John Stewart on Crossfire

[Brandon]

I'm just glad somebody finally told Carlson and Begala -- on air and to their faces -- that their show is truly godawful. It was a long time coming.

[Anonymous]

Haha.

It just seemed like what he said - he wanted to come on their show and tell them that it sucked and was part of the problem with the media. Afterwards he kinda got disinterested in participating.

[Anonymous]

Sorry about all the double-posting, y'alls.

I remember an old dilbert strip making fun of Crossfire, too, where dogbert prepares ratbert for the show by beating him senseless with a newspaper. That's about the extent of my experience with the program.

[Ricky Glue]

This truly made me believe and reaffirm the fact that I'm voting Stewart/Foley in 2008!

[mburbank]

Pern; your points about the score not changing and crossfire fans not getting any slap that didn't come from the hand of God are both well taken.

But, humor is subjective, and I thought he was effective and funny.

I never really thought of it in terms of it mattering. I just enjoyed it and thought he did a good job. I can't imagine anything happening on Crossfire short of murder or nudity that would change anything.

[ziggytrix]

He went on their show and made a joke out of it. Clearly, Stewart won.

[Zebra 3]

Originally Posted by El Blanco

And I want a TV show. If nothing else, than to prove it actually is possible to have a conservative point of view and a sense of humor.

- Conservatives are not funny.

[kellychaos]

Two points:

Point One: As Stewart lampoons the media on his show, I believe it would be disengenuous and the height of hypocrisy for him to come onto a show such as Crossfire and suck up to the hosts. He wasn't changing colors, really. He was just being honest to the theme of his show and the hosts of Crossfire didn't expect that. Boo freakin' hoo!

Point Two: I thought that it was unfair for the hosts to infer that Stewart was soft balling his guest when they do the same thing. If the prospective guests thought that they were going to be evicerated on the air, they would never agree to appear on ANY show. What they want is exposure and they want exposure in the best possible light on ANY show ... and ... NO GUEST, NO SHOW. That being said, I thought that it was unfair for Stewart to hold Crossfire up to a higher code of integrity than he does on his own show. If they attacked every guest in the way that Stewart suggests, then they'd never have another guest and wouldn't be able to stay in business. It's a comprimise that will always exist if you expect to have high-caliber guests on your show ... no getting around it, really.

[mburbank]

PJ Ororke is funny.

And while he often sacrafices humor to party loyalty, I have seen Bob Dole be funny, and the same can be said of Alan Simpson.

On the whole though, conservatives seem to be more loathe to make fun of themselves and more commited to agenda over humor. Witness what's become of Dennis Miller, who before becoming determindly right wing was often funny and now... well, isn't.

Liberals had no fun of making fun of Clinton for having his weiner waxed. Conservatives are frightened of mking fun of W for at very least appearing to be stupid.