<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr><td>Jon Stewart's 'Daily' genius
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</td></tr> <tr><td> By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS FEATURE WRITER </td></tr> <tr><td> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" width="50"> <tbody><tr><td>http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/627-stewart_book.JPG</td></tr> <tr><td>A new book by Jon Stewart and his 'Daily Show' writers is a satirical guide to U.S. history. </td></tr><tr><td height="10" width="10">
</td></tr> </tbody></table> Despite his occupation, Jon Stewart says he doesn't instinctively see all world events as slightly absurd jokes just sitting there waiting to be told. "Sadly, I tend to take everything pretty seriously," says Stewart, host of Comedy Central's topical satire "The Daily Show."
"We spend most of our time trying to take things that aren't very pleasant and turn them into something playful and entertaining."
It seems to be working. Stewart and "The Daily Show" walked off with Emmy awards Sunday for Best Comedy or Variety Show and Best Writing - both for the second year in a row.
Emmy Awards lately have been migrating from broadcast to cable shows, leading to the widespread suggestion that cable's comparative lack of content restrictions has fostered a higher level of creativity.
Stewart isn't buying it, at least with "The Daily Show."
"I sort of think that if you parse our show, we'd fit within FCC limits," he says. "We're not out to get publicity by exposing our right teat. We're just trying to do the funniest show we can.
"At 8 o'clock on network TV, you can watch girls in bikinis eating mealworms. By that standard, we're good."
"The Daily Show" can, however, lob the occasional crudity when it fits the joke, and its writing team takes that same liberty in its first book, "America" (Warner Books), which grafts the TV show's tone of straight-faced absurdity onto a textbook about the country.
It's hard to miss the page that shows the nine Supreme Court justices naked, but the general tone of the book is more verbal satire than slash-and-burn.
"The Republican party is the party of nostalgia," reads one passage. "It seeks to return America to a simpler, more innocent and moral past that never actually existed. The Democrats are utopians. They seek to create an America so fair and non-judgmental that life becomes an unbearable series of apologies."
While "The Daily Show" is sometimes characterized as tilting left - John Kerry dropped in after he got the Democratic presidential nomination - Stewart says the premise isn't partisan. If many of the shots land on Republicans, that's largely because Republicans hold many of the power positions.
But with another set of Emmys, attention must be paid, Stewart said backstage after the ceremony.
"I think we're kingmakers, it's clear," he said. "I would not be surprised if, in this election, tens of people change their votes."
All politicians who appear on the show, he notes, realize they will probably be part of some joke. And, no, he's not surprised many of them do it anyway.
"They realize we respect the process," theorizes Stewart. "But also, politicians are salespeople and we're another place they can slap a campaign ad."
Dating back at least to Richard Nixon's "Laugh-In" cameo of 1968, some politicians have also felt that appearing on a comedy show can humanize their image. Stewart agrees, though his perspective is a little different.
"Sometimes you hit a moment that gives you hope there's a real person there," he says. "Maybe it's just a fleeting instant when something darts across the back of their eyes. But you hope that person someday will win out."
Stewart, who turns 43 in November and became a dad for the first time this summer, started with "The Daily Show" in 1999 and is signed through 2008. The show's four-day-a-week schedule is "just right," he says, to keep its creativity fresh. And in his spare time?
"Bikinis and mealworms," he says. "That's what I do."
Originally published on September 20, 2004
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