'The Daily Show' Takes On The Nanny State (VIDEO)

Last night on "The Daily Show," Lewis Black did his "Back In Black" segment around the latest government regulations including TSA pat-downs, graphic labels on cigarette packaging, and San Francisco's Happy Meal ban.

Black isn't so sure many of these regulations will actually protect Americans. For example, the images of cadavers we will soon see on cigarette packages looks uncannily like the latest advertisements for "Saw." Black offered a better solution:

"If you really want to keep [kids] from lighting up, launch a PRO smoking campaign that links cigarettes to virginity."

And don't get Black started on San Francisco's ban of Happy Meal toys.

"So let me get this straight," Black said. "The town that gives away clean syringes to heroin adicts won't let your kid have a Buzz Lightyear with his Happy Meal because it sends the wrong message?"

WATCH:

Comments

[Zip Ominous]

11:02 PM on 11/18/2010

More false equivalency.

Right now, the DADDY state eats more of your taxes for Pentagon Welfare Socialism than any "Nanny" program around.

But Doormat-o-crats are too scared of Daddy. Better to join him and attack "Nanny".

America deserves its fate

[mowgli2071]

10:11 PM on 11/18/2010

Are you kidding? OF COURSE San Fran, home (snicker) of the size queen, is going to ban circumcisions. After all, life is like intercourse: the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Giggety.

[MomfromTexas]

09:22 AM on 11/18/2010

This routine is funny, but Black on Beck is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Hysterical!

[MomfromTexas]

09:24 AM on 11/18/2010

Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JngI1_8beoA

[HC32]

12:46 PM on 11/18/2010

Awesome! Beck's such a joke, but he does serve the great purpose of providing us with endless streams of comedy.

[Neets101]

01:06 PM on 11/18/2010

Tears were shooting out of my eyes I was laughing so hard.

Thanks for posting that.

[kfdan]

02:57 AM on 11/18/2010

I love Black's take on San Francisco and yes ... he right ... SF has become a nanny state! Too bad ... SF has gone from 'free love' to 'don't touch my mustache!'

[watcherreader]

01:59 AM on 11/18/2010

"How will this image get us to stop smoking when it is basically the same image that gets us to buy a movie ticket."

HOW??? HOW INDEED???!!!

What comedic brilliance. Such acute insight. Timeless comedic genius. How on earth where we able to perceive reality without such a comedy Einstein that is Lewis Black. He alters my structure of thought. Thank you, thank you, oh so kind and loving Jon Stewart. We prostrate ourselves at your feet in gratitude for giving us the gift of Lewis Black's wisdom.

[Catfish1968]

01:23 AM on 11/18/2010

I would like to see Mcdonalds banned from the US.

[joemartin1296]

12:35 AM on 11/18/2010

wait -- where is the funny segment Stewart did on Charlie Rangel? why isn't that on this site... like every other one of Stewart's segments?

real shock that it's missing.

hypocrites.

[Catfish1968]

01:24 AM on 11/18/2010

So the gatekeepers on this website must ask you for content from now on?

[watcherreader]

02:00 AM on 11/18/2010

ditto

[RosanneofTennessee]

12:10 AM on 11/18/2010

Link cigarettes to virility; that's the link that will make men quit.

[yert33]

09:20 AM on 11/18/2010

what???

[RosanneofTennessee]

10:07 AM on 11/18/2010

No link cigarettes to crotch rot. That's what I really meant. That's the only thing that would make a man stop filling his lungs with cancerous smoke.

[beckpod1]

11:51 PM on 11/17/2010

Funny...again....
As consumers of flight travel...and Americans.....we should be able to vote for...or against what kind of RIDICULOUS security procedure we should have to endure!
If don't have these rights...what are we protecting?

[Rapier]

11:33 PM on 11/17/2010

Too good! Also funny .... http://ofthisandthat.org/SpeciealNews.html

[LMPE]

09:02 PM on 11/17/2010

I've never gone to McDonalds, so that one has no significance to me.

[yellowdoggie]

06:45 AM on 11/18/2010

Do you understand the Buzz Lightyear reference?

[bryan broome]

08:32 PM on 11/17/2010

The anti-circumcision of babies part really cracks me up. I wonder what the city of SanFrancisco 's stance on abo-rtion is. Um, let's k-i-ll babies but for God's sake don't trim thier little winkies.

[skantea]

12:51 AM on 11/18/2010

It won't pass a vote.

[KillgoreTrout43]

08:06 PM on 11/17/2010

Maybe I should charge Them a baggage handling fee!! Too funny.

[Ergoat]

07:06 PM on 11/17/2010

Yeah, the rally for sanity was the daily show was jumping the shark, this Lewis Black "comedy" routine was the splash on the other side.

Was his script written by ExxonMobil? Or [insert ominous corp. name here] ?

And this is someone who usually laughs long and loud at Black and Stewart.

But this kind of comedy is nefarious and insidious as it attempts to rationalize totalitarian behavior by laughing it off as trite.

Really, dissing needle exchange programs?

Making fun of people who don't want to be radiated or groped for wanting to travel?

Against male child genital mutilation? Really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah... he's a comedian, they are just jokes. Except, this time, I really feel like he was given a script by some right-wing think tank/ADL type groups.

And special interest funded comedy ain't funny, it's propaganda.

[KillgoreTrout43]

07:15 PM on 11/17/2010

Jeebus, it is comedy. Are people so contentious that they have completely lost any sense of humor??

[speckurban]

07:44 PM on 11/17/2010

Nothing is funny anymore! It's always a personal attack, or a tasteless commentary, never just purely comedy.

That or most people just don't understand satire.

[bryan broome]

08:28 PM on 11/17/2010

You must be at the bad part of the drunk. If you would have viewed him an hour earlier you would be telling us all how much you loved him.

[EuropeWindAndFire]

06:24 PM on 11/17/2010

Beware of the Nanny-state!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkp7wsJc8MI

[schatsie]

10:15 PM on 11/18/2010

not as funny as Lewis Black and i love frannie....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JngI1_8beoA