The Problem With Jon Stewart - How painfully, cringingly super-woke must a comedian get to stay relevant?

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

The world where he was the only "political commentary" game in town is long over.

No kidding.

I used to watch The Daily Show BITD because it was the best of my three late night options when I didn't have cable.

 

[MirrorNoir]

I think John Stewart actually believed his own bullshit. Because he was in the echo chamber of Hollywood. Surely actors and comedians would be able to fix everything if they were just given the controls.

I'm reminded of the interview he had with Rachel Maddow at one point during the Daily Shows run. Where he was actually visibly taken-aback at one point, because I think he realized she was "My Team the Democrats must destroy the GOP no matter what", instead of coming to a compromise. When Obama got in, he saw in real time, the audience turn against him when tried to criticize the new government. I think that's why he quit. Even though he lambasted Crossfire, he himself had become a similar tool for the Democrats.

That's not why he quit.

I've mentioned this before: Stewart wanted to do other shit besides the Daily Show and convinced CC to let John Oliver (who's contract was about up) fill in for him for the summer while he directed a film (he had done this in the 00s, taking time off to film a movie and having Colbert fill in for him and it going over so well that Colbert got his spin-off).

This time around, however, things took a dark turn. Oliver's run as host got Warner Brothers/HBO to basically poach him from the Daily Show to create Last Week Tonight for rival HBO. CC was furious and when Stewart came back, he was told that he would not be allowed to take another hiatus ever again because they didn't want to deal with his fill-in being poached; especially since Samantha Bee (the last remaining Daily Show Correspondent that people cared about or had a following of any kind as everyone after Rob Riggle was a huge flop) was super pissed John didn't ask her to fill in for him and was openly shopping around her own bootleg Daily Show for when her contract expired.

Stewart's response to this was to call CC's bluff and basically tell them he wouldn't sign a new contract if he couldn't take hiatuses to direct (especially after the film he directed got good reviews). Hence him walking away.

 

[Poppy Brown]

I was listening to Alex O’Connor and Michael Knowles' debate the other day. I’ve never watched much of either of them before and was pretty impressed by both. Both were respectful, seemed to really listen to each other's points, and gave thoughtful responses. Knowles occasionally would interrupt to sperg out about God and the founding fathers, but it was minimal and seemed more because he’s excited to talk about subjects he’s passionate about rather than out of disrespect. I enjoyed it.

Anyway, what does this have to do with Jon Stewart? Well, it got me thinking of the current state of political commentary and discourse. Why has it devolved into nothing more than both sides trying to own the other so their video goes viral? So much so that when two adult men are just being civil with each other during a debate it's so fucking refreshing? Well, I think the problem started with Stewart.

While I'm sure political commentary probably has always been polarized and sensational to some degree, it was Jon Stewart and The Daily Show that really popularized “owning” the other side for ratings/views. From what I can recall he would invite conservatives on simply to mock them and show how inherently stupid and/or evil they were. He was civil enough so they would come on his show, but there was never an honest attempt to understand their point of view or reach a compromise. "Can you believe how dumb these guys are?" was always looming in the air. This popularized the notion that conservative ideals were not even worth genuine consideration. This allowed him and his audience to feel intelligently superior without having to do anything meaningful, but more importantly, it helped push the left further left, leading the way to the woke mania we see today.

Now of course, in response to this, the right did what it always does -- abandoned its principles and adopted leftist strategies for their own. Now the right gets a hit of dopamine and a feeling of intellectual and moral superiority watching a woke college student have a meltdown trying to explain what a woman is, despite not doing anything meaningful themselves. It's only fair. For this reason though, I actually see Ben Shapiro as Jon Stewart’s true successor, not Noah Trevor or Jon Oliver. It was Shapiro who took Stewart’s model of owning the other side and brought it into the social media age. He just did it for the right. Stewart will no doubt say Shaprio is still worse, because Stewart was "just a comedian", but really how different are they? Make your Jew joke here.

Now I definitely don't think Stewart is fully to blame for all of this, but he was a major player and imo an overall net negative for American culture and politics. I still almost feel bad for him because despite him being a major tool used to promote woke ideology, the monsters he helped create have either turned on him (he's not woke enough!) or forgotten about him altogether.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

Stewart will no doubt say Shaprio is still worse, because Stewart was "just a comedian", but really how different are they? Make your Jew joke here.

Shapiro is better at being a Jew. An Uberjuden, you might say. Stewart is an UnterJuden.

 

[TVB]

Shapiro is better at being a Jew. An Uberjuden, you might say. Stewart is an UnterJuden.

It's just two jews throwing rocks at each other

 

[Huh what?]

He's a giant hack, but I have to give credit where credit's due- he roasted the fuck out of Chicago here.