In September, Apple TV+ will begin airing The Problem With Jon Stewart. Six years after leaving Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, Stewart, 58, is returning to the talk-show circuit amid a political and media landscape that’s quite different than the one he left behind.
Gerry Smith for Bloomberg News:
Each hourlong episode, according to Apple, will dig into a single issue—an approach that’s similar to the HBO program hosted by John Oliver, Stewart’s old colleague.
Stewart is one of several big stars to make programming deals with Apple TV+, including Idris Elba, Oprah Winfrey, and Malala Yousafzai.
On July 20, the day Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos took a brief trip to space, Stewart posted a three-minute mock movie trailer on Twitter, giving a taste of what his show may look like. Bezos, played by Jason Alexander of Seinfeld fame, goes to space in a rocket shaped like a penis. There, he clashes with other phallic space vehicles staffed by rival billionaires Elon Musk (Adam Pally) and Richard Branson, who was played by a mop.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, as per the teaser trailer, The Problem With Jon Stewart is that he’s/it’s not funny.
Taking the piss out of Branson and Bezos we can see, Misters Suborbital Joyride 1 and 2, but Musk has actually built a company capable of launching into actual space and doing actual work.
Musk’s SpaceX is the first private company to autonomously dock a crew-capable spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), it resupplies the ISS, it’s the largest commercial satellite constellation operator in the world, it’s the first private company to send humans into orbit, it’s the first private company to send humans to the ISS, etc. etc. etc.
Musk’s company does real work in real space (even if Elon is wrong about Apple’s App Store fees).
In golf terms, if NASA is Jack Nicklaus, Musk has already won his first major, Bezos is trying to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour, and Branson is hanging out at the local putt-putt course.
So, Stewart, along with being mostly unfunny here (Mel Brooks did it better over three decades ago) really kills whatever joke there is by including Musk. The bit would have worked better simply by focusing on Branson and Bezos blowing millions in a race to hit in Fake Space.
Sorry for the aborted launch!!! I’m a bad twitterer.
Enjoy this small step for man! pic.twitter.com/6gBHHJLByQ— Jon Stewart (@jonstewart) July 20, 2021
We get our news from comedians, and America has never been more angry.
I didn’t much like that space video either, but Stewart has been very insightful in the past.
“We get our news from comedians, bla bla bla.”
Well, that explains a lot!
your extremist buddies lionized college dropout rock jock Limbaugh, the oxy-popping, hispanic maid-importing, cuban smoking fucktard hypocrite who could take any issue and slather it with so much sugary inaccurate judgmental bs. you drank the koolaid, which is why you are a bitter friendless dickhead spouting divisionist politics on a computer blog. F U, troll
It’s funny that you called someone else “bitter,” you presumptuous douche.
And yet, he’s pretty accurate about the low caliber of right wing talking heads. FUD is a specialty of extremists on both ends of the spectrum. So he’s not presumptuous. He’s realistic. Only people like you and Vladimir and the political troll brigade come onto MDN to claim only your side is ever correct. Can we talk about Macs again?
Anyone ever see the Flesh Gordon movie from the mid 70s? Now that was a penis shaped rocket!
I’m sure that Apple will balance this out by producing a show by someone with a non-Leftwing world view.
How about a dark comedy:
The Problems With Ice Cream Joe
To an extreme rightie, all the normal reasonable people are left of you. You moving further right doesn’t change that fact.
I’m going to wait to see the actual show before judging it. I’m funny like that….
Oh, and I probably won’t care if a sketch is factual or whether my news is funny.
Comedians use exaggeration to propel facts into entertaining stories. John Oliver for example brings some heavy issues into discussion, and no righties dare attack him because the facts are clearly on Oliver’s side.
Political talking heads like Hannity, Carlson, etc use exaggerations to distort facts and create hate fear and outrage. Their schtik doesn’t inform, it is intended to reinforce biases to prevent any change from the status quo, for the benefit of their rich handlers that gerrymandered their way to obscene wealth.
So unlike 20 years ago, the viewer base is split. Some open minded people hear the facts and want to reform to correct problems. Righties do everything possible to prevent reforms. First they claim civilization is too expensive and they are totally self sufficient. Then these self-proclaimed libertarians cheer for a strongman dictator wannabe who liked to “ban” and tariff stuff unilaterally.
Too many are soaked in right wing FUD, closed minded to any reforms or change. Hurray for Jon pointing out the obvious need to get educated and kick out the pompous obstructionist asswipes who think America was at its zenith in 1952 and we need to return to those halcyon days.