The blog by and for comedy nerds.

Blog Roll

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed on this blog are the personal opinions of our bloggers, and in no way reflect the opinions of Comedy Central, MTV Networks or Viacom.

Warning

Some blogs or websites linked from this site may contain objectionable or uncensored content. Comedy Central is not affiliated with these websites and makes no representations or warranties as to their content.

Privacy Statement

Terms and Conditions

January 21, 2009 4:07 pm

Variety Celebrates 10 Years of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

posted by: Gonzalo Cordova

It's hard to believe The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has been around for 10 years. But since I've been constantly reminded by the blog I write for, it's time for me to accept the facts. I've been watching The Daily Show since I was 12. I am now 22. I'm an old man! Pretty soon I'm going to get old people diseases like Alzheimer's and loneliness. I mean, I've already got gonorrhea. That's an old people disease, right?

Regardless, Variety is celebrating the 10 years of Jon Stewart-y amazingness with a series of articles. I don't think it's a coincidence all the articles were published yesterday on Obama's inauguration day. Jon Stewart's ongoing criticism of the Bush administration has no doubt had an influence on our collective perspective on the past 8 years.

One of the articles interviews Doug Herzog, president of MTV networks, i.e. my boss, about the inception of the show, and it's evolution towards it's current incarnation.

"Jon is the quarterback and the conductor," Herzog says of the host,

who is signed through 2010, "and he's got an unbelievably talented

team. At the end of the day, it all goes through Jon."

Even today, after other networks have attempted stabs their own political comedy shows, The Daily Show stands out. At its base, it's a very honest and human show. As one of the Variety articles talking to members of the mainstream media suggests, Jon Stewart's tone permeates into the program's content.

"This American Life's" Ira Glass… admires the show's tone and use of vernacular, explaining, "Stewart talks about stuff in a normal tone of voice, not the moronic jaded language of a typical newscaster."

Despite lazy columnist's claims that satire is dead, The Daily Show comes from an honest place, and it has a role to play in the future administration. In the article talking to the man himself, Jon Stewart sums up exactly what it is that will make the show work even without Bush.

"People ask, 'How will you do the show without George Bush?' " he says.

"Yeah, how will we do the show with a sense of joy in our hearts? How

will we go to work every day feeling like things might get better?"

Be sure to check out the rest of the articles here. There's a lot of good stuff I was barely able to cover.

I'd like to point out that in this blog post, I've used the words "collective perspective" and "permeate." If this were a freshmen year essay, I'd get an easy A-.

| Permalink: