Daily Show Looks To Obama Era: "We're Going To Have To Adjust"

Variety:

Now what?

With George Bush back in Crawford, Texas, and Barack Obama in the White House trying to deal with the nation's woes, will "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" still have enough satirical fodder for its four-nights-per week/161-episodes-per-year broadcast?

"With a whole new administration, we're going to have to adjust," admits co-exec producer Josh Lieb. "It would be backwards to plan the adjustment first," explains the vet comedy writer, who notes that in the waning days of the Bush administration the ex-president was an easy laugh. But the future is not without promise. "There's going to be plenty of scandals, plenty of missteps and plenty of things to take out of context to get our 22 minutes of comedy every night. I'm not worried."

Read the whole story: Variety

Comments

[gmlaster]

06:26 PM on 01/22/2009

Oh please! There's still plenty to laugh at. After all, we've still got the same Congress.

[2008CaliforniaFan]

10:38 PM on 01/22/2009

And besides Congress there is still the 'Blamey Whinehouse of Alaska, (NO way is she going to shut up) JPL, Lush and Hannity and anybody on else on Faux news saying 'stupid stuff' daily.

There is P L E N T Y of material.

[SCG]

01:27 PM on 01/22/2009

It's still Washington­. I'm sure there will be plenty of room for satire. I thought he had a very funny take on the inaugural ceremonies­. Democrats should be able to laugh at themselves­, it's healthy not to take yourself too seriously.

[rock2casbah]

03:40 PM on 01/22/2009

That's the only way we have kept our sanity is through our sense of humor. How else could we stay strong when someone you knew better than to ever vote for ruins your 401K, turns your country into a laughingst­ock, and tosses your rights away like last weeks leftovers?

[TIRM]

01:07 PM on 01/22/2009

Well the first day with Obama was pretty lame. If TDS has to go to an extreme to make fun of Bush or Fox on a daily basis, like they did yesterday, the show is going to crash quickly. I used to watch everyday, but the koolaid lost it's flavor over the last year, and I don't think John Stewart has enough talent to make fun of his idol in an intelligen­t manner without driving the rest of the flock insane with anger.

Colbert on the other hand was hilarious, I think he has a future since he doesn't take himself nearly as seriously as JS has over the past year. Unfortunat­ely TDS has turned into less of a new satire show and more of a hate Bush and Republican forum for the mindless bots that fill his bleachers. The same is going to happen to KO and RM...and pretty much the entire MSNBC lineup. You can't strip your audience to one specific ideology and expect them to hang around when you trash their saviour. If they hadn't gone so far in the tank they might have a chance, but not now.

[Durango]

12:07 PM on 01/22/2009

The Daily Show and Colbert still have the Corporate Media. Which in all truth have provided their best material.

As long as Fox News and Katie Couric and George Stephanopo­lis etc etc remain employed the comedians will have plenty of material to work with.

As if the American media could be any lamer than they are. . . it would be an impossibil­ity.

In truth Jon's jokes about Democrats have not been nearly as funny.

But then the comedians in the Republican Party have been World Class. Impossible to best.

[Sugermen]

10:14 AM on 01/22/2009

Don't worry Jon Stewart
Joe Biden will give you enough material

[Jesster]

03:24 AM on 01/22/2009

Lest we forget, although Bill Clinton & Co. supplied an almost endless stream of comedic material - the supporting cast was also very prolific in providing inspiratio­n.

I'm sure that as Obama becomes more familiar, the comedian class will find ample characteri­stics to develop and work with.

But don't overlook the wealth of potential so generously provided by both parties and both houses of Congress, not to mention the pundits and celebritie­s in general. Not to worry...

[Citizen-Jane]

09:41 PM on 01/21/2009

As long as there are republican­s the show will have a plethera of comedy material.

[4Q-N4Q2]

07:04 PM on 01/21/2009

Hmmmm ..... whole lotta' a$$ kissin' goin' on, to be expected when you're nothin' but a "in the tank p.i.m.p".

[Lerk4]

10:20 PM on 01/21/2009

Go back into your hole troll.

[catgirl666]

11:58 PM on 01/21/2009

Maybe the Dick, (Cheney ) has room in his undisclose­d location for you. Come out in 4 to 8 years! hehe

[DontJustFollow]

06:31 PM on 01/21/2009

Obama is off limits for 100 days -

If I were Dodd or Frank or Pelosi I would be terrified.

Reid and Kennedy and Byrd will never know so have at it - - -

John Stewart has great writers, his biggest concern though is loosing the million viewers that depended on him for their hard news - - -

[Durango]

12:08 PM on 01/22/2009

We don't rely on the Daily Show for news.

We rely on it for commentary­.

Big difference­.

[Peter007]

06:18 PM on 01/21/2009

The show will fall flat.
Too many Obama supporters watch the show and they are super sensitive about criticism of Obama. Stewart can't raise Obama up on a pedestal and then tear him down. It doesn't fit..
Stewart will make a half heated attempt to ridicule some obtuse item about Obama but it will fail. In order to be funny, it has to have some truth behind it. Making up stuff about his ears is not funny.
Being funny means taking an idea that Obama believes is serious and then reducing it to the absurd. Thats something Rush Limbaugh does.
Stewart doesn't have the capacity to do that.
Stewart's show is about ridicule.

[TAC]

01:04 AM on 01/22/2009

"Stewart can't raise Obama up on a pedestal and then tear him down. It doesn't fit."

He did it with McCain. Took him a while to wake up, but eventually he did.

[wadda]

03:55 AM on 01/22/2009

Sorry, you're partially correct. The nutshell definition of humor is the sudden revelation of the absurd as absurd.

Limbaugh doesn't do that. He just twists logic and breaches the bounds of reason.

You might just be confused because demagoguer­y, like comedy, also fiddles with logic.

I have it on good account that they are different.

[tedmore123]

05:53 PM on 01/21/2009

Well they can't fault Obama for being able to string together coherent sentences or making perfect sense when he speaks. Dubya couldn't do either - ever.

[dezzertguy]

02:32 PM on 01/21/2009

Will they end the show since jokes about Obama are off limits. We know we cannot comment on his ears as writers were so quick to compare Bush to Mad Magazine. One cannot joke about Obama as he told Maureen Dowd so clearly. What will they do?

[diamondgirl9]

02:39 PM on 01/21/2009

Make jokes about Obama,and Congress.

[Provit2me]

03:35 PM on 01/21/2009

I'm an Obama supporter - Please, make jokes about him - no one should be off limits. That would be hypicritic­al if they didn't. Please, he's only human- Now, the kids "hands off"

[ctblue]

01:22 PM on 01/21/2009

Well... there's still Sarah Palin! She still wants to extend her 15 minutes of fame! Plenty there to work with.

[glorialovelace]

01:17 PM on 01/21/2009

I think that Joe and Doc Biden will supply ample fodder for comedians. The pair of them appear to be "naturals" in the tradition of Dan Quayle, Gerry Ford, Dubya and the rest of the gaffe-pron­e gang.

[Adrienne Williams]

01:53 PM on 01/21/2009

I don't know, I think it makes them human and imperfect like us all. Give way to go Joe a break please!

[dezzertguy]

02:33 PM on 01/21/2009

Yes, Buffy Biden will erase Dan Quayle as the VP gaff machine. I think Quayle was the only Rep truly happy with the election.

[Lerk4]

10:23 PM on 01/21/2009

You mean DOCTOR BIDEN? And YOUR education level sir? A simple mistake, and wow it was the truth! I know it's been a long time, but the truth is a GOOD thing.

[Thinkingclearly]

11:56 PM on 01/21/2009

No --

Joe Biden will never replace Quayle, because Joe has a genuine and deep understand­ing about a lot of things that Quayle was just beginning to figure out. He enjoys talking about and discussing what's going on because he cares and just like the rest of us, there's always going to be somewhere in the conversati­on, he may say something he shouldn't have.

I think both he and Jill are great--the­y're genuine and you don't have to listen to them and think "I wonder what the real story is" like you did when you listened to Cheney.

[JohnCochtosten]

01:00 PM on 01/21/2009

Please, people. There will always be subjects for them to mock, even in regards to the administra­tion. They mock the Democrats constantly­, and for good reason. The Democratic congress hasn't exactly given me much hope lately.