this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2023
764 points (96.9% liked)

Technology

59575 readers
3933 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Daily Show was mostly upbeat and highlighted the absurdity of politics even when they were covering serious topics, so the jokes seemed to flow pretty naturally. In The Problem Jon Stewart would oscillate between serious/morose to a few jokes and back again, it was giving me thematic whiplash and I couldn't hang with it either. I think Last Week Tonight is The Daily Show's spiritual successor.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Man have you not watched last week? Morose and serious is like how I would define it. Oliver even made a joke last week about how 'if I'm talking about something it's probably horrible and tragic'.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I think this all goes to show tone shifting is a difficult art and artists who choose to do it need to be able nail it or get ready to fall flat. I think Oliver is a master at tone shifting and it's all done with taste and confidence.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Jon Oliver is very careful to segregate jokes for levity from sensitive topics. Jon on the Problem would regularly never make a tonal or topical shift when putting in a joke, which really made it feel like a desparate, uncomfortable interjection during a serious rant rather than a lighthearted reminder that we're still on Earth while discussing a travesty.