So, on The Daily Show, there is this thing where they find a really wacko person or group of people and do an interview with them. They set it up like a straight interview, but in fact they are (not so) subtly making fun of them the entire time. The people being interviewed don’t usually seem to realize this, and the straight-facedness of their silly replies makes it that much funnier.
Those of you who watch know what I’m talking about.
My question is - don’t they have to get the people’s permission to put the interview on the air? If so, I’m sure they don’t tell them, “oh by the way this is going to be aired as satire, and you’re totally going to be the butt of the joke. Everyone’s going to laugh at you.”
I’m sure they just say “sign this form and you’ll be on tv.”
But the thing is, what happens when the people see hte show and realize they’ve been had? Couldn’t they say they signed the form under fraudulent circumstances amd get real mad and sue or something?
Or am I just being naive? Do the people actually know they’re being made fun of and they’re just playing along?
Or is the desire to be on TV and get one’s message out so great that one would sign the form even after being told one is going to be the butt of a very big joke?
I agree. I at first thought they were just mercilessly torturing these people for our amusement, but I eventually realized that most of them were so over the top, that they have to be set up in advance.
The best one was the woman who did palmistry on butt prints. The woman’s name was Jackie Stallone. Yes, Sly and Frank’s mother.
I can’t believe that these people don’t know it’s part of a joke. On the other hand, I can’t believe that people are as stupid as they are on the Tonight Show’s Jay Walking, yet there they are, not knowing what year the War of 1812 was fought.
Wow! My daughter and I were wondering this very thing last night. Was it that evolutionary guy validating the Flintstones gags that got you wondering, too?
I think the interviews we see on the show are heavily edited to make it look like the person is clued out. Like, do you ever notice that quite often the interviewer will say something outrageous like, “So you’re saying that you like to have sex with aliens?” And then they’ll cut to the other person just staring at them for a second. I’ll bet that lots of times in the NEXT second the person goes, “Oh, come on, you’re being ridiculous. That’s not what I meant and you know it.” They just don’t show that part.
There’s another trick that has been used in the past even by serious interviewers. You tape the interviewer separately from the interviewee. The interviewee is answering questions that someone else asked, or a different question entirely. I suspect that these segments mix actual goofy responses along with judicious editing and maybe even some after-the-fact question changes, all packaged for hilarity.
I’ve been pondering this for quite some time. And have debated opening up a thread with this OP. Not in this forum though.
Anyhoo the best I could come up with was that these people want to be listened to. Are willing to be interviewed and made fun of because they know it will be on TV. Not necessarily because they just want to be on TV but because they might feel that any advertising is good advertising.
Plus I think a lot of these people just don’t have cable.
On a side note I often find these interviews too painful to watch and change the channel.
While I agree that the show relies on staging and editing tricks in those “interviews”, I think it’s abundantly clear that most of these people very much believe what they are saying; it’s no act! Did you see the guy who claimed he’s abducted by aliens every night in order to fertilize alien “butt babies” with celebrities? That is – literally – to have anal sex with famous actors and actresses (who’ve presumably been abducted also) after their anuses are lined with alien female gametes?
You just can’t make that stuff up, folks.
Those few victims that watch TDS and know what they’re in for probably make some attempt to avoid being portrayed as the wackos they usually are, but as Sam Stone and others have said, there’s editing tricks that can easily foil such efforts.
I think the key to those subject’s behavior might lie in the dubious adage: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” The Daily Show certainly makes a valiant effort to prove that wrong!
There are exceptions, of course. Often when TDS interviews legitimate scientists, they are made to come across as buffoonish. But in most such cases, it is clear that the interviewer is engaging in self-deprecating humor and/or deliberately taking the scientist’s words out of context “for humorous effect” (I’d hate to be one of the TDS producers who create these “interview” mini-masterpieces and then read such a dry description of their art!)
One thing above all: Those interviews are GREAT! They’re one of the things that make TDS uniquely funny. They should do more of them!
As an aside: I really miss Vance and Stacy and a few others from the past. Judging by the crap Comedy Central is airing (Let’s Bowl? Chris Wylde? Insomniac? 6 months of promos for the Hefner Roast? BattleBots?), they’re obviously having serious budget and writing problems!
Maybe I’m just still bitter because they dropped MST3K all those years ago…
MST3K reruns are on Saturday mornings on the SciFi channel.
I think some people don’t know they are being made fun of - mostly because they have never seen the show and may not even know it’s a comedy show. But others are so wacky they may know and don’t really care.
One time they went to the NBA all star game and the players were saying “Oh, that’s Kilborne’s show!” they knew him because he started out on ESPN. This was when he was still the host. So those guys knew it was a comedy show.
One time one of the local TV sports guys where I live got fired because as a joke a local minor league baseball player pretended to be someone else and did an interview (he pretended to be former major leaguer) The interviewer did not know he had be fooled and aired the interview with the wrong guy and he was axed.
I take exception to your characterization of Battlebots. I think it’s a GREAT show, and I think it’s great that kids are tuning in and seeing that it can be cool to be an engineer and build robots, rather than being a WWF star. Way to go, Battlebots. Long may you stay on the air!
We used to get it on Ye Olde Satellite when we lived
in the country, so I haven’t seen it in over a year.
Started watching when Jon Stewart took over from the
obnoxious Craig Kilborn.
Is Mo Rocca still on the show? He is the absolute best
poke-and-prod interviewer I’ve ever seen. One time he
interviewed Jerry Van Dyke (brother of Dick Van Dyke),
the star of the 50s show “My mother the car”. Mo totally
pissed off Jerry by misunderstanding the whole premise
of that show. He kept asking, “What kind of a man would
entomb his MOTHER in a CAR???” and Jerry Van Dyke just
kept getting more and more outraged trying to explain.
Oh man-thats still so funny to think about I’m wiping
away tears. Jeez, now I really miss it…
Mo Rocca is still on the show, but Vance Degeneres left some time ago. Nancy Walls was gone for a while to have a child, but she’s back now.
As an aside, I never did understand why they punted Nancy Walls off of Saturday Night Live. I thought she was great. “Wake up and Smile” was one of the funniest things on SNL when she was there.
Steven Colbert is definitly the best correspondent, IMHO.
With that out of the way, my guess would be that the people fall into a few categories.
They know, but don’t care. For example, there was one guy I saw who was running for president. He probably knew that he was being made fun of, but since he was seriously seeking election, he needed to get the word out.
They don’t know. They dont get cable, don’t watch TDS, have never heard of it, and think that the interview is fine to be aired.
They know, and care. We don’t see these interviews, because they don’t give permission.
I saw that Jerry van Dyke interview (wasn’t he on “Coach” too?) That one really had me rolling.
Also, I don’t understand why BattleBots is on Comedy Central. It’s not a comedy.
WRT “Lets Bowl” although the show itself is moronic, I did see one segment about how to dispose of bowling balls on the show that was pretty funny.
Anyone who is a long time viewer of the show (from the start, like me) has seen the progression of these interviews.
They used to be very subtle and very funny - making fun of the guy was not at all obvious to him, they actually had to do some clever dialogue.
Nowadays, and for the last 2 years or so, they’re so over the top and obvious with making fun of their interviewees (?) that they have to be “in on it”, or there’s some major editing going on.
If they had daily show reruns, you’d see it. Year 1 was far, far more subtle (and more funny) than year 5 or 6 as far as interviews went. Now, I don’t usually even find them funny because they’re so obvious, it’s almost like they’re scripted.
I was attending Gaylaxicon, the annual gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered & friends science-fiction convention in Washington, D.C. last year and, indeed, Steve from The Daily Show showed up for interviews. When I saw him he stayed much in the dealer’s room, but as I was the only one walking around in a costume (it was a very, very small con that year), I approached his producer and told him I’d be willing to do an interview if he was looking for someone in costume.
Now, of course I’d seen TDS, and I knew generally what I was in for. But I trusted that Steve would be able to laugh with us (we know what we look like - we’re not stupid) as opposed to at us.
So they took me up on my offer. Pointed the camera at me, and he and his producer went over some quick notes on possible questions, he introduced himself, and we were off. I don’t recall all the questions he asked, although the last one was, “What do I, a straight reporter who doesn’t know anything about science fiction, and you, who is the opposite, have in common?” I answered it a couple different ways, but stayed mostly serious (if jovial). I signed my release and they said they’d let me know when it would air.
I saw them around the whole con that day - interviewing dealers (artists [some of it rather ribald, including furry/anthropomorphic adult artwork], a leather dealer [masks, and also adult playware], jewlery makers, costumers, etc.), but of course he stuck with the more unusual tables - I didn’t see him talking to the book dealers, for example. He also talked at length with the Convention Chair, Jack Frost, the woman who ran the costuming workshop, and they showed up at the Masquerade (costume contest) that evening (I, myself, dressed up as James from Team Rocket from Pokemon, and my friend Rod was dressed as Ash Ketchum, and we did a homoerotic skit between the two characters ).
What finally aired? Mostly it was the interview with Jack, but I did get a couple of seconds on-screen as James. Yeah, they were poking fun, but they weren’t making fun (Jack had some interesting bemused and confused looks on his face at some of the questions Steve asked). In the end, Steve “came out” as having enjoyed himself and found the freedom to explore his inner gayness.
I, for one, laughed my butt off. It could have been a LOT worse, but I think because we had a sense of humor about it, they did, too. I think they only really skewer the people who take themselves too seriously. We knew what we were getting into, so we were prepared.
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