The thirtieth TV show: #523 The Daily Show

Peter asked me why I didn't write this up yet. It's because while we've been watching the last few seasons of Jon Stewart and part of Trevor Noah's run, I have not yet seen a lot of the earlier season yet, or anything of Craig Kilborn's run. The latter is difficult to find - there is just one full episode of his on Youtube, and nothing to be found elsewhere.

What makes this such a good show, to me, is the same as (I believe) a large part of my generation (at least that leaning in our direction). A feeling we can't quite trust media and politicians, and laughing at their errors in what's usually a well researched manner. John Oliver's show is the same - obviously, as it's an off shoot of this show - but here it's a bit lighter and it covers more topics per episode.

The interview segments - quickly dropped on Last Week Tonight - do usually feel like they're a bit unnecessary, more useful because they eat up a nice chunk of time on a daily show, and so understandable.

The correspondents are one of the major segments, having launched some major careers - Rob Cordry's Children's Hospital has been covered before, I'll go into Stephen Colbert's show later, and the US's Office has several alumni. When the right person comes a long, it can be a nice turnaround, especially during field pieces which nicely take a longer view than the short news cycle of the rest of the show.

But what made the show special is Jon Stewart. The show can be presented by someone else, but Jon Stewart's sense of humour combined with his genuine anger and bafflement at what happens and willingness to take people down while not quite hiding from it himself (although he has those moments too, where he pushes it) made it feel like he said it straight and gave a far better impression of what's actually going on.