Friday, July 15, 2005

WW Hearts JS Mega Fanboy Posting

Well come on, there can be no other way to put it. It may have become trite to wander the streets and coffee houses babbling on as if you were a top notch in-the-know-media critic about how Jon Stewart and the Daily Show has saved tv journalism and how comedy is the new investigative reporting blah blah blah. As I'm sure Listmaker will sniff, "when those beyond the Hudson are comfortable talking about a show, the show has obviously crossed over into cliche" (I kid because I love, Listo) and I'll admit that what was once a semi-secret pleasure is now part of the zeitgeist. Luckily, I've always been able to resist the siren call of desire to damn the good stuff that becomes popular.

So with that in mind, I sat happily in front of the TV on Wednesday night, not thinking "this show is not as good as it was" or "Ed Helms is over-reaching" but rather marveling in rapt awe at what a brilliant job Jon Stewart did on Bernard Goldberg. Goldberg of course is the former network news staffer turned conservative pundit who has carved out a profitable niche claiming that the media is controlled by lesbian communists from France with the torsos of lizards (or something like that; its no less believable put that way than as the empty concept of the 'liberal media').

Buoyed by the success of his diatribes on media bias and the blatant falafel stroking of his new home Fox News, Goldberg has raised his elephant gun back over the parapet and has "authored" (any interns harmed in the researching and writing of your book, Bernie?) a tome called "The 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America". As you can no doubt guess, the book is not a list of polluters, crooked CEOs, corrupt politicians, or even the Red Sox bullpen but the usual conservative crib sheet of rappers, torch singers, 'serious' actors, and fat filmakers/nebbishy talk radio pioneers. Oh, and Judge Roy Moore of 10 Commandments fame to prove he's not biased. Essentially, Goldberg has taken the central joke from "Team America: World Police", removed the humor, and unlike Parker and Stone is trying to hide his strings that control his actions. According to Goldberg, the biggest threats to the American way of life are cussin', kissin', and disagreein' with his politics. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Anyway, Goldberg dutifully showed up at Comedy Central to plug his book, no doubt expecting a gag-fest of no import. Instead, Jon Stewart- in a very polite, intelligent, quietly forceful, and hysterically funny conversation- eviscerated the pomadoured buffoon. If you didn't get to see it, the video can be found here; just scroll down a little. Its things like this that make me glad I don't live somewhere with interesting 11pm local news.

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