Writing Machines is the course website for English 170L at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
The Daily Show
Submitted by Natwwal on 21 September 2006 - 1:06pm.
I've often wondered why it is that people of our generation seem to find Jon Stewart much funnier than people my parents age do. It's not as though the concept of spoofing news is particularly new; SNL has been doing it for years. I'm still trying to sort through the significance of this, but last night, as I was watching the Daily Show, I was struck by the similarities between the show's format and the format of a blog. Instead of "link, commentary," the Daily Show offers us "video clip, commentary." While SNL comics did something similar, they tended to stay in character. Jon Stewart doesn't try very hard to maintain the persona of a newsperson. His own voice and opinions come through very clearly. In this way, he isn't so different from political bloggers.
I wonder whether blogs have influenced what our generation finds funny, or whether other cultural forces have shaped us in such a way that blogs and the Daily Show are possible. Any thoughts?
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My parents find the Daily
My parents find the Daily Show and the Colbert Report hilarious. And they aren't particularly technologically adept as parents go. I also think the shows are fabulous, and until about 3 weeks ago, I almost never went on blogs. But I still take your observation about the format of the Daily Show.
blogs, media, news
Got me. You know some old Republicans?
Maybe we old folk (I'm probably at least your parents' age) ought to wake up.
Stewart does seem way different than old political commentary in times of stone tablets and TV networks, and I do think the difference is that the format doesn't clearly differentiate THIS IS A JOKE from THIS IS A SERIOUS POLITICAL COMMENT.
Daily "Show"
Hmm, hadn't thought of the similarities between a "blog" and the daily show, but I think you have a point here. The Daily Show is only funny if you watch it with a pre-concieved opinion and are of similar mindset as Jon Stewart. To find all this "funny" is to leave out the fact that most of this is not new, that there are things behind it visitors or watchers don't know. Like with many blogs things are made up, taken out of context (to be funny ?) and distorted. And I wonder how many people actually believe it's News. Blogs do the same (on both sides of the political spectrum), they make things up, have conspiracy theories and take things out of context. Not necessarily to be funny, but to make a political point, to push their own agenda. Once you take this into context, the value of blogs is diminished. The same goes for newspaper stories, but that's not the point here.
I don't think Blogs have influenced what a younger generations finds funny, but they certainly show the shallowness of information available. Just because it's written, doesn't make it true. It's up to us to investigate and read more than one source.
Also the "older generation" doesn't find things as funny when there is an agenda behind it. Younger people tend to overlook this and just think it's "funny".