Terrorist fist bump!

September 25, 2008 4:05 PM

Mock the Vote: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert interviewed.
posted by Artw (41 comments total)

Also: Awesome cover.
posted by Artw at 4:05 PM on September 25, 2008

*sigh* You made me miss cable.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 4:24 PM on September 25, 2008

*sigh* You made me miss cable.

You know you can stream both shows from Comedy Central's website, right? I've been without cable for years now, and haven't missed a thing.
posted by gueneverey at 4:52 PM on September 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

It always amazes me how some comics can sound so funny and so utterly despairing at the same time.
posted by gottabefunky at 4:56 PM on September 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

No, I can't. I be in outer Canuckistan.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 4:57 PM on September 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

Whoa, whoa, Mr. T is a quintessentially authentic American, fool. I remember him fighting for his right to cut down trees in his yard. Damned surreal.

And Colbert - Jesus fucking Christ the fucking mouth on that guy. Shit, Stewart too, that guy talks shit man. If you have to use the fucking profanity, you’re...y’know, commication and shit. Not best way.

Insightful about the 24 hour a day thing destroying objectivity. You can’t gain perspective when you’re essentially part of the events you’re covering and it’s impossible for you to pause or say “I don’t know.”

Colbert: “I thought I could put myself all the way in it and not feel it, but I did. I realized, ''I understand, maybe, why people end up not being so good.'' Because they get lied to a lot.”
- Word.
posted by Smedleyman at 5:00 PM on September 25, 2008

Durn Bronzefist,

Here you go, eh!

http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart/full-episodes/
posted by bitteroldman at 5:02 PM on September 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

Do brave YouTubers still post it up only to have it munched by the IP monster 30 minutes later?
posted by Artw at 5:02 PM on September 25, 2008

You need to link to the 'sidebar' feature: Colbert's 8 October Surprises
posted by wendell at 5:03 PM on September 25, 2008

No, I can't. I be in outer Canuckistan.

Bronzefist, The Comedy Network has the cure for what ails you.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:04 PM on September 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

WWWWWWOOOOOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Happy as a pig in shit, my fellows. With lipstick. This rocks. You rock. I will now proceed to get no sleep and love it.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 5:18 PM on September 25, 2008

Very funny
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 5:20 PM on September 25, 2008

I love those guys. I don't watch them nearly often enough.
posted by Caduceus at 5:21 PM on September 25, 2008

On a related note:

Sarah Palin Disney Trailer: "Head of Skate"
posted by ornate insect at 5:31 PM on September 25, 2008 [7 favorites]

You can also watch the show in full, without those annoying mid-sentence breaks the Comedy Central website puts in, on hulu.com. Only one 15-second commercial per break; better than TV!
posted by EarBucket at 5:32 PM on September 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

''Any change is as good as a vacation at this point,'' says Colbert, who set his conservative TV pundit character aside for the chat. ''I don't know if you've paid much attention to the past eight years, but it has been a s---burger supreme. If somebody gives me an empty burger, it's better than eating s---.''
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:35 PM on September 25, 2008

I haven't bought a magazine in god knows how long, let alone one which I'm gonna have to grab at the No Frills checkout... simply to frame the cover.
posted by gman at 6:05 PM on September 25, 2008

JON STEWART: I was convinced an Obama/McCain campaign would be measurably different on almost all standards. And to watch it become Bush/Kerry, Bush/Gore, has been one of the most dissatisfying experiences.

I feel that. I had such high hopes for this campaign, but man... it's been heart-breaking.
posted by brundlefly at 6:13 PM on September 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

brundlefly, I've been feeling the same way for the past month now, stewart put it into the right words for me now.
posted by axltea at 6:32 PM on September 25, 2008

Earbucket gets the prize, I was a skeptic but hulu.com for both colbert and jon stewart is the best way to get your fix. Both shows are on the next day.
posted by jeremias at 6:44 PM on September 25, 2008

You can also watch the show in full, without those annoying mid-sentence breaks the Comedy Central website puts in, on hulu.com.

*gets popcorn*

We're sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed within the United States. For more information on Hulu's international availability, click here.

Grrrarrarararrr. Ok, still happy. Going back to TCN.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 6:47 PM on September 25, 2008

We're sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed within the United States. For more information on Hulu's international availability, click here.

Grrrarrarararrr. Ok, still happy. Going back to TCN.

If you use Firefox, you can also get the IP and port number of an American proxy server, and go Edit>Preferences>Advanced>Network>Settings.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 7:02 PM on September 25, 2008

Does anyone actually watch video through a proxy? I've tried a couple of times with no success, and frankly it seems a little unlikely..
posted by Chuckles at 7:08 PM on September 25, 2008

Does anyone actually watch video through a proxy? I've tried a couple of times with no success, and frankly it seems a little unlikely..

You can watch YouTube through the web proxy Webdico easily enough, but for Hulu, you're better off going the IP and port route, and configuring your browser.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 7:24 PM on September 25, 2008

I was convinced an Obama/McCain campaign would be measurably different on almost all standards. And to watch it become Bush/Kerry, Bush/Gore, has been one of the most dissatisfying experiences.

I blame McCain 100%. In his landmark speech on race, Obama challenged us, and McCain, to focus on the issues in this campaign:

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle -- as we did in the OJ trial -- or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina -- or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

McCain violated his own pledge to "run a respectful campaign based on the issues" and attacked Obama with lies and slanders. The media ignores the issues--imagine the detailed coverage they good give to actual issues to fill a 24-hour schedule--and give us "terrorist fist bumps" and Baby Palin and other nonsense.

Obama's fought back, but nothing he's done is as bad as McCain's ads. Obama's meanest ad (and I agree with Joe Biden, it was distasteful) mocked McCain for not using computers, which is based on McCain's own statements, like all of Obama's attack ads. McCain did say he wanted to be in Iraq for 100 years. He said he doesn't know anything about economics (then lied about saying it).

I love Jon Stewart, and I admire his perspectives on politics, but I'm tired of the media's false equivalencies and I'm disappointed in Stewart for adopting it, especially after this Daily Show appearance by McCain.

STEWART: Has John McCain's Straight Talk Express been rerouted through Bullshit Town?
...
STEWART: You’re not freaking out on us? Are you freaking out on us? Because if you’re freaking out and you’re going into the crazy base world - are you going into crazy base world?

MCCAIN: I’m afraid so.

posted by kirkaracha at 7:26 PM on September 25, 2008 [3 favorites]

You ''good values people'' have had the country for eight years, and done an unbelievably s---ty job. Let's find some bad values people and give them a shot, maybe they'll have a better take on it.

Man, I wish the Democrats etc would cut the standard electioneering bullshit and use a variation on this as their basic platform.
posted by philip-random at 7:54 PM on September 25, 2008

I definitely agree that watching cable news leaves you LESS informed, not more.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 7:55 PM on September 25, 2008

I love Jon Stewart, especially on his old MTV shows with those hunky sweaters, but I recall no point at which he showed any true enthusiasm for Obama.
He reminds me of some of friends, who are not as witty and do not have a show, but are still somewhat off-balance by the whole Hillary lost and ran out of money thing (And, in some cases, very specific things they see/feel as proof she hurt them in some way.) and just stuck there in the "whaaaaat?" Not the best perspective for the comedies and the insights....

Colbert, I will have his eagle-babies.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 8:05 PM on September 25, 2008

I like them both, but at this point in time mockery cannot be funnier or stranger than the actual election.
posted by mandal at 8:42 PM on September 25, 2008 [3 favorites]

But your shows are some of the only ones out there actually digging into archival video to prove when politicians are lying or contradicting themselves.

Hear hear. I watch pretty much just for this. Okay, they do over simplify contradicting sounds bites for the benefit of the gag, which is fine, they're a comedy show... but really there should be so much more of this on the 'serious' news shows. Any idea who the other in "some of the only one" are?
posted by adamt at 12:05 AM on September 26, 2008

''I don't know if you've paid much attention to the past eight years, but it has been a s---burger supreme..."

Bush got re-elected. Hard to understand why people would want even more fire and brimstone? This is what liberals cannot fathom: a great percentage of our population does not want peace and prosperity. They actually want a s---storm.
posted by tgyg at 12:05 AM on September 26, 2008

kirkaracha: "McCain violated his own pledge to "run a respectful campaign based on the issues" and attacked Obama with lies and slanders. The media ignores the issues--imagine the detailed coverage they good give to actual issues to fill a 24-hour schedule--and give us "terrorist fist bumps" and Baby Palin and other nonsense."

Not to make excuses for McCain here, but one interesting argument I read from one of his campaign people is essentially, "Hey, we ran a clean campaign, talked about the issues, did town halls, the whole nine yards, and the media completely ignored us to go fawn over Obama. Going deep negative was the only way to get any attention."

Of course, none of that excuses the way McCain has kowtowed to Rove and the Republican attack machine that ruined him in 2000, but still... interesting argument there.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:02 AM on September 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: Swearing in Obama on a gay baby.
posted by jonp72 at 5:00 AM on September 26, 2008

Not to make excuses for McCain here, but one interesting argument I read from one of his campaign people is essentially, "Hey, we ran a clean campaign, talked about the issues, did town halls, the whole nine yards, and the media completely ignored us to go fawn over Obama. Going deep negative was the only way to get any attention."

That's a fine explanation in terms of telling us what may have been the reasoning, and I can see the truth in it. But its moral failing is complete. It's like saying "Well I made an honest living for years and didn't much get anywhere, so I turned to a life of crime and finally made a pile of cash." Just doing what I had to do to get what I wanted is the reasoning of the casual psychopath.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 5:23 AM on September 26, 2008 [3 favorites]

Great interview, possibly greater cover. Vielen Dank!
posted by supercres at 6:34 AM on September 26, 2008

Not to make excuses for McCain here, but one interesting argument I read...

The Daily Show interview I linked to was from 2006. McCain steered the Straight Talk Express onto the low road as soon as the campaign started.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:15 AM on September 26, 2008

“This is what liberals cannot fathom: a great percentage of our population does not want peace and prosperity. They actually want a s---storm.”

Dead on. I’ve spoken to a bunch of people about this. They practically jerk themselves off over me (’cos I’m a ‘war hero’) and then look entirely crestfallen when it turns out I’m not preaching “Rambo”, I’m preaching “teamwork.”
It’s like a weird myth we’ve allowed ourselves.
Reminds me of the attack on the “community organizer” concept. Has the same roots.
Every shithole I’ve been in are shitholes precisely because they didn’t have, say, school boards, local councils, etc. etc. etc. all the things that make grassroots democracy great.
And these radicals (although they’ve been calling themselves ‘conservatives) keep going on about how we really need to straighten things out, that we need confrontation, etc.
And I keep asking them “You actually *want* chaos?”
Some of them - ‘oh, yeah’ because y’know, they’re strong. The strong survive.
But they’ve never seen real hardship. I mean, I can eat roaches, worms, ants, and make a nice dandelion side salad. I can hunt, fish, forage, I can lose 40 lbs and still go 18-20 hour days. (Not that I *want* to) Oh, it sounds hardcase. But some guy who’s been living high on calories and has had time to beef up his muscle is going to wipe the floor with me - exactly because he’s got community support, so he can thrive.
Brecht - “Stomach first, politics after.” In some measures it’s trite and sounds greedy. But it’s fundimentally a solid observation. They’ve forgotten that. And they only want a shitstorm because they have no idea what it means. Scares the hell out of me. Especially here.
I mean - goddamn - imagine the balkanization of the U.S.

On the one hand I can respect Gore for bowing out (Kerry - wtf?). On the other - it might have been worth a lesser confrontation to maybe avoid a greater one later. Many liberals (using the terms as you have them here) have sought to avoid confrontation (the Dems have looked entirely soft - as Stewart and Colbert pointed out). But you can do that Biko - style, without the fireworks. Peace and prosperity are great. But at some point you have to take the hit and the risk to move the ball forward.
posted by Smedleyman at 7:49 AM on September 26, 2008 [7 favorites]

You can watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report for free on hulu.com, too.
posted by greenie2600 at 11:15 AM on September 26, 2008

WTF? Even the "print" version is six pages. Where is the "single page" view?
posted by Eideteker at 7:40 AM on September 27, 2008

Not to make excuses for McCain here, but one interesting argument I read from one of his campaign people is essentially, "Hey, we ran a clean campaign, talked about the issues, did town halls, the whole nine yards, and the media completely ignored us to go fawn over Obama. Going deep negative was the only way to get any attention."

Ezra Klein:

The McCain campaign's decision to lie about, well, everything, really needs to be understood as more than the outcome of John McCain's consuming ambition. It is a rational and obvious response to the rules laid down by the media. Indeed, McCain's spokesperson Brian Rogers says this directly to The Politico's Jonathan Martin. "We ran a different kind of campaign and nobody cared about us. They didn’t cover John McCain. So now you’ve got to be forward-leaning in everything."

And it's true. Earlier this year McCain made poverty tours and offered policy speeches. No one cared, Obama retained his lead. It was only when he began offering vicious attacks and daily controversies that he began setting the pace of the coverage. The McCain campaign learned something important about the media: It's an institution that covers conflict. If you want to direct its coverage, give it more conflict than your opponent. And so they have.

None of this, of course, absolves McCain of what he has done. He has sacrificed his honor and dignity with astonishing enthusiasm. He has become much worse than "just another politician." He is a politician who was once more than that, and used that reputation to go lower than the rest. But the fact remains that he wouldn't be doing this, that no one would do this, if the media ignored or censured the behavior. If lies were covered as lies and an allergy to substance was treated as evidence of an unfitness to govern, the tenor of campaigns would lift. These are, at the end of the day, rational beasts, and they hunger for good coverage. The McCain campaign has found its best coverage comes from its worst campaigning. And so they are following the incentive structure laid out by the media.
posted by callmejay at 7:40 AM on September 27, 2008

WTF? Even the "print" version is six pages. Where is the "single page" view?

Yep, it's incredibly annoying. Cheers to EW for the interview, but boo hiss for the obnoxious click-milking web layout.
posted by pmurray63 at 9:37 AM on September 27, 2008