Is Jon Stewart Just a One Trick Monkey?

Leading up to the 2004 election The Daily Show with Jon Stewart struck a political nerve with a younger demographic that typically is too distracted to give a shit about national politics or world events. For making that connection Stewart is to be applauded, and for his creativity in establishing an outlet for legitimate 'fake news' he's been hailed as a media wunderkind.

But none of this may have been possible without George W. Bush - his punching bag. And frankly, while one would think you can never grow tired of watching George getting his comeuppance nightly by Stewart; we have. Times have changed in this age of the 24/7 news cycle, regular years have now become like dog years, we pack 7 years into 1 and in general, have trouble focusing on ANYTHING for longer than a week.

The White House has mastered this, and Jon Stewart knows it as well.

"Politicians have caught up. They understand that 24-hour news networks: they don't have time for journalism. They only have time for reporting. They only have time to be handed things and go, 'this is what I've just been handed by the administration.' And they read it". (Bill Moyers Interviews Jon Stewart, July 11, 2003)

So why on skewering Bush has Stewart "stayed the course". Well, for one thing its easy, cheap laughs, perfect set-ups. But its not 2003-04 anymore, its 2006, 14 dog years have passed by since the election and America, both the young and the old, have realized that these are now different times. While 7 out of 10 Americans may strongly dislike Bush, there is a realization that not much can be done about it. America has become the New Soviet Union. Bush is our Putin. We're stuck with him, we're being controlled and manipulated, and we just have to wait this thing out. The legal and journalistic systems aren't working, even 'fake news' isn't much of a relief anymore. We're in a bunker and you're teasing us John.

Not since his role in "Death to Smoochy" has Stewart faced such a career defining moment because, lately, it feels like the Daily Show is just hanging in there, waiting. Waiting for the midterm elections in the fall, waiting for a juicy Republican scandal, something, anything. Its the question a comedy show that relies on real news to feed the fake news never wants to have to answer - can they still be funny when all of the Bushisms are no longer easily picked low-hanging fruit, or worst yet, just boring.

There was that infamous Crossfire moment:

"I thought you were going to be funny," Carlson said toward the end of the interview. Stewart responded, "No, I'm not going to be your monkey.

Yet now we seem to have arrived at that monkey-moment. You can only stir the pot so many times with your followers and when there is no reformation, no revolution, no perceptible change, they change the channel.