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this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
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He's the only one IMO who can deliver a nuanced take without letting the humour suffer.
Most of the other people who try to copy the JS formula just suck at political commentary. They always have the most ice-cold takes that are usually just "republican bad"
John Oliver comes close, but he has this problem where, the more complex the subject, the less funny he becomes. His jokes usually reek of "we couldn't figure out how to make a joke out of the thing John is talking about, so we'll inject some non-sequitor reference to something totally unrelated"
Stewart on the other hand can deliver a deeply nuanced commentary that directs criticism at the broken systems of the American political process, rather than simply at the beneficiaries of those systems. And he does it while still coming up with relevant jokes that leave me on the verge of tears from laughing so hard.
To expand on what you've said, that I agree with entirely:
I think the vacuum he left behind, that was filled with the very flawed "replacements", left a serious scar on society.
It's like if you quit on a "balanced nutritional diet" and ate nothing but Doritos and Mountain Dew for a decade. Like, we got fat and we got scurvy... And a lot of people I think ended up addicted to a trash diet.
I've seen some really terrible takes regarding Jon's return. Like," I used to think he was funny, but now he's an enlightened centerist."
Oof. We've forgotten how to even coherently articulate a single thought, apparently.
Yeah political discourse really suffered in his absence. It was so hard to find any commentators who had takes that embodied his "sanity and/or fear" approach. They all wanted to throw punches at the people they perceived as the problem, when someone with an understanding of politics would have known they were only a symptom of the problems.
I mean, I'm sure that most of Jon's writers went on to work for other DS hosts and Oliver. Trevor Noah absolutely seemed to be reading from Jon's script, even attempting the same gags. But it always fell flat to me, because as you say, Jon's delivery is what makes it.
He's also much sharper on the interviews. I know he hasn't gone on the attack yet in this run, or if anyone would even be dumb enough to spar with him, but he is a master debater.
There are definitely people out there who I think are dumb enough to take him on. And among them are some I'd adore to watch him take on.
Hehe master debater
Yeah, I just watched his video on Carlson and he really does have the skill of perfectly debunking the topic whilst keeping the atmospnere light-hearted and ironic.
IMO Seth Myers has been amazing over the past few years. He really dialed it in when he got back from lockdown. I feel like he's under rated because I hardly see him mentioned.
There are a lot of times when he nails it. But it's always pretty much Trump.