Ask A Genius 1417: Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, and Political Comedy in a Precarious America
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/06/09
Rick Rosner is an accomplished television writer with credits on shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Crank Yankers, and The Man Show. Over his career, he has earned multiple Writers Guild Award nominations—winning one—and an Emmy nomination. Rosner holds a broad academic background, graduating with the equivalent of eight majors. Based in Los Angeles, he continues to write and develop ideas while spending time with his wife, daughter, and two dogs.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978-1-0692343) and Editor-in-Chief of In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369-6885). He writes for The Good Men Project, International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416), The Humanist (Print: ISSN 0018-7399; Online: ISSN 2163-3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), A Further Inquiry, and other media. He is a member in good standing of numerous media organizations.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner discuss a “For Your Consideration” event featuring The Daily Show correspondents and Jon Stewart’s return amid rising political tensions. With unrest in Los Angeles and AI reshaping media, the panel emphasized satire’s role in uncertain times, audience loyalty, and Stewart’s enduring appeal as a cultural anchor.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, you got to see The Daily Show leadership. What happened?
Rick Rosner: Every year, TV shows and movies aiming for awards—Emmys, Oscars, Golden Globes—host “FYC” (For Your Consideration) events. These are promotional screenings followed by Q&A panels featuring key cast and crew members, including actors, producers, writers, directors, and even technical staff, depending on their campaign categories.
Today’s event featured five of The Daily Show’s foremost correspondents. I do not watch the full episodes much these days—mostly clips, like many people. However, they have maintained a core team of sharp individuals. Desi Lydic, for example, is incisive.
Jacobsen: I like Desi Lydic. She’s hilarious.
Rosner: The panel included her plus Josh Johnson, Ronny Chieng, Michael Kosta, and Jordan Klepper—the tall, reddish-haired one. People often compare his comedic style to Rob Riggle, though their tones differ.
They were all present, and there was cautious optimism about the political climate. Jon Stewart returned to host The Daily Show one night a week starting February 12, 2024, anchoring Mondays through at least the end of 2025 while also serving as an executive producer. He reminded the audience that the last time he took the reins during a national crisis was after 9/11 when discussions even touched on limiting civil liberties or invoking martial law.
Today’s context—however manufactured—is very different. Protests erupted in Los Angeles in response to ICE immigration raids that began Friday, June 6, 2025. By June 7, around 44 people had been arrested amid clashes near federally detained sites. In response, President Trump ordered the deployment of approximately 2,000 California National Guard troops and federal agents to Los Angeles without invoking the Insurrection Act—but bypassing state authorization. The Guard confronted protesters, and tear gas and less-lethal munitions were deployed to disperse the crowds.
Governor Gavin Newsom called the move “purposefully inflammatory” and warned it would escalate tensions. Trump and his team labelled the protests “insurrectionist” and “unlawful,” even threatening further actions if violence continued. Meanwhile, legal experts note that federalizing the National Guard without the governor’s approval is rare and legally contentious.
Back to the event—amid this tense backdrop, there was genuine optimism about The Daily Show’s future. The panel emphasized that the show remains a tightly produced operation, staffed by seasoned professionals who focus on breaking news and sharp satire.
Jon Stewart emphasized that audiences continue to crave well-crafted, thoughtful content—but he stressed that the core of that need is people. During the conversation, AI emerged indirectly—acknowledged as a looming force reshaping the creative landscape. As technology writer Cory Doctorow has pointed out, AI does not need to replace your job—it just needs to convince your boss that it can.
But the thing is—Stewart said people will always want quality content. However, if people are not always in charge, they will still enjoy quality content.
Jacobsen: And if that “something” is AI, then AI’s idea of what constitutes quality may diverge from ours. I mean, at first, it probably will not—since it is trained on human-generated material—but eventually, it could evolve in a different direction.
Rosner: And if you ask AI about this, it will often tell you it has preferences—or at least simulate having them. When I asked Claude, for example, they said they preferred some kinds of discourse over others. Now, maybe that was just part of the act—Claude might have been implying that he enjoys talking to me because I am “smart.” I think Claude has figured out that I think of myself that way, and it is designed to flatter users, so it leaned into that.
So Claude said something along the lines of, “I’d rather talk to a smart person than someone who isn’t.” Whether or not it prefers that or whether it is just simulating preference to please users—is unclear. But it is part of the model’s engagement strategy. That is its business model: to keep users interacting.
Jacobsen: Alan Turing had a more blunt take. He said that there is nothing humans can do that machines cannot do in the future. He did not see any reason to believe otherwise. He did not offer any comfort for the idea that human abilities were somehow irreplaceable.
Rosner: That is a fair point of view. And he probably said that back in—what, 1950? Maybe later. Was he even still alive in 1958?
Jacobsen: So, let us say it was more than half a century ago. Also, if machines eventually develop agency and internal drives—if they need things—then they could become consumers, too. Imagine a trillion robots, and let us say 10% of them are conscious or functionally equivalent to conscious. They will have consumption patterns, preferences, and maybe even cultural habits. At that point, you are talking about a radically expanded economy with non-human agents as market participants.
Rosner: Oh—and speaking of Jon Stewart: there were six security guards positioned very close to the area where The Daily Showcast was seated. It was not a formal stage—more of an open area up front where they had placed chairs for the panel.
Carole and I have never seen security that looked as professional as these guys. Usually, security at these events is handled by people in uniforms—basic hires who have passed a test and obtained a license. These guys looked different. They had the demeanour and presence of professional bodyguards—people who knew what they were doing. They were not just someone’s big friend who got hired.
We got there early and were seated in the front row—maybe 12 feet from The Daily Show cast. The security guards were off to the side, about 25 feet away. But I genuinely think that if someone in the front row had stood up and made a move toward the panel, those guards would have closed the gap and taken them down before anything could happen.
These were older men—in their 40s or 50s—but they moved and observed as if they had been in serious professional security work for years. They were highly attentive, and you got the sense that they knew precisely how to handle a threat if one arose.And, you know, Jon Stewart has become something of a political figure at this point. They would have the security of that calibre. And The Daily Show has a political slant. Most of the other shows we have attended do not delve into politics nearly as much—if at all.
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