Put yourself in Jon Stewart's seat last night. You're a political/news satirist, you have normal human emotions and promote rational discourse, you know you must acknowledge the Tucson shooting, but you also have to make people laugh. What do you do?
I don't know what you would do, but Jon Stewart delivered the most genuine, rational -- actually rational! -- monologue that left me, and I imagine many others, sitting at the edge of the couch.
Here's an edited snippet, and the video, which would serve you well to watch, is below.
As I watched the political pundit world, many are reflecting and grieving and trying to figure things out, but it's definitely true that others are working feverishly to find the tid-bit or two that will exonerate their side from blame or implicate the other, and watching that is as predictible, I think as it is dispiriting... Did the toxic political enviornment cause this?... I have no ******* idea... You cannot outsmart crazy. You don't know what a troubled mind will get caught on.
Which is not to suggest that resistance is futile... and I do think it's important for us to watch our rhetoric. I do think it's a worthwhile goal not to conflate our political opponents with enemies of for no other reason than to draw a better distinction between manifestos of paranoid madmen and what passes for acceptable political and pundit speak. It would be really nice if the ramblings of crazy people didn't in any way resemble how we actually talk to each other on TV... Let us hope we never become numb to what real horror or to what the real blood of patriots looks like when it's spilled.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Arizona Shootings Reaction | ||||
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And then, the dilemma:
How will we process this tonight? Absolutely no idea. We'll come back, I'll show field piece about something incredibly stupid and silly...
We're going to show you a field piece about old people having sex, and if this doesn't distract you, I don't believe anything will.Then came the clip about old people having sex in the place where old people arguably have the most sex: That's right, SOUTH FLORIDA. Bowchickawowwow. Just like that, Jon Stewart does what Jon Stewart does best and gives a nod to our neighborhood -- the nexus of the universe when it comes to outrageous rhetoric, bombastic politics, and loss of inhibitions by both old and young -- well, we have to cope somehow.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Dirty Bird Special | ||||
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