Smart Humor...

Hello again all of you awesome Afro Stachers! Welcome to another Fabulous Frog Blog!

So this week marks quite the milestone in comedy history. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show had his final show. After over 16 years, Jon has decided to call it quits and move onto, what I would assume, better pastures.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I am a fan of his. Not a huge fan, but just a fan. I remember way back before there even was a Daily Show, Jon Stewart had his own talk show for about 15 minutes. He replaced the Arsenio Hall Show. That was my first exposure to Jon Stewart. I remember thinking that he was pretty funny and I enjoyed the show. I remember one of his guests was John Tesh (remember him?) and being that he was on Entertainment Tonight, he said Jon had a long career ahead of him on that show. Well, how wrong he was! But that was OK, for Jon eventually went on to the Daily Show.

I remember when they announce that he would be hosting the Daily Show and I remember thinking that I hope it lasts longer than his talk show. So as a point, I decided to catch his first episode. I honestly couldn’t tell you what was reported on his first appearance or even what he said. But I remember him doing pretty well and I enjoyed the show. Apparently many others did as well.

I did notice things start to change on that show. Back when Craig Kilborn was hosting, it seemed more like a parody of the news with some talk show thrown in there with a bunch of fake news. Jon started to make it more of a satire of the news and current events. OK, yes, I know he had a bunch of writers working with, and for, him. Now I can’t say the show got more serious, because there were laughs abound! But the show definitely became more “relevant,” for lack of a better word. People took notice. He was bringing news to people who normally wouldn’t watch the news, like me.

Yes, I know the Daily Show is not the place to get the news. Heck, even Jon Stewart said that himself. But how many of us, including myself, saw his show and then had to look up what he was talking about later when it came to what was going on around us? He definitely brought some topics to light.

He was also very human. He wasn’t the stiff anchor you might watch on ABC Nightly News or Sixty Minutes. He expressed emotions and opinions with lots of passion, most of the time in extremely humorous ways. But when something big and serious happened, you knew what he was feeling. The perfect example for that was the first show they did after 9/11. That opening monologue he did will forever be etched into my memory. You could see the pain and sorrow he had for what had happened as he fought back the tears, but yet he was determined to carry on. I will never forget his final line, and I’m paraphrasing here, but he said his view from his apartment was the Twin Towers, but now his view is of the Statue of Liberty, and it doesn’t get better than that.

Let’s not forget all the talent he had on the show with him as well. Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Ed Helms, Olivia Munn, just to name a few! All of them brilliant in their own way.

So what am I getting at here with all this? Jon Stewart is brilliant when it comes to comedy. The things he has come up with in his show were brilliant and intelligent. I write comedy in our comics. I am not even close to being as smart as Jon Stewart. Now I love comedies and parodies and all that, which shows in our books. Our humor is silly and ridiculous. At least I think it is. But after seeing the final episode of Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, I realize that I’m not writing smart humor. And now I’m thinking I should start. But don’t worry dear readers, the silliness and ridiculousness will not cease! I just hope to be a little more intelligent with my yuks! Always striving to be better, as they say.

And with that, I will bid you all ado until next week! Be good humans everyone!