On Wednesday’s edition of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart led with one of the most incendiary political issues currently dominating American political discourse: healthcare.
In the process, he gave the funniest, most biting report of the week and did a bit of fancy word-dropping with 'diaspora'—as in the decade-plus power diaspora Democrats suffered until 2006 when they finally won control of both the House and Senate.
They still accomplished little, Stewart noted, and were, basically, “the kind of people who’ll switch to Geiko and lose money.” Earlier this year though, Democrats achieved the political Holy Grail: a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate.
“They will be unstoppable!” Stewart croaked, speaking in what sounded like an impression of 5-year-old boy imitating a WWE wrestler. He compared the new Democratic supermajority to a grizzly bear with chainsaws for claws and spoke exicitedly of their unleashing the beast into the healthcare battle.
“Oh chainsaw-pawed bear of reform,” he opined with mock nobility, “have mercy on your opponents’ souls.” Then he shifted to a CNN clip, revealing that two separate government-run public healthcare options—previously a cornerstone of Democratic healthcare reform—had just been defeated in the senate. By the Democratic supermajority.
At one point, having just played clips of vague, absurd Republican arguments against a public option, Stewart looked earnestly into the camera, “For God’s sake Democrats,” he pleaded, “they’re countering your arguments with nonsense and crushing you.”
A minute or so later, he again stared into the camera, this time with his best befuddled look, delivering his funniest diatribe of the week: “Still not convinced that the Democrats couldn’t get laid in a house whose sole purpose is to have consequence- and-disease-free sex with legislatures on finance committees? Well strap in kids…”
The interview, embedded below, featured Jon Krakauer, author of the book Where Men Win Glory, which tells the story of the death of Pat Tillman. Tillman was a former NFL player and Army Ranger killed in Afghanistan in 2004 by friendly fire. A patriot in the strictest sense of the word, Tillman valiantly served his country despite misgivings about American foreign policy. In fact, he sacrificed a lucrative NFL contract worth millions to serve, a decision that ultimately led to his death. This was another solid interview—not quite as interesting as Ron Paul’s interview from the previous night—but very well done nonetheless. Though I've forgotten the moment of zen, this was the strongest, most balanced episode so far this week.
Tuesday’s Daily Show interview featured Texas congressman Ron Paul. After introducing Paul and mentioning his new book, End the Fed, Stewart joked, “You seem to have put a lot of thought and effort into this book; and you call yourself a congressman.”
Paul is a small-government Republican with libertarian leanings, who advocates personal rights and freedoms. In his book, he argues for the end of The United States Federal Reserve Bank, contending that it’s corrupt, outdated and, most importantly, unconstitutional.
The Fed, he asserts, helps government pay its bills by simply printing money when needed, which, ultimately, is extremely damaging to the economy. Such irresponsible production of currency, in the long term, serves to raise inflation, increase government size, and steadily decrease currency’s value over time. The Fed, Paul states, monetizes debt; when presented with a bill, they simply print the money needed to pay it.
At one point, Paul states: “They use this [money] to finance these wars that I think are so ridiculous. Undeclared wars; endless wars; good wars; long wars—all kinds of wars with no end in sight.” Considering the ideology of the Republican party over the last decade and more, this is a fairly radical statement coming from a Republican congressman. Furthermore, Paul’s arguments are both compelling and lucid. And, in contrast to the stereotypical politician, he comes across as both pragmatic and likeable, giving his arguments even further resonance. “It’s hard to enforce fraud laws,” he contends, “when the government participates in fraud.”
This is a terrific interview. There aren’t a lot of laughs, but this session illustrates the qualities that make Stewart such an effective interviewer. Obviously, if a broader range of topics were broached between Stewart and Paul, the pair would likely uncover a number of serious ideological differences. But Stewart approaches this interview respectfully and inquisitively; he asks pointed, intelligent questions, striving to laugh with the guest, not at him. Regardless of ideological differences, Stewart approaches the vast majority of his interviews in the same style (with a few exceptions). He’s rarely timid about asking tough questions though, and those qualities are why he’s among the best [fake] journalists working in TV today.
This past Monday was Yom Kippur. Said Stewart, opening Monday’s edition of The Daily Show, “I celebrated as I do, in the traditional way, with a breakfast of—I believe it was a baconnaise-and-lobster omelet with a side of Jesus toast.” Yum.
After reports on the G-20 summit currently taking place in Pittsburgh and Iran’s ongoing pursuit of nuclear technology, Stewart presented Monday’s best report, entitled America: Target America (embedded below). “As you know people,” he opened, “democracy in this country is under attack by the very leader we democratically elected to lead us. It seems ironic. It has the makings of a great M. Night Shyamalan movie—if he still made those.” Indeed.
The report, which was vintage Stewart, focused on the hypocrisy and lunacy of ongoing attempts by certain elements of cable news to both stir public ire over selected political leaders (which is far, far a field of journalism’s traditional role) and to make headlines and garner ratings. This report was a Stewart showcase, giving him a chance to do what he does best.
The comments about Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson are particularly interesting. Considering Stewart’s infamous confrontation with Carlson in October 2004 on CNN’s Crossfire (which was shortly thereafter canceled), in which he called Carlson a ‘dick,’ just about anything Stewart says about Carlson rings with irony. In case you haven't seen the clip of that show, it's definitely worth a look and is embedded at the bottom.
Monday’s interview, featuring Bruce Bueno De Mesquita (try repeating that 20 times in a row—after you figure out how to say it), was interesting but not overly compelling. Admittedly though, Bueno De Mesquita’s book, The Predictioneers Game, sounds like an interesting read, worth a look. The moment of zen was a reference to the opening report and not very funny.
Last night’s show, which focused on climate control, started with a heavy dose of hypocrisy. In a segment called Cloudy With a Chance of Heatballs, Stewart led with coverage of Tuesday’s United Nations first global summit on climate change. The world’s most important leaders had traveled to New York’s UN headquarters via jumbo jet, helicopter, motorcade and ‘jumbo choppercade’. “All to attend,” Stewart noted with his typical wry smile, “an important meeting about…[wait for it]…climate change.”
After showing highlights of the various speakers from the event and adding his usual satirical commentary, Stewart finished the segment by saying: “So the world’s largest industrial nations have spoken out boldly about their future tenuous plans to hit possible abstract goals on climate change.” He couldn’t have summed up better.
Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi then gave a report as part of The Daily Show’s ongoing series, Our Dead Planet. His report centered on the problems with wind power. Over the past 30 years, according to climate scientist Eugene Tackle, who was interviewed, research suggests that the planet’s wind speeds have declined, a shocking result with potentially dire implications for the environment. Tackle then speculated that the reason for slowing wind speeds may be due to reforestation, as new trees create a physical barrier to wind. Mandvi sums up that sentiment with: “So the trees are [bleep]ing with us.” Yeah, the guy was serious.
The interview (embedded below) featured former head of homeland security, Tom Ridge, who appeared to promote his new book, The Test of Our Times. It was an outstanding interview, but the highlight came when Ridge talked about the fact that leaders can be both imprisoned or executed but that their ideas could never be detained or killed. Quipped Stewart: “Are we working on an idea-killing bomb?”
Overall, a funny episode with one of the most disgusting product placements and catch phrases you’re ever likely to see: “Captain John’s Roach Jerky, for when you’ve lost touch with all that once made you human.” The moment of zen was also amusing, as was the semi-regular check-in with comedian Stephen Colbert (both embedded below). I'm looking forward to tonight's interview with Rod Bladojevich.
After a rerun last night while Stewart and his crew attended the Emmys, The Daily Show returned to first-run episodes tonight, featuring an interview with author Vali nasr. Stewart opened by patting himself and his crew on the back for their 7th straight Emmy win in the category Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series.
He then proceeded to discuss President Obama’s interviews with four major news networks and Telemundo this past Sunday. Those interviews occurred in succession at the White House and have led several news outlets to speculate that Obama might be overexposing himself. Responded Stewart: “Being on five morning news shows doesn’t risk overexposure. The overwhelming majority of Americans at that time are either in church or sleeping off something they should be in church for.”
In the next segment, entitled Moral Combat, he talked about the Washington DC-based Values Voters Summit, an annual political event for social conservatives held this past weekend. In the funniest part of the segment, Stewart reviewed the speech of Mike Schwartz, chief of staff to Senator Tom Coburn. That rambling, illogical speech dealt with the attitudes of pre-adolescent boys towards homosexuality; it also covered the ways that pornography turns one's sexual drives inwards, thus predisposing that individual to homosexuality. No, I’m not making that up.
The interview was dry but informative. Vali Nasr is an Iranian American scholar, appearing on the show to promote his new book Forces of Fortune. The book deals with the rise of the Middle Class in the Muslim world, with Nasr asserting that a larger middle class among Muslims fosters improved relations with non Muslims. The session offered zero laughs—unusual for even the driest of Stewart’s interviews—but it was, nonetheless, an intelligent, reasoned discussion. The moment of zen was disposable. One hopes for funnier interviews, but tonight’s guest was the exception, not the rule and, otherwise, this episode offered plenty of laughs and a fun way to start the new week.
Last night’s episode started on a perplexing note. Stewart began by discussing the signature sign-offs of TV’s most famous news anchors. Edward R. Murrow used, “Good night and good luck.” Walter Cronkite used “And that’s the way it is.” And, according to Stewart, Tom Brokaw used “And stay tuned next for Access Hollywood.”
Granted, I’ve never watched NBC Nightly News on a regular basis. Of the episodes I have seen though, I don’t recall ever hearing Brokaw utter that phrase. Regardless, it’s always fun to watch Stewart do impressions. That’s partly because he’s just so bad at them (his George Bush is a hoot) and partly because, well, he’s Jon Stewart and is—generally speaking—very funny. His Tom Brokaw was like a sloppy, jowly mash-up of Droopey Dog and Foghorn Leghorn with a dash of Tom Brokaw thrown in for spice. After [badly] channeling Brokaw, Stewart then informed us that, the night before, he’d alighted upon his own signature sign-off and was eager to try it out. He turned to face camera 3 (as he’s previously dubbed it) and said, “Good night and keep [bleep]ing that chicken.”
Stewart’s studio audience, as one might expect, roared laughter. Sitting at home though, feeling more confused than amused, I squinted slightly at the TV (I squint sometimes when I’m bewildered) and hit rewind on my DVR, unsure if I’d heard correctly. A second view confirmed it: Stewart had just suggested that his signature sign-off would involve advising his audience to keep engaging in passionate relations with a chicken—which, as worded, seems to assume that said audience is already intimate with said chicken. I was even more confused now, but chuckled mildly; I’ve been watching The Daily Show for a while and am well versed in Stewart’s ways. I smelled a joke coming.
Stewart didn’t let me down either. He next explained that, after composing that signature phrase, he clicked his late local news on and saw this exchange involving local New York news anchor Ernie Anastos, confirming that Anastos has already taken his sign-off:
Warning: This clip contains objectionable language
What followed next: the best laugh I’ve had all week. I laughed heartily for a minute or so and then rewound the segment and watched again. And laughed some more. Here’s Stewart's clip:
I’m not familiar with Mr. Anastos, but I can’t help wondering how the heck he keeps a job on public air waves. He must be a-million-kinds-of-awesome newsanchor. Either that, or his producers are too thrilled with the guy's ratings to administer a psychological evaluation.
The remainder of the segment included a report on the recent fraudulent elections in Afghanistan and an assessment of US progress in the conflict there. Daily Show correspondent John Oliver presented commentary on why the situation in Afghanistan is untenable for the US. Those reports, while informative and mildly amusing (I happen to disagree with some of Stewart’s conclusions on Afghanistan, but that’s another story), were nowhere near as funny as the intro.
The interview, featuring Former President Bill Clinton, was longer than normal and consumed more than half the total broadcast time. Moreover, the actual session time was significantly longer than what was broadcast and the uncut version (embedded after the article) was posted online.
Stewart, in my opinion, is one of the smartest, most engaging interviewers on TV. This particular effort, however, though informative and amusing in places, was choppy and flat compared to normal sessions; it’s still worth a look though. The moment of zen involved a film clip from The Legend of Ron Burgundy and referenced the opening bit. Quite funny. Overall, this episode was a slight letdown, but the opening sequence easily compensated for any weaknesses—however slight they actually were compared to the wasteland that comprises the rest of cable news/comedy/punditry (with the exception of The Colbert Report of course). Next week’s guests include Tom Ridge and Rod Blagojevich. I’m certainly looking forward to those.
