I think Samantha Bee isn’t just funny - she’s pretty damned cute. Is that weird?
No, just creepy.
I think she’s unfunny, but most of the correspondence pieces are. I guess there’s only so much you can do as a TDS reporter. They always do the furrowed brow/concerned reporter bit, curse, and say something stupid.
I thought Colbert was a great correspondent, though, and I loved “This Week in God.”
John Oliver is my favorite, I also got a lot more respect and like for him when watching “behind the scenes” stuff on Indecision '08. John actually TALKED about his feelings and what was going on and what they were trying to accomplish, everyone else just tried to up the satire to 11 and do a meta-segment about their experiences doing the segment and it really put me off their videos.
Wyatt Cenac is good.
I don’t really like Samantha, I think she’s really good when working with others, but no so much on solo. I thought she was perfect when playing “say choice” with the RNC, and even more perfect when doing that segment a few days ago about Canada with John Oliver as Britain vs Aasif Mandvi as India. She seems better when she has something to react to.
They all have their little annoying things though, I love annoying people as much as anyone, but a lot of interviews and “funny bits” just make me cringe more than anything (“are we gonna heal?” STFU John).
The rest are all okay, Kristen was really, really hit or miss but I can’t really form an opinion. The other ones are just “meh” nothing special, nothing terrible.
Is this online somewhere?
I imagine it’s somewhere here. Not that I’d know, being In Canada, where The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is available on the CTV Broadband Network. (except that it’s not) 
For those big fans of his, I hope you know that John Oliver does a podcast with Andy Zaltzman. It’s well worth listening to from episode 1, and is one of only two podcasts that I absolutely must listen to right when it comes out.
As for Samantha… I’ll agree that she’s not as strong as she used to be, but then the whole show isn’t trying as hard now. They seem to be off on a break more often than they’re on nowadays. On the other hand, it’s still one of my favourite to watch, and I can’t imagine how I’d get my 15 minute zeitgeist update without it. Perhaps Google will have to step in.
I don’t watch the Daily Show religiously, so I don’t see her often enough to judge.
…but Samantha Bee is responsible for the skit that made me start watching in the first place: Al Jazeera English
Peppermint Gomez 
Does anyone have an idea what episode it was, or approximately when?
Pretty much this. I don’t think I’ve seen the Daily Show since 2005, and even then I’d watch Jon’s intro, fast-forward through whatever steaming pile of crap their correspondents were shoveling, and see if the guest was someone I wanted to see. The fact that anybody from the show 3+ years ago is still there is disappointing, because those middle ten minutes were just a black hole of comedy.
I’m indifferent on Sam Bee but always liked Rob Riggle. His week in Iraq was not only funny but surprisingly gutsy - how many comedians would go off to a war zone to do their shtick?*
- Apart from Sinbad, that one time with Hilary Clinton where they came under sniper fire. And the late great Bob Hope, of course.
Sure she does! Maybe not every segment, but she’s got a real office and computer and everything where she researches and writes (I think the level of correspondent/writer collaboration varies from cast member to cast member).
And again, she’s hilarious (though if someone dislikes both her and Demetri Martin, we probably just don’t share the same sense of humor).
http://blog.indecision2008.com/tag/behind-the-segments/
John Oliver’s is the 4th one down, it’s not entirely serious, but I like it the most because he actually expresses opinions and tells us what they all observed while making the segment. Jason Jones’ segment (as an example) kind of deadpan mocks Wasilla farther instead of actually talking about the SEGMENT and how they made it. Well, that or he has a very, very different sense of politics in real life.
Riggle’s started off okay, but quickly went a little wonky.
Cool! I will check that out tonight! Thanks
The Daily Show has 15 writers and she’s not listed as one of them. Jon Stewart, John Oliver and Wyatt Cenac are.
It’s possible that she contributes to and modifies her sketches, probably more so when she’s out of the studio. But those 15 writers have to do something to justify their salaries. People always overestimate how much original material people do in sketch shows. The vast majority of it is written out beforehand by the writers. Disillusioning, but true.
Weak? It was one of the worst I’d ever seen. Clearly the writers spent the day talking about what they did on break. The entire middle segment was the CNN doggie debate - cute, but it is not like CNN was doing that seriously.
I agree that Colbert was much better that day, and I was amazed that Colmes played the stereotype of himself. Notice the little blurb in the opening is saying “Colmes Free Since 2009.”
Interesting that the diversity of material leads to a diversity of favorites. Bee is okay with good material. Jason Jones is playing the shmuck way too much. Once people caught on to them, they’ve done a lot of interviews where the correspondents make fun of themselves, which is feeble.
Gilmore is brilliant - but he is a very experienced comedy writer. I love John Hodgeman, but I can understand him not appealing to everyone. I thought his last bit, which was meta-analysis of book tour interviews, was absolutely brilliant. Lewis Black has gone downhill a lot on TDS segments lately. Nothing he does there is very original.
I agree that Colbert interviews suffer from him being in character. He almost goes out of character when there is someone he supports. But the best ever was Oliver Stone. When touting the Bush movie he steadfastly maintained that Bush was actually a great president, and much underappreciated, which gave Colbert’s character absolutely nothing to say.
Hmm, just rewatched them, not as bad as I recall, I never saw Sam’s or Wyatt’s which were good. Not fond of Assif’s, Rob’s or Jason’s still.
How sad. I suppose that most of them just don’t get it, then. Or perhaps they lack the split second timing and reaction skills of excellent comedians.
I agree that the writers don’t know what to do with Bee. She had some really spot on election stuff (I also loved the Vagina American), but she has had some horrible stuff as well (I dimly remember some bit with Jason about throwing babies or some such).
I liked Demetri Martin when he first started. He was quirky. And then he got old.
They pretty much HAVE to be dense if they’re actually not getting it.
“You know I’m in character. And that I’m an idiot[…] And willfully ignorant of what we’re going to talk about, so disabuse me of my ignorance.”
Agreed. She’s just obnoxious. And she tries to be “shocking” but it’s all been done before.