Flashback time: It’s autumn 1986, I’m a senior in high school, and the girl who sits beside me in homeroom is on the yearbook committee. She tells me, excitedly, that they’ve chosen the theme for this year’s yearbook: “It Takes All Kinds”. “What do you think?” she asks.
“It doesn’t take all kinds,” I protest, “we just have all kinds!”
It wasn’t the first time I was accused of having an attitude problem.
Anyway. Completely off-topic. I’ve never seen a full episode of The Daily Show, but I generally like the clips they put on their website. And I thought “America: The Book” was very very funny, and I recommend reading it shortly after reading “Lies My Teacher Told Me” for maximum effect.
Actually, I’m more inclined to take Airman at his word on this one. Conservative though he may be, I think that he’s been proving more and more over the last couple of years that he can keep an open mind on even the most divisive hot-button issues. He’s also not afraid to admit when he’s wrong.
These are traits that one can’t help but respect, and I could name more than a few of us liberals on the SDMB who don’t even come close to living up to them.
I think that Argent Towers is the closest to the mark on this one:
Peronally, I’m a big fan of TDS, but I’ll readily admit that not every episode is pure gold. Then again, how could they be? When you do 160 shows a year, there’s bound to be a lot of crap in there.
I’ll echo the recommendations of others for Airman to check out “America: The Book.” It is, hands down, the funniest thing I’ve ever read, and I found its style of humor to be significantly less acerbic than TDS.
I’ll wade in – I like TDS, but don’t think of it as essential viewing. I find it pretty hit or miss. I think Stewart himself does a pretty good balancing act of cute and sarcastic. I once heard someone make the statement to the effect that, “TDS is the only news show I really enjoy watching.” part of me hopes that was in the sarcastic vein of TDS, part of me worries that it isn’t.
It isn’t lame (SNL for the last 20 years or so, that’s lame, Full House-that’s lame), it is pretty good, funny, and obviously a good time for th people making it.
Oh, and I’d like to point out to Cerowyn that the opposite is true as well: Those on the left find it generally funnier than those on the right. You probably like TDS BECAUSE of the politics. Let’s face it, embarassing as it was, Dennis Miller’s show had its moments–few though they were–and was reviled by those on the left because of the politics involved. Of course, it was lame, quite unlike TDS, which is mostly good to sometimes great.
Did they already use the theme “What are ya gonna do?” (preferably along with a stick figure shrugging)?
I’m just curious as to why the topics are not funny because of the way Jon or the correspondents address them. Is it because of the smugness and sarcasm that Argent Towers referred to?
I find the show pretty consistently hillarious. I show clips of it to my rhetoric class because the bits on the show are often pretty good little educational films about media criticism, promoting through fake news segments an understanding of the nature and use of talking points, spin doctoring, sloganeering, stonewalling, ect. They frequently show clips of politicians saying one thing (“It’s pretty much a slam dunk”) and later denying it (“I never said that”).
I don’t think that Jon Stewart is copping out when he says, “We’re just a fake news show,” although he knows damned well how influential he is. I believe that mantra is an attempt to avoid taking himself too seriously. If he did, I think the show would suffer for it. They get away with their biting political satire because they’ll also spend five minutes riffing off of a congressman’s use of the word ‘taint.’
But how can that be? If he didn’t take himself seriously, why would he feel it necessary to make such a disclaimer. On the other hand, if indeed he knows how influential he is (as you say he does), then how can he ingenuously pretend that he isn’t with a mere pithy phrase? It would be like Ingrid Newkirk demuring, “We’re just a conservation organization.”
I really like the opening section of the show, Jon’s “monologue,” as it were. These are usually consistantly funny. The reporters, less so - I find these to be hit or miss, with more falling in the miss category. And the interviews really depend on who’s being interviewed - some of these can be misses as well. So, when I watch, I pay close attention to the monologue, tune out the reporter’s sections unless they’re good, wait for the interview, then tune it out it it’s not going anywhere.
I will admit that I haven’t been as loyal about watching it as I was in its first few seasons. And I’ll also cop to not being especially surprised that Airman doesn’t like it.
The phenomenon of the influential comedy news show isn’t unique to the Daily. On the Media did a story on “Eretz Nehederet” or “A Wonderful Country,” a current-events satire program in Israel. Brooke Gladstone kept pressuring the writers to agree that they went beyond entertainment to influencing the events of the day, especially in their treatment of political candidates. Mostly they just laughed it off until one grudgingly admited, “With power comes responsiblity—”
Laughing, one of his colleagues immediately interrupted with, “Are you Spiderman, now?”
To each his own. I love it. When it’s working, it is poignant and funny. When it isn’t working, I can look forward to tomorrow’s ep.
I sometimes feel like it is the one lone voice of sanity out there - looking at the crap that gets shovelled in our direction - from conversvatives, from liberals and from the media - and pointing out how we are being spun. Or how clueless each of these groups can be…
TDS is one of the few shows I really look forward to and enjoy.
I was very disappointed that last night was another rerun.
I can’t explain it to you, it is a matter of choice.
I am not saying you watch the crap on network TV, but I can’t stand 98% on the network schedules. Lame, stupid, rehashed sitcoms, Dramas that all seem the same and “Reality Shows” are the worst.
As far as Kilborn goes, please tell me that was just a joke. The man is not funny. He is a better actor than Jon* but he is not funny.
Of course Jon likes to point out he is a terrible actor and he is correct.
Another thing is how they take quotes that are already too stupid for words and edit them to make them stupider. It’s like taking a trainwreck and editing more damage into it and then pointing and laughing at the idiot while patting themselves on the back for their genius.
It’s not for me. I don’t like trainwrecks to begin with.
The “correspondents” have become more tedious. I think they’re still searching for a solution to the double whammy of Colbert and Carell leaving. And then there is the gut-splitting gems like the riff on Cheney shooting his hunting partner that make it worthwhile to watch.
I’ll get behind this- the do edit too much. Especially on the correspondant interviews. It’s so heavily edited as to be distracting, and as a result, I assume that so much is out of context and cut up, and that the interviewee isn’t nearly as stupid/insane as they’re made out to be.
I’ll admit to being a before-the-first-commercial-break viewer. Though I’m sticking around a bit longer to get to Colbert. And Lewis Black, when he’s on.
I think he’s attempting to remind his audience of what the show is, not just himself. I don’t know why you find it puzzling that he says it. You’ve heard of ‘effort,’ I’m sure - not taking yourself seriously requires effort for most people, and most people don’t get the kind of media plaudits he does.
YOu should watch these more carefully. You’d be surprised to see how little editing really goes on. Sure, there’s some, but watch the edits: some of the most outrageous moments in those interviews happen without cuts. They are, by and large, NOT a product of editing, to the extent that you seem to think they are.
Because therein lies the delicious irony: it IS a fake news show, and it IS influential.
Just because it’s topsyturvy doesn’t mean it’s not true. The fact that a fake news show has real influence is the ultimate proof that all of Stewart’s ridicule is valid.
This Hour has 22 Minutes (click the ‘Hafferty’ link on the preceding for a good idea)being the Canadian contribution to this genre. You just haven’t seen news satire until you’ve seen a hairy-pitted matron dressed as Xena crashing a media scrum threatening to smite the Prime Minister with a broadsword, I tellya
