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Topical humor shows have a short shelf life. Which is why I’m surprised it took a year before “The Daily Show-Indecision 2004” to reach DVD. Either way, “The Daily Show” is still topical and funny enough one year later to have quite an impact because of the absurd nature of politics but also because of the sharp, witty writing by Stewart and his staff. As Jon Stewart states in the first episode, he’s there to “digest it, break it down and give you turds of wisdom”. These are indeed turds of wisdom. Stewart and his correspondents poke fun at the Democratic National Convention with just enough sense of irresponsibility to make it truly fun and, yes, funny.

“The Daily Show” comes packed with more choices than the Democratic National Primary. What can you say about a show that trivializes everything about our election process except—do it some more! We get some very funny extras here including the National Anthem sung by all four correspondents for the show (they’re actually pretty decent but I wouldn’t suggest giving up their day jobs). We get to hear John Edwards announce his candidacy from 2003 which fits in quite well with the 2004 proceedings (with a 2002 excerpt). We also get to hear the stuffing taken out of our political process and the absurdity of the news media into feeding into the frenzy including a discussion of the voting process in a mock serious interview with Bob st1:Sn w:st="on">Wiltfong and Bob and Marily Bonoff discussing “sticker shock” for voting. Howard Dean (remember him?) gets taken down a notch by comedian Steve Carell (“Bruce Almighty”, “The Office”—why isn’t this guy a BIG star by now?) for his anti-everything stance. “The Mid-Term Elections” show is presented in an animation style and with a song that recalls “Multiplication Rock”. “Continental Skiff Boat” pokes fun at those political commercials that try and take down candidates by focusing on George Washington and making fun of his crossing of the Delaware. If you click on each correspondent in the menu you can very funny interviews with Don King, Al Sharpton and Bob Graham conducted by Stephen Colbert. We also see Stephen Colbert discuss politics with different minorities in “The Minority Retort”. Ed Helms gets his own introduction to his “Special Feature” on spin doctoring with difficult to answer questions hanging with real reporters. The funny and lovely (and intelligent) Samantha Bee gets two bits to herself—“So You Want To Bee… A 527 Organization” (with optional commentary that’s as funny as the main bits) where she discusses the best and legal way to slam politician in ads. “Block the Vote” takes a look at “Rock the Vote” and its failure to get more young people vote. Likewise Rob Corddry takes on the “Democratic Debate in New York” and in Detroit as well as “The Secretaries Tour” (this I found very, very funny). Rob follows the “Monsters of Government” tour taking aim at rock tours and politics all in one short. “The Squabble in Coral Gables” provides a program from the debates between John Kerry (who?) and President Bush (Huh?).