I think one of the elevations to the form that occurred as Jon Stewart and the writers evolved The Daily Show was that the coverage was more fair. The clips we

I think one of the elevations to the form that occurred as Jon Stewart and the writers evolved The Daily Show was that the coverage was more fair. The clips were still humorous, but they were generally contextually and fairly presented so as to be an accurate statement of the target's beliefs. The subversion usually came in choosing clips where the true beliefs were exposed, rather than the PR whitewashed version. Oliver tends to overdo the histrionics in reaction to the topic, whereas one of Stewart's most effective rhetorical devices was "... But maybe they {good reason for doing the thing that was done}" -> segue into next clip where target explicitly rejects {good reason} as motivation.