A quick (and yeah lazy) post tonight.
I haven’t written too much about the Tucson massacre, but as ever when it comes to American politics, Jon Stewart pretty well says all you wished you had thought to say first.
The past week he has had three bits on his show that I think highlight why he is so respected (and why he is also so damn funny).
The first is the first episode after the shooting. He delivers a great line: “It would be really nice, if the ramblings of crazy people didn't in any way resemble how we actually talk to each other on TV. Let’s at least make troubled individuals easier to spot”.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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Last night he reviewed some of the political fallout, and how the shootings have changed the argument, but not for the better – especially on the issue of health care. The message he has to the Democrats about being suckered into the debate on the Republican’s terms is one the ALP here can do well to keep in mind. (He also has a good line about Ricky Gervais hosting the Golden Globes, and for those who don’t follow the NFL, the New York Jets beat the New England Patriots last weekend in the playoffs – Stewart is from New York.)
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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And then tonight he turns to Sarah Palin. Stewart has been as loud as anyone in not suggesting Palin had anything to do with the shooting, but don’t for a moment think he’s going to start going easy on her. Fortunately for Stewart and his ability to be able to have enough material to work with each night, Palin always delivers:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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We probably don’t have the material in Australia that Stewart has to warrant our own Daily Show – for a start we don’t have Fox, MSNBC or CNN (not enough people watch Sky News to get the jokes) – but surely we could have at least a weekly (Friday night?) show in Australia that takes what is said in the media and by politicians and uses it for good.
The Grog show ?
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ReplyDeleteGood News Week fulfilled this function, for a while. And then the Chaser. We just need to work on the stamina of our comediratti.
ReplyDeleteWe should call it Cognitive Dissonance Hour Special Victims Unit, in honour of Stewart's mocking of Palin.
ReplyDeleteMister Abbott hasn'r been saying much for a while, so it would have to shut down comlpetely over Christmas. Either that or someone needs to follow Bob Katter around with a camera for a day per week.
ReplyDeleteGood News Week only really ever used news stories as a jumping point, rather than using media failure as a source of laughs. The Chaser would do the latter, but in a disaffected way.
ReplyDeleteNeither has the deep conviction that the Daily Show has that they can, and should be doing something much better. The only reason the media-politics death spiral is so funny is because it's so deeply tragic for our societies.
The Chaser's CNNNN filled the role for a bit (for proof, see the repeats on 7Mate)
ReplyDeleteI think Media Watch and its content shows that there is material enough out there, and MW has been a thorn in a few notables sides (A.Jones to name one particularly). The question is whether there is a 'personality' with the analytical and comedic gravitas out there to run with it?
ReplyDeleteIsn't it a reflection of the sad state of quality of the mainstream political media that a comedian offers the sharpest commentary on US politics.
ReplyDeletePlease Grog, stop mis-spelling "Tucson".
ReplyDeleteAnd a Colbert Report too
ReplyDeleteThanks Friendless, fixed it. I made about 7 typos and errors in this post, which pretty nicely proves that I should never write a quick post while watching Federer play tennis.
ReplyDeleteThe main obstacle to something like this in Australia (other than the general mediocrity of our political comedians, or at least the ones we get to see - surely there is someone out there with a sharper sense of humour than the Chaser??) is that it would have to be on the ABC, which means that it would have to be "balanced". That's death to comedy. And of course the US shows work because the US insane right keeps on feeding them so much awesome material in audiovisual form. Most of the Australian insane right hangs out in print or on the radio, which makes it much harder to poke fun at on TV.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, the Grog Show. I'd watch it.
The half term governor is a “Dan Quayle” in heels. Since we already had an idiot “W” that caused our current economic debacle, America knows not to trust in fools who think they are brilliant. One of the reason for “W” failure was his drinking, Palin just has bad genes.
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