Looks like Jon Stewart did a great job. I'm not as high on him and his show as the lefties are, but I think that he has consistently great stuff on his show. I only watched the last half of the oscars, but reports that Stewart bombed include some jokes that I think are extremely funny, and the non-response of the audience exposes once again that they're a humorlous bunch. Letterman I think is a comic god, and I very much like Chis Rock. Rock's man-on-the-street interview at the last Oscars showing that no black people watch the nominated films was great. But holliwood can't laugh at itself, and he flopped. They will need to bring back that horrible Billy Crystal.
Great Stewart jokes that reportedly got no laughs:
1. Pointing at the rich audience: "You dvd burning theives, these are the people you are stealing from."
2. After a commercial break: "... and that's why I think that Scientology is right of you, and for America."
3. The Oscars are a chance to "see all your favorite stars without having to donate any money to the Democratic party."
I have new respect for Stewart. Perhaps Nadir would object to him if in response the audience errupted into a murdering, arsoning mob.
2006-03-06
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6 comments:
Nadir: Are you aware that Southpark used to depict Mohammad years ago?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11686493/
Was that OK since hordes of lunatics didn't launch into bipolar rages in response?
What does SouthPark have to do with Jon Stewart?
I was playing at a Drive Out Bush benefit in Chicago last night so I missed the Oscars. My biggest disappointment about not seeing the broadcast was missing Stewart. I agree that those jokes are funny.
The Oscars producers should stop bringing in New York comics. They haven't had hosts that they really enjoyed since Crystal and before that Carson. Maybe they should hire Steve Martin or some other Hollywood big shot. The NYC humor is too intelligent and/or raw for them.
Wish I could have seen Three Six Mafia...
Nadir: I agree with you. I was thinking the same thing about NYC comics with no long-standing, ingrained hollywood connection. I was hoping that Stewart would bomb because I sense that he gets more admiration than he desearves, with 17% of the laughter that he draws coming not from the genius of his comedy, but because his audience will laugh at any lampoon of the right. Also, about 13.3% of his jokes fall flat with me, as they presume a reality that I believe does not exist (ie, flattening the tax structure = tax cuts for the rich = increased hardships for the poor).
A joke premised on that falls flat with me, and it irritates me that the audience accepts this as an obvious universal truth, though I know from my years believing such that the vast majority of people who believe this started believing it before they ever studied economics, and have never questioned it. Somewhewre between 10 and 20% of his jokes fall into this catagory for me. And I believe that he doesn't thoroughly scrutinize the left as he does the right.
So on the Oscars I wasn't expecting him to take dead aim at the hollywooders. I was dead wrong. The only evidence I have is the report of those three jokes, which I heartily endorse, and reports that the audience didn't laugh. I would really like to watch his performance now. Sometimes the audience *IS* the problem!
You should watch the Daily Show more often. Stewart doesn't lampoon the right. 40% of the laughter he draws is from playing video of the right. He exposes the hilarity of their own statements.
The funniest thing about this is that some people actually support those right-wing bozos! Those people are the real clowns!
And Stewart does hit the left from time to time. He was moderately critical of Kerry's campaign and rightly so. Kerry was an idiot who didn't really try to win.
Nadir: Most of the right videos that his audience is laughping it is not absolutely funny, but rather funny relative only to people with a leftist view. Showing Al Franken earnestly call for repealing Bush's tax cuts as a way to shrink the federal deficit is just as funny... but only to people who subscribe to supply-side economics. That's why the Daily Show annoys me too much to watch it regularly. Which is fine with me: the leftists have a comedy show.
Maybe I should watch it more. Much of the stuff I find to ring very true, and they do hit the leftists a good deal of the time. But I don't expect Stewart to mine any comedy from, say, permitting school vouchers for universities (Pell grants and GSLs) but not for K-12. Or the actual vs. hypothetical fate of a person earning less than minumum wage if the minimum wage increases.
If fault Bill Mahr for the same thing, but he has advocates from the other side to debate him, and he seems less skewed towards the left than Stewart. Perhaps this is why I watch a higher fraction of Mahr's shows.
Based on the Oscar performance, I will certainly give Stewart a second chance.
What does Stewart have to do with South Park? Stewart made fun of the Academy members. They objected, but they didn't erupt into a homicidal, arsonistic rampage. South Park made fun of Mohammad a few years ago, using a cartoon of Mohammad. Nobody complained. Now thousands of people are stampeding the earth killing people, issuing murder-for-hire contracts, and committing arson in retaliation against Mohammad cartoons. And you want those maurauders apeased. But you don't want the "offende" Academy members appeased... unless, according to your logic, they start arsoning and killing.
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