The Daily Show Gets it Totally Wrong - Again

Why would a group of single people who like going clubbing while looking their best be an object of ridicule on a “progressive” comedy show? Why would a program about safer sex aimed at a group of sexually active adults be considered ludicrous? If you ask The Daily Show, it’s because they’re old.

I’ve often complained that Jon Stewart seems to surround himself with jerks on The Daily Show, perhaps as a way to make himself look better. His gaggle of guys is a tiresome crew with an adolescent humor based on humiliating – rather than exposing – people.

Tonight, one of those idjits, Jason Jones, “reported” from a community of Jewish elders in Florida. He “discovered” two facts: first, the older people are having a lot of sex and second, they’re suffering a spike in sexually transmitted diseases. The first fact he found nauseating – a point he made repeatedly – and the second he found laughable.

Jones is 42 and is married to the only woman who is part of this dumbed-down Stewart support cohort on The Daily Show, Samantha Bee. (Her bits are often as puerile as the others, although not always.) Jones won his reputation, such that it is, for an elevated level of rudeness others found hard to achieve, but only when Samantha Bee took leave to have their babies, was Jones “promoted to a full time correspondent.”

For part of his ugly routine last night, he dressed up in what he considered old-man couture: eye-exam-sized dark glasses and pleated slacks hiked up to his nipples. Next to the sharp crowd he was out with, he looked like a putz.

So what is the problem with “discovering” that many people want to be sexual throughout their lives? If he had ever been friends with folks in their 80s and 90s, he would’ve already known that. What would Jones recommend instead? That elders go sit on a cold mountain-top when they get to the age that reminds Jones of his own mortality?

Even more bewildering, why would anyone with even a sliver of a brain ridicule safer sex education in a community that is seeing a rise in sexually-transmitted infections? For a man who is in his 40s, Jones does protest too much. I wish him what he seems to wish for the rest of us: a strict celibacy for the rest of his life. And I would ask Mr. Boss Man, Jon Stewart, to hire a witty elder to bring some sex appeal to the show.

Comments

[Socialist]

Please lighten up. I'm sick of the culture of proper scolds set up to castigate humor that is not perfectly "politically correct."

If you really want to "disapprove" of something, take a gander at Red Eye. They really are hurtful pigs.

[Anita]

I saw the show and felt the same way that you did. How juvenile is this? When the "correspondents" make their appearance, I usually switch the channel until their bit is over. They're so boring and not at all funny. As you said, their brand of humor is adolescent and offensive. How stupid do they think we are?

[Mia]

I think it's another example of ageism is just completely accepted and never questioned in our society. There is absolutely no check and balance when it comes to conversations regarding age and weight. Humor that humiliates is just stupid and easy. Love or hate Chris Rock but his humor is never this simple, it always makes you..hey wait a minute...?

[Joan Price]

Thank you, Sue, for alerting me to this show, and I agree with you 100%. You inspired me to blog about it myself here: http://betterthanieverexpected.blogspot.com/2009/04/daily-shows-dirty-bird-special-poops-on.html

To "Socialist" -- may I ask how old you are and at what age you plan to retire your genitals?

"Lighten up?" I don't think so.

Joan Price

Author of Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk about Sex After Sixty (http://www.joanprice.com/BetterThanExpected.htm)

Join us -- we're talking about ageless sexuality at http://www.betterthanieverexpected.blogspot.com

[Sue Katz]

I apologize for not responding to these (mostly) thoughtful comments earlier, but my provider cut my internet, phone and tv service and it has taken me 24 hrs to get back online. I'll blog about it later today. Thanks all for writing.

Yes, Mia, you're so right about cheap shots (age/weight). Anita, I'm glad we're on the same wavelength, indeed. Joan, I'll check out your blog as soon as I get settled back online, but I'm glad we're keeping up the pressure together. And Socialist, the empty and annoying concept of "politically correct" was devised by those who are, uh, politically screwed up as a way to avoid changing. I must write about that sometime soon. Thanks for being the catalyst.

[Israeli Women]

I have never been a fan of Jon Stewart for these exact reasons.