I am glad you mentioned the opioid epidemic which was a hidden white person disease. Who knew you could go to your doctor, get meds that really fuck you up and keep that bimonthly doctor appointment to get an increase in the drug dosage without despair. Thank you to the greedy Sackler family for pushing OxyContin like candy. Also a big shout out to the mother fucker, Rudy Gulliani, who became their attorney and fought like hell to keep the drug addiction going so everyone could make a buck.
To me Stewart is like a baseball player who made a very bad decision to unretire. Now he's making one error after another and helpless at the plate, and all his former fans are wincing.
Of course Jon Stewart turned himself into a pretzel trying to defend the racist hack Hinchliffe, while attempting to both sides the situation by suggesting it was just like Beyonce. Stewart is a washed up hack himself, who can keep Beyonce's name out of his disgusting mouth. His boring mugging and giggling while he desperately tries to make RepubliKKKans and Democrats equivalent got old 15 years ago. I didn't know Stewart had a show, but if I did I could have predicted he would come out to defend a racist hack.
excellent analysis, you've insightfully undone "can't take a joke" defense. It wasn't a roast, you roast someone you actually respect and admire, that's why it's funny. There was no respect for Puerto Rico in Hinchcliffe's "roast".
As someone else pointed out somewhere, he only made fun of people NOT in the room. He very pointedly only made fun of "the other," not one single joke about anyone in the room, or even "white men." White men then went forth and instructed Puerto Ricans, Blacks, women, Jews, and Latinos to "get over it" and "stop being so sensitive about every little thing." Interestingly, when someone (Biden) made a joke about THEM being garbage, it turns out that they aren't quite so quick to "get over it" or "stop being so sensitive about every little thing." That's not humor.
It's bullying. And shame on Stewart for enabling it. There's nothing funny about being a nasty racist asshole.
Yeah, he's been extremely bothsidery for quite some time now. And I will never forgive him for mocking & demonizing Hillary in 2015/2016. He could have helped then. He chose not to.
The current comedy zeitgeist is very bizarre right now.
The general consensus seems to be that comedy has to offensive for it to be good (offend the left in particular). You haven’t arrived until you’ve been canceled. And if the audience doesn’t find it funny it’s because they have no sense of humor.
I must have missed the memo where Comics get to tell the audience what’s funny and what isn’t. I have been to a few comedy clubs and this is not how it works.
Club owner: Sorry, but you’re just not funny. No more gigs for you.
Comic: But it wasn’t my fault. The audience just doesn’t have a sense of humor!
Club owner: Oh ok. Next time we’ll screen the audience better…*spoiler* there is no next time.
"Blake Masters also lost the 2022 Arizona Senate race against incumbent Mark Kelly."
Well that was mostly due to Masters looking and acting like a serial killer straight out of "Dexter" , but I think this is a telling (and hopeful) trend. Nobody looks to be the successor to Trump in MAGAworld.
When he shuffles off to the graybar hotel, (or off this mortal coil) his kind of in-your-face Monster from the Id style of politics might be toxic again.
Again, Stewart has always been problematic. Perhaps his saving grace, and that’s a big maybe dependent on the beholding eyes, is that he also makes fun of himself.
That other asshole, the one who always punches down, is he too stupid to understand the assignment.... or maybe he did? What’s the secret, Mike? Deport Puerto Ricans before Tuesday?
If I were a gambler, I would bet way more than half the attendees at the MSG Nazi rally don't know Puerto Ricans are American citizens. I don't think Hinchliffe knows.
I watched the video of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog interviewing the cultists as they waited in line at MSG. It was pretty funny. But the worst part was how many of the morons in the crowd made sure to get in camera range to do their stupid little white power hand signal. They are all garbage (that's just a roast joke, and even though it isn't funny, they should get over it).
Stewart will poke fun at himself. But he won’t accept criticism from the left.
The day after his first night back when he equivocated all of Trump’s baggage with Biden’s age he basically doubled down and scolded the left for burying our head in the sand over Biden’s age.
What he failed to acknowledge is that we weren’t ignoring Biden’s age.
It’s that we thought sending a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, who was also indicted for stealing classified documents and sending fake electors to overturn an election he lost was a much bigger concern than Biden’s birthday candles.
In hindsight, though, Jon Stewart was correct. Biden’s age was a big factor, for many people, for many reasons. We’re much better off with Harris as the candidate.
I wouldn't say "always" -- one of the reasons I continued watching Stewart for years was seeing him take apart Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala and expose them for the bigoted charlatans they were. It wasn't to score points -- he showed exactly why their arguments in favor of conservatism were flawed. It was a masterclass in classic argument.
That's why I used to watch William F Buckley Jr/Firing Line now and then -- I didn't buy a thing he said, but he was also talented when it came to constructing a logical argument. It's not a common skill, and I admire it when I see it.
And then there was the fact that Stewart was taking apart idiots like Tucker Carlson. This was during the Bush administration -- it was fine with me, and I enjoyed watching it. The precision brutality of the takedown on Crossfire was well-earned. Cucker was a pig even back then, and it needed to be called out.
I think part of what I'm not so happy with now is that he seems to be trying harder at non-partisan criticism/commentary. The timing is off -- you can look at the other side; you need to -- but where we are right now, if you present that side as anything less than dangerous, you are more likely to end up expressing your opinions from a concentration camp, especially as a Jewish (semi-)liberal. My guess is that the show he was doing for a while, examining various issues ("The Problem") affected the way he looked at the world and changed his approach to issues. Not a bad thing, just not what we need right now.
I used to love watching Crossfire, when Michael Kinsley would regularly eviscerate crabby old dinosaurs like Robert Novak. Jon Stewart’s pantsing of Tucker Carlson live was a wonderful thing to behold, and for the record, I have always loved Jon Stewart and am still quite fond of him, even as he himself slides into crabby dinosaur territory.
I do feel always, because there has been a soupçon of sexism from the very beginning. He works past it sometimes, but I’m on guard when watching him, waiting to be disappointed
I don't like Stewart much, and I really do not like Bill Maher. Comedy is one of the factors that has undermined democracy. When I used to watch late night talk shows, the hosts often "joked" about how all politicians are corrupt. I remember shouting at Jay Leno on the TV: my representative in Congress at the time was Henry Waxman, who was so honest that he paid for his meal at environmental awards events where he was the guest of honor. Who is speaking up and highlighting all the good things that government does? Why don't we understand that we, the voters, can remove a member of Congress every two years? Comedy does not enhance democracy, as the disgusting display at MSG illustrated.
I would hazard that Stewart doesn't recognize the privilege he has and the comment doesn't hit him the same way it would hit the American celebrities of Puerto Rican descend who were angered who have probably had to deal with this second-class citizen shit their entire lives.
Unrecognized privilege is rampant among white men (NO NOT ALL WHITE MEN), including liberal guys. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s the goldfish bowl they’ve all always swum in, until it’s pointed out to them that they’re in a fishbowl, and then maybe they figure out what that means and attitude-adjust a smidgen accordingly. Seems to be a tough thing for far too many to internalize.
'Hinchliffe notably didn’t “roast” or even mildly singe Trump himself or JD Vance or Elon Musk.'
Yup, Don Rickles would roast *everyone*, including himself. That's what an insult comic does, Jon Stewart.
Hinchliffe is that high school asshole on the bus who says horribly offensive things about decent people to get his buddies to snicker and sucks up to the bully leader of the group.
"Hinchliffe is that high school asshole on the bus who says horribly offensive things about decent people to get his buddies to snicker and sucks up to the bully leader of the group."
Absolutely true, and then he whines about how "you just can't take a joke!" when decent people push back and rightly reveal their disgust. It's one of my least favorite, and also the least legitimate, reactions to people calling out offensive jokes. It's not our fault you're a shit comedian that isn't funny and a shit human being. Don't put that stupid bullshit on us.
Stewart did himself no favors trying to justify this supposed comedian’s supposed joke.
Humor is difficult but it still stands that if your crowd ain’t laughing then you did it wrong. If only two people found it funny, then it’s too obscure and it’s not funny.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't hear Stewart as making a sincere, substantive defense of Hinchcliffe's content or humor value, but more a dismissal of Hinchcliffe as *just a comedian,* doing what he does - just as the Daily Show, with and without Stewart, has frequently dismissed itself.
In other words, if you invite Tony Hinchcliffe to your event, you should know this is what you'll get, and that reflects more on you than him. And, the substance of the event that *should* be concerning is in Trump's own language, and that of the actual policy advisors, like Stephen Miller.
I don't really agree with even this angle from Stewart, if this is what it was, but I find it hard to believe that he *really* found the act funny.
If you watch the clip, Stewart does that annoying mugging and giggling and says, “There’s something wrong with me. I find that guy very funny, so I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you." Stewart then goes on to compare Hinchliffe's speech to Beyonce's speech at the Harris rally in Houston. Stewart can fuck off with his both sides bullshit, then keep fucking off ad infinitum.
You are correct in stating that Tony Hinchliffe did exactly what was expected of him as an opening act for a Nazi rally. He is a racist, bigoted, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic asshole. I would not be surprised to find out he is also a Russian asset.
Yes, I saw it. I do think Stewart is off base; I don’t think “it’s just a joke” is some kind of blanket defense.
I just can’t quite believe, despite what he says there, that JS actually, sincerely finds that guy funny. I’ve never seen Stewart tell a joke that was either as simple-minded, or as nasty as that.
I am glad you mentioned the opioid epidemic which was a hidden white person disease. Who knew you could go to your doctor, get meds that really fuck you up and keep that bimonthly doctor appointment to get an increase in the drug dosage without despair. Thank you to the greedy Sackler family for pushing OxyContin like candy. Also a big shout out to the mother fucker, Rudy Gulliani, who became their attorney and fought like hell to keep the drug addiction going so everyone could make a buck.
To me Stewart is like a baseball player who made a very bad decision to unretire. Now he's making one error after another and helpless at the plate, and all his former fans are wincing.
Of course Jon Stewart turned himself into a pretzel trying to defend the racist hack Hinchliffe, while attempting to both sides the situation by suggesting it was just like Beyonce. Stewart is a washed up hack himself, who can keep Beyonce's name out of his disgusting mouth. His boring mugging and giggling while he desperately tries to make RepubliKKKans and Democrats equivalent got old 15 years ago. I didn't know Stewart had a show, but if I did I could have predicted he would come out to defend a racist hack.
Benny Hill scared me to my core when I was a young girl and makes me queasy to think about to this day.
excellent analysis, you've insightfully undone "can't take a joke" defense. It wasn't a roast, you roast someone you actually respect and admire, that's why it's funny. There was no respect for Puerto Rico in Hinchcliffe's "roast".
As someone else pointed out somewhere, he only made fun of people NOT in the room. He very pointedly only made fun of "the other," not one single joke about anyone in the room, or even "white men." White men then went forth and instructed Puerto Ricans, Blacks, women, Jews, and Latinos to "get over it" and "stop being so sensitive about every little thing." Interestingly, when someone (Biden) made a joke about THEM being garbage, it turns out that they aren't quite so quick to "get over it" or "stop being so sensitive about every little thing." That's not humor.
It's bullying. And shame on Stewart for enabling it. There's nothing funny about being a nasty racist asshole.
Stewart can absolutely fuck off.
Yeah, he's been extremely bothsidery for quite some time now. And I will never forgive him for mocking & demonizing Hillary in 2015/2016. He could have helped then. He chose not to.
I didn’t realize that - fuck him even more then.
The current comedy zeitgeist is very bizarre right now.
The general consensus seems to be that comedy has to offensive for it to be good (offend the left in particular). You haven’t arrived until you’ve been canceled. And if the audience doesn’t find it funny it’s because they have no sense of humor.
I must have missed the memo where Comics get to tell the audience what’s funny and what isn’t. I have been to a few comedy clubs and this is not how it works.
Club owner: Sorry, but you’re just not funny. No more gigs for you.
Comic: But it wasn’t my fault. The audience just doesn’t have a sense of humor!
Club owner: Oh ok. Next time we’ll screen the audience better…*spoiler* there is no next time.
I dunno that this is new, exactly. Just seems like the current version off "you people are so sensitive/can't take a joke."
"Blake Masters also lost the 2022 Arizona Senate race against incumbent Mark Kelly."
Well that was mostly due to Masters looking and acting like a serial killer straight out of "Dexter" , but I think this is a telling (and hopeful) trend. Nobody looks to be the successor to Trump in MAGAworld.
When he shuffles off to the graybar hotel, (or off this mortal coil) his kind of in-your-face Monster from the Id style of politics might be toxic again.
Yes, I should've noted that. However, Trump is also incredibly weird. The guy wears bronzer and has a Tribble on his head!
Again, Stewart has always been problematic. Perhaps his saving grace, and that’s a big maybe dependent on the beholding eyes, is that he also makes fun of himself.
That other asshole, the one who always punches down, is he too stupid to understand the assignment.... or maybe he did? What’s the secret, Mike? Deport Puerto Ricans before Tuesday?
If I were a gambler, I would bet way more than half the attendees at the MSG Nazi rally don't know Puerto Ricans are American citizens. I don't think Hinchliffe knows.
I watched the video of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog interviewing the cultists as they waited in line at MSG. It was pretty funny. But the worst part was how many of the morons in the crowd made sure to get in camera range to do their stupid little white power hand signal. They are all garbage (that's just a roast joke, and even though it isn't funny, they should get over it).
Stewart will poke fun at himself. But he won’t accept criticism from the left.
The day after his first night back when he equivocated all of Trump’s baggage with Biden’s age he basically doubled down and scolded the left for burying our head in the sand over Biden’s age.
What he failed to acknowledge is that we weren’t ignoring Biden’s age.
It’s that we thought sending a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, who was also indicted for stealing classified documents and sending fake electors to overturn an election he lost was a much bigger concern than Biden’s birthday candles.
In hindsight, though, Jon Stewart was correct. Biden’s age was a big factor, for many people, for many reasons. We’re much better off with Harris as the candidate.
I wouldn't say "always" -- one of the reasons I continued watching Stewart for years was seeing him take apart Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala and expose them for the bigoted charlatans they were. It wasn't to score points -- he showed exactly why their arguments in favor of conservatism were flawed. It was a masterclass in classic argument.
That's why I used to watch William F Buckley Jr/Firing Line now and then -- I didn't buy a thing he said, but he was also talented when it came to constructing a logical argument. It's not a common skill, and I admire it when I see it.
And then there was the fact that Stewart was taking apart idiots like Tucker Carlson. This was during the Bush administration -- it was fine with me, and I enjoyed watching it. The precision brutality of the takedown on Crossfire was well-earned. Cucker was a pig even back then, and it needed to be called out.
I think part of what I'm not so happy with now is that he seems to be trying harder at non-partisan criticism/commentary. The timing is off -- you can look at the other side; you need to -- but where we are right now, if you present that side as anything less than dangerous, you are more likely to end up expressing your opinions from a concentration camp, especially as a Jewish (semi-)liberal. My guess is that the show he was doing for a while, examining various issues ("The Problem") affected the way he looked at the world and changed his approach to issues. Not a bad thing, just not what we need right now.
I used to love watching Crossfire, when Michael Kinsley would regularly eviscerate crabby old dinosaurs like Robert Novak. Jon Stewart’s pantsing of Tucker Carlson live was a wonderful thing to behold, and for the record, I have always loved Jon Stewart and am still quite fond of him, even as he himself slides into crabby dinosaur territory.
I do feel always, because there has been a soupçon of sexism from the very beginning. He works past it sometimes, but I’m on guard when watching him, waiting to be disappointed
I don't like Stewart much, and I really do not like Bill Maher. Comedy is one of the factors that has undermined democracy. When I used to watch late night talk shows, the hosts often "joked" about how all politicians are corrupt. I remember shouting at Jay Leno on the TV: my representative in Congress at the time was Henry Waxman, who was so honest that he paid for his meal at environmental awards events where he was the guest of honor. Who is speaking up and highlighting all the good things that government does? Why don't we understand that we, the voters, can remove a member of Congress every two years? Comedy does not enhance democracy, as the disgusting display at MSG illustrated.
I would hazard that Stewart doesn't recognize the privilege he has and the comment doesn't hit him the same way it would hit the American celebrities of Puerto Rican descend who were angered who have probably had to deal with this second-class citizen shit their entire lives.
Unrecognized privilege is rampant among white men (NO NOT ALL WHITE MEN), including liberal guys. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s the goldfish bowl they’ve all always swum in, until it’s pointed out to them that they’re in a fishbowl, and then maybe they figure out what that means and attitude-adjust a smidgen accordingly. Seems to be a tough thing for far too many to internalize.
'Hinchliffe notably didn’t “roast” or even mildly singe Trump himself or JD Vance or Elon Musk.'
Yup, Don Rickles would roast *everyone*, including himself. That's what an insult comic does, Jon Stewart.
Hinchliffe is that high school asshole on the bus who says horribly offensive things about decent people to get his buddies to snicker and sucks up to the bully leader of the group.
"Hinchliffe is that high school asshole on the bus who says horribly offensive things about decent people to get his buddies to snicker and sucks up to the bully leader of the group."
Absolutely true, and then he whines about how "you just can't take a joke!" when decent people push back and rightly reveal their disgust. It's one of my least favorite, and also the least legitimate, reactions to people calling out offensive jokes. It's not our fault you're a shit comedian that isn't funny and a shit human being. Don't put that stupid bullshit on us.
Perfect!
'Lake is a Vaseline-complexioned woman'
Soft focus for a hard-edged nutbar
Stewart did himself no favors trying to justify this supposed comedian’s supposed joke.
Humor is difficult but it still stands that if your crowd ain’t laughing then you did it wrong. If only two people found it funny, then it’s too obscure and it’s not funny.
It was trash. Pure and simple.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't hear Stewart as making a sincere, substantive defense of Hinchcliffe's content or humor value, but more a dismissal of Hinchcliffe as *just a comedian,* doing what he does - just as the Daily Show, with and without Stewart, has frequently dismissed itself.
In other words, if you invite Tony Hinchcliffe to your event, you should know this is what you'll get, and that reflects more on you than him. And, the substance of the event that *should* be concerning is in Trump's own language, and that of the actual policy advisors, like Stephen Miller.
I don't really agree with even this angle from Stewart, if this is what it was, but I find it hard to believe that he *really* found the act funny.
If you watch the clip, Stewart does that annoying mugging and giggling and says, “There’s something wrong with me. I find that guy very funny, so I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you." Stewart then goes on to compare Hinchliffe's speech to Beyonce's speech at the Harris rally in Houston. Stewart can fuck off with his both sides bullshit, then keep fucking off ad infinitum.
You are correct in stating that Tony Hinchliffe did exactly what was expected of him as an opening act for a Nazi rally. He is a racist, bigoted, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic asshole. I would not be surprised to find out he is also a Russian asset.
Yes, I saw it. I do think Stewart is off base; I don’t think “it’s just a joke” is some kind of blanket defense.
I just can’t quite believe, despite what he says there, that JS actually, sincerely finds that guy funny. I’ve never seen Stewart tell a joke that was either as simple-minded, or as nasty as that.
Yakety Sax fucking rips, dude. That's as close to objectively funny as something gets.