Comedy and the News: a love story

There's a particularly delicious video that has floated around the Web that shows a young, ungrayed John Stewart, seated a few feet away from Bill O'Reilly — a guest on "The O'Reilly Factor." But this is no cordial conversation. The two are trading comments, each one more biting than the last. Stewart stares at the talk show host, seemingly puzzled, and then contests: he's no reporter, he's a comedian.

Perhaps there was a difference then, but now, the line between reporter and comedian has shrunk, if not disappeared. In the last decade or so, television-lovers have welcomed the likes of John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and more as their principal news portals. But does this spell the end for "hard" journalism? Can a comedian truly deliver the news as well as a professionally trained journalist?

You bet your ass they can.

That's the only true way to articulate this journalistic shift — comedians, and their writers in some cases, have begun delivering political analysis and commentary at a pace and with an accessibility that simply cannot be matched. But seeing is believing, so let's take a look at the ineffable John Oliver, just a few nights ago.

Now, let's consider exactly what was just posed to the audience — Oliver has, albeit in a comedic forum, presented and explained an entire investigative piece of journalism. Even more impressive, he's done it in less than 20 minutes. This should absolutely terrify fellow news-talk-show hosts, and absolutely tickle journalists. Why? Because of the nature of comedy.

See, comedy is a trade of poking fun, and more importantly finding ways to poke fun at any moment — this includes poking fun at both sides. A true funny-man will be quick to poke fun at one side, but also just a quick to poke fun at themselves. What this poses is a far less biases image of what television could be. But has it actually worked? Check out this link, where the "notably liberal" John Stuart attacks the "notably liberal" Barack Obama (You may have heard of him) over his "notably liberal" Obamacare plan.

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/gzzhtv/affordable-horror-story

This is not the only incident like this — Stuart and his peers, despite their rampant attacks on GOP and Tea Party officials, had not hesitated to take the hurt right to those that they support. Why?

Because it's funny, and because humor doesn't take sides, it's funny. That's all it is — funny is funny. And it's also very, very edible.

It's become apparent that many news publications have become entirely mistrusted. Some are simply too conservative, some too liberal and some are still looking for the Malaysian Flight (We get it CNN). People are tired. Maybe not all people, but some people. Perhaps comedy, or a "comedy show" may be what they want. Why not a comedy show, with journalism.

That sure sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?