26 Responses to “Brilliant”

1. #1 |  bigjohn756 |  June 15th, 2011 at 8:24 pm

   I love the ears bleeding. I have cotton balls at the ready all the time for this.

2. #2 |  Justin |  June 15th, 2011 at 8:35 pm

   Hmmm every major candidate except Obama?

3. #3 |  Buddy Hinton |  June 15th, 2011 at 9:03 pm

   He’s from Community!

4. #4 |  Laura Victoria |  June 15th, 2011 at 9:36 pm

   I didn’t find it that funny, and certainly not brilliant.

5. #5 |  Ed Dunkle |  June 15th, 2011 at 9:45 pm

   Eighteen months of horse race stories studiously avoiding any discussion of public policy. Oh joy. (I’m talking mainstream media here.)

6. #6 |  Rune |  June 15th, 2011 at 9:57 pm

   @Laura That’s… good to know?

7. #7 |  CrB |  June 15th, 2011 at 10:02 pm

   @#2 that’s what I was thinking when I watched it. It’s a shame that I have to turn the bullshit detector on to watch the Daily Show these days.

8. #8 |  Les |  June 15th, 2011 at 10:05 pm

   Holding the crucifix while reciting the Lord’s Prayer in front of Santorum made me, as the kids say, LOL. Hilarious and, yes, brilliant.

   I remember Colbert at the 2004 Democratic Convention. Some Dem mouthpiece was spewing talking points into his mic and he started to quite obviously yawn.

   “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “Am I boring you?”

   Colbert replied, “No, no, it’s not you. It’s what you’re saying.”

   Yes. Brilliant.

9. #9 |  Les |  June 15th, 2011 at 10:09 pm

   @2, and @7, Obama’s not in New Hampshire. Comedy comes before fairness (for any decent comedian), and what the party that’s not in power has to do in these elections is often funnier than what the incumbent does. They’ve not been kind to Obama and I’m sure as he speaks at fundraisers, etc., he’ll say plenty of stupid shit that they’ll pounce on.

   Also, I loathe Obama, so my motivation for defending them is purely comedic.

10. #10 |  MM |  June 15th, 2011 at 10:30 pm

    #9 Exactly. Funny political humor is funny before it’s political. When you try to be ideological before funny, it becomes that Half Hour News Hour, or the last couple of seasons of Murphy Brown.

    #2 and #7: If it helps your delicate sensibilities, he was mocking the process and the vapidity, moreso than anything else.

11. #11 |  Boyd Durkin |  June 15th, 2011 at 10:39 pm

    Being in NH I hoped it would be funny, but I just didn’t laugh (and I laugh out loud at cat pics).

    He took his usual cheap shots at Ron Paul for providing complex answers instead of sound bites. Next JS will deride Palin for oversimplifying complex topics into witty retorts and become a complete pussy when he gets Rumsfeld on his show.

12. #12 |  Mike Leatherwood |  June 15th, 2011 at 11:01 pm

    It was very funny….but what some of you cats are trying to extrapolate from it is proof America does more drugs than what is reported.

13. #13 |  CrB |  June 15th, 2011 at 11:25 pm

    @#9 and #10 Don’t get me wrong, I get it. I still watch The Daily Show and am still a fan of Jon Stewart, but I don’t need you smug boners to explain comedy to me.

    “Obama’s not in New Hampshire…” I didn’t realize Hilary, Dean, McCain and Kerry were running this year. They were all featured prominently in this clip.

14. #14 |  CrB |  June 15th, 2011 at 11:31 pm

    Also, after the whole “Anthony Wiener is my friend, I don’t want to hurt his feelings.” Bullshit the past couple of weeks, you can’t tell me that comedy is always “funny before it’s political” at The Daily Show.

15. #15 |  Josh J |  June 15th, 2011 at 11:36 pm

    Haha, #13 nailed it.

16. #16 |  Les |  June 16th, 2011 at 3:35 am

    CrB, I wasn’t trying to “explain comedy” to you. I was trying to defend the comedy of the piece from pointless charges of political bias. The Democrats presented represented “candidates” (I didn’t see George W., either) and were part of the overall theme of political primaries, as opposed to the horror of what Oliver was experiencing specifically in the present.

    Your point about Wiener is kind of silly, because immediately after saying he was his friend and didn’t want to make fun of him…he made fun of him! And I never said comedy is always funny before it’s political “at The Daily Show.” I said that as a general rule. The Daily Show is less funny when it is being political than when it’s making fun of politics. That’s why the bit in question was funny.

17. #17 |  yonemoto |  June 16th, 2011 at 5:43 am

    Les: Not the lord’s prayer. Psalm 23.

18. #18 |  Radley Balko |  June 16th, 2011 at 7:11 am

    He took his usual cheap shots at Ron Paul for providing complex answers instead of sound bites.

    He did? I only see Ron Paul’s name once, and that’s when he’s making the point that every candidate’s campaign claims to have won after a debate.

19. #19 |  Kristen |  June 16th, 2011 at 9:25 am

    I thought it was a very funny lampoon of the bullshit process, not any one candidate in particular. The Republican party is the party that has to “run” this year, not the Democrats. This isn’t 2008 where there was no incumbent preseident. The Ds already have their candidate, so their campaign won’t begin in earnest until the Repubblican field comes more into focus (and less of a joke).

20. #20 |  sterlinm |  June 16th, 2011 at 9:26 am

    You didn’t notice, Radley? It was at that imaginary part that shows up in every video or article where they unfairly attack *your* favored candidate, right before that part where they either go easy on or don’t attack your *least* favorite candidate. Oddly, this phenomenon is experienced only in internet comments or when discussing the video/article in question with your parents.

21. #21 |  Cyto |  June 16th, 2011 at 10:41 am

    I thought it was brilliant. Particularly the part about “ask him who won the debate”. That “horse race” reporting is beyond annoying, it is actually destructive to the democratic process. (because of the implicit ‘jump on the bandwagon, go with a winner!’ message)

    I did get the implication that they viewed Ron Paul as the ultimate embodiment of evil politician – choosing his image and voice for the bloody screen. Not that it was exactly a smear against Paul, just that it revealed the filmmaker’s attitudes. When they needed the most obviously out-there, evil candidate they could imagine, the go-to was Paul. Just like they picked Gingrich for their “Undead” candidate.

    Nothing really wrong with that – I might have chosen a different candidate if I was making the clip, but the point was perfectly valid, and you had to pick somebody for the joke. You can’t really argue with their points on a ridiculous 2 year election cycle. (even though they are ironically a full-time political satire show about national issues, running continuously for the entire 4 year presidential term).

    Similarly, it is hard to argue with the notion that Ron Paul is the progressive’s anti-christ, and “libertarian” is their term of hell-spawn damnation. Reading the comments on the HuffPo article about forensic laboratory reform should provide plenty of examples to underscore that notion.

22. #22 |  You’d better watch out …. | Andreas Matern's Weblog |  June 16th, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    [...] from here. [...]

23. #23 |  DarkEFang |  June 16th, 2011 at 4:05 pm

    This clip is mocking the ridiculous news media coverage of the Republican candidates. It isn’t making jokes at the candidate’s expense. That comes later.

24. #24 |  Boyd Durkin |  June 16th, 2011 at 4:56 pm

    My mistake. Stewart swiped Ron Paul in his monologue, not in the video.

25. #25 |  Boyd Durkin |  June 16th, 2011 at 5:00 pm

    sterlinm,
    You try watching the Daily Show between shrooms and vodka and try to keep shit straight.

    I stand by my grade of this video as: meh.

26. #26 |  Les |  June 16th, 2011 at 5:31 pm

    And the very next night, as I predicted, Obama was stupid and they made fun of him.

    (go to 1:45)

    http://www.hulu.com/watch/250373/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-west-wing-story?c=Comedy#s-p1-sr-i1

    yonemoto,

    Thanks! I’ll get that right next time.

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