carries the whole thing and his constant mugging gets old. Back when Colbert, Helms and Carrell were on, you would get a lot less of Stewart per episode. Now, his show is kind of that thing that is on before Colbert.
There’s a lot of truth in that - at least for me. Jon Stewart doesn’t get old for me, but I do wish the correspondents’ pool was better.
Some correspondents that are on very infrequently I like, but Jason Jones and John Oliver are like an imitation of Colbert, Helms, Corddry et al. that mistakes outright frontal obnoxiousness for the clever irony-baiting that’s the show at its best.
---
### Author:  [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/5 "2011-11-30T19:21:59Z")
Amen. I actually get embarrassed for Jason Jones when he’s on the show; he clearly doesn’t know anything about his subject matter. I remember he went to Iran during their elections and happened to be on the ground when it looked like an Iranian Spring might be in the works, but all he did was a bunch of stupid jokes about not understanding how their toilets work. Colbert would have used his satire like a razor to expose the hypocrisy of the government of Iran.
---
### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/6 "2011-11-30T19:33:28Z")
I love Jon, but with the exceptions of Wyatt Cenac and Samantha Bee (and even she can be pretty shrill at times), I can’t say I’m a huge fan of their current crop of correspondents.
And also Kristen Schaal is great, but she’s more of a commentator than a correspondent.
---
### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/7 "2011-11-30T20:20:11Z")
> [@bup](#):
>
> There’s a lot of truth in that - at least for me. Jon Stewart doesn’t get old for me, but I do wish the correspondents’ pool was better.
>
> Some correspondents that are on very infrequently I like, but Jason Jones and John Oliver are like an imitation of Colbert, Helms, Corddry et al. that mistakes outright frontal obnoxiousness for the clever irony-baiting that’s the show at its best.
Oliver has had some great bits though. His history of Afghanistan was one of the best Daily Show bits ever: “Well, first off…it’s a _bit_ hilly. It’s principal exports are heroin and vengeance. It’s national sport is played with the head of a goat.”
---
### Author:  [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/8 "2011-11-30T21:34:32Z")
They just got back from vacation.
I miss Aasif Mandhvi (sp?), Rob Riggle, and of course the two Steves. Never much of a fan of the Canadian couple, but Oliver, Cenac, Wilmore and Hodgman are all top notch.
---
### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/9 "2011-11-30T21:38:06Z")
There’s been less of Mandvi and (I think) Oliver lately, which is too bad because they’re the best of the current group.
---
### Author:  [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/10 "2011-11-30T21:43:19Z")
I like the other correspondents. John Oliver’s banter with Stewart during the World Cup was hilarious, especially before the England-Germany game.
---
### Author:  [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/11 "2011-11-30T22:00:58Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> There’s been less of Mandvi and (I think) Oliver lately, which is too bad because they’re the best of the current group.
Mandvi left to pursue an acting career, but comes back occasionally. Around the same frequency as Lewis Black, or maybe even less.
---
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/12 "2011-11-30T22:11:12Z")
The good ones always leave, it seems. At least that one woman with the dark hair that they had on isn’t showing up very often She was god-awful. Kristen Shaal was great as the obsessive (and only) fan in _Flight of The Conchords_, but I think she sucks at being a DS correspondent. Stewart’s skewering of Fox and the Repubs is always great, but his delivery of the material seems too shrill and forced sometimes. The latest one, when he was flaying Fox over Obama’s omission of the word “God” in his T-day address, really didn’t require the histrionics; it was so bizarre that it likely could have stood alone without commentary. Maybe we need to take a break.
---
### Author:  [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/13 "2011-11-30T22:16:14Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> Kristen Shaal was great as the obsessive (and only) fan in _Flight of The Conchords_, but I think she sucks at being a DS correspondent.
That girl! Yes. I can’t stand her.
---
### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/14 "2011-11-30T22:19:24Z")
> [@gaffa](#):
>
> “It’s national sport is played with the head of a goat.”
I found that line offensive and it’s just flat out untrue. Their [national sport](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzkashi)is played with a head_less_ goat.
The other way makes them sound barbaric.😉
Any idea if Moe Rocca left on bad terms? I’ve wondered why he’s never been back since his career hasn’t really skyrocketed (he works constantly but not in things as high profile as TDS) and he’s better than any of the current correspondents (save maybe Oliver).
Wallace Shawn has been on the show a couple of times. He also might be good. They really need a Joel McHale type though- somebody who’s obviously intelligent and naturally funny (and good looking helps).
---
### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/15 "2011-11-30T22:22:44Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#):
>
> That girl! Yes. I can’t stand her.
Really? I think she’s freakin’ hilarous; she and Cenac are the only ones that I like.
---
### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/16 "2011-11-30T22:31:09Z")
Wyatt Cenac and John Oliver are brilliant. Jason Jones can be funny, but not always. Everyone else is pretty meh.
I do think Jon’s gotten a bit more…preachy, I guess? He’s edging toward Olbermann-style ranting these days, and it doesn’t always have a punchline. I like Jon because he’s Jon, though, not just because he’s funny.
---
### Author:  [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/17 "2011-11-30T23:44:48Z")
Cenac and Oliver are the two I really like currently. Oliver’s schtick (British superiority complex) gets old and Cenac plays a little too broad at times, but they both get me laughing consistently. Jones’s role as foreign correspondent is cool in a new-territory-to-lampoon way, but it’s been very hit-or-miss for me.
Everybody else I could take or leave. Most feel like they’re ill-used by the show; Schaal especially. She’s funny, but it’s the wrong material.
The recent Thanksgiving bit they did with Sara Vowell was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen on the show. Clumsy and unfunny.
Some new blood and new takes in the correspondants would go a long way.
Stewart’s openings are still great, though.
---
### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/18 "2011-11-30T23:59:17Z")
[QUOTE=typoink]
The recent Thanksgiving bit they did with Sara Vowell was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen on the show. Clumsy and unfunny.
[/QUOTE]
I’m a huge fan of a couple of her books, but I agree. She has no comic timing.
---
### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/19 "2011-12-01T00:16:12Z")
In the early days TDS was just a show, now it is a source of comedic talent, so I guess that when Stewart does the whole show by himself all the correspondents are making money elsewhere or off on assignment. Colbert has it easier being in character. Still, the multi-correspondent bashing of Cain yesterday was some of their best material in ages.
---
### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585/20 "2011-12-01T00:34:08Z")
> [@EllisDee](#):
>
> They just got back from vacation.
>
> I miss Aasif Mandhvi (sp?), **Rob Riggle** , and of course the two Steves. Never much of a fan of the Canadian couple, but Oliver, Cenac, Wilmore and Hodgman are all top notch.
As a Marine Corp officer he was excellent especially when reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan, he was credible to the troops.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-needs-a-vacation/604585.md?page=2)