I'm pretty sure that I read that these ads were targeted to certain states.  That would also throw off your analysis.

I don't think we're going to agree on Colbert.  I just don't think that starting with actual republican talking points is the comedy of the show.  The joke comes when he stretches it out to ridiculous levels.  Yes he does hit the dems too, but not nearly as much as the republicans.

I personally thought the show was pretty weak in the begining, but he really began to hit his stride after a couple of months.  I still think it is as funny as ever.  Especially since he has started to try and make himself in a big name with all the shameless self-promotion.

As for The Daily Show, you have definitely been watching longer than me.  Now that I think about it more, I was watching some in high school, so that might stretch it out to 8-9 years I have been watching.  Like I said above, the show has gone more left in recent weeks, but I think it will swing back the other way with dems in power.

Was the show any good with Killborn?  His late show on CBS was terrible.  Far weaker than Leno, Letterman, and Conan.

By the way, I wholeheartedly agree with your point above about reaching the young male demographic.

The Daily Show was funny under Killborn with his 5 questions bits and some of the other stuff but the show really took off under the first few years of Stewart. I was sad to see Killborn go until I got to watch Stewart for a season. The show was definitely better after Killborn left.

We'll just agree to disagree on the Colbert part.

I think this money is well spent. We are an internet generation. I wouldn't be surprised it the president is whoever has the most friends on myspace and facebook. Clinton did wonders for his campaign by getting tons of air time on MTV during it's heyday. I wouldn't be surprised if internet social networking is bringing about similar success.

First I would say the topic should probably be moved to the off topic forums. Since it somewhere left gaming relevance which was never the less very shallow, and the only depth to be had was the discussion of in game advertising in general.

That said I enjoy both the Daily Show, and the Colbert Report. The problem isn't that they are partisan politically. The problem is they are partisan towards what is the best comedy. The reality is that for the last few weeks the Republican party read the writing on the wall, and went into a full melt down. They know they are effectively screwed seven ways from Sunday, and they are trying anything and everything to stay afloat.

You must confess it is kind of hard to stretch a joke out of Obama going after loose nukes. When you have a Republican Senator spouting off about Obama being Anti American, and the need for the media to put on show trials. Had she never heard of McCarthy. One of the blackest chapters in American history. I mean that is so incredibly dumb it is easy to milk twenty minutes of jokes out of that alone.

Then how do you explain those shows going extremely left several months ago? That's when I stopped watching. I've seen a few in the past few months and it's still the same crap.

When something incredibly stupid happens, I expect one side to catch a lot of flak for it. When the shows started to completely ignore Obama near the end of the primaries, I knew something was wrong. When they kept it up for a few weeks, I stopped thinking they were funny and moved onto other television programs.

Still, even your explanation doesn't give me a reason as to why Colbert has stopped poking fun of the Democrats and now makes outright jokes at the expense Republicans, completely ruining his established character. Did he run out of ideas or is he so blinded by one side of the political spectrum that he can't even make jokes about his own party? Either answer makes his show less funny than it once was.

I'm sorry but there isn't much that's funny about a Bill O'Reilly character, dressed in a power suit with an immaculate haircut, that tells jokes about the Republican party. That's what Colbert has been reduced to doing over the past half year.

Cool, thanks for the little debate Rocketpig.

Don't worry Rocketpig, it should swing back the other way if the dems take control of the government. All it will take is one slip, and they will both be all over it. They have just been taking the easy road lately.