>I personally believe the Daily Show is largely responsible for the kind of snide discourse we see around politics today. They might have just been riding the

>I personally believe the Daily Show is largely responsible for the kind of snide discourse we see around politics today. They might have just been riding the wave, but the changing temperature of political discourse was certainly on display in the changing tone of that show. Maybe all the tape of cable news they had to pour through over the years rotted their brain despite watching it with a critical eye. There were two big shifts over the years. I watched when it was goofing around in a news format, when it was pointed, and when it became salty I eventually stopped watching. The pointed period was it's golden period and it's rise in fame. They poked fun at the tricks of the tv news establishment and put egg on politician's faces. It was obvious they had a perspective, but it didn't seem like they were sacrificing comedy to send a message. ...and then some years later they blatantly were. The time I realized I was done with the show was when I read some news during the day, and a politician said basically: "A, but B, therefore C." That night on The Daily Show, they played a clip of A, cut to Stewart at the desk to double down on point A, cut to a clip of C, smash cut to Stewart pulling a face and pause for reaction. The Daily Show used to be the ones to clown on CNN for doing exactly that. Would the Daily Show of today or Last Week Tonight give me the same soft spot for Ron Paul getting ratfucked by the cable news media? The Daily Show of 15 years ago didn't want him in power but still celebrated him on the occasions he made decent political points that neither the GOP or dems wanted to touch with a 10 foot pole, and exposed how his campaign was under- and mis-reported. These days? They'd ratfuck him even harder than cable news.