David Javerbaum

Pundit 

David Javerbaum is the Executive Producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central's Emmy Award-winning mock newscast which, according to a 2004 Pew Research Center poll, is a primary news source for over 20 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds.

Prior to taking the reins as Executive Producer, Javerbaum spent four years as head writer. During his tenure on the show, it has won nine Emmys, a Peabody Award, Television Critics Awards for "Best Comedy" and "Best News," and, due to a bizarre clerical error, the Nobel Prize in Physics.

An alumnus of The Harvard Lampoon, Javerbaum began his comedy career writing headlines and stories for the satirical newspaper The Onion, ultimately conceiving the idea for its first book, Our Dumb Century, a 1999 New York Times No. 1 bestseller and winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Among the articles penned by Javerbaum is the one "reporting" the Titanic disaster ("World's Largest Metaphor Hits Iceberg"), which is on the cover; and another reporting the Apollo moon landing, which is not.

Five years later, Javerbaum was one of the three principal authors of The Daily Show's textbook parody, America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction, which sold nearly two million copies and spent a year on the New York Times Bestseller List (15 weeks at No. 1). America was named "Book of the Year" by Publishers Weekly, and also won a Thurber Prize (making Javerbaum the only two-time winner), the Grammy for Best Comedy Album, and, due to a second bizarre clerical error, the Stanley Cup.

At the podium, Javerbaum describes his evolution from a kid who sat in the back of the class freely making fun of authority figures, to a grown man who gets paid to do exactly that. Using show clips, he discusses the exhilaratingly hectic process of putting The Daily Show together, and the process of creative collaboration as it pertains to both the TV show and his work in the theater.

Javerbaum also has a second career as a musical-theater writer. In 2005 he won the Kleban Award as the most promising musical-theater lyricist. His work in that field includes writing the lyrics for the musical adaptation of the John Waters' film Cry-Baby, slated to open on Broadway in early 2008. He also wrote the lyrics and co-authored the book of Suburb, whose 2001 Off-Broadway run earned numerous nominations.