As one of my gifts to my girlfriend for her upcoming birthday, I went the extra mile to obtain tickets to today’s taping of “The Daily Show with John Stewart,” of which she is a big fan. In-studio seats are booked solid through the end of this coming summer, but I was lucky enough to grab a pair of canceled reservations last Friday by calling the show’s booking line. Having a reservation still doesn’t guarantee you a seat though, and I had to show up at the theater about ninety minutes ahead of time to wait in line, and even then, we barely made it into the studio made the cut-off at a hundred audience members. It was worth it, though; I saw nothing in the studio that would contest the idea that this is the most consistently funny and certainly the politically sharpest show on television. Still, I was surprised by how small their stage set is.