
“I come to praise The Daily Show, not to bury it.” (See what I did there?)
On August 6, Jon Stewart will end his hosting gig after 16 years at Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. As expected, the fawning tributes are rolling in on a daily (no pun intended) basis.
While others are talking about all the ground Stewart broke, I just want to share my own tribute to Stewart, by listing some of the show’s funniest and most interesting moments when it came to U.S. Latinos. Hey, I know that there weren’t that many moments (and some of them were really awkward, see the 1999 one at the end of this list), but as the show progressed in the last few years (thank you, Al Madrigal), it started to move away from Vicente Fox interviews (yup, the former Mexican president appeared in 2007), Evo Morales chats (another 2007 interview) and actually started to realize that bilingual, bicultural U.S. Latinos and Latin Americans like me have been fans of the show since the late 90s and —guess what— they loved good satire, just like anyone else. Anyway, here is my list of my favorite “Latino” moments. (I couldn’t think of a better way to categorize this, but these clips are some of the ones I will remember more than others.)
Tucson’s Mexican-American Studies Ban (April, 2012): This will forever be one of the greatest segments I have seen during Stewart’s reign. Ever. Thank you, Al Madrigal.
Minority Pandering Time (October, 2004): Yup, “Hispandering” has been around for a while. John Kerry speaking en español gets me all the time.
Latino 911! (July, 2010): Remember SB 1070 in Arizona? Here is a clip from five years ago. This was five years ago. Five years ago.
South by South Mess: Mex Tex (October, 2014) Madrigal gets two moments on this list. Because I said so, and I credit him for helping diversify the show’s content. This one still cracks me up.
Pelé (April, 2014): It’s Pelé, people. Pelé.
Sonia Sotomayor (January, 2013): This 19-minute extended interview still gives me goose bumps, more than two years later.
John Leguizamo (January, 2005): An interview from 10 years ago: “Chillin’, lookin’ sexy.”
Jorge Ramos (December, 2013): The moment a Latin American journalist get some Daily Show cred.
El Gorro (July, 1999): Remember Al Gore? Although this had its clunky moments, it was the first memory of Stewart talking about politicians and pandering to Latinos. When I first saw it 16 years ago, I was hooked.
I wouldn’t say that Stewart was this champion of Latinos in comedy (and the diversity issue has began to haunted him in his final months), but there were moments that I will never forget, and to be honest, without Stewart making me laugh for years, I would have never founded this.
What do you think of my list? What did I miss? Tweet me @julito77. Also, if you want to see another list, check out this one from Fox News Latino.
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/lixr5u/rnc-2012—the-road-to-jeb-bush-2016—the-best-f–king-news-team—republican-outreach