I have to admit, I made this post an “I’m Sick of Your Shit” primarily for the shock value. I love Jon Stewart endlessly, of course, but I have a bone to pick with The Daily Show and why not resurrect the series?

It’s a weird, unpleasant feeling — I must say — having to raise a beef with one of our favorites. But no show is perfect and even the teacher’s pet has to get a B+ every once in a while to keep him on his toes.

Here’s what has been on my mind for a while now…

I don’t watch The Daily Show consistently, but I watch it enough to notice that they have a certain kind of gag I find cheap and not constructive. Often when they are discussing media coverage, they’ll do segments where the splice together lots of anchors and reporters asking the same question in different ways. For instance, on a big primary night recently they had a montage of network anchors describing the colors they used on the different maps. There’s a shot of Wolf Blitzer calling a certain color code “cranberry” and then Chris Matthews calling something “umber.” Etc., etc., etc.

That’s a silly example, but they often tackle more substantive issues and you’re supposed to make inferences based on the clip compilations. Because everyone is asking whether Barack Obama’s speech on race did the job, then there must be something wrong with that.

What gets me about this phenomenon is this: it’s an easy trick that can fill up a good twenty to thirty seconds and you don’t have to write an actual joke. I’m not trying to say the media should be let off easy (far from it) or that the 24 hour news networks aren’t ridiculous much of the time (they are), but often these clip compilations don’t have a real point. Just because a lot of people are asking the same question and it seems silly in the reel, doesn’t mean it’s not valid. I feel like when you’re in the game of political satire, when you make fun of something there should be a lesson to glean from it.

Not that everything comes back to Project Runway (well, it kind of does in my world, but whatever), but they do the same thing on the Project Runway reunion shows. They often to montages of all the times a certain event happened on the past season — like Ricky crying, Christian saying “fierce,” Tim Gunn saying “make it work.”

When you take them all at once, it’s funny to see. But it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

Did you know Tim Gunn was on The Daily Show the other day?

Go ahead and watch it, why don’t you?

Looks like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are coming back. But, well, it’ll be just them and a camera.

According to TV Guide, the boys will be start making new episodes on Jan. 7 without writers. The two released a statement saying the following: “We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence — but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence.”

I can’t imagine what these shows are going to be like. Well, actually, yes I can. I’m guessing interviews that are twice as long. I’m guessing Jon sitting there making reference to how awkward the situation is. I’m guessing Jon reading the paper at his desk, trying to come up with off-the-cuff remarks and then looking embarrassed.

I don’t know — I’m sure they’ll find a way to make it work.

I miss The Daily Show. We all do.

One day, the strike will be over and there will be new episodes. We will lie in the sun and laugh and frolic.

But for now, winter is here. To help you with the lack of Daily Show in our lives, I’ll be posting some classic clips until this thing is resolved. They’re obviously dated, but two-week-old clips are pretty much just as good as four-year-old ones. And not that I want to force even more reruns on you, but hopefully these will be some cheerful reminders of how wonderful Jon and company are.

For instance, this is a Samantha Bee segment on undecided voters in the 2004 election that I thought was hysterical the moment I saw it. Obviously out of date — still hilarious.

And that thing is Brian Williams on SNL.

Remember when Tina left the show and Brian Williams showed up at the Weekend Update desk, not believing that he didn’t get the gig? Remember when Brian Williams was a giant talking head in Jon’s studio? This is going to be great. And not affected by the strike, I hear.

Things I Liked:

1. Jon, on the latest Democratic presidential debate: “It’s like the world’s most boring Neil LaBute play.”
2. In the boring moments of Reaper, Sam’s cute little freckly nose.
3. Evil Horse Lady insulting Kristin Chenowith’s cleavage on Pushing Daisies.
4. Free taco day. I didn’t eat one, but it still makes me laugh.

Things I Disliked:

1. Lily’s out-of-control financial irresponsibility on HIMYM (because girls love to shop, didn’t you know?), and that she’s lying to Marshall about it and has been for years, and that they made me hate Lily.
2. No Kristen Bell on Heroes.
3. The extreme grossness of the man with sludge blood on House.
4. See number 1. I understand why they did it for the story — it would’ve been terrible for her to make Marshall take the soulless job just to save her ass — but she’s lying to him. And she’s lying for such a stupid reason! I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.

Yes, I am excited it’s Wednesday because of all the good TV. But I’m also excited to be back from fulfilling (enduring) my civic duty. Don’t ask me about it. Crime is not always fun like in Oceans 11.

It’s a Halloween episode of Pushing Daisies, which I’m looking forward to almost as much as the giant bag of candy I bought for the approximately zero children who ring our doorbell.

It’s gratifying that my early instinct on Dirty Sexy Money — that Brian is by far the most interesting Darling — seems to be true so far. He’s so angry and spiteful. But human.

I’m still recording Gossip Girl, but it’s not actually getting watched, as evidenced by my multi-week backlog. I would guess scandalous things are happening.

Just in time for Halloween, Mythbusters returns with some fire myths. Presumably not as a tasteless tie-in to the California wildfires.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming: A special one for Cristin — David Wright is the guest on The Daily Show tonight.

In case you haven’t visited it yet, you’d do well to drop by the new Daily Show Web site. It’s revamped, plucked, coiffed and waxed — leaving behind Comedy Central’s cumbersome interface.

Below, I’ve embedded one of my favorite clips from Samantha Bee [note: embedding is a pain in the ass, view it here] (who is probably my favorite correspondent — no one should be surprised by this due to my vocal preference for female comedians). It’s a bit she did late last year about Al Jazeera English. When she breaks out the keyboard and improvises lyrics — damn, that’s some funny stuff.

You weren’t planning on getting anything done this Friday anyway, face it.

You guys should really submit some nouns for The More You Know. All I do is think of a noun and then figure out something to say about it and it never makes sense to anyone but me.

• Here’s a preview of the new, big, gay neighbors on Desperate Housewives.
• Rory Gilmore’s dad will be joining Private Practice.
• Jon Stewart signed another two-year contract with The Daily Show.
• TV Guide’s Ask Matt tackles Dirty Sexy Money and Reaper.
• Big Bang Theory and Private Practice have full season orders.  Sigh.
• Check out the huge, crazy new Daily Show Web site.
• Debi Mazar on a New Jersified version of The View?
• The dude who does Meerkat Manor chats with the Washington Post.
• TV on your iPod?

This is our 1000th post. I swear to God.

• John Krasinksi shirtless. F’real.
• The Filipinos have switched the target of their ire from Desperate Housewives to The Daily Show.
• A former Tonight Show writer is turning on his former boss, Jay Leno.
• The AV Club talks to Heroes’ Sendhil Ramamurthy.
• Shocker on Prison Break. Anyone?
• Survivor’s Leslie talks to TV Guide.
• The NY Times examines the responsibility of reality show producers to intervene in the case of dangerous behavior.
• Joss Whedon is being weird and cryptic about the upcoming episode of The Office that he is directing.
• Thank You For Smoking is becoming a TV series.
• Chevy Chase tanked on SNL.
• DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier has inspired a show.
• The Hills is (gasp) fake?
• CBS employees are trying to bet on Survivor.
• Advertisers are up on Kid Nation, even though ratings are down.
• Also, today’s the last day to enter Nip/Tuck.