" George W. Bush, thank you for not dying while you were in office.”

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook,Daily Show Video Archive

Jon Stewart nails GOP "bipartisanship"

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

Are all Republican politicians gun-toting, coke-snorting, beer-bonging frat dudes?

I didn't say anything about Texas State Rep. Drew Darby (R) "facing a felony charge after he attempted to take a weapon through" security at an airport.

And I managed to hold off on running with the story about Tea Party fave and "hip hop conservative" Trey Radel (representative from Florida) getting busted with cocaine at the airport. Jon Stewart did a nice piece on him—see below.)

But THIS is too much:

That's a guy from Minnesota named Stewart Mills. He is married, but the woman in the photo isn't his wife. Stewart is (was?) a Republican congressional candidate. Asked about his good judgment, he went into classic GOP evasive maneuvers:

"It's no secret that in the past I've let my hair down to have fun with family and friends. My wife and I have had many lighthearted moments in our lives but right now I am focused on my Congressional campaign and the disastrous effects of our overreaching government and sky high unemployment in the north eastern Minnesota."

Now pick this up at 2:34.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

Rand Paul just got his ass—and credibility—handed to him by Jon Stewart

The Daily Show
Get More: ,

Comedy has a liberal bias

Via.

Alison Dagnes has researched political comedy in the U.S., and was interviewed by the Smithsonian about it. Here's a couple of her takes:

You say that there are very understandable reasons that the majority of satirists are liberal. What are these reasons? 

Satire is an anti-establishmentarian art form. It is an outsider art. If you mock people who aren’t in power, it isn’t very funny. Satire really is the weapon of the underdog. It is the weapon of the person out of power against the forces in power. It is supposed to take down the sacred cows of politics and differentiate between what is and what should be…. 

Time magazine conducted a poll asking its readers to identify the most trusted newsperson in America. The winner was Jon Stewart. How do you feel about this? 

… Jon Stewart and his writing staff at The Daily Show do a tremendous job of exposing hypocrisy. They do exactly what satirists are supposed to do. They differentiate between what is and what should be, and that is invaluable. 

[But] you cannot go to Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert and understand something that is going on that is multifaceted and complicated…. I like to give an analogy. I know practically nothing about sports. So, when my husband turns on ESPN, I don’t understand sports better, because they are doing commentary on something that I don’t understand. The same thing goes for any of the satire programs. They are doing comedy on something, and you better have a preexisting understanding of it or else you are not going to get the joke.