The Daily Show

A recent poll showed that a surprisingly large percentage of Americans got their news from the faux news show the Daily Show. With corporate news becoming increasinly bland and sacrificing journalistic qualities in favor of ratings, news satire has becoming ever more important.

Jon Stewart is splendid as the host who pokes and prods public figures to discuss recent news in ways they cannot do on network news. The correspondents are terrific, especially Stephen Colbert. This show is the best of basic cable! Great guests who have made recent appearances include Ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose wife was outed as a CIA operative by Robert Novak, and Richard Clarke, the former counter-terrorism "czar". Conservatives get their chances to, but aside from John McCain, the audience (in NY) tends to favor the liberals.

Jon Stewart has really picked this show up. I never liked it much when the other host was there, and I have watched it nearly every night since Jon started hosting. I really like how he can deliver a joke and if it fails to generate a laugh, he can easily pick himself up and move on. The correspondants are fantastic. I get a kick out of all of them. Those stories are wonderful. If you haven't watched this before, my best comparison would be "Saturday Night Live's" Weekend Update.

This is a great show. Stewart has the perfect sense of humor to deal with the outrageness of his correspondents. He remains the center of sanity as reporters like Colbert, Carrell, and Rocca act in the strangest of ways. The seriousness that their interviewing subjects show is absolutely amazing. They pick on everyone equally. If the Onion had a TV show, this would be it. The only area were the show could slightly improve is Jon's interviewing technique. He doesn't match up with Conan as far as getting funny stuff out of the celebrities, but he is better than most. This show is absolutely incredible and I hope it lasts forever.

I WAS a Daily Show fan for years, but am completely confused at the decision to place Trevor Noah in the anchor seat. As with all nightly talk shows, it seems The Daily Show wants to be more frat party than talk show. Obviously, anyone who replaced John Stewart was going to be facing great scrutiny, but Trevor just is not a good fit. Gone is the sly wit, emotional connection, and light banter that The Daily Show excelled at. It was a struggle for me to stay up so late the watch this show (because I get up so early in the morning), but I always thought it was worth the effort. I guess now, I get an hour more sleep every night. Healthy for me, but it feels like something is missing now.

From Jon Stewart's zany wit to Stephen and Steven's outrageous sarcasm, to Lewis Black's volcanic sardonic rants, to Mo Rocca's clever political satire, to the sly, subtle, absurd humor from regulars such as Tolan, Woods, Walls, Helms, Corddry, Harris, et al. ... this wonderful, unique, insightful, and unbelievably hilarious tv show is truly a delight to watch.

For many young adults, the complex truths and shades of grey in this new "adult world" tend to be oversimplified and broadly painted by the ratings crazed popular News Media. It is a relief and a comfort to view a program to poke fun and point out the underlying absurdity of it all. Understand, this show does not preach, and its intentions are first, and foremost, to crack jokes and promote laughter. But in an era when lowbrow, kitschy humor and shock seem to be the easiest path to laughter, it is a pleasure and a blessing to have such a smart, witty, and insightful show as this one.

Not to be missed.