TV critic doesn't "get" Jon Stewart

The Bush Administration is a joke. The democrats are a joke. The news media is a joke. The only sanity-saving thing to do is laugh at them all. Jon Stewart has discovered this and it makes for smart, funny, often insightful television. If Huff doesn't get it, it's his problem not Stewart's.

Not "getting" Jon Stewart is like not understanding the hilarity of the TRUTH in all it's glorious absurdity.

Matt-It wasn't the best analogy, I know, but it was the first that sprung to mind. Whenever I read some blowhard badmouthing the popularity of someone as astute, dead-on and funny as Stewart, it's usually some conservative idiot who doesn't understand sarcasm. Someone who doesn't "get" the jokes Stewart makes and likely doesn't realize why they are jokes in the first place. You know, someone deluded who thinks Bush is awesome and smart and is otherwise oblivious to any sense of reality about the world around him or her.

Oh my God, someone else who thought that Letterman didn't do such a bad job hosting the Oscars! I have faith in humanity again!

(No, really, I didn't mind him on the Oscars. I also thought Steve Martin did a good job. I can't stand Billy Crystal, he annoys me at this point.)

This is way more attention than Huff deserves. He is a sad harmless man. He probably lobbed this lame piece out just to stir up folks.

Like Bob said, Stewart's appeal is more than just his show. He's a known comedian, an author, and has appeared all over the media, big screen and television. His show is also a "daily" show, not a serialized drama. People tune in when they can, and if a person watches his program once a month, that in no way means they don't enjoy Stewart, or get his humor. To point out ratings is an incredibly weak and naive argument to make, especially when dealing with a person's popularity. I personally don't care if Huff gets Stewart's humor, but for a writer to actually come out and speak for America and say they don't like him is absurd. So we Stewart haters put his America book on the bestseller list for months just to be ironic?

Figures Huff writes for the Daily News.

Richard Huff is a fair and rational critic, from what I've seen, and I read his column regularly. He usually writes about the local news, and brings up issues that a lot of viewers wonder about themselves as they watch. So if he doesn't like Jon Stewart for one reason or another, you can't begrudge the guy his opinion.

But, his argument about lack of viewership is off the mark; even if TDS doesn't get a lot of viewers compared to network shows, it gets a lot compared to other cable shows. It really doesn't speak to how well Jon will do at the Oscars. I mean, how many people saw Chris Rock's HBO specials? He didn't seem to be scrutinized nearly as much as Jon has.

I have no idea if he will do well at the Oscars; I don't think any edgy comedian does well there, due to the general nature of the jokes they have to write. But Stewart does have a charm and ability to improvise that serves award hosts well. Jeez, it's not like the end of the world if he sucks; Letterman's been milking his disasterous hosting stint (which I actually liked) for laughs for ten years.

So the point of the story is that dick Huff is an idiot. He's just hatin' cause he doesn't have his own show. Jackass.

If my 65 year old mother can get Jon Stewart, anyone can.

Mase, it's almost not even worth pointing out how stupid some of these people are. I thought it was pretty generally accepted that The Daily Show is one of Comedy Central's most successful programs... ever.