So during Wyatt Cenac’s recent interview with Marc Maron, he says that he and Jon Stewart had a huge fight. Jon was doing one of his skewed accents, this time of Republican Candidate and sayer of “Uzbecki-becki-becki-stan” Herman Cain, and Cenac said it sounded like it was crossing a line - like the old Amos n’ Andy radio show character Kingfish.
Stewart didn’t take it well, culminating in him yelling “Fuck Off! I am done with you!” to Cenac repeatedly, leaving him kinda thinking he was fired, but not sure.
He left a year or so later, when it was clear it wasn’t going to get better. I had no idea.
It’s really hard to imagine Jon Stewart being a dick (no, not really).
A lot of liberals don’t seem to mind making racist jokes about black conservatives or disgustingly sexist jokes about Republican women. Stewart is one of them.
I didn’t hear the podcast, but I did read the parts about Stewart. Cenac also said that Steward was aloof from the staff and didn’t really hang out. It seems like that’s pretty common among the frontmen for a show. Carson was pretty stiff and I think Letterman also had a reputation for being a bit of an asshole to his staff. People like that don’t like to be challenged by their employees.
As for whether the bit was racist, does anyone have a link to the impression in question?
To me, it’s very clearly a Herman Cain impressions and not a stereotypical impression. I listened to the entire podcast segment and Wyatt seems to be projecting A LOT onto Stewart, basically expecting him to be a father figure.
Edit: The podcast that this news comes from is here: http://www.wtfpod.com/ Daily Show segment starts around 70-minutes.
I knew even before the link exactly which skit/story this was in reference to. And Red Barchetta is dead on in that its a mocking of Herman Cain specifically. But the mock is because Herman Cain is an IDIOT, not because he’s African American. I can’t believe that’s not crystal clear to anyone.
Thanks for the link, Red Barchetta. And, per leftfield6, yeah - not sure how that impression was any more or less silly vs. the others.
Also per **Red Barchetta **- hmm, have to listen to the rest of the WTF interview; I only heard that bit. Given the TDS clip though, you can see why Steward wonders what is different…
Is it possible Wyatt complained about a version of the impression during a rehearsal, or while the staff was writing, and that what was taped on the show is a different flavor of impression than what Cenac is complaining about?
I didn’t think that it was much different than Stewart’s other bad impressions. I always liked Cenac and he felt the way he felt. I guess it was more the screaming in his face that upset him.
You never want to know how sausages or tv shows are made.
I don’t think so. According to the podcast (disclaimer: I haven’t listened to it, just read quotes from it and a summary in various online sources), Cenac was on field assignment at the time, and first saw the episode on TV as it aired. He expressed his problems with it after the fact.
I do believe that Jon was intending to do a funny imitation of Herman Cain, nothing more. But I can also see how Wyatt Cenac could have seen it as crossing the line into mocking the way black people supposedly talk, of which there is a long and ugly history in “comedy.”
Either way, it’s really not a good idea to angrily shout down and cuss out the only black guy on your staff when he brings up his concerns about how you’re handling a racial issue.
I suspect that what may have set Stewart off is, as shown in the clip that Red Barchetta linked, that he was getting very similar criticism from Fox News about that impersonation as well. He may well have felt that Cenac was siding with Fox about the issue, and I can see where that would upset him. Still, a very unprofessional way for him to respond.
No, because the piece referred to Red Barchetta’s link was a response to the earlier bit which contained the impression.
There’s no way for someone white to see the piece from Cenac’s pov. So take it with a grain of salt when I say I’m surprised that he felt that way. I’m even more surprised that he thought it was a bad idea to run those other impressions. To my ear, they are identical in tone. Putting them together made Fox’s accusation seem ridiculous. For the purposes of TDS’s mostly white audience it was the right response.
TDS has always had a problem with the lack of minorities on its writing staff. Hiring one black writer is not a solution. That just raises the situation that Cenac describes. Does every statement that comes from the one black immediately become writ? It shouldn’t, but it inevitably will create the “why did they hire me” vibe if they are ignored or dismissed. Stewart may have reacted badly, even stupidly. From his pov I’m sure that incidents like these accumulated to force his decision to leave.
One important takeaway. Never, ever, ever look at what happens on air and think it has any resemblance to what happens backstage. This is a lesson that can’t be learned too often.
He wasn’t the only black guy on the staff. Larry Wilmore was also on the staff.
I suppose the fact that Cenac felt comfortable getting up in his face that many times meant that generally some back and forth was allowed? Not really clear. On the other hand, if someone badgered me repeatedly, I might eventually tell them to f*** off.
As far as whether the big man hangs out with the staff, after that many years with all of the changes, it would be shocking to find out that he did.
I think yelling at an employee in front of the rest of your staff is a bit unprofessional, yes. I also think telling your boss you think his silly impression is as racist as an old racist comedy bit in front of the same staff is also a bit unprofessional. Overall, I suspect they both share some blame.
For the record, I don’t see any racism in John Stewart’s impression.
Hmmm yeah, I get the Kingfish point but also Meh. It’s as much an impression of Cain as say an old black preacher… but that’s not racist in and of itself. It’s an impression.
Fog Leghorn is a more southern Kingfish but that is in and of itself not racist.