The Daily Show: Election Night '04, Prelude to a Recount

The Daily Show: Election Night '04, Prelude to a Recount
Comedy Central
November 2, 2004
News Comedy Show
DVD
C+

In the dozen years since Al Franken* hosted InDecision '92, Comedy Central had upped its technology-- the electoral map is definitely no longer hand drawn-- but apparently cut back on its election night coverage.  So one 40-minute hour, 10 to 11 p.m. EST, is all we get, and there's no definite winner by the end, although Bush is well ahead of Kerry.  The highlights here are the opening faked flashbacks from '00 and Colbert's prediction that America would continue to be an angry country.

This sampling of The Daily Show ranges from C- to B, but I'm doubling the value of this longer episode, and counting the four-minute sequences at one-quarter value, since a regular episode is about sixteen minutes if you subtract all the transitions.  The average therefore comes out to a B-.  Stewart is definitely the best part of the show, although the correspondents have their moments, not surprisingly Colbert in particular.  And, yes, it's time to move on to George W. Bush's second term.


*Sigh, I know.  But I didn't know when I was reviewing back then.