Althouse: Jon Stewart is gentle...

June 1, 2011

Jon Stewart is gentle...

... to his friend Anthony Weiner.

See, this is why comedians shouldn't have friends.

53 comments:

The Drill SGT said...: See, this is why comedians shouldn't have friends.

I'd turn it around and cite Truman:

“If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog”; 6/1/11, 9:35 AM
Trooper York said...: Jon Stewart is a partisan Democrat who will never attack a liberal the way he would attack a conservative.

He is a clown in every sense of the word.; 6/1/11, 9:37 AM
Trooper York said...: He is the Rush of the left.; 6/1/11, 9:38 AM
Robert Cook said...: Except he did say several times that "no way" is Weiner's package that big.

Given how strained Weiner appeared in his brief press appearance yesterday, I can't imagine he was laughing too much about that.

At least Stewart did his bit openly declaring their long friendship. Full disclosure, as it were.; 6/1/11, 9:40 AM
gk1 said...: So this is what we are reduced to? To see if some late night,cable comedian will speak truth of power to a democrat because the main stream media won't do it? And people wonder why Fox's ratings are so high.; 6/1/11, 9:41 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Jon Stewart is a partisan Democrat who will never attack a liberal the way he would attack a conservative."

You must not watch his show too often.

My gripe with him is that he is far too easy on some of the right wing dicks and spokesdicks he has had on as guests.

"He is a clown in every sense of the word."

He would be the first to agree with you.; 6/1/11, 9:43 AM
Patrick said...: I saw the clip, and thought he did a reasonable job, given 1) his friendship with the Member and 2) the uncertainties of the situation.

Certainly, there would be more shots taken, particularly at the lame press conference if it were a Republican, but really, you can only expect so much. We really need to treat our fake media with kid gloves.; 6/1/11, 9:46 AM
traditionalguy said...: "The public will never know why or how this happened...never, never, never," says the Representative who is one of 506 men who insist that they govern our lives with their carefully crafted lies. I suspect that Weiner knows that there are more tweets to sexy girls out there.; 6/1/11, 9:47 AM
Patrick said...: And really, this dude's name is actually pronounced "weener?" I've been reading about this since yesterday (not continuously) assuming it was "WHINER."

That is so hilarious. You just can't make it up.; 6/1/11, 9:48 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: *click*

Sarah Palin bus onscreen in the background

*click*; 6/1/11, 9:49 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: What uncertainties of the situation? There are none.; 6/1/11, 9:51 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Conflict of Interest.

Note that Stewart couched is support of Weiner the same as Chuckie Schumer did...he said he hopes it is not true. Because they both know it may very well be true.; 6/1/11, 9:53 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Did you hear Sarah Palin violated Federal flag law? Martin Bashir said so. Stop talking about this. Stop now.; 6/1/11, 9:54 AM
Patrick said...: Chip - Well, the list of uncertainties has certainly experienced some, uh...shrinkage, but it remains more or less possible that someone gained access to the twitter and yfrog accounts and sent the link to the pic, or that the Member had an underling who was doing all of the tweets, was feeling a little randy, and sent the pic of his own. Whether those options are likely or even credible, but I will say, I'm not certain that the Member did this.

His news conference sure as hell doesn't help.; 6/1/11, 9:55 AM
Triangle Man said...: Conflict of Interest.

I am having a hard time finding the "Conflict of Interest" clause in the Comedy Code of Ethics. Can you point me to a page number?; 6/1/11, 9:59 AM
erictrimmer said...: We can argue over whether or not Stewart is a hack and Weiner a pervert, but I think we can all agree they both exude competence and warmth, templates be damned!; 6/1/11, 10:02 AM
Shanna said...: I think the fact that his name is what it is would have made me wonder if this was a prank...if he hadn't given that press conference.

Jon Stewart's chief crime here is that he wasn't funny.; 6/1/11, 10:07 AM
Humperdink said...: Comedy Code of Ethics? Page number?

No page numbers, it is alphabetized ..... right after the definition of "hack" but before "is".; 6/1/11, 10:09 AM
Known Unknown said...: Don Rickles needs his own show.

No Mercy! with Don Rickles.; 6/1/11, 10:13 AM
Titus said...: If John Stewart is saying this boner is not as big as Anthony's is, what does that say about the size of Stewart's hog?

Not much.

I am sorry but that is not a big hog.

More weiner Weiner tweeter postings please.

Would any of you women enjoy getting a picture of a boner sent to you? Would you find it flattering? Or offensive?

If offensive then you are kind of dull.; 6/1/11, 10:20 AM
Titus said...: I think sending a boner pic is a way of saying I care and is nice.

It also takes time. How many pics were taken of the boner before the real one was send out.

It was probably angled just right, propped up a little, underwear were chosen with care, there was posing.

This was time consuming project.; 6/1/11, 10:23 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Fred4Pres,

He said he hopes it is not true. Because they both know it may very well be true.

That's what we're reduced to now. Everybody appears too insane to trust. (I, of course, appear too insane to trust because I argue for it to stop - go figure.) Integrity has been denigrated, primarily by women, until we can't look at (almost) anyone and know they're honorable people. Especially where sex is involved.

That said, I don't think he did it. Not only is the dick too big but I also don't think he has the balls,...; 6/1/11, 10:28 AM
Chip S. said...: Wait--Jon Stewart's defense of Little Anthony is that he packs even less in his shorts than Exhibitor A? A friend has gotta do better than that.; 6/1/11, 10:28 AM
Titus said...: I find it interesting that all the straight guys are analyzing the size of the dick.

Weird, but interesting.; 6/1/11, 10:30 AM
Alex said...: RC:

My gripe with him is that he is far too easy on some of the right wing dicks and spokesdicks he has had on as guests.

You are a nasty piece of work.; 6/1/11, 10:31 AM
Chip S. said...: Titus, The straight women I know are all too busy laughing to be able to say much of anything about it. Straight men take our cues from them.; 6/1/11, 10:34 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Hire me, Stewart. I will make you funnier.; 6/1/11, 10:43 AM
Pastafarian said...: Freeman, no one can make that idiot funny.

He spends about half of this clip leering and mugging and congratulating himself with grotesquely animated fist-pumps.

Stewart is to comedy as Weiner is to reasoned political discourse. I'm not at all surprised that these two were roomies.; 6/1/11, 10:56 AM
MaggotAtBroad&Wall said...: It took alot of self-control for a comedian with a top notch, cutting edge writing staff of his calibre to pass up the low hanging fruit this situation provided. All he got out of it was that The Congressman and whoever is in the photo both lean hard to the left. But at least he got in the unfunny but obligatory jab at Breitbart and CNN. Pretty lame all around.; 6/1/11, 11:54 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Never found him remotely funny. Good comedians are in short supply.; 6/1/11, 11:56 AM
Dustin said...: It's not Jon Stewart's fault that the people who aren't Tony Weiner's friends are going soft on him.

People should be able to be friends, and being a friend means having his back when he's wrong. It's easy to have someone's back when he's right.

Stewart hasn't done any wrong in this case.; 6/1/11, 12:08 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/1/11, 12:22 PM
Anonymous said...: Gentle=gentile, or at least Shakespeare punned.; 6/1/11, 12:24 PM
Anonymous said...: See, this is why comedians shouldn't have friends.

But then Congressman Weiner would have to rely on the kindness of strangers.; 6/1/11, 12:32 PM
Phil 314 said...: Professor,
I'm surprised you didn't mention his praise for bloggers (i.e. doing the actual investigations that MSM wasn't doing) Though he may have been thinking more of DailyKos, I believe he cited a detail mentioned on BigGovernment.; 6/1/11, 12:53 PM
edutcher said...: Every man feels obliged to be good to his Weiner.

Robert Cook said...

Except he did say several times that "no way" is Weiner's package that big.

Dare we ask how he would know?

Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?

OK, Titus???; 6/1/11, 1:14 PM
Jeff H said...: Stewart's not a comedian. He's a low-brow of the *highest* order.; 6/1/11, 1:24 PM
William said...: It is very difficult to govern when there is a red bulbous ball attached to your nose. In much the way Popes used to annoint and crown the Holy Roman Emperor, late night comedians annoint and proclaim selected politicians as buffoons of the realm. Weiner's only chance of survival is that the comics will only aim a few wisecracks at him and not go all Larry Craig on his ass.....In the interests of fairness, late night comedians really should hire a few witty conservatives like Freeman to toss zingers at leftist miscreants. If this is the best that Stewart can do, he's really letting down the team. Perhaps Letterman, with his long years of experience in this field, will do better and become the comedian of record.; 6/1/11, 1:37 PM
Milwaukee said...: Remember that a large segment of the American public gets their "news" from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and Saturday Night Live. There is a chance that the joke writers at SNL have taken notice, and we'll see more of the wiener thing on Saturday. Well, more of the whole "my Twitter was hacked but it was just a prank" thing, not the wiener thing thing.

What about the gals on the View? Has Whoopi said "Well, it's not like it's porn porn" yet? I'll they all figure having somebody such a picture is a sign of true love.

Anybody suggesting that Whoopi is an engorged tool is way out of line. I'm just saying this preemptively. Anybody who would say that is a fatist. (Somebody who hates fatties, and makes fun of them. So watch it: we know you're out there. I'm not saying that she is, just that you would be to say so.); 6/1/11, 2:29 PM
Milwaukee said...: Dustin said...

It's not Jon Stewart's fault that the people who aren't Tony Weiner's friends are going soft on him.

Dustin, this is a family audience. We say "going flaccid on him", not "going soft". Gee-whiz man, use anatomically correct vocabulary, pulleease!; 6/1/11, 2:33 PM
Milwaukee said...: So this young priest asked the older priest for some advice on giving a sermon. The older priest confided that the little glass of water really had vodka and not water. The next Sunday, after the service, the younger priest asked for a critique. The older priest said "First, you sip it, you don't gulp it. Second, Noah was on the ark, not Moses. And finally it is Taffy Pull at St. Peters, not a Peter Pull at St. Taffy's."

Really, this should be a joke writers dream. Not me, as I am trying to maintain levels of decorum and gravitas suitable for a pretending-to-be-right-wing blog.; 6/1/11, 2:36 PM
bobby said...: "Jon Stewart is a partisan Democrat who will never attack a liberal the way he would attack a conservative."
- - - -

Did you watch the clip?

His main joke was that there's no way Wiener's wiener is as big as the pictured wiener.

And the rest of the clip was him making it clear that no one - and especially not CNN - is doing any kind of investigation into the "hacked" claim.

He was calling out the MSM for concluding that "no one will ever know" while the blogs seem to be doing a credible job investigating on their own - in short, he's saying that Breitbart is putting CNN/ABC/NBC/etc to shame.

Are we any better than CNN here? At least watch the evidence that's put in front of your face before ripping into people for not looking at the evidence.; 6/1/11, 3:01 PM
Joanna said...: I enjoyed this Daily Show clip more than I expected, in large part because his is the only large-audience media (that I've seen) that has discussed that blogs broke this story and "journalists" are being inept. Kudos.

(And, honestly, of all of the jokes I've heard about this, "leans to the left" is perhaps my favorite.)

Here's an example of Stewart not being a clown.; 6/1/11, 3:22 PM
twp said...: Go to Freeman's web site and see her on Weiner's wiener situation.

But only if you can handle the truth!; 6/1/11, 3:53 PM
Fen said...: bobby: At least watch the evidence that's put in front of your face before ripping into people for not looking at the evidence.

Oh please. Did *you* watch it? He ripped dolphins more than Weiner. ("I remember it being bigger").

At least he tore up the MSM for being hacks. I'll grant that.; 6/1/11, 3:55 PM
Fen said...: gk1: So this is what we are reduced to? To see if some late night,cable comedian will speak truth of power to a democrat because the main stream media won't do it? And people wonder why Fox's ratings are so high.

gk knocks it out of the park.; 6/1/11, 3:56 PM
RebeccaH said...: Never could stand Stewart. Too snide, masquerading as "ironic".; 6/1/11, 3:59 PM
papertiger said...: Blogger Titus said...

I find it interesting that all the straight guys are analyzing the size of the dick.

Weird, but interesting.

6/1/11 10:30 AM

It's in the guide book. When you see a Weiner out in public you're supposed to point, and make sport of it's owner.

Just doing our job.; 6/1/11, 4:10 PM
Milwaukee said...: Does Mrs. Weiner recognize the underwear? Who does his laundry? Maybe they recognize the underwear? Perhaps he has some former girlfriends, do any of them recognize the underwear? How about all those hotties he is following. Do any of them recognize the underwear?

Who is Congressman Weiner protecting?

Inquiring minds want to know.

If Congressman Weiner has been lying to the public, that is a matter of national concern. If he lies about this, what else is he lying about? If he thinks this is funny then we need to question his character and intelligence.; 6/1/11, 5:07 PM
Trooper York said...: If you look up partisan hack in the dictionary you will see Jon Stewarts face.

He is just not funny. He just throws out left wing memes and his audience of trained seals clap their flippers and squeal like it is feeding time at the Prospect Park zoo.; 6/1/11, 6:11 PM
Trooper York said...: You want funny check out Louis CK. Just as liberal as Stewart but funny and not a loser scumbag hack. Just sayn'; 6/1/11, 6:12 PM
el polacko said...: okay, i get that stewart may have seen his roommate in his undies at some point, but did he see him at full tumescence? does he know if he's more of a grower than a shower? did stewart gain this knowledge by virtue of college years 'experimentation'? mr.weiner, himself, cannot definitively state that it's his weiner in the pic but, apparently, the sight of his bulge made a lasting impression on mr.stewart.; 6/1/11, 8:22 PM
Anonymous said...: Trooper,

My favorite Louis CK bit:

Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy; 6/2/11, 7:32 AM