‘The Daily Show’ in Iraq (kinda, sorta)

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The Comedy Central press release made it sound like a broadcasting watershed, possibly even akin to Walter Cronkite declaring the Vietnam War a lost cause.

“Operation Silent Thunder: ‘The Daily Show’ in Iraq.”

Jon Stewart and his merry band of faux reporters are not, however, in Baghdad this week. One of them is—or was, correspondent Rob Riggle, who visited various military bases as part of a USO tour of comics, performing sketches for the troops.

In the tradition of Bob Hope, comedians have been entertaining the troops in Iraq for years, arriving by military aircraft (Kathy Griffin made an episode of her Bravo series “My Life on the D-list” out of one such trip).

“The Daily Show” refers to the Iraq War as “Mess O’Potamia.” Monday night, Riggle filed the first of his reports from Camp Anaconda north of Baghdad, seeking to confirm that, yes, he was actually in Iraq (as opposed to fellow “senior Baghdad correspondent” Aasif Mandvi, who was only stealing his spotlight via green screen).

“Jon, I’m on a C-130 flying into Iraq. Right now,” Riggle proved in a taped report.

He was also actually on a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter. And actually on a boat in the Persian Gulf.

Riggle described weather conditions as “hot as hell.’ You believed him.

“It’s a dry hell, though,” he said.

--Paul Brownfield