Had to see what the angst was all about on social media. I think Jon did a great job and it's good to have him back.

[Autumn]

Last edited Tue Feb 13, 2024, 01:47 PM - Edit history (1)

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[kimbutgar]

1. I was so excited to see him and won't be watching Mondays anymore !

I turned it off halfway though the show. So disappointed in Jon Stewart!

[agingdem]

13. Me too...

my eye doctor retired and on the my first appointment with the new young guy he didn't miss an opportunity to reference my age during the eye examination..after the fourth "indigenous to your age" comment I asked him if, when he was my my age, would he be having similar problems and he said yes...and I said "good and the sooner the better" ...I never went back...

Jon Stewart's both sides Biden/Trump ageism gaffes was nauseating to behold...and to equate Biden with that repulsive vomit spewing rapist psychopath was insulting to Biden and the viewers..Jon Stewart is 61 years old...not young..old...and as he ages he too will have senior moments if he doesn't already..and I hope there is a youngish cable show host that thinks it's hilarious to devote a show highlighting Jon Stewart's memory gaffes...I have a feeling Jon Stewart can dish it but he can't take it...

[Rebl2]

26. My rheumatologist

likes to remind me that I am getting older now. I just kind of laugh it off because she a few months older than me.

[agingdem]

30. it's like the obese chain smoking physician

advising you to lose weight and stop smoking

[LT Barclay]

44. Funny you should say that. I've been seeing one here since we moved to the area in 2006. He's been telling me since I

was in my 40's that I need bifocals even though I could and still can read anything within 12 inches of my face as long as I don't have my contacts in. Still could 2 years ago.
Really weird when some medical providers reach conclusions based on something other than what is apparent right in front of them!

[Think. Again.]

2. He did okay...

...he's definitely good for some tv chuckles, and I think he's trying not to piss off 3rd party people in the hope that he can share some sensible thoughts with them.

Probably a good strategy. The worst thing we as Democrats can do right now is keep insulting people whose votes we will need.

[Autumn]

10. The video of trump on the witness stand when he couldn't remember being married to Marla Maples was

absolutely perfect.

[redqueen]

31. Yep, loved that part and loved seeing it on morning Joe too!

[Autumn]

35. I never saw that on the media but now young people have seen it. I find that delightful.

Yes, Biden and trump are old obviously but there sure is a difference in their mental facilities.

[redqueen]

39. Yep and I think most young voters

are less idiotic than many here seem to think.

I don't understand the fear and hate radiating around this place today.

[Hope22]

52. I know many young people who profess to not remembering things.

They simply say….I don’t remember that!

[spanone]

40. And why didn't we see it in the media? If Stewarts writers found it, so could the media.

They are not our friends.

[Autumn]

41. No shit the media is not our friend. The media knew it was there, they just ignored it. Jon didn't ignore it.

[LT Barclay]

45. Hasn't been since at least Reagan's era, and probably before.

I realized that sitting and watching the cheerleading for the first Gulf War with no critic of the official story. My jaw literally dropped the first time I heard someone use the term "liberal media". There's a big gap between entertainment media and what is on the news. But even then I read somewhere that even the entertainment end has been very friendly to the right-wing viewpoint as most movies and TV shows are long advertisements for how "effective" (sarcasm) guns are as a tool of social control.

[fishwax]

3. I'm excited too. (Relieved, even.)

[Thunderbeast]

4. Pretending that he age will not be an issue is a losing strategy.

He needs to be shown as an effective, successful leader despite his age. Ignoring it will only make the issue fester and raise doubts. Biden was a gaff machine twenty years ago, but has been a successful POTUS because of his experience.

Olbermann's podcast today lays out the risks of running another Democrat instead. It ain't pretty.

[SocialDemocrat61]

57. Of course it's an issue

But does it need to be the main issue? Which is what Stewart and other Corporate Media Millionaires are trying to do, just like they made Hillary Clinton's emails the #1 issue in 2016. How did that go?

This explains it better the I can. Note the comparison charts at about 6:15.

[hlthe2b]

5. I will continue to watch. He's been gone a long time. It will take a bit for him to get to his edgy

self again, but of course he will have to take a few knocks toward Biden--even when I cringe. I know damned well he's not going to be any kind of gift to the Trumpists.

So, at least for now, I will continue to watch on Mondays.

[Traildogbob]

6. The opening

Part had me a little queazy with equal age mocking, but there were some good digs against trump. The reporters at Diners was pretty funny. But with the Editor guest, ranting about Joe and insinuating we need to take him off the ballot was way too far. That is when I switched to Cobert. And Stephen cleansed my palette with his brutal take down of Trump.
Not gonna throw John in the Maher trash heap yet,
He has proven to be a strong progressive for decades. I hope the pushback will be taken seriously for his future shows. I do love him, and hey, can we stop the John is too old shit and he needs to move on? FFS.
More Cowbell and Trump trashing please.

[Autumn]

7. I loved the part when he pointed out what is said about trumps age versus what is said about Biden's age.

John Stewarts take on trump has been sadly missing.

[LittleGirl]

8. I enjoyed the clip I watched

Sometimes the truth hurts. Remember how Bernie was too old? As I stare down my 65th birthday in the fall, I am learning a lot about whether or not the elderly are good citizens. I've always learned to respect my elders so I don't mind Biden being 81 right now. He's sharp. He has a stutter and I learned in kindergarten not to mock people with a speech impediment. This exception applies to 45. I don't even want to type his name.

[angrychair]

9. Only shows you can never go back

Stewart is Republican propaganda machine at this point. Harping on age while giving Trump a pass or implying, even in the slightest way, they are anything alike, is doing nothing more than driving away people from Biden.
He jokes but people take him very seriously and attacking Biden like this will hurt Democrats.

[Autumn]

11. I didn't see any attacks on Biden. I saw a great comedian doing what he always does.

He showed the difference in what is said about trumps age and what is said about Biden's age and that was pretty damn good.

[angrychair]

20. Hey ripped on Biden non-stop

While giving a couple throw away lines about trump and didn't even mention trump telling Putin to invade Europe.
That should literally be the only thing we talk about from now until election day. Is trump trying to get Putin to invade Europe and leaving our allies swinging in the wind.

[Autumn]

23. As a Democrat I already knew that and I have found Democrats can focus on more than one thing at a time.

Of course that is what Trump is trying to do. Republicans and Maggats are fine with it. You think Jon is going to change their minds?

[angrychair]

29. The problem is

That the news media is only picking up on Stewart's age criticism of Biden and nothing on Trump. Literally nothing.
That will influence younger voters and independent voters.
Stewart is not just some comedian. People take what he says very seriously.

[redqueen]

32. You're demonstrably wrong.

https://democraticunderground.com/100218680140

[angrychair]

36. I appreciate that

But very few kids in their 20s care what Joe Scarborough or Michael Steele say.
But they will care about the highly edited, one-sided tiktok or Instagram or YouTube videos of Stewart ranting about how old and incompetent Biden is on the Daily Show. Most of them are barely paying attention to anything outside their little bubble and most couldn't find Israel or even Mexico for that matter, even if given a map with it highlighted in yellow and arrows pointing to it. These young people are heavily influenced by social media which preys on their ignorance and complacency

[redqueen]

38. I think people are imagining reasons to worry and lashing out at others

TBH the FUD around here is more than a little annoying.

Genuine concerns, no doubt I get that and let's discuss.

Imagining the youths deciding to vote for trump because of jokes? Yeah, no.

[angrychair]

42. Not worried about voting

For Trump. Most young people wouldn't do that. They just won't vote at all.
What bothsideism does is erode participation. To Doesn't have to be a lot. I suspect that the voter participation rate this year will be below 50% as voters just get pummelled for the next 9 months by the mass media narrative on the president and it starts to erode support, especially with young voters and black voters.
There is no path to victory when almost every single media platform, even traditional allies like MSNBC and NYT, is pumping almost non-stop criticism of Biden and age and competency.

[Autumn]

33. That's what the media does. They only pick up on what benefits trump. Young people don't pay any attention to

what the main stream media does. But they will pay attention to what Jon says. He points out the difference between trump and Biden age and their mental capacity and uses humor to do it. Biden is old, they know that. But trump is fucking demented and old. The clip of trump on the witness stand was priceless and I'll bet the media never fucking showed that.

[Chakaconcarne]

15. "republican propaganda machine"? Okay....

[angrychair]

21. Any failure

To unequivocally and without remorse, being relentless on the things Trump has said and done, is a complete abdication of your responsibility of the platform people like Stewart have and he choose to use it to attack Biden's age, feeding the Republican narratives.

If you don't think Republicans are not creating commercials using Stewart's attacks on Biden, you are kidding yourself. I'm surprised they are not out already

[Autumn]

25. Maybe Democrats should watch the one he did of Trump on the witness stand and create a commercial using that.

[Caliman73]

22. If you think one comedian on one show can "drive people away from Biden" wow...

Like I say to religious people, if your god is so sensitive that it cannot take criticism and is offended by our human failings to the extent that we suffer for all eternity, that does not sound like a god worthy of worship.

I understand the concern. Trump was elected once already. People make really stupid choices sometimes. Are you saying that John Stewart and one segment that he did on one show, has the power to change people's minds? If so, what does that say about 1. Joe Biden and the Democratic message and 2. The American people?

I think that John Stewart has done really good work outside of his role as a comedian. I think that he has done some good work as a comedian and when interviewing Conservatives on his show "The Problem". At the end of the day however, he is one person, a comedian, with one opinion. If people are so swayed by what one guy says regardless of whether he is on our side or the other side, that tells me that we have way bigger problems than the jokes Stewart made about President Biden's age.

[et tu]

12. nothing much about character

or accomplishments of either one.
some tee hees but really luke warm~

[progressoid]

14. I'm guessing he didn't meet the expectations of a lot of people.

They were expecting a scathing rant about Trump and only some softball comments of our guy.

All other criticism is verboten!

[Autumn]

16. He surpassed every expectation I had.

[Johonny]

17. Its very hard for Jon to reach those expectations

Look how many incredible people went through his show and on to huge things. Jon is literally starting over again. It will take a lot of time to rebuild TDS talent base.

[karynnj]

18. Political humor has always found low hanging fruit in negative memes on politicians

That is why I was horrified in the beginning of this century when there was story after story on how younger people were often getting much of their news from comedy shows.

The problem with that is it gives little weight to major accomplishments. How can passing a major infrastructure bill, that is fixing bridges etc all over the country and doing more for climate change than any other piece of legislation in decade be funny? Likewise, the Biden administration is doing an enormous amount of diplomacy involving even the President dealing with one of most confusing, dangerous situations in the Middle East.

The closest comedy was able to deal with serious issues may have been Colbert who essentially told political guests to answer any question straight. The jokes were always the obviously stupid statements in response by the in character Colbert. In that way, he had a show where the guests platformed their issue concisely, but it was still a hilarious show.

The problem now is the huge difference between the serious, well meaning, very decent Biden, with all his foibles and the inherently evil, vulgar Trump. Trump needs to be seen for what he is and NOT humanized by treating his probably intentional misstatements as jokes. The Biden jokes hurt because they exploit the inconsequential weaknesses while ignoring all the virtues.

[Caliman73]

19. He did fine.

People are scared and turning to hyper partisans because of the stakes.

One thing that has typically separated us Liberals/Progressives/Further Left... from Conservatives is our ability to laugh at ourselves. Some people on our side are at the point where not strictly following an orthodoxy is a direct and blatant affront to the stability of the world. That has typically been a more right wing trait. I do understand the push and pressure not to "attack" people on our side, even though it is often applied very selectively.

I do think that Trump and Conservatives pose a fundamental challenge to the idea of our Constitutional Republic. They look like they are tired of any kind of democracy and would gladly trade it in for one party rule.

I don't think that Stewart poking fun at Biden's age is going to destroy our chances at winning the election.

[angrychair]

28. He feeds the news media narrative

I've already seen at least three articles about it. Go look at the Daily Beast article, it only mentions Stewart's criticism of Biden's age and nothing he said about Trump.
That is the risk of that kind of talk. Especially when the Republican candidate is only 3 yrs younger and has the vocabulary and diction of a brain damaged toddler.

[Caliman73]

34. Then we should be angry at the media right?

Like when Reagan wore a Tan suit and nothing was said, and then President Obama wore a Tan suit and the world was ending?

Dumb Obama, shouldn't have worn a Tan suit... right? Or maybe the media is to blame and not Stewart for making an observation?

We tend to blame people when SYSTEMS are to blame.

[MistakenLamb]

24. lots of us remember the outrageous both siderism he did to Hillary and Trump

[underpants]

27. We just watched it. Funny as always.

[usedtobedemgurl]

37. And this is what is still great about our country...

A lot of us can have varying opinions and it is ok.

[FemDemERA]

43. I watched and

I laughed only once. When Joe turned back to the podium, Jon’s reaction got me to laugh. Beyond that meh… I just didn’t find him funny. But no biggie. I will stick with Seth Meyers and “A Closer Look”.

[redqueen]

46. I flipping love Seth & a closer look.

But I gotta admit I also liked Jon riffing on 'chocolate chip cookies' 😂

I adored Biden's Superb Owl ad, and it's getting a lot of love on TikTok too, but for me that was just plain funny

[Hekate]

47. Looks like Jon Stewart will be just fine. Thank you for the post.

[Layzeebeaver]

48. Here's my perspective.

He focused on the "old factor" because its an easy path for jokes

The real mother load of jokes is between the parties - focus on that.

I really don't appreciate it when the entire focus of political comedy (or news for that matter) is based on the age of the presidential candidate. THAT'S THE ISSUE THE REPUGS WANT US TO FOCUS ON! And John played right into that.

The real issues are:

What party do you want to have in power?

What party will construct a cabinet and support team who are top of their game?

What party will deliver on core programs that help America citizens vs corporate power?

What party will save social security?

What party is committed to support our alliances world-wide and stand against Putin?

Vote your party.

Shall I go on?

[Autumn]

49. Why waste our time preaching to the choir?

We are Democrats and the answers to all your questions is "Democrats of course", That being said Jon did a great job of highlighting the difference between trump and Biden.

[Layzeebeaver]

50. I don't think he did that all that well.

It was more of a "it's all a shit show" on both sides schtick (which I reality it isn't).

No one is above the law or above scarsacm or above jokes. Real criticism of Biden's behaviour, character and performance is a fair thing to undertake. John was basically only saying Biden is old, Trump is old - what the F&*K are we doing, surrounded by jokes.

Also, he made the entire session about the presidential bit only. He just threw meat to the sharks and that was it - ok with a smirk.

He can do better - I will continue to watch him.

Here, yes we are all democrats and we get it - so no need to preach to the choir - I agree with you.

But John was talking to anyone tuning in - he was potentially talking to swing voters. His jokes and message were not all that inspiring people to vote.

And his assertion that the country will go on regardless? Well, we see if that happens... That's just a tacit message not to vote at all.

Anyway, that's only my opinion, take it or leave it.

[Autumn]

54. We see it very differently. Have a nice day.

[Layzeebeaver]

58. and you as well!

[randr]

51. We all need a wake up call as much as Biden's handlers

[NoRethugFriends]

53. No. Jordan Klepper did a great job on the show last night.

Stewart did smug crap.
And making fun of Joe's stuttering. Very classy.

[Autumn]

55. He's a comedian, that's what comedians do. I'm grateful he's on our side.

[NoRethugFriends]

56. You OK with him making fun of the stuttering?

[Autumn]

59. I watched the show, I never saw him make fun of Biden's stuttering. You post a link to that.

[Autumn]

61. I watched the video again. Jon Stewart did not make fun of Biden's stuttering. Why are you saying he did?

[Music Man]

60. It made me squirm, but maybe that's the point.

I think we have to remember that Jon Stewart has earned the benefit of a few hundred doubts. His body of work has shown that he's as brilliant a guy late night has ever seen and that he takes his work seriously. No one who has seen his HBO show "The Problem with Jon Stewart" could ever insinuate that he's some Republican propaganda machine or solely out for jokes. He's undoubtedly one of us, and he knows who his audience is.

However, in his own way, I think he wants Democrats to face certain realities or risk losing an election specifically because we were too scared to point out faults with our own. I, too, get nervous in an election year in which a monster like Trump is the opponent and Jon Stewart criticizes Biden. I think, "Shhh!!! Someone might hear you." Again, though, perhaps it's part of his own comedic strategy. Tell Democrats to shape up and also earn some bonafides that one is not a partisan hack. Stewart himself made this point, saying that when the barbarians are at the gate, you better make sure the person standing between you and them knows what the hell they're doing.

I'm reminded of a line from one of the Harry Potter books in which Dumbledore talks about how it takes courage to stand up to your enemies but just as much to stand up to your friends.

Anyway, I totally get the angst and frustration many who took exception to Stewart's first night back. I shared that. But I also want to give one of the smartest and funniest guys of our generation some leash.

[Abolishinist]

62. Very well said.

Last edited Thu Mar 7, 2024, 07:00 PM - Edit history (1)

I agree, and I've liked Jon Stewart from day one. One only needs to go back to some of his earlier back and forths with the likes of, say, Oklahoma State Sen. Nathan Dahm on guns. He is almost always two steps above anyone he goes against.

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