stark ranting

And Jon Stewart reminds me once again why he's my favorite TV personality, in an interview for Rolling Stone.

Dowd then launches into personal profile-mode, painting Stewart as an "intense Manhattan smarty-pants" with a dry wit born of Jewish angst and Colbert as the family-loving "meticulous sprite" whose status as the youngest of eleven children lets him easily play Harpo to Stewart's Groucho. Then, rather than going for, say, a few questions on how both men plan to cover the midterm results on election night, she reaches for the existential with the following:

A fake news show, "The Daily Show," spawned a fake commentator, Colbert, who makes his own fake reality defending the fake reality of a real president, and has government officials on who know the joke but are still willing to be mocked by someone fake. Your shows are like mirrors within mirrors, using a cycle of fakery to get to the truth. You've tapped into a sense in society that nothing, from reality shows to Bushworld, is real anymore. Do you guys ever get confused by your hall of mirrors?

To which Stewart fittingly responds, "I didn't know we were going to have to be high to do this interview."