Yes, pointing a snarky finger at Hermain Cain for boasting, on camera, that he didn’t know who the president of “Ubeki-beki-stan-stan” is is woefully racist. Because… err… um… well, it’s just something African-American negro persons of colour do, innit ? Shame on you, Stewart ! OTOH, when brave and responsible right winger exchange photos of Obama in tribal garb with a bone in his nose, that’s targeted satire, and ain’t nothing wrong with that.
In other news, Up has come forward to admit that the recent allegations that it had been Down all along were regrettably true. We now go to our senior Eye Mote correspondent for further developpments…
I can’t remember the article but it was some interview with a staff member, not on-air personality that worked on the Daily Show. She was fired from the show so obviously she may have had an axe to grind but according to her Jon Stewart is a totally different guy when he is working on the show behind the scenes and is very serious and even a dick. I like Jon Stewart but I find it very plausible he is very different in reality than his on-air persona, nor is that necessarily a bad thing when you have a job to do, I don’t recall seeing his impression though, so can’t really comment on it.
So, a guy who has survived and thrived in the cut throat world of comedy and then reached the rarefied strata of having his own TV show might turn out to be a bit of a dick sometimes.
I have to side with Stewart on this one. Satire is not for anyone afraid of getting his hands dirty. And if a colossally unfit presidential candidate isn’t fair game for satire, who is? Calling the impression “racist” is, on a very real level, asking Stewart to go easy on the guy because he’s black.
Cenac’s decades long shunning treatment of his parents in the interview for the crime of being being human was so extreme it actually made me wonder he had serious personality issues. Cenac seems like he is at the far end of the brittle and narcissistic bell curve. Stewart may be a jackass but Cenac seems like he would just be an absolute horror to actually work with.
Update: the NYTimes wrote it up. Obvious point: this comes at an awkward time since this is supposed to be a Victory Lap for Jon Stewart as his run comes to a close. He and TDS have to look at what Cenac did in the interview as a dick move, even while Marc Maron is loving it (MM and JS have history).
Cenac says he had gotten an email from Stewart kinda apologizing and saying he hoped Cenac would be at the last show. Wonder if he still feels that way. The NYTimes talked to some staffers and they came across as thoughtful and genuine. It was a bad fight, but yeah, the job of the show is to find that awkward line, and in this case, it led to a fight.
I think people are making a mistake trying to choose sides in this. It was a genuine disagreement that got ugly, and no doubt neither party handled it perfectly.
I listened to the Cenac interview and he seemed sincere and also did not make Stewart out to be a villain.
He admitted his own mistakes in trying to hold up Stewart as being something more than just an employer but he also gave his view on Stewart’s own interpersonal deficiencies in a fair way.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that even beloved celebrities aren’t perfect. And even with that, it’s not like Cenac is accusing Stewart of something horrible.
These are just two guys with strong opinions who had some personality trouble. Cenac seems to be an emotional guy, but there’s no crime in that either.
Comedians are often sensitive and strong-willed. Those are characteristics that come with the job.
Characterizing him as a “drama king” seems over the top and trying too hard to pick a bad guy.
In general, I agree - good folks have fights when working together on something they are invested in. The fact that Cenac participated in the interview and told such a personally wrenching story, knowing it would air a couple of weeks prior to Stewart’s last show, and that it might be looked at as “see, I told JS was an asshole in real life” - well, it makes it seem less okay.
And so what? I love Jon Stewart and I’m going to miss him, but I don’t believe that the run-up to his retirement from the show should be treated as some kind of sacrosanct period in which any negative information should be looked on suspiciously.
Cenac didn’t say anything that made Stewart look like a monster or a terrible person. He repeatedly said that he viewed Stewart as the guy “who saved me,” or words to that effect.
I admire Stewart’s work, but I don’t believe in heroes.
To the extent that the hoopla surrounding Stewart’s retirement crosses the line in treating him too much like a saint, I think this is perfect timing to remind us he’s not a saint, because nobody is a saint, and we should think twice before treating anyone like a saint.
His parents divorced when he was very young and his father—who was a Caribbean immigrant driving a taxi in Brooklyn—was murdered in a petty robbery when Cenac was about four or five years old. His mother and step-father then moved with him to Dallas.
His mother was very controlling—probably, according to Cenac, as a result of losing so many people in her life—and his step-father would always tell him just to let his mother have her way to keep her happy.
He didn’t go into too much detail, but he told about an incident in which he was taking a date to a theme park, but he wasn’t allowed to drive on the highway. He was supposed to leave his car at some place and ride with someone else. His date persuaded him it would be more fun to drive alone together.
It turned out that his mother was having him followed the whole time and when she found out that he had taken the car against instructions, she reported a stolen car to the police. When Cenac arrived home, he found that his mother had taken the opportunity to go through his room and look through all his personal stuff and spread everything around the room.
Apparently, about 10 years or so ago, he decided that his relationship with his mother was too toxic and he told her not to contact him again.