Jonah’s only half Jewish. His Mom is a Christian of some Protestant flavor.
I saw him at Border’s giving a talk. I had no idea so much stupid could be compressed into 15 short minutes. I wanted to ask him if he’d heard of Godwin’s law, but was too enraged to stay for the Q&A. Hillary Clinton is not a Nazi. Nor is George Bush, for that matter.
Sorry for the hijack. No idea who’s doing the writing but TDS seems weaker than it did before the strike. I hope both parties settle soon.
A glorious one at that.
slight hijack/ What I would really love to see would be a debate between Goldberg and Naomi Wolf, author ofThe End of America. She did a wonderful interview on The Colbert Report(no link due to strike), that was everything this one was not.
Plus, she is as beautiful as she is brilliant, so bonus eh?
Funny, I don’t remember meeting you, but you have clearly met me at some point.
Now, let me tell you my thoughts on the hidden meanings behind the Roadrunner and Coyote cartoons…
tds1273 eh?
Anyway, to answer a question up above, Jon can’t write because he’d be a scab if he did so. He is a member of the guild that happens to be contractually obligated to perform by another organization. There are several people who are in this situation. Colbert probably, and also Seth McFarlane etc…
I’d love to see the raw footage from the Goldberg/Stewart interview. The whole point of the book seemed to be “You can’t call us Nazis, but we can call you socialists AND Nazis both. Neyh Neyh Neyh!” It was seriously ludicrous.
Neither Jon nor Colbert are allowed to write because they are members of the WGA. They can perform, but not write. They returned in order to save the jobs of the rest of their staffs and probably to avoid being terminated and sued for breach of contract since they are executive producers of their respective shows, and Jon for both shows.
Here’s a link to the New York Times article (registration required) which lays out the details. Basically Stewart and Colbert wanted a similar deal to the one the WGA signed with David Letterman’s company, World Wide Pants. However unlike The Late Show, which is actually owned by Letterman, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are owned by Comedy Central, and the WGA said that they would only make a deal if it would cover all Comedy Central shows, which Viacom, owner of Comedy Central, would not agree to.
They can’t write things they perform themselves? I thought that’s how Jay and Conan came back on the air.
My understanding is that performers are allowed to write material that they themselves will perform on the air.
I don’t think so - they (hosts who are also members of the WGA) cannot write things they perform themselves. The details of what returning hosts can and can’t do has been posted a few times in various threads on the strike.
Jay Leno got into quite a bit of trouble for writing the monologue he gave on the first night he got back. I don’t think he’s written one since then.
Trouble with the WGA, who didn’t want him to go back on air in the first place. I’m not really sure what the rules are as far as this goes, and obviously I’m open to being corrected- but I wouldn’t be surprised if different parties have different interpretations.
Oh fer sher.
Not sure where this is going, but WAG- no, no relation to the show. My material is so thin, I couldn’t even scab if I wanted to. It’s just an old(about 9 years now) stand by username, since I’ve started posting somewhat I do want to change it to something a bit more name-ish.
Dizzy Saturn, Agent Provocateur, Jabberwocky Superfly(have to credit to Aesop Rock for this one), …I just can’t decide on which one.
Or maybe: ‘Winston Smith to Naomi Wolf’s Julia, pre-arrest of course’ ? Doesn’t exactly roll off the tounge(oh hold on, mental images conjured 
), though it does have sort of a Biker of the Apocalypse flow to it.
Well, that’s exactly it. The WGA says that according to their collective bargaining agreement that hosts who are also WGA members are not allowed to write. NBC says that hosts who write are exempt from the agreement. The WGA decided to say the hell with it and stop fighting.
Since every other host seems to agree with the WGA’s interpretation, my opinion is that theirs is the right one. They just don’t want to have a fight with Jay Leno. As far as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, I know for a 100% fact that neither Jon nor Stephen are writing anything.
If you google “what can returning hosts perform wga strike” you can see lots of articles about this.
Then who is? He delivers a monologue every night.
The WGA has claimed that the hosts cannot write for themselves. The networks claimed that the current bargaining agreement, which remains in force, gives them this right.
Barring a court decision over who is right, the WGA appears to have decided that challenging the hosts for writing their own material is a losing PR strategy and has stopped making an issue of it.
All the hosts are writing their own material. My prediction is that they will never get in any real trouble for doing so. (There may be a technical slap on the wrist much later on after the strike ends that nobody outside the business will know or care about.)
The next big battleground will be the Oscars. SAG has been supportive of the writers, but they will be very unhappy if the Oscars get canceled. Since Stewart is host this year, he has a big stake in the outcome. Watch the show to catch the references he’ll increasingly make as the deadline grows nearer.
ETA. If Stewart and Colbert aren’t writing anything, then how do they do full bits with prepared graphics for every show? Either they’re writing or they are using non-union material. Which are you claiming?
P.S. Jonah Goldberg’s performance reminded me a lot of the way certain people have argued on this board. 
He hasn’t learned what they also haven’t learned.
If you redefine a common word to your liking, you can prove anything; but
You can’t make anybody else agree with you.
Ok, I’m willing to believe you (some of your other posts have hinted that you’re somehow involved with the show, but I don’t know if you’ve ever said or are willing to say in what capacity you do so). But what does that MEAN, exactly? There are words coming out of their mouths, right? And there are graphic cards that are related to those words, right? So at some point, Jon had to say to Mike the Graphics Guy, “Look, Mike, I’d like a picture of a wombat with a cucumber ready to go tonight, okay?” So that means Jon has at least *some *concept of what he’s going to say.
When does “prepares graphics and has a concept of what he’s going to say” turn into “writing” in your mind? Is it when graphite or ink hits paper? Is it when he sits on the can with his copy of The New York Times and thinks, “Hmm…this latest escapade from NAMBLA is ridiculous! Why, it’s as ridiculous as a wombat with a cucumber! Heh…wombat with a cucumber…NAMBLA. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to A Daily Show, I’m Jon Stewart. Did you catch the latest escapades from NAMBLA? No, wait, better change that to, “Check out these crazy wombats at NAMBLA!” Yeah, that sounds better…” Is that “writing”?
If he prepares a whole monologue in his head and memorizes it but never actually types it out or writes it down, is he writing, or not?
And then, of course, IS he preparing the whole thing in his head, or does he stop at “NAMBLA = wombat”, order the graphic and just riff when the camera is turned on?
But so funny.
“As far as I can see what you’re saying is you don’t like the ease at which poeple through around the word fascism.”
“That’s one of the things I don’t like.”
“So you’ve basically just done that.”
Classic.
Wanted to add that the Comments & Responses about said clip is probably the most insightful I’ve ever read for any YouTube video ever.
YouTube comments with capitalization and punctuation? It was like I was in an alternate reality!
They are allowed to figure out what kind of show they plan to broadcast and figure out what they want to say and map out what’s going to happen during the show. They’re not allowed to write scripts or write extensive notes that would be de facto scripts. Their producers who are also writers are on set during the tapings although I am not sure to what extent they are working. Not writing, of course; I mean I’m not sure how much producing they’re doing.
See above paragraph.
It’s not my mind that matters. It’s what the WGA has said is equivalent to “writing.” Apparently whatever he’s doing at this point is okay with the WGA, because if they thought he was actually writing there would be a lot bigger noise about it. Or any noise. As far as I’ve seen nobody in the WGA has accused Jon or Stephen of “writing.” Nor have they said they’re writing but the WGA will let it go, as they did with Jay Leno and his monologues.
I know some people who work there, although pretty much anything I’ve ever said can be corroborated by other sources on line.
You all have seen Colbert showing the empty TelePrompTers, right? There aren’t any other ones besides the ones he’s been showing. Those aren’t fake cameramen brought in to show the fake empty prompters. He’s got no script in front of him like he usually does. So is he writing the whole thing and memorizing it? Or he is winging it? He’s never written the interviews so he’d only be “not writing” perhaps 10 minutes of show. He can figure out what kind of topics he wants to talk about and get the graphics set up and then just talk without having to write it down. The whole point of coming back was to save 75 jobs so if he’s not using the graphics department because he’s not writing, I’m sure Viacom would just love to say they’re unnecessary staff and fire them. The more the other people besides writers are used, the stronger the case for their being essential personnel.
And Stephen would not lie and say he’s not writing if he really is. He just wouldn’t.
People can believe what they wish, though. No skin off my nose. Someone earlier said all the hosts are writing and I know they’re not “all” writing. It’s not some super-sekrit insider info; you can find out on line who is doing what, unless you want to believe they’re all lying about it.
Ah. No, it was your mind that mattered to ME, because you said you knew, 100%, that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were not doing any writing. That was your claim, not mine, and so I wanted to have you define some terms.
So, then, all you really know is that Colbert isn’t using a Teleprompter and the blue sheets of paper are not on the desk. 'Kay, that’s cool, but it’s not any more than the rest of us know. Certainly less than 100%.
I really wasn’t trying to bust your chops, I’m just really curious about the process, that’s all. I thought you might have some inside insights based on your 100% guarantee.