Ire Land

As a huge fan of The Daily Show I've seen John Stewart get in a lot of arguments with stupid guests.  During the entire 2006 season everybody with a book pandering to the conservative mindset of the country and the culture war/conservative revolution made a pass through TDS and it got to be a little trite. Since then there have been fewer and fewer of those interviews. But I have come to dislike the interviews when those arguments happen because John will make serious, thought-provoking arguments and the audience will jump in and applaud rather than let the guest respond. Basically, I think it kills the segment. (There is probably some effects from editing too.) The best argument John Stewart has gotten into by far happened NOT on his show but when he was on Crossfire with Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson and basically took them and the news media to task. There was an audience, but it wasn't involuntarily applauding when he made points, it responded to his jokes.

Come to last night's Stewart-Cramer faceoff and it went a little different than normal. First, they were talking about really complex financial stuff for some of the show and I don't think the audience knew when to respond. There was some, especially when John's tone of voice cued them to cheer but it was just not as much as maybe it should've been (not saying the audience is dumb, but...). Second, Cramer was very deferential and did not try and maintain a fight (very smart tactic) so the conversation was not as a tense as when jackasses who don't give a flip come on and just try to play the villain like a WWF bad guy (I'm old school so I don't care 'bout no WWE). Third, it was longer and necessarily so. There was SO much to talk about the normal 6.5-8 minutes wouldn't have cut it. So, the discussion was fuller and the parsing made it more comprehensive. Fourth, there were- at least on the internets- F-bombs that were not deleted. In all, I was bracing myself for the eye-rolling cheers from the audience and I was pleasantly surprised when they did not come to the level I was expecting.

Last night's interview was basically an extension of the "media not doing its job" theme of the Crossfire interview: what CNN et al. weren't doing for the public with regards to real information and discourse on our government and presidential candidates CNBC was not doing for financial instruments, corporations, and the financial system- GOOD REPORTING. I think Cramer was a little more forthright about his show ("Mad Money") being a work of entertainment than smug Carlson and vapid Begala were, to his credit. At the end, though, the level of catharsis that was provided by John going after Cramer about promoting certain financial instruments and stock etc. was more than offset by the fact that the problem is so much bigger than just him. The Daily Show is still on Comedy Central, CNBC is still going to do what it does, and major changes in our country's finances are not impending.

That is a serious review but it was a pretty serious episode. If you want a funny clip watch this:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

The Deer Hunter

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer