Cramer v Stewart

I am a huge fan of the Daily Show. I've always loved topical humor, dating back to a show called "This Was The Week That Was" that existed when I was a kid. Back when I was in a sketch comedy group, I got to write stuff like that myself...."Presidential Candidate Condoms" being one of my faves. Jon Stewart and his gang do a great job of scewering stupidity and arrogance from any source, be it right, left, or the media itself.

You may have seen bouncing around the internet the video from earlier this week when Jon Stewart blasted CNBC's talking heads for getting everything wrong about the economic downfall. He particularly picked on stock picking clown Jim Cramer, who does a show that is quite amusing, but often full of bad advice. Stewart showed a bunch of CNBC folks making predictions that were way off, but Cramer took it personally and fired back, going on all the other NBC owned outlets whining about how unfair Stewart was.

Bad idea. A good comedidian with a team of writers will kill you every time. The next night, Stewart had more clips of Cramer, saying things like "Buy Bear Stearns" just days before it went down. Pretty damning stuff, but Cramer was really asking for it.

So tomorrow, Cramer will be Stewart's guest on the show. Should be interesting, but probably not the screaming match some are hoping for. For one thing, Cramer does have a sense of humor, and probably now realized he screwed up by complaining. Secondly, no matter who he has on, Stewart always treats his guests respectfully, whether he agrees with them or not. He is the opposite of Bill O'Reilly, which is how he is always able to get a wide variety of people on, like conservative pundit Bill Kristol, who he jovially harpoons a few times a year over his mistakes (he always plays a clip of Kristol saying there is no way the Sunnis and Shia in Iraq would not get along).

Definitely don't miss TV, but probably more for the laughs than the "smackdown" some would like. If you want a tussle, you should go to hockeyfights.com.