The news that Jon Stewart has decided to quit The Daily Show is a devastating blow to common sense media. The blatant racism and misogyny coming from the Republican Party has given him a lot of material over the years. The Democrats go to stance of “please don’t hurt me” has also been entertaining. But the full on stupidity of the Republicans has made his job, dare I say it, too easy. Given Jon’s obvious intelligence I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume he may have become bored by the ease of the job. Roll clip of Ted Cruz, John McCain, Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee. And let’s not forget Fox News legends Glen Beck and Sean Hannity. Apply common sense to basically anything these people say and you’ve got yourself a comedy show… rince repeat… FOX News has been very kind to him. The complete lack of fact checking by these crazy-assed bigots has given him so much gold that I’m surprised Smaug hasn’t attacked The Daily Show offices by now.
Stewart hinted at being “slightly restless” when he told a stunned Daily Show audience of his decision to leave later this year. His close friend Steven Colbert recently ended the Colbert Report having been chosen to replace Letterman. This is another huge loss to forward thinking people and the Daily Show/Colbert Report double act breaking up was always going to be hard on Stewart.
He recently directed the movie Rosewater and did a pretty good job. He certainly proved he’s good enough to have a career as a director. While he was filming, one of his “correspondants” Jon Oliver took the reigns. To say Oliver did a good job is a massive understatement and predictably, he moved on to his own show over on HBO basically doing the same thing as The Daily Show and to some, doing it better. I’m still on the fence about that.
Jon has been a Daily Show man now for 17 years. I only started watching in 2006. Have there been mistakes? Yes. A few minor ones not worth mentioning and one huge one: The Rally to Restore Sanity. It was a success regarding turnout and it was certainly well intentioned but it didn’t change a thing. If anything things are more insane than ever and while I’m sure he wouldn’t have meant it, this rally served only to polarize people further.
One of Jon’s biggest critics for the rally was Bill Maher of Real Time with Bill Maher fame. He and Jon are friends and share many of the same beliefs. Like Jon, he’s also hugely intelligent but unlike Jon, Maher knows there are far too many people on the right who are too far gone to ever get anything resembling sanity back and fighting for the liberal principles you believe in, is a far more effective use of one’s time. Actually just watch it here, it’s great:
So we still have Real Time to keep us going but also on HBO is Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. It has been a genuinely fantastic piece of television and Oliver is becoming the next Jon Stewart with each passing episode. It’s a pity he left The Daily Show last year as, being the funniest of the “correspondants”, he would have been the obvious replacement for Stewart. But this opens up another opportunity for Comedy Central. Since Oliver’s departure, Jessica Williams has been the funniest of the chosen few who get their own segments on The Daily Show for a while now. Jordan Klepper has been hit and miss. Samantha Bee and Jason Jones are always great but I think they are perfect where they are. Jessica Williams is a young, black woman with a lot going for her. She’s obviously hilarious and every bit as smart as anyone else involved with the show. She’d be my choice. It’s too fucking perfect. The sight of her laying into FOX News or taking on the Tea Party would surely be must see television!
One thing is for sure though, whomever Comedy Central settle on has a huge chance and a fuck load to live up to. I’ll be watching with interest.
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