Very true, glancing at our bookshelves, there are several books we've purchased after first hearing about them or their authors on the Daily Show. What other contemporary (watch-able) television shows allow adult conversations about books, conducted by somebody who has obviously read the book before the segment?
But fewer still could have guessed until recently that their best pitchmen — and most engaged interviewers — would be the comedians of late-night cable. Take Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi “banker to the poor” who recently appeared on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” on Comedy Central after it was announced that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize....Mr. Stewart has also interviewed Ishmael Beah, the young Sierra Leonian who just published “A Long Way Gone,” a memoir about his wrenching experience as a child soldier; Jeffrey Rosen, the George Washington University law professor who wrote “The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America”; and Vali Nasr, the Middle East expert who was promoting “The Shia Revival,” an examination of ethnic conflict in Iraq.
Since when did microlending, global poverty, constitutional law and civil wars in Africa become topics for frank discussion on fake-news comedy shows?
Publishers say that particularly for the last six months, “The Daily Show” and its spinoff, “The Colbert Report,” which has on similarly wonky authors, like the former White House official David Kuo, have become the most reliable venues for promoting weighty books whose authors would otherwise end up on “The Early Show” on CBS looking like they showed up at the wrong party.
and, to be honest, why would anyone think the Daily Show audience is a bunch of crotch-joke enthusiasts? Anyone who has watched the show more than a few times realizes the theme of the show is politics and media criticism. Makes perfect sense the audience is literate, and cognizant of current affairs.
Part of the surprise, publishers said, is that the Comedy Central audience is more serious than its reputation allows. The public may still think of the “Daily Show” and “Colbert Report” audience as a group of sardonic slackers, Gen-Y college students who prefer YouTube to print. But publishers say it’s a much more diverse demographic — and more important, a book-buying audience.“It’s the television equivalent of NPR,” Ms. Levin, of Free Press, said. “You have a very savvy, interested audience who are book buyers, people who do go into bookstores, people who are actually interested in books.”
According to Nielsen Media Research, the nightly audience for “The Daily Show” averages about 1.6 million, while “The Colbert Report” attracts an average of 1.2 million. ...Michael Mandelbaum, a professor of American foreign policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, said during his interview last year on “The Daily Show” to promote “The Case for Goliath,” Mr. Stewart drew out the most important themes of the book — points that were ignored by other interviewers.
“In my experience, it’s not just that serious books get a hearing on comedy shows,” Mr. Mandelbaum said. “But serious books get a serious hearing, as well as a funny one, on comedy shows.”
And if it is true that comedy thrives on opposites, then perhaps the combination of serious and slapstick makes perfect sense. “They can be themselves on the show,” said Mr. Fox of Comedy Central, describing the dynamic between authors and Mr. Stewart. “They can be the straight guy and he’s the funny guy.”
Not that Mr. Stewart injects comedy into every interview. He all but wept when he interviewed Mr. Beah, saying, “I’ve rarely read a book that makes my heart hurt — but this really does.”
Jeff Seroy, a spokesman for Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Mr. Beah’s publisher, said the Stewart appearance had a huge effect, doubling the online sales of the book the day after the show.
Mr. Seroy said that in meeting Mr. Beah before the show Mr. Stewart said, “I don’t know how I’m going to make this funny.”
Tags: Jon_Stewart, /television
