X387: Jon Stewart on satire - something we would have discussed in class if COMM 387 hadn't been canceled

An academic point, since we won't be having the class.

But, hey, I'm an academic. ...

And the issue is important. I want it linked here in case I want to come back to it later without endlessly combing the internet for something I only halfway remember.

When he came back on air Monday night after the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Gifford, Jon Stewart's monolog attempted to put the tragedy -- and the Daily Show's treatment of it -- in perspective. In so doing, he came as close as I've seen yet to saying out loud what the standards behind his satire are. Some excerpts (quoted from the Huffington Post transcript):

STEWART: It's hard to know what to say. The events this weekend in Arizona weigh heavily. Sadly, it is a feeling that this country has experienced all too often and unfortunately for our show, the closer that we have gotten towards discussing and dealing with current events the harder it becomes in situations where reality is truly sad. ...

Someone or something will shatter our world again ... and wouldn't it be a shame
if we didn't take this opportunity, and the loss of those incredible people and the pain that their loved ones are going through right now ... wouldn't it be a shame if we didn't take that moment to make sure that the world we are creating now [...] wouldn't it be a shame if that world wasn't better than the one that was previously lost? ...

Tomorrow we go back to doing what we normally do which is highlight absurdity in a comical way that is a catharsis for people and not a sadness.

Which is as good a definition of satire, as it plays out in the 21st century, as anything Swift and Pope said in the London coffeehouses about rewarding Virtue and reforming Vice.

And Ken Tucker's column for Entertainment Weekly's EW.com website aptly headlined "Jon Stewart struggled admirably with the funny on Monday's 'Daily Show'" ended with this:

It may sound like a flimsy show, but simply by expressing the confusion, sadness, and frustration he felt, Stewart was performing a small service — that is, mirroring our own confusion, sadness, and frustration about the awful event in Arizona. That’s something that shouldn’t be dismissed lightly.