Jon22: The Website of Jonathan Dobres

The recent redesign of The Daily Show‘s website might be the best thing to happen to the show since Jon Stewart took over. Previous versions of the site never offered anything worth bookmarking, anyway, so the changeover to an almost purely video-serving model is a welcome one. I’m pretty sure we can thank Youtube for this. God knows Viacom had no other reason to post the full content of every single Daily Show episode online for free.

Clearly, competition is good for the consumer. Rather than Youtube’s grainy, aurally unreliable uploads, the copies on the official site are clear and crisp. The whole database is thoroughly tagged and easily searchable. Jon’s first show? Easy. And dig that hair. Even Stevphen? Done, and you might find a couple more clips using the less common “phv” spelling. There’s nothing from the Kilborn days, however. I assume there’s some sort of contractual embargo there, or maybe they don’t want to pay residuals to a man who his costars once described as “dumb as a post.”  In any case, there isn’t much that I’m clamoring to see from the Kilborn era.  Well, except maybe when he danced.  Danced.  Danced.  I did love that.

There’s one search I just had to run. There were some clips, you see, that simply never made it to Youtube, and I’d been waiting for an opportunity like this for too long. The clips I seek are of a short-lived recurring segment from Stewart’s awkward early months on the show. I speak of something experimental and daring, something that wasn’t quite perfect but nevertheless struck a chord. I speak of Thersday.

Or more properly, Th-hers-day. For the ladies.

Ringing any bells? No? Well, the easiest way to explain is to show you. There’s also this one. And my personal favorite. You can find a few more with the appropriate search.

In short, the new website is a clear win.  Huzzah and kudos to Comedy Central for putting countless hours of quality comedy online for free.  I can’t wait to see what else gets mined out of The Daily Show‘s ancient past.