{"id":1553,"date":"2008-03-11T14:42:47","date_gmt":"2008-03-11T14:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/11\/the-i-saw-this\/"},"modified":"2008-03-11T14:42:47","modified_gmt":"2008-03-11T14:42:47","slug":"the-i-saw-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/11\/the-i-saw-this\/","title":{"rendered":"IS JOHN STEWART A POLITICAL KING (QUEEN) MAKER? DOES COMEDY RULE? SHOULD IT?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nI used to run a television newscast for teenagers.  It was tough to get them to pay much attention to the news, so one of the features I experimented with was "If you don’t know the news, you can’t get the jokes." Dennis Miller <\/a>was doing Saturday Night Update then, and sadly, wouldn’t talk to us, so the idea failed.  It wasn’t that original anyway; humor has always been part of American politics.  But I wanted the kids to care more about it – and I thought that connecting news and cool comedy would help.   I’m pretty sure I was right; political comedy is certainly a factor this year’s campaign.  If you’re my age, you’re probably sitting there thinking "Hasn’t this woman ever heard of Mort Sahl<\/a>?  Yup.  He’s just turned 80 and his political humor is as sharp as ever.  But he didn’t have a daily "Daily Show" as a podium. Look at this:<\/object><\/p>\n

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I started thinking about this because this headline <\/a>just appeared in the Media Bistro LA edition – which linked to this piece in the Washington Post<\/a>.  Comedy, at least this year, is an important factor in the campaign.  Of course, Bill Clinton rebounded from one of his many backslides in 1992 with a saxophone-playing appearance on standup comedian and talk show host Arsenio Hall’s <\/a>show.  This clip<\/a>, in fact, appeared on Channel One<\/a>, the show I used to run! \n<\/p>\n

That was the second time Clinton used nightly talk as a life preserver.  After this disastrous keynote convention speech in 1988