I miss Jon Stewart

[Steve Timko]

I swear to God I meant to send out an email with this title since Wednesday morning and then I see those rat bastards at The Atlantic put out out an article with the same theme.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/03/why-we-still-miss-jon-stewart/426840/?utm_source=SFFB
It's just with the Iowa Caucus it is obvious The Daily Show isn't delivering to Stewart's level. It is not appointment TV.
Election night in November will be the show's Super Bowl but the Iowa Caucus is a playoff game but the show seemed so routine. No memorable jokes or observations.  The article claims the writing is still good but I disagree.  Contributors are starting to suck. Was there a significance to Lewis Black appearing on The Nightly Show Tuesday night?
The article refers to a nice comeback Stewart had for Elizabeth Warren.  On Monday Noah interviewed the Girls Who Code leader when she boasted getting more females to write computer code was the most important social issue of our time. Really? More important than poverty,  mass incarceration,  a dissolving middle class or public health?  Stewart would have had a good come back. Noah let it lay there.
I am annoyed by Noah laughing at his own jokes, which he held in check Monday and Tuesday but it returned in full force on Wednesday. The article points out Stewart evolved into his personna. The streaming of all The Daily Show episodes prior to his departure showed that was true.  It's just with these benchmark events I want to see more promise out of Noah.

Sent from TypeApp

[PGage]

As noted it is unfair to compare Noah in his rookie year with Stewart in his prime, and Noah does bring a few new things to the table - I think he shines most brightly with jokes of the type "while you Americans were doing X, back in Africa we were doing Y". But I also  think it is hardly surprising that Noah's TDS is more pedestrian, even when enjoyable, than Stewart's. I posted when Jon announced his retirement that TDS would never again be really "appointment TV"; some here poo pooed it, arguing that Stewart had been a young low profile comic when he started with little to predict his footprint would be large. That is not quite true of course - when Stewart took over TDS he was one of the hottest young comics working in television, and it seemed pretty clear that all that was needed was to find the right format for him (not that even so his hue impact was predictable). But the bigger point is that it will always be unlikely that anyone will ever have the impact Stewart had. TDS is not some kind of independent institution that Jon was simply the caretaker of; it is not even a trans-generational show like the Tonight Show or SNL. It was a niche show for a certain sensibility before Stewart raised its profile, and almost anyone they chose to replace him would preside over a show that would revert back to just another CC program.

Even with more modest expectations, Noah  has been for me a bit of a disappointment. The laughing at this own jokes is  obnoxious, but more than that, he often seems like a lightweight, out of his depth. He is less often the wise and perceptive foreign observer of American foibles (though, as noted, he sometimes is) than a somewhat  over eager new-comer desperate to fit in. I agree the rest of the cast is weaker and less consistent that what Stewart had, and he has yet to contribute anything new or distinctive. Of course, he likely will be better in six months than he is now, but I don't see him ever making TDS as important as it once was. Jon Stewart  has retired.

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[Doug Eastick]

Trevor laughs at his own jokes because that's his stand up background coming through.  Watch some of his youtube stand up to see.

I admit he's not Stewart,  but he is evolving.   One of his online outlets (fb? Youtube?  )   have some minutes doing Q&A with the audience during breaks and he shows more understanding and depth than what he reads of the prompter.

I keep checking in with him about once a week. 

[David Bruggeman]

If anyone is missing the outrage, I think Wilmore and his contributors are providing a notable amount of it at 11:30.  The one time Noah has provided any significant outrage was after various folks complained about the President crying.

If you're looking for the clips of Noah during the breaks, they're called "Between the Scenes" and are available on the CC website and app.  Probably other places too, but CC is where I watched them.

I think Desi Lydic is probably on maternity leave, which might contribute to any perception of the correspondents being stretched too thin.

David

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From: Doug Eastick <eas...@mcd.on.ca>
To: tvor...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, February 6, 2016 10:28 AM
Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] I miss Jon Stewart

[Dave Sikula]

Lydic can stay on leave, as far as I'm concerned. I find the current correspondent's bench on both TDS and TNS very thin lately. I know I FF through the scripted pieces on Wilmore's show. His solo stuff and the panel are usually worth watching.

I'm willing to give Noah the benefit of the doubt, since Stewart was there 16 years, and he's been on for 16 weeks, but he does need to lose the "oh, you crazy Americans ..." schitck. That's gotten real old real fast. It's almost as annoying as John Oliver shouting at the camera.

I want to see Noah's version of TDS, not a rehash of Stewart's. Once we get that, we'll be able to better judge.

Dave Sikula

[Mark Jeffries]

Not to mention, in the case of Oliver, the whole "Janice in Accounting doesn't give a f--k" schtick.  It's gotten old fast and I hope that during the two-month sabbatical that ends next Sunday night all involved decided to bury it.

Mark Jeffries
Saints Spotlight Editor
spotl...@gmail.com

[PGage]

Well, I like both his yelling at the camera and the Janice in Accounting schtick. I don't think those things get old because he delivers a lot of laughs in other ways too.

[PGage]

But then, I liked "Is this anything?" too...

[M-D November]

Oliver didn't carry running gags from season 1 to season 2.  And since the actual Janice from Accounting was included in the season 2 finale, it's likely that joke has run its course.