For the first time in 14 years, the hosting duties of the Daily Show have changed hands. For those who just clicked the hyperlink, "who the hell was Craig kilborn?" indeed. In the last decade, this show has become more than a source of some of the sharpest political satire. It is seriously how I get most of my news. I've grown to trust the trade off of its largely liberal bias with its grade "A" bullsh*t detector when it comes to either party.
As 24 hour news has eroded practically all objectivity in American journalism, no one has taken them to task for it more than Jon Stewart and his tireless writer army on the Daily Show. Stewart has essentially been the Daily Show since 1996, the one constant in a vast revolving door of corespondents.
A dire topic of conversation with a few friends years ago started with looking at two clips back to back (one from 98' and one from 09') laughing about how much closer he looked to death; then slowly coming to grips with how our personal Cronkite was human and couldn't do this forever. One suggested Jason Jones would take the reigns. The other threw back what was left of his gatorade shaking his head. He tilted his head down, giving us the "one second" gesture, essentially saying "There's no way in hell Jason takes over...and there's glacial freeze in my windpipe." But after watching a sketch they had done the week before, I had become convinced that they had already made their decision. I said Oliver was gonna get it.
They both thought about it, but eventually came to an agreement that it would go to an up and coming unknown, except for me. I wanted to bet money on it being Oliver. That clip only seemed like half a joke and when that conversation came up with other people I told them who I was betting on and more often than not they thought it was the wrong horse.
So when I first heard the news about Stewart taking a break to direct a film I broke down and went into full tilt victory dance mode. "I F**KING TOLD EM'!!" I yelled for a good five minutes. I made a few toldYAso texts and didn't hear anything back...it was clear nobody really gave a damn. Or maybe they were too crushed to face me text to text! Yeah, yeah that's how it went down.
So Oliver has the big chair now, how'd he do? They've canceled shows over lesser things than a different host before. He did fine. Very well, even. Though I do miss John's "titter breaks" when he buries his face in his scribble paper. Oliver smartly avoids aping Stewart's candor and of course his accent is a loverly change of pace. For the record, Oliver's pan-southern accent is better than Jon's. But never say "all OF ya'll" ever again. That was physically painful.
We've known for a long time that Oliver was A. one of the best corespondents since Colbert (his career turned out alright) and B. he's just a damn fine comedian underneath. It's actually weird how not weird this regime change is. Should the unthinkable happen, one of my favorite shows is in good hands, this could have been much more awkward that it was. So it is with the utmost respect that I personally say, to you, John Oliver:
Go F**k yourself.
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| You magnificent, limey, ponce. |
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