PresentTense: There aren't many shows on American television where a guest can berate the host over his pronunciation of the word "sanguine". "This is the smartest show on television. You can't mispronounce words," complains Jerry Seinfeld. The host shakes his head and apologises.
With four days off during a tour of America supporting comedian Demetri Martin, who is much more famous than me, I am staying on a sofa in New York's East Village.
The sofa belongs to John Oliver, an English stand-up who this summer landed a job writing and performing on one of the most talked-about shows in comedy, the self-proclaimed "most trusted name in fake news", The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. With the sound down, it looks like a regular nightly news show. There are correspondents and in-studio guests and flashy graphics. The host sits behind a desk and relevant pictures appear over his left shoulder as he changes topic. But turn it up and you'll hear a subversive political comedy show that manages to be topical, relevant and, much more important than any of that, genuinely funny.
The show is recorded at 4.30pm four afternoons a week in a small studio, as Stewart describes in the warm-up, "at the crack-dealing end of 52nd Street". Afternoon tapings with a live audience are notoriously subdued affairs, full of polite smiles, nods and golf-gallery rounds of applause as people think about what they'll have for dinner.
Not so The Daily Show. Stewart is greeted with a wall of applause and cheering. Before the cameras are switched on, he takes questions from the floor. A lady has brought him a squishy George Bush shaped anti-stress ball, which he notices is made in China. A student at the front is trying to impress a girl at his university and Stewart makes an impassioned 15-second plea on his behalf via the film function on his mobile phone.
He arouses the sort of devotion that is usually reserved for rock stars and heroes of sport. To many in America, Stewart is a new kind of hero. He took over The Daily Show on US cable network Comedy Central in 1999. Coming out of the last years of Clinton into an anticipated era of normality, the network didn't expect the show to last long. But Stewart assumed complete editorial control, giving it a keener satirical edge and focus on the way the news is presented as much as the stories themselves. He recruited a team that included writers from the parody online newspaper the Onion, and performers such as Stephen Colbert (now a host of his own show, the excellent Colbert Report) and Hollywood's current favourite regular guy, actor Steve Carell.
The show's coverage of the 2000 presidential election, dubbed "Indecision 2000" gained it considerable ratings and a growing reputation as a "legitimate" news show, albeit one that preferred to make up the news. In 2003 John Edwards announced his intention to seek the Democratic presidential nomination on the show. Recent guests have included heavy hitters such as Bill Clinton and Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf.
In 2004 Stewart's legend grew when, in one of the finest moments in television history (please look at it on www.youtube.com), he went on CNN's long-running bonk and bluster political debate show Crossfire and told them exactly what he thought of it.
"I had always in the past mentioned to friends and people I meet on the street that I think that show blows," he said afterwards, "so I thought it was only the right thing to do to go and say it to them personally on their programme." When the show was cancelled a few months later, the president of CNN referred specifically to Stewart's appearance.
On the evening I attend, the show features an interview with Seinfeld to plug the DVD release of an old series of his sitcom, an animated song explaining how the timing of America's mid-term elections plays into the hands of lazy politicians and big business, and my temporary landlord on the link between Saddam's death sentence appeal and a popular children's word game.
"To avoid the noose he'll have to guess a word. And he won't have many chances. From what I understand the Americans have picked out a really tough word."
With the countdown to the next US presidential election under way, and the race tighter than ever, suddenly this comedy show is of immense significance on the American political landscape. It has a privileged position. With major news networks reluctant to criticise the government lest they be judged disloyal, The Daily Show has no such qualms. As a comedy, the programme always has the perfect retort: can't you take a joke? Long may it continue.
At a time when television over here is dominated by reality-based formats and terrible sitcoms, the success of The Daily Show is testament to the existence of a discerning group of the viewing public who look beyond the new headlines and don't mind having their heads bent a little. Also, so long as they employ my friend, I'll have somewhere to stay in New York.
David O'Doherty's comedy album, Giggle Me Timbers, will be available soon
Shane Hegarty is on leave
