More Surrender Jokes: Jon Stewart
Editorials April 8th, 2008With Official French Bashing (2003-2007) now as irrelevant as Fox News, “surrender jokes” should have been on the way out. The opposite now seems to be the case with a renewed effort from some columnists and comedy writers, including of all people Jon Stewart and The Daily Show.
Having been the sole voice of dissent along with Bill Maher, The Daily Show was a welcome respite under the Bush Administration. But last night, in a segment about the Olympic torch and pro-Tibet protests in Paris, Jon Stewart spun the events as follows:
“Basically, faced with danger – the French – oh what’s the word I’m looking for? Gave up? No. Conceeded? Anyway…”
Jon Stewart has now entered the long list of overt French Bashing comedians and pundits, who believe the horrors suffered by France, and Europe, during World War II, are so trivial as to be nothing more than a joke.
But here’s the kicker: The Daily Show is aired nightly in France, on Canal Plus. Show your anger and request Canal Plus pull this show from their line-up immediately.
Contact Canal Plus
Bertrand Méheut, PDG
Groupe CANAL+
1, place du Spectacle
92863 Issy-Les-Moulineaux Cedex 9
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Contact Jon Stewart and The Daily Show
Jon Stewart
thedailyshow@comedycentral.com
c/o The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
733 11th Avenue
New York, NY 10019-5051
Post comments online at TheDailyShow.com
Note 1: Back in 2004, the Pew Research Center revealed that 21 % of young people aged 18 to 29 said they got their campaign news from Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update and Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show.
Note 2: For historical accuracy, please read notes 18 and 104 of 112 Gripes about the French, ‘Information & Education Division’ of the US Occupation Forces, 1945
How disappointing.
[h/t to PK & SK]
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April 8th, 2008 at 9:22 am
You’re right it’s really disappointing that even supposedly reasonable people like Jon Stewart would resort to hurtful anti-French slurs like this.
It really shows how widespread and ingrained anti-French bigotry has become in America’s psyche.
ps: M. Stewart. It was the Chinese who put out the flame and stopped everything.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSHKG307383
““The Chinese security guards — who in Paris nervously turned the flame off several times on Monday and retreated with the torch to a bus when protesters advanced”
You missed a good opportunity to keep quiet.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Thanks Barney for the fact checking. Please let your feelings be known at The Daily Show’s comment section as well.
I feel so disappointed by Jon.
- Marc
April 8th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
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April 8th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Marc,
I’d bump up the “French bashing level” indicator a notch or two. French bashing is here, more than ever. It’s just dormant.
Iä phtagn…
Ok, bad joke.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
André - I was actually thinking about that this morning…
April 18th, 2008 at 1:06 am
Odd joke tonight by Jon Stewart.
Commenting the visit of a Synagogue by Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), Stewart joked about not knowing if the “Jews surrendered” - A very odd joke…
April 18th, 2008 at 1:16 am
More French ? John Hodgman, Daily Show funnyman used French tonight to express his elitism by screaming “ça suffit”.
April 18th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Thanx for the updates, miquelon.
That’s funny how many times France or the French are being mentioned because according to French-bashers, they actually never hear anyone ever talk about the French ever.
Once, I confronted the pathological anti-Frenh xenophobes at no pasaran and they told me that americans never talk about the French.
The irony that they had been doing just that every single day on their hate site of theirs for the past few years was apparently lost on them.
April 19th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
[…] the last month we were graced with surrender jokes by CBS’s Craig Ferguson, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and “surrender monkey” slurs from a Jonah Goldberg Canadian Mini-Me known as Don […]
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:42 am
Come on, the guy’s a comedian… I’m French, my grandfather was in the Resistance during WWII and thus all this “surrender” and France bashing stuff really pisses me off, but I can take a joke.
This won’t prevent me from watching The Daily Show. Jon Stewart makes jokes about pretty much everything, that doesn’t mean he hates everything… That’s just his job as a comedian.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:13 am
Klappy - Does “comedian status” give you a free pass to go beyond the pale?
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I don’t think he did. There’s a difference between insults and jokes. Let’s show French people do have a sense of humour too. As I said, he makes jokes about everyone, but no one ever complains about it.
Anyway, Jon Stewart is not anti-French. Actually, I think he doesn’t care about France at all. He made fun of Bill O’Reilly quite often when he was boycotting France for no reason.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Absolutely, Jon ridiculed O’Reilly, granted. This is why we feel even more betrayed by Jon and his “surrender” joke.