Last month, television host Jon Stewart told his audience, "Oh, I have been doing this show in the wrong country." He meant he should have done it in China.

Stewart had just discovered that a segment of his show satirizing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un went viral in China and drew some 3 million hits on Sina.com. He then launched into a segment based on the premise that his Daily Show were in China, during which he drolly mentioned poor air quality, Confucius, Taiwan and the Dalai Lama.

You may think the Chinese will feel offended and hate this guy, but as far as I know, Jon Stewart and his show have been quite popular in China for some time. Although no licensed versions of the show are available, you can still watch it with Chinese subtitles every day, because people voluntarily translate, subtitle and post the shows online for viewers to watch and comment on within hours of their broadcast.

Besides The Daily Show, other American shows that talk about news sarcastically, including Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Colbert Report, are also popular here in China.

It's kind of funny that we care so much about a show from another country talking about things that are basically irrelevant to our lives - mainly domestic politics in America.

Why? It's simple - we don't have this kind of show. Politics are not mixed up with humor. We do have shows that make people laugh, such as sitcoms, and xiangsheng, a kind of traditional stand-up comic dialogue. But apparently, soft jokes and simple gags are not satisfying any more. Of course we will laugh when clumsy people stumble and fall, although some people may feel it can insult their intelligence. But what these shows offer is something different, letting us laugh and also think about it.

Being mean and tart is very important now, I think. Many people, like me, love being skeptical and sarcastic from time to time. Although I don't agree with them all the time, and sometimes I feel offended and think they are completely wrong, it's still nice to hear other people's opinions.

On May 6, to my surprise, China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast a section from The Daily Show, which satirized US President Barack Obama for not keeping his word to close the Guantánamo prison.

I take this as a sign that the popularity of this show in China has been noticed by the official media.

As there are gradually more varieties of shows in China, we do have more choices in the Chinese language. For example, a late-night show called Tonight 80s Talk Show, hosted by comedian Wang Zijian, caught my eye, with his outspoken satire and humor on the latest news. For example, he makes jokes about food safety, or the way Chinese people get a three-day holiday but are forced to work both days on the weekend to make up for it. He never tackles politics directly, but still, his show might show the path to a better future for satirical comedy in China.