By Will Curvan
“The Daily Show” is a late-night political satire “news” show that was once hosted by Jon Stewart and aired by Comedy Central. I like this show quite a bit. Jon Stewart left many years ago, but now he is back, and now you must (you must) hear me talk about it.
“The Daily Show” began at a time when the Dems were out of the White House and the George Bush/Bill O’Reilly reign of terror provided an endless source of content for snarky liberal comedians. FOX News was irredeemably dumb and right-wing pundits were hard-pressed not to contradict themselves, so the jokes practically wrote themselves. Then a guy named Obama won the presidency in 2008, and although “The Daily Show” was no longer punching up at the party in charge, the Republican party’s constant conniption over the aforementioned Obama guy kept the bit fresh.
But Jon Stewart got tired, the genre became oversaturated (in part by Daily Show alums), the era of Trump dawned, and Stewart stepped down. In his absence, the shoes which demanded filling were so vast and daunting that they had to go all the way across to South Africa to find a replacement.
Not literally, as Trevor Noah was already living in America at the time, but the fact that Comedy Central hired a relatively unknown, foreign-born standup with essentially no experience hosting talk shows makes one wonder just how many prominent comedians turned down the offer. It was scary, and Noah was the only one bold enough to take up the challenge.
Noah, in my opinion, is a really good standup and a really good writer (see his autobiography), but he lacked Stewart’s sauce. And who could possess the sauce, truly, in enough quantity to be a satisfactory replacement? Noah hosted the show through the Trump administration, COVID, and the 2020 election before stepping down at the end of 2022. Much like Jeopardy, Comedy Central went through a “who’s who” of guest hosts for the following weeks. That was the case until this Monday, when, with little fanfare, Jon Stewart came back; he will host every Monday for the foreseeable future.
I won’t lie, I was worried. Formerly cutting-edge, aging comedians who have backslid from relevance are dangerous candidates for becoming cranky reactionaries. His rather alarming claim that his Apple TV+ limited-run show was canceled because “they didn’t want me to say things that might get me in trouble” made his fall to the Bill Maher side of the political spectrum seem even more likely.
I am really glad to say he did not disappoint. The political world of 2023 is so different from 2015, that too much old-school “Daily Show” attitude would have felt outdated. Arguably, he kept the best parts of his old persona while also showing a more nuanced attitude on matters. He stayed the same in the right ways, and changed where it was necessary.
The episode was as good as any from the “Daily Show” golden age. The writing was sharp, Stewart’s delivery was skilled as ever, and the messaging was refreshing. It felt like discovering an old pair of shoes from middle school and realizing they still fit. After these long years I would have sworn that my politics would be incompatible with Jon Stewart’s sensibilities, but happen that it would, I enjoyed the episode. (Either we both changed in the same way, or neither of us did.)
The process of my politicization (and arguably my outlook on the world, sense of humor, personality, etc.) was formed with generous borrowing from Jon Stewart and his show. Feel free to look up my articles (and share them, laud them, etc.) and realize that I, like Kevin Spacey’s unnamed character in “The Usual Suspects,” have crafted the elaborate lie that I am a real person. I am not real, for nearly all my opinions surely originate from the writer’s room in some form or another. It was essentially the default TV show in the Curvan household; I literally quoted him in my high school yearbook.
When I stopped watching “The Daily Show,” my adolescent brain — hungry for more funnies — sought out other content. A cavalcade of various liberal and left-leaning humor YouTube channels entered my daily routine: College Humor, Cracked, then Cracked-spinoff SomeMoreNews, then HBomberguy, and the list continues to this day (I’m realizing this is what people mean when they talk about the LeftTube pipeline).
So it’s odd returning to “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. He looks older and more jaded; he spent the intervening years advocating in D.C. to pass a bill to make sure 9/11 first-responders got their due compensation for medical treatment. He is less optimistic, but more candid. I’m going to quote the end of the episode because there’s no way I can summarize it that would add to his words.
“I’ve learned one thing over these last nine years — and I was glib at best and probably dismissive at worst about this — the work of making this world resemble one that you would prefer to live in is a lunch-pail f***ing job, day in and day out, where thousands of committed, anonymous, smart and dedicated people bang on closed doors and pick up those that are fallen. …So the good news is, I’m not saying you don’t have to worry about who wins the election; I’m saying you have to worry about every day before it and every day after it forever. Although, I am told on the plus side that at some point the sun will run out of hydrogen.”
It’s nostalgic, refreshing, and as good as I could have wanted. I don’t like being a fan of individuals but I think he’s doing a pretty good job.
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