My Thoughts on Jon Stewart
After sixteen long years, Jon Stewart’s tenure as host of The Daily Show has finally come to an end.
After such an assignment, he has left a legacy that has changed both comedy and culture forever, for both better and worse.
If you could not tell already, I have very mixed feelings about his legacy that he is left behind.
Memories of Late-Night Television Watching
In 2007, when the children were born, (twins), I had to endure for several months of “New Fatherhood Boot Camp;” that is, we had a ritual of late night feeding.
Every day at 3 o’clock in the morning, I had to begin the process of feeding the first of our kids the baby formula, which usually took about 45 minutes. Shortly afterwards, the second feeding began.
Needless to say I needed to complement this task with some good television entertainment. And that year, being the buildup for an election year of 2008, my diet included episodes of The Daily Show.
While I had definitely watched The Daily Show in spurts before, that was the season where I really got immersed into the comedy stylings of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Lewis Black, Rob Riggle, Ed Helms, Rob Corddry, John Hodgman, Samantha Bee, Jason Jones, Aasif Mandvi and many others.
Make no mistake: those were good times.
There was even a time when there was a writers strike, and Jon Stewart was left to fend for himself. Turns out he handled the task with great agility.
As someone who does presentations that touch upon the comedic, I must say I greatly admired his talent.
What I Enjoyed About Jon Stewart
While The Daily Show is, for the most part, a scripted show, you can still sense there are moments where Jon Stewart’s brilliant quick wit would come to the forefront. An example of this is during his interviews, where he demonstrates usually a very strong understanding of the subject matter.
This was no accident. He has, for the most part, read nearly every book of every author invited to the show. He is a very fast read. According to cast members, he reads a page every 10 to 20 seconds.
I also admire him for changing the conversation about the purpose of The Daily Show. Initially it was a simpleminded attempt to present the news, but what he infused in it was an attitude, a perspective that was uniquely his own.
He was also not content to be the sole joke teller. He gave many ample opportunities for the other cast members a chance to shine. This has proven to be as successful a training ground for new comedy superstars as Saturday Night Live once was.
It should also be noted that I have learned a great deal about comedy performances, in particular, his uncanny ability to simply react to any goings on. Oftentimes, all he would do is display a funny headline or have a surprise musical appearance for comedy’s sake, and he would simply react with a certain look. I have learned from this and benefited greatly in my own presentations, to not over-emphasize a punchline, but to properly use the tools before me (i.e. PowerPoint images) and let the laughs come naturally.
I also think that, at times, Jon Stewart had a passion for fairness and respect. I’m not saying he succeeded in this, not by a long shot. But there were moments where the ideal of civil discourse could actually be realized, even for a moment.
What I Didn’t Enjoy About Stewart
Over time, however, my appreciation for Jon Stewart’s began to sour. All it takes is a cursory search on specific conservative-oriented watchdog sites that demonstrated his frequent inadequacy of fair-mindedness.
Look. I get it. Comedy is not pretty. Sometimes, jokes are made at the expense of ideas you cherish.
The problem is when such a pulpit becomes a sole basis for one’s political formation. And what is missing in such attempts of political discourse is when statements are taken out of proper context, so to render a punchline.
For all of the jib-jab against those explosive Planned Parenthood sting videos being “edited out of proper context”, Never is it conveyed that the fully unedited video is equally available on the same website for easy access.
Could the same be lobbed against Jon Stewart and company? Absolutely not. If you are in the cross-hairs of their pre-determined narrative for how a story ought to be given, so as to maximize the comedic punch (particularly to those who agree with their bottom line), and inadvertently finding its jokes being carried over to all the other news networks for constant replay… then do not expect that you will have a fair, respectful, unbiased forum for which you could air your side.
Indeed, I credit Jon Stewart is directly responsible for the lowering of journalistic standards everywhere, even as he has stridently called for a raising of them.
This was most evident during the last six years, when the current president had been elected. Racial strife has come to the fore again and much of it is due to Jon Stewart’s insistence on injecting his opinion on specific news events, before all the facts would come to be known. This has proven to be disastrous to our communities, leading to an unwarranted escalation of race-based violence upon innocents.
This was also evident when he had continually belittled conservative news outlets for asking tough questions to the current occupant of the White House, when asking tough questions is exactly the job that journalists are called to do.
You may not have noticed it, but that was when The Daily Show had transformed itself from a mainstream media watchdog, to being a mainstream-media king runner. And that is when most of its jokes began to fall flat, at least for me.
Preaching In Entertainment
As an aside, I recognize that I am an entertainer as well, one who espouses a Christian worldview. And if there’s one thing that has been a constant motif through all these years, is the tendency for Christian artists to not preach, to not explain the faith, but instead, to let the art do the talking for you. The general notion being the secular persons’ general disdain of being proselytized, and having that get in the way of one’s art.
Fair enough. But that doesn’t explain why liberal comedians–who also espouse a very particular perspective–why they get a free pass. Jon Stewart’s legacy demonstrates in full view the lie that one cannot be entertaining while also preaching a particular worldview. And, considering the waves of new legislation and cultural perspectives that have developed within these last sixteen years, considering the formation of new generations who relied solely on The Daily Show for forming a political framework, I cannot entirely dismiss these criticisms.
Thank you, Jon Stewart, for all your “moments of Zen.” In many moments you had made me laugh, and you have made me think. I just wish more of them would have been actually “Zen-like,” and not some cheap counterfeit.
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