Friday, September 09, 2005

Weeping for Love and Laughs Lost

(Man Ray's Tears from Portugese Back to the Future site here)

Blogger and my internet were gacked until now. This topic is a rip-off from Althouse, but it made a point I've been feelin' lately.

The Daily Show isn't so funny to me anymore, and it used to be my beloved favorite, though I still love Stephen Colbert and This Week in God is a treat. Nor as laughariffic as I seem to recall it is The Onion. Althouse's comments section has some suggestions as to why. Have they attached too much to an agenda and lost the relaxed detachment that makes for the funny?

I still think Jon Stewart is quick and witty, but as he gets higher profile guests. it's hard for him to berate people whose jobs he respects, and the softball interviews are dull. It's also tough to do less prominent topics and authors with an audience that doesn't give a rat's rump for John Irving, for example. I applaud that TDS tries, but it doesn't work as well with their crowd, and faced with crickets chirping, Stewart has a tendency to jump manically for the life preserver of a predictable drug/sex joke to reconnect.

As my disaffection grows, I weep evermore for the loss of the truly breathtakingly Tough Crowd . At first, I hated it and thought it was idiotic. Maybe it was, but it did really did stomp over the carcasses of the sacred cows, pounding stakes in them from every direction. Brutally, horrifyingly amusing.

1 comment:

April said...

Rough crowd was, because of its host...too titties and beer for me. But I did enjoy the rough and tumble between the panelists, and yes, my ox would get gored there, but so would everyone elses. My idea of "fair and balanced."