by Eddie Brawley

Created on: January 12, 2009

The Daily Show with John Stewart is a half-hour television show that airs Monday-Thursday on Comedy Central. The aim of the show is to engage critically with the political events of the current news cycle in a humorous way, although with an admittedly liberal bent. The first act of the show generally consists of an introductory monologue explaining the main stories of the day with 3 or 4 jokes about each story. Then is usually a sketch which elaborates on a specific story and comments on it in greater depth. The second act is usually another sketch, and the third act is an interview with a major figure from the world of politics, science, or entertainment. Unless the guest is only there to promote a movie or TV show, the discussions are fairly serious and bring out host John Stewart's own passionate liberal bias.

While the show bills itself as a "fake news show," its does have a more specific goal, which is, as host John Stewart explained on Crossfire in 2004, to mine material from the absurdity of a mainstream media that hardly ever engages with politicians in a real way. For example, the fact that news networks have "Spin Alley" segments following debates, in which viewers are willingly subjected to deception, is the kind evidence of a faulty system that The Daily Show aims to exploit.

Critics of The Daily Show are quick to compare its content to that of other political shows in an effort to prove the hypocrisy of a TV show bashing the media. I.e. "The Daily Show asked John Kerry 'So have you ever flip-flopped?' and you say our questions aren't hard-hitting?" The Daily Show's response is always to point out that it is not a news show, but a comedy show and therefore should not be held to the same standards as MSNBC, CNN, or FoxNews. While this is certainly a valid argument on the part of the Daily Show, it does lead to some situations that could be seen as unfair, especially in the interview portion of the show. Specifically, when a politician comes on the show thinking he or she just has to make a few jokes and then finds him- or herself in a heated debate. For better or worse, John Stewart actually interviews people and does not let them get away with lazy, campaign-tested answers. Whether or not he then hides behind the "comedy show" defense to escape a discussion when cornered is debatable.

One of the most talked about aspects of the show is its writing. The Daily Show writing staff is consistently one of the finest in television and have almost a half dozen Emmys to prove it. The content they produce each night is incredibly precise political satire that is always smart and from time to time can be self-consciously silly. Like Stewart's interview style, the Daily Show's voice is one that does not let public figures get away with things that the rest of the media will overlook. As Todd Hansen of The Onion said at the 2008 New Yorker Festival, people don't consume shows like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report to get their news. Rather, people consume such shows to get their critical thinking about the news. The Daily Show consistently finds new and surprising angles on the news that traditional news media are unable or unwilling to.

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