I recall that the first time I heard Craig Kilborne was leaving The Daily Show, I had suggested Jon Stewart, because some MTV show I had seen him on made him seem like a good fit. When he got on The Daily Show, it turned into a very different show and for that he was a better fit than I could have guessed.
Well, for whatever my first instincts are worth, Joel McHale is what my gut tells me now. He’s got the comedy, and the making fun of media. But… I think that underlying the success of Stewart and Colbert was that they both gave a shit about politics. And even before getting his own show in Colbert’s slot, I saw him in a comedy special which was political in nature. I have not seen any evidence that Joel McHale brings that to the table.
Jon Stewart made an effort to read his guests’ books. Who else on the list of maybes would do that? I could believe Amy Poehler or Tina Fey, but I don’t really know. In many ways, the choice is who to get if you can’t get Poehler or Fey.
I will raise no objection to this being Brian Williams’ next career move. It would boost his credibility.
I’m not so sure about those other Daily Show correspondents whose role in the show is usually to show up and be nutty in contrast to Stewart’s playing the straight man. But Colbert and Oliver did manage to transcend that kind of role.
Right now, I’d hate to be one of the people the internet is buzzing about rejecting.
Damn, you Exapno Mapcase for beating me to mentioning Joel McHale by 5 minutes!
From the lists posted so far, I like Oswalt and Burress the best. Tina Fey or Chris Rock would of course be a dream, but I can’t imagine they’d do the show for very long.
I don’t know if he’d be interested, but if you want to go in a right-ward direction, why not Dennis Miller?
Remember, unlike most current Daily Show correspondents, Aasif Mandvi is primarily an actor, not a comedian. I don’t know whether that would make a difference. Of course, that was also originally true of Stephen Colbert, and I think Steve Carrell as well.
(I already knew of Aasif long before he joined the Daily Show, seeing as how I make it a point to watch movies centering on Indian-Americans. I mean, come on, he was in a Merchant-Ivory movie!)
A big NO to Brian Unger or anyone else from the pre-Jon Stewart days.
Damn. I’m not happy about Stewart leaving. The regular monitoring of “Bullshit Mountain” was a valuable social service. Showing a montage of a dozen heads mouthing the same talking points, and then showing the same actors mouthing contradictory talking points at an earlier date – it helped keep thinking people from taking right wing media seriously. (There can be a tendency to forget and forgive.)
OTOH, maybe the next host can retain that feature, while mugging just a little bit less.
I’ve heard that The Daily Show has a system of multiple DVRs and massive amounts of storage to record Fox News, CNN and the other channels. Supposedly they have some easy way to find a segment later when they want to use it and they keep years of recordings available. Presumably that infrastructure will remain in place, so if the next host wants to do the media criticism that Jon does, he/she will be able to.
Both the Steves were togeather at Second City before the Daily Show. I think Mandvi is close to unique on the show in not having a comedy background (and I suspect that will rule him out of being host).
Because his radio program sucks. I’m not saying that because of his politics – I listen to Limbaugh over lunch if I want talk. I’m saying that I’ve tried listening to Miller’s radio program and it’s just terrible. He’s not funny and not engaging. He’s also not a very good interviewer (his manic rapid-fire esoteric references schtick is largely rehearsed).
Cenk’s no amateur, he’s just not a comedian. And he’s a little too much who he is to play “straight man.” Ana could play “straight man” but she’s not a comedian either. Ana however, is charming and fun … which might make up for the lack of comedy chops if the show’s format were changed to her playing “straight man” to the show’s actual comedians. It’s an interesting concept.
