Andrew Sullivan links to a couple bloggers who don't think the Daily Show can survive post-Bush. These bloggers are missing something important, which is that Jon Stewart never really wanted his show to become a Bush-bashing affair. He feels that what his show does best is make fun of the media, and I'm sure this is what he'll start doing once President Obama* takes office. He said so himself on Larry King:
If public life, if government suddenly became inspiring and moved towards people's better nature and began to solve problems in a rational way rather than just a way that involved political dividends, we would be the happiest people in the world to turn our attention to idiots like, you know, media people, no offense.He actually got really offended in this interview when King asked him if he preferred having a stupid President that he could make fun of.
KING: So, you don't want it to be bad?Oh, and by the way, Colbert is going to be just fine too. There are plenty of conservative idiots to make fun of.
STEWART: Did you really just ask me if I want it to be bad?
KING: Yes because you...
STEWART: What are you -- I have kids what do you think? Yes, I don't want them to have any kind of a -- I want things to corrode to the point where we're all living in huts.
...
KING: You don't want Medicare to fail?
STEWART: Are you insane?
KING: No.
STEWART: You're literally asking me if I would prefer -- yes, Larry, what I'm saying to you as a comedian I want old people to suffer, old and poor people to suffer. That is -- that is -- what we want is -- what seems absurd to me is the length that Washington just seems out of touch with the desires of Americans to be spoken to as though they are adults.
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* It feels really good to write that.
2 comments:
Stewart's target has always been the media. Look what he did to Crossfire!
Stewart's target is the Nielsen rating box. Always will be. Right now, he gets good ratings with a young audience bashing Bush. No secret in that - young folks voted more than 2 to 1 for Obama. If that changes, expect jokes to change. One of the reasons The Hotline puts out a list of the previous night's political jokes is because they reflect what the networks think about what people think.
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