As you probably know, tonight is the final episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I'm pretty upset about it. I haven't missed a Daily Show episode since I first started DVRing the program about seven or eight years ago, which not coincidentally, is about the same time we started this site.
Yes, it's fair to say The Daily Show has been a big influence on some of the things we do here at TLO. Our style and attitude may be different, and we're not anywhere close to the program in terms of quality, but just like Jon Stewart and his gang of writers and correspondents, we get a kick out of exposing the hypocrisy and mental instability of our politicians, media, and culture.
In fact, it's kind of funny how our hyper-local content can mirror that of The Daily Show at times. It's not intentional or something we necessarily planned, but for example, I guess you could say that Mary Fallin is to TLO as George Bush is to The Daily Show. She's an awful politician, leader, and about as bright as a Charleston's dining room. She's a material well that keeps on giving! To take things further, you could say The Oklahoman is our Fox News, Regular Jim Traber is our Rush Limbaugh, Braum's is our Arby's, and Hipster Boo Boo is... well... I'm not sure if Jon Stewart was lucky enough to have a Hipster Boo Boo.
Knowing how important Jon Stewart has been to my sanity and blogging career, I was actually kind of excited to see The Oklahoman's Richard ViralNovaBuzzfeedHall put together a clickbaity slide show of the "7 Times Oklahoma Was Featured On The Daily Show." That would be a nice trip down memory lane. Not even the NewsOK.com digital desk could screw up something like that, right?
Wrong.
Somehow, some way, Richard ViralNovaBuzzfeedHall left out probably the two greatest Oklahoma bits to ever appear on The Daily Show during Stewart's tenure.
The first one aired in 2012 when Al Madrigal came to town to report on the "Every Sperm is Sacred Amendment." If you remember correctly, State Senator Connie Johnson filed an amendment that would make it illegal for men to deposit semen anywhere that was not a women's vagina. For the clip, Madigral interviewed Ms. Johnson and Ralph Shortey, the politician who once introduced legislation to ban aborted fetuses from being used in food products:
Seriously, how could you compile a list of the times Oklahoma appeared on the Daily Show and exclude that segment? That's as embarrassing as using a fork to eat a slice of pizza!
If you think that's bad, check out the other clip they didn't include on their list. In 2007, Jim Inhofe said something stupid about the Weather Channel using global warming fear tactics to increase ratings. Knowing that nobody knows how to use weather fear tactics to boost ratings better than the Oklahoma City media, Stewart pounced:
FYI... I think Gary England is the severe weather deity in history to appear on both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. That's special.
Anyway, all bad NewsOK.com clickbait aside, tonight really will be a sad and bittersweet night. I'd like to thank Jon Stewart for all the entertainment and inspiration he's brought us over the years. If retirement gets old, and he's looking for something to do on the side, he can contact us here. It's about time we add another contributor.
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