The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

If you guessed that the title of this post is the theme to The Daily Show, then you are weird. Almost as weird as I am for having actually made this the title of the post. Anyhow, that is the title of the post because yesterday Kathy and I went to a live taping of the Daily Show and I want to tell you about it.

The event on the whole was pretty cool, but I don't think I'd do it again. The reason is because we got there at like 3:30 with the expectation that we would wait outside the studio until about 4:45. The confirmation email we received said that we had to be on line by 4:45 and we should come early if we wanted to guarantee ourselves a seat. The overbook the show just to ensure a full house and they just give the tickets to the people who are first on line. That leaves a few people out of each show. Incidentally, if you are left out of the show, then they give you VIP tickets to another show that guarantees your admission, which is good if you live in New York and can manage to get to the studio on another day, but sucks if you're on vacation or something.

Anyway, we stood outside the studio from 3:30 until almost 6pm. We were told that we waited an unusual amount of time because the rehearsal was running late for some reason. I guess usually people get let in around 5:30. So we get into the studio at like 6pm and just sit there for like 15 minutes while they played really loud rock music. Like inordinately loud, so much so that no one was really talking over it. Then after those 15 minutes or so some guy comes out to warm up the crowd. I think he was a comedian, but he didn't really tell any jokes. At first he just walked out and said, "everybody cheer really loud. That's not loud enough. Really loud. Stand up. This side, cheer. That side, cheer." He did this for way too long. Then he started to make fun of people in the crowd, which was kindof funny. After he stood around for a while, he introduced Jon Stewart and Jon came out and everyone cheered.

Jon asked if anyone had any questions and a few people asked him random question about the Mets, William and Mary (his alma mater), and his kids. I thought about asking him who chose the loud rock music that was playing, but I didn't. He kept taking question until the producer or somebody told him the show was ready to start and then he sat down and they started the show. If you've seen the show, then you know what happened then.

The only interesting thing I can add is that the guys who do the reports during the show are probably less than 10 feet away from Jon when they do them. The guy who went on yesterday did what he called an "emotional weather report" which was pretty funny. But I can imagine being in the studio when someone rolls out and pretends to be in Iraq or wherever and he's literally 8 feet away from the desk and that being pretty funny.

During the commercials they play the loud rock music again and everyone just sits there for the 3 or 4 minutes or whatever it is. The one interesting thing is that yesterday they did the first segment, took a commercial, did the interview, took a commercial, and did a third segment. When the show aired, the interview and third segment were switched so it was segment, segment, interview for TV instead of segment, interview, segment, at the taping.

The guest was Owen Wilson who was promoting You, Me, and Dupree and based on the interview I will not be seeing the movie. Owen was either very high, or is possibly the stupidest person on Earth. He swiveled back and forth in his chair for the whole 8 or 9 minutes he was sitting in it and answered each question in an odd manner with zero alacrity. At one point Stewart goes, "so exactly how high are you right now?", which is what everyone in the audience was thinking.

At the end of the Daily Show now they do a lead in to the Colbert Report and after they had done those three segments instead of doing another commercial break they chatted with Colbert for a while. They asked him if his rehearsal was also running late and he said no, but then it occurred to me that in order to do the lead in to Colbert they need to hold up the audience for that show. I don't know whether they tape that before or after the lead in, but they do need to coordinate it somehow. Then about 30 seconds later they do the actual taped lead in.

Then the show was over and Stewart walked out and bowed and everyone cheered. Then we walked out and it was over. All in all it was a fun thing to do once, but I don't think I'd do it again mainly because of the waiting. Incidentally, also at the taping that day was Ghetto Bob Wilson and his sister Ghetto Christine. It was a mad coincidence that we were both there and that Kathy spotted him on the line. Also Ghetto Bob had a baby early this morning (Congrats G-Bob and Carla) and he was expecting Carla to go into labor at any time, but he was at the taping anyway because Carla told him to come since she wasn't in labor yet.