First, Theyre Foreigners: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Limits of Dissident Laughter

Abstract: Much of the humour on The Daily Show is directed at subjects constructed as “foreign.” Despite the show's reputation for “subversiveness,” such humour relies on demeaning stereotypes. Although the show's parodying of “serious” news seemingly qualifies it as a site of resistance to conventional media strategies, its comedy of the non-American aligns it with orthodox assumptions of American normativity. The situation is complicated by the show's urbane self-consciousness vis-à-vis its reliance on stereotyping. Ultimately, its dissidence has well-defined limits. The Daily Show's uneasy play with the foreign is a revealing reflex of the historical moment, with its troubling burden of American anxieties.