Right now, there are few pop culture icons hotter than Jon Stewart. And for good reason. Last night after taping a segment for the show, I watched in wonder as Stewart made a younger audience howl at jokes about global warming, prewar intelligence estimates and the ramp up to a coming war with Iraq.
Want to know how hard it is to pull off that little trick? Try conducting an experiment with your kids at the dinner table tonight. Check out the degree of difficulty in cracking up your kid with a pithy joke about nuclear proliferation.
Not so easy to do.
But Stewart does just that every night. And while conservatives are usually the butt of Stewart’s jokes, Democrats have learned lately that power comes with a price. They are increasingly becoming targets since they have finally become relevant.
On a personal note, I was at the Daily Show yesterday to record a skit involving a conservative dating service. I played the role of a right-wing dating coach (complete with American flag lapel pins) who was coaching a Daily Show correspondent on how to rate his conservative dates.
It was good fun. After the taping stopped, my 19-year-old son Joey and I went into the studio to watch Jon Stewart work his magic.
My teenage boy was most impressed.