# Jon Stewart is SICK! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 20, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032 "2009-08-20T03:30:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/61 "2009-08-20T19:51:19Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Did you happen to see the show where he got Bill Kristol to admit that the best healthcare in the country is the government-run VA. Kristol (and I) never saw it coming. Very slick indeed. Yeah that bothered me though, I think Stewart was being intentionally disingenuous. Kristol admitted that vets got great health care, but surmised that the plan was probably too expensive for everyone in America. I agree with Kristol, efficient or not, if anyone deserves good health care supported by tax payers its wounded vets. I’m sure an argument can be made that the government could run a good system and it would be worthwhile, but Stewart was flailing in that interview. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/62 "2009-08-20T19:52:28Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Heck, William Shatner got big laughs just by reciting Palin’s resignation speech as if it were bad poetry. It wasn’t? ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/63 "2009-08-20T20:15:34Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Heck, William Shatner got big laughs just by reciting Palin’s resignation speech as if it were bad poetry. I thought he did her Twitter feed? Or did he do her resignation speech, too? ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/64 "2009-08-20T20:18:45Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > We’re still using “sick” to mean “cool”? Only the sick kids. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/65 "2009-08-20T20:19:51Z")
He did both. Stewart is only the latest in a long line of American news-comedians. Before him was Will Rogers, and before him was Mark Twain. Was Will Rogers the most trusted man in news back then? I wouldn’t be surprised, to be honest. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/66 "2009-08-20T21:19:17Z")
If you were to do a study of the amount of time and footage THE DAILY SHOW spends skewering politicians versus the amount of time it appears skewering the media (and for those not aware they skewer CNN and MSNBC as well as Fox) I wonder which one gets skewered more. I certainly have no desire to do so but would be interested to see the results if someone else did. Stewart is almost as much Upton Sinclair as he is Will Rogers. He hates hypocrisy and incompetence those are the best pieces on his show. Fox supplies most of the blatant hypocrisy: Glenn Beck “American healthcare is a disgrace by which I mean it’s the best in the world”/“Protestors are unpatriotic by which we mean they’re all American”/“Socialized anything is evil and corrupt by which we mean thank God for Medicare and VA hospitals”/“Obama’s birth certificate has been produced time and again by which we mean we have no proof he’s produced it” type stuff. Last night’s clip of Craig T. Nelson’s “I’ve been on food stamps and welfare. Did anybody help me out? No!” rant is an excellent example. CNN supplies more stupidity and the willingness to accept damned near any guest’s word for anything and like colmes on Fox never disputing anything. Not that Glenn Beck doesn’t have a mountain of stupid to mine, mind, but his psychotic paranoid dry drunk comparisons of Obama to Hitler and outcries that they’re (who ever they are) are coming for the Jews and conservatives make it almost unnecessary to dig for it. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/67 "2009-08-20T21:22:19Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Last night’s clip of Craig T. Nelson’s “I’ve been on food stamps and welfare. Did anybody help me out? No!” rant is an excellent example. That clip needs to be played over and over and over again. I want it to get more air time than Barney Frank. It _perfectly_ encapsulates the argument of the anti-“socialist” side. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/68 "2009-08-20T21:25:03Z")
And since they opened the door to the asinine Nazi rhetoric, is there anybody out there who has a hard time imagining Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, O’Reilly or Dobbs justifying a genocide in progress? Please. [This](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/The_defendants_at_Nuremberg_Trials.jpg) looks like the Fox dream team of commentators. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/69 "2009-08-20T21:34:11Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > > [@Sampiro](#): > > > > Last night’s clip of Craig T. Nelson’s “I’ve been on food stamps and welfare. Did anybody help me out? No!” rant is an excellent example. > > That clip needs to be played over and over and over again. I want it to get more air time than Barney Frank. It _perfectly_ encapsulates the argument of the anti-“socialist” side. Similarly, I’ve seen clips of people at town hall meetings decrying the idea of socialized medicine and then saying, “Don’t touch my Medicare.” ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/70 "2009-08-20T22:03:22Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > One can say the same about Rush Limbaugh and liberals. Limbaugh, better than anyone since, does an excellent job of making liberals look stupid as hell. No, because most of the time, “liberals” is a strawman. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/71 "2009-08-20T22:10:26Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > Frankly, most of the conservatives don’t need his help- but if it weren’t for Stewart and his crew, they wouldn’t be as amusing (and we probably wouldn’t know about them). I was watching an old episode I hadn’t seen yesterday where this senator was making a bizarre metaphor involving Sur Taxalot and the Debt and Deficit Dragon and laughing my ass off, both at the bizarreness of the metaphor and Stewart’s comments on it. “The goose that laid the golden eggs? That’s not even in the story! That’s an Aesop fable! Is that how you tell the story to your grandchildren?” And then he introduced the character “Senor What the #%$& Are You Talking About”. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/72 "2009-08-20T22:17:43Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > He did both. Stewart is only the latest in a long line of American news-comedians. Before him was Will Rogers, and before him was Mark Twain. Was Will Rogers the most trusted man in news back then? I wouldn’t be surprised, to be honest. Will Rogers had a cable show? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/73 "2009-08-20T22:23:55Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > Will Rogers had a cable show? Of course he did. Just, you know, [without the pictures](http://www.otrcat.com/will-rogers-p-1985.html) (and frankly, probably much higher ratings). ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/74 "2009-08-20T23:19:06Z")
He also had a nightly revue where he’d read the news. Radio City Music Hall, as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/75 "2009-08-20T23:33:27Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > How dare you pick on the dead like that. For shame. Yes. If Hawking had UHC available, he’d be alive today. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/76 "2009-08-20T23:37:30Z")
Hmm…I wonder if anyone ever thinks of all people who would be dead of long waits or red tape or inferior care/meds by now if we had UHC? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/77 "2009-08-20T23:49:00Z")
Yes, insurance companies don’t have any of those things. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/78 "2009-08-20T23:54:18Z")
Ah, the automatic (and innacurate) rote response of a leftie. Well, that certainly takes the wind out of _my_ sails, I gotta tell 'ya! The fact is, among the many people my age or older I know who’ve needed hospital/operations/medical care and drugs, a little red tape maybe but certainly not long waits or care or meds covered by their policies. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/79 "2009-08-20T23:59:31Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Hmm…I wonder if anyone ever thinks of all people who would be dead of long waits or red tape or inferior care/meds by now if we had UHC? You’re saying that is all worse than no care at all? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032/80 "2009-08-21T00:12:46Z")
No, I was riffing on **Voyager’s** post. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jon-stewart-is-sick/507032.md?page=5)