Laughing At Fear
My Dad, who I adore yet absolutely disagree politically, finally has something in common with me: we love great comedy, specifically The Daily Show. I’ve been telling him over and over again to watch it and he used to say “Absolutely not! I’m not going to watch some liberal idiot.” Oh, how he was wrong. He LOVES Jon Stewart now! And here’s why? Because although the show is freaking hysterical, there’s an absolute truth to his comedy. Jon Stewart tells it as it is regardless if you’re on the right or the left! The truth, in fact, is funny!
Regardless of your political views, you can’t deny (if you’re a sane person) that Fox News, CNN, or “insert city here” news all have a level of selling fear to their audience. Why else would some one tune in? Fear sells. Obama is a Muslim terrorist! Gas prices will be $7.00 by 2010! Iraq never had weapons of mass destruction! Oh wait, that’s actually truth, not fear. Sorry! You get my point…
So why do I bring up The Daily Show with Jon Stewart? Because he has a phenomenally, successful show. Studies have shown that my demographic (educated twenty to thirty somethings) watch The Daily Show to get the REAL news versus the insane “un-biased” Fox News or CNN. That should really wake up America, in my opinion. A “comedic” news show on Comedy Central is getting more viewers than the “real news.” But does it really surprise you?
I can best some up my point in the post by showing you exactly what I’m talking about with a clip from The Daily Show (it’s always my way of ‘bragging’ that I have a RedLasso account!)
So what are your thoughts, my friends? Aren’t you tired of fear being presented to you every single night? Instead of believing and fearing fear itself, why not laugh at it? I do.
Tags: News, Politics, The Daily Show, Truth
June 29th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Its human nature for us to be scared of things we don’t understand. However, the news is geared for that apocalyptic style of news broadcasting. The news organizations in the 70’s used to be very factual and direct to the point about the news and they seldom went beyond ethical standards. Today’s news however has adopted a policy of being very Geraldo- like in trying to shock people or getting the story in a not so ethical way such as going to a funeral of a murder victim and asking them how they felt that thier loved one was gunned down before its time at the FUNERAL. Its even to the point I don’t watch the news anymore just because of that shock factor.
The Daily show is popular because even though it is a parody of news, also pokes fun at us even though we poke fun at the news makers. and we like it that way.
July 4th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
The Daily Show is an amazing program. Did you see the program where he took on the Fox show Crossfire???!!! Amazing. They brought him on to discredit/roast him and he ended up basically shutting down the show. He exposed it for what it was.
Gah! Have to get a Red Lasso account. WAY too cool.