Political Comedy Show Rankings

We are living in the golden age of political comedy shows so today I unveil my ranked order of the best damn political comedy shows out there while Stephen Colbert is still around and kicking. 

1)      Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – The newest show on the block is also the best one on the political comedy block.  The highlight of each episode is the long piece expose that can range from a discussion on how poorly The Miss America Pageant’s scholarship fund allocation is to a depressing discussion on how we treat people who translated for our military in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Each segment is presented in an unrushed format that is filled with as many details and shockingly depressing facts as there are actual jokes.  Sometimes the jokes feel extraneous due to how compelling each mid show piece is.  The weakness of John Oliver is the smugness and fake intellectualism that comes with watching the show.  You feel like you’re in the know of issues and smarter than the rest of the public when really you just know the tip of the iceberg and should use the show as a jumping off point for more knowledge on a particular subject.  I blame this on the fans and websites like Salon rather than on John Oliver (the man is a comedian doing his best).  Plus his British accent makes his show all the more charming and adds a more personal element to a story like the Scottish Independence movement (and his amazing Scottish accent).  John Oliver’s show is the pinnacle of comedy and depressing news and it is easily the best of the batch.

2)      Real Time with Bill Maher – Lately Bill Maher has been making news for being – gasp – controversial but I mean that’s the reason we love him.  He’s called smug and an asshole by his own fans, but in my view that’s his charm.  He is the ultimate Hollywood liberal and he fucking owns it like no one else.  He enjoys every aspect of the stereotype and implores the rest of the country to live in his “hedonistic” dream.  I for one can’t wait for his dream to become a reality.  Bill Maher is the only person on this list whose views and ideas actually surprise me.  I remember him sticking up for a bully a few years ago saying something along the lines of kids beat up other kids big deal, and immediately the panel and audience turned on him and he wound up alone on his own show.  He’s fearlessness in never kowtowing to his audience or guests and is something that makes him stand out among the rest.  If he has a guest on the show spewing out talking points and downright lies he will always call them out on it in an aggressive way that is lacking from Jon Stewart on occasion.  His panel usually includes the token conservative or libertarian meaning that the show will never be a dull or predictable preaching to the choir exercise in mental masterbation.  Maher always treats his guest right and I enjoy how he will never presuppose a position on a guest and will always listen to their point.  I’ve seen Real Time episodes where the MSNBC anchor (while I agree with them in most of their arguments) end up looking worse than the token conservative because they didn’t come into the discussion with an open mind and were content to stick to worn out talking points that didn’t apply to their ideological opponent.  Plus Bill Maher is the best on religion and I’ll never get tired of him taking them all to task.  And a word to the students at UC Berkley - stop protesting and let the man speak at your graduation.  You're lucky to have him agree to speak there in the first place.  So much for a so-called liberal academy of learning.

3)      The Colbert Report – This was always my favorite of the bunch (I was president of the Colbert Club in high school) but he has slipped in my rankings.  There used to be a time when every episode of the Colbert Report was gold from on high.  He did the Daft Punk dance off, subverted campaign election finance laws, and still had enough time to dole out some bear hatred.  Ever since the announcement that he is moving over to CBS, the madness that kept the Colbert flame a-running has lessened.  His stories aren’t as political or razor sharp anymore.  It seems that he’s stuck between transitioning between the conservative blowhard Stephen Colbert and regular Stephen Colbert that will be appearing for good next year.  The man is still the best interviewer of the bunch (see his interviews where he sits in silence with the Black Keys) and will still put on a tremendously unique show like his Watergate throwback episode.  He has slipped but this last run of shows until December hopefully will live up to his boast of every show being an instant classic.  So far he’s more or less lived up to the billing, but I’m hoping he’ll bring out some of his older weirder bits.  Maybe mention the riff with the Decembrists, the Sean Penn metaphor off, or play his new wave single “Charlene (I’m Right Behind You)” from his band Stephen and the Colberts.  Those bits were unlike anything I’ve seen and are always up there as the pinnacle of what the Colbert Report can be in its weirdest and most delightful moments.  I will always love the Report and will dutifully follow Colbert to CBS hoping he can match at least 50% of the grandeur he attained on Comedy Central.

4)      The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – I chalk this up more to the fact that everybody has caught up to Stewart rather than him tumbling and stumbling.  The bits on the Daily Show are still great when dealing with issues of income inequality and the legendary bit on the financial crash, but my biggest point of contention comes with the interviews.  Stewart gets the biggest guests out of all the political comedy shows but his interviews don’t have the same zeal and passion on a whole as they used to.  He’s too respectful and deferential to his guests but maybe that’s just my fault for looking to a comedian to do something that real news organizations should be doing.  When he was talking to Wendy Davis last night I wanted him to go in more depth about how her views are really an outlier in the state of Texas and how she really has no chance to be governor in the reddest of red states (especially with those voting laws).  I’ll also go out and say that I am getting a bit tired of his Italian-Jersey guy accent and wish he would stick with his Lindsay Graham southern belle, Mitch McConnell turtle, and Chuck Schumer Jewish mother voices.  Those are the best.  Jon Stewart still puts on a great show but I’ve noticed that the jokes don’t hit as frequently as they used to and the show can sometimes divulge into solely making fun of airhead cable news personalities.  His best segment of late strayed from cable news and dealt with how actual Congressmen discuss global warming.  He took them down in a manner that actually justified the hyperbolic Salon/Huffington Post headline that accompanied the clip the next morning.  More of that would be great but otherwise it’s the fucking Daily Show.  The Last thing theyneed is advice from a guy who has enough time to watch every episode of these four shows and have time for more.