JONATHAN LANESelf-proclaimed “fundit” Mo Rocca, best known for his work on “The Daily Show” and “I Love the Eighties,” spoke to a full audience in Graham Chapel yesterday afternoon that roared with laughter from the moment he opened his mouth.
He began his speech with a joke especially geared toward the Washington University community.
“I have nothing left to say, except that I am here to audition for ‘Missionary Positions,'” said Rocca.
Using a PowerPoint presentation with pictures, along with some of his own video clips from “The Daily Show” and “The O’Reilly Factor,” Rocca entertained the audience with his views on current issues such as the Democratic presidential candidates, gay marriage, and his personal love for visiting presidential graves and former homes.
“We wanted something that would have a high turnout,” said sophomore Erica Rosen, speaker of the CS40, about planning the event. “We wanted a speaker that could provide both knowledge and humor and really get through to the students, and we thought that [Rocca] was one of the perfect icons.”
If the volume of the audience’s laughter as Rocca went through a slide show of pictures of presidential candidates is any indication, Rosen and her affiliates made the right decision. Rocca noted that Gephardt would have been the first “albino” president, and Edwards the first “fourteen-year-old” president.
After showing a series of political pictures, he turned back to his own career, talking about his most recent projects on VH1’s “I Love the Seventies,” “I Love the Eighties,” and “Best Week Ever.”
In speaking about his work on “The Daily Show,” Rocca shared what he believes people find funny.
“Certainly a lot of [humor] is [in the show’s] content. When Stephen Colbert interviews somebody who runs a UFO welcome center in South Carolina, it’s going to be funny,” he said.
Rocca also explained how he came to be a Daily Show reporter and fake journalist.
He mentioned his work in Kabuki theatre in Japan, a stint as a roller-skating waiter, and how he acted in several plays, including playing Doody in a production of “Grease” that toured Southeast Asia.
“We were standing room only in Jakarta,” said Rocca.
He then ran through the rest of his careers in television including working for the television series “Wishbone.” At the same time, Rocca was also working as a consulting editor for the magazine “Perfect 10,” which features women who have not had breast implants.
“Kids’ TV by day, soft-core pornography by night, yada, yada, yada, you’ve heard it all before-I was bored,” he said.
One of the funniest pictures in Rocca’s PowerPoint presentation was one of Rutherford B. Hayes’ old dorm room at Kenyon, which was a typical shot of some very stoned-looking boys in a filthy dorm room. Rocca referred to them as the “custodians of the room,” however, adding that they were watching “Half-Baked” when the picture was taken.
After showing a segment from his reporting days at “The Daily Show,” Rocca went on to speak about his work as a contributor on news shows such as “The O’Reilly Factor.”
“One of the benefits I have enjoyed… is that I get invited onto a lot of supposed real news shows,” said Rocca.
After finishing his speech by taking questions from the audience, reactions from students and faculty alike were very positive.
“[Rocca] covers a broad spectrum, so we were able to pull people in from all different areas of pop culture, news and media, but then everybody was pleasantly surprised by what he had to say,” Rosen said.
Film and Media Studies professor Jeff Smith, who introduced Rocca, could not have been happier.
“I thought it was great-everything I expected and more,” he said.