Writing exercise 1

I'm going to try to write about tonight's edition of The Daily Show in real-time.

This is a first for me (so be forgiving :) ), but here goes....

Tuned into Comedy Central a few minutes early...the Mind of Mencia is pretty good..."The Serranos" take off of "The Sopranos" was right on.

Anyway, on to The Daily Show................

Jon Stewart opened with an "apology" for making fun of some local TV station's attack ad (against another local station). OK, it wasn't an apology so much as an excuse to poke fun at them again. It was funny as hell.

After that he turned to "less important news" - Iran.

Specifically, the Iranian President's letter to the U.S.

Rob Cordrey was brought on to provide "analysis".

Cordrey's funny, and had some good lines, but this wasn't the best topic to fuel a comedy bit.

Though the use of the final scene from the original Bad News Bears to illustrate Bush's expected response to the letter ("take your apology and your trophy and shove it up your ass") was PERFECT!.

Broke to commercials...

Came back to the show with Lewis Black! YES!!

He was on a rant about a press releases masked as news reports. While the 'news reports' were all corporate - provided, Lewis was fair. He also went off on a particularly insipid Good Morning America report on aging. It consisted of having Robin Roberts put on makeup, put popcorn in her gloves and smear vaseline on some glasses, and go out into the world to shop.

Investigative reporting is dead in the MSM (his implication, my straight out comment.)

Off to commercials....

Back to actor Billy Connolly hawking his show in NYC.

Billy started by sucking up to the New York audience (brilliant??? whatever! lol).

Then made up for it by comparing the U.S. to the 'popular' kid in high school that was always secretly loathed. Good stuff.

More stuff, pretty funny. Good show so far, but not spectacular.

One more plug for his show ("thru June 3rd!") and break to commercials...

Back to show for wrap up...

Check in with The Colbert Report, with Stephen Colbert riffing on accents because Billy Connolly is Scottish.

Moment of Zen, with a final look at Robin Roberts and the Iranian President...

Overall, an ok show. Lots of chuckles, but only one or two 'laugh out loud' moments. The best one being Connolly's bit about his visit to a burn victim in a hospital.

Tomorrow night: I try this with The Colbert Report.

G'night!