Museums and Culture

It is true, CERRU and the Macaulay Honors College were not able to get Jon Stewart to come to Queens College for a lecture.  But, they got the next best thing: Co-Executive Producer Steve Bodow, though the reason for that ability was probably due to the close connection between Bodow and one of our faculty members here at Queens, Katherine Profeta (also one of the seminar professors this semester for Macaulay’s Arts in NYC).  Steve Bodow was not always Co-Executive Producer.  He studied journalism and politics at Yale University, and later became involved with theatrical production as well as freelance journalism.  He applied to the Daily Show as a writer, and made his way up from there, recently receiving this high title.

Full disclosure: I do not watch the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  I also do not watch the Colbert Report.  I would classify myself as politically unaware, to my despair, and because of this, find political humor quite intimidating.  In my attempt to avoid any disclaimers, here I go: I prefer the Colbert Report when I’m watching mindless television to the Daily Show, and I might be wrong here, but maybe it’s due to content.  The humor seems quite different, and I feel that the Daily Show, though comedic and joking, is more serious in terms of how it takes itself.  Again, I hate disclaimers (thanks to my high school English teacher Edward Baluyut – look him up, he’s in a band), but I feel the need to say I have no clue, when it comes to these sorts of shows, so correct me if I’m wrong.  Seriously, I never get any comments on my posts!

Luckily for you, and for me, this blog isn’t about my interpretation on Jon Stewart’s show.  If it were, I would have done research and not have made blanket statements like those above.  This is a blog about the Q&A discussion with the Co-Executive Producer – discussing life at the Daily Show, and how each episode is conceived.  The show has really evolved according to Bodow.  Originally there was more of a focus on the comedic aspect but more recently there has been a desire, directed by Stewart, to have an overall purpose of each episode.  The focus now is more on making the news coverage humorous, rather than making jokes that happen to involve the news.  Because of this change, the Daily Show has been highly renowned for the information it gives.  The show has been used as a source in many articles, including those in the New York Times.  But how does something this great come about?

I imagine the studio to be quite chaotic as the writers and producers must get together a show in only a 24 hour period.  The Daily Show airs new episodes every night, Monday through Thursday.  But this isn’t merely a news broadcast, it is comedy, and requires the flow of creative juices, which I can imagine must be occasionally stopped up – writers block anyone?  Every morning the writers get together and pool ideas for main topics to be discussed.  Many times ideas from the previous night must be thrown out the window due to breaking news the next day.  One such example is that of the recent Petraeus case.  Again, I will not get into the nitty-gritty as I don’t know anything more than what Bodow comically covered, but apparently while the writers were sleeping, new information cropped up.  Ideas from the night before of what might be covered the next day had to be thrown away in place of the breaking news.  There are at least three preliminary rewrites of the script every day.  Jon Stewart gets involved with the last rewrite and really edits – the show only has 21 minutes to cover everything in a funny manner.  No matter how funny some jokes may be, they might have to get cut for the sake of time.

One question that I had, and that was answered tonight, was whether or not the show had a political bias.  I haven’t watched enough to know myself, and though I might assume the Daily Show leans more towards the left (considering that it airs on Comedy Central), I wanted to be sure.  I found out that though there is a clear lean, Jon Stewart and the writers will poke fun wherever it is deserving.  As Steve Bodow said, and I paraphrase, there just happens to be more absurd things happening in the Republican Party now, and that’s where a lot of the jokes naturally fall.  But, as we saw in a clip called “Polish That Turd” (about Obama’s failure at the first presidential debate), pokes will be made at both sides.

Overall, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the Q&A session.  Because I’m not so familiar with the topic, I thought I’d be at a disadvantage.  The way Steve Bodow spoke was very inviting, and extremely comedic, allowing everyone to enjoy the presentation.

 Politics, the Media, and Satire with the Daily Show!
Queens College Rosenthal Library Room 230
Steve Bodow, Co-Executive Producer
Sponsored by CERRU & Macaulay Honors College

Marina B. Nebro