Although fake news hosts and correspondents are super wonderful and the folks running the equipment do marvelous jobs, there's a great amount of talent that often goes tragically unnoticed. Well, now is the time to adjust the limelight a little bit and focus on one of those groups. The newest issue of PRINT Magazine has an interesting look at the graphics departments of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, who consistently provide visually stunning and hilarious material that bring half the shows' funny.
As a total geek for digital imaging and design, I found this article fascinating. I know I've gushed about their work repeatedly in my Daily Show reviews, but I believe it's fully deserved. It sounds like the graphics team works down to the last minute, because the writing team makes revisions right up until the taping starts.
Plus, the ability to walk the fine line between classy and ridiculously overblown is tough to acquire and has visibly improved over the past few years. Just take a peek at the overall look of TDS way, way back in the day by traveling through TheDailyShow.com's archives. Sure, part of it has to do with the technological aspect of it, but it's obvious that the overall voice has been developed into something very sharp and original through time. Plus, it's super pretty.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-06-2008 @ 6:12PM
0megapart!cle said...
That is pretty cool. Definitely, the graphics on the Daily Show are as good as anything on any of the "serious" news networks. Hell, watching O'Reilly last week for the Obama interview, The Factor looks like it operates on a shoestring, compared to the Daily Show.
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9-06-2008 @ 6:43PM
Nhex said...
Decent read.
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9-06-2008 @ 6:44PM
Nhex said...
Decent read, thanks.
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9-06-2008 @ 11:05PM
StillBash said...
They were really on fire this week. Some of the graphics accompanying the Palin reports were so top notch I was wondering how they were able to pull that off in the small amount of time they have. There have to be real geniouses at work at those two shows and they really add to the quality of the show in a temenous way.
But the last two weeks of TDS have been absolutely great also because of Jon going after the Right and gushing over the Left. The writing has been great as well and the correspondents were on fire. Indicision time has never been this great before if you ask me because no matter what in the end there will be change.
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9-07-2008 @ 12:02AM
teenagertc said...
Maybe I missed something, but what happened to the recaps of The Colbert Report?
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9-07-2008 @ 4:45AM
Zachary said...
That's only for special occasions.
9-07-2008 @ 4:51AM
Zachary said...
I prefer the Colbert Report graphics. More elaborate, more animated, more explosive (literally). Remember Democralypse Now: The Delightful Devastation of the Democratic Hope-scape, which featured a blue donkey running towards a crossroads, crashing into a Obama/Hillary signpost and splitting in half, a John McCain head rising and mumbling "the horror, the horror" followed by a series of explosions? And that doesn't even account for Democralypse-acrolypse. I gotta go watch that one again!
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9-07-2008 @ 1:45PM
FiannaLord said...
My personal favorite graphic among the two shows was when the Colbert Report covered "A monkey on the lamb!"
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