''Comedy Central's Indecision 2008'' was the special coverage of the

United States presidential election The election of the president of the United States, president and Vice President of the United States, vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are Voter registration in the United ...

provided by several programs on the

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

network. Unlike the previous "Indecision" specials, presented only by ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night talk and news satire television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States, with extended episodes released shortly after on Paramount+ ...

'' (or ''The Daily Show'' and ''

The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late night television, late-night Late-night talk show, talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December ...

'', in the case of '' Indecision 2006 Midterm Midtacular''), two Comedy Central programs were involved. ''

Lil' Bush ''Lil' Bush'' is an American satirical adult animated sitcom which premiered on June 13, 2007, on Comedy Central. The series features caricatures of members of the George W. Bush administration, and other American and international political f ...

'' was originally going to be the third show involved, but after the show's second season finale on May 15, 2008, it entered an indefinite hiatus that had not ended by the time of the election.

Clusterf@#k to the White House

During 2007, ''The Daily Shows coverage of early events in the election has been named ''Clusterf@#k to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

'', alluding to the many candidates that had entered the election race. On April 9, 2007, the show revealed its new election set, in the style of network news stations like

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, and

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

. On August 26, coverage of the

2008 Democratic National Convention The 2008 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial United States presidential nominating convention, presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party where it adopted its national platform an ...

began, and The Daily Show moved temporarily to

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, interviewing members of the convention. The following week The Daily Show traveled to

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 311,527, making it Minnesota's second-most populous city a ...

to cover and attend the

Republican National Convention The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the Republican Party in the United States. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal o ...

Don't F@#k This Up America

''The Colbert Report'' has named its coverage of the 2008 election campaign ''Indecision 2008: Don't F@#k This Up America''.

Doritos sponsorship

From October 18, 2007, ''The Colbert Report'' started calling its coverage of Stephen Colbert's own

presidential campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referen ...

the ''Hail to the Cheese Stephen Colbert Nacho Cheese Doritos 2008 Presidential Campaign Coverage.'' The Doritos sponsorship was a result of Colbert's character finding out that he was not allowed to use the Doritos corporate sponsorship to fund his own presidential campaign and thus diverted the funds to sponsor the election coverage segments of his show. On March 17, 2008, Stephen kicked off a preview for his visit to

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

to cover the primary between

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

and

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

, entitled "Stephen Colbert's Doritos Spicy Sweet Pennsylvania Campaign Coverage, Live from Chiladelphia: The City of Brotherly Crunch!"

The "Indecision 2008: America's Choice"

On the night of November 4, 2008, ''The Daily Show'' and ''The Colbert Report'' teamed up for a 40-minute coverage of the elections called "Indecision 2008: America's Choice Live Election Special (A.K.A. The Final Endgame Go Time Alpha Action Lift-Off Decide-icidal Hungry Man's Extreme Raw Power Ultimate Voteslam Smackdown '08 No Mercy: Judgement Day '08)." Two guests appeared:

Steve Forbes Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr. (; born July 18, 1947) is an American publishing executive and politician who is the editor-in-chief of ''Forbes'', a business magazine. He is the son of longtime ''Forbes'' publisher Malcolm Forbes and the grandso ...

, former GOP candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996 and 2000, and

Charles Ogletree Charles James Ogletree Jr. (December 31, 1952 – August 4, 2023) was an American legal scholar who served as the Jesse Climenko Professor at Harvard Law School, where he was the founder of the school's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for ...

, Jr., teacher of both Barack and

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama ( Robinson; born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United Stat ...

(Michelle Robinson at the time) when they were both students at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

. In between reporting results from various electoral votes in selected states, correspondents from The Daily Show reported "updates" from the respective headquarters of both presidential candidates, as well as "reactions" from the international community, particularly from Pakistan. During the final segment of the show, Jon Stewart announced that Barack Obama had won the election. The entire team went through withdrawal, finally exiting onto the roof of ''The Daily Show'' studio, remarking on the world "without George Bush", before Colbert brought them back to reality by saying that Bush still has two and a half months left as president. Many jokes in the show were based on the discomfort of Colbert, who was attempting to ignore Obama's apparent victory by distracting the show with methods such as inviting a

cockatoo A cockatoo is any of the 21 species of parrots belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea ( true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up t ...

to sit on his shoulder and greeting fictional characters who recently celebrated their 100th birthdays.

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Indecision 2008 2008 in American television The Colbert Report The Daily Show 2008 United States presidential election in popular culture

Clusterf@#k to the White House

Don't F@#k This Up America

Doritos sponsorship

The "Indecision 2008: America's Choice"

See also

External links