Last week, The Daily Show sent a purportedly reluctant Jason Jones to India to cover the end of its massive six-week-long national elections. The running joke is that Jones (a Canadian) thinks America has this democracy thing down, and what's India's poor imitation of the original going to do about it? In part two of "India Jones and the Election of Doom," it's becoming clear that Jon Stewart and Co. are doing more than mining Indian stereotypes and American ignorance for cheap laughs. That's not to say there aren't jokes: The segment starts with Jones trying to figure out how "this adorable democracy handles modern politics," but ends with a dysentery gag.
Usually when people gripe about The Daily Show doing straight news better than actual news networks, they're talking about Stewart's surprisingly tough interviews or media criticism. In this case, Comedy Central is apparently spending more resources to cover the world's largest elections than most newspapers and lots of TV news programs. --Peter Weber
The Week
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