Last night, the kings of pre-late night returned after a ten week break due to the writers strike.  Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert improvised their respective shows without the aid of a writing staff, leading to a slower pace of jokes and longer interviews.  Colbert, with his over-the-top pundit bravado, managed to fill time with his ego. Stewart found himself sidekick-less.  Still funny, but it seems even he knew the show wasn’t up to par.  And he didn’t mind jabbing at the WGA on air for not making special arrangements with his show, as well as both the writers and producers silly stances on the internet.

I worry about how long Stewart and Colbert can maintain even the current standard.  Both shows struggled but were enjoyable and smarter than most junk on TV.  But coming up with that much material four days a week is really hard.  I just have to make two or three blog posts a day and I’m exhausted.  These guys actually have to be funny.

The sting has been missing the best political commentary during the exciting roller coaster of primary season.  Both hosts focused more on the strike itself rather than lampoon the sorely in need of lampooning candidates (though Colbert reminded us of his challenge to Obama for grit-eating-off). 

Stewart and Colbert can be called a voice of a generation - their shows provide the most honest look at not only politics, but at our media.  Neither host is scared of attacking the establishment, the underdog, themselves, their bosses, or anybody in between.  When they aren’t on the air, I worry I’m missing something. 

I’m pretty well read, but there are links the Daily Show and Colbert Report make that I would never have thought of.  And as the solo performances of last night showed, it takes a team of writers to make those observations.  The writers strike isn’t just costing us entertainment - it’s costing us information - valuable information that tells me how to think and who to be mad at.  And without the Daily Show, how do I make sense of the writers strike itself?  Who is wrong or right (ignore, for a moment, my several posts on the subject)?  Last night we got our answer (jump to the last 30 seconds of the video for the punch line).

Yes, the writers strike is nine times worse than 9/11.  Now you know.