The Daily Show

[NikkiGreen]

It was a fairly decent week. The only problem I have is with last night. I think that it was rather inappropriate and untimely for Norm McDonald to be making light of Steve Irwin's passing the way he did.

[janetcatbird]

So, President Pervez Musharraf (sp?) came on "The Daily Show". Ever'body say HUH?!?!?! Actually I thought it was a decent interview--polite, intelligent questions (I got so tickled at tea and twinkies), even if it is baffling that sitting leaders come to a foreign country's bawdy fake news show.

Well, let's see. CNN does a special international clip show of TDS every week (and I think rerun actual episodes in some areas). I know TDS/Colbert Report have fans in the UK (a Belfast paper has mentioned them several times), we saw Denmark back in March, and I hear word that Pakistan itself has its own fake news show. Canada, of course, has its ties. And over on the Report, the Hungarian bridge.

Is anybody else just hoping and praying that "our good friend" Fareed Zakaria will do an article about the international/globalizing nature of TDS?TCR? I mean, I'm sure he'll wait for a lull in international affairs, since there are more important matters going on right now, but man I'd love his take on the whole situation. Shoot, he did an editorial that supported Stewart's position after the whole Crossfire brouhaha, and that was domestic. I think if anybody does it, he'd be perfect. He's familiar/comfortable with the format, and he's well aware of the wider world and how American culture/etc. is spread and perceived. (And I've got my own crush daydream, but Zakaria obviously has real qualifications.)

--Catbird

[NikkiGreen]

Mr. President was there to promote his memoir, no doubt. It ranked #3 on Amazon the day after his TDS appearance.

Jon Stewart is scheduled to appear on Letterman next Wednesday (October 11^th)

[janetcatbird]

Once again, Dennis Miller was mean-spirited and not funny. Although at least Jon Stewart didn't go doormat "Dude, you're NOT going there comparing Bush to Lincoln and Truman". And I couldn't understand what Miller was setting up for the Wild Wild West thing. (Aww, Jon, don't feel bad about Artemis Gordon. Artie was the cool, smart, funny one! Your impressions may be lousy, but you are Artie! Or maybe he was thinking of the movie, which would make you rush to the big white telephone faster than anything.)

John Oliver explaining the Dark Ages wasn't the greatest bit, but it did have some funny moments.

And the Animals segment of "10 F*****g Years" had some cute moments. I remember the Cooter. But did you see those cats Colbert was flexing. Gasp! I want a big fat kitty like that! Sorry...

--Catbird

[DNA]

Indiana University - Media Relations

It's no joke: IU study finds The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to be as substantive as network news.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Which would you think has more substantive news coverage -- traditional broadcast network newscasts or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart?

Would you believe the answer is neither?

Julia R. Fox, assistant professor of telecommunications at Indiana University isn't joking when she says the popular "fake news" program, which last week featured Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as a guest, is just as substantive as network coverage.

While much has been written in the media about The Daily Show's impact, Fox's study is the first scholarly effort to systematically examine how the comedy program compares to traditional television news as sources of political information.

The study, "No Joke: A Comparison of Substance in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Broadcast Network Television Coverage of the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign," will be published next summer by the Journal of Broadcast and Electronic Media, published by the Broadcast Education Association.

"It is clearly a humor show, first and foremost," Fox said of Stewart's program. "But there is some substance on there, and in some cases, like John Edwards announcing his candidacy, the news is made on the show. You have real newsmakers coming on, and yes, sometimes the banter and questions get a little silly, but there is also substantive dialogue going on … It's a legitimate source of news."

Most people have little direct contact with politicians and get most of their political information from the media. Given the growing number of young voters who say they look to The Daily Show to meet their political information needs, Fox thought it was important to see whether the program did so.

She and two graduate students at IU -- Glory Koloen and Volkan Sahin -- analyzed coverage of the 2004 national political conventions and the first presidential debate by the networks and Stewart's program. They examined broadcast nightly newscasts on July 26-30, Aug. 30-31 and Sept. 1-3 in 2004. Similarly, they studied episodes of The Daily Show on July 27-30, Aug. 31 and Sept. 1-3 in 2004.

"Conventions typically offer candidates a chance to present their views on what they consider to be the important issues facing the nation and are critically important for shoring up political bases and reaching out to independent voters," Fox said in explaining her reasoning. "While debates tend to reinforce pre-existing candidate preferences, they are particularly important for activating supporters and can sway undecided voters."

Not surprisingly, a second-by-second analysis of The Daily Show's audio and visual content found considerably more humor than substance -- Stewart himself has insisted that he is a comedian and not a journalist. A similar analysis of network coverage found considerably more hype than substance in broadcast newscasts. Examples of such hype included references to polls, political endorsements and photo opportunities.

"Interestingly, the average amounts of video and audio substance in the broadcast network news stories were not significantly different than the average amounts of visual and audio substance in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart stories about the presidential election," she wrote in the paper.

"It should be noted that the broadcast network news stories about the presidential election were significantly shorter, on average, than were The Daily Show with Jon Stewart stories," she added. "The argument could be made that while the amount of substance per story was not significantly different, the proportion of each story devoted to substance was greater in the network news stories ... On the other hand, the proportion of stories per half hour program devoted to the election campaign was greater in The Daily Show."

The analysis was run again using the half-hour program, rather than the story, as the unit of analysis, and Fox still found no significant differences in substance. The study does not address differences in the ways viewers of both programs process and remember political information or the differences in tone between them.

"We've been wringing our hands for decades that the networks aren't doing enough substance in the political coverage, so is it any real surprise that it's just as substantive?," Fox said of The Daily Show. "Our findings should allay at least some of the concerns about the growing reliance on this non-traditional source of political information, as it is just as substantive as the source that Americans have relied upon for decades.

"In an absolute sense, we should probably be concerned about both of those sources, because neither one is particularly substantive. It's a bottom-line industry and ratings-driven. We live in an 'infotainment' society, and there certainly are a number of other sources available."

Editors: A copy of the complete study is available from [e-mail].

Courtesy of TV Squad.com

[janetcatbird]

So, the Ohio State Midwest Midterm Midtacular kicked off tonight. Lebron James I could take or leave, but it was silly for Jon to jump on the desk. Didn't get the whole Applebees/Bob Evans thing.

But John Oliver did get in some good cracks about the Democrats not doing anything and beating the Republicans. Loved the happy ad (clouds, birds, ocean noise), and the line about after the tight Republican ideology, voters are looking forward to the lack of a coherent world view.

And Piper is adorable! She's grown!! I did crack up when Sam Bee came out in the Hooters t-shirt "I couldn't get childcare today; she loves these things." Cute little baby! Sorry, gush over.

--Catbird

[janetcatbird]

My Intellect-Enabling Boyfriend, Fareed Zakaria, was on last night so I was excited. Although I was disappointed that with everything that's been going on in the world in the past nine months, they only gave him one segment, and most of that talk revolved around "Bush is stubborn". Sigh. Still, it's always good to hear Zakaria in a more casual setting, and try as he might Jon Stewart couldn't play dumb.

We had Aasif Mandvi return! Not his best segment, but how I love him. I thought Samantha Bee's piece was silly and funny and accurate, considering the media gush over Obama ("Oh my God! He cured my herpes!"), but couldn't they have given the time to Zakaria and saved her bit for later in the week? Oh well. I was disappointed that so much of Stewart's talk resorted to bleeps and crude profanity, but in terms of honest emotional response: Amen preach it.

Last night's show (Monday 12-11): Poor Mr. Chafee. Wasn't he the one who had like a 61% approval rating from those who voted him out? I thought I remembered Cokie Roberts pointing him out, as in They like this guy and the work he does, but they can't stand the Republicans in control anymore, look at him as a casualty type view. And I loved the "Where are they now" for the departing members of Congress--or, losers.

--Catbird

[effie]

I realized recently why Aasif Mandvi looked so familiar when I started seeing him on the Daily Show. He was Sateesh the Grad Student in "Inert Dwarf" on LO:CI.

[Sirenna]

Did anyone see the skit of the reporter trying not to report on attending the Holocaust Denyers' conference? He had a t-shirt and everything...

;D

[spits]

Sirenna - Hah, yes, I saw that one: "I did not attend this conference and I did not get this t-shirt". The whole thing (the conference) is so absurd...

What can I say, I'm still registered to vote in IL so I loved Samantha Bee's piece on Obama the other night . Janet, I agree with you about Stewart's vent concerning Rumsfeld: it was nice to hear honesty on that one.

[janetcatbird]

None of the interviews really stood out this week--well, Peter O'Toole in the sense of "Oh wow, how'd they get him?" but it wasn't a real highlight. (Loved the Katharine Hepburn bit! Did you hear the audience "awww" as soon as he said her name?)

The name confusion wasn't the funniest bit, but Aasif Mandvi nailed the snarky delivery and wide-eyed "Who me?" when Stewart called him on it. Keep him coming!

I fell apart during John Oliver's bit on the Bush/Lincoln comparisons. While I thought "did shots in a Lincoln before driving into a theatre" was a low blow, most of it was just great. "Both men presided over civil wars--one of them our own and historically inevitable, another one was somebody else's and perfectly evitable." Hee!

Rob Riggle with a (really!) Marine servicemember's perspective on the plan--you get out a few chuckles but are generally horrified. Watching Jon Stewart's barely covered anger was gripping. So many people online refer to this show as catharsis, relying on Stewart's expressions of black humor and frustration to keep from crying. If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane. (Yes, Jimmy Buffett is one of my main life philosophers, why?)

--Catbird

[Sirenna]

I'd never have picked you for a Jimmy Buffet dudette!

I really enjoyed the lincoln/bush thing. Not being an American I guess I didn't feel the "shot in a Lincoln" thing was wildly inappropriate but I could see how you might.

I enjoy that segment for it's spoof of news analysis. There's a word describing "Truthiness" in news so there must be a word describing "truthy analysis" rife as a filler in news these days. You know when truthy news is uplifted by having subject matter experts fill the seats interrupting each other in the split cam. It all seems so erudite when they do it that way.

"perfectly evitable" is my new phrase of the day.

[janetcatbird]

I just don't like humor poking fun at someone's drug/alcohol problem. Even if true, it strikes me as mean-spirited, especially if the person has (for all we know) recovered. (Stephen Colbert mentioned in an interview some time back that that was one reason he avoided political humor so long. Most of it was Ted Kennedy drinking jokes and that just seemed mean and unfunny not really profound to him.)

By the same token I'm uncomfortable with talk of draft-dodging. Obviously it's a lousy system that shafts the lower economic classes, but I honestly can't fault people for taking advantage of the loopholes during Vietnam. God knows if I were a fighting-age male in serious danger of getting shipped out to a war zone I'd do everything I could to avoid it, so I can't personally fuss.

Enough of the spoil-sport. Yes, I love Jimmy Buffett, grew up with Mama playing the tapes in the car all the time. (Well, there were a couple songs she skipped when we were little!) I probably need to cut loose and mellow out some more before I'm a real Parrothead, but I do enjoy the tunes and ideal escapism! (I actually quoted that line from "Changes in Latitudes" in a discussion of Chekhov's plays once.) Buffett's songwriting is underappreciated, I think; he can put words together in clever ways and his ballads are simple but true.

--Catbird

[spits]

I believe it was last night's episode, but I loved the most recent bit on Obama: "Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god I'm inspiring Barack Obama! First I was Time's Man of the Year, and now this! I'm awesome!".

I also found the interview a few night's back with Michael Oren to be very interesting - has anyone read his newest book? It sounds interesting. Also, John Oliver holding up the 'yikes' sign was priceless.

Rob Riggle with a (really!) Marine servicemember's perspective on the plan--you get out a few chuckles but are generally horrified. Watching Jon Stewart's barely covered anger was gripping. So many people online refer to this show as catharsis, relying on Stewart's expressions of black humor and frustration to keep from crying. If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane. (Yes, Jimmy Buffett is one of my main life philosophers, why?)

Horrified and in disbelief that this is all actually happening...

[janetcatbird]

Oren's new book did look VERY interesting, and he did well in the interview as well. Sigh, another hey-I-should-read-this-when-my-brain-isn't-fried-from-school to add to the extensive list.

I misquoted John Oliver's Lincoln analysis earlier: "ridiculously evitable" is the correct form. Ooops.

Yes, Wile E. Coyote is hysterical! "Don't look down!" I also got a huge kick out of Leonard Nimoy and George Takei responding to the idiot COngressman's Star Trek analogy. I'm a Trekkie, and think that at it's best it can be incredibly wise and thought-provoking, but Cheez-n-rice, on the floor of the House of Reps?!?! The bit itself was rather pointless time filler, but for Stewart and the other Trekkies it was a good chuckle.

Jon putting the moves on Condi because "If she just has a kid then we'll have a sane Iraq policy?!?! Hey baby! I brought a big book of Russian history..." I'm gonna burn, but I laughed and laughed and laughed no matter the unnecessary length and nasty useless biology digression. I was wiping away tears, and now I can't watch the "Smooth approach" shave commercials without thinking of that.

As to the guests, I wanted to smack the History channel "Digging for truth guy". "I'm not really an archaeologist..." and milking the leather jacket/fedora/sensational findings for all it's worth. Bad! As mentioned before, Oren was great. Robin Wright Penn was pretty bleh. Jerry Rice didn't have anything new exciting but he seemed a very nice and pleasant guy.

--Catbird