Why The Daily Show needed to get Jon Stewart back
To quote The Simpsons, Comedy Central had tried nothing and it was all out of ideas
Aux Features The Daily Show
It’s been almost a decade since Jon Stewart stepped down from The Daily Show, the Comedy Central series that he turned into a crucial part of the national conversation during his 16 or so years as the host. In the intervening years, Trevor Noah stepped in and made the show his own, finding ways to keep it relevant even as random idiots on social media started to replace noted comedians as America’s main source of political news. Noah announced his own departure from The Daily Show in 2022, shocking the studio audience (and apparently some members of his own staff), with Comedy Central embarking on a long quest to find a new host that only sort of ended today when the network announced that none other than Jon Stewart would be coming back—on a temporary basis—one day a week.
Stewart will be hosting Monday episodes of The Daily Show through the end of this year’s election cycle, starting on February 12, and he’ll also be serving as an executive producer in order to help Comedy Central figure out what the heck it’s going to do with The Daily Show. Though it’s exciting news for everyone who has nostalgia for the George W. Bush era (things were shitty in a different way!), it does seem like a clear admission of defeat from Comedy Central: They couldn’t find anyone to replace Noah, so they did the “break glass in case of emergency” play and brought back the old host that everyone loved.
But why couldn’t Comedy Central find anyone to replace Noah? Well, it seems like the problem might’ve been that nobody wanted the job, and the ones who did got rejected by Comedy Central for some reason. Noah admitted after he decided to leave the show that he met with each of the Daily Show correspondents to tell them how hard being the host really is, which may have scared some of them off, but not all of them. Roy Wood Jr., who had been with the show for a long time, was open about wanting the job and was a fan-favorite for the gig, but when a frontrunner was named, it wasn’t him.
Comedy Central wanted Hasan Minhaj, apparently, but after a weird scandal broke in which the comedian was accused of fabricating details in his stand-up act (again: weird scandal), the network supposedly told Minhaj that he definitely would not be getting the job. It had been more than a year since Noah announced his departure at that point, and it wasn’t long before Wood effectively took himself out of the running when he chose to quit his job as a Daily Show correspondent. Wood explained at the time that there was “no sense” in continuing to be a correspondent while still trying to “think of a new thing to do”—the implication being that if he wasn’t going to get the hosting job, then why bother hanging around?
So a year had passed with absolutely nothing to show for it, all while the idiots on social media continued to make more and more headway into the political discourse and the relevance of The Daily Show became more and more questionable. Two people who wanted the job couldn’t have it, which evidently left Comedy Central with zero options—suggesting that either there was no third person who wanted it or that Comedy Central was completely impossible to please.
And, in its defense, why shouldn’t it be? Jon Stewart was great, legitimizing the show and the network in his repeated advocacy for the basic concept of sanity, but it’s impossible to replicate him and the impact he had a decade ago when he’s busy hosting the Daily Show-esque series The Problem With Jon Stewart on Apple TV+.
Or he was, until Apple canceled that show back in October for allegedly shady reasons involving the company’s alleged refusal to do episodes about China and artificial intelligence (two things very important to the iPhone-maker), which led to Stewart and Apple deciding to end the show over “creative differences.”
Suddenly, the only option that Comedy Central was apparently willing to really consider had become viable again, which brings us to to the network announcing the new hosting schedule this morning. Stewart is back on a temporary basis and will be helping to guide the show going forward, which is surely along the lines of what Comedy Central had wished for all along. Noah had put in the work to keep The Daily Show alive, especially during the pandemic, but why bother trying to do something new again if you don’t have to? Doing new things is hard… not that doing the old thing, which Comedy Central is attempting now, is guaranteed to be any easier.
But hey, Jon Stewart is sort of back now. That should be interesting, at least.
75 Comments
The show (which is the blueprint for modern late night television) was built by Stewart. Trevor Noah did a good job but it just wasn’t the same. The fact the 2 of the 3 most discussed replacement hosts (Hassan Minaj, and Jordan Klepper but not Roy Wood Junior) started as correspondents a more than a decade ago under Stewart says a lot.In Stewart’s time the Daily Show created stars: Colbert, John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Steve Carell, Ed Helms. Did that happen to any of the Noah era correspondents?
Ronny Chieng’s been in a bunch of movies and shows. At this point in time I’d say he’s probably a bigger star than Sam Bee or Ed Helms.
Roy Wood Jr also has been in a bunch of movies and shows. And of course Chieng and Wood have had less time to become as famous as, say, Steve Carell.
Also, Stewart hosted for twice as long as Noah, so statistically there are bound to be more stars produced from his time.
IMHO Roy Wood junior is charming and the best part of the Noah era show, I’d be happy to see him host the show, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen him in anything besides podcast appearances and the daily show, a one off BCS appearance, he definitely hasn’t had a big movie role.
I never really liked Chieng all that much, but he does have an impressive IMDB page (he had his own sitcom?!) I guess he is doing about as well as Helms or Bee.
Chieng is arguably currently more visible than Helms or Bee.
Wood hasn’t done as many movies, but when he appears in a show I’m watching he’s always a welcome sight.
I don’t think he has the same name recognition as either of them, Helms in particular. He was in a hugely popular long-running broadcast sitcom (when that was still a thing) and a hugely popular studio comedy film franchise (when that was still a thing). I don’t know if “currently more visible” makes much of a difference in relation to that.Samantha Bee also a) had her own show with her name in the title, and b) became, fairly or unfairly, a sort of shorthand for a certain kind of Women’s March-era feminist comedy.
IDK, it’s hard to compare on an individual basis how famous these people are. There is no Johny Carson of 2024. But if I have to try I’d rank them from well known to obscure in 2024 something like: Colbert, Steve Carrell, Trevor Noah, John Oliver, Jordan Klepper, Roy Wood Junior, Ed Helms. But really, I miss the 00’s man. Lewis Black, Rob Corddry, Al Madrigal, Jessica Williams, John HodgmanI agree that Sam Bee has been kinda pigeonholed as a certain type of feminist comedian. I have some conservative relatives, in the Trump era they really seemed to believe Samantha Bee and Alyssa Milano had some type of political authority or something, that they spoke for all left wing people. ‘twas strange.
Obviously not an objective thing, but I just think that with the fractured media landscape (thank you) of today, someone like Helms associated with enormous mainstream hits that everyone was at least familiar with, whether or not they even consumed it themselves, cements a level of name recognition that more recent people who are mostly known for breaking out on the Daily Show just aren’t going to have. True with Carell too, really; he hasn’t headlined a hit film or TV series in a while…but he’ll always have The Office.
I think Helms has basically taken himself out of the spotlight anyway. He’ll pop up here and there, but I think he just doesn’t want to work that much. He’s got his Office money and his Hangover money, and just wants to sit around playing banjo.
And we’re all better off for it!
He appears in the Muppets scene where Swedish Chef does Rappers Delight at karaoke. Nothing outranks that.
Tell me the date that Jon Stewart last hosted and I’ll tell you the date I stopped watching. I’ll be tuning in on Mondays now.
I got a bad feeling Scoob
In retrospect, what John Stewart’s run on the Daily Show did most was to highlight the futility of his particular brand of satire. That haughty, white, urban, affluent, college educated, Northeastern, always acting like they’re above-it-all, “I’m basically a moderately liberal Democrat but I come from a generation that finds it uncool to profess affiliation to a political party, so I just say both sides are ridiculous” mentality. The comedy that rallied (and failed) to restore sanity and was finally dethroned by the inception of the Trump administration. A relic as solidly locked in its era as Don Draper suits from Banana Republic or planking.
Of course, it was already in decline even before Stewart left. Recent historical memory is almost as 2010’s a concept as, well, John Stewart, but can we all take a moment to remember seeing daily posts here or on some other media or opinion site congratulating Mr. Stewart for “eviscerating” some right wing public figure such as Mitch McConnell or Ted Cruz? All these years later most of those “eviscerees” are still ensconced in their positions of power (or have been superseded by even more odious versions – your Tommy Tubervilles and Matt Gaetzes), while Stewart has been relegated to the wilderness.Of course, if you really want to go back to find what the Daily Show has lost, you might look at how the Daily Show looked at its inception. No, not original host Craig Kilborn’s bro-dry and gel persona. What I would suggest Comedy Central do is look at the show that surrounded him and almost succeeded in spite of him: In those days, the Daily Show was actually a pretty sharp satire of the news media itself. Colbert carried on this tradition somewhat with his spinoff, but Stewart’s show lost it around 9/11 when it stopped billing itself as, “The most important television program, ever” and bought into the hype that it actually was the most important TV show on the air at that time.
Mind you, the Jon Stewart of today will make for an interesting host because I think he’d also agree with you that in retrospect there’s a futility to what he did when all those people are still SOMEHOW around and in power. He feels like someone who has only gotten more frustrated with the world in the intervening years for all the right reasons.I mean god, how is Tucker Carlson still not just a thing, but a WORSE thing than when Stewart did his famous takedown and got his show canned?
I don’t think Tucker’s been a thing for the last 9 months.
I thought Jon was actually pretty modest about his show’s impact considering how much praise he got from others.
There’s a great interview he did with Chris Wallace on Fox News where talks about what his goal was with the show and how Chris doesn’t understand how a comedy show is different than news.
he always insisted he was doing a comedy show.
“That haughty, white, urban, affluent, college educated, Northeastern, always acting like they’re above-it-all, “I’m basically a moderately liberal Democrat but I come from a generation that finds it uncool to profess affiliation to a political party, so I just say both sides are ridiculous” mentality”So, what’s your beef? A bunch of identity stuff and the fact he didn’t come out and say he was a democrat, on a comedy show, where he needed to also interview republicans?
“So, what’s your beef? A bunch of identity stuff and the fact he didn’t come out and say he was a democrat, on a comedy show, where he needed to also interview republicans”That’s exactly it. The far-left, berniebro crowd hates him now because he wasn’t “radical” enough; refusing to realize that doing so would’ve gotten the show cancelled.
“That haughty, white, urban, affluent, college educated, Northeastern, always acting like they’re above-it-all, “I’m basically a moderately liberal Democrat but I come from a generation that finds it uncool to profess affiliation to a political party, so I just say both sides are ridiculous” mentality”So, what’s your beef? A bunch of identity stuff and the fact he didn’t come out and say he was a democrat, on a comedy show, where he needed to also interview republicans?
“That haughty, white, urban, affluent, college educated, Northeastern, always acting like they’re above-it-all, “I’m basically a moderately liberal Democrat but I come from a generation that finds it uncool to profess affiliation to a political party, so I just say both sides are ridiculous” mentality”So, what’s your beef? A bunch of identity stuff and the fact he didn’t come out and say he was a democrat, on a comedy show, where he needed to also interview republicans?
“That haughty, white, urban, affluent, college educated, Northeastern, always acting like they’re above-it-all, “I’m basically a moderately liberal Democrat but I come from a generation that finds it uncool to profess affiliation to a political party, so I just say both sides are ridiculous” mentality”So, what’s your beef? A bunch of identity stuff and the fact he didn’t come out and say he was a democrat, on a comedy show, where he needed to also interview republicans?
is it REALLY necessary to copy the entire comment before you give your silly pointless excuse for a contribution to a silly pointless “discussion”?“That haughty, white, urban, affluent, college educated, Northeastern, always acting like they’re above-it-all, “I’m basically a moderately liberal Democrat but I come from a generation that finds it uncool to profess affiliation to a political party, so I just say both sides are ridiculous” mentality”So, what’s your beef? A bunch of identity stuff and the fact he didn’t come out and say he was a democrat, on a comedy show, where he needed to also interview republicans?“That haughty, white, urban, affluent, college educated, Northeastern, always acting like they’re above-it-all, “I’m basically a moderately liberal Democrat but I come from a generation that finds it uncool to profess affiliation to a political party, so I just say both sides are ridiculous” mentality”So, what’s your beef? A bunch of identity stuff and the fact he didn’t come out and say he was a democrat, on a comedy show, where he needed to also interview republicans?“That haughty, white, urban, affluent, college educated, Northeastern, always acting like they’re above-it-all, “I’m basically a moderately liberal Democrat but I come from a generation that finds it uncool to profess affiliation to a political party, so I just say both sides are ridiculous” mentality”So, what’s your beef? A bunch of identity stuff and the fact he didn’t come out and say he was a democrat, on a comedy show, where he needed to also interview republicans?
*Tommies Tuberville, Matts Gaetz
All these years later most of those “eviscerees” are still ensconced in their positions of power
What do you think a left-wing political satire show can do? Do you imagine Republicans are watching it and see Stewart make some witty remark about Ted Cruz and say to themselves “Gee, Jon Stewart doesn’t like Ted. I guess I’ll vote Democratic”. It’s a bit like all the atheist literature. I’m an atheist. I totally agree that religion makes no sense and causes a lot of problems in the world as the books say, but it isn’t as if a religious nut is going to read this stuff and be unconverted. In both cases the only real benefit to this stuff is that people who already agree with the positions presented can feel validated.
I think The Daily Show’s political value was probably les about swaying the already political and more about making the apolitical more politically aware. That’s basically what happened to me; I started watching as a teenager looking for laughs.
This was 100% my experience, too. I started watching at 17 because “the funny guy from MTV is hosting now,” and it ended up really informing my political views as I grew older.I think a lot of commenters need to check their expectations if they thought a basic cable 30-minute comedy show that aired four nights a week was going to take down the system.
“Being funny” is always an option for a political comedy show. In theory, at least.
Well the catch is that you can read atheist literature and maybe be swayed, what you can’t do is mock peoples’ beliefs and think it will affect them. No religious person is gonna watch (for example) Ricky Gervais mock religion and go “ya know, he’s got a point…” Mockery basically only ever makes people dig into their already-held beliefs if only out of spite. No Republican is gonna watch the Daily Show and feel shame. And frankly, the people at TDS shouldn’t be trying to convince any potential right-wing viewers (of which there will almost assuredly be none) to switch sides… because that’s not funny.
I think that the best these shows can do is delay early on-set republicanism.
“bought into the hype that it actually was the most important TV show on the air at that time”vs“The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls. What is wrong with you?”
“The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls. What is wrong with you?”Stewart’s savaging of Carlson was so complete that it knocked him off the air for a few years. It took a wooden stake being driven through Bill O’Reilly’s heart to bring him limping back. That line was the coup de grace to one of the most glorious takedowns of all time.
“The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls. What is wrong with you?” vs[I know exactly how my bread is buttered, and it’s not my fault I’m America’s #1 news source, but I sure as hell know it and we’re not changing a goddamn thing, so take some personal responsbility and tune out … but please dont]
Come one come all, we’re just havin’ a ball, we’re just makin’ some calls to strangers,
C’mon c’mon we’re just havin’ some fun . . . (I can’t remember the rest of this line)
BUT IT DOESN’T REALLY MATTER (No it doesn’t really matter…)
You don’t know what you’re talking about. Period. Stewart took what was a joke show, brought in an insane cast who all went to have insane legacies, and elevated the show to a culturally relevant and informative one.
And being on the bleeding edge of “intuitive news” that infected the nation post 9/11
Yeah, the “Kilborn era was better” is the “I was into that band before they sold out” of fake cable news parody.
If you want your Bazooka Joe wrappers to be informative, that’s great, but think what it replaced on its way to becoming the #1 news source for some people.
“Stewart’s show lost it around 9/11 when it stopped billing itself as, “The most important television program, ever” and bought into the hype that it actually was the most important TV show on the air at that time.”This is beautiful and perfect.
It’s artful construction, yes – for an entirely and wildly inaccurate description.
You didn’t see it? Oh man it was ALL I could see. I came from a mass media background, and it was clear as day. Some people describe Jon Stewart at “coquettish” and for a good reason; he knew exactly what the fuck he was doing even as he implored people not to get their news from the show. This show was the “third party candidate” in the battle between 24/7 shit news, and serious long-form news. It very much contributed to the downfall of long-form wonky 60-minute dissection news as the quality educator of the TV medium. The age-old problem was that it “gave the people what they wanted”.
This accusation that Stewart’s ego got the best of him reads like a take from an alternate reality. Stewart was, if anything, almost too humble. He’d go out of his way to dismiss himself and his show as just the ramblings of a silly comedian and would often make the argument that it was pathetic that his show was respected to any serious degree because it reflected a total failure of the news media, not a success on their part. Anytime a guest talked about Stewart changing the world or making serious change he’d respond by mocking them like they were insane.
The Daily Show’s greatest power was to keep the politically apathetic engaged and informed. I’m not sure how much of that it can accomplish in today’s landscape. But it’s kind of ridiculous that you’re mad at the show because it failed to bring about a total political utopia. No one would laugh at that idea harder than Stewart.
You spared me typing and agita here. Perfectly said.
“The man who is ostentatious of his modesty is twin to the statue that wears a fig-leaf.” — Mark Twain
I agree with much of this assessment, but I also don’t think satire is ever really meant to persuade or challenge the viewer. That’s a noble goal, but satire is basically always just preaching to the converted while annoying and angering the unconverted.Yes, Stewart mostly just confirmed to a liberal audience that the second Bush administration was, in fact, full of shit. We still needed to hear it during that time. Those “eviscerations” were cathartic even if he didn’t single-handedly end anyone’s political career. You’re suggesting that Stewart was a failure simply because, a full decade after his heyday, half of America backslid into fascism. But it’s not like a few sharper jokes would have prevented the Trump administration. There is value in the validation.
His impact was huge. He was a counter-balance to the unintentional satire that FOX News became under the Bush/Cheney regime and ridiculed the Republicans to the point that the nation elected Obama for 8 years. It was pretty goddamn glorious.
Obama’s election sure seemed like a final victory for reason at the time.Except then the next 16 years of American history happened. And much of it was explicitly a backlash to Obama’s election.
The Daily Show is just one thing on a long list of institutions that were in no way ready for the Trump populist wave. It mostly reminded me of West Wing in that while perhaps not the agenda-setting voice of the wider culture it served to at least try to show people what civic mindedness borne out of decency could look like. Definitely NOT ideal for many reasons (inclusion most prominently) but an honorable effort. Coming back now might actually be better, or at least more interesting, because so many things are no longer theoretical. From US politics and race to the Mideast and the climate, shit is now REAL. (I realize this discounts the war on terror years, but those days were different in that there was vastly more consensus on basic facts, if not moral beliefs.)
Wow what a comment! At the end of the day Stewart was just another neolib capitalist, but he had good insults. Democrats tuning in to insult conservatives wasn’t discourse. It didn’t dethrone any of his targets, and like you said, post 9/11 Jon’s sanctimony was almost unbearable. It just further divided people and further kept liberals from questioning the fundamental capitalism that causes all these problems they think “hillbillies” cause. It kept them from questioning their own blue-coded oligarchs. It kept them ignorant of political fundamentals. Jon just hosted a slightly less dishonest show than the ones he’s criticized, but that’s entirely relative and not worth praising.I’d love to see an actual leftist as the host. I think coddling liberals and giving them zingers to use on relatives at Thanksgiving isn’t good tv, isn’t good criticism, and isn’t actually comedy. Gen-z doesn’t want a retirement aged guy pushing empty 1990’s liberalism. I’m not sure what they think is going to happen after everyone gets tired of the Stewart nostalgia act.
When I cut the cord, a streaming service requirement for me was having CC. I ended up with YoutubeTV, which has unlimited DVR, so I recorded every episode of TDS, but ended up actually watching it less and less, until now I can’t remember last time I watched it.I really liked Klepper’s show, but since it didn’t work, I doubt he could carry TDS for long.
When I cut the cord, a streaming service requirement for me was having CC. I ended up with YoutubeTV, which has unlimited DVR, so I recorded every episode of TDS, but ended up actually watching it less and less, until now I can’t remember last time I watched it.I went through the exact same process. Nothing against Trevor Noah, but Jon Stewart was such a unique person with such a unique skillset that made it possible for him to essentially shape the show to better fit what he was good at. He was never the funniest person on TV (although he was usually funny enough), but he happened to be one of the most gifted interviewers on the planet, and that combined with his being generally entertaining and his stable of talented correspondents made TDS appointment TV for me.
A good example of that was the show when he had Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, as a guest after 9/11. Musharraf was remarkably frank about the not-so-veiled threat of “you’re with us or against us” from Bush.He served Musharraf tea and a Twinkie.
When I cut the cord, a streaming service requirement for me was having CC. I ended up with YoutubeTV, which has unlimited DVR, so I recorded every episode of TDS, but ended up actually watching it less and less, until now I can’t remember last time I watched it.I went through the exact same process. Nothing against Trevor Noah, but Jon Stewart was such a unique person with such a unique skillset that made it possible for him to essentially shape the show to better fit what he was good at. He was never the funniest person on TV (although he was usually funny enough), but he happened to be one of the most gifted interviewers on the planet, and that combined with his being generally entertaining and his stable of talented correspondents made TDS appointment TV for me.When I cut the cord, a streaming service requirement for me was having CC. I ended up with YoutubeTV, which has unlimited DVR, so I recorded every episode of TDS, but ended up actually watching it less and less, until now I can’t remember last time I watched it.I went through the exact same process. Nothing against Trevor Noah, but Jon Stewart was such a unique person with such a unique skillset that made it possible for him to essentially shape the show to better fit what he was good at. He was never the funniest person on TV (although he was usually funny enough), but he happened to be one of the most gifted interviewers on the planet, and that combined with his being generally entertaining and his stable of talented correspondents made TDS appointment TV for me.When I cut the cord, a streaming service requirement for me was having CC. I ended up with YoutubeTV, which has unlimited DVR, so I recorded every episode of TDS, but ended up actually watching it less and less, until now I can’t remember last time I watched it.I went through the exact same process. Nothing against Trevor Noah, but Jon Stewart was such a unique person with such a unique skillset that made it possible for him to essentially shape the show to better fit what he was good at. He was never the funniest person on TV (although he was usually funny enough), but he happened to be one of the most gifted interviewers on the planet, and that combined with his being generally entertaining and his stable of talented correspondents made TDS appointment TV for me.When I cut the cord, a streaming service requirement for me was having CC. I ended up with YoutubeTV, which has unlimited DVR, so I recorded every episode of TDS, but ended up actually watching it less and less, until now I can’t remember last time I watched it.I went through the exact same process. Nothing against Trevor Noah, but Jon Stewart was such a unique person with such a unique skillset that made it possible for him to essentially shape the show to better fit what he was good at. He was never the funniest person on TV (although he was usually funny enough), but he happened to be one of the most gifted interviewers on the planet, and that combined with his being generally entertaining and his stable of talented correspondents made TDS appointment TV for me.When I cut the cord, a streaming service requirement for me was having CC. I ended up with YoutubeTV, which has unlimited DVR, so I recorded every episode of TDS, but ended up actually watching it less and less, until now I can’t remember last time I watched it.I went through the exact same process. Nothing against Trevor Noah, but Jon Stewart was such a unique person with such a unique skillset that made it possible for him to essentially shape the show to better fit what he was good at. He was never the funniest person on TV (although he was usually funny enough), but he happened to be one of the most gifted interviewers on the planet, and that combined with his being generally entertaining and his stable of talented correspondents made TDS appointment TV for me.When I cut the cord, a streaming service requirement for me was having CC. I ended up with YoutubeTV, which has unlimited DVR, so I recorded every episode of TDS, but ended up actually watching it less and less, until now I can’t remember last time I watched it.I went through the exact same process. Nothing against Trevor Noah, but Jon Stewart was such a unique person with such a unique skillset that made it possible for him to essentially shape the show to better fit what he was good at. He was never the funniest person on TV (although he was usually funny enough), but he happened to be one of the most gifted interviewers on the planet, and that combined with his being generally entertaining and his stable of talented correspondents made TDS appointment TV for me.When I cut the cord, a streaming service requirement for me was having CC. I ended up with YoutubeTV, which has unlimited DVR, so I recorded every episode of TDS, but ended up actually watching it less and less, until now I can’t remember last time I watched it.I went through the exact same process. Nothing against Trevor Noah, but Jon Stewart was such a unique person with such a unique skillset that made it possible for him to essentially shape the show to better fit what he was good at. He was never the funniest person on TV (although he was usually funny enough), but he happened to be one of the most gifted interviewers on the planet, and that combined with his being generally entertaining and his stable of talented correspondents made TDS appointment TV for me.
Look! you’re taking up a LOT of space!
I feel like Klepper maybe could because the format would be different. His show was him being like an Alex Jones-type, faux-right wing fool, whereas TDS he’d play more straight.
Seems like a lot of work for a show you’re not that into and don’t watch that much.
I was obviously into it at the time.
Klepper’s show was terrific, and clearly was meant to be the new Colbert Report to the Noah era TDS. It had fangs that nice-but-ineffectual Trevor never dreamed of. But I think Klepper’s conceit went over too many heads.
I’m one of the minority that preferred Trevor Noah’s style to Jon Stewart.
People saying the show wasn’t the same after Stewart left seem to ignore that the show’s been flailing since Noah left.
Plus Stewart’s run ended right as the world transitioned from ‘things are going downhill but it can be fixed’ to ‘everything’s on fire now but half of us don’t think fire is real’. Noah’s run ended right as the world decided fire is real but nostalgia, regression, were more important than solving anything.
“it does seem like a clear admission of defeat from Comedy Central: They couldn’t find anyone to replace Noah”Also, Noah had sucked shit the entire time he was the host.
it does seem like a clear admission of defeat from Comedy CentralMaybe, but I think there’s also a subtext of “if any of Jon Stewart’s other post-TDS endeavors had worked, he would never do this.” It’s not like John Oliver would have said yes to this if they asked him (I assume, anyway).
I presume John Oliver has a contract with HBO that prevents him from doing similar shows elsewhere.
Even if he could, why would he ever agree to it? He’s got a hit show that’s his own thing.
exactly. he was effectively already doing the same show for apple and noone was watching it.
No, I think Jon is coming back to host primarily to offer whatever he can to the fight to keep Twitler out of office. He has been sorely missed in that regard.
Sure, why not; I guess I hope so too. He didn’t keep Bush out of office, or us out of Iraq, but if he can be the guy this time, then great.
“to offer whatever he can to the fight” He’s a comedian. And as much as I think he could be our Zelenksy, he has no interest in that. Also, he left the Apple show because they (Apple) began restricting subjects that affected their bottom line (China, for one), not ratings, as you suggested. A lot of us find Jon to be an inspiring and cathartic voice. Doesn’t sound like you do. Bummer.
It still kills me that Minhaj was rejected because he fabricated some elements of his real life for his stand up routine. Wow, how mindblowing, only him and literally every other comedian on the planet.
His brand of stand up is one of those styles though where if the premise isn’t true it’s kind of shit. I don’t want to disparage the style, it can be great when it hits, but it’s that kind of comedy where you’re supposed to discover deeper truths about yourself and/or the world. I’ve heard it referred to as TED Talk comedy before. It’s not the same as a Mulaney style comedian not being honest. It kind of undermines the entire power of the bit if it’s not true.And then you consider the job of TDS requires a certain amount of trust from the audience that the premises aren’t made up. I can totally understand how making stuff up would hurt him. It wasn’t the humor part that was made up, it was the part where truth was expected.
also maybe he simply just sucked and they didn’t want to hire him, but he was the leading candidate anyway, and were relieved they had an excuse not to.
[Craig Kilborn stares at phone.]
As much as I liked Noah, did we get a final answer as to why he left? It really feels like he threw the team under the bus by leaving mid-season.
Yeah, there was definitely some bus throwing any way you look at it, but we did get *a* reason.https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/feature/inside-trevor-noahs-decision-to-leave-the-daily-show-1235265367/amp/Personally? I find his reasons *very* sympathetic… But I have serious misgivings about how he chose to break the news to the crew.
Comedy Central wanted Hasan Minhaj, apparently, but after a weird scandal broke in which the comedian was accused of fabricating details in his stand-up act (again: weird scandal)The IMO most underreported part of that scandal was how Hasan showed a pic of his prom date with her face blurred out on stage, which led to her getting doxxed. I’m firmly on the side of “I don’t watch stand-up expecting the truth” but I also don’t watch a lot of stand-up with visual aids. If you were gonna’ make shit up, maybe don’t use a real photo?Anyway, I don’t know if he already turned down the job, but my vote would be for Larry Wilmore as the new host.
He claimed she turned down his prom invite because she was a racist, when in fact they never dated and she went to the prom with a friend of his, who was a PoC. He was acting out some weird incel fantasy about her.
Right, and if he didn’t use an actual photo that helped people track her down, no one would have found that out.
I really thought they would cancel the Daily Show during the writers strike.