'The Daily Show' Takes On Twitter (VIDEO)

In a segment called "Old Man Stewart Shakes His Fist At [Twitter]" Jon explored the world of tweeting last night with help from Samantha Bee, who is not only on Twitter, but Grunter and Stalker as well.


Stewart raised concerns that this trend further frays our already small attention spans, and admitted that he "has no f**king idea how Twitter works or why it is." But Bee assured him "it's awesome."


She went on to explain that it offers insight into our most important news makers' least important thoughts and that young people love it according to old people.


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Comments

[dagdavid]

I vow never to twitter away my time (lest I'm posting of Huff)

[johnnyjust]

"I'm watching Idol, are you watching Idol? Now I'm watching a commercial, are you watching the commercial?"

Twit-Wit.

[Samalabear]

As Maher said the other night, we are in danger of becoming perceived as a "silly people." He was quoting from a line in "Lawrence of Arabia," where Lawrence was telling the Arabs that they were in danger of being perceived as a silly people because of their intra-bickering.

[rightsize2005]

My idea of twittering is passing gas, anyone interested in that?

[InstantDogma]

We ARE a nation of gerbils.

[normanbravo]

I watched this epside on DVR this afternoon after reading this post. Thanks! Came across a great blog post about this episode and whether or not twitter is really a good or bad thing for news media. Really important discussion to have actually.

I especially liked it because most of the discussion I've seen in other blogs and articles about twitter seems to be about what celebrity or news person is using twitter. Who cares?????? They are humans too. Of course they can learn how to use a simple service. Am I alone on this??

Here's the blog post I mentioned above:
Twitter's Mainstream Media Surge: New Media, New Problems?
http://interrobangblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/twitters-mainstream-media-surge-new.html

[undeluded]

It's pretty ridiculous that so many in Congress decided it was more important to dispatch their preconceptions, sarcasm, and inanities, than to actually pay attention to what was being said in the chamber. Helping to teach our children and adolescents the distorted value of not needing to be totally present in their environment, these Congresspeople epitomized disrespect, disassociation, and detachment during an event when most of us would have hoped that they would anything but.

Cell phones and other devices that allow IMs, tweets, etc., should be banned, at least during joint chamber activities.

[golferman]

I just let one go, boy it felt good.

[InstantDogma]

That may be the funniest damn thing I have seen in a while.

[night owl]

Twitter is the current generation's CB radio.... read my essay on the subject at:

http://www.ragan.com/

[AlphaMutt]

meet some interesting new friends?...you're kidding, right?...

Interesting means never having to say you're tweeting.

[Jeffreygeez]

Twitter is a step below wrting on blogs. The worlds need to feel somehow relevant in a world perceived to have no meaning.

Next athletes will be wired so we can hear them tell us what moves they will be making ,and why they are making them before thhe actually make them. We are so ahead of the curve.

The New Yorker cartoon thatsshowed a man speaking on his cell phone while getting on a train, sitting on the train, and then getting off the train. He made 3 phone calls to let someone out there know each move. A real live Twit! Perfect!

[InstantDogma]

Twitter is one step below staring sat your genitalia in a mirror for a marathon 14 hour session.

[daddysboy]

The only thing I've ever used Twitter for is to send links to ACTUAL sentences and commentary. Sort of like RSS (really small syndication) for individuals. Just because inane people are making the technology popular in an inane way doesn't mean that it is worthless - close, but not worthless. The Daily Show bit was funny though as everything Samantha Bee gets her hands on ends up being.

[bob8788]

Twitter is one of the most useless things I have come across over the internet

[Sinclair]

Whenever anyone says that something is "awsome," you know that it's not.

The word "awesome" has become code for "passe" and that the real meaning of the word is "incredibly lame" and "dumber than sh*t."

[DubiousAtBest]

The same thing applies to the word "AMAZING".
People use "Amazing" to describe the most mundane things these days.

That sandwich is amazing! Really? You are actually "amazed" by a sandwich?

[KeyWestDan]

Clearly you have never enjoyed a grilled magician sandwich.

[zanzig]

2 empty tin cans and a piece of string. Oh the nostalgia.

[wietog]

As soon as a youth-oriented "trend" is on the news, it's way past its prime. Remember when no one new what a rave was? I suspect all these aging news hounds focus on these types of sites because they are so proud of themselves for having figured out how to use them.

Cold hard fact: most of what we used to hear as "statistics" and "opinion" came from phone interviews. Who would bother answering? Old women. Trust me - I worked for both the Census Bureau and teleresearch agencies. Today, it's not much better. Productive, popular people have no time to answer surveys. These sites have become the equivalent. Facebook is now most popular with women over 50 (aka "moms")...