Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Jon Stewart's Post-9/11 "Daily Show" Speech

I've been going into "Daily Show" withdrawal ever since the WGA strike started, so I took to the 'Tube and searched for any clips of Jon Stewart. I was surprised to find someone had uploaded a speech Stewart gave on the first episode of "The Daily Show" since the attacks on September 11th. Keep in mind I didn't start watching "The Daily Show" on a regular basis until my senior year of high school, so this entire segment was new to me.

It's a startling nine-minute monologue with Stewart laying it out and telling it like it is. No sugar-coated diatribe on how we're all gonna move on with our lives, no phony sentimentality. Just straight from the heart honesty and compassion. I've always said that I love Stephen Colbert but his character on "The Colbert Report" is just that: a character. When Jon Stewart does his thing, it honestly feels like he's speaking his mind and telling you what he thinks is wrong with the world. Sure, he has roughly 14 writers working behind-the-scenes, making sure he gets that everyman tone just right, but it's humbling to see that, at least for nine minutes, he was able to speak his peace and move on:



I know it seems weird to post this at this time, but I just saw it and wanted to write a post about it. I hope everyone out there has a Happy Thanksgiving!