The Daily Show: August 7, 2007

Achtung! A quick message before the actual review... Those of you who haven't read the comments to Brigitte's "TV Squad Daily" posts, you must do so, because, well, you'll see when you get there. Those of you who already do read the comments may have noticed that a very common typo in her Monday post prompted a weird "John" vs. "Jon" discussion among the readers. Here's the thing: do you all pronounce "John" and "Jon" differently? I've never consciously made a distinction between the two and now I feel bad for calling myself a Jon Stewart fan. Please excuse me as I silently weep in a corner.

Okay. Moving on.

"Clusterfuck to the White House: Drop and Give Me $20": Florida Representative Bob Allen was caught offering money to an officer for oral sex. If that alone doesn't convince you of Allen's poor decision-making, please be sure to check out the "Moment of Zen". And if THAT still isn't enough, you need to take a few moments to consider your own morals and then remember that Allen try to use his racism to defend himself. What an idiot. Also, Allen is (uh, heh... was?) co-chair of John McCain's campaign. Since McCain is lined up to be one of the four presidential candidates to soon appear on TDS I wonder if Jon's going to try and get him to say something about the Allen fiasco.

Senior Political Correspondent John Oliver appeared (twice) and shared his best excuses to show just how many options Allen had to defend himself. My favorite: "I'm bulimic, but I hate shoving my finger down my throat!"

"Yearly Kos Convention": Man, they should have started with this story because, after all that Allen craziness, Hillary Clinton making a stupid contradiction (and possibly alienating a great number of her supporters) seems to pale in comparison.

Jason Jones filed a field report about Cape Wind and those who hate it. This segment was decent, I believe. I'm happy to say that Jones has been getting less and less obnoxious with each appearance. I remember I was pretty annoyed with him when he was first on the show, but he doesn't seem to be trying as desperately hard these days. Now, if only he would establish a character... Hmm. Anyway, I thought that Jones' panicked cries of "It's gonna ruin the aesthetic of the tape!" and the part where he cut the kid's kite string were the best. I also quite liked the talking graphics accompanying the newspaper clippings, but I'm not entirely sure why.

The night's guest was Andy Samberg from Hot Rod and Saturday Night Live. I know Samberg is far from a perfect comedian, often exhausting his hipster appeal on-screen, but I like most of his work on SNL and The Lonely Island. Unfortunately, despite the massive potential that this interview had, it was remarkably boring. I want to say that my expectations were too high, but I wasn't really waiting for anything apart from Samberg pumping up the viewers to see Hot Rod. What resulted was actually somewhat awkward, starting from a terse discussion on "Dick in a Box". As if Samberg isn't already incredibly tired of talking about that sketch. Jon may as well have asked him about "Lazy Sunday" too, for goodness' sake. Again, I was waiting for Samberg to get me excited about Hot Rod, but he didn't even mention it. I don't know if I should even bother with that film... Currently, the only incentives I can think of are Will Arnett and Bill Hader, but I'm still debating whether or not they're temptation enough to make me sit through two hours in a crowd full of teenage hipsters.

Moment of Zen: Bob Allen just doesn't know when to shut up. Everyone, I swear that not all Floridians are that stupid. Please give us another chance before disowning us completely.