Nobody has summed up the whole Jon Stewart leaving the Daily Show situation better than the man
of the hour himself. He has mocked the
weird tributes and eulogies that propped up hours before and after his official
announcement which seemed to position him as a man recently deceased (Derek
Jeter said similar things during his own Viking funeral, remarking how he felt like
he was at his own funeral after watching the tributes roll in). Last night on the show, Jon Stewart did some
good old fashioned Fox bashing with the twist of mocking their reaction to his
tenure on the Daily Show. Go out and watch it because there is nothing
better than when Jon Stewart mocks those at Bullshit Mountain. For the porpoises (I have a large dolphin
readership and I’ve wanted to make that pun for a long while, a long, long
while) of this essay/writing piece/ one way communique, I have decided to throw
out a couple names for people who would host the hell out of the Daily Show franchise. I’ve thought long and hard about it and here
are my suggestions:
Sarah Silverman
Norm MacDonald
Take a minute and soak in those names. Both are master comedians with a rapier wit
and penchant for unpredictability and fearlessness. Neither one caves to convention or the powers
that be and would keep the Daily Show
required viewing. Sarah Silverman has
become more overtly political over the years with her great PSA’s on abortion
rights and telling your grandma to vote for Obama. She would be a more than worthy successor and
would break the boy’s club that is the late night comedy scene. Plus, on a personal level, I would enjoy
seeing a late night host on television that is Jewish (hard to believe but
Stewart is the only Jewish late night host-obligatory joke about all the
writers being Jewish) and brings that culture to the foreground. It’s always nice to see some Jewish jokes
done by somebody in the know. Plus, a
highlight for me each year is seeing Jon Stewart take down the phony War on
Christmas with the insight of a Jewish outsider. This always makes the Hannukah candles
hanging from my Christmas Tree last that much longer. Sarah
Silverman is not afraid to be controversial and will gladly not kowtow to any
talking points spewing guest and would thusly be a great interviewer. I remember how she had a tiff with the Ted
Talks guy (they asked her to do a speech and then got mad when she did in fact
do her planned speech) and flat out owned him on social media and started a
discussion about what is wrong with Ted Talks.
Sarah Silverman is a great comedian and I have loved her specials in the
past and would be very excited to see her take over for Jon Stewart.
SNL 40 reawakened my love of Norm
MacDonald. The way he introduced Chevy
Chase with nary a care in the world made me go back and watch his specials and
old Weekend Update bits. He is a master
of the long pause and has a charmingly blasé attitude to whatever is occurring. Watch his interview on Letterman after he was
fired from Weekend Update to catch my drift.
The man has been fired from his job that very day and discusses it in a
casual “eh what are you gonna do about” way.
He is a great talk show guest and good interviewer as well, so that part
of the show will never be a problem. He’ll
always procure something interesting or strange out of a guest and is one of the
wittiest guests ever (again pull up any interview with him on Conan O’Brien – especially
the one where he’s talking about a Carrot Top movie). Norm MacDonald has done political material,
but the Daily Show doesn’t need to be
overtly political. I would expect the
new host to change the format or focus a bit and mold it to their
strengths. Norm MacDonald would be an
interesting host and can weave quite a great story (follow him on Twitter where
he has crafted fascinating yarns about Bob Dylan and Eddie Murphy at SNL
40). So I say Norm MacDonald for the Daily Show. Or if he doesn’t get it, how about Frank
Stallone.
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