Board 8 > Daily Show: the ten guest hosts

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is, in fact, an incoming analysis topic. Who's watching?

Five guest hosts have hosted their week already:
Leslie Jones
Wanda Sykes
D.L. Hughley
Chelsea Handler
Sarah Silverman

Five guest hosts are remaining:
Al Franken
John Leguizamo
Hasan Minhaj
Kal Penn
Marlon Wayans

THE FIRST OF TEN: Leslie Jones

Leslie was the first one up and she knocked it out of the park. Before I started watching these, my prediction absolutely was that she was who I was least excited for. I've just not found her funny or with much range before. Now though, while her tone is still similar, her style of confrontational brashness lands really well here. She turned me around on her with this week.

Leslie went in hard with support for Planned Parenthood. There's at least one interview and one behind-the-scenes clip of her talking about how their services changed her life. Sounds like hosts are picking some causes to support along the way.

My favorite stuff was how she started this video about the news...

https://youtu.be/9pmiHDeTi-w

...and how she finished this second video with Michael Kosta at ~8:00.

https://youtu.be/EjJzdLfL5j4

The Daily Show also made their own highlight reel for Leslie which I've not seen done for the other hosts yet.

https://youtu.be/HeGyLeHLpmA

probably should cancel the daily show tbh. I know that might not be a helpful post.

Pervasive negativity - which has proven to be your general tenor in most threads I encounter you - usually is.

all right creepy

Anyways, I actually tuned in for the first time in a while to check out Sarah Silverman's episodes - I felt she was pretty heavy on the fluff, but I might just be spoiled by having transitioned to John Oliver years ago. I might try to go back and check out some previous hosts.

Sorry Scarlet - that was inappropriate and I feel embarrassed. You're right that I fall into overly snarky negative posts a bit too much. I'll work on that.

My original - bad - post wasn't meant to suggest that these people or the show aren't funny anymore. I wanted to make a case about how I haven't been able to stomach late night political comedy since 2016. The exception maybe being John Oliver.

Don't worry about it. I probably didn't need to be an ass - sometimes you just reach critical mass and have to let a comment out.

Oliver is hugely different IMO because his comedy often feels separate from the activism of his show. There's great dissection of journalism there, and it's really just buttressed by humor around the edges. I probably am not describing it well, you know? But I've always felt John Oliver perfected the formula Jon Stewart pioneered on the Daily Show. The problem with guys like current Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, etc., is that they either do funny or they do "serious heartfelt" but it's always super-reactionary. Probably the ultimate difference is the weekly vs. daily format allowing for something with a little more insight.

Right. I am especially disappointed with current Colbert. I scroll through my news app and I am always seeing clickbait articles with a photo of Colbert making a funny face and a headline about how "Colbert takes down MTG" or something equally inane, and I can't help but think that "this isn't super funny, nor is it helping anyone."

Out of the guest hosts, maybe Hasan Minhaj? I know he had that Netflix show which seemed somewhat like Last Week Tonight/Full Frontal level. I remember not actually liking his delivery.

I'm excited to see Hasan, Franken and Kal Penn. Franken because he wrote Weekend Update for years on old, biting SNL in the 70s and 80s, plus he has the Washington insider experience. Penn worked for the White House under Obama, so I'm really curious to see what he brings to the table, too.

colliding posted...

Right. I am especially disappointed with current Colbert. I scroll through my news app and I am always seeing clickbait articles with a photo of Colbert making a funny face and a headline about how "Colbert takes down MTG" or something equally inane, and I can't help but think that "this isn't super funny, nor is it helping anyone."

Out of the guest hosts, maybe Hasan Minhaj? I know he had that Netflix show which seemed somewhat like Last Week Tonight/Full Frontal level. I remember not actually liking his delivery.

I'll give Colbert credit for one thing, which is that while I do think his comedy is completely defanged from the Colbert Report days and he's no longer making stuff that suits me, he does have a national platform that he goes on and skewers the GOP with every day; that's still a lot more than anyone else is doing on that scale

Who's the producer in charge of deciding? Because they're probably just going to pick themselves.
This is a Jeopardy joke

THE SECOND OF TEN: Wanda Sykes
Ranking: #2/2 out of 10 (Leslie >> Wanda)

Back before the order of these guest hosts were announced, I told some friends that I expected Wanda, Chelsea, and D.L. all to be fine in a similar kind of way -- not in styles, just like in general entertainment. In that way, it's interesting to see these three be grouped together in a row schedule-wise. Let's go.

Wanda was, in fact, fine. More specifically, she was...fine. Her voice has always been annoying to me, so that's a difficult obstacle for me with her...but also Gilbert Gottfried (RIP) made a career off of an annoying voice and made me laugh, so I don't dismiss her just off that.

I guess my thing is I've seen her pinch-hit for Seth Meyers before. I really like Seth's show but did not feel invested when I saw her tell jokes on his show at that time, and I feel like I got more of the same here too. Okay and funny enough, but not my style. She also didn't seem to have as much of a theme as Leslie did...just kinda came in and out in comparison.

Again, she was fine, just felt a little underwhelming -- especially after Leslie's surprisingly strong performance.

I liked Wanda's interview here though:
https://youtu.be/_Pkz4jrV7c8

Daily Show's highlight reel for Wanda:
https://youtu.be/bj81_txOJu4

colliding posted...

probably should cancel the daily show tbh. I know that might not be a helpful post.

I know this was worked out earlier -- I just wanna say "please don't!"

Since we're talking about who we're most excited about, my three I've been thinking would be my favorites have been:

Hasan Minhaj
Sarah Silverman
Marlon Wayans

I think Hasan's the "safe" bet, having work with both Jon and Trevor as well as doing well with the Patriot Act...but Marlon's got a real x-factor. I don't know the the Daily Show is his format per say, but he may be the naturally funniest person out of everyone guest-hosting here too. We'll see.

bring back Lewis Black

realistically the one I want to see the most is Kal Penn. He rides that line between being a goofball comedian and being a real politician better than anyone else in contention imo

Cancel Daily Show, Revive Patriot Act

foolm0r0n posted...

Revive Patriot Act

This part gets a thumbs-up.

The Daily Show was better before they realized they were politically important. I vote Kilborn

THE THIRD OF TEN: D.L. HUGHLEY
Ranking: #3/3 out of 10 (Leslie >> Wanda >= D.L.)

I didn't think D.L. was very funny. That said, in his defense this week was the one where Tyre Nichols was murdered in Memphis. There week focused on the importance of police reform and anti-racism -- worthy topics, just hard to make comedic in light of a recent egregious example like the Nichols situation. My opinion's that Hughley was more insightful than Wanda and seemed to care more about having a theme for his week so I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but also he felt less rehearsed and prepared when he didn't get laughs -- especially when there seemed to be consistently great audiences up to this point. He as a comedian has hosted a show before too, albeit for a CNN audience instead of a Comedy Central audience, and I just thought it would go smoother for him. Again though, can't ignore this was a tough week for news.

The best things D.L. said wasn't even on the Daily Show directly. Hughley talked about doing the Daily Show on the Breakfast Club later on and, when asked how hard doing the show was, he said "Nothing is hard for me if you don't fuck with me." That stuck with me. Some other quotes there caught my attention too. I've decided he's more engaging off the cuff than scripted.

https://youtu.be/uRNr7jcBRbc

https://youtu.be/45-txLzF9kI

Daily Show's highlight reel for D.L.:
https://youtu.be/ni5xbGUnoOI

Bump for your moment of Zen.