1. Jon Stewart never clapped during the intro to the show, leading into or out of a commercial break. All of the new guest hosts clap for themselves, at the beginning of the show, leading into a commercial break, or at the end.

I think it’s weird to be clapping from the desk. The Daily Show has a dedicated hype man; he’s a comedian in his own right, and has been there for 20+ years encouraging the audience to clap. Clapping for yourself is weird, and it makes me feel awkward, and I don’t like it when the hosts do it for themselves.

  1. With the exception of Klepper–who isn’t even a fulltime correspondent anymore–there is nobody in front of the camera who extends back to the days of Jon Stewart. The cast is now entirely of a new generation, with Hasan & Klepper being the last correspondents to join under Stewart.

  2. The unofficial, self-described, standard of new correspondents joining after 2005 was to always do their best Colbert impression. You can find new correspondents saying in interviews, about being nervous, “I knew I had to get out there and just do my best Colbert impression” (in style, not in actual mimicry).

This is not meant to be mean, I but I have no idea what the recruiter saw in Grace Kuhlenschmidt during her audition. I don’t see anything funny about her delivery, style, or persona. She doesn’t strike me as being a comedian, or having a good grasp of the straight man delivery needed to be a correspondent.

With the exception of Jaboukie Young-White, Grace is the only other correspondent who I haven’t liked since first watching The Daily Show 25 years ago. For everyone else, I liked them. I didn’t like Troy Iwata for his first piece, but I thought he did a better job in his second piece. (Jaboukie, by the way, never had a sendoff like all the other correspondents. He just stopped appearing, and then months later it was revealed that he was no longer a correspondent. There must be some drama surrounding him leaving.)

Grace isn’t a good fit. I get that TDS needed a new correspondent after Roy quit, or because of the rumored impending departure of Dulce Sloan, but I don’t see how that person is Grace. How could it be that after scouring the comedy clubs, or asking for audition tapes, Grace was the best they found?