Your Moment of Zen

I have watched The Daily Show from the beginning and only recently gave up on it. I loved it more some years than others and then gradually lost interest and stopped. That is also how my reading of this book went. I gave up with a few dozen pages left because the drain Jon Stewart was feeling really drains the fun from the last part of this book.

But if you love the show and all the contributors than this is an interesting retelling of big stories and big shifts. It was interesting to read the conflicting takes on what happened and some of the fights and tensions that I was not aware of as a viewer.

The book fights, as I think the show did, with whether they were just a goofy cable show or changing the conversation around politics. To revisit what was considered insanity in the Bush era was a strange experience because it is child’s play to what we are facing now, and it is sad to feel Jon’s optimism fade slowly over the years and feel the anger grow because I went through that too. Overall it is an interesting read if you are a fan of the show, or maybe if you are into TV writers and process, otherwise I imagine it would be very boring.