Dennis Miller is the announced guest on tonight’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which sounds like quite an interesting matchup. On one hand, Miller basically invented what Stewart now does, the knowledgable, intelligent fake news anchor (as opposed to the more goofy styles of the pre-Miller Saturday Night Live and most earlier exaples.) On the other hand, not only has the student surpassed the master at his best, the master has falled in an ugly way, spending years as the sort of bully pundit that Stewart works so effectively against, one more interested in the noise than the news.
I doubt that the interview will be as good as that potential makes it sound. Miller has been largely failing at his apparent goal of becoming an angry right-wing spokesman, making him not important enough to really kick around. And yet, unless he is trying to reinvent himself again (and he’s about due), he won’t be fun enough for it to be fun.
But I will, of course, watch it. It is, after all, The Daily Show, and very rare is the night that the half hour on the whole is not worthwhile.
