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Have you ever taken a
stab at skewering your family by writing -- and performing -- satirical
musical comedies about them? Figured out how to track down babies
who swim, nuns who train miniature horses, or karate-chopping grandmothers
for Italian TV? Or set up guest segments for Late Night with David
Letterman that feature kid inventors, things that explode or eccentric
people?
Madeleine Smithberg, executive producer and co-creator of Comedy
Central's award-winning hit The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, has
done it all. And more.
For those who haven't seen it, The Daily Show is a parody of an
actual news show and is characterized by intelligent, hard-hitting
satire that is equally irreverent to everything and everybody. What's
unique about it is that it comments on news that hits the day the
show is broadcast and it incorporates real news-source video clips.
"Even the mechanics of it are more like news than they are like
entertainment," said Smithberg. "The script is put together on an
Associated Press computer program that's made for news broadcasts.
The way our graphics are built, the way things are cut, the editing,
the control room -- it's all very much like news."
In addition to the "looks real" factor, the show also boasts its
own cadre of wacky national and international correspondents. "While
we are most certainly a comedy show, we're anchored in pretending
to be a news show," said Smithberg. "We mirror what the media are
doing and we satirize the way the media cover things."
As with all good satire, there is a touch of seriousness behind
the mask of the absurd. As Smithberg said, "It's given us entrée
into some very touchy subjects." For example, the show aired
a hilarious lambasting of the alarmist tone and stylistic changes
in television reporting that took place in the aftermath of Sept.
11.
"After Sept. 11, we felt we didn't know what we were going to do,"
said Smithberg. "We felt as though we might never be able to get
back on the horse, because it felt like news just wasn't funny.
And then the tickers started running on the bottom of the screen
on CNN, and anthrax happened and people went into 24-hour coverage
of the anthrax scare without any actual information. And for us
that was, 'Okay, thank you, guys! We're back in the game, because
you're being ridiculous.' The media were trying to scare everybody,
and it just seemed as though there was no restraint."
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A talk show constitutes another element of the program, in which
Jon Stewart interviews celebrity performers, authors and other guests.
But this segment also has a news bent to it. "Since Sept. 11
we've tried to make the whole show more integrated, and we've been
having a lot more serious news-related guests," said Smithberg.
Smithberg reads, watches and listens to myriad news sources throughout
the day -- always with an eye to what's going to work for the show.
She listens to NPR's Morning Edition as she gets up, moves onto
CNN and Good Morning America while reading through The New York
Times, then switches over to a news show on New York 1, which summarizes
the top stories in five newspapers. She listens to another radio
station in the car, reads through three more newspapers when she
gets to work, and checks CNN online. The TV in her office is turned
to CNN all day long.
Walk into the building and through the offices of The Daily Show,
and you feel the high energy that the show's staff of 60 twentysomethings
gives it. "I'm one of the oldest people in the building," said Smithberg,
laughing. "I see the interns and think, oh my God, they look like
children -- they have more in common with my 4-year-old son than
they do with me. But that keeps you young." Smithberg appreciates
not being part of corporate America, both for the relaxed work atmosphere
-- everyone dresses very casually -- and for the free rein the show
has in creating content. "On Comedy Central we can do almost anything
we want," she said. "We're only held back by our own limitations;
no one's really meddling in what we do. We don't have 18 layers
of upper management putting creative notes in just for the sake
of exerting their own professional power."
The bottom line, said Smithberg: "I love this hat. It's creative.
It's collaborative. It's very exciting. There's also something immediately
gratifying about doing daily television. Your day's work focuses
on what's happened in the world that day, which makes it current
and topical and relevant. That's very satisfying, especially when
you get the idea it's actually having some sort of impact somewhere.
It feels good. And obviously you can't live for outside recognition,
but when it does come, it sure is better than not having it."
In addition to the Peabody Award, The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart has won an Emmy for comedy writing and has been featured
on 60 Minutes and in The New Yorker. In addition,
Vanity Fair did a write-up of Stewart, and Smithberg has
appeared on the News Hour, in Harper's Bazaar and
in Elle.
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 The
making of a comedy producer
Smithberg, who grew up on Mad magazine and was "blown away"
when Saturday Night Live burst on the scene, landed her first
foray into television thanks in large part to her fluency
in Italian, something she acquired when she spent a semester
abroad in Italy during her senior year as an art history major
at Binghamton. Throughout the four years she worked for the
New York office of an Italian national television station
following her graduation, the Italians' fascination with American
quirkiness prevailed. "They'd say, 'There are people in Texas
who get in sleeping bags with snakes. Can you find them?'"
recalled Smith-berg. And she'd track them down.
That's how Smithberg developed the "weird skill set," as
she put it, that made her a prime candidate for David Letterman's
show, which she described as "an unbelievable experience.
It was just one of those situations where you're perfect for
the job and that job is perfect for you." She had both the
training and, as she put it, the "bizarre and specialized
sensibility" needed for the human interest segment of Letterman's
show that focused on the eccentric and the unusual. "I could
read a newspaper and come up with four things to follow up
on," said Smithberg.
For example, through the classified ads of the National Enquirer,
Smithberg found a woman who cooked in her dishwasher. "We
cooked in the dishwasher over the course of the show -- Dave
introduced her at the beginning, and then at the end of the
show we opened the dishwasher and out came the chicken with
all the smoke. As it turned out, she was the live-in chef
for Johnny Carson's lawyer. So my producer was thrilled, because
we got it right out from under Carson's nose."
Now, Smithberg applies that same eye for the odd, the absurd
and the jarring to The Daily Show. "If you watch the show
on a regular basis, particularly the correspondents who do
these field reports -- for better or for worse, my sensibility
is all over it," Smithberg said. "It's that celebration of
eccentricity taken to a new level; it also becomes a parody
of the sort of misguided earnestness or self-servingness of
investigative TV journalism."
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