Whereas Jon Stewart’s announcement in late January that he could be returning to The Each day Present desk by means of the election was marked with anticipation and pleasure in lots of circles, his first evening again on Comedy Central’s late-night satirical information present was acquired with blended reactions — significantly from his normally loyal viewers of left-leaning followers.
The primary episode had many liberal-leaning social media customers pissed off with Stewart’s segment — dubbed “Indecision 2024” — that expressed considerations about 81-year-old President Joe Biden’s age. Lately, each the media and voters have questioned the ages, reminiscence and vitality of each Biden and Republican candidate Donald Trump, 77, particularly regarding the subsequent 4 years.
Jon Stewart kicks off The Each day Present’s election protection with a wellness test on America’s two chronologically challenged candidates: Joe Biden and Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/RPmFodvVAy
— The Each day Present (@TheDailyShow) February 13, 2024
Stewart performed footage of each candidates and commented on each of them. For Biden, Stewart poked enjoyable on the president’s latest debut on TikTok and a clip of him addressing reporters at a White Home press convention on Feb. 8.
Within the episode, Stewart even preemptively addressed Democrats who may need a difficulty with him commenting on Biden’s age.
“Now Democrats will say any criticism on this, particularly of Biden, is unfair,” Stewart stated. “It’s the candidates’ job to assuage considerations, not the voters’ job to not point out them.”
Biden supporters share frustration on social media
Biden supporters on X, previously referred to as Twitter, expressed frustration over Stewart seemingly presenting both candidates as “equally bad” or had been stunned that Stewart, who has all the time been well-liked amongst younger, liberal voters, went after Biden in any respect.
“Wow. So that you principally say as a result of Biden is previous, he’s principally as dangerous as Trump,” an X person with “#TeamJoe” in his bio wrote. “Why thr F will we by no means study as a rustic? Sorry, however I received’t be watching you both.”
“It’s humorous how he didnt have an issue with age when it got here to Bernie sanders who’s even OLDER than President Biden,” one viewer wrote on X. “How will you say a 81-year-old man can’t run this nation when Biden is 81 & working it very properly.”
Plenty of the frustration comes from viewers who consider Stewart’s jokes to be “bothsideism” — a time period used to critique journalists who current a “false steadiness” between two viewpoints that don’t have equal proof or assist; a follow that has been commonly blamed for why Hilary Clinton lost the 2016 election.
Final time I noticed Jon Stewart on The Each day Present he was telling us each Clinton and Trump had been dangerous candidates and I’ve by no means actually forgiven him for that. Now he’s again doing the identical with Biden and Trump. Buwhy.
— Joanna Robinson (@jowrotethis) February 14, 2024
Simply how important are younger voters?
Henry Jenkins, a tradition and media creator and journalism professor on the College of Southern California, advised Yahoo Information that he was stunned that Stewart’s jokes on Biden “got here as a shock” to viewers.
“There’s an expectation that [The Daily Show] was a progressive comedy, however historically the comedy reveals attempt to play it considerably centrist — in any other case they could not exist when the Democrats had been in energy,” he defined. “However I do perceive what the stakes listed below are: This linking younger folks getting their information from news-comedy [shows] and younger folks being seen by Democrats specifically as important for Biden’s re-election.”
In line with Jenkins, the place this “anger” stems from is younger folks not voting within the 2016 election. For the Democratic Social gathering, younger voter turnout is a crucial part to Biden’s marketing campaign. (His new TikTok account and recent meme about conspiracy theories that he rigged the Super Bowl arguably supply perception into how a lot stake the marketing campaign is placing into connecting with younger voters.)
Jenkins argues that viewers concern if Stewart doesn’t explicitly decide a aspect, younger voters received’t both. Rolling Stone reporter Alan Sepinwall defined in an article about Stewart’s return that for a lot of younger viewers all through the 2000s, Stewart was “their main information supply.”
“We have to acknowledge that younger folks don’t typically sit down and watch the night information,” Jenkins stated. “They’ve develop into grazers — data by way of social media. That shift and the way younger folks devour information was coupled with the rise of stories leisure or news-comedy with The Each day Present possibly being a very powerful instance of that.”
Comedy Central didn’t reply to Yahoo Information’s request for remark.
“He is develop into a mythic determine, like a legend from the previous who immediately reappears and might’t probably stay as much as the heroic concepts that individuals mission on him,” Jenkins stated about Stewart. “The expectations of some man coming in on a white horse championing progressive causes and slaying the dragon runs very excessive. I feel that creates unreasonable expectations about what Jon Stewart can do in a single comedy routine.”
