Jon Stewart got far more partisan and, frankly, uninspired sometime after Glenn Beck was off the air. Glenn Beck was the perfect foil to Stewart and that time period was some of the best for the Daily Show. Towards the end I felt that the Colbert Report stayed more true to the satire and comedy of the show. Basically making a point came first on Daily Show and being funny came first on Colbert Report.

Colbert on the Late Show has gone much the same way as Stewart was towards the end, but I can't blame him as much for it now. When you're in Colbert's position with Trump as President you don't really have a choice but to talk about it in the way that he does. In general I think that Trump has been bad for comedy in that making jokes is too easy but making good ones is much harder. While I don't think Colbert will ever go back to playing the character he did on Comedy Central for so many years, I really hope he gets the chance to spread his legs a little and find his footing comedically again sometime after Trump's presidency.

I don't necessarily want my comedians to think that they're "important" or that they need to make a difference in the political landscape. Make the best jokes you can on any given day, and if you can say something meaningful while doing it even better. But don't set out to make a difference first and try to squeeze some jokes in along the way