There’s something funny about ‘Daily Show’

Conventional wisdom holds that reformed sinners make tedious company. I would add that reformed clowns rank a close second. As Patrick Goldstein’s fawning profile of “The Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart points out (“Politics on a Skewer,” April 27), for much of his life the comic was admittedly ignorant about the world beyond show business.

Then after the 2000 election, he and his writers “got religion” and took it upon themselves to start sharing their wisdom. What a shame.

Until then, I was a huge fan of “The Daily Show,” going out of my way to recommend it to friends. But then the unrelenting Bush jokes began. Rarely funny, they were variations on “Bush is a moron” and “Bush is an uncouth, corrupt moron.” It hurt to watch a once-funny show laid low by its own pretensions.

Which is not to say that President Bush should be off-limits for humor. God knows his off-the-cuff comments often resemble a stuttering sequence of senior moments. And his policies are fair game too. But to be funny, true satire needs to be more than a witty twist on Democratic talking points.

For one who considers himself bright, Stewart should do some basic arithmetic: In a country divided 50-50 politically, partisan jokes will turn off half your audience. It’s not smart show business. Yes, “The Daily Show” does jokes about Sen. John Kerry and other Democrats, but none with the same partisan sting. The bias in the writing stands out.

Let’s consider the example that Goldstein cited as “peerless political satire” in his article. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was testifying before the 9/11 commission when Richard Ben-Veniste attempted to embarrass her by asking the title of a briefing document, then cutting her off as she tried to provide context. He was not seeking information -- the reason for hearings -- but grandstanding and trying to score political points. Stewart’s supposed brilliance was essentially to reiterate Ben-Veniste’s play but with added eye rolls and pregnant pauses. Yeah, brilliant.

A brilliant satirist might have pointed out that Rice had already testified for four hours to the commission, but that only five of the 10 commissioners had bothered to show up at that time. It took TV cameras to get full attendance. Or that the 9/11 commissioners have behaved like PR whores, spouting predictions on chat shows about their coming report before they’ve even finished hearing testimony (“First the sentence, then the trial!” cried the queen).

But then Stewart might not have been able to book 9/11 commissioner Bob Kerrey as a guest the night before Bush and Cheney’s joint testimony to the commission. (Having serious players as guests surely stokes Stewart’s sense of self-importance.) Yukking it up on Stewart’s couch, Kerrey said mockingly, “He [Bush] is bringing his buddy, that’s exactly right, for safety.”

I’m sure half of America laughed. The rest of us wonder why a commission charged with such an important task -- preventing more American deaths -- is populated by such grasping, undignified mediocrities as Kerrey.

Goldstein finds Stewart brilliant because they share the same liberal worldview, the same prejudices, the same blind spots. Since liberals espouse diversity, it’s fair to ask why they can’t open their minds to the notion that another viewpoint might hold merit. Many would strain to understand the position of a murderous jihadist but wouldn’t spare five minutes to hear out the conservative living next door. Both sides of the political divide are represented by intelligent, learned and reasoned people.

Truly brilliant satirists -- Mort Sahl comes to mind -- find insights that are funny because they are universal, not because they are partisan. Perhaps it is too much to ask for a daily show to achieve such a standard. Being funny, night after night, is hard work. But critics such as Goldstein should reserve the accolade of brilliance for when it is truly deserved, not just because it resonates brightly within their liberal echo chamber.

Jim Bass is a writer-multimedia producer from Thousand Oaks and a former liberal.