From wings to war: Jon Stewart takes aim
GOP a favorite target of ‘Daily Show’ host
Jon Stewart once likened his work as a comedic broadcast journalist to that of “a tiny, neurotic man standing in the back of the room throwing tomatoes at the chalkboard.”
The host of “The Daily Show” was back at school Saturday, in front of a sold-out crowd in University at Buffalo’s Alumni Arena.
And he kept the tomatoes flying.
Hypocrisy, dogma and anti-gay bigotry were among his main targets.
Oh, and Republicans — especially Dick Cheney, complete with the mocking penguin snarl familiar to “Daily Show” viewers.
“He’s been wrong at every turn on every subject,” Stewart said of the outgoing vice president.
“How has this guy kept his job? Could you keep your job if you were that wrong?”
Stewart’s take on veep wannabe Sarah Palin?
“I’ve never seen anyone say such awful things in such an adorable way.”
About the only one to escape his pointed observations was Presidentelect Barack Obama.
“We selected the candidate to lead the nation who sounded the smartest. We never do that,” he deadpanned.
Stewart was selected by UB’s undergraduate students for the university’s Distinguished Speakers Series.
“I feel this series deserves better,” he quipped.
After engineering a stand-up routine of about an hour and 15 minutes that was one part off-color comedy and one part political commentary, Stewart fielded questions from the audience.
One student asked him if he thinks his show informs viewers.
“I hope not,” he replied. Rather, he said, “Our show functions as an editorial cartoon. . . . We’re people who sit and watch the news and can’t believe what we see.”
Stewart began the night with some gentle mocking of Buffalo.
“What a delight to be in Buffalo — gateway to Fort Erie,” he said to applause.
Then, speaking of our fame as the home of the chicken wing, he said: “I’ve never been in a town so proud to invent a bar food.”
With that, he flashed the smirk that is one of his trademarks on “The Daily Show.”
Stewart likened President Bush at a news conference to the kid in sixth grade who gets called to the front of the class to present a book report on a book he never read.
The result, he said, is a country that’s in a mess.
“Here’s how bad off we are as a country: A man named Barack Hussein Obama won Virginia.”
Stewart took aim at zealots of all stripes, particularly opponents of equal rights for gays.
“How in God’s name is gay marriage allowed to be an issue in the elections?” he asked.
At another point, after taking on the extremes of both science and religion, he said: “If there is anything we can take away tonight — be reasonable.”
Among Stewart’s other observations.
• On his first clue that invading Iraq was a bad idea:
“When you are going to war and Germany doesn’t want to fight. Germany! The Michael Jordan of war!”
• On Pope Benedict:
“The pope is the most loved man who nobody agrees with.”
• On the tenacity of Hillary Clinton:
“She must have been the hardest person to break up with in high school.”
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