Interviews no laughing matter for local notables

His 17-year-old son says he may have to start wearing a paper bag over his head to Newton North High School. His 19-year-old daughter has forbidden him from ever doing such a thing again.

Brian Camenker now knows there are few worse ways to score points with your children than to be interviewed for a segment on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show."

Camenker, who heads a group campaigning to repeal same-sex marriage, played the unwitting straight man in a report called ''Mass.Hysteria," which examined whether Massachusetts had deteriorated since gay marriage was legalized.

Despite being peppered with such questions as: ''Is it hard to stay interested in your wife with temptation out there?" Camenker professed to having come away relatively unscathed.

''I didn't think they treated me that badly," Camenker said. ''They treated me a lot better than I thought they would."

Camenker was the second political figure from Newton to serve as the butt of a Comedy Central pseudo-newscast over the past two weeks. But while Camenker said he could take the joke, US Representative Barney Frank was not amused.

Frank, the nation's first openly gay congressman, was featured on the Oct. 27 ''The Colbert Report," a recent spinoff of ''The Daily Show." Host Stephen Colbert, the network's answer to Bill O'Reilly of Fox TV, interviewed him for the second installment of a 435-part series called ''Better Know A District."

''To sum up," Colbert intoned, ''you're left-handed, you're Jewish. But there is something else about you. And this is sort of the elephant in the room that I'm not naming, but as a journalist I feel like I have to name it. Um, you're a little overweight."

Colbert then asked Frank if his weight bothered his wife.

''I can honestly say to you whether or not I lose weight is of no concern whatsoever to my wife," said Frank, who though known for his quick wit didn't crack a smile during the interview.

''I was disappointed," said Frank, who called the show ''sub-Three Stooges." ''It was silly. I like political humor, but I found this really strange. His basic interview technique was to pretend he didn't know things. That wouldn't be funny in junior high school."

Camenker and Frank both acknowledged not knowing what they were getting into when they went on the shows.

''I don't know why I did it," said Camenker, adding that he had earlier turned down the producers several times. ''They said, 'We promise we'll be fair with you.' So in a moment of weakness, I agreed to do it. If I had to do it over again, I'd be more into the comedy thing of it. I really didn't know. I figured I'd just be myself."

Camenker, a Newton resident and director of the Waltham-based Article 8 Alliance, is widely known for his strong positions and is often lampooned by the local and national media.

On last week's segment, correspondent Ed Helms asked whether the quality of life in Massachusetts was on the decline because of legalized gay marriage.

''Yeah," Camenker said.

Has homelessness gone up? Is crime on the rise? Is the air quality diminishing? Helms asked.

Camenker smiled as he saw where Helms was heading. ''I could probably, you know, find some way of connecting the dots to gay marriage -- to all of these if I had enough time and I did some research," Camenker said.

''Yeah, why take time to do the research when saying it is so much faster?" Helms responded.

At one point, Camenker said, ''gay activists use a lot of the PR tactics and propaganda tactics that the Nazis used."

''That comparison is a bit extreme, don't you think?" Helms deadpanned. ''I mean, what did the Nazis do that was so bad?"

Camenker said the crew filmed for about 3 1/2 hours in a hotel suite at the Hyatt Regency in Boston. For the first half, they filmed just Camenker's responses to Helms's questions. Then, they moved the camera and filmed Helms asking the questions -- this time, a little more embellished.

''They really could have made me a lot worse," Camenker said. ''When you have 3 1/2 hours' worth of stuff, you could really murder somebody."

Camenker's daughter, who is in college, saw the show while at a party with friends. ''She wasn't too happy," he said.

''I've heard from a lot of my relatives around the country," said Camenker, who has been on several national news shows and rarely gets feedback. ''It's amazing how many people watch this. Clergymen, people that I know."

Camenker said that while his argument against gay marriage may not have been convincing in the footage that was aired, he may have changed some hearts and minds among the ''25-year-olds from New York City who naturally are all pro gay marriage."

''They were moved by what I said about the subject," Camenker said. ''They didn't use 99 percent of my stuff. But the arguments I said, you could tell they were visibly moved, and that I was saying things they hadn't heard before."

Frank was less enthusiastic about his interview. ''I really regretted the waste of my time, but even more the waste of TV space," he said. ''Getting younger people to watch who are interested in the issues is important. What a waste to make them think it's all Silly Putty."

''The Daily Show" and ''The Colbert Report" have become prime sources of political commentary for the much-cherished 18- to 34-year-old demographic.

''Comedy shows, even those that play off hard news stories and public personalities, have a historical license to exaggerate, imitate, and satirize their subjects for purposes of scoring comedic points," said Robert Zelnick, chairman of the journalism department at Boston University. ''That is the essence of political humor."

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.