Political Funnies

For my next blog, I watched and analyzed the Comedy Central television show “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”  The episode that I watched aired on Thursday, March 26^th of 2015.  This episode covered a wide variety of topics from the fight against ISIS, to the Ferguson shooting, to John Hargrove’s book titled Beneath the Surface, a book in regards to his experience with training killer whales and why they should no longer be held captive. 

During the discussion on ISIS, Stewart made a comment about whose side the United States is really on.  He found it confusing, and also amusing, that the United States is fighting with Iran against ISIS, but also at the same time the United States is fighting with Saudi Arabia against Iran.  In response to this situation Stewart stated, “It took decades but we finally figured out how to fight a proxy war against ourselves.”  Stewart’s foreign affair correspondent, Jason Jones, also contributed his input about the subject, saying that he was just as confused about the predicament.   

Another topic, which was briefly discussed on the show, pertained to the Ferguson shooting in Missouri.  Stewart talked about how FOX News is biased and how the news station was quick to judge the event.  Short clips were played containing FOX News covering the story.  What bothered me was Stewart calling FOX biased when he was doing the same; “The Daily Show” was acting as a gatekeeper when a reporter was alleged of saying, “We don’t care about them.”  The tone of her voice anticipated that she was not finished talking and had more to say on the topic, however she was cut off from what she was going to say.   

While watching “The Daily Show” I found it rather entertaining and informative.  I do believe that this show is beneficial to society.  The show sheds light on serious subject matters and gives us a chance to laugh at ourselves, such as the us being at war with ourselves due to the ISIS situation.  Another example of this politically funny news occurs early into the show, where short clips are being played recapping Jason Jones’ time on “The Daily Show.”  Most of the clips were stereotypical.  For  example when he was in Iran, he commented that he was scared because he was the only American in the room.  Later while interviewing an Iranian man, Jones asked the man if he hated Americans because it is a cliché for Iranians to hate Americans.  While in Denmark (the official language being Danish), Jones asked a woman if she could speak English.  After replying that she could, Jones acted as if he could not understand her, resulting in humor.              

Naturally you can’t just watch “The Daily Show” to get your news; you have to watch an actual news report, or read the paper, because “The Daily Show” only covers small portions of news stories and doesn't explain them thoroughly.  Even I was slightly lost as to what Stewart was talking about.  And as a result, I had to fill in the gaps by researching the subject matter on my own.