[lbo-talk] AP: " 'Daily Show' to air reports from Iraq"

Tayssir John Gabbour tayssir.john at googlemail.com
Sat Aug 18 20:22:54 PDT 2007


On 8/19/07, B. <docile_body at yahoo.com> wrote:
> [I can't see this as doing anything but ruining the
> Daily Show's cred -- whatever it has -- and co-opting
> them. Embedded humor, nice. Like "Henry Rollins at Abu
> Ghraib" or Al Franken, also at Abu Ghraib, a real hip
> spot to be at for awhile there it seems like,
> sickeningly enough. Both Rollins and Franken came back
> with really fencewalking-y type sentiments about how
> "soldiers are just caught in the middle of all this,"
> etc. Was also disappointed when Joan Jett did a USO
> show in Afghanistan. -B.]

Yeah, the Daily Show members explicitly reject responsibility. They're comedians. It's not their driving goal to provide high-quality information every night. Jon Stewart claims that a low point of the job is the fact that they have to make jokes about something which is ultimately not funny.

On "Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg," Steinberg and Jon Stewart discussed how Nixon strongly intimidated Steinberg over some silly joke, and Stewart pointed out that he's not nearly as threatened:

Stewart: If whatever powers that be felt that the effect we were

having was impactful, there is no question that there would be

repercussions.

[...]

Stewart: But the interesting thing about the show is, again it's

the point about not falling in love with your audience. Because I

do think at times people who watch this show get the idea that we

are warriors in their fight. In their activism.

Q: And what's the matter wtih that?

Stewart: We're not. And never will be. And the difficulty is that

you'll never be them. And so ultimately, they will always be

disappointed by you. Because you will say things that are

upsetting to people who believed that you were leading them into

battle. And you know, that's the danger of it. But that's why you

don't fall in love with the audience, and you only... you trust

your instinct with the people around you.

Tayssir



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list