The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Indecision 2004
By: Mark Runyon | Category: Television DVD | 07/26/05 | 06:34 PM
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 Grade: B |
Genre: Comedy
Summary: This is a fine take on the election that was 2004, including all the comic hallmarks that make "the Daily Show" a one of a kind fake news program.
It's been eight full months since we suffered the political hangover of the 2004 presidential election. Ah, it seems like just yesterday we were discussing Kerry's choice of flip flops, whether the red states were going to secede from the blue states and Bush's colossal blunders in Iraq. Wait a minute that was yesterday. No one covered the ensuing chaos better than Jon Stewart and the comedy team at "the Daily Show." They manned the front lines giving us a blow by blow of the mounting ridiculousness of babbling, pettiness and comic fodder of politics. They've chosen to commemorate their witty coverage by packaging their comic insights like a political time capsule. Its just like the one you had as a kid, but you don't have to drop Flint and Snake Eyes into the box then bitch for the next month about how you can't play G.I. Joe without your two favorites guys. |
But I digress. Indecision 2004 is a 3 disk DVD set that wields a tough bite on our politicos. It is broken up into the Democratic National Convention (disk 1), the Republican National Convention (disk 2) and Extras that include John Edwards announcing his candidacy on the show as well as the debate at Coral Gabbles (disk 3). It's a hefty dose of election coverage even if it feels a bit unbalanced. Translation: too much convention coverage, not enough coverage in the week's leading up to the election.
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| The Daily Show - Indecision 2004 |
Starring: Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Rob Corddry, Ed Helms & Samantha Bee
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Disk one gives the full coverage of the DNC in Boston, and Stewart shows us that his liberal mindset isn't about to keep him from trashing a couple daft Democrats. Kerry was, of course, rich material as he echoed the sentiments of an entire party pushing "anyone but Bush." The guy could have been a cardboard cutout and the Democrats would have rallied around him. Hmmm...was John Kerry a cardboard cutout? Rob Corddry gives us a great Boston Red Sox/Democrats loser vignette (this was pre-Red Sox resurrecting themselves from the dead in the World Series). Stewart got to set the hounds loose on the media idiots when they totally ignored the content of Sharpton's speech and got all riled up by the offbeat style of his unique approach. Stephen Colbert took the traditional Democratic rhetoric of rising from humble beginnings ("I was the son of a coal miner") to the extreme professing he was the son of a turd miner and goat ball licker. Yep, best to put little Suzie and Johnnie to bed before queuing up these misfits.
Disk two follows with the RNC to New York. Stewart takes on Schwarzenegger's assessment of "financial girly men," the heavy use of September 11th as a political catch phrase even touching on the phenomenon of Republican hair ("this is what happens when you don't let gays touch your hair").
Zell Miller proved a comic's Zen, rubbing his fellow Democrats the wrong way in doing time on the Republican stage trashing Kerry. He looked like a rabid dog foaming at the mouth as we watched him completely flip his lid onstage. In a priceless piece afterwards, "Hardball's" Chris Matthews called old Zell on a couple of his talking points to which Zell, with complete seriousness, challenges Matthews to a dual. Nobody has dueled in 200 years you old nutter. Stewart mines Matthews' reaction by having him as a guest the following evening. Even John McCain was embarrassed for old Zell and a bit mortified that his party would let that loose cannon free onstage. McCain actually looked like a calm voice of reason among a party of detached yahoos.
"The Daily Show" correspondences showed they have nerves of steel and are safely devoid of any self-consciousness. They bug the crap out of delegates, they make fools out of convention goers, they even...I best not say. On one occasion, Samantha Bee asks a Montana delegate if he is planning on getting his picture made with a black person while in New York. This gullible sap falls for it hook, line and sinker saying what a good idea that would be. Even the segue way pieces were humorous as you'd hear the commentator pipe out "our high quality coverage of the Democratic National Convention could start at any moment" in going to commercial.
This is a fine take on the election that was 2004, including all the comic hallmarks that make "the Daily Show" a one of a kind fake news program. Stewart hits the nail so squarely on the head, calling the conventions finely tuned infomercials and advising his listeners to ignore the talking heads (Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, etc.) that will try to think for you if you let them. My largest problem with this set is what they left out. They had some top notch coverage in the week's leading up to the election, and that should have gotten a disk devoted to it. Blocking off an entire disk for each convention was a bit overkill. They could have nailed the highlights and condensed this portion down into one disk. And instead of giving us a lot of filler extras on that last disk, focus that one on the debates. Goodness knows there was so much general goofiness on the part of both candidates to warrant a look. After watching all the fine "Daily Show" election coverage all I have to say is John Stewart for President in 2008. Now that is a ticket worth campaigning for.
Buy or rent the Daily Show's Indecision 2004 on DVD now.
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