The Daily Show episode I watched
aired December 12, 2014. Jon had Ricky Gervais as his celebrity guest to
promote his new comedy special on HBO called Straight Outa England. John Steward spoke about a couple of things
that were going on in the news during this episode.
The
first segment of the show was Stewart analyzing a press conference that President
Obama and President Clinton held together at the White House. The show did not
show the press conference for what was said but for what was done. The clip did
not share any news but was entertaining. They opened
the show with this comedic clip of President Obama leaving President Clinton at
the podium for a Christmas party.
The
next segment was called “Big Brother.” This segment used Obama care and
different news outlets thoughts of the new health care plan to focus on how
much power the Federal Government should have. The example used was the government
being a “Big Brother” and what kind of big brother using television and movie
examples. It used different circumstances like the government’s response to McDonalds
selling possibly poisonous Shrek cup to children. Although Jon Stewart made
jokes about these examples the segment did present real news.
The
last big segment had to deal with different news including MSNBC, Fox, and CNN
and their new marketing campaigns. This segment pointed out problems with
marketing in the US. Each add was similar but added a different dimension to
their own. This segment showed major companies
lack of creativity and individuality when trying to reach the American people. By
making fun of these segments Jon Stewart brought attention to this problem.
I feel
that comedic news can be very beneficial to society. I feel the comedic and entertainment
factors of this kind of news will make more people want to watch the show and
therefore receive the news. This is especially true for millennials and younger
people who watch TV more for entertainment. Also I feel that by adding the
comedic factor it makes it easier for the host to talk about controversial
topics that the regular news will try to stay away from. Comedy also makes it
easier to present the news without sounding bias. Jon Stewart presented the
ideas of the government as a “Big Brother” and also made jokes about it. The
one thing he did not do it make it obvious what side his political views left
him on. This kind of news can do a good job of making a viewer think about what
messages they are receiving from media. The segment where Stewart makes fun of
the different news outlets marketing campaigns was a good example of this.it
was a funny segment but after it was over it made me think about how I can see
trends of company’s using the same messages. Shows like the Daily Show often
bring on celebrities on to speak about certain subjects. This can increase the
number of people hearing the news. This episode did the celebrity interview at
the end of the episode. I found this effective because it will keep people
watching during the news reports.
