I watched Jon Stewart when he hosted the very first talk show on MTV. I 'd never heard of him before, but I found him funny, irreverent, and, well, likeable. Unfortunately, the show got yanked and he ended up doing a late-night show that replaced Arsenio Hall on channel 9 in NY. It didn't last that long, but he'd made his mark and his career would soon take off big time.
His big breakthrough came when he replaced Craig Kilborn as the new host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central in 1999. Again Stewart was great and we all know what it's become (It won an Emmy in 2001). But it's been down hill ever since. I can't really watch it anymore. Jon Stewart went from funny and original to smug and predictable.
I'll admit upfront that I disagree with his politics. I'm a Republican and he's obviously a very far-left-leaning liberal. But it shouldn't matter in comedy. A good joke is a good joke, even if you don't necessarily like who's at the butt. But Stewart has become a one-note band. The definition of a joke is the delivery of something incongruous or unexpected. Yet I know what's going to come out of Stewart's mouth every time: Iraq's a bungled mess, Bush is dumb, Cheney is secretive and evil, the Republicans are hypocrites. Yeah he'll make fun of Hillary every now and then, but it's never as biting; never venomous.
I really wish the Daily Show could still keep us on our toes. Give us a little misdirection once in a while and say something awful about Barack Obama or Harry Reid. Not be so damn obvious all the time. Even its comedic offspring (Stephen Colbert) has an act of pseudo-conservatism that's predictable and tired.
The worst part for me is that Stewart used to be a great interviewer. But he's lost credibility with his softballs to Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky and his obvious disgust for anyone he disagree with. Even when Mr. Stewart is "trying" to be cordial (see below clips of guest Lynne Cheney), he comes across as a smug weenie. To me, he even came across as a jerk when he called Tucker Carlson a "dick." I wasn't even a fan of CNN's Crossfire and I essentially agree with Stewart's premise that America needs less far right/far left screaming matches, but I saw the smugness that day and it's only gotten worse since then.
Much of the bloggeratti feel like Stewart may have gone "easy" on Mrs. Cheney the other day, but I think he couldn't help but let the weenie come out just a little bit. His assertion that six years without an attack on American soil is meaningless because "they" waited "eight years between WTC attacks last time" is simply absurd. I'm not saying that things are great over in the Mid-East, but let's get real about how this war started (EVERYONE, including Bill Clinton, the U.N., the French, and the Russians thought Hussein had WMD) and let's get real about what that part of the world, in fact, what the entire world could be like should we hit the reset button and get out. I guarantee it would be a million times worse both long and short term with more American lives sacrificed home and abroad.
Anyway, Cheney is sweet as can be and Stewart is just annoying in the clips below (it gets pretty bad in pt. 2). See for yourself:
