In fact, humor only works when it reflects reality.
Otherwise, it's just not funny.
It was so effective that CNN's then CEO referenced it in his decision to cancel the long-running show only a few months later.
John Oliver and Hasan Minhaj both have successful programs, but they almost never do interviews.
When they do, it's with people they already agree with.
Not only was he willing to take on the talking-heads at CNN, but he made appearances on FOX and had people on his own show with whom he disagreed vociferously.
It's the most uncomfortable 25min you will ever watch.
An entire generation grew up trusting Jon Stewart to tell it the truth—about the war, the economy, you name it.
The boomers and their parents had Walter Cronkite. We had Jon Stewart.
Our president trolls the media and the media trolls him right back.
The public loves it. Everyone is complicit.
We assume that someone else is going to eventually fix the problem. But in a democracy, there is no one else.
It's going to happen amidst a pandemic that could well be wreaking renewed havoc upon American states & cities, and where a dysfunctional federal government continues to send mixed messages and botches responses.
Our institutions are failing us. The information we rely upon to make sense of the world and hold one another accountable is increasingly unreliable.
The result is that people are willing to believe anything.
So much has been done by us to damage the fabric of our nation.
And now, at the most critical junction it seems as though we are all passengers in a car without a driver.
We cannot afford to indulge in constant outrage, yellow journalism, or grandstanding.
Our jobs have been made more difficult by the incentive structure of media curation & distribution, as well as a celebrity driven news cycle that elevates narcissists at the expense of facts & reason.
It opens the door to enemies, both foreign & domestic, who seek to destabilize our societies from within.
No one else is going to save us. Only we can save ourselves.