Mark Katz

A former political operative, recovering copywriter, and failed sitcom writer, Mark Katz is now the founder and principal of the Soundbite Institute, a creative think tank that specializes in on-message humor. His essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time magazine, and he is the author of CLINTON & ME: A Real Life Political Comedy, an account of eight years as the in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House.

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Founder of the Soundbite Institute and former in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House

I'm not saying The Daily Show has gotten too big for its britches, I'm just saying it has britches. When do Jon Stewart's ceremonial riding trousers become evident? While watching the occasional-but-hilarious videos produced by the otherwise ink-stained satirists at The Onion. With no raucous audience members on the set and without correspondents who mug to the camera, The Onion produces pitch-perfect segments like this that remind me of what The Daily Show used to be―and still is on its best days: a mirror designed to make pious and preening TV news organizations take a closer look at themselves and see the spinach stuck between their teeth.

10:57 am, Oct 13, 2008

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