Climbing the ever steeper stairs of the U-Store, one encounters black and white photographs of Princeton's current luminaries, the people who shape the public perception of our esteemed institution. It seems most unfortunate, therefore, to leave Rob Kutner '94 out of the ranks of these opinion makers, since his writing position on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" puts him in a unique position to influence America's politically conscious, at least among those ages 18 to 30. And now with the publication of the show's collaborative effort, "America: A Citizen's Guide to Government Inaction," he has an opus to give Joyce Carol Oates a run for her money.
Kutner was on the U-Store's third floor recently to participate in a promotional book reading of "America" and was accompanied by fellow "Daily Show" writers Chris Regan and Jason Reisch, who also worked on the book. They read from the mock history textbook to sustained laughter from the 100 strong audience. The book is a sharp and humorous take on American history, utilizing tried and tested techniques that give the book a real educational feel — apparently deceptively so to some. The book's educational value was succinctly questioned by a young boy during the Q&A session when he asked, "Will I learn anything?" Unsatisfied with the answer he was given by the writers, he tersely replied, "I'll save my money," leading the writers to jocularly call for his eviction. Tough crowd for a "local" boy.
A native of Atlanta, Kutner attended Westminster, where he was a self-described "odd man out." "I tried to be the funny guy. I don't know if I was though," Kutner said, going on to mention his earliest flirtation with comedy while in junior high — cartooning. Although admittedly not his forte, Kutner was willing to use any medium available to him to make others laugh. He was heavily influenced by "Weekend Update" on "Saturday Night Live" a bit and claims, at that time in his life, it was his primary source of news. That "The Daily Show" provides a similar service to this generation's young people has been commented on with much distaste by many critics. Kutner's co-writer Regan responded to the raising of this complaint in the Q&A session of the reading, claiming that "[young people] have to know what's going on in the news to get the jokes," suggesting that "The Daily Show" does not replace traditional news sources, but rather provides a (funny) alternative.
While at Princeton, Kutner was active on the Tiger Magazine staff, eventually becoming Chairman, as well as being a writer for Triangle and Quipfire. Triangle not only honed his comedy instincts, but also nurtured his relationship with his now wife and co-writer, Sheryl Zohn '95, currently a writer for Showtime's "Penn & Teller: Bullsh–t!"
It was these extracurricular activities that suggested a future career to Kutner after one day noticing that everything he did on campus was related to comedy, noting that "it wasn't really a conscious decision [to pursue comedy on campus]." Although for Kutner it is clearly extracurriculars that maketh the man, he does credit his majoring in anthropology with aiding his comedy career to some extent, not least because it "made [him] go out and look for a job after graduation," he jokingly pointed out. "I didn't even go to Career Services" Kutner quipped, suggesting that comedy may be one of the few remaining fields untouched by required internships.
After graduation, Kutner began to prepare for the move out to Los Angeles to further his career in writing. He was hired to work on HBO's "Dennis Miller Live" as a writer's assistant before finally making the move to "The Daily Show" two years ago. Kutner found the show experiencing a most fortunate combination of circumstances: The Bush administration was making politics interesting again, while presenter Jon Stewart was steering the show towards more current events — a marriage made in heaven, for comedians, at least.
Reading the book to townies and gownies alike, Kutner and his cohorts performed admirably under the pressure, getting the intonation and timing of the jokes spot on. This shouldn't be surprising, however, as the 10-man team of "Daily Show" writers contains a diversity of comedy experiences, including standup. The book is very much a child of the show, being suggested by Stewart himself and collaborated upon over an 18-month period by the writing staff. And then there's the subject matter, of course, the headlines of yesteryear — old news, known to highbrows as history.
With politics as a large chunk of the subject matter, for show and book alike, charges of bias are practically unavoidable. Kutner and his fellow writers admit that they are somewhat left of center themselves, but believe that the driving force behind the show is more in the satirical tradition of speaking truth to power, rather than pure partisanship. He notes that the show "walks a fine line between being preachy and being funny," but it's obvious on which side on which one ought to fall.
Politics isn't the only target, however; the real news networks come under fire too. Stewart has used the term "fake news" to describe what it is the show does, allowing the writers to take aim at the purveyors of the news, not only its content. Kutner wholeheartedly agrees, pointing out that the 24-hour news cycle has ample time for genuine analysis in addition to its current diet of sensationalism.
But "The Daily Show" shares many of the same stresses that the 24 hour news media experiences. "The material is constantly coming at you," Kutner said, going on to note that even though the show is written a day in advance, any big story that breaks has to go in before they tape at 6 p.m. on the day of airing — stressful indeed. The writers also face the task of taking what Kutner calls "unremittingly grim news" and "giving it a light touch." Maybe adding humor is a response to the public's age-old complaint of all news being bad news — here fake news seems to be ahead of the game.
A decade out of Princeton and comfortably employed at one of Comedy Central's most popular shows, where does Kutner see things going from here? He's understandably tightlipped on the specifics, but says that he's working on a screenplay with his wife and would like to write a novel or two some day. Most of all Kutner said, however, "I'd like to be working, that's not something you take for granted in this business." Maybe the folks at the U-Store can help him out with one of those tasteful black and white portraits, preferably at the bottom of the stairs.
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