will late night TV be as funny with Obama vs. Bush?

It's interesting to consider "discrimination" within political comedy. If a comedian is a partisan Democrat, then attacking Republicans may cause you to lose half your material and half your audience. So, unless one can specialize in partisan shtick as a niche, then it's smarter to go with a broader audience and more material.


Here's a related debate between David Duley and Joel Welin in the C-J...

First, from Daley in the affirmative:

We thought that "The Daily Show" would be boring without George W. Bush to kick around. We thought you might pull your comedic punches on President Barack Obama....

But your 8-minute dismantling of CNBC's financial coverage and windbag Rick Santelli's faux-populism on Wednesday night's show — followed by an interview with New York Times columnist Joe Nocera that actually explained the AIG meltdown — reminded us of all the reasons why we love you, and all the reasons why "The Daily Show" is such an essential public service.

When we wondered about how "The Daily Show" would still be funny in the Obama age, we were asking the wrong question. Stewart's program might be a comedy show, but at its best it's bracing media criticism....


Then, Joel Welin in the negative:

Just because The Great Decider is bunkered back in Texas, ostensibly laying the groundwork for his presidential library in Dallas, I'm not going to be baited into arguing that Jon Stewart's or Stephen Colbert's shows can't possibly be as funny.

There are still plenty of buffoons left to lampoon and situational ethics to skewer — look at the commerce secretary car wreck; and did you ever see so many income tax delinquencies?...

But can they be as relevant? Material used to come to them so easily; The Decider's administration was like the Happy Hunting Ground for these purveyors of potshot....

Perhaps the more relevant question to ask is, can irony and sarcasm still be considered viable in an era of hope and optimism? Or, did we ask and answer that question once, and this has all been a pointless exercise?

Now, that's funny!