Years ago, while still in my expedition into college I discovered this funny, smart, witty show on Comedy Central. Certainly you know of it- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His quick witted and sarcastic humor on politics and popculture never failed to make me at the very least chuckle. I knew it was Hollywood, so I didn't agree with the political philosophy of Stewart. Despite that, I was able to laugh because I felt that he did a fair amount of bashing to both sides of the spectrum. He kept politics from becoming too serious. Then I got excited when Steven Colbert got his own show. I watched that too, and laughed... at least for a while.
One day, not to long ago I was watching Jon Stewart. I noticed something different about the experience. Not one laugh escaped my mouth the entire show. I didn't smirk, I didn't so much as grimace. It became unsettlingly clear: the show isn't funny to me anymore. If I had to guess, I would attribute this phenomena to growing up a bit between when I first watched the show and now. Working at the Leadership Institute might also have a strange conection to this too. I'm surrounded by politics where I work, and so I take it seriously (for the most part). As a result, when I get home, oddly, instead of wanting "funny" politics, I still want real, serious news. I sit down and watch his show and roll my eyes. I could watch a legitimate news program, but hey, Scrubs is on Comedy Central for an hour before the Daily Show. I love Scrubs, and show I end up just keeping the tv on when that show goes off.
The easy remedy to the solution, because I do think it is a problem, is this: Jon Stewart, bring back more of your critiquing of pop culture, and focus less on politics. Sadly people are just as content to watch his how and get "the news" as opposed to a real news channel, regardless of which bias is involved. The same goes for Colbert. Although, I saw a show yesterday where Colbert did a Seven reference, suggesting that Gwyneth Paltrow's head was in a cardboard box sitting onhis shelf, dueto her bashing the U.S. once again. Ok, that made me laugh, out loud. BUT is wasn't connected to politics. So I give a "tip of the hat, wag of the finger" to Stewart and Colbert.
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Comments: 14
Luckily, I don't and enjoy the heck out of those guys nightly.
That said, I would also offer that, it's entirely possible that, because of your own personal ideological beliefs, you no longer find the show funny because your party is no longer in power. It's easier to find humor in political discussions when you know that your party has complete control. Perhaps, it's not so easy when you know that your party faces a rather difficult two years.
I enjoy both shows, though I admit that I rarely catch them. As for news content, I've frequently found that Stewart is far more compelling than any actual "news" channel, because he covers issues that others find untouchable, oftentimes pointing out glaring inaccuracies or fraudulance that other networks simply dare not touch, for whatever reason.
While every other reporter and network allows the Bush administration to get away with one lie after another, for instance, Stewart doesn't hesitate to point them out. In that sense, he plays a critical role in informing the public, and in a lot of ways, has taken up the obvious slack of the traditional media.
Cobert looks so serious when he's doing those fake interviews !
But i have to say i ran into a girl in my lit class who was telling me about how she loves Colbert and was telling me about when he had Penn and Teller talking about atheism. She said he got really upset when they mentioned there not being a God, and she said, "You know, because he's like a really conservative guy." I was so confused - i thought, "is this girl that slow? Am i missing something?" I felt bad for her so i just said, " I actually think he's liberal." And she was like shocked by that. So i said, "I think its satire, but i'm not totally sure..."
I still dig Stewart's show a bit more, though.