Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart brushes his hands off, "My work here is done." 

Or perhaps even he's become tired of his own schtick. 

Lord knows I sure have, decades ago.


This is Molly Shannon, center, as United States news consumer between Jon Stewart's fake news and Brian William's hopelessly slanted news in an endless body slam of disco news and current events dance. That at long last ends.

They are both anachronistic, Stewart and Williams are, not Molly, she's timeless.

They both remind me of the restaurant owners that Gordon Ramsay and Robert Irvine try so hard to save from themselves who cannot change out of sincere loyalty to long term customers who are insufficient to sustain the business in changing times that left them behind. They both serve generations that are not so important anymore as they were. Young people don't care about either of these two. They see right through the smug sanctimony that buys them nothing and leaves them holding the bag.

I did catch a bit of Jon Stewart yesterday. That was odd, to submit to that. Rachel Maddow was explaining. She was over-explaining, actually, walking us by the hand through Liberallandia, sounding as if choking on reading her jarring copy. Her copy was ordinary, but her reading of it is choppy and jarring. She is a terrible reader, and I mean terrible and exceedingly difficult to heed. I was trying to test my tolerance to see how long it would take before I was driven off when she tossed out an example of what makes Jon Stewart so great. She showed a Jon Stewart video. Goodness, the man is impossible to avoid.

In the clip Stewart was saying something on his own show ostensively serious but with the background titled, "Mess-o-potamia." Nothing slanted there, he says something obvious, sensible, levelheaded on the personal level with no application on the geopolitical level, behaved comically nonplussed, then mugged for the camera, the audience applauds.

Ugh.

Maddow herself acknowledges Stewart offers satire "fake" news then asserts we must acknowledge Stewart is the legitimate source of valid news for a lot of people. She plays it both ways in a single sentence. *click*

An audience!

So which was it all along, Pumpkin, fake or legitimate? You cannot have it both ways, but of course you do, and that is why Jon  Stewart was rejected by sensible people as anything other than comedian from the start.

We love biting cutting wry life and world observations presented dryly as satire such as comedians provide. We do appreciate news analyzed and viewed as if from above, but it is impossible to appreciate analysis so meta that we are no longer part of it, elevated aloof on one leg, and told where to applaud as trained seals at jokes, jabs, and japes aimed at flattering our own sanctimonious, moral, ethical, intellectual self-regard.

Finally, today a young man asked for my ID and I handed him my opened wallet. He took the information he needed from the driver's license then remarked on another card identifying the holder as FRB employee. Now all the people in the room know he is a big snoop and our private conversation is that public. He read a tiny logo on a card. I told him I no longer work, that they shifted my status. He flipped them (the imaginary FRB) the double bird on my behalf. He has large hands. They formed two large menacing middle finger birds that fired like repeating mortar fire. I told him I actually liked working there a lot. It always surprises me when young people say something deeply insightful, he said, "They should be abolished. It's just that I am against fiat currency." And I thought, "Now, here's an interesting young fellow who is fierce." By using the word "fiat" he is saying money is make believe. He is saying that he does not have faith in U.S. currency, that is, no faith in the political parties that manage the government that backs the currency. It does get down to trust, and young people I talk to don't have it. A single random anecdotal fellow today, I doubt he'd care the slightest about Williams, Stewart, or even Maddow for that matter. Nor do I.

18 comments:

Chip Ahoy said...

This anim had a lot more frames. I took them out to make is much shorter. It was a lot more digits than it is worth.

The thing is, by doing it I was forced to recall how truly funny all the principals are. Tremendously funny.

Credit where it is due, he's such a douchebag since, but Jim Carrey is funny in this thing. He is totally dedicated comedian inhabiting his comic character completely. But so is Molly and the two other SNL people. They all are. And the song they use is incredible. What is love? Don't hurt me, Don't hurt me. No more.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The few times I've caught Maddow it seemed as if she were about to burst into tears. Reading her properly written tortured progressive copy.

Chip Ahoy said...

I've been hitting the restaurants in my area.

There is one just a block away that advertises Mexican things in their window. The two times I looked they were closed. I stopped in again this morning after a long walk. It was nothing at all what I expected. It was a veritable food emporium.

To take back, I waned one breakfast burrito for myself, and four tacos for women in an office.

They brought me four tacos.

They cost $3.20 !

Something was wrong.

She misunderstood. I pointed to the special about the breakfast burrito. That was another $3.20 or something like that. Still very cheap. I had no idea you can still buy tacos that cheaply.

One woman is gluten free.

I DID NOT roll my eyes. I thought I saw a fruit fly.

So I got corn tortilla tacos.

See? Thoughtful towards peoples' made up bullshit because everybody's so doggone special. And going along with everyone's individual delicacy means you're thoughtful. She said I'm a rock star.

The breakfast burrito wasn't actually bad.

Oh!

I was standing there the whole time. She was a bit embarrassed by the misunderstanding, causing me to stand there double the amount of time, but it was not problem, I was enjoying myself. And everything is very Mexican. That means everything is nice and sweet and gracious.

As I was leaving a short man suddenly appeared beside me then in front of me. He looked like a miniature construction worker and was dressed as such. He used his superior mobility to maneuver and position himself just so, much as a sheepdog, to open the door for me. She instructed him in whispers to do that, to race around the counter and get in front of me, but neither spoke English. It was a sweet little touch to the whole transaction all in glances without words. And I still cannot believe how incredibly cheap it was, less than Taco Bell. I think.

The test would be a chile relleno.

Zocolo's around the corner has closed. They were completely no class but their food was better than this place, I think. I'm not sure about this new find. Their little impulse buy things at the counter were all the type children's dulces that you see in Mexican markets.

I love stuff like that.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

My fav moment with Jon.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

CNN had a lengthy panel discussion about both Jon Stewart and Brian Williams last night.

They brought up the idea of them trading jobs. They did not credit Drudge however.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Since the pro-democrat media is a production - they could change jobs.

AllenS said...

April beat me to it. Brian William's new show could be called Maybe It's True, Maybe Not. Jon Stewart's tv news could be called Nothing Changes.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I've found over the years that it's pretty easy to avoid people who I don't like and I really don't think I have any particularly special talent in that regard.

Trooper York said...

Chip you need to patronize this new restaurant everyday. Become a regular. Influence how they prepare and serve food.

You will not regret it.

ricpic said...

Molly Shannon has sex appeal. But it's not smack you in the face sex appeal. It's more like sneak up on you sex appeal.

Trooper York said...

Ricpic just likes those shiksa Catholic school girls in their little uniforms.

Trooper York said...

But so do I.

ricpic said...

She's got that skinny Irish girl thing going for her. ;^)

ricpic said...

There's meat on them bones but it's not...obvious.

Amartel said...

"The few times I've caught Maddow it seemed as if she were about to burst into tears."

April - she leans forward the better to water earthmother Gaia with her tears.

Molly Shannon is "Superstar."

Of course their jobs are interchangeable. Even panel o' progs can't tell the difference.
We are living in Idiocracy.

Narrative
Entertainment
Words
Show

Leland said...

I was over the schtick when Dennis Miller left the Weekend Update desk on SNL.

William said...

I'm not a Bill Maher fan, but he does put the opposing view on his show and, moreover, occasionally he lets them win the point. I never saw that on the Stewart show, although I don't watch him very much.....Jon Corzine, the former governor of NJ, was clocked doing 90 mph the very day he got out of the hospital for a near fatal crash that had occurred when he was speeding. Corzine was a former director of Goldman Sachs who started a hedge fund after leaving office. He misplaced several hundred million of his investors' dollars. If there's one NJ governor who deserves a little ridicule, it's Corzine. But his sins pass unnoticed because he's a Democrat......Christie deserves a certain amount of ridicule, but it's instructive to take note of whom the guard dogs don't bark at.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

William - good point.
If Democrat operatives in the fake news business had a moral compass and a sense of fairness - former NJ governor Jon Corzine(D), who should be in prison, would be mocked by the left. Indeed - it's crickets with Corzine-- all while Christie is under the microscope for nothing in comparison.

If that doesn't prove the media is 100% pure pro-democrat hack, I don't know what does.