Armed with his trademark arsenal of dry witticisms and ever-present smirks, the reigning king of fake news, Jon Stewart, took Washington D.C. by storm in a funny and wildly energetic stand-up show at D.A.R. Constitutional Hall.
In the past few years, Stewart, a College of William & Mary graduate, has emerged from relative obscurity to become the poster boy for political satire on his popular weeknight Comedy Central show, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."
With his newly cemented popularity, Stewart has become akin to a God for college students across the country as evidenced by a recent Pew Research Center poll that cited 21 percent of 18 to 26 year olds get all of their news from political satire shows like Stewart's. Not surprisingly, a large portion of the sold-out crowd was made up by young adults. However, based on the crowd's overall eclectic quality, it is clear Stewart's appeal reaches far beyond the dorms.
The majority of his jokes consisted of recycled bits from his television program, giving his routine the familiar mood of the "Daily Show," minus the wacky and wonderful correspondents and B-list celebrities. However, Stewart's commanding sense of stage presence and impeccable delivery gave him the luxury of using familiar jokes without detracting from his overall performance.
His favorite and most successful material is, of course, political and social commentary. Stewart wasted no time in slamming the audience with his equally cynical and hysterical approach toward current events.
"About this Jesus thing," he began in his signature solemn deadpan. "I am so sorry."
He later added, mock regretfully, "I was out of town that weekend." Both mocking and lauding his relatively well-known Jewish heritage made up a large part of Stewart's material. He embraced his minority status openly, often pitting himself against a mainstream Christian America. Moreover, as on his show, he used his minority status to further his often politically laden messages of tolerance and acceptance.
Opening with his dry apology for "the Jesus thing," Stewart grabbed the audience's attention and laughter and kept it close for the rest of the show with his rapid-fire quips on everything from "The Passion of the Christ" to duct tape to Macintosh computers.
While "The Daily Show" confines him behind a desk as a "fake news anchor," Stewart had plenty of room to run and dance on the enormous stage.
"It's not like D.C. to be wasteful," he remarked at one point, gazing around the empty vastness of the stage. Although he seemed often distracted, Stewart made good use of the space, displaying a surprisingly large amount of energy in his performance. Despite appearing quite antsy at times, Stewart's immense energy made his routine even more enjoyable.
While Stewart is known for his commitment to making a mockery of the media, his material dwelled only shortly on current events. However, his brief run-down contained most of his funniest jokes of the night. "You know they just thought that up on the way to a meeting," he quipped, mocking the Department of Homeland Security's color-coded terror alert system.
He attacked the Bush administration's foreign policy indirectly, saying, "We do what we're good at -- which I think is bombing." He later added, "How else would we learn geography?"
Stewart is at his best when he sticks to his political and social satire bits. In this genre, he proves to be fresh, clever and downright savvy. However, Stewart fails when he resorts to the "dirty" jokes of sex and masturbation. Unfortunately for the audience, he fell into this trap in his slightly botched encore. When Stewart returned to the stage for the traditional encore, half the audience was already headed for the exits.
"You guys staying?" Stewart asked.
By the time Stewart had left for the final time, the audience wished they hadn't. Consisting of mostly "dirty jokes," the encore was cheap and below Stewart's level. Stewart's appeal is his intelligence and sophisticated, satiric humor, and he does not need to fall back on dirty jokes to get laughs. Compared to his other material, the last few jokes came off as condescending toward the audience -- exactly that which he preaches so vehemently against in his show.
Despite a few flat jokes, Stewart's live act was reflective of his finally recognized, sheer comedic brilliance. His energy, enthusiasm and confidence brought the crowd to its feet, earning him more than a couple "Jon for President!" exclamations from the capital city crowd.
"I don't know if you realize this," Stewart replied to one of the catcalls during the show. "But I'm fake."
Fake or not, Stewart's influence is clearly sweeping across the country. And for fans of political satire, his increasing popularity definitely deserves a moment of Zen.
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