taping of the daily show

"um, i think i just got tickets to the daily show tonight," my co-worker lacey says, "wanna go?" (there were, apparently, some freakishly last minute tickets available online for yesterday's performance even though the rest of the shows are sold out through jan.)

so we left work early, headed to the studio and got there at 3:30. it was hot and gross. they passed out cold water and icicles until we were lead to an air conditioned waiting room at 4:45. where we waited until 5:30 to get into the studio. where we waited until 7:15 for the taping to start.

to be fair, the taping was supposed to start at 6ish but michael moore was stuck in traffic after his flight was delayed. we thought the guest was going to be david cross and we love david cross but it turns out poor david was bumped to make room after michael moore was bumped off larry king for paris hilton.

a warm-up comedian came out, he was really pimping himself out so the least i can do is link the dude. he was funny. pretty harsh on some audience members, which was hilarious as long as it wasn't me he was picking on.

then jon came out and talked a bit. when he asked if anyone had questions a girl stood up and waived, he called on her and she asked, "um, will we get out of here in time to catch the broadway show we have tickets for?" people laughed, if only because she went straight to the man to get the answers instead of messing around with studio staff. he joked about how much they'd packed into their day ("what, are you going to a midnight screening of rocky horror picture show next?"). asked what performance it was. she said it was spring awakening. which drew a series of "awwwws" from the audience. "i'm agreeing with the audience that you'd be better off skipping this show. seriously, i've seen the script for tonight, you're not going to miss much. so just leave when at quarter till, you'll make it there from here by 8." "yeah, but i don't want to have to run. we ran here from the matinee of inherit the wind" at which point, everyone died. then he's like, "what is up with you people? where are you going that you need to fit all this in today?" "um, sudan."

they were going there to teach for two years. jon made some sudan jokes ("so if you have three village and two of them you pillage and burn, how many villages do you have left to pillage and burn?"), polled the audience to see whether any of them were doing anything more noble and proudly awarded them the award for "best humans in the studio audience."

then he opened up the show with a bit something along the lines of, "there are two lovely people going to sudan. when you ask them, 'oh, have you seen ____?' the answer will be yes."

it was a joke that made zero sense to anyone who wasn't in the studio audience but they used it in the episode anyhow.

though there was a lot of waiting, it was still so much fun.

jon stewart, have i told you lately that i love you?