Most political comedians would be thrilled if the mainstream media gave extra weight to their punch lines.
Not Jon Stewart, at least not when The Daily Show host is hammering President Barack Obama’s “signature,” “historic” health care reform.
Stewart has been unrelenting in his criticism of ObamaCare’s disastrous rollout, and he’s clearly reading stories in the press about how the president has “lost” his ol’ Comedy Central pal. So he took to his nightly faux news perch and addressed the matter.
Look, making fun of something, that’s nothing new for us, so don’t act like us making jokes about a certain program or president is evidence that that politician or issue has reached some kind of tipping point for action,” he explained on Thursday night’s Daily Show after a highlight reel of cable hosts suggesting that “losing Jon Stewart” or “even Jon Stewart” joking about something is significant….
“People, I am here to say that the jokes we do on this program seem to accomplish very little,” he said. “They do provide a little catharsis or perspective, but most of the stuff we complain about never changes. The point is don’t you use our jokes as evidence that the thing you hate must be stopped cause I’m sure when we joke about shit you like, you’re more than happy to agree.
Clown nose on.
Jokes matter, particularly in an age when an alarming number of young adults say they get their “news” from the likes of Stewart. Liberal comics do all they can to define and sustain narratives that are detrimental to the GOP, often working in unacknowledged lock-step with our biased press.
Why else would the vast majority of comedians decide not to mock President Barack Obama during his first term, reversing the standard role of political comedy?
Stewart wants to have it both ways, mocking conservatives with alacrity and privately hoping his gags get Facebooked and Tweeted for all the world to see. Then, he’s speaking truth to power. Now that the bumbling Obama administration simply cannot be ignored by the humor community, he’s angry that the press is starting to take notice that the joke is on their preferred politician.