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Who do you prefer: Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert?

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They're the yin and yang of late night news. I wouldn't be satisfied watching one without the other right after it.

That said, even though I feel that Jon Stewart is more valuable and important for modern media/politics, I enjoy Colbert more as a comedian. Also, totally would.
 
Mr. B Natural said:
Colbert PLAYS the dumb conservative that says something ignorant. It's the same thing but without a counterpoint unless you include the interviews where the interviewee is constantly making fun of Colbert for his silliness, who try to make a point between Colbert's effort to make jokes and derail.
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Colbert never is "just the conservative". He takes a ridiculous conservative issue, and points out how ridiculous they are by always going one step further than said issue. He gives examples and makes analogies to illustrate how utterly ridiculous the issue is, all the while pretending he's fully agreeing with the whole thing.




I agree with what some people in this thread are saying: Stewart is a pundit surrounded by funny people, while Colbert is more of a pure comedian who plays a pundit. I never made that distinction so clearly before. However, both still make (the same) relevant political commentary though.
 
RiggenBlaque said:
Colbert is a natural comedian and as such his show, first and foremost, is a comedy program. Stewart is not a comedian at all and is more of a pundit who surrounds himself with funny people.

That being said, I find Stewart and the Daily Show as a whole to be absolutely the worst thing ever. Stewart himself has no comedy chops and I find it really awkward when he tries to make jokes. Colbert actually produces an insightful, funny show that is more than just coming outright and saying "HAHA THIS DUMB CONSERVATIVE SAID SOMETHING IGNORANT."

FYI I'm super liberal, so it's not a politics thing.
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WTH? You know he originally made a name for himself doing stand-up, right?
 
Colbert all the way. I just find him more entertaining he also have some of the best late night segments. Daily Show is just boring and I don't like the Correspondent segments at all. Bill Maher sucks when it comes to stand-up but he has the best political show imo. Then again it's a panel discussion so can't really compare it with the two other shows.
 
I don't even know. I want to say Jon Stewart, but lately I laugh way more when watching Colbert. He has some amazing writers and his comedy just comes off as wittier, somehow. I don't mind his persona, I love it in fact, it's what makes the show what it is. The Daily Show can get a bit stale sometimes. Way to much beating on the politics horse for my taste, especially in election times. Which of late is like ... always. Bah. The fact that I'm not a US citizen probably doesn't help here. On the other hand there's John Oliver, which is like the funniest man alive and from time to time Jon does something utterly fantastic, like the Glenn Beck impression.

I really can't choose, both are great.
 
I love them both but I feel like Stewart does a better job of pointing out BS and hypocrisy. If we were judging strictly on their comedian skills then I would give the edge to Colbert, but for actually making fun of real news I think Jon's better.

Plus with Jon's show you get the correspondents, most of which are pretty good. That's not even counting the past great ones they had, including Colbert himself.
 
I will say, even though I enjoy The Daily Show more and like Jon Stewart better, I'm really not a fan of the Correspondent bits anymore... at least in recent episodes (last few years). I absolutely loved them with people like Colbert and Carell back in the day, John Oliver maybe. Now-a-days they're too silly for my taste, much like the entire Colbert Report.
 
StudioTan said:
WTH? You know he originally made a name for himself doing stand-up, right?
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I'm aware he started in stand-up, I meant "he's not a comedian" in more the sense that "he's not funny." Stewart runs clips of stupid things politicians say and then mugs at the camera. That is the extent of his shtick.
 
RiggenBlaque said:
I'm aware he started in stand-up, I meant "he's not a comedian" in more the sense that "he's not funny." Stewart runs clips of stupid things politicians say and then mugs at the camera. That is the extent of his shtick.
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And Colbert runs clips of stupid things politicians say, repeats what they said, applies it to something stupid and then mugs at the camera. Of course you could look at all the other things he does in his show, but then you would have to with Stewart too.
 
Colbert by a mile. I've long since given up watching The Daily Show. Jon Stewart is a terrible host. He has no comedic timing and relies on the same stupid 'mugging at the camera' crap all the time. The only correspondent I miss is John Oliver, and I get my fill of him on The Bugle.

Colbert is brilliant, great at improving when something causes him to go off script, and just an all around hilarious character. I watch him Mon-Thurs and Bill Maher on Friday.
 
Not a huge fan of Stewart but I love Colbert. Stewart tries too hard when he invites conservative guests. A recent such incident was when he interviewed Jonathan Macey and wasn't trying to understand what the guy was saying. And whenever Stewart jumps into a serious discussion but gets a good reply against his view, he defers to comedy to make it seem as if he wasn't serious to begin with.

Colbert on the other hand is a comedic genius.
 
RiggenBlaque said:
I'm aware he started in stand-up, I meant "he's not a comedian" in more the sense that "he's not funny." Stewart runs clips of stupid things politicians say and then mugs at the camera. That is the extent of his shtick.
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Stewart has good comic sensibilities, and a keen eye for talent, but whenever he descends into bits and character work, I think he really suffers - I couldn't really tolerate his Glenn Beck pastiches. He's best suited dryly reading the stories and being the straight man to his correspondents.
 
eznark said:
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This. Stewart and Colbert never went mini golfing with GWAR.
 
Stewart. I like Colbert but he's far too good a parody. I generally can't watch him without cringing at some point and I HATE cringe comedy.
 
Zabojnik said:
I don't even know. I want to say Jon Stewart, but lately I laugh way more when watching Colbert. He has some amazing writers and his comedy just comes off as wittier, somehow. I don't mind his persona, I love it in fact, it's what makes the show what it is. The Daily Show can get a bit stale sometimes. Way to much beating on the politics horse for my taste, especially in election times. Which of late is like ... always. Bah. On the other hand there's John Oliver, which is like the funniest man alive and from time to time Jon does something utterly fantastic, like the Glenn Beck impression.

I really can't choose, both are great.
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Agree with every word of this. [took out part about not being from the US, though]

Gotta give a lot of credit to the writers of the Colbert show, definitely.
 
I prefer the Colbert Report as a show, I prefer Jon Stewart as the straight man personality. Stewart pulled together those 9/11 firefighters and got the first responders bill attention in a way that Colbert as a personality (or any news personality, really) simply wouldn't be able to do, though I always find the Report far funnier because the writing is sharper and doesn't bother with any of the shitty correspondents.
 
Souldriver said:
Colbert never is "just the conservative". He takes a ridiculous conservative issue, and points out how ridiculous they are by always going one step further than said issue. He gives examples and makes analogies to illustrate how utterly ridiculous the issue is, all the while pretending he's fully agreeing with the whole thing.
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Yes, I believe everyone understands that, but it doesn't work as a critique because what is on your screen is a strawman most of the time. He's playing the dumb conservative caricature and you can't put Stewart down for showing a clip and then making fun of it and then praise Colbert for showing a clip and then making fun of it by playing an extreme character. It's the same thing with similar results, except one is more funny (extreme) and the other is more poignant (critical). That was the problem with the poster that I was responding to.
 
While both are funny, I still prefer Stewart because he actually tells and dissects the day's news. It's legitimate and funny, and therefore superior.

Colbert is great, but his whole show is based on a shtick. We know he's actually left leaning but he plays a hardcore right character. It's funny, but it's not 'news'... best part of Colbert is his interviews.


I do watch them both, though :)
 
I love em both. I liked Colbert more at first, but I eventually gravitated to TDS more. I like the serious bits in between Stewart's jokes. It strikes a nice balance.
 
I don't get Colbert at all. I really don't. His thing is pretending to be a hardcore conservative republican, but its supposed to be ironic? It seems like he never drops the act though which gets confusing when you want to hear his thoughts on real issues. Its okay to be funny and make jokes, but at some point you need to make your stance clear and I feel like he doesn't really do that.
 
Colbert's angle as a faux conservative allows for satire that's just not possible with Stewart, or most people for that matter.
 
I think that Colbert is way smarter than people give him credit for. If you read the subtext of a lot of his interviews, you see him ask questions that force people to talk around points of contention. Also, unlike Jon, he doesn't automatically side with the liberal talking point. His interview with Julian Assange is a prime example of straddling the fence really well and asking tough questions while still maintaining the pretense of comedy.
 
I love Jon Stewart when he's being interviewed anywhere, especially on fox, or when he's interviewing people in general. However, I don't think The Daily Show is funnier than the Colbert Report. The writing for the Colbert report is outstanding, but I get sick of his character too frequently to say that I like him more than Stewart. I don't know who the real Colbert is.
 
I prefer Stewart. I just like the way he delivers his criticism. Colbert is great, too, though.
 
Stewart is a lot more about "real" news, while Colbert, to me, is just a comedy show that comes on 4 times a week. If I was looking for more serious news I would look elsewhere, I come to Comedy Central just for laughs, and Colbert wins on that front.
 
I much prefer Colbert. It feels smarter to me, and more witty. Jon Stewart is genuine, but I don't really like his humor and his views are middling and relatively uninteresting. I'd prefer to watch to Bill Maher, because his abrasiveness and ballsiness is more entertaining and his views tend to be more insightful.
 
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