Punchlines

by digby

It seems as though I can’t click a link (or look at my morning papers) without seeing another story about the Stewart vs Cramer smackdown. And virtually everyone seems to be shocked by the fact that Cramer was so docile and unprepared when he appeared.

I don’t think it was surprising. He thought he would get one of those friendly interviews that John McCain usually gets. After all, Stewart skewers politicians but treats them rather gently when he interviews them, right? But that’s a common misreading of Stewart. He skewers a lot of different things, including politics and culture, but his primary object of derision and satire is the media and particularly the lying gasbags who populate the cable shows. It’s the whole premise of his show.

For some reason the political media establishment just doesn’t get this. Recall the bizarrely confused reaction from the villagers at that notorious Colbert White House correspondents dinner appearance. They honestly didn’t understand that Stewart and Colbert have nothing but contempt for them.

If you haven’t seen it in a while, check it out:

I think this is one of the best illustrations of the media’s insufferable insularity and self regard. It’s not just nobody rubes like me, who watch these people with slack jawed incredulity that such amazing lack of self-awareness exists in ostensibly grown up humans. (We know they view us with a sort of anthropological curiosity like one of those lost tribes in the Amazon, even as they proclaim to be jess’ folks.) But the people they admire and secretly think they are — the cool, smart, sexy, funny guys — also find them ridiculous and dangerous, just like the rest of us. And these scribblers and gasbags clearly don’t see it.

So, you see Cramer on The Daily Show, clearly a fan, thinking he’s going to be part of some sort of good natured ribbing and he finds himself on the receiving end of a scathing critique right in his face. It had never occurred to him that Stewart really meant any of the things he was saying. After all, they’re both cool guys, right? Playing the game. Winners!

He just doesn’t get the joke. None of them do.

If you doubt that, here’s Cramer’s reaction on his own show to Stewart’s smack down.

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