Daily Show News

Protect Yourself From John McCain

So, if you weren't at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, you missed getting yourself one of these babies!  Cool, huh?  It’s a condom wrapped in a bright magenta matchbook cover that says, “PROTECT YOURSELF FROM JOHN MCCAIN (in this election).”

Planned Parenthood Action Center

Please read Joyce's comment to this entry!

New Writer/correspondant?

Rumour has it that The Daily Show has hired a writer/correspondent - Wyatt Cenac.

According to his MySpace profile, he's moved to New York from LA, but so far there is no confirmation of this yet.

Wyatt could be replacing Sam Bee and Jason Jones, who are expecting a second child, Rob Riggle, who is also off for a while, or Aasif Mandvi, who is working on a movie.

Currently, the only staff member who is a "writer/correspondent" is John Oliver.

Edit (June 4, 1:07 AM):  The rumours are confirmed, Wyatt appeared on the show tonight.

People don't get news from Daily Show???

 

"They're not making jokes about Dan Quayle is dumb or Gerald Ford is clumsy," he said. "They're not making jokes that you could get if you live in the country but don't read the news ... . You can't get the jokes if you're not watching the news. The jokes are designed to make you think more about the news." While Stewart aims most of his firepower at Republicans, the show is actually pretty balanced in its bookings, the study noted. Of the clearly partisan, 15 guests were conservative and 18 were liberal.

Read story at NewsCloud.

An article about Adam Chodikoff

There's an article in the Washington Post today about the guy who researches video clips for the Daily Show, Adam Chodikoff.

"He has this amazing memory for sound bites about anything political or about policy," says David Javerbaum, executive producer of "The Daily Show." "What's remarkable is how many ideas he initiates because he remembered that this guy said this or that a year ago."

Chodikoff "sees the whole picture," says Rob Kutner, one of the show's writers. He's "in the news matrix. He spots patterns, trends, the forces of history. He remembers a politician saying the opposite thing three years ago and gets us to that video."

The montages of video clips are one of my favourite parts of the show, so hats off to Mr. Chodikoff.

Viacom's Hostility to Web Users Continues

Since launching its new Web site for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Comedy Central network, whose parent company is Viacom, has as yet not offered an RSS feed for clips of the popular show (for now, you can use this one). As it releases new shows, such as Lewis Black's Root of All Evil and Lil Bush, it does so without providing an RSS feed for clips, as it used to here for earlier shows.

Meanwhile, Viacom blocks access to its new Daily Show site (and its Comedy Central site in the U.S.) to all Canadian users. Canadian users are redirected to the Comedy Network site in Canada which doesn't offer the same capabilities. Similarly, U.S. visitors to the Comedy Network site are sent to Comedy Central. This has nothing to do with a violation of the concept of Net Neutrality but simply the aggressive re-routing of Web users based on the IP of their incoming country to a version of a site tailored for that country (not an uncommon practice). The difference is that this decision has been made to allow Viacom to separate advertising contracts sold to the two countries' media markets. Canadian users have no easy ways of re-routing their traffic to the site they want.

Our Facebook applications with embedded videos from these shows like Daily Show News and Comedy Central Videos as well as clips embedded in blogs like this one block Canadian viewers from watching - they just appear broken. Yet, the company's Flash player encourages people to share and embed videos.

Ironically, viewers to the new South Park Studios website trying to watch clips of the recent Canada On Strike episode see Terrence and Phillip saying "Good News Buddy!":

While blocking Canada is clearly a business decision which screws over Canadian residents, the decision not to offer RSS may simply be a technical feature they have not yet implemented. However, more likely, it's a conscious decision to force people back to visiting their websites. Apparently, the market value of YouTube didn't make them think twice of the value of RSS and viral embedding. It reminds me of A billionaire's guide to stopping "theft" of your online newspaper content...and relegating your business to obscurity.

The unwillingness to offer RSS makes no sense to me because Viacom can make money by selling video commercials which run ahead of the embedded videos and Website clips.

Technorati Tags: comedy central, net neutrality, viacom, canada, the daily show, south park, canada blocked

Daily Show Fodder: Mary Ann Caught Driving Stoned

Former Gilligan's Island star caught with marijuana in car

A surprise birthday party for Dawn Wells, the actress who played Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island," ended with a nearly three-hour tour of the Teton County sheriff's office and jail when the 69-year-old was caught with marijuana in her vehicle while driving home.

Wells is now serving six months' unsupervised probation for the crime. She was sentenced Feb. 29 to five days in jail, fined $410.50 and placed on probation after pleading guilty to one count of reckless driving.

When Gutierrez asked why he could smell marijuana, Wells reportedly told him that she'd just given a ride to three hitchhikers and had dropped them off when they began smoking something. When Gutierrez searched the car, he found three half-smoked joints in the ashtray and console, according to the report. A second search after Wells' arrest netted a fourth half-smoked joint and two small cases used to store marijuana, Gutierrez said.

Technorati Tags: dawn wells, marijuana, idaho

WGA Update: Comedy Central Writers Drop In On Washington

Next week, a plethora of writers from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report will be dropping in on Washington, DC to hold a mock debate about the current WGA strike situation.

"The debate will be held Jan. 23 in the Rayburn House Offic Building and moderated by Dee Dee Myers, former Clinton White House press secretary and consultant/writer on NBC's The West Wing.

Writers in attendance will be The Daily Show's Rachel Axler, Kevin Bleyer, Tim Carvell and Jason Ross; Colbert Report's Michael Brumm, Peter Grosz, Peter Gwinn and Tom Purcell; and a special guest appearance by Allison Abner, former West Wing writer.

Legislators hosting the debate are Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Anthony Weiner (both New York Democrats) and Jan Schakowsky  (D-Ill.)"

I wonder what will take place at said debate, and I wonder if it were to be broadcasted on TV would that be crossing the picket line. I don't think we'll be lucky enough to see this kind of stuff on C-Span. I might actually have to wake up from my coma.

Article Source: here

We've turned off videos in support of the writer's union

We've turned off access to the Daily Show and Comedy Central videos from our clips area, our Facebook applications and NewsCloud until the writer's strike is over. Keep up with the strike at No Fact Zone. We support unions and the rights of workers/writers to strike when they feel it is necessary to ensure they are treated fairly by their employers.

Technorati Tags: writers strike, daily show clips, comedy central, the daily show

America has plenty of smart bombs but even more stupid people.

Jon Stewart spent an hour at Caesar's, Atlantic City, NJ telling stories with a heavy political biase. Jon said "America has plenty of smart bombs but even more stupid people." and then suggested "In the next war, we're going to drop illiterate children on our opposition. We'll never run out of them."

After covering such obvious targets as Barack Obama, Jon tackled the thorny subject of religion, especially the Right-Wing Moral Majority's views on homosexuality: "People say the Bible calls (being gay) an abomination," Stewart said. "Have you read the Bible? Everything is an abomination. God uses the word abomination like we use ahhh and ummmm."

Jon Stewart has never been adverse to directing his humor at people other comedians might hesitate to deride:

"The Pope is one hat choice away from being the Grand Wizard of the Ku-Klux-Klan ," he said. "I find the current Pope the most impressive because (being a) Hitler Youth is usually a resume killer."

The crowd loved it all.

Full text of article

Josh Rushing Disses the Daily Show Gift Baskets

Author Josh Rushing also has "issues" with the Daily Show gift baskets.  In an interview with CBS last month, Rushing said:

"First, let me tell you about the gift basket they give you. It came with a bottle of vodka from Ireland, and a gift card for a free tattoo. And the gift card is presented in a very nice little jewelry box, a nice little velvet jewelry box. I thought at first it would be something great I could give my wife. Then I popped it open and it was a VIP gift card from some tattoo parlor in New Jersey.

I gave Jon Stewart a hard time about it, too, when he came back to the green room. I told him if he wanted to give me liquor from Ireland, I’d rather it have been whiskey. If you’re gonna give me vodka, make it from Russia. As for the tattoo, I asked him ‘Do I need to drink the vodka to deal with the tattoo? Do these gifts appeal to your other guests?’

Then he stopped being funny and said ‘It’s really embarrassing. We don’t put out those gift bags. Some promotional company does it. But it’s really embarrassing.’"