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The Daily Show (the Book)

An Oral History as Told by Jon Stewart, the Correspondents, Staff and Guests
profdavis
Jul 02, 2017profdavis rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
It is often pointed out that when US Presidents leave office they look like they have aged far more than the 4 or 8 years that have passed. When Jon Stewart left the Daily Show he looked like he had aged at least 30 years instead of 16. This book suggest to me that what really aged Stewart was having to go on camera after every new national tragedy and try to say something encouraging and uplifting. As much as I would like to watch Stewart's take on the Trump administration, this man has earned his retirement. The book is done in the same style as Shales and Miller's 'Live From New York' about Saturday Night Live, consisting almost entirely of interview snippets with past cast and crew of the show. Unlike SNL, the Daily Show does not have a long gossipy history of drugs and backstage fighting. There are a few stories from disgruntled ex-staff, but most everyone who ever worked at the Daily Show appears to have loved it, and even the disgruntled admit Stewart deserves credit for what he accomplished. What he accomplished was taking a basic cable show with a frat boy comedy mentality and converting it into an amazingly influential vehicle for political satire.