Last month, “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central surprised the media world by announcing the return of Jon Stewart as guest host and executive producer of the show after an eight-year hiatus. Though his homecoming will not magically cure the deep fractures of American media and political commentary, it’s a good place to start.
Political discourse in the United States is at an abhorrent level. Partisan divides continue to stretch further and further, everyone hates one another and the fundamental underlyings of democracy seem to face more tribulations every day.
In no realm are these sentiments better exemplified than in mainstream media. From whatever side you look at it, news media is no longer about informing or keeping institutions of power in check. It’s about entertainment and reaffirming the viewer’s worldview. The nightly news has become a place for partisan hacks to pander toward particular audiences, stoking flames to get better viewership at the expense of America’s wellbeing.
Ramping up to an already heated and surely consequential election in 2024, the state of news and commentary should have us all terrified for the future.
Perhaps it’s not all gray skies and rainy days ahead.
“The Daily Show” has been a staple of interplaying satire with news reporting for decades. The show reports on the same things you’d see on CNN and Fox but presents them with a standup-esque delivery. This format provides entertainment, but holds greater value in poking fun at institutions of power and using the comedy as a thought-provoking critique.
Stewart presided over the show and did it flawlessly for years. His brand of comedy was approachable, easy to find the satire in while also being educational. He found a way to effectively express the absurdity of our political systems — and did it on Comedy Central.
The return of Stewart should be especially stirring for college students and young voters. “The Daily Show” has been tailor-made for the youth and vibrance of college students. The casual comedic commentary on the often-dreary and unappealing topics of American politics is intentionally easy to engage with.
The show and Stewart sprung the careers of famous actors and commentators like Stephen Colbert, Steve Carrell, Ed Helms, Hasan Minhaj and John Oliver, all of whom were at one point correspondents on the Daily Show.
For years, Stewart crafted “The Daily Show” to be the antithesis of everything wrong with American media and political discourse. Two decades ago, Stewart made a guest appearance on Tucker Carlson’s CNN show, “Crossfire.” Stewart’s interview — which included him calling the hosts partisan hacks and more inventively vulgar words — ended in Carlson being laughed out of each segment by his own audience.
The show was canceled a few months later after running for 30 years, in part because of Stewart’s evisceration of the program. Long before Carlson became the most influential right-wing media personality on behalf of the Trump Administration, Stewart had him publicly pegged for the hijink journalist mouthpiece that he is.
The news media certainly hasn’t improved since then. Who do Americans have to consume politics from in 2024? No one good. Rachel Maddow and her cohorts grandstanding on MSNBC. Bill Maher pretending to be enlightened. Whatever wet piece of hair is reporting for One America News. Anything on Fox News. Seth Meyers — and the rest of late night — doing a Trump impression for the billionth time. And of course, Carlson’s most recent brand of white grievance politics has a stranglehold on half of the country.
The return of Stewart brings a breath of fresh air from the old guard of media politics. Even “The Daily Show” has seemed to lose its way in recent years. Too often the show has fallen prey to the easy, liberal-pleasing jokes that poke fun at Trump tropes and the intelligence of his base. Though his replacement Trevor Noah was a great host and presided over a respectable tenure through some of America’s darkest days, the show has not held the stature and comedic effect as its glory days.
I feel some shame in this idolatry, but Stewart is one of the only individuals in politics who still offers some semblance of sanity and hope. In his hiatus, the comedian has become more serious and direct in his advocacies. He lobbied and shamed Congress into funding health care for 9/11 emergency responders. In his Apple TV project, “The Problem With Jon Stewart,” he went viral for chastising an Oklahoma state senator whose main platforms included loosening gun restrictions and attacking drag show performers.
When Stewart left the show after 16 years on air in 2015, the state of American politics was still a somewhat respectable place. Trump’s campaign for president was still a joke, people weren’t entirely sourcing their understanding of the world from TikTok and no one had tried to overthrow the United States government for a few centuries. The glaring issues existed, but we weren’t quite at the point of existential crisis.
When you see Ben Shapiro’s rap song about cancel culture or SNL giving Nikki Haley a platform to make a slavery joke, it really feels like we’ve hit rock bottom in popular media. It’s invigorating to see comedy — and genuine coverage — return to politics. It won’t cure all of political media’s ills, but having one good thing on is better than none. Students seeking a casual sentiment of staying informed, and hoping to get a good laugh out of it as well, should make sure to tune in to Jon Stewart’s Daily Show throughout the election season.
