Max Raymond

It’s 11pm on a Monday night, New York time, and close to a million viewers are watching an impassioned and furious monologue against Congress. In specific, the failure to pass through a 9/11 health care bill that doesn’t even seem to have a logical case against it and the constant blocking of said bill by many Republicans who play on the tragic events of that day for their political advantage. This is not so much a rant but a coherent and considered attack on those who are meant to be in charge of the USA and it’s by a comedian – Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.

9/11, as horrible as it was (Stewart himself came back on air shortly after with a brutally honest and emotional monologue that was touching and moving), proved to be the catalyst for the change in direction for his late night comedy show. He’s turned it into a vicious satire of politics and the media that has won much critical and commercial acclaim. In 2005, one of his ‘correspondents’, Stephen Colbert, launched a spin-off show called The Colbert Report. In that, Colbert plays his Fox News pundit-inspired alter ego of the same name that is furiously right-wing. Both comics have been responsible for some of the most insightful and powerful commentaries of US politics in the last few years. Their Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear showed their wide-ranging influence, which they have earned through hard work.

Of course, this is in America. In Britain, we also have a political system that is as much of a laughing stock as our friends across the Atlantic. Things like the coalition government, the student fees protests and other subject matters are ready and waiting to be poked fun at. Shows like Have I Got News For You, Russell Howard’s Good News and Mock The Week are humorous enough and provide the odd chuckle and hearty laugh here and there but the problem, however, is that none of these shows seem to have the bite and fury that makes them anything other than ‘if it’s on and I’m at home, I’ll watch it’ television.

This isn’t true for all of the political comedy that is on offer. There’s the fantastic Newswipe, presented by Charlie Brooker, which really is as close as we’ve gotten to being as funny and insightful as Stewart and Colbert. Some of his segments, such as when he analysed the media’s reaction to the rise and fall of Jade Goody with one of the most compelling and accurate arguments I have ever seen on any subject matter and his spoof TV news report, have been gold dust.

Even when the subject matter is fictional, it can still be aim criticisms at politics and the media. If you look back as far as the early 1990s you will stumble across the utterly fantastic The Day Today by Armando Iannucci; fronted by Chris Morris and featuring a stellar cast including the television debut of Alan Partridge, that sent up not just politics but the changing news media of the time. This was an era when channels started using flashy graphics that came across as less of a tool to support their bulletins and more of a really cheap gimmick. It’s rather scary, but also a testament to its writing, that this is still relevant today. In the present day you have The Thick Of It, another Iannucci creation, which sends up the farcical and absurd nature of British politics with ease.

That’s all that comes to mind though. There might be more but you also have to recognise that I haven’t been fortunate enough to watch all of TV ever (random thought: someone should really pen a TV version of that LCD Soundsystem song Losing My Edge). There are plenty of funny comedians in this country who have proven talent in sending up politics. Chris Addison and David Mitchell, for example, are both exceptionally clever people with witty humour who have both shown they can take the mic out of politics and the media in various mediums and, while things like panel shows are all well and good, their structure is incredibly formulaic and rigid.

So when I heard that Channel 4 were starting a brand new weekly show that would satirise news and the media I was initially sceptic (they’ve tried in the past but they’ve nosedived in the ratings and critically). But then I looked at the cast list – Jimmy Carr, Lauren Laverne, David Mitchell and Charlie Brooker – read up the format on a blog called Transmission that managed to see the unbroadcast pilot last night and started to get excited. You might remember that Channel 4 did an Alternative Election Night show in May that was hit-and-miss but had potential. Well, it’s basically that but, from the sounds of it, with a more refined and improved structure.

I asked the writer of that piece on Transmission, Blake, whether or not he thought this could be an equivalent to The Daily Show. He responded:

There are similarities, and it’ll appeal to the same sort of audience, but it did have a different feel to The Daily Show (aside from Jimmy Carr’s interview with the author at the desk which, as I mentioned, was very similar). Even when The Daily Show is making a serious point, it can be wonderfully silly, whereas some sections of this felt a bit like when a comedian on the Question Time panel makes a good but witty point. Also, the structure of the show with it’s many (I assume regular) features is very different. It has a lot of potential and hopefully will be a success.

So there you go, whilst it’s a show that might taken influence from The Daily Show they’ve decided to put their own spin on it and make it something that not only feels right to a British audience but also suits the talents of those involved.

If this show goes well and it takes off, especially in an age of public unrest (and remember that the rise of the Daily Show happened during the George W. Bush years), it could be a ‘must watch’ show and it will leave viewers feeling at peace knowing that someone on the tellybox has summed up what they are feeling. Right now, that feeling of sanity is sadly absent.