mattgoldberg's review against another edition
5.0
When I was in college, my dream job was to be a writer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. After reading this book, it’s like I got to be a little closer to that dream in seeing how everything worked backstage and the personalities involved. What I like about this book is that it’s not really about the “hot goss”, but simply a closer look at some pivotal moments in one of the most important TV shows of all time. Late night TV, American satire, and the way we think about politics were changed by The Daily Show. It’s messed up that comedians have become the journalists and the journalists are now the joke, but speaking truth to power is important and what Jon Stewart and his crew accomplished cannot be understated.
cjblandford's review against another edition
5.0
As fun and emotional as watching the show for the last 16 years. A great look into the history and creation of the show. Highly recommended for fans of The Daily Show.
icarusnike's review against another edition
5.0
Intressant att se och lära sig hur showen utvecklades under Stewart. Saknade den när den var slut
siria's review against another edition
3.0
A readable, nostalgic account of The Daily Show, focusing on its prime years when Jon Stewart was at the helm. (A quick google shows me that apparently viewership has increased under Trevor Noah, though that seems counter-intuitive to me. Is it anything like the cultural touchstone it once was? Even Last Week Tonight clips seem far more likely to go at least low-key viral than anything produced by TDS in the last few years, though maybe this perception is just a side-effect of me now being Old.) It was nice to revisit some well-known sketches/bits and to learn just what went into making them.
That said, while Chris Smith—who assembled the frame narrative around the lengthy interview excerpts—and the interviewees themselves were upfront about the moments of tension and conflict that peppered the show's run, The Daily Show: An Oral History does still read as slightly sanitised. I wasn't looking for a take down of Jon Stewart, but there wasn't enough distance provided here to really grapple with the show's issues with race and gender over the years. I found the section dealing with the infamous Jezebel article to be quite frustrating, for instance, particularly coming after recounting anecdotes about how male correspondents would, earlier in the show's run, kiss or grope women as part of a bit. There's clearly stuff to grapple with here that goes far beyond "some women on an internet site were unfair to the show", and perhaps in the future others will take the raw fodder presented here and do something more insightful with it.
That said, while Chris Smith—who assembled the frame narrative around the lengthy interview excerpts—and the interviewees themselves were upfront about the moments of tension and conflict that peppered the show's run, The Daily Show: An Oral History does still read as slightly sanitised. I wasn't looking for a take down of Jon Stewart, but there wasn't enough distance provided here to really grapple with the show's issues with race and gender over the years. I found the section dealing with the infamous Jezebel article to be quite frustrating, for instance, particularly coming after recounting anecdotes about how male correspondents would, earlier in the show's run, kiss or grope women as part of a bit. There's clearly stuff to grapple with here that goes far beyond "some women on an internet site were unfair to the show", and perhaps in the future others will take the raw fodder presented here and do something more insightful with it.
mdlaclair's review against another edition
5.0
I loved Jon Stewart on the daily show. It was nice to see some background about the show and reasons why he left.
orangerful's review against another edition
4.0
I read half of this and then listened to the rest. I was a little disappointed the audiobook wasn't narrated by anyone from the show but that would be pretty amazing to get that cast back together. That being said, the readers did a wonderful job mimicking the voices and tone where they could without it being too distracting.
I was watching the Daily Show with Craig Kilborn in high school and I remember when it changed hands to Jon Stewart. I have always been relatively progressive/liberal in my world view, so I wouldn't say that Jon changed that, but The Daily Show did let me know that I was not alone in thinking that way, it made me want to stay up to date on the news, it made me understand how politics really work.
The show, Stewart's version of the show, played a HUGE role in my young adult life and this book does an amazing job covering its evolution over the course of 12 years. If you are a fan of the show, if you remember watching it every night, if you attended the 'Rally for Sanity' -- pick up this book or give it a listen. You will be impressed by how much hard work this entire cast and crew put into keeping us both informed and entertained all these years, and how that ended up changing the media as a whole.
I was watching the Daily Show with Craig Kilborn in high school and I remember when it changed hands to Jon Stewart. I have always been relatively progressive/liberal in my world view, so I wouldn't say that Jon changed that, but The Daily Show did let me know that I was not alone in thinking that way, it made me want to stay up to date on the news, it made me understand how politics really work.
The show, Stewart's version of the show, played a HUGE role in my young adult life and this book does an amazing job covering its evolution over the course of 12 years. If you are a fan of the show, if you remember watching it every night, if you attended the 'Rally for Sanity' -- pick up this book or give it a listen. You will be impressed by how much hard work this entire cast and crew put into keeping us both informed and entertained all these years, and how that ended up changing the media as a whole.
evanbernstein's review against another edition
4.0
I watched this show from roughly 9/11 until its end, every episode in the last decode or so. This was an interesting look behind the scenes. Made me tear up at the end, all over again. I recommend it to any fan of the show, and if not, no real reason to read it.
booksandbark's review
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this book. One the one hand, I love Jon Stewart, and I love oral histories. On the other hand, I felt that Chris Smith perhaps did not present the most impartial historian-esque review of the Jon Stewart years of The Daily Show. I am absolutely a Jon Stewart superfan. I'm not old enough to remember the Craig Kilborn days of the show, and I grew up if not watching The Daily Show, then listening to my mother watch The Daily Show in the other room. When I was a teenager, I started getting interested in late night and watching it myself, and was still really defensive of Stewart when Trevor Noah began to host. So all of this is to say that, despite the fact that Jon Stewart is the God of Comedy to me, and that he got me into watching late night in the first place (after The Daily Show, I started to watch Stephen Colbert's Late Show, James Corden's Late Late Show, Seth Meyers' Late Night, Lorne Michaels' SNL, John Oliver's Last Week Tonight, Hasan Minhaj's Patriot Act... basically, if it exists, I've probably watched it at one point), I still thought Smith's portrayal of Stewart was perhaps too godlike and inhuman. While Smith mentions the controversies that Stewart faced (TDS is seriously political... a lot of this book is just people completely attacking other people), he never really gives much credence to them. I get that the staff, who owe their careers to Stewart, defended him in their snippets. But in the narrative aspect (the 1-2 lines in italics where Smith knits the sections together), Smith himself defends Stewart in the controversies, calls Republicans and conservatives "evil," and dismisses Fox News (although that last one is pretty hard to argue with...).
As a political science major, I realize how hard it is to be objective, even as a historian, especially if you've lived through things or they've made a big impact on your life. I realize that objectivity may not even exist in politics, because politics is inherently subject to the viewpoints of whoever you happen to be. Still, I thought as a piece of history, this book does a poor job. On the other hand, as a person who studies media and politics, this book does an excellent job of situating TDS in the media landscape, both when Stewart first started hosting and now. I feel like I learned a lot about late night. While I've always known it's become an important part of politics in recent history, I didn't realize how the tone has shifted and how Stewart in particular has changed the entire late-night landscape. I also didn't know how the inside of writer's rooms worked, despite watching so much comedy, and I'm kind of shocked to learn that although a fair number are Colin Jost-esque former Harvard Lampoon writers, how childish and boys' club-esque the writer's room could be even at such a prescient, progressive show.
And, because this is actually a pretty funny, entertaining book, I'll leave you with some of my favorite quotes:
STEW BAILEY
It turned out this always happened when you traveled with Stephen, but the first time I never saw it coming. When we check in at the hotel in Denver, they ask for his address. He says, 'Sure. My name’s Stephen Colbert. I live at 52 Poopiepop Lane.' And they always would react, and they’d start to say, 'Is that a…' And Stephen says, 'Heard them all. Heard every one of them. Please don’t make fun of it.' So it was like a great antijoke. And they said, 'Okay, so 52 Poopiepop Lane.' And he says, 'Neptune, Maine,' and it’s a made-up town. And the weird capper was, 'And I’m going to need a zip code out of you,' and he says, 'I don’t know my zip code.'
BEN KARLIN, on the subject of George W. Bush
I’m sure, I’m 100 percent sure, in one hundred years, in one thousand years if society’s still standing, they’re going to say, 'That guy was president? Like, what?' I know that to be a fact. (This quote did not age well.)
STEPHEN COLBERT
Yeah. Drink it away. Drink it all away. When you come back you don’t need the meal money because they have free cereal at The Daily Show. You can eat the free cereal in the break room and you’re fine.
JON STEWART
I pocketed two boxes of M&M’s with the presidential seal. You open it up and you really are expecting the best M&M’s you’ve ever eaten in your life, and it’s just fucking M&M’s. You’re like, “Well, these are the same M&M’s I got at the train station.” I thought president M&M’s would somehow be like, I don’t know, the chocolate on the outside and the candy on the inside, something different. But they’re just M&M’s. Pretty interesting.
As a political science major, I realize how hard it is to be objective, even as a historian, especially if you've lived through things or they've made a big impact on your life. I realize that objectivity may not even exist in politics, because politics is inherently subject to the viewpoints of whoever you happen to be. Still, I thought as a piece of history, this book does a poor job. On the other hand, as a person who studies media and politics, this book does an excellent job of situating TDS in the media landscape, both when Stewart first started hosting and now. I feel like I learned a lot about late night. While I've always known it's become an important part of politics in recent history, I didn't realize how the tone has shifted and how Stewart in particular has changed the entire late-night landscape. I also didn't know how the inside of writer's rooms worked, despite watching so much comedy, and I'm kind of shocked to learn that although a fair number are Colin Jost-esque former Harvard Lampoon writers, how childish and boys' club-esque the writer's room could be even at such a prescient, progressive show.
And, because this is actually a pretty funny, entertaining book, I'll leave you with some of my favorite quotes:
STEW BAILEY
It turned out this always happened when you traveled with Stephen, but the first time I never saw it coming. When we check in at the hotel in Denver, they ask for his address. He says, 'Sure. My name’s Stephen Colbert. I live at 52 Poopiepop Lane.' And they always would react, and they’d start to say, 'Is that a…' And Stephen says, 'Heard them all. Heard every one of them. Please don’t make fun of it.' So it was like a great antijoke. And they said, 'Okay, so 52 Poopiepop Lane.' And he says, 'Neptune, Maine,' and it’s a made-up town. And the weird capper was, 'And I’m going to need a zip code out of you,' and he says, 'I don’t know my zip code.'
BEN KARLIN, on the subject of George W. Bush
I’m sure, I’m 100 percent sure, in one hundred years, in one thousand years if society’s still standing, they’re going to say, 'That guy was president? Like, what?' I know that to be a fact. (This quote did not age well.)
STEPHEN COLBERT
Yeah. Drink it away. Drink it all away. When you come back you don’t need the meal money because they have free cereal at The Daily Show. You can eat the free cereal in the break room and you’re fine.
JON STEWART
I pocketed two boxes of M&M’s with the presidential seal. You open it up and you really are expecting the best M&M’s you’ve ever eaten in your life, and it’s just fucking M&M’s. You’re like, “Well, these are the same M&M’s I got at the train station.” I thought president M&M’s would somehow be like, I don’t know, the chocolate on the outside and the candy on the inside, something different. But they’re just M&M’s. Pretty interesting.
trike's review against another edition
3.0
Much like the Daily Show itself, this recounting starts slowly and then builds to have greater impact.
Although everyone keeps trying to downplay its impact -- not the least Stewart himself -- there's no getting around the fact that the Daily Show under Jon Stewart's guidance became a cultural touchstone and an important player in American politics.
The book goes into the behind-the-scenes politics and personality plays that formed The Daily Show, as well as some of the purely technical aspects of how the show was created. I'm equally interested in both the writing process and the use of technology and how they developed and changed over time. In that regard I found the book really interesting.
Less interesting to me is the same old story of internecine conflicts, because that happens everywhere. Any halfway-decent showbiz book will talk about the successes and failures of relationships in these situations, and they have a familiarity because it's the same sort of people doing the same type of job experiencing the same pressures. In that regard this book is similar to books about SNL or Your Show of Shows or the I Love Lucy. People are people and people are nuts.
I quite liked reading how they went from stacks of clunky 3/4-inch videotape to banks of high tech DVRs which automatically captioned what people said so the writers could easily and instantly access recordings.
The bigger picture about the impact the show had on politics and culture was nicely done. It seems like no one held back, which is always refreshing, and having multiple points of view really gives the book a Rashomon-like feel.
Personal commentary about the state of mainstream media follows. Skip if you want.
It ebbs and flows, but the battle rages on. For quite a long time in the 1980s and 90s there was no one with the cultural impact of Murrow and Cronkite actively fighting that battle. It wasn't until Stewart took over the Daily Show and remolded it into an incisive satire machine that we had new champions arise.
It wasn't just challenging authority, it was explaining what was happening and trusting the audience to understand the point that was important. Anyone can be the obnoxious kid in the back of class throwing spitballs and making snide remarks; but to challenge authority with facts and reality and simple truth in order to effect change as a wiseass takes real skill.
I recall one moment when the Texas Democrats fled the state house in order to avoid a vote, no network news did anything besides make note of it. Some of them joked about it. Not CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, not even PBS, no one got into the "why" of it. Only the Daily Show did that. They talked about what was happening and why, and were incredibly funny all the while. The real news media should have been ashamed of that, but they never were. They continued with their "Nuzak" without bothering to go in depth.
It's only recently with the election of Trump has the mainstream media reached into its pants and found its balls, starting to hold lying politicians accountable for their bullshit. Whether they maintain this attitude once he solidifies his power is unknown. I'm cynical enough to not bet on it, but fortunately the Daily Show spin-offs are still out there carrying on the fight.
Although everyone keeps trying to downplay its impact -- not the least Stewart himself -- there's no getting around the fact that the Daily Show under Jon Stewart's guidance became a cultural touchstone and an important player in American politics.
The book goes into the behind-the-scenes politics and personality plays that formed The Daily Show, as well as some of the purely technical aspects of how the show was created. I'm equally interested in both the writing process and the use of technology and how they developed and changed over time. In that regard I found the book really interesting.
Less interesting to me is the same old story of internecine conflicts, because that happens everywhere. Any halfway-decent showbiz book will talk about the successes and failures of relationships in these situations, and they have a familiarity because it's the same sort of people doing the same type of job experiencing the same pressures. In that regard this book is similar to books about SNL or Your Show of Shows or the I Love Lucy. People are people and people are nuts.
I quite liked reading how they went from stacks of clunky 3/4-inch videotape to banks of high tech DVRs which automatically captioned what people said so the writers could easily and instantly access recordings.
The bigger picture about the impact the show had on politics and culture was nicely done. It seems like no one held back, which is always refreshing, and having multiple points of view really gives the book a Rashomon-like feel.
Personal commentary about the state of mainstream media follows. Skip if you want.
Spoiler
I am of the same generation as Stewart, Colbert, et al, and we share the same disappointment, anger and outrage over media's abdication of their responsibility in speaking truth to power. Edward R. Murrow was instrumental in checking the bullshit Communist witch hunts of the self-aggrandizing Senator Joe McCarthy. Walter Cronkite's condemnation of the Vietnam War turned the US political leadership against it. Jon Stewart and the crew of the Daily Show had a similar impact on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. People always say, "But these problems area till with us!" Yes. Evil men and women are continually rising to power, which is why we must remain ever vigilant against them.It ebbs and flows, but the battle rages on. For quite a long time in the 1980s and 90s there was no one with the cultural impact of Murrow and Cronkite actively fighting that battle. It wasn't until Stewart took over the Daily Show and remolded it into an incisive satire machine that we had new champions arise.
It wasn't just challenging authority, it was explaining what was happening and trusting the audience to understand the point that was important. Anyone can be the obnoxious kid in the back of class throwing spitballs and making snide remarks; but to challenge authority with facts and reality and simple truth in order to effect change as a wiseass takes real skill.
I recall one moment when the Texas Democrats fled the state house in order to avoid a vote, no network news did anything besides make note of it. Some of them joked about it. Not CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, not even PBS, no one got into the "why" of it. Only the Daily Show did that. They talked about what was happening and why, and were incredibly funny all the while. The real news media should have been ashamed of that, but they never were. They continued with their "Nuzak" without bothering to go in depth.
It's only recently with the election of Trump has the mainstream media reached into its pants and found its balls, starting to hold lying politicians accountable for their bullshit. Whether they maintain this attitude once he solidifies his power is unknown. I'm cynical enough to not bet on it, but fortunately the Daily Show spin-offs are still out there carrying on the fight.