Tonight's episode starts with Jon Stewart making a quick note about his nightly attire. Sometimes people ask Stewart, "Hey, what's up with your tie?" and he's finally going to clear all this up... "All of my clothes are made by homeless children," he says. "From the Amazon".Moving on to the president's judicial nominee, John Roberts. Okay, so last time we heard about him, we learned more about his son's dancing habits than his personal judicial record. He's either a "mad bomber of women's abortion clinics" (I thought that was kind of weird... like, as opposed to 'men's abortion clinics'?) or a "homo-tastic friend of the sodomite". A pro-choice organization is fighting this nomination by claiming that Roberts filed a brief protecting clinic bombers. Well, it turns out that the bombing in question actually happened in 1998 and the brief filed by Roberts was from 1991 and pertained to protestor from a totally different case. Stewart says that it's like of like saying that if you bought Michael Jackson's Thriller from '82, then you support child molestation.
It's not only the liberals that are questioning Roberts because the far right has its doubts as well. The far right is also having it's doubts. The organization Public Advocate of the United States found that Roberts had worked on the gay side of a legal rights case and now find him too liberal. C'mon, man. Who didn't experiment a little with the gay side of a pro-bono legal rights case? That's what law school is for.
Time for some "This Week in God". Stephen Colbert makes a quick note to apologize about his inaccurate prediction of the Rapture coming last Thursday. He says sorry to everyone that quit their jobs or stopped watering their plants. He miscalculated and the real Rapture should be coming this Thursday. Alright, conjure up that God Machine.
- First up is Islam...
HappyModerate Islam. A new Fatwa was introduced to make it clear that the religion is against terrorism. This anti-violence Fatwa is like a Fatwa on other Fatwas... A Fatwa squared or a Meta-Fatwa, if you will. - Rastafarianism is next. Last week, about 60 Rastafari came together in hopes of convincing governments to decriminalize marijuana. Only 60 could show up? Clearly they don't have the good stuff. Colbert suggests that they come see him after the show because "he knows a guy" -- but only come to him when God isn't watching.
- Now for a sub-segment called "Blasphe-ME?" in which Colbert will mock a deity to find out whether he, she, or it is really all that. Tonight's victim is ancient Aztec god, Quetzacoatl. "Nice feathers! Do they have a men's department where you got those?" Colbert shouts. After some more verbal abuse, Colbert gives Quetzacoatl, the great feathered serpent, five seconds to strike him down. Nothing happens. This can only mean one thing: Quetzacoatl is a pussy.
- Oh! Time for an update on the power of prayer. Okay, two years ago, televangelist Pat Robertson prayed for a change in the Supreme Court and, lo, he got his wishes answered with the nomination of John Roberts. But God, two years? What took Him so long? A montage of nature rolls in the background. Oh yeah... That whole Earth thing. As if getting Roberts wasn't enough, Robertson prays again for even more vacancies in the Court. Since terms last a lifetime, you know what that means. Cue the creepy graphic of John Paul Stevens turning into a skeleton.
- And to wrap everything up, Colbert wishes all his Jewish friends a happy Tisha B'Av. He toots a party favor until Stewart awkwardly interrupts and informs him that Tisha B'Av is actually a day for mourning. Whoops. "Have a very mournful Tish B'Av," Colbert then says before blowing a soundless party favor.
Tonight's guest is rapper/rock star/movie star, Andre Benjamin from Four Brothers (opens tomorrow). Benjamin comes in looking very suave and confident, clutching his phone. He says that he likes to have it by his side because it's sort of his Linus blanket. Stewart's parenting instinct takes over and he pulls it away and puts it on the side, shaking his finger at Benjamin. "Bad. BAD!" Benjamin crosses his arms and pouts. Aww. Stewart gives in and gives the phone back. They spend quite a bit of time talking about the phone and all the cool features on it. Benjamin uses it to type in notes when he's doing character research, apparently. For example, he had a man come in to test his water recently and Benjamin found the man very interesting and started taking notes. The results from the water test were very interesting too, apparently. Pretty nasty stuff in there. Stewart shares his thought that he thinks there might be mouse poop in there. Benjamin says that he doesn't really know about the varieties of poop in the water because he's not a "poopologist". Man, this is a weird interview. Anyway, the new Outkast album will hopefully be out by the end of the year. Apparently, Benjamin and Big Boi are making it into a 1930's musical. That sounds highly bizarre... but interesting. By the way, whenever I see the Four Brothers image, I see ZOMBAID (Shaun of the Dead, anyone?) but that's probably just me.
Monday's guest is Steve Carell. This calls for some Netspeak. OMFGYAY! I just had to get that out of my system. The correspondent is now going to be the... correspondee? Whatever. It's Carell and it'll be cool. And now, your Moment of Zen: Hugo Chavez making a speech to some ominous music.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-12-2005 @ 10:38PM
Josh Hurd said...
Hey, I'm a big fan of the daily show usually, but the comments on Venezuela last night kinda sucked. From the jokes, it sounds like they maybe read an article about the country in the Economist and then stopped there. I mean what's cool about the daily show is that the political jokes are pretty sophisticated- like they really tell you something about the situation.
On the other hand, the daily show's suggestions on Venezuela were pretty lame. Like first all, Chavez isn't a latin american "strong man." He's probably got the most popular support of any politician in South America, which is part of why the Economist hates him so much, cause he's getting a lot of support for his anti-US policies. I mean his approval rating in his own country is over 70% I'd like to see Bush do that!)
Secondly, since when did the daily show cop out and go along with how the Bush administration thinks about a political situation? I mean of course Venezuela is terrified of the US invading them! But of course Bush is right, why would one of the largest oil producers in the world, who is leading the opposition in Latin America against the US government be concerned about an invasion? That's just crazy talk! I mean what were they expecting him to say? "Please have mercy! I want to LIVE!"
Venezuelans just aren't that chickenshit.
P.S. For the best updates on Venezuela in the news, try venezuelanalysis.com or vheadlines.com. Way better than most english-speaking news coverage.
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8-12-2005 @ 4:31PM
Chris said...
Dude, it's the fucken daily show, a show that comes on after a show with a talking turd, as John likes to say. Not get all political on us.
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8-12-2005 @ 10:42PM
Josh Hurd said...
Well... I think the problem with that response is that it really craps on what the daily show is all about. I mean after 9/11 the show got a lot more serious, and it got a lot funnier. I'm not quite sure why people always think those things can't go together.
I mean the irony really about what you said, was in a big way a part of the discussion in the Jon Stewart Crossfire interview, where Jon said that the show shouldn't be confused as being real journalism. But what the show definitely is (and extremely good at) is a show about political satire. And the irony about just thinking of it as the "fucken daily show" is that that is basically what Crossfire was aiming to do to Jon Stewart, which was to turn him into some kind of dancing monkey, that they didn't have to take seriously. And you know, he beat them into ground.
I mean Bill Moyers, who is actually a real journalist and a very good one, introduced Stewart on PBS as one of the greatest sources of political commentary for our generation. And in fact I've seen a lot of political debate on TV Squad reader comments that are very intelligent and political, and concerned, and they enjoy discussing what goes on on Jon Stewart's show. Because he really isn't just some dancing monkey. He's Mark Twain, he's H. L. Menckton, he's damn good at what he does.
So that's why it bothers me when he gets stuff wrong, cause he says it himself in interviews that his political jokes are supposed to have a kernel of truth in them. That's what makes them so funny! And the Venezuelan jokes were kinda weak, not because the comedy was off, but because the premise for the jokes (Chavez is an authoritarian nut job) isn't true.
So, I'm glad I commented on it, and I don't think I'm alone in caring a little bit about what the Daily Show says about politics and about the media. So, if you're waiting for me to suddenly say "Gee, what was I thinking mixing the Daily Show with politics and journalism"... don't hold your breath.
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8-16-2005 @ 12:18AM
RB said...
Anybody else notice that Andre thanked Jon after he gave back his cell phone by saying 'Danke'? What was that?
The political banter in the previous comments deserves a reply. Chavez current honeymoon 70% approval rating has more to do name recognition and with the frustration with the previous government. Venezuela is a mess. His plans to reverse privatization for a number of corrupt state owned companies and his populist socialism is what The Economonist dislikes.
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8-22-2005 @ 10:12PM
the burningman said...
The more serious Jon gets, the funnier it is. Here's the facts: Bush is the worst case scenario, and it gets worse all the time. Someone has to stand up to him take a piss out of him and not get all wishy-washy like everybody's equally full of shit. Bush is dangerous. Hit him below the belt. Chavez rocks, even if he wears the tackiest hat in the hemisphere. Think, Raspberry Beret...
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