Wed, January 10, 2007
Man on Mandvi—12:05 AM
Of course I continue to enjoy The Daily Show despite a few shortcomings in the way Jon sells certain jokes that just don't need to be sold that hard. But Aasif Mandvi's appearances are almost as delicious as those of John Hodgman, and unlike Hodgman you can't get Mandvi anywhere else.
(Actually, he showed up on cable recently, telling Tobey Maguire to deliver a pizza in Spider-Man 2. But you can't get quality Mandvi anywhere else!)
Brandon — Wed, 1/10/07 3:37pm
My main complaint about Stewart (and maybe this is your complaint too; I know you've referenced it before) is his growing tendency to milk laughs by mugging or tossing in a joke about the joke. It used to just be the really big laughs, but now it seems like he's doing it 3-4 times per show, anytime something gets a reasonably-sized laugh.
Bee Boy — Wed, 1/10/07 4:13pm
Exactly. Or if it doesn't get a laugh, it's even more mugging ("Wha? No good?"). The sweet spot of the show's history was a year or two after Jon took over, when he'd hit his stride and it played like a fake news show. These days it's still great, but moments like this make it play more like a fake news skit in a comedy show. Amy Poehler is already running one of those into the ground.
The beauty of the puns and things in the over-the-shoulder graphics is that they're throwaway laughs. I know Jon knows what a throwaway laugh is; he's a talented and brilliant comedian. But he destroys almost every one of them by giggling and making a joke about it in response to the audience's initial laugh of recognition.
I suppose you could call this the I-get-your-'I-get-it'-laugh – maybe that's why I detest it so much. That, and it uses up valuable seconds that could be spent on comedy. With the guest segment and the Colbert segment (which is excellent, but not really part of The Daily Show), they're short enough on comedy time as it is. The writing is still superb on average; I just wish Jon would give it the respect it deserves.
Bee Boy — Fri, 9/26/08 10:35am
Since the strike, we've seen precious little Aasif Mandvi on the show (it turns out he probably took some time off to shoot David Koepp's Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais). Fortunately, since the conventions there's been a bit more of him. This week, they profiled him as part of their ongoing series introducing the Best Fucking News Team on the Planet. And it was fantastic: video here.