I Helped Turn The Bush-Gore Election Into Comedy Gold. This Year's Vote Is No Laughing Matter.

A photo shows the author, Madeleine Smithberg.
A photo shows the author, Madeleine Smithberg. Credit: Mariesa Mahoney

I spent many years in the hilarious trenches of late night television. I booked and produced “human interest” guests (and all the cooking demonstrations) for “Late Night With David Letterman,” and I went on to co-create “The Daily Show” and run it as executive producer for the first seven years. I discovered and hired Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell (both after watching a videotape from the short-lived “Dana Carvey Show” called “Waiters Who Are Nauseated by Food”). I led “The Daily Show” from its launch in 1996 through the 2002 elections. It was quite a ride. There was an exact moment when “The Daily Show” transformed from a ragtag kind of adorable footnote of the national political dialogue into the “cable comedy show of record.” That moment was election night 2000.

Specifically, it was 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. We were in the middle of two hours of live coverage. Arizona was too close to call. Florida and New York had gone to Democrat Al Gore, while Louisiana and Texas were solidly for Republican George W. Bush. The stakes felt very high, both for the country and for me and my team. Anytime a show goes live, it is simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying. I like to think of it as walking a tightrope without a net … above the Grand Canyon … naked. Or flying on a Boeing jet. There is no room for error, yet endless opportunities for disaster. I loved it. Nothing makes you feel more alive than finding and creating comedy in the exact moment that it is happening. Though we did not know it at the time, American politics, and our place in it, were about to change forever. It would end up being a bad night for democracy, but a pretty good one for our little cable comedy show. History was unfolding before our eyes, and we were somehow being folded into it.

During the summer of 2000, much to our shock, we were the guests of honor at the Republican National Convention. Former GOP nominee Bob Dole actually became a regular contributor to our show.

On election night, we were relieved that our year of hard work on “Indecision 2000” (we could never have predicted how accurate that name would become) was finally about to end (or so we thought). As we entered the second hour of our program, it looked as though Gore was going to easily take the night.

Then, in what seemed like an instant, Florida’s vote flipped from Gore to Bush. The country, the world and “The Daily Show” would never be quite the same. Along with everyone else, we scrambled to adjust to a change we could never have anticipated — and we had almost an hour left of live coverage — and it had to be funny. What had happened to the country was playing out in real time on my silly, funny, fake news program. It felt anything but funny.

In the weeks that followed, a confused electorate learned quickly about “hanging chads” and the fragility of American democracy. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, hanging chads were little pieces of paper that were not completely punched out on ballots, largely in Florida, turning the outcome of the 2000 election into utter chaos. They got a lot of media attention. It is hard to believe that a nation as big and powerful as the United States could be rendered dysfunctional by tiny scraps of paper, but it happened.

It was as if we at “The Daily Show” had been summoned to take over the reins for a shocked and exhausted media that had no idea how to report the absurd non-outcome with a straight face, something we did not have to even attempt to do.

Our anchors came on the air the following night grinning mischievously, knowing that we had struck comedy gold. We scattered fast-food containers and empty coffee cups around the desk. We applied makeup to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to accentuate their disheveled appearances. We filled a couple of ashtrays with cigarette butts, some of them smoldering. Our job as the conscience of American media had officially begun.

I am so proud of the program that I co-created and helped to build. Format-wise, very little seems to have changed since I left. It is great to see Jon back in the chair. I feel nostalgic for the comparatively innocent days of Bush versus Gore. The Supreme Court then struck us as out of line; the current court is sticking its toe into fascist waters. The task facing Jon and the talented team seems far more daunting than what we had to try to make funny back in November 2000. I really do not see a way of spinning the current situation into anything even resembling humor. Donald Trump impersonations aside, there is not a laugh to be had when looking at the stakes for Tuesday. We are witnessing a situation of actual good versus evil, and the odds are chilling. I am living in a state of constant stress and am relieved simply not to have the job of trying to make it funny.

Adapted from my memoir, “Almost Funny,” which is almost written.