I like the way you think.

Anyway, yeah, that's pretty terrible. But then, Fox doesn't have a good history of investing real money into good ideas. There are times when the Daily Show's stabs seem less than equally distributed (I don't fault them for that), and something sort of returning fire might be nice for entertainment's sake. Usually for me that's satisfied by Colbert, though, even if he doesn't mean it.

I'm also not sure the Daily Show set out to be left-leaning, or that it'll remain so should a Democrat get elected in 2008.

Can't blame them for taking stabs at the party in power. As soon as a Democrat gets back to the comedy gold - porking employees - folks can stop the cries of "left-leaning."

I dunno. I think the Daily Show is attacking the Right because it's FUNNY.

Maybe so. I remember Lewis Black taking jabs at Clinton back before the 2000 election. I've always trusted that the DS is more about pointing out how absurd politicians can be. It's not their fault that Bush gives them plenty of material.

I've been consuming political satire for like 20 years now, and as far as my experience goes, satirists, while being 'left' in most cases, will not hesitate a second to attack a 'leftist government'. And usually they tend to be more clear and spot-on than the actual opposition.

Perhaps it's my imagination, but my knowledge of TDS from 2004 to roughly now has featured them basically taking non-stop shots at the Dems for being so insipid and toothless. In-between poking fun at the administration, and skewering CNN and their ilk (My favorite from last week, John pointing out that CNN went without a commercial for some 90 minutes in the wake of Anna Nicole's death, longer than the State of the Union, shorter than 9/11. Just.)

I watched a clip of it and, like Robear said, knock-offs are never quite as good. Give it a year though, and perhaps it'll settle, I have a hard time seeing FOX let this die.

My favorite jokes are probably the digs on CNN.

I got a snicker when I saw Rush Limbaugh play the President with Ann Coulter as his VP. Her closing line was cute ("watch or we'll invade your country and convert you to Christianity") but otherwise Limbaugh should not confuse himself as someone funny. I would have changed the channel after that.

Yes and agreed. I've heard some people argue that the original Daily Show episodes with Craig Kilborn were what the show was supposed to be (totally ridiculous and would never have on Henry Kissinger as a guest) and that what we're watching now is a perversion of that (and therefore, just as bad as the MSM is was parodying). That said, i've seen some of those episodes, and there were good moments and bad moments. Like I said, we'll have to check back in on this one in a year, i'm sure it'll be around.

DM probably would've been a much better host. My only question is, at this point, are they going to totally copy TDS and do some outlandishly silly stuff with no possible adgenda, or will be be 24 minutes of Liberal jokes?

Most of the reason why TDS is so funny is the bits where Stewart makes fun of himself and/or the writers for taking such a ridiculous stance and then twisting it further. And this is when he just cant keep a straight face anymore.

I find it hard to believe a conservative comentator/host would/could laugh at himself on such occasions. It is what I see as the backbone of the appeal of TDS.

Does the fox show seem to actually have an agenda, or is it just trying to cash in on the Daily Show/Colbert Report popularity?

Personally, I think the funniest thing about the fox network is their constant, continued claims of being "fair & balanced."

After putting some more thought into it, I think the problem this show has is a failure to parody. Both the Daily Show and Colbert Report have a large source of material to draw from (the media and pundit shows), while this new one is more like sketch comedy, as was pointed out above.

The difference seems to be pretty tremendous.

They still use the bizarre locution of "homicide bomber" to mean someone who kills themselves in a bombing. Oddly, they don't seem to use it for people who just bomb others in homicidal acts. But hey, that's politically correct speech for you - never does make any sense.

Wahh!