InterActive Corp. (NYSE: IACI) seems to be following the herd with this week's announcement of a comedy news channel that sounds very similar to Comedy Central's The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The new IAC property, titled 23/6, will partner with liberal political site the Huffington Post and will be in full comedic charge of satirizing the news with humor interlaced throughout all moments.

Bloggers from the Huffington Post as well as comedy writers from The Daily Show and The Simpsons will be part of the cast, so expect some funny moments from the new network. 23/6 joins a growing roster of online and television networks and series dedicated to taking normal (and highly predictable) news and turning a spin on those stories to keep the bay of reality, well, away from the mind of the normal consumer. At least, that's my two cents here.

I especially like 23/6's planned "Monolog-o-tron," which will be an online tool for generating your own talk show using drop-down menus on a website. That's a shot at Letterman and Leno and my guess is that it won't be the last one taken. With a whole new generation taking to the web for news and satire instead of played late-night shows, this could very well be another great hit for Barry Diller's IAC.

Fans of Comedy Central's left-leaning The Daily Show (this means you, Mom and Dad), rejoice! Jon Stewart will remain the show's host through at least 2010. The affable anchor has signed a two-year contract extension that keeps him in the employ of the Viacom (NYSE: VIA) network through 2010. His previous contract was set to expire at the end of next year.

In other news, fans of Stewart can review his Daily career, beginning in 1999, as Comedy Central has launched a standalone website for the program, featuring video clips dating back to January 11, 1999, when Stewart first took over the reins. Seriously, does anyone remember when rigid pretty-boy Craig Kilborn hosted the thing? It seems now as though The Daily Show and Stewart were simultaneously formed. The website also features episode synopses, games, and additional features.

Stewart will also continue to serve in a executive producing and writing role.

In addition to South Park, The Daily Show is the cable network's longest-running original series that is still on the air. It spawned a very successful spin-off -- The Colbert Report -- which itself may have spawned our next Commander in Chief. Referring to Colbert's (fake?) declaration of his candidacy earlier this week, Stewart was quoted by The Associated Press as joking: "I look forward to using this [contract] extension to having great fun at President Colbert's expense."

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

I howled when I watched this last week but had no idea I would actually find it on the Internet. But of course I would. Clips from The Colbert Report are all over YouTube, why not this particular one of Colbert claiming Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) owes him $700 million from Google's purchase prise for YouTube then? Here's how Colbert, in his 'truthiness' fashion, figures this out:

"...my show is all over the YouTube. You put my name into YouTube, you pull up more than 26 hundred videos, that's gotta be like a third of all videos. That means I've got $500 million coming to me. That doesn't even count the times we mention YouTube on the show."

Colbert then counts the times he indeed mentioned YouTube, and for each mention he adds $50 million to the $500 million he already calculated. The last mention is even a complete fake voice over. Too funny.

Well, Google, Colbert will accept cash or money orders.

You can watch the video on YouTube for yourselves of course.

Via Google Blogoscopped.