What is Walter Reed, and who are Alberto Gonzales, Dick Cheney, and Ted Haggard? Jay Leno had to answer each of these questions during his monologue Tuesday night before the audience could "get" his punchlines. Of course, in an profession where laughs judge competence, Leno quickly made the public's ignorance of current events into, what else, a laughing matter.  But with all jokes aside, it seems that Leno was performing a valuable community service. 

A 2004 study released by the Pew Research Center says that 20 percent of young Americans under age 30 "regularly" receive their news from comedy shows. And although the cable news shows were still listed as the number one source of information for this age group, the study suggests that an increasing number of younger audience members are choosing comedy shows as their first choice for news and current events. This can be linked in part to the ability of humor to humanize the most complex of issues as well as the sudden popularity of Comedy Central's Daily Show and Colbert Report, to name but a few.

It seems audiences will have to make a choice next time they decide to watch their favorite comedy show: either pick up a newspaper first so they can laugh at the jokes, or else take notes during the show to discover what's going on in the world. Where do you get your news?

Kristy Williams Thompson