Jon Stewart Takes On Media, Obama For Overreacting To New Yorker Cover: "It's Just A F***ing Cartoon!"

On Tuesday's "Daily Show," Jon Stewart took on the media and Barack Obama for overreacting to, and thus validating, the New Yorker cover controversy.

"It's a trifle, it's nothing," Stewart said. "There's so many other things to talk about: Iraq, the collapse of some of our most prestigious financial institutions...right?" he continued, before showing a montage of the media firestorm over the cover.

Stewart also took the Obama camp to task for calling the cartoon "tasteless and offensive":

"Really? You know what your response should've been? It's very easy here, let me put the statement out for you: Barack Obama is in no way upset about the cartoon that depicts him as a Muslim extremist. Because you know who gets upset about cartoons? Muslim extremists! Of which Barack Obama is not. It's just a fucking cartoon!"

Watch below, and look for the special treatment Stewart gives Wolf Blitzer around 2:30 in:

Bonus: John Oliver, Rob Riggle and Wyatt Cenac hit the streets to explain the impenetrable satire that's almost everywhere:

Comments

[MrJoyboy]

Harold Ross founded the New Yorker on the premise that it wouldn't be understandable to the people in Iowa. Well, he succeeded. Those people don't understand this as "satire". The people who understand it are the 1% of the population who know the New Yorker--mostly affluent New Yorkers Just look at their advertisers and you'll know who the magazine is for.

[Phylmom]

I live in West Virginia and I understand it. I've been a New Yorker subscriber for years. Smart people everywhere understand it. Unfortunately there aren't that many of us.

[66rock]

Yes and look at who won the Iowa primary. Quess "affluent" doesn't take the place of good Midwestern common sense.

[genia]

It's almost as if your trying to make sure he's not elected.
Geez....here we go eating our own. Satire would be making fun of the man's ears ok?
There's a friggin election happening here. No one would care if he was the elected president...hey, have at it...we know you guys make a living at cheap shots...knock yourself out.
I blows my mind that ya'll in the media ....don't have a clue.....of where to draw the line during an election.
Unbelievable.

[ohmercy]

"Satire would be making fun of the man's ears ok?"

Ummm, no, that would not be satire.
That would be sophomoric insults trying to be funny liike you see on every schoolyard.

[shengirl]

I saw it, I got that he was mainly ridiculing the media for their going on and on about this cartoon crisis, NOT Obama. He ran montages of clips of the talking heads making it sound like a cartoon was the end of the world. He was not saying that Obama was in that league. Somebody here has completely missed the point. I agree with Stewart. Obama's camp has made a few comments, but on the whole it has been the MSM that keep trying to fan this into some conflagration it is not. And the MSM who try to make it sound like Obama's people have blown it all up. They have not. The media has. As usual.

[Stew118]

I don't see how this cover would have run had it depicted jews or catholics in a respective caricature. I guess we have been desensitized to such minstrels and caricatures when they involve brown people.

[meanguy]

thanks, stew...my day is not complete until i see some manufactured outrage over imagined racism...

[ohmercy]

LOL
Excellent!!!
Now I can go to sleep. I KNEW I was waiting for someone to say just the right thing.
Hit the spot.
Nighty night meany.
xoxox

;-)

[genia]

I am a fan of all these hmmm..whatever they are.
Comics, journalists...whatever....IMO they need to collectively pull their heads our of their azzes.
They do such a lousy job any more...yet here they all are criticizing...Makes me smile...like YOU guys are criticizing US ? LOL
The way I see it is................THERE'S AN ELECTION HAPPENING HERE FOLKS ! If Sen Obama was POTUS have at it. You'd think that good journalists would know where to draw the line during an election....but here we have them...the journalists and comics telling us...they voting public to snap out...get over...lighten up.
Here's an idea....why don't ya'll do some actual reporting? Satire ..how about you poke fun of his ears or neck...something that won't effect the vote....because if this primary has proven anything it is that we have a whole bunch of dim witts in this country. Think the NY knew that. ? Hmmmm need to pull them heads out guys.....or maybe they damn well knew what they were doing.....it is after all how the republicans reach their target ...they dumb it down, lie, exaggerate.
Hey..maybe they are all angry Clinton supporters trying to weaken our guy.
Who knows? BUT...one thing for sure...it's not a real good idea for you clowns in the media to be pointing fingers at us....k?

[BethinIllinois]

[[the journalists and comics telling us...they voting public to snap out...get over...lighten up.]]

Gee, Obama people are always telling anyone who ever supported HRC to get over it.

Not much fun, is it?

And while I'm at it, NO ONE is under any obligation to make it easier for Obama to be elected president. NO ONE. Certainly not the New Yorker. Not SNL. Not any newspaper or broadcast outlet. Newspapers and television stations are supposed to be fair and even-handed but, well, I think we all learned during the primaries that that didn't work so well. But no magazine has to be.

The fact of the matter is, Obama supporters will/would take umbrage at this. If the cover had been about McCain, GOP'ers would have howled. And you'd be delighted. And you'd be delighted that the First Amendment is alive and well. (Of course, Obama has chucked the 2nd one overboard, but maybe he still likes/respects the First One.)

[ohmercy]

fourth amendment.
And yes. no fun at all, is it?

[ohmercy]

LMAO!!!
"IT'S HILLARY"S FAULT!"

eesshhh.

[poliscibabe]

I know that Barack Obama is first and foremost a politician. I also know that this cartoon is going to be used in many places in the US like the Bible - gospel truth. That's why my normally dry and very active sense of humor is missing on this cartoon. We have enough hurdles without so called, liberal attempts at irony.

[Big0725]

And Jon Stewart is just a f**king mediocre comic and a bad actor who cried on the air after the 9/11 attacks.

[Mattie]

wow, he cried at the senseless death of 2000 people, you're right, what a horrible person!

[meanguy]

sissymary...next thing you know, he'll be smiling at perfect strangers...

[Phylmom]

Oh yeah, right, he's really stupid, he's just the greatest talk show host in the world.

[Nolewoman]

Don't let Jon know you feel this way about him. He would be soooo upset.

[MrJoyboy]

I wonder if Jews in Germany in the 1930s, when they saw the hateful cartoons depicting Jews as ritualistic murderers in the Nazi papers, said "It's just a cartoon."

[NABNYC]

Maureen Dowd asks "May We Mock Obama?" Good question. Coming from her, anyway. "Mock" is commonly defined as "attack or treat with ridicule, contempt, or derision; to ridicule by mimicry of action or speech; mimic derisively. "

So the answer is a definite yes. He's a black male. We can mock anyone except white men. McCain stumbles, bumbles, can't remember his name, can't keep his lies straight, changes his story every morning, dumped one sick wife to marry the rich one, let Bush and Rove humiliate his family, he's old, he's got no ideas, and all he says on the campaign trail is "I like war." But nobody mocks him because he's a white man and in this country, that means you're a mock-free person.

Obama, as a black man, is certain to be mocked his entire life, as he has been throughout this campaign, often by the same Ms. Dowd asking the question. And as an aside, out of every possible topic and male columnist at the NYT, I note that it is left to Ms. Dowd to write the clever, coy, biting, almost-gossip piece, leaving the "real" stories for the men. The non-mockable people. Keep mocking Obama, keep having fun, because when John McCain is elected the party's over.

[jkminwa]

I think McCain avoids being mocked because he's a "war hero." Once you're a war hero, every stupid thing you do or say afterwards must be ignored, or you're not respecting said "war hero's" service to this great country. Either that, or because he buys the press donuts.

I wish she hadn't titled her essay, "May we mock Obama?," because (1) the cartoon that caused the uproar was most definitely NOT mocking Obama and (2) based on all the quotes, Obama isn't easy to mock, and hasn't been mocked to the same degree as other candidates (excluding McCain, of course).

[Kirby]

I am ashamed to have to say it in response to your post,, being a white southerner also ashamed of our past in black bashing, but you're hitting the nail right smack on the head. What a gross shame thnat this is the trujth about the situation. In the coming weeks we'll see and hear Obama discredited by every sort of filth possible. There is an undercurrent in thed media funded by some big money to elect John McCain at any cost.

[Nolewoman]

Apropos of nothing - Yea! Keith is back. I love Rachel but I lovest Keith most. Wonderful to have both.

[BroMan]

Sambo was just a cartoon too.

[bluestatelib]

Don't try to reason with the people here BroMan. Apparently, if one criticizes a cartoon, one also wants to get rid of the First Amendment and make Obama immune from criticism or mocking. I wonder what Stewart's reaction would have been had the New Yorker posted an extremely offensive cartoon cover containing every Jewish stereotype (e.g. big noses, divided loyalties with Israel, money grubbing, etc.). I'm sure he'd have said that it's just a cartoon. Yeah. Right.

[mredder4]

Actually, your sarcastic statement is kind of true. All the Jews I know would look at a cartoon like that and say something to the effect of "Is that all the money they have?" or "Oh, I know a great doctor who could fix that nose."

Jews are light-hearted, and can laugh off a lot of stuff. They're a hardy people, no matter what anyone thinks. Sure, there are some who would get up in arms, but they would be the minority. Every class or group or race or whatever has their small sub-section that is completely and totally unable to laugh at themselves for any reason. You could call them overly prideful.

Obama's campaign, or any of his supporters, getting upset about a trifle like this only goes to show that they take themselves waaaaaaaaay too seriously.

The proper response was, and remains, a complete disregard for the event and a quote to that effect. "We have no comment on the New Yorker cover. It's their right to publish what they wish. We have nothing further to say."

THAT'S IT.

[indypete]

You mean the Jon Stewart who consistently stereotypes jews himself in broad self-mockery? Or are you talking about a Jon Stewart in an alternate universe?

[Jazzcomedian]

And a restaurant chain.

[Halfwit]

I loved eating at Sambo's when I was little.

[jkminwa]

This would be an apt criticism, if the cartoon was about Obama. But it isn't. It's about the utter ridiculousness of the caricatures and whisper campaigns against Obama on the net. The cartoon is completely sympathetic to his plight. And Obama could have owned the cartoon - you know, he's really good at explaining complex ideas - and promoted his anti-smear website at the same time. Maybe he was worried about how the LCD might misinterpret the cartoon, or maybe, bashing that elitist magazine The New Yorker serves him well.

[Jazzcomedian]

It's supposed to be a joke, and the way all humor is received is subjective, as there is no universal sense of humor. So people should either laugh or not laugh, and just leave it at that. All this sturm and drang over the cover is nonsense. The cover and accompanying article was aimed the New Yorker's highly educated, and broadminded readers, not the inhabitants of Appalachia, rural America, Pat Robertson followers, or other close minded people.

Everytime we stop doing something because we think the uninformed or dumb won't get it, the dumb or uninformed win. Everything is now aimed at the lowest common denominator and their concerns. This is why the country is dumbing down at such a rapid pace. Stupidity is setting the American agenda. The smart keep worrying about the dumb, instead of making the dumb worry about getting smarter. As a comedian, I speak from experience. I've followed many popular, sophomoric, comedians at clubs, and when the audience realizes that I'm going to talk about smart stuff whether they like it or not, they listen, start thinking, and get with the program. I've had many audience members tell me that they really enjoyed having to think again. We need to challenge rather than acquiesce to stupid.

Why should the New Yorker stop aiming articles and covers at it's loyal readers on the chance that some idiot who doesn't even know where to find the magazine, will take the wrong thing from it?

Obama/Jazzcomedian '08

[indypete]

As a cruise ship musician (retired), I know plenty of comedians so I get where you're coming from. I speak to them on the ship gigs and they tell me about how much more rewarding (artistically, that is, not financially) they find the shoreside clubs and the college gigs because they are not shackled by the dreaded comment cards. Comedy, as well as being subjective, is usually contraversial and the management of the ships want none of that, thus the comics are left with only their tamest material. God forbid somebody should complain in a comment card and cause the cruise director to give the comic a stiff talking to over using the word boobie or a reference to the government or some such nonsense. I knew a comic (a very good one) who had to drop all his ex-wife jokes over the comment cards...it destroyed his act. This kerfuffle over the New Yorker is like the whole country has become a giant cruise ship full of professional complainers with comment cards and red magic markers.

[LetsGetDumbAmerica]

"It's just a F**king cartoon".

Yeah and tell Howard Dean that his DEAN SCREAM was just "A 2 Second Video Clip". These little things can actually crush rock solid strong compaigns with promising Democratic front runners John. Oh ALL THE people you should know the incredible gullibility of the general public and it's media! Mocking them is your bread and butter for godsakes!

I love you John. You're brillant and so smart that you make a convincing argument. But you're still dead wrong. We have lost good candidates over misinformation like this..

[PhillyQuaker]

People take their Messiahs very seriously.

[nomobull]

and you work hard a being pointless

[joeyp404]

I think Philly is saying this is quite a lot of nonsense about nothing. In the Catholic Church you'd be declared a heretic and discommunicated. But this is a democracy, and whether you find something funny or not, doesn't matter. Philly does, and he or she has the Constitution on his/ger side.

[DRaymond]

Good piece by Stewart, but I think that is puts too much of this on Obama's doorstep, The Obama campaign issued just one statement by a subordinate, not the candidate himself, calling it 'tasteless and offensive'. They didn't call for anybody to be fired, or demand an apology, or insist on a retraction, or any of the over-the-top rhetoric that the Bushites have thrown at critics. Now the fact that the news media and blogosphere ran with is is undeniable, but tha Obama Camp was fairly muted.