And a lovely, laugh-filled evening it was tonight as the Museum of Television and Radio saluted The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. Present were Mr. Stewart, writer Ben Karlin, producer Madeleine Smithberg and correspondents Steve Carrell and Stephen Colbert. A very funny reel of clips was shown and then the panel took questions…although Jon Stewart seemed intent on responding to each one without actually addressing it. Among the few things of substance he said were that he thought the controversial comments that got Bill Maher in trouble were "asinine" and that he [Stewart] thought it was ridiculous for anyone in America to claim that their viewpoints were being suppressed. Later, asked if he might someday run for public office, Stewart replied, "Hey, there are photos out there of me with my dick in bean dip." (Dr. Robert Batscha, the somewhat serious President of the M.T.&R. who moderated the event, promptly informed the audience, "We have them at the museum.")
My guess is that most of those in attendance came away impressed at the lightning-cleverness of Stewart — and everyone on the dais, for that matter — but with next-to-no insight on how The Daily Show gets done.
On the subject of Letterman and Koppel, Stewart would only say that he doubted ABC would let Koppel get away, and that he found it ridiculous that such a trivial story was on Page One of The New York Times. Asked by an audience member if he'd jump back into late night if a network backed up a Brinks Truck of cash, Stewart shrugged and said, "I'm only human," but didn't seem particularly interested in changing jobs. Granted, a tribute to the show you're doing is hardly the place to indicate a desire to move up to ostensibly better things, but Stewart sure didn't act like he expects that to happen.