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It's funny. Laugh.

Journal pudge's Journal: The Daily Show Phenomenon 24

Journal by pudge

I love The Daily Show. I watch every episode, and usually laugh a heck of a lot when I do.

But I have a problem with the show. Well, not the show per se, but the fact that so many people take what Jon Stewart says seriously, when he is in fact joking.

Like last night, Stewart was taking shots at the people Bush gave medals to for their work on the war on terror: George Tenet, J. Paul Bremer, and others. Stewart made it sound like these people should be marched up and shot, instead of honored.

There's a grain of truth in that, since they did make mistakes, but of course, reality is more complex. But humor does not like complexity. So Stewart simplifies things into black and white terms and exploits it for a well-deserved laugh.

That's all well and good, but people then take this seriously. They say, yeah, Stewart's right, George Tenet really WAS totally incompetent!

And this reaction is pervasive. You hear it in the audience reactions every night, you see it on IRC and in Slashdot discussions, you hear it all the time. I know it's not only TDS that feeds into this simpleton mindset, but it seems to be the most common precursor.

I suppose there's not much that can be done about it. People will continue to be simplistic and cynical and hateful; it's the nature of man. But it does get tiring, especially since these people partially ruin what is otherwise a good show by turning it into a spokesman for their stupid little causes, whatever they are.

But it is not that. It's a bunch of jokes. It's not real. When Stewart says it is fake news, he isn't kidding. It really is fake. Almost everything perspective he gives about current events in his news segments is significantly, intentionally, erroneous in one or more ways. And people who say most of the news they get is from TDS are just wearing a sign saying "I R Ignorant."

The saddest part is that this needs to be said at all.

This discussion was created by pudge (3605) for no Foes, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

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The Daily Show Phenomenon

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  • I see it on a lot of boards and I think that there are a couple things going one. One is what you mention-- people take it seriously. But the other is they leave themselves an out if you call them on it. If you point out that it is not true-- they respond with something along the lines of - 'hey it's just a joke! get a sense of humor' I just ignore it now because I have been unable to come up with an effective way to respond to this kind of thing.
  • But it also has more than a grain of truth to it. CNN most certainly did not mention in its report on the Presidential Medals of Freedom [cnn.com] that Bremer made serious mistakes, for example, and that was a major omission.
    • And TDS didn't mention that Bremer did lots of good things. So what?
      • Bremer made a lot more bad decisions than good ones imo. It seemed like the administration was hell-bent on doing things their way regardless of what experts or the peanut gallery had to say about anything, and Bremer very much embodied that.

        I can't think of many actually good things he did that worked towards the goals his job embodied, or many times he was actually right. I can however think of a number of small things he accomplished that were good, but they're kinda overshadowed by monumental fuckups
        • Sorry, but that you think he made a lot more bad decisions than good just demonstrates exactly what I am talking about.
          • TDS didn't color my opinion of Bremer, it's been colored since I read a number of reports about the treatment of the various Sheikhs and religious leaders, approaching them as subordinates, which was quite a while ago. I'm a buck stops here kinda guy, so Bremer embodies the occupation for the period he was in charge.
            • Btw, the successes I can think of off the top of my head are the following:
              Quickly reestablished health care(had 90% of the clinics and all the hospitals reopened very very swiftly), reopened the schools(hollow), managed to distribute food aid effectively, and managed to reasonably protect Iraq's oil infrastructure.
      • And TDS didn't mention that Bremer did lots of good things. So what?

        Because that's a red herring, that's what. The PP was talking about CNN, remember? Which was, the last time I checked, a news channel? As opposed a show that is led into by talking puppets, as Stewart pointed out on Crossfire.
        • My point is not about real news vs fake news. My point is simply that it doesn't matter. This was a little story about the ceremony commemorating the good things that happened: so what if it did not go into detail about his record?

          The reason I mentioned TDS in this context is because it doesn't bother me that TDS doesn't mention his successes, because it's just a little joke about the oddness of giving medals despite the many things that have gone wrong.

          Everything cannot be everything.
          • The reason I mentioned TDS in this context is because it doesn't bother me that TDS doesn't mention his successes, because it's just a little joke about the oddness of giving medals despite the many things that have gone wrong.

            Aight. :)

            his was a little story about the ceremony commemorating the good things that happened: so what if it did not go into detail about his record?

            Because this wasn't a ceremony just thanking these guys for their service abroad, it was a ceremony awarding them the highest civ
            • If I were getting the Medal of Freedom, and I possibly made big mistakes on the very operation for which I was being awarded, I don't think it would be unreasonable to bring those up for discussion.

              I never said it would be unreasonable. I said it is not necessary. And I stand by that. This was a short little story, not a lengthy magazine article, not a documentary, not a dissertation. They are not expected to give the entire picture.
  • "Humor is pain, purposely inflicted, when everyone understands it's a joke." - me

    So The Daily Show specializes in mockery - and is very good at it. In fact, they are so good at it, they become the preferred supplier of 'news'.

    Huh?

    The evening news shows are boring. My wife won't watch them. Nothing that shows up there actually impacts her life (national scope versus our local life) - and even if it did, how much useful information can be delivered in 60 second sound bites? Even my mom, who does watch the

  • I've been telling other more or less the same thing for the last 6 months or so. To steal a Homer Simpson quote, John Stewart has become too preachy like Ziggy comics. His left bias became too much for me to watch. Now, to many, that sounds pretty dumb, not watching a comedy show for it's bias, but let me explain.
    Jon Stewart does want things to be taken seriously. He knows his audience leans left, and he leans left, so he will make a serious political statement between jokes. His viewers, mainly bein
    • So in the end, it isn't so much that Stewart is biased. It's that he acts like he is evenhanded ...

      Obviously, Stewart leans left. But I think for the most part, he IS evenhanded. Look, the GOP is in the majority, in almost every way. The GOP candidates control the country, mostly. So they get attacked more.

      Maybe I am being too apologetic. I fight the urge to proclaim Stewart as a Bush-hating lefty and move on, sometimes. And man, he looked in pain on Nov. 3. But I still think more often than not,
      • Look, the GOP is in the majority, in almost every way. The GOP candidates control the country, mostly. So they get attacked more.

        Heh, I would somewhat disagree...that despite having Republicans in power, I still feel like Stewart goes out of his way to attack Republicans or the right more while treating Democrats and the left with kid gloves. But I do think that Stewart also goes out of his way to not let his even more left leaning audience pull him in that direction.

        I guess we won't know until De
        • despite having Republicans in power, I still feel like Stewart goes out of his way to attack Republicans or the right more while treating Democrats and the left with kid gloves.

          I don't want to spend significant energy trying to convince you. :) However, consider the Democrats don't really DO anything, because they have little power, so there's little to criticize them FOR.

          I am not saying he's not biased, and I am not saying he doesn't sometimes go out of his way to get the Republicans. I am just saying
    • I've checked it out a couple times and I think he is pretty funny and his guests are much more insightful and challenging on both sides. The trouble with Dennis is that his jokes often go deeper than "George W Bush = monkeyface dumbhead" so they can be hit or miss, for myself included. You get the reference or you don't. Hell, when Miller uses the monkey its so self-aware that its great stuff. But man, that Bush sure looks like a monkey doesn't he?

      I guess another big change in the Daily Show from whe
      • First off, if you(not you specifically) get your news from the Daily Show, or any entertainment news/pundit broadcast... you need to get over a fear of reading. I watch the daily show to get a humorous look on events I already know about, not to get news or views.

        Miller, and Mahr, just haven't been funny(to me anyway) really since their old shows were cancelled. Miller bores me(I get most of his references, he just doesn't seem to have the "bite" he used to, because he ignores a lot of current events due
        • Whoa there. I'm not faulting Stewart for being nice to people in general. I listed a few specific beefs. One: Why does he have political guests in the first place if its a fake news show on a comedy network when that is not the shows legacy? Two: Its not that he picks on Republicans or conservatives, its the quality of his barbs. They rarely reach above "stupid red states are stupid lol." Three: It was news to me, but how does he continue to hide behind the mantle of a comedy show first when CNN Inter
          • The preaching to the choir comment was about Mahr not Miller, who(meaning Mahr) once upon a time was funny(or actually, to be accurate, had an entertaining show).

            Politics is a huge part of current events, it's also a ridiculousness goldmine(Miller largely shying away from large parts of this is why I don't find him that funny anymore, most of what he covers in his subject matter these days I simply don't care about). Why Stewart has these guests on.... I don't know, but it seems to fit the format and gene
            • Why Stewart has these guests on.... I don't know, but it seems to fit the format and generally be more entertaining than having Celebrity X. Fake news into a light interview with politicians and journalists seems to fit better than fake news into a light session of Entertainment tonight.

              Alright, I actually have a much better understanding of your overall position. Fair enough. I think what has changed the most is the definition of fake news. Under Craigers it was less reliant on anything newsworthy.
          • Actually... as I think about it... I think it's the format. The politically incorrect format, comedian led "debate," just doesn't seem to work for me right now.
  • I've heard the left say the same thing about the Rush Limbaugh (what else do you do with a group that calls itself 'dittoheads'?) or Bill O'Reilly shows for years.

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