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Who’s your favorite correspont? Mine is Stephen Colbert - he’s got great comedic timing
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Is John Stewart becoming more obviously biased against the Bush Administration lately? From watching over the past few months, it seems that lately his jabs are far more pointed.
Oh, I don’t know about that. He certainly seems to have Kerry’s “Senatorial pontificating” speaking style down pretty well, and has a lot of fun with it.
I think most comedians are hoping that Bush gets reelected. He really is comedy gold. If the jabs are becoming more pointed, I think it’s because the administration has been serving up target material on a platter.
Yeah, every time he mentions Kerry he does the Frankenstein bit. Regardless, the Daily Show makes fun of the news, and the Republicans are more in the news at the moment, other than Kerry.
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Colbert is the funniest, and the most consistently funny. Rob Corddry is usually funny. Ed Helms was good with the Free Speech Zone at the DNC, but usually I don’t care for him. Samantha Bee is a waste of perfectly good video tape.
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What Early Out said. The incumbents are always funnier than the challengers. And there have been many times Stewart has had me laughing at both in the same broadcast.
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I currently favor Stephen Colbert. Lewis Black and Mo Rocca are (were?) pretty ok too, but my all time favorite was definitely Beth Littleford.
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I don’t think JS is being actively more biased against the Administration. They are all fairly leftist in general, and despite that fact that they do mock the left a fair amount as well. I think the real fact of the matter is that, as stated above, it’s really hard not to mock some of the stuff this administration has done. Couple that with the fact that their audience is, IMHO, fairly young and liberal themselves, they’re gonna push a little harder and bite a little deeper when lampooning this administration.
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Oh, Samantha Bee has her moments. The piece on the guy making the anti-Michael Moore movie was a classic. They were just tormenting that loser, and Moore played along.
Their bits about Kerry are pretty standard stuff that even Bob Hope could have done. I don’t see them as particularly biting. The anti-Bush stuff is not just working off of the stupid stereotype, but is based around the dishonesty of the Administration. It’s both funny and stuff that the mainstream media should be doing more of.
I think Stewart, at least, has had it with Bush, and is enough of a patriot not to want four more years just to have material. I thought the interview with Blitzer was interesting - I got that Stewart was asking why the real news were being such pussies about looking for lies.
I think you pretty much nailed it. I think Stewart is fed up and probably more frustrated with the Administration (and now I see the rest of the media) and he’s not sugar-coating his jabs. I think that it’s the combination of all the things to mock and lambast in the Bush adminstration combined with the fact that Kerry hasn’t really been doing that much (compared to Bush’s antics) that makes it look that he has a growing bias.
I don’t even get the sense that he’s biased against Conservatives, per se. I think he’s just annoyed with the administration itself.
That was hilarious! The whole piece was about how the director of Michael Moore Hates America was looking for Moore to interview him for the movie, and Samantha “tries” to help him. It never happens, but Moore himself shows up twice in the piece: once standing behind Samantha (she’s talking about him and doesn’t “notice” that he’s right there) and then having lunch with Samantha. They weren’t from old footage either, they were part of the piece. I’ll bet that director was mad as hell when he saw the finished product. Ha! It was a wonderful way of thumbing their nose at him without coming out and saying he’s a dickhead.
Yep, I agree. Go Jon!
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My favorite is Rob Corddry. Oh my, he cracks me up. Especially when he propositions his interview subjects.
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I think Jon Stewart is just getting so exasperated with the Bush Administration’s blatant lies that he can’t contain himself.
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I prefer Lewis Black, he’s loud passionate and funny as all get out. I also like Rob Corddrey
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Actually a few nights ago, I was thinking exactly the opposite. The democratic national convention has been the brunt of quite a few jokes recently as has Kerry. He definately hasn’t forgotten the Bush Administration, however.
Did any of you watch Stewart on Larry King? He made fun of both sides and was very even-handed. His harshest comments of the night were reserved for a caller who made a lame-ass crack against the Republicans; he portrayed the comments as showing how divided and partisan the country was. That said, Stewart is an interviewing force. I don’t know if this is because he consistently understimated or because he truly is a good interviewer. I have seen him demolish certain people in the interviews, without even really raising his voice or changing his tone. Bill Kristol, John Stossel, Ed Gillespie, and Wolf Blitzer come to mind. He got Bill Kristol to say something like “Bush drove us into a ditch.” He knows a lot and can ask very pointed and prescient questions without coming off like a dick. I’ve never seen him really go after a Democrat as hard as with some Republicans. Then again, the friendliest interview I’ve ever seen him give was to John McCain – he told McCain that he was “my president” at the end of the interview. The other wonderful thing about John Stewart is how well he shifts gears in non-political interviews. Will Ferrell was on for Anchorman and they riffed off of each other for the whole interview with absolutely impeccable timing.
My favorite correspondents are Rob Corddry and Stephen Colbert. I wish Steve Carrell would come back or at least file an occasional report – he was hilarious.
I’m not really happy with any of the current correspondants. The previous crew was a lot funnier. Unless you count Lewis Black (I don’t know if you call him a “correspondant”) - he’s always good.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure Stewart has personal feelings about the Bush Administration. But on the other hand, he’s sure not giving Kerry a free ride.
I think Colbert is my favorite (aside from Black), but Carrell has been missing in action for so long that I forget which of them did which reports. I thought Nancy Walls was good, too. I don’t like Samantha Bee.
Stewart is, without question, a Democrat who’s fed up with Bush. But what I love about him when he’s being serious is that he does understand how to be fair. Sometimes you’ll see him tell the crowd to shut up when they start cheering something he doesn’t like, usually a cheapshot when he’s interested in getting a serious comment out of a guest.
I’m obviously a fan, but I think he really is good. He’s just coming from a different place than the anchors or interviewers on the networks, partly because he’s a comedian and not doing a real news show. He doesn’t have to try to get a scoop, he doesn’t take himself as seriously, and I think he’s smarter and much less self-absorbed.
McCain is a frequent guest, and he was very funny the last time I saw him on (criticizing Bush quite harshly). They also have Bob Dole on regularly, and Jon seems to enjoy that as well.
While he can demolish people, the Kristol interview is a bad example. Kristol, while conservative, is no blind partisan – he frequently criticizes the administration and is perfectly willing to admit when his forecasts have proved wrong. I saw the interview in question, and Stewart most certainly didn’t maneuver Kristol into saying something foolish – he just asked Kristol a good question, and Kristol gave an straightforward, honest answer along the lines of “yes, the Bush administration has made some mistakes, some of which are serious, but none of which can’t be rectified.” Far from “demolishing” Kristol, my estimation of Kristol increased – he wasn’t evasive and gave a direct, respectable answer. YMMV, of course.
Actually, it seems to be a combination of Frankenstein’s Monster and some kind of Zombie.
At least that’s what I got from the “Must eat baby brains” bit he did.
Given comedy centrals target audience, I’m surprised how much they rip on Kerry. It’s pretty equal to me it seems, cept the Bush things are usually better mockings, probably because they have more material to work with. The Kerry stuff is a bit more dull (heh) because all they make fun of him for is being a zombie.
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Lewis Black is the man! I had a chance to see him live recently and he is so loud and funny. I like Stephen Colbert too - by the way did anyone see Stephen acting on Law&Order:Criminal Intent? He played a murderous forgerer and did a pretty good job.
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Jon has mentioned in the past that he is a moderate. As such I think he may be the least biased interviewer on TV. Network or cable.
OK. Just a reminder here, folks:
This ain’t real news, so concerns over objectivity are silly. Stewart doesn’t have to worry about balance because this is satire, and he can lampoon anyone he wants as often as he wants.
To an extent, this is true. At the same time, though, Stewart’s position as a political pundit is undeniable. I think he’s done a fine job of, if not being wholly objective, at least allowing many different voices to come onto his show.
Still, he gets unprecedented respect for a “fake newsman,” and part of that is because of his self-imposed objectivity. While he’s certainly under no obligation to maintain that objectivity, if he starts to move away from it, I think it will hurt the show, and his reputation, in the long run.
Note, though, that I don’t think he has become any less objective. He’s simply become less willing to put up with transparent bullshit in his interviews, and is starting to call people on it when he sees it. So far as I can tell, this isn’t done on any sort of an ideological or partisan basis. Unless hating the Garfield movie is a liberal position, and I never got the memo.