The Extra Hot Great podcast has a segment called "I Am Not a Crackpot" where one of the panelists offers a diatribe about something in pop culture that goes against popular belief. This week's episode was entirely that segment, with contributions from fans. But one of the panel offered her take on something for the episode: that Jon Stewart should stop being the host of The Daily Show, and a new host (possibly one of the correspondents, like the brilliant Larry Wilmore).
I do concede that if one does not care for Jon Stewart's personality that one's enjoyment of the show will be affected, but a) I think Stewart is still doing a fine job (because I have no trouble believing that he is a comedian and not an activist, despite how others try to paint him as such), and b) he made the show what it is; a Daily Show without him should not exist.
I'm not saying I'd stop watching if one of the correspondents took over; I am a big fan of virtually all of them (except the god-awful hideousness that is that chick from G4), and I'm sure any of them could do an admirable job. However, it would be an imitation of what it was. Much like I fully expect The Office without Steve Carrel will be at best okay, TDS without Jon, while something I'd still watch, would be something where I'd yearn for the days of Stewart.
If Jon Stewart decides to hang up the host duties and be only a producer, that would be fine, but the show needs to end with him. If Comedy Central wants to try a completely different show that takes on the news four nights a week with a different name, that would be acceptable—sure, invariably it would get compared to TDS but at least it would be its own entity.
It's like when a band with a great singer that everyone likes has a falling out and hires another singer—even one who is a good singer in his/her own right—and goes on for a while. It's fine, but it's not the same and there's that nagging sense of what it isn't.
In the Van Halen analogy, Jon is David Lee Roth (despite the fact he took over from Craig Kilborn—who isn't even Sammy Hagar but that guy who came after Sammy, Gary Cherone; the analogy is imperfect). Even if someone good like Wilmore or Samantha Bee or the Brit took over behind the desk they would always be nothing more than Sammy.
I am not a crackpot. At least not at the moment.
(studiously ignoring crackpot analogy of Stewart/Kilborn/Cherone, which is like Abba/Ace of Base/Barbara Walters - does not compute, lol)
ReplyDeleteWife likes Tosh.0. I think he's smarter than Stewart, maybe because he's not pretending to relay the news. Certainly Tosh is smarter than Bill Maher. My cat (the retarded, food-obsessed one) is smarter than Maher.