Humor In The Public Interest

For a long time now I’d been wishing someone would do a comprehensive profile of Jon Stewart. My wishes were granted in this week’s issue of New York magazine. The profile, by Chris Smith, is pretty awesome. This particular bit stuck out to me:

“Jon has chronicled the death of shame in politics and journalism,” says Brian Williams, the NBC Nightly News anchor who is a frequent Daily Show guest. “Many of us on this side of the journalism tracks often wish we were on Jon’s side. I envy his platform to shout from the mountaintop. He’s a necessary branch of government.”

Stewart has repeatedly said he’s a comedian and not a journalist (meaning he is not obligated to work in the public interest like journalists, theoretically, do) but Williams’ comment got me wondering, would it be such a bad idea to think of popular political comedians as necessary to our political discourse and the welfare of the nation? I think the best political humor also doubles as astute analysis and commentary.

Comedy is an incredibly powerful thing. It allows us to take a critical look at something, in this case, politics and political figures, and ignore the b.s. That’s what Stewart does and, to be honest, I think our discourse is better because of it. Stewart’s style of political humor highlights the more absurd aspects of politics and current events and that is often not only refreshing, but also important these days. It’s very easy to get caught up in the minutia of political narratives. For instance, should we really be worrying about whether President Obama is an elite? Why are we talking about that?

Thanks to the type of humor Jon Stewart does it’s easier to realize that a) that story is ridiculous from multiple angles and b) the answer really won’t change much or help the country advance in any significant way. That’s an important realization and our democracy is worse off without epiphanies like that.

–Daniel Strauss