His appeal to nostalgic viewers will only go so far
Comedian Jon Stewart is making a comeback to “The Daily Show” following an almost ten-year absence. He will serve as the show’s executive producer in addition to hosting Monday nights beginning on February 12 and continuing through election season.
Is Stewart able to keep up his sizable and devoted fan base? Is it possible for him to reach a wider audience than the leftist Gen-Xers and millennials that made up his fan base between 1999 and 2015?
Over the previous ten years, the country’s politics, culture, and media landscape have all seen significant upheaval.
Not even for a well-known and successful musician like Stewart is a certain thing. Over the previous ten years, the country’s politics, culture, and media landscape have all seen significant upheaval. These changes have brought up new difficulties that Stewart and the Comedy Central team will need to find innovative solutions for.
Naturally, one can reasonably bet that this seasoned political humorist is going to draw in a sizable audience for his desk job for the second time. After all, the man is a true pioneer of comedy. Under his leadership of “The Daily Show,” he developed become a maestro of “politainment,” a lucrative hybrid of art and business. It draws interest from customers and money from advertisers. Through politainment, an entertainer can also influence political debate in addition to making comments on it.
Stewart was one of the best at it. In addition to nurturing talents like Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert, Hasan Minhaj, and John Oliver, his unique evening cocktail of sharp partisan satire and 100-proof hard news had a global influence. He was followed, among others, by Ahmad Albasheer in Iraq, Okey Bakassi in Nigeria, Brian Tseng in Taiwan, and Bassem Youssef in Egypt.
In addition to being a pioneer in comedy, Stewart is also somewhat of a Trusted Name in Liberal America. His tireless efforts on behalf of first responders to 9/11 and veterans have made him a well-known and passionate supporter of deserving causes. Stewart might sell it to leftists if they kept gold bullion, were interested in reverse mortgages, or bought “men’s health supplements.”
He doesn’t go from show to gig with a huge Airbus A380-800 cargo hold full of personal belongings, in contrast to other celebrity comics (though one may legitimately wonder if the “blind spots” that caused friction backstage at “The Daily Show” in 2011 had been fixed). Advocates for #MeToo have not taken offense at him. He doesn’t frequently “beef” on X with resentful minorities, unlike his pal Dave.
Stewart 2.0 won’t be short on rich comic earth either. Comedy gold (and, tragically, tragedy gold) abounds in this election cycle. All of which could indicate that “The Daily Show,” with its attractive and gifted executive producer and host, is destined for both critical and Emmy recognition as well as financial success.
However, if Stewart’s revival follows his previous plot, it may be heading straight into a demographic storm. Comedy and news reporting are combined in “politainment,” sometimes in ways that bother me and other commenters. It is important to emphasize that the audiences for both are fragmenting and dividing. The effects are particularly difficult for liberal news journalists and comedians, two hitherto separate professions that “The Daily Show” deftly combined.
Stewart’s comeback could be heading straight into a demographic storm if it follows his previous plan.
In the early 2000s, liberal comedian Jon Stewart worked in an environment where most prominent comedians were part of a wide liberal consensus. Of course, the titans of the business, whether they be stand-ups, producers, comic actors, sketch comedians, etc., could have made a big impression on someone like stiff Al Gore, stiff John Kerry, mysterious Barack Obama, or wildly overqualified Hillary Clinton. However, it’s likely that they would also play at a benefit for their campaigns.
That moment, however, saw the emergence of a conservative comedy culture that flew entirely beneath the liberal radar. The seminal work “That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work For Them” by Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx is required reading in this regard. This research revealed a multifaceted, profitable, and expanding “right-wing comedy complex,” which has developed over decades. Despite the fact that Fox’s “Gutfeld!” has surpassed more recent versions of “The Daily Show,” it is still largely unknown to lefties.
When Stewart was at the top of his game, conservatives could not ignore him, if only because so many national political narratives were shaped by his popularity. However, the emergence of a self-contained right-wing “politainment” realm points to a new reality: Stewart’s supporters no longer need to listen to him (as Chris Wallace and, most notably, Tucker Carlson once did).
Stewart’s left-wing supporters might also ignore him. Recent grads and college students are especially vulnerable to this. I work with Gen Zers on a daily basis, so believe me when I say that this generation is, well, unique. Just different, not better or worse than any other generation I’ve taught.
Political and generational audience divisions do not automatically spell disaster for Stewart. It simply implies that a well-known liberal comedian or any comedian firmly associated with a political ideology no longer has a national, “ecumenical” following.
The first task for Stewart is to reclaim the politainment area. Ironically, other liberal comedians have taken over that arena, many of them his epigones (though some of his epigones, like Oliver, are quite brilliant at what they do). After that, he’ll need to come up with something new because nostalgic viewers can only take him so far. Not only must Stewart come up with innovative ideas to revive the appeal of liberal politainment, but he also needs to quit lecturing the masses.
