Friday, June 27, 2014

all hail the daily show

News is important, right? It gets info out there to people quicker than ever before. Hell, there's even 24 hour news channels for all the news you could ever possibly want. But what about fake news? 

One of my favorite shows ever to exist is the one and only The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I don't usually watch actual news except for ABC World News (praise heavens Diane is leaving), given that I don't have cable, I wake up normally at 9, way past news programs, and I think they're full of propaganda shit. The Daily Show definitely backs that opinion up. 

Usually every night, I'll lay in bed and watch the latest episode on HuluPlus. I've learned a lot and laughed even more. If there's one thing in comedy to capitalize on, the government is a premier choice. 


If you aren't familiar with the show, I'll tell you how it goes down (if you're interested they have full episodes on Hulu and Comedy Central's website). The show opens and Jon makes fun of what ever is in the news. And a lot of the time, he just makes fun of the news itself. Like with CNN's Malaysian Airline coverage. And Fox's "Santa's just white". And already media predictions of the 2016 presidential race. And countless other times. Anyway, the show goes on. Jew jokes and Arby's jokes ensue. Then they have "correspondent(s)" on. Sometimes they're interviewed "on assignment" (aka in front of a green screen). Other times they interview real people. Or they even go out of the country. Then there's a famous person Jon interviews, whether it's a political dude or dudette, actors, comedians, or authors. Then at the very end of the show, they have the "Moment of Zen" which is a short little clip of news reporters/congressmen/literally anyone saying super dumb things. 

My favorite Moment of Zen in a while. 

They've said before that the show isn't an educational news program, like a lot of news reporters claim it to be. (People get all pissed off because Jon Stewart can say anything he wants and then back off and say "It's comedy!". Because that's what it is. But apparently nat'l news stations don't like that.)
I don't think it's techincally educational, because you do have to know what's going on in the news to get the jokes, and a lot of the times the back stories on congressmen and what not (so many Mitch McConnell and John Kerry jokes that fly right past me). But I think it inspires people, young people to be exact, to learn about what's going on in the world. Because it's a lot more fun making jokes at people when shit is clearly crazy and lopsided. And it's more fun getting your news from an "anchor" who swears and calls people out without worring about being politically correct. Plus it's funner to actually understand the jokes and makes you feel smart when you do.

(While I'm writing this, there's this guy riding his lawnmower down the sidewalk it's so freakin funny oh my god)

Plus, many of the interviews and reports are actually super informative and eye opening. Like, I never knew how fucking dumb and ridiculous political leaders and the things they work for are. Check out this interview with Samantha Bee about right-wingers against vaccines and climate change. Three cheers for America! Gooooaaalll!

skip to 4:30 for the message unless you have a strong hate for rush limbaugh

This is the unedited version, one of my favorite interviews

But a lot of parts are very meaningful and well put together, all while keeping an intelligent comedic feeling in it. Jay Carney, the White House Press Secretary, said that OBOMBa's interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show was "Probably the most substantive, challenging interview Barack Obama had in the election year." This completely SLAYS me because, like, IT'S A FCKIN COMEDY SHOW. STEP IT UP ACTUAL NEWS CHANNELS. (Here's the 2 parts to the interview [x] [x].) Other very well done interviews. Malala Yousafzai. And above that one, a recent clip about the Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram. Pretty cool if you ask me.

(Lawnmower guy just rode back up the sidewalk im floooored)


 But the original point of this post was from Wednesday night's show. The segment was about 55 colleges under investigation for mishandling sexual harassment cases regarding their students. This didn't particularly shock me, but the Jessica Williams (plus Jordan Klepper, BUT JESSICA) completely FCKIN NAILED IT. And still was hilarious. But it's more chillingly funny because of how real and true what she says is. "So you're tellin' me that women just spend their whole day navigating an obstacle course of sexual menace?" "Yeah." "Seriously?" "Seriously." It perfectly displays the differences between men's and women's ways of thinking of sexual harassment. And especially how much men are oblivious to the fact, only showing up shrugging their shoulders saying, "Not alllllll men..." Perfectly on point.
As Jon Stewart would say, America: Shit Just Got Real Edition.
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