For the lucky few who got tickets, watching a Straz-ensconced Jon Stewart and his gang of correspondent pranksters obliterate the Republican fudge-fest taking place across town was a cathartic, sanity-restoring celebration. Yes, the jokes about Tampa were brutal, as was the chaotic and prolonged ticketing process, but there was magic in watching the taping live and up close. Loaf staffers hit the Tuesday, Thursday and Friday night tapings, and the reports out of each night were uniformly glorious. What do we have to do to lure Stewart and company back to town? We’ve already hosted 10,000 Republicans; we’ll obviously do anything.
This article appears in Sep 20-26, 2012.