Am I ever happy that Jon Stewart is back on the air, it has been an incredibly different world following the news the past couple months without Stewart doing The Daily Show, please understand how big of a fan of Jon Stewart I am, I was one of the few who actually went out and bought a Indecision 2004 DVD. I sincerely hope my American friends to the south can solve this labour dispute "A Daily Show" is nice but world still awaits the return of "The Daily Show." I doubt an election year without The Daily Show writers would be fair. Without further ado here is a snip of the satirical election news American has been missing out on the last two months, breath it in.
When I started TayTV back in '05 I am comfortable saying at least half of the visitors I attracted came for the updated Daily Show clips I linked to, a good number of the readers worked late shifts or didn't have televisions, so my website kept them up to date on the latest TDS reports. My Youtube account was naturally axed the day Viacom (company in charge of TDS) sued youtube for a Billion dollars.
All is fair, I stopped uploading the clips, at the time Viacom was not offering videos online, well now they are all offered online, with pre-load advertisements, no less? The rich guys in the glass buildings are obviously making money from this scheme, why not share some of that wealth with the labourers who create the content? On top of that, I now know that Viacom also keeps every penny from the $1.99 they charge when you purchase the episodes off iTunes, no wonder the writers are striking. Can't these corporate overlords do math?
Today's Moment of Zen
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. this comic really captures the feelings of daily show watchers throughout the writer's strike
http://xkcd.com/360/
Tony Messinger at 10:54AM on Jan 9th 2008
2. Jeff,
I actually thought both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were funnier unscripted, as opposed to Conan O'Brien, who is much funnier with scripted material.
As for your comment as to Viacom not sharing the wealth, remember that Viacom management works for the shareholders and not the employees. The whole object of business is to pay the employees as little as possible and the owners as much as possible.
That's not to say that being cheap with the writers won't cause a permanent dent in Viacom's bottom line, if viewers decide to defect to Alton Brown's program on Food Netword and don't come back. But, that is a business decision based on the maximization of revenue and profits and not a decision to share the wealth based on benevolence by Viacom management.
Kent at 11:38AM on Jan 9th 2008
3. I loved it. I had Hillary tears of laughter. Thanks Jeff. Great clip.
Steve Seivers at 2:46PM on Jan 9th 2008
4. The best part was while Jon was interviewing David Frum and said "my brain's not on strike" - that was priceless! I think he's better now - he clearly doesn't need writers all the time - he's so quick and witty. Way to go Jon! (And Stephen Colbert - pronounce the "t" now - he's awesome!)
Kara at 9:18PM on Jan 9th 2008
5. Kent,
Don't forget Jon himself is a comedian and Colbert is a well tested Improv man. And most importantly, the graphic and mashup artists aren't on strike as the episodes have proven.
Jeff at 5:06AM on Jan 10th 2008
6. Depriving millions of people of Jon Stewart due to strike negotiations is like depriving poor and impoverished people of clean water and necessary medicine during an embargo. The people need him more than ever during a primary. Surely, the Geneva convention or the Vienna convention or the Star Trek convention provides some exception that will allow his show to operate within "strike" territories. It's a matter of national security, people!
red at 2:44PM on Jan 11th 2008
7. Forget Letterman, Leno, ect. When I saw The Daily Show and Colbert were back I finially felt like the world was moving again. Yes, writers stopped the world for awhile, but I knew I count on the smartest guys "IN THE WORLD" to make the world go around the way it should. Thanks guys, I can't tell you how much I enjoy you both and when I watch you I know intellegence is not lost to the people of America.
theresapeters at 6:02PM on Jan 15th 2008
8. oh so true. I was on a high for like four days after watching the first new episode. There's not much you can compare it to... It was like eating your first piece of chocolate after a year-long diet of water and bread... (the water and bread being the CNN coverage of the election... just kidding, CNN :) )
joana at 8:27AM on Jan 15th 2008