Defamer: Daily Show

Sudden Ratings Magnet 'SNL' Hoping Election Season Never Ends

Nick Malis — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:25:00 PDT

When Rome burned people enjoyed watching the fiddler, and now that this country is more effed than ever before, we enjoy watching SNL. According to a new report in Variety, “SNL has experienced a hefty bump in the Nielsen polls this election season, boasting a 50% gain over last season’s first two episodes.” The political climate has to be the reason, because it certainly wasn’t Michael Phelps’s mush-mouthed delivery or the searing star power of James Franco that got people to tune in. No, it’s because the cast of characters who parade across CNN on a daily basis are so ripe for parody. There’s McCain, Palin, Hillary, and Obama, and all of them are just begging to be made fun of.

In fact, SNL’s brand of political comedy is so hot right now, that NBC’s gonna give you the opportunity to choke on it. Not only are there four original episodes in a row to lead off the season, but starting on October 9th, there will be three special primetime Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday editions, which will run behind The Office. Will they really be able to get Tina Fey to do her Sarah Palin impression that many times before she has to return to 30 Rock? We hope so, because Darrell Hammond’s McCain and Fred Armisen’s Obama are kinda meh.

Of course, it’s not just SNL that’s reaping the benefits of all the political insanity. Variety says,"The Daily Show is coming off its most-watched week in history, averaging 1.9 million viewers last week — up 28% from last year.” And Colbert and Real Time With Bill Maher are doing great too. At this point, network executives must be trying to get this election postponed indefinitely so they can keep making fun of it. Sound crazy? Well, McCain did just suspend his campaign. Hmmm...

'SNL' Turning Politics Into Gold [Variety]

Tina Fey Shoots Higher Than Choir-Preacher Jon Stewart

Seth — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:09:48 PDT

Tina Fey, arguably the most powerful vagina-having joke force in the universe, has rarely minced words in the past when it comes to some of her lesser-abled collaborators, whether describing Paula Abdul as a "disaster" or Paris Hilton as "a disease-ridden fucktard" [Ed.note: Could we have an intern verify that?] But we never expected the 30 Rock star and showrunner to run off so freely at the mouth about her comedy giant equals, such as in the case of her surprisingly harsh assessment of Jon Stewart's more politically solicitous material:

COMEDY queen Tina Fey says that while she makes people laugh, political pundit Jon Stewart only makes them uncomfortable.

Fey tells Reader's Digest she prefers it when audience members laugh rather than applaud because, "You can prompt applause with a sign." She added, "My friend Seth Meyers coined the term 'clapter,' which is when you do a political joke and people go, 'Woo-hoo.' It means they sort of approve but didn't really like it that much. You hear a lot of that on [whispers] 'The Daily Show.' "

The ratio of topical jibes delivered weekly on both satirical newscasts, measuring at Weekend Update's 1 to the Daily Show's 1250, could explain the laughter discrepancy. Still, we think Fey is being ever so slightly dishonest in knocking the competition, as she knows better than anyone that Lorne Michaels had studio 8-H outfitted with flashing "WHOO," "BIG WHOO," "SNICKER," "CHUCKLE," "GUFFAW," and "INCONTINENCE" signs midway through Victoria Jackson's second season, ensuring he'd never again have to endure 90 minutes of dead silence response to the parade of not-quite-ready-for-primetime sketches that made it to air.

TINA RIPS JON [NY Post]

Stewart, Colbert Go Back To Work Unibrowed, Biblically Bearded, And Without Writers

Mark — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:10:03 PST

With somewhat less fanfare than accompanied The Return of Late Night on January 2nd, in which network talk shows made a mass return to the airwaves in various writer-having/writer-free and hirsute/clean-shaven configurations, Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert reported for duty Monday night—initially sporting a Strike Unibrow and Strike Moses-Beard, respectively, to show their solidarity with their still-missing scribes.

While Stewart lamented his program's inability to get the kind of side-deal the WGA made with Worldwide Pants (the Guild, it seems, isn't really embracing the idea of giving corporate monolith Viacom a break), he still dedicated most of the show to the strike; in the above segment—one probably not as improvised as the WGA would like, but given the pro-cause subject matter, the union probably won't be sending anyone over to Stewart's office to have a testy sit-down about strike rules—the host details the dispute over internet compensation, explaining how the $1.99 fees charged for iTunes downloads of his show are purely a shipping and handling charge, the proposed "Shut The Fuck Up" formula for new-media residuals, and how the viewing of written content on iPods clearly falls under the "Hickory Farms promotional cheese" principle.

Writers Strike [TheDailyShow.com]
Comedy Central Hosts Return to TV [NY Times]

Stewart, Colbert Going Back To Work

Mark — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:32:10 PST

With Conan, Jay, Jimmy, and the rest of the late night gang announcing they're reluctantly headed to back to work without their striking writers, it seemed inevitable that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert wouldn't be far behind. They've released this joint statement on their January 7th return: "We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence." A more disappointed than ambivalent WGA has already issued a reminder that writerless versions of the shows aren't going to fill the Colbert and Stewart-shaped holes in our lives: "Comedy Central forcing Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert back on the air will not give the viewers the quality shows they've come to expect. The only way to get the writing staffs back on the job is for the AMPTP companies to come back to the table prepared to negotiate a fair deal with the Writers Guild." [AP, WGA.org]

Trade Round-Up: Fox News Finally Gives Itself A Forum For Bashing Liberals

Mark — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:09:55 PST

Fox News Channel plans on supplementing its regular, round-the-clock fake news coverage with a still-untitled "Daily Show for conservatives," which the network hopes will finally provide them with a much-needed forum for taking shots at liberals. Next on the FNC development slate-of-mirrors: a Colbert Report knock-off starring a comically delusional blowhard. [Variety]
Nielsen studies iPod users' viewing habits, discovers that most people don't use their devices to watch video downloads, perhaps finding the experience of squinting through an episode of Lost on a three-inch screen not as desirable as Apple had once hoped. [THR]
· Var reports on how your favorite supermodels (Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Padma Lakshmi) have overcome their perfect genes and fabulous racks to find great success hosting popular television shows. [Variety]
Fox Searchlight picks up the dark comedy Bonzai Shadowhands, which Rainn Wilson is writing as a starring vehicle for himself in which he'll play "a once-great ninja living a life of mediocrity." Whatever they gave him, he deserves three million more. [THR]
Imprisoned P.I. Anthony Pellicano writes a "guest column" for Variety (if your definition of guest column is reprinting an excerpt from a book of essays) "stating his case." But unlike OJ Simpson, he seems unwilling to go the "If I wanted to conduct illegal wiretaps of various Hollywood figures, this is how I would have done it" route, seriously reducing the piece's news value. [Variety]

Directors Guild To Decry Terry Gilliam's CBA-Violating Alternative Compensation Plan

Mark — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 10:16:18 PDT

Comedy Central's Insider blog sent a reporter down to street level to document director Terry Gilliam's "crashing" (i.e., pre-publicized attempt at organizing a "flash mob") of The Daily Show's audience line yesterday afternoon, where Gilliam tried to generate some buzz for Tideland, his latest movie:

So, Terry Gilliam showed up in front of the Daily Show with a giant sign that said "Will direct films for food." He had a plastic cup that people in the Daily Show ticket line filled to the brim with dollar bills. At one point he looked down at the cup stuffed with cash and said, "This is the most money I've made in a long time".

Even if Gilliam's appearance didn't stir up as much publicity as he'd hoped, he still performed a valuable service to young filmmakers by demonstrating the regrettable costs of getting mixed up with the Weinsteins, which can reduce even the proudest fillmmaker to wandering the street with a cardboard sign to drum up financing for his next project.

Terry Gilliam Visits The Daily Show [CC Insider]

Breakfast With The Butterscotch Stallion: Owen Wilson Suspiciously Mellow On 'Daily Show'

Mark — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 09:57:55 PDT

Not surprisingly, Owen "The Butterscotch Stallion" didn't say much during his Daily Show interview last night—the Stallion is a creature of majestic, beautiful deeds, not words. But at the onset of his chat to promote You, Me, and Dupree, Wilson seemed to be having so much trouble coaxing from his brain appropriate verbal expression of his Stallionness that a bemused Jon Stewart felt compelled to ask, "How high are you right now?" Wilson's resulting laugh and hypnotic swiveling in the guest chair gave us all the answer we already knew: Very, very high.

Daily Show
Previously: The Butterscotch Stallion Flees The Paparazzi [Defamer]