On Thursday night’s “Daily Show,” host Jon Stewart addressed the news that Glenn Beck’s Fox News Channel show was coming to an end by delivering his very own detailed Beck impersonation, complete with dramatic eyewear and fully loaded chalkboards.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” a solemn, in-character Stewart said as he opened the show. “Over the last two years, I have always promised you that if anything were to happen to threaten your very existence on this planet, I’d let you know about it in a very melodramatic way, signified, in part, by changes in seating and lighting. And I would use some unusual camera angles. I always told you that when the day came that I would warn you of the impending doom of our species, you would know that I was telling the truth. Not because I have told you the truth in the past — I haven’t. Not because I know what the truth is — I don’t. But because I would tell it to you while wearing glasses."
That was far from the end of “The Daily Show” send-up.
“People will tell you Glenn was fired because of plummeting ratings. ‘Thirty percent of his viewers have abandoned him. His audience’s medium age is now dead of natural causes. La, la, la,’” Stewart deadpanned. “Do we really want to live in an America where what we watch is determined by a shadowy mix-and-match collective of so-called Nielsen families? You know who else had a family that anybody could join? Charles Manson. I don’t know about you, ladies and gentlemen, but I don’t think I want to live in an America where Charles Manson tells our children what they can watch on television.”
And that still wasn’t all Stewart had to say. He went on.
And on. In fact, the extended and at times hilarious skewing of the FOX personality took up most of the broadcast.
What do you think? Did Stewart capture the best and worst of Beck? Or did the mock news host miss the mark?
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