I made it a point to catch Jon Stewart on Larry King last night. Everytime I see Jon Stewart away from the Daily Show he seems like a different person. I know that he probably "brings it" everytime he tapes the Daily Show, but I swear that there's at least a smidge of character work that he does on that show. He just seems so completely different on the Daily Show than he does on any other show or movie I've seen him in.

Jon Stewart's brilliant wit never ceases to amaze me. I keep reminding myself that day in and day out, he goes toe to toe with some of the most brilliant and important people in the political sphere, and he *always* holds his own. I've rarely, if ever, seen Jon Stewart flustered or seem out of his element during his interviews. It's really quite amazing.

I also find it amazing, almost on a mythological level, at how lucky we are to have Jon Stewart during the Bush administration. It's almost like the Daily Show and the Bush Administration were tailor made for one another and enjoy an almost symbiotic relationship.

I know that he hits both parties pretty hard, but it's pretty obvious that the show leans leftward. I do think that most of the people who watch the show tend to be a little more liberal than conservative, if the studio audience is any indication. It's one of the more liberal leaning studio audiences this side of "Real Time with Bill Maher."

Much of the editorial content of the show tends to advance more of a liberal agenda. The Colbert Report is actually more of a left leaning show than The Daily Show, but both are definitely cut from the same cloth.

But like I was saying, I don't think that more liberal minded people would have been able to fully tolerate the past 6 years without "The Daily Show" at our fingertips. They're coverage of everything from the 2000 and 2004 elections, to Hurricane Katrina, to Sept. 11th, to the "War on Terra," to the Avian flu have at least made some of the more troubling times of our nation's history seem bearable. No matter how crappy things seem to get in the worldwide state of affairs, it's always nice to know that the Daily Show will come on at the end of the day to let us laugh at our misfortunes.

I don't care how much Jon Stewart disagrees, the Daily Show is important, both as entertainment and as a news vehicle. I know that it's not the most thorough news service out there, but I know for a fact that it covers things that happened in the day's news that the 24 hour news services won't touch. I can't think of any instances off the top of my head, but there have been times when I read about something online, only to hear about it later on TDS, while not hearing a peep about it on CNN until a few days later. Although I can't prove this, I have another hunch that much of the Daily Show writing staff reads Salon.com regularly. I've noticed things appearing on Salon on the same day as the Daily Show. I could be wrong though...

I also think Jon Stewart is going to be in top form at the Oscars. He may not be great this year, but if he sticks with it, Jon Stewart is going to be one of the all-time great Oscar hosts. I find him to be very Johnny Carsonesque, aka someone who appeals to every age and sex demographic through their sheer comedic brilliance.

Whew...I was going to write about Jon Stewart on Larry King, but maybe that'll have to be a different post since this one is already too long for a blog...

yeah...more to come later.

matt out