OK, I survived another marathon barrage of Election Coverage. To be quite honest, I took a few breaks. I watched the UPN’s Veronica Mars, one of my favorite new shows of the season, then tuned in for The Daily Show’s live election coverage. After that it was a fine mix of CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, CNN and MSNBC.
One thing I have to say is that watching election coverage when you think both candidates are garbage is as fun as watching the Super Bowl without the Eagles in it. The Process is interesting, but in the end you just hope the game ends on time so you can get your partying in.
The Daily Show was the highlight of the night. Samantha Bee has gone from token female to invaluable edition. Her “exit poll” segment was hilarious. Basically, she asked people questions as they exited the polls. She started with the basic questions, then just got more and more bizarre. She asked one man if he “voted for the president or the terrorists.” After one man told her that asking who he voted for was too personal, she then asked, “How old were you when you lost your virginity?”
Oh, and it didn’t end there. She found exit polling so exciting she decided to use the format elsewhere. She asked one man who just finished using an ATM how much he withdrew, asked a women who just came out of the beauty shop if the “carpet matched the drapes” and, in the clip of the night, asked a startled man coming out of a XXX bookstore about his motivations for making whatever selections he made while inside.
It was fun to see Steve Carrell again. He covered Al Quaida’s headquarters at a secret location that he was taken to by blindfold in the trunk of a car. He declared that he had no idea where it was, despite the fact he was obviously standing in front of the Marriot in Time Square. When called on it he responded, “No wonder the ride was so short.”
Everyone else did their typical performances. Jon Stewart played well with an obviously Democratically partisan audience in his self deprecating best. After announcing the President’s sizable lead he quipped, “I feel like I just set the audience up well for comedy.” Stephen Colbert, the glue that holds this show together, was typically great in his role of “Election analyst who is utterly unwilling to make any predictions lest he be wrong and relive the fiasco of 2000.” His final words urging the public to keep up their partisan bickering for the good of the country, was dead on funny. Ed Helms reports from Bush Headquarters struck a lot of the right notes, especially his bit about them screwing up the after party but complaining about people not reporting what they did right. “Napkins, Jon. We’ve got tons of napkins. Why isn’t anyone talking about the napkins?”
The only place where they fell short was the story on how voting could be dangerous. It ended up breaking down into potty humor and a weird scene of sexual harassment. Worst of all, it just wasn’t that funny.
In the end the Daily Show’s Prelude to a Recount was just what we needed to break up the monotony of the election coverage. Played three times throughout the night I kept tuning back to rewatch my favorite parts.
