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valmoraTitle: Bears and Bulls(hit)
Rating: PG-13, light R if you count some language
Fandom: The Daily Show (etc)
Characters: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, gay jokes
Disclaimer: The situations described in this work are not based on reality, nor does this work mean to imply that the situations herein are truthful (nor does it mention the situations herein to malign the character or integrity of the people mentioned). No money was made from the creation of this work and all associated intellectual rights with the work belong to the individuals mentioned and the organizations that employ them.
Translation: This isn't true. And I didn't get dough from it.
Warnings: Vaguely darkfic - not in an angsty sense, I guess. Just cynicism.
Summary: The liberals win the election, so it means Jon and Stephen just aren't funny any more.
The day the American people elects a liberal president is the last day that Jon and Stephen are really, truly popular. And say what you want, about how the two of them can really understand the other side, that doesn't stop them from being true-blues. Not true-blue Americans, necessarily, though they are that (despite what the right-wing mud-slingers would say), but true-blue bleeding-heart liberals.
It's kind of hard to be a freedom fighter when the guys you're fighting for are suddenly in the majority. It's unsporting to pick on the G.O.P. when it's discredited by the right-wing adherents and less-powerful, but it's also no fun to poke hypocritical holes in the guys you voted for (although Stephen's used to Chicago politicians/crooks, so he's better at it), because afterwards you feel like you voted for the wrong guy. Maybe.
So suddenly everything's too easy and it's not fun anymore. After all, Jon and Stephen have the kind of humor that really only works when you're oppressed; the moment the guys you're complaining about have fallen from their pedestal, continuing to pick on them is like kicking someone while he's unconscious on the ground. People start to just see you as a bully, rather than funny; nobody likes Goliath. They may not like David so much (carrying on with some of Saul's kids* and then Bathsheba too), but they'll always prefer him.
So it takes a while for the ratings to show it, but all of a sudden the network is pulling Stephen off the air - the guys in power don't like to see him humiliating Congresspeople anymore, since it's too much like Ali G, and now he's mocking the Dems more virulently than he is any other party. Having the party in power mocked is real fun when it's not you. So Stephen goes.
He joins the Daily Show again, of course; Jon told him when he left that if he ever wanted, he could have a spot - and Stephen promised the same thing, like best friends in elementary school or politics; I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine. So he takes the offer and his wife thinks Jon is great, a great guy. No hard feelings.
---
After a while, maybe two years - well, actually, a little more than two years, because they had to wait for a Democratic majority in Congress before Jon really stopped being funny except to hard-core liberals - after the election, Jon isn't The Daily Show any longer. He gets a shitty time slot on Tuesdays and Thursdays and nothing else. Someone on staff calls it 'the beginning of the end,' and Stephen has enough restraint not to show his annoyance. The beginning was way back there when the GOP's approval ratings went down the toilet and an actual majority of Americans decided they'd lost faith in it.
Of course, the social jokes still work: talking about the idiocy of the American people in general (who are still dumb, just voters who agree in some ways with Stephen and Jon), the religion-mocking, the gay jokes, poking fun at celebrities. Mel Gibson is still good for a few laughs every time he gets drunk, especially when it's Jon doing the jokes, and Britney Spears won't stop being pathetic as long as she's still fertile. The Congresspeople don't visit as much any more; it's not a prime spot on TV, but coming out is still controversial (which is why the staffers still laugh when, coming offstage, Stephen cracks a joke about how of course they can't get married; not only is the sex better when you're in sin, but the cost of the broken wineglass in the wedding ceremony would be prohibitive). The jokes are endless, but only if someone's listening.
So Jon and Stephen helped the Dems win, and it was the end of their shows, or at least, the heydays of the shows they had. Something better will come along; they'll be funny again when some moron from the GOP who's in favor of deficit spending and reducing taxes and energy-inefficiency gets elected again. They're biding their time, like a lion in wait who happens to be taking a midday nap while his bitches do the real hunting. All Jon and Stephen have to do is wait for the politicians to make themselves easy prey.
* Michal and, appropriately enough, Jonathan.
Rating: PG-13, light R if you count some language
Fandom: The Daily Show (etc)
Characters: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, gay jokes
Disclaimer: The situations described in this work are not based on reality, nor does this work mean to imply that the situations herein are truthful (nor does it mention the situations herein to malign the character or integrity of the people mentioned). No money was made from the creation of this work and all associated intellectual rights with the work belong to the individuals mentioned and the organizations that employ them.
Translation: This isn't true. And I didn't get dough from it.
Warnings: Vaguely darkfic - not in an angsty sense, I guess. Just cynicism.
Summary: The liberals win the election, so it means Jon and Stephen just aren't funny any more.
The day the American people elects a liberal president is the last day that Jon and Stephen are really, truly popular. And say what you want, about how the two of them can really understand the other side, that doesn't stop them from being true-blues. Not true-blue Americans, necessarily, though they are that (despite what the right-wing mud-slingers would say), but true-blue bleeding-heart liberals.
It's kind of hard to be a freedom fighter when the guys you're fighting for are suddenly in the majority. It's unsporting to pick on the G.O.P. when it's discredited by the right-wing adherents and less-powerful, but it's also no fun to poke hypocritical holes in the guys you voted for (although Stephen's used to Chicago politicians/crooks, so he's better at it), because afterwards you feel like you voted for the wrong guy. Maybe.
So suddenly everything's too easy and it's not fun anymore. After all, Jon and Stephen have the kind of humor that really only works when you're oppressed; the moment the guys you're complaining about have fallen from their pedestal, continuing to pick on them is like kicking someone while he's unconscious on the ground. People start to just see you as a bully, rather than funny; nobody likes Goliath. They may not like David so much (carrying on with some of Saul's kids* and then Bathsheba too), but they'll always prefer him.
So it takes a while for the ratings to show it, but all of a sudden the network is pulling Stephen off the air - the guys in power don't like to see him humiliating Congresspeople anymore, since it's too much like Ali G, and now he's mocking the Dems more virulently than he is any other party. Having the party in power mocked is real fun when it's not you. So Stephen goes.
He joins the Daily Show again, of course; Jon told him when he left that if he ever wanted, he could have a spot - and Stephen promised the same thing, like best friends in elementary school or politics; I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine. So he takes the offer and his wife thinks Jon is great, a great guy. No hard feelings.
---
After a while, maybe two years - well, actually, a little more than two years, because they had to wait for a Democratic majority in Congress before Jon really stopped being funny except to hard-core liberals - after the election, Jon isn't The Daily Show any longer. He gets a shitty time slot on Tuesdays and Thursdays and nothing else. Someone on staff calls it 'the beginning of the end,' and Stephen has enough restraint not to show his annoyance. The beginning was way back there when the GOP's approval ratings went down the toilet and an actual majority of Americans decided they'd lost faith in it.
Of course, the social jokes still work: talking about the idiocy of the American people in general (who are still dumb, just voters who agree in some ways with Stephen and Jon), the religion-mocking, the gay jokes, poking fun at celebrities. Mel Gibson is still good for a few laughs every time he gets drunk, especially when it's Jon doing the jokes, and Britney Spears won't stop being pathetic as long as she's still fertile. The Congresspeople don't visit as much any more; it's not a prime spot on TV, but coming out is still controversial (which is why the staffers still laugh when, coming offstage, Stephen cracks a joke about how of course they can't get married; not only is the sex better when you're in sin, but the cost of the broken wineglass in the wedding ceremony would be prohibitive). The jokes are endless, but only if someone's listening.
So Jon and Stephen helped the Dems win, and it was the end of their shows, or at least, the heydays of the shows they had. Something better will come along; they'll be funny again when some moron from the GOP who's in favor of deficit spending and reducing taxes and energy-inefficiency gets elected again. They're biding their time, like a lion in wait who happens to be taking a midday nap while his bitches do the real hunting. All Jon and Stephen have to do is wait for the politicians to make themselves easy prey.
* Michal and, appropriately enough, Jonathan.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 05:50 am (UTC)Oh, dear. I didn't mean to be that intimidating. D: Just say the
Wørdword and I'll delete this comment.Seriously, though, if you have anything bad to say or whatever, go for it. I'm strong and I love edits.
completely complimentary way
Thanks. =D
I prefer Peter/Paul myself.
Not really a New Testament kind of reader myself, but I'm always in for new fandoms. XD