Daily Show letdown

By Michael Vass | August 3, 2011

Jon Stewart is a funny guy. His Daily Show has successfully stayed on the air because it skewers politicians being politicians. In fact, it is so good, some people watch it instead of actual news. Sad that people want to be misinformed, but a testiment to his vision and the efforts of his writers.

The only thing that occassionally messes up the show is when Stewart allows his own personal views to get in the way of his comedy. Political satire comes from an individual view of course, but it is best when it can reach a wide spetrum of people. But when it is used to target a particular group, or to benefit a specific political ideal, it degenerates quickly into propoganda.

Jon Stewart is no stranger to that.

But almost as often as his tangial moves to promote a specific Democrat/Liberal theme, is his effort to avoid taking on his political favorites. It just leaves the viewer with an empty feeling, like they paid for a 3 course meal and only were served the soup.

Today, the Daily Show served soup. Of the worst kind. A helping of ego, washed down with a bit of resentment. It wasn’t funny.

I specifically looked at the show today to see what Jon Stewart would do about the debt ceiling deal. How might he tackle the deal, and all the back and forth among the politicians. Kind of like when he jabbed at the President when Obama tried to deflect the fact that the lackluster debt deal was squarely on his shoulders and not on the public or peoples tweets.

Instead, I was treated to a tirade against England. Britian was being chided because Stewart’s Show was editied. Due to the fact that British law does not allow satirical use of images of Parliment in session. They take their government debate seriously in England. Well most of the time (some of the things they say and do in Parliment cannot be called serious).

The entire monologue was about how Stewart could not believe his Show was edited by law. ‘How dare they censor me’, he seemed to say, ‘dont they know who I am.’ Apparently they do, and it didn’t matter.

The indignation really was hollow, when this was the best that Stewart could muster on a day filled with gaffes (notably by Vice President Biden, again) and double talk from almost every poltician that was on the airwaves. You just knew there was better material to cover, and that Stewart refused to cover it.

Worse yet, many bloggers are fully aware of how Stewart and Comedy Central are quick to block and disallow use of their material. Just try to put a Daily Show sketch on Youtube. If you have any kind of viewership – especially if you are anything but far-left liberal – it might be available for a day or 2. Try to go around that and you can get a notice from Comedy Central. In effect, the Daily Show censors who and how people across the net get to see its program. Just like England does. So why harp on them?

I didn’t bother to go past the opening monologue. Maybe it was a great show tonight. Maybe he took on Congress with aplomb. But it felt like he was giving cover to his idealogical frineds, and boasting his own success at the same time. The combination is never funny. Not even in political satire.

The Daily Show can do better. But it seems that of late, the anger that Stewart has over the failures of the Obama Administration and Democrats is eating into his comedy. Hopefully he takes a vacation and gets over it. Because the Show is otherwise really good, mind-numbing, political popcorn.

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