I mostly agree with Dave’s take here. I dont think there is any chance he was doing a riff on Colbert’s old character. Mostly because if he was riffing on anyone he was riffing on himself.
I am less sure Stewart is endorsing the cover up conspiracy, and he was in a mode of using hyperbole to make his point comically. But I do think his point is that science is as much a source of problems as solutions. This to me is reminiscent of his views on the causes of, and perhaps treatment for, Autism, which were at least at times decidedly inconsistent with and hostile to received scientific views. Stewart was extremely critical of George W Bush, but has never been anywhere near as liberal as either Colbert or Oliver. Calling him a Maher is perhaps a bit too cruel, but he has long been closer to him in spirit than his two TDS collaborators. On Wed, 16 Jun 2021 at 5:10 PM [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > I can see where, given his past popularity, people might want to defend > Stewart that way, but for me, the opposing evidence is that 1) Stewart > doesn't do character work that way Colbert did, 2) Colbert was apparently > unprepared for it and couldn't react to it in any effective way (either by > reining him in or responding comedically), and 3) Stewart's proclivity for > calling out what he sees as bullshit in an emphatic way. > > My feeling was that Stewart thinks there's some kind of coverup (and there > may well be, but we don't know) and wanted to call attention to it in the > only way he could. That he came off as an obsessive lunatic is an > unfortunate side-effect. It was a Q-level rant. > > --Dave Sikula > > On Wednesday, June 16, 2021, 9:59:16 AM PDT, Jim Ellwanger < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > I didn’t see the episode, but I’ve seen people on Twitter opining that Jon > Stewart’s rant was supposed to be satire, along the lines of him doing > Stephen Colbert’s “Colbert Report” character at the current incarnation of > Colbert. (Presumably, it wasn’t particularly successful, given that Dave > thought it was Maher-esque, as opposed to Colbert-ish.) > > > On Jun 16, 2021, at 9:34 AM, M-D November <[email protected]> wrote: > > Not making excuses for Colbert & company, but given that H.E.R. was > promoted in the logline for Monday's show, I wonder if they didn't have to > make some last minute changes which threw everyone off? I'm also sort of > curious to know what got edited out of the Jon/Stephen segments that might > have provided some context to that whole Wuhan rant. (Although the closing > bit about Jews aging like avocados made me properly laugh out loud.) > > Truth be told, I'd rather have seen Jon go on his rant for an extra > segment than sit through Carvey's Biden impression again. Even by modern > SNL standards, it was terrible. (Which could have been forgiven if it was > well written, which...no.) > > On Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at 1:00:02 AM UTC-4 Dave Sikula wrote: > > I'd imagine no one will be surprised to learn I thought the return show > was a dismal failure, since it never recovered from whatever the hell > Carvey was doing. I know he and Colbert go way back, and that a lot of > comedians who find him influential (but then they also feel that way about > Farley, Sandler, and Spade). I've always been baffled that anyone could > find him anything less than annoying, and last night was a prime example. > On top of that, Stewart's morphing into Maher -- or at least into a > first-class crank -- is now complete, what with his unending COVID rant. > > I imagined there would be glitches going back to live shows, but didn't > think it would be this bad. I just don't think Colbert quite knows what to > do without the former guy to bitch about. > > --Dave Sikula > > On Tuesday, June 15, 2021 at 6:44:24 AM UTC-7 PGage wrote: > > > https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/15/media/stephen-colbert-audience-coronavirus/index.html > > > > > > > > -- > Sent from Gmail Mobile > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/e02078ab-1137-4b92-a15d-cfc502dca1edn%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/e02078ab-1137-4b92-a15d-cfc502dca1edn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/tvornottv/-4dBkkjw4JY/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/71A35ECB-07A1-44CE-9365-893DEFC88A65%40ellwanger.tv > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/71A35ECB-07A1-44CE-9365-893DEFC88A65%40ellwanger.tv?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/358312261.738410.1623888628798%40mail.yahoo.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/358312261.738410.1623888628798%40mail.yahoo.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. 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