Last Summer Jon Stewart of Daily Show fame appeared on CNN’s Crossfire. He spent most of the show slamming the hosts for failing to contribute to a legitimate discourse on politics and finished by calling Tucker Carlson a dick.
To be fair, Carlson deserved it. What kind of tool wears a bowtie at the age of 30? At least now we know what Orville Redenbacher looked like in his formative years.
The crossfire boys responded to Stewart’s criticism by claiming that his coverage of news stories was biased and incomplete.
Is this a legitimate critique? Can a comedy show be considered news?
While on Crossfire, Stewart cited his own lack of journalistic integrity, explaining that his show cannot be held to the same standards as real news. Yet in 2004, the Columbia Journalism Review created a list of 20 reporters who consistently provided insightful coverage of the ’04 election. Jon Stewart was number four on the list for his work at The Daily Show coming in ahead of many writers for The New York Times, The Washington Post and other respected periodicals.
Does this mean The Daily Show can provide us with all the news we need?
Maybe not, but its certainly a good source for sound bites of George Bush mispronouncing the names of Eastern European countries and following up with his trademark weasel laugh – “Hehehehe.”
The real question is what role comedy plays in the world. “I see myself as a driving force for global peace”We’re bringing healing to the international community,” claims Stewart.
I would have been inclined to agree with him until the Muslim world decided to burn every Danish embassy they can find over a cartoon.
They have even boycotted products from Denmark.
How will the Middle East survive without cheese Danishes and butter cookies?
So Muslims don’t think a depiction of their prophet carrying a bomb in his turban is funny, eh? We’ll try again.
In fact, our government has a decided interest in figuring out what makes the Muslim world laugh.
They recently commissioned comedian Albert Brooks to travel to Pakistan and compile a 500 page report detailing what Muslims find funny, a trip that Brooks turned into a new documentary, “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World” (2005).
Apparently they don’t find the accommodations at Abu Ghraib very funny.
Look for Donald Rumsfeld’s new strategy to win the Iraq war: A stand-up comedy club in every Baghdad neighborhood.
After witnessing the Muslim reaction to some cartoons, we are forced to ask the question: Is comedy a threat to world peace?
Comedy is funny because it’s true, and the truth is threatening to those whose power derives from misdirection and deception.
Just as Jon Stewart has the power to open our eyes to the embarrassment that is the current administration and its pointless Iraq war, so too does a cartoon of Mohammed telling suicide bombers “We’re out of virgins” possess the power to shake people out of ignorance.
After all, the recent outbreak of protests might be viewed with more legitimacy if the Muslim world got this upset about beheadings, kidnappings, honor killings, suicide bombings, treatment of women”
As the Islamic dissident Ibn Warraq recently put it, “a democracy cannot survive long without freedom of expression, the freedom to argue, to dissent, even to insult and offend.”
This notion should not be limited to our interaction with the Muslim world, but also to the way we examine ourselves.
Comedy, although sometimes offensive and tasteless enough to make us want to crawl into our cave of ignorant bliss, can also provide the ground on which to look critically at our selves and laugh about our differences.
It is high time we all embraced comedy as the path to true enlightenment.
Send comments to Jon at [email protected].
