Full disclosure: I have not watched The Daily Show regularly since Craig Kilborn burned the sets on his way out, mostly because I find Stewart's version excessively schticky and because I don't trust him to be fair to Republicans (or hard on Democrats). I am a regular viewer of the Colbert Report, which I admit suffers from some of the same intellectual opportunism. But the endearing "character" Colbert has created provides a layer of fiction that helps me think of it as entertainment.
This is me paraphrasing Stewart on the basis of very vivid recollections of certain public statements, though I don't have the energy to really look it up.
More broadly, I can feel myself getting into a extended, murky, argumentative area here about the role of parody and satire in the American media, and Jon Stewart's responsibilities to that end, but that would require a lot more research, not to mention a more thorough audit of The Daily Show, which would be difficult even if I watched The Daily Show show regularly, which I've already admitted I don't.
I think Stewart is a gifted joke-teller and he seems like a bright guy. He can be a powerful voice for young Americans who tend to process political thought through a prism of irony and satire. But there is something intellectually dishonest about satire that professes not to mean anything. And it seems a little naive for him to want to choose when people should take him seriously and when they shouldn't.
He may well be a "powerful voice for young Americans" as you say - but judging by the 200,000 or so people who showed up to his rally, he's mostly a voice for the middle aged.
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More broadly, I can feel myself getting into a extended, murky, argumentative area here about the role of parody and satire in the American media, and Jon Stewart's responsibilities to that end, but that would require a lot more research, not to mention a more thorough audit of The Daily Show, which would be difficult even if I watched The Daily Show show regularly, which I've already admitted I don't.
I think Stewart is a gifted joke-teller and he seems like a bright guy. He can be a powerful voice for young Americans who tend to process political thought through a prism of irony and satire. But there is something intellectually dishonest about satire that professes not to mean anything. And it seems a little naive for him to want to choose when people should take him seriously and when they shouldn't.
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