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Jonny S. and the Boston Globe [blogs]
Matthew "cnj" Wronka said on Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:06:09 -0400:
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--
What I tell you three times is true.
-- Lewis Carroll
Michael Kalin--author of the above, from a Boston Globe article in March 2006 entitled "Why Jon Stewart isn't funny"--had a point, but I don't think knew how to support it.
Let me provide my own observation. Jon Stewart is funny, he's got a funny bit, it might even be funny when you've heard it a couple times. The problem is that Stewart relies on a one-trick-shtick: he mocks politicians or other public figures with puerile imitations.
Has this caused Joshua Goldberg, a fictional composite of the typical apostle of ''The Daily Show." to forgo politics in favour of the glories of investment banking? The overwhelming majority of people don't go into politics, and it isn't because of one TV show. College-political passions disappearing upon graduation and the real worldis nothing new.
Mr. Stewart and his show does in effect anesthetize his audience through repetition of jokes, stories, and focus. To assume that those affected are the Theodore Roosevelt[s] or Woodrow Wilson[s] of today is fallacious--instead one would better look towards the AHA (where both were members) or even white supremecists (Teddy advocated the superiority of the Teutons while Mr. Wilson reinstituted segregation).
Those that would be dissuaded from action by Mr. Stewart rather than turn-off the show would probably only transform into one of the objects of mockery anyway.