Where does Jon Stewart rank? (Or "RIP The Daily Show")

It's interesting how many times the networks passed on him. Conan beat him out for the 1230 slot all those years ago and ABC took Kimmel over him, or actually, they offered it to Jay Mohr, he turned it down and then they took Kimmel over Stewart. I think CBS took Ferguson over him as well. He delivers the demo that every network says it wants, but they're worried he would alienate too much of the audience.

I saw him do stand-up when I was in college. He was great, but I don't think he had a second of political humor.

 

I was in LA doing training for a former job and I had a free afternoon and I met a friend for lunch and we were walking around the Kodak theater, it was probably less than a week before the Oscars. In the span of about 15 minutes, there were some D-list celebrity sightings, Mario Lopez, Danny Bonaduce, and one of the Backstreet Boys, but I had no idea who he was by name. We were walking around and then we see this short guy with about 10 days of beard growth wearing a Mets hat, standing by himself checking his Blackberry. We were pretty psyched when we recognized it was Stewart. I still can't get over that tourists were screaming and running after Mario Lopez while the host of the Oscars was standing there and almost nobody recognized him.

 

I saw him do a standup in Boston around 2003 or so, Daily Show was at its hottest, but there was also little or no political humor in the routine. Probably a mental health break for him.

 

I really don't think that's true. I think he's made viewers more cynical and more critical. but in terms of actual governance, actual "so what are we going to do here," no. His show's too cool for answers.

 

He's also a terrible interviewer.

The John Yoo interview really exposed him badly.

 

I disagree. His job is not "actual governance." That's what his guests are supposed to be doing, and it's what he and his staff attempt to hold them accountable for. When he engages a politician or an activist during the interview segment, he doesn't really allow them to get away with lazy platitudes, and attempts to get them give "answers." Whether or not they are capable of giving actual solutions really depends on the guest. But when you compare the discussions that he has with his guests to what is shown on the big three cable news networks, it's not close.

When Bill O'Reilly, for instance, brings on a guest with different political views than his own, it is his objective to A) Show he is smarter than his guest, and B) Shout down his guest so he can "win" the conversation. Stewart, on the other hand, actively engages his guests to give them the opportunity to make a valid argument for their view. He will challenge them on those views and make them defend them, but not by shouting them down. Stewart's show is far and away a greater level of discourse.

 

I missed that one. I've actually always thought he was a very good interviewer.

 

I think this discussion misses a point. If Stewart's show didn't make people laugh, it would have had no effect whatsoever. Comedy must be essentially anarchic in its point of view, since human folly is universal. To quibble about Stewart's interview skills (erratic, IMO) is to ignore the fact those guests only came on to reach the audience that tuned in to laugh.

 

Just did a quick Google search and Stewart himself acknowledged he did a poor job in that interview.

Interesting article on Slate about that interview, though.

Why Jon Stewart failed to make John Yoo squirm.

 

He doesn't prepare at all. And it bit him in the ass hard on Yoo, who is really brilliant. Stewart thought he was going to just shame him with the standard-issue left-wing talking points, and it was clear that he was horribly overmatched.

 

Honest question, Dick, I'm not trying to be an ass: Do you watch the show with any regularity? Just trying to get a sense of where you're coming from.

Ill-prepared is not how I would describe Stewart for most of his interviews. The Yoo one certainly looks like an example where he was unprepared, and I could probably think of a couple others, but for the most part, I think he's usually very well versed in whatever the topic of discussion will be.

 

Again not having watched that show other than you tube snippets, in general is the show a -political or
does it lean right or left?