Is it just me, or is the Daily Show not as good as it used to be?

Actually, let me clarify: not as funny as it used to be.

I've been watching the Daily Show pretty much since Jon Stewart took over.  I was somewhat dismayed to see it slowly morph into an entirely political-centric show (since I have almost zero interest in politics), but the writing always remained sharp, and it was almost always very, very funny.

But it seems like over the last year or so, Stewart et al have become more concerned with the politics than with the funny.  Am I alone here?  Obviously it's still funny, and it does make me chuckle every now and then, but it does seem like the focus is more on political commentary / newsmedia critiques, with humour being a secondary goal.  It feels (to me, at least) like it used to be the other way around, with humour being the first priority and commentary being the second.

Even the guests are less interesting than they used to be -- they used to have a good mix of political figures, authors, and actors/directors.  Now it's pretty much all political people all the time, with a non-political guest maybe once every couple of weeks.  They almost never have non-political authors on anymore.  At one point I had a pretty interesting reading list thanks to recommendations from the Daily Show -- no longer. 

Maybe my tolerance for politics is going down, I don't know (though it was pretty low to start with) but I've been watching since the beginning, and I haven't missed an episode in something like five years, but now I'm thinking about just turning it off altogether.

dag says...

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

No I think you are right- it's been a very subtle, slow morphing- but the Daily Show has become a "politics show". I don't mind this- because that's what I like, but I agree it has lost a bit of the funny. They seem to always be gunning for the "big moment" like when they gave CNBC a whooping or the great lampoon of Glen Beck. It's "made for Internet" TV- they want their clips to go viral.

imstellar28 says...

I used to watch The Daily Show every night...back when Stewart actually pretended to be politically neutral. Now hes just another pretentious, hippie douche with air time. I've made it a point not to watch the show...in fact I'm running an unofficial boycott of clips on the internet as well -- can't remember the last time I've upvoted a TDS clip here.

JiggaJonson says...

I feel like i've laughed at the show more because it stays topical. I find I have the same experience with South Park, the episodes that mirror and mock what's happening in society hold my interest and make me laugh harder than do the problems of average 4th graders (even if the latter is still endearing).

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