Jon Stewart absolutely ripped into Fox News's defense of Rush Limbaugh by playing the "comedy" card, and the "both sides do it" card by citing Bill Maher.
So I guess by bringing up Bill Maher, Fox is saying, "Hah? So we're even, right? Offsetting penalties. Let's just say we all get back to what really matters to Americans, whether Obama is a Sunni or a Shi'a."
But Fox wasn't done.
ERIC BOLLING (3/8/2012): When the liberals hide behind comedy and say, "Oh, I'm a comedian, I can say these hateful and vile things".
MICHELLE MALKIN (3/8/2012): This is the humor card that they always play as their last resort, and it really is the ultimate sign of cowardice.
ANDREA TANTAROS (3/9/2012): If I said I'm not just a columnist, I'm also a comedian, put a clown nose on, clown shoes, would that be OK?
GRETCHEN CARLSON : They hide under the helmet of "oh, I'm a comedian, so I can get away with that".
OK, first of all, comedians don't wear helmets. I don't know where you're going to see comedy, but it is not a helmeted art form. I think you may have been watching the X-Games. They wear helmets.
And second of all, "he's a comedian" was your whole defense of Limbaugh!
NEWSCASTER: Limbaugh said Friday he was just being provocative, his stock in trade.
RUSH LIMBAUGH (3/2/2012): Anybody doesn't realize that we are illustrating absurdity here by being absurd, and that that is the trademark of this program.
RICK SANTORUM (3/2/2012): He's being absurd, but that's, you know, an entertainer can be absurd.
Oh! So I see you're allowed to hide under an entertainer's helmet. Come on! See, here's the other thing that I'm sick and tired of about this comedian thing. Nobody's hiding behind comedy. And there are repercussions for what comedians say. When you're doing it in a club, there are repercussions. Ask Michael Richards. Ask Tracy Morgan. If you do comedy on television, there are repercussions. Ask me.
FOX NEWS (6/27/2011): Did Jon Stewart mock Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain because he's a black man?
(sarcastically) Yes, that's exactly why I mocked him, because he's a black man.
And it's not just news networks calling you racist that are the repercussions that comedians face at times. It's the letters that they get, many of them handwritten, some of them containing white powder in the envelopes. You know, when I got into comedy, I didn't think the white powder I'd be getting was anthrax.
By the way, for those of you at home, don't snort anthrax.
So you see, feedback and repercussions come in many forms, so don't pretend that by people saying that they're comedians, they're hiding. They're not. They're just telling you that the language of satire is slightly different than the language of newscasters. Language in general has repercussions. Like when Ted Nugent faced a nationwide boycott for this.
8/24/2007:
TED NUGENT: Obama, he's a piece of shit! I told him to suck on my machine gun! ... And then I was in New York. I said, "Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch!"
SEAN HANNITY: That was friend and frequent guest on the program, Ted Nugent.
Oh, right, Ted Nugent didn't get boycotted. That was the Dixie Chicks for saying on stage they were embarrassed President Bush was from Texas. But that makes sense. The Nuge was actually sentenced for his diatribe to having to jam "Cat Scratch Fever" with Huck.
And by the way, I'm not saying speech should be policed and censored or boycotted, or that people don't have a right to say crazy things, or to boycott things. I don't believe that's true, I think speech should be much freer. But here's one thing I do believe. Fox, shut the fuck up about how victimized you, and you alone, are! NOBODY CARES!!!
Videos below the fold.
Jon then had
Kristen Schaal on to discuss this "comedy" theme Fox News is using as a defense.
Meanwhile, Stephen had another
ThreatDown, and looked at the results from
last night's primaries.
Jon had on
Will Ferrell, and Stephen had on musician
Andrew Bird, who performed
"Eyeoneye" and
"Danse Caribe".