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Thursday, August 25, 2005

I love Jon Stewart...

In a masculine, non-sexual kind of way, of course. He kills in this interview with Wired Magazine [also with Ben Karlin - The Daily Show's executive producer, Stewart's partner at Busboy Productions]:

...Let me ask you about the Crossfire thing - not about your critique of that show, but about the reaction to it.
Stewart: Ben was there, by the way. I remember looking out into the audience and seeing his face and realizing, "I guess this isn't going well."
Karlin: Well, we had hand signals, and before the show I made the mistake of saying that this [drawing his finger across his throat] meant "Keep on going, great, do the exact same thing." So I was frantically doing this [draws finger across throat fast].

What was the symbol for stop supposed to be?
Karlin: [Gives thumbs-up.]
Stewart: It was a stupid way to do it.

...It was also a powerful critique of television that people agreed with. It was good television.

Stewart: Boy, I never want to be part of something called "good television." I can tell you that with certainty. That is not a comfortable place to be. But you know what it was? It was a person not playing the role that is prescribed to them under normal circumstances. But I also think that it's fun for people to send those things to each other or check them out.
Karlin: Like when the whole Pat O'Brien thing was happening and his calls went online, and then someone modified them. Those were all over the place, and that by definition has to remain an underground thing. When those types of things are commodified and someone makes money off of them and all the other stuff, something else will just come in to take its place.
Stewart: That's exactly right. It will constantly be co-opted. The guy who did all those pirate media things now works for marketing companies. The first thing marketing people do is go, "Wow, that's really exciting and new and underground and authentic. Let us take it and bring it into our dark hearts." What's nice about the Internet is it's egalitarian. It is democratic in the way that it parcels interest.

...Your contract goes through 2008. How do you think people will be watching the show then?
Stewart: Through their nipples. I believe the show will come in through one nipple and will be broadcast out the other through some sort of projection device.

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