While Jon Stewart projects an affable and trustworthy persona, I personally believe the Daily Show is largely responsible for the kind of snide discourse we see around politics today.
Yes, politics has always been contentious, but Jon Stewart popularized the format of taking a subject and reducing it to a very narrow aspect, mocking it, and associating audience applause with “winning”.
Again, this is speculation on my part so I can’t give you a source or citation, but the kind of ‘clap back’ responses I read on Twitter seem inspired by how the Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver approach covering politics. Take a complex subject, find a flaw or make a non-sequitur joke, and use that to discredit the other side through humiliation.
It’s good entertainment, but it does not make for good discourse and it is incredibly polarizing.
>I personally believe the Daily Show is largely responsible for the kind of snide discourse we see around politics today.
They might have just been riding the wave, but the changing temperature of political discourse was certainly on display in the changing tone of that show. Maybe all the tape of cable news they had to pour through over the years rotted their brain despite watching it with a critical eye.
There were two big shifts over the years. I watched when it was goofing around in a news format, when it was pointed, and when it became salty I eventually stopped watching.
The pointed period was it's golden period and it's rise in fame. They poked fun at the tricks of the tv news establishment and put egg on politician's faces. It was obvious they had a perspective, but it didn't seem like they were sacrificing comedy to send a message. ...and then some years later they blatantly were.
The time I realized I was done with the show was when I read some news during the day, and a politician said basically: "A, but B, therefore C." That night on The Daily Show, they played a clip of A, cut to Stewart at the desk to double down on point A, cut to a clip of C, smash cut to Stewart pulling a face and pause for reaction. The Daily Show used to be the ones to clown on CNN for doing exactly that.
Would the Daily Show of today or Last Week Tonight give me the same soft spot for Ron Paul getting ratfucked by the cable news media? The Daily Show of 15 years ago didn't want him in power but still celebrated him on the occasions he made decent political points that neither the GOP or dems wanted to touch with a 10 foot pole, and exposed how his campaign was under- and mis-reported. These days? They'd ratfuck him even harder than cable news.
> …Jon Stewart popularized the format of taking a subject and reducing it to a very narrow aspect, mocking it, and associating audience applause with “winning”.
I enjoyed The Daily Show, but political satire has been popular for as long as politics has been a thing.
“The oldest example that has survived till today is Aristophanes. In his time satire targeted top politicians, like Cleon, and religion, at the time headed by Zeus. ‘Satire and derision progressively attacked even the fundamental and most sacred facts of faith’…”
> Jon Stewart popularized the format of taking a subject and reducing it to a very narrow aspect, mocking it, and associating audience applause with “winning”.
What makes this so hard to believe that a citation is required? This was the format of his show, it was incredibly popular in the 2000’s and alumni cast of the show have gone on to replicate the formula.
Why do you think he was the first? I don't understand what kind of rock a person lives under to pretend like this was some undiscovered format The Daily Show pioneered.
Elvis was a hugely popular rock musician when there were still a lot of potential fans to convert to actual rock fans. Jon Stewart entered no such market for political talk shows. The format had long since saturated the market.
>”Jon Stewart entered no such market for political talk shows. The format had long since saturated the market.”
[citation required]
Political talk shows are one thing, but basing the show around comedy-first was the key. You can’t just claim that because talking on television about politics existed long before the daily show means the daily show did nothing innovative or that it didn’t popularize anything.
They're responsible for the problem and decline of discourse. The most you can say about Stewart is that he made it funny. I agree he shouldn't run for office, I just don't think he's responsible for the snide discourse.
That was 100% earned by politicians who brought clowns like Palin and Trump to the forefront.
Yes, politics has always been contentious, but Jon Stewart popularized the format of taking a subject and reducing it to a very narrow aspect, mocking it, and associating audience applause with “winning”.
Again, this is speculation on my part so I can’t give you a source or citation, but the kind of ‘clap back’ responses I read on Twitter seem inspired by how the Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver approach covering politics. Take a complex subject, find a flaw or make a non-sequitur joke, and use that to discredit the other side through humiliation.
It’s good entertainment, but it does not make for good discourse and it is incredibly polarizing.