A book. This time, Angry Optimist; The Life and Times of Jon Stewart

Angry Optimist; The Life and Times of Jon Stewart

by L. Rogak

It's not often that a book about one of your favorite comedians, or even a book by one of your favorite comedians is as satisfying as the visual material delivered by your favorite comedian. This was no different. I so wanted it to be, buying this book about 2 months before Stewart's last appearance as host of the Comedy Central cable network's The Daily Show. And actually reading it the week after he was done. I am so going to miss him on the Daily Show.

But the book was just okay. You get the obligatory growing up and into college stuff - actually, I was surprised to learn that he was a very good soccer player. You get some insight into how he got his main gig, and some insight into the inner workings of making the show what it was. But somehow it's just not enough.

The book did make me laugh in places - When comparing the riches that David Letterman made and enjoyed on his network show with what he was faced with on cable networks, he says "Letterman sits down to a feast, and the we ask, 'are you gonna finish that?'"

When complaining about how lame real network news magazine shows like NBC News' Dateline and ABC News' 20/20 are, he says - "You watch those shows and you'd think we were falling apart: 'You won't believe what's in that cheeseburger!' 'Did you know that your airbag could decapitate you?'

Of the rules that he had to abide by - "One of the few hard and fast rules that they ran into was that "dildo" couldn't be mentioned in a show four times; but three was okay."

When Hugh Grant was a guest, and complained about the coverage he got for the movie Did You Hear About The Morgans, Grant complained, "What is that clip? It's a terrible clip!" Steward replied, "Well, then, make a better fucking movie."

The book was okay, I guess; certainly better that Jerry Seinfeld's Seinlanguage. (I was and still am a big Seinfeld fan, but don't bother with that book.) However, this book made me laugh more than a few times, but worse than that, it just made me realize just how much I am missing him on TV every week.

Large socks to fill, Trevor Noah!