Nietzsche is Dead: 'The Daily Show' more than a standard comedy gig

In a dark room in the left wing of the Journalism Building, a political communication professor cues up a video for his class. The students close their laptops and look up at the screen as a lone trumpet sounds from the speakers and a deep, authoritarian voice booms across the room.

"Live from Comedy Central's news headquarters in New York, this is ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.'"

As the familiar guitar rift hits their ears, every student's mouth falls open, and their eyes bug out like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon – you can see the gears grinding in their heads and, while nobody actually says it, the question is almost palpable: Are we seriously going to watch "The Daily Show" in class?

Then mouths go from hanging agape to big, broad grins, and another loud but silent thought hangs in the air: Awesome.

It would be hilarious to give Jon Stewart an honorary teaching position in the political communication department, but the above situation doesn't happen enough to constitute a significant portion of the curriculum.

But sometimes — and there are several doctorate-bearing, high-fallutin', academic-paper-writing professors who will tell you this — "The Daily Show" calls out a politician or media figure so succinctly, or illustrates some glaring inconsistency so clearly, even a trained academic can only tip his hat and watch.

Even though "The Daily Show" runs on Comedy Central, it is more than just a late-night laugh show. It is almost certainly our generation's most sublime form of satire.

What separates "The Daily Show" from the standard comedy gig and makes it a potent vehicle for satire is the dedicated team of fact checkers. If a senator makes a claim based on outdated numbers or weak evidence, the odds of "The Daily Show" finding and blasting it publicly are at least as good as a legitimate "news" organization.

Case in point: During Fox News' coverage of the tea parties, the network used footage from previous protests to make the demonstrations that day seem much more well-attended than they really were. It wasn't CNN or MSNBC that caught them; it wasn't Brian Williams or Katie Couric that got to show the world proof of journalistic manipulation — it was Jon Stewart, who threw down evidence that even Bill O'Reilly, spin-master extraordinaire, couldn't refute.

While it's certainly a more dramatic example of the show's razor-sharp attention to detail, it's not the only one. Anyone who watches the show regularly knows the writing team routinely finds clips of public officials and media personalities blatantly contradicting themselves. They regularly catch false figures and claims that slip through the nets of "real" news outlets — and they do it all with a bitingly satirical sense of humor and wordplay and a consistency that is truly extraordinary.

Let's be clear: Jon Stewart is a comedian. The show is not, and in no way claims to be, a real news program. The writers and producers have repeatedly said that the increasing number of people (especially among our generation) turning to their work for news is depressing.

But the growing popularity of "The Daily Show" is noteworthy. While television news professionals struggle to find relevance in the age of the Internet, maybe they can learn a few lessons from a spoof of their occupation.

We don't like divisive, partisan news personalities. We don't like angry, confrontational approaches to issues that shouldn't necessarily merit them.

All we want from the media is people who can keep the government accountable, point out inconsistencies where they occur and, if we're lucky, earn a few laughs from it.

And the first producer that says the task is too difficult needs only to visit "Comedy Central's news headquarters in New York" for a lesson from a staff that is a fraction of their size, but has a multiple of their skill.

Matthew Albright is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_malbright.



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Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@lsureveille.com