You know, I ignored this the first few times I saw it, but now I’m thinking I should just blog it now and get the silly speculation out of the way. The mainstream media, evidently dealing with a surfeit of spare time, has decided to speculate as to whether Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are going to have a tough time making with the funny, should Obama win the election. The latest to pick up on this story is New York Magazine‘s Daily Intelligencer.
Will an Obama Win be Bad for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert?
That’s what the Hollywood Reporter suspects. Everyone knows that comedians and pundits do better when their opponents are in power, but the industry rag astutely points out that almost the entirety of Jon Stewart’s stint as host of the Daily Show has been under the Bush administration. He and Stephen Colbert are heading into uncharted territory …
“The people who have the most trouble will be people like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert,” one network late-night producer told HR. “It’s very hard to rail against the machine when you helped support the machine. They’re going to have to find a different dynamic.” Uh-oh, Britney. Better not get too used to these days of peace and quiet.
Now, given that they’ve been posting record audience numbers during the election season, I’m sure their numbers will drop off somewhat, incomprehensible though that may seem to a fan like me. But honestly, why is there such certainty that Jon and Stephen are in for a hard time?
Neither man has shown any reluctance to skewer hypocrisy and outright foolishness, regardless of who has perpetrated it, so my feeling is that they’re both going to do just fine unless and until government starts behaving honestly, effectively and with a little integrity. And even if their candidate(s) of choice win on Election Day, does anyone out there really believe that government, overall, will suddenly start resembling the best and brightest from The West Wing?
“Stephen”, in particular, would seem to be perfectly poised to take comedic advantage of a Democratic win. Anyone doubting that should reconsider after reviewing this, my “Exhibit A” from the day after the midterms:
What do you think?
I agree that “Stephen” in particular will have no problems at all with continuing what he’s been doing for the past 3 years. I don’t think Jon will have any trouble either. As you pointed out, they both have poked fun at both sides. It’s more about pointing out the hypocrisy than it is skewering any particular party in general. It’s equal opportunity satire.
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just because the executive branch of the federal govt would be in better hands does not mean the world would be purged of hypocrisy, not to mention plain stupidity. they’ll be plenty of people/businesses messing up, and they’ll be plenty of sensational media coverage to mock.
plus, there really is no shortage of things for Stephen to be mad at. I’m sure he will think the election was stolen from McCain, but really, it doesn’t even have to be political (or halfway rational) for him to get angry and be funny.
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Both of them will continue to perform superbly no matter who’s in power. Something tells me the MSM will continue to be just as idiotic in their reportage as they’ve always been and republican congressmen will continue to get caught in gay sex scandals.
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I hope that’s the son of a goatlicker video (or whatever it was), can’t see it at work. They are going to have plenty of fun with Obama if he wins!
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It’s not, but that really is a great vid, too, so here’s a link.
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What I never understand is the fact that the people who make these claims that Jon and Stephen wouldn’t have good material if a democrat was in off seem to forget that half the show is making fun of the media. Even if the government did improve, it doesn’t look the like the media will no matter who gets into office.
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excellent observation. personally, i feel like jon and stephen are at their absolute best when they take on the media.
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I more worried about their ratings, many use TDS/TCR as an “escape valve” for their frustrations with the current political scene. That may change.
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I totally agree with these reporters. It’s obvious to everybody that if Obama wins, the Republicans will lose their persecution complex; the Democrats will grow a backbone and stand up to the hard right minority of Congress; right-wingers will quietly submit to liberal dominance; left-wingers will always use their power wisely and judiciously; and the 24-hour news networks will no longer be obsessed with asinine topics and will no longer have hilarious graphics f*$#-ups. On November 5th, 2008, if Barack Obama wins the election, there will be an end to conflict in general. We will enter A No Irony Zone, much like we did after 9/11. Nobody will ever do anything worth mocking ever again. There will be nothing to make fun of…For The Rest Of Time. For the sake of Jon and Stephen: MCCAIN ’08!
*rolls eyes*
Seriously, if we have to give up Jon and Stephen being funny to get a better government…I’ll take a better government!!! I think any fan would. But that’s a false choice. I think we can have our cake and eat it, too.
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agreed. the gist of this argument is the perception that because they are critical of the bush administration, they are liberals. and if a liberal is in power, they will have trouble criticizing one of their own. there are numerous problems with this conclusion.
Jon & co. were barely getting into the swing of things toward the tail end of the clinton administration, so their satirical oomph wasn’t as developed yet during the last democratic administration. the main exception was that there were definitely no shortage of lewinsky innuendo jokes. did that make them conservative?
my theory is that they’re not necessarily anti-conservative but rather anti-establishment. if you guys watched TDS last night with Bill Kristol and heard Jon admit he would’ve voted McCain over Gore in 2000, that kind of shows you what i’m talking about. i would like to see obama win just for the sake of seeing if my theory is true.
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I think it’s rubbish. As Jon has said, The Daily Show’s comedy relies chiefly on the absurdity of the system, a system that’s not going to radically change just because a more competent guy is in power. And as for Stephen – his show is essentially about whatever his character’s feeling angry or passionate about, and there’d be plenty of things for him to be angry with in an Obama administration.
Last year we had an election in Australia where our conservative, pro-Bush government of eleven years was defeated by the more liberal Labor Party, and people were asking the same thing: Is political comedy in Australia going to suffer? It hasn’t. In fact, we even saw the resurrection this year of Good News Week, a political/current events comedy show that aired between 1996 and 2000 – during the first five years of the Howard government.
Because, yes, the Rudd government’s policies might be more compatible with most comedians’ views, but they’re still politicians and they still do stupid things. And the Liberal Party (yes, our conservative party call themselves Liberals) have been thrown into opposition for the first time in over a decade, so of course there’s been plenty of bumbling and incompetence there to laugh at. Then you have idiots like Belinda Neal, the psycho Labor MP who abuses nightclub staff and tells fellow parliamentarians that their unborn babies are demons.
In short, it’s politics. There are always going to be things going on that are worthy of mockery. In fact, in some ways an Obama administration might be a good thing for the shows because I’d imagine that kind of change in leadership would allow them to explore various new angles for comedy.
I have a lot of concerns leading up to November 4. The continued health and relevance of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report is not one of them.
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There was one Larry King interview in which he asked Jon if he’s going to miss the Bush administration, and Jon looked at him like he was crazy. Then Jon said something along the lines of he’d prefer to have a more competent government in charge than to have more material.
Political satire has been around for hundreds, nay thousands of years and it’s not going to go away if (for example) Obama became president. I’m actually surprised that Bush & Co. didn’t try to outlaw political satire, particularly after the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner.
I think Jon and Stephen’s ratings might slack off a bit, but as long as there are politicians, there will always be material for both shows. And I agree with Jess: I’ve got bigger things to worry about this election season than whether or not Jon and Stephen have sufficient material. They’ll be fine. This country, on the other hand, I’m not so sure about…
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Damn! I put my absentee ballot in the mailbox yesterday! Sorry, Jon! Sorry, Stephen! Your careers might yet recover from the damage I hath wrought!
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I think Jon Stewart would actually have more trouble with a McCain presidency, since he’d have to do the same kind of jokes as Bush. I think he’s ready to do some different kinds of material. I know I’m not wording this very well..
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I think that’s probably true, actually. The fraction of the show that’s still devoted to mocking the policies of the current administration can be pretty depressing to watch. Unless it’s just me.
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I think Jon and Stephen would be depress if McCain wins. They dont want another 4 years of the same thing…
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Politicians of all parties will never fail to provide a wealth of material for ‘we the people’ to question, to marvel at how and why our country does some things, and to sometimes wonder how we could have possibly voted for them.
Probably many of the ‘bushies’ will join their old buddy, Rove, over at Fox, and will continue to espouse their absurd and obtuse observations, and provide material for the satirists and writers at CC and everywhere else.
And even MSNBC provided Ben Affleck on SNL with a wonderfully hilarious spoof of ‘Countdown with Keith Olbermann’!!
ReCaptcha: conserva-saying…hmm, would that be like Bush’s statement, “stop throwing the Constitution in my face, it’s just a god-dam*ed piece of paper!”
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SusieB check out Mike Terry, he does the BEST Olbermann impression on youtube. It’s hilarious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4llHNTMZjE
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You’re right, Terry does him the best. His timing imitates Olbermann perfectly! Love it!
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I’m waiting anxiously for the election coverage and very curious as to what Jon and Stephen will come up with live on TV Tuesday night. The tone they take may well indicate what to expect from future shows.
p.s. The Nov. quiz is up at Colbert U – have at it Zoners!
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