Jon Stewart – Arrogance with a Punchline

Today, we go from one rather well known elitist to another. We move from The Child, His Royal Highness, The Benevolent Barack H. Obama to the decidedly non-venerable Jon Stewart – host of the comedy program The Daily Show. He’s making waves with his on air bashing of a CNBC host – Jim Cramer. And here are the moving pictures.

It’s interesting… I enjoy Stewart’s compatriot Steven Colbert quite a bit. That is to say, I probably couldn’t make a habbit of viewing his program, but I am able to giggle and even guffaw at the man and his wit. This, in spite of disagreeing with the liberal ideology he’s clearly advocating with his satire. *Interrupting item – Colbert notably took a break from chewing on Republicans to back the campaign of Mike Huckabee last year. Coincidence?! I’m smiling right now as I’m imaging you putting this all together.* Colbert is often playful – you look at the man’s face and you realize this is a joke for him. A grand joke earning him millions! The very best kind really.

But Stewart has always been another matter. Disdain and angst mark his visage and presentation. His tone is always in the ‘I’m taking down to you’ realm. In the case of Kramer, this is a man who is investing his life in the field of finance being browbeaten by a man whose job is to make people laugh. And the insinuation isn’t that Stewart is dumb – he’s not. But he is sure as beans not an economic expert. He’s simply leaping on the man’s mistakes, and setting himself up as a sort of all-knowing agent of the people. Here, take another gander.

This appearance was hailed by many (just check out the message board on the video) as a sort of triumph of truth, justice and the American Way. What bothers me about this guy is two-fold. First, his word view is bunk. He’s more liberal than most of our leftist friends – being self described as having a thing for Communist wunderkind Eugene V. Debbs. This is troublesome for anybody!

But the real source of irritation for me is that he marries this intellectual toxicity to a personality of humor. This sets the bloke up as a harmless jokester, and – when deployed with his wit – has garnered him a big audience. Now, people our age watch Stewart to laugh and in the experience they gain their political worldview. Wowser.