HBO and Comedy Central are missing a golden opportunity.
Rather than pair boxing champ Floyd Mayweather against ... whoever's left, they should match political, social satirist Jon Stewart against social, political satirist-commentator Bill Maher.
Billed as The Grumble in the Jungle (hey, it's marketing), it just might score major pay-per-view dollars.
Let's look at the stats:
Maher ranks 38th on Comedy Central's list of "100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time," Stewart is 41 (ooh, close Jon).
Stewart co-authored, America (the book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction.
Maher (single-handedly, mind you) authored the seminal work: When You Ride ALONE, You Ride with bin Laden: What the Government Should Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Rerrorism. Just in word count, alone, Maher wins.
Stewart hosted the 78th and 80th Academy Awards. Maher ... well, he was busy both nights.
Stewart's Daily Show has been nominated for a number of news and journalism awards.
Maher ... I think New Rules! was nominated for a Razzi, but lost out to the Kardashians.
On the issues:
Maher's wheelhouse is politicians, greed, gay marriage, the media, and religion. In fact, his recent documentary, Religulous provided Maher the perfect forum to rant about any and all faiths, doctrines, extremists and conservatives alike. Maher on Scientology: "You, like all religious people, have a neurological disorder. And the only reason why people think it's sane is because so many other people believe the same thing. It's sanity by consensus."
Stewart's specialty is chastising the media networks -- CNN, MSNBC, and his new favorite, FOX News. However, unlike the acerbic Maher, Stewart's affable nature allows him to draw out celebrity guests like agitated former CNN host Lou Dobbs into sharing details of his on-air departure. "Jon Klein, the president of CNN told me, point-blank," Dobbs said, "that the network was going to move away from advocacy journalism, that I practice and move toward something called middle-of-the-road journalism."
Stewart's response, "Are you sure it wasn't adult-contemporary journalism?"
When Representative John Dingell shared the storied history of his trusty wooden gavel, Stewart grabs the mallet, has trouble cracking walnuts saying, "Damn big government!"
What I like about both critics is their unique way of holding the mirror up to our nature; a nature that is both virtuous and contemptible.
And the lessons we come away with are valuable: 1) It's okay to question authority, especially when it's done in a smart-clever way that makes a point; 2) In looking for answers to big issues, sometimes we must start by tearing down the walls of hypocrisy and bullsh*t; and 3) When we take ourselves too seriously, Jon and Bill are always ready to puncture our pomposity.
You don't have to agree with Stewart or Maher, but they do make you think about the things we believe in. In that regard, both act as a contemporary Socrates, challenging the status quo, searching for truth behind the façade of the big and powerful.
If we're ever going to solve the issues that challenge the courage of our convictions, we all need to do a lot more critical thinking.
When he's not watching Maher and Stewart, Jim Lichtman writes and speaks on ethics to corporations, associations and schools. His commentaries can be found at www.ethicsStupid.com.
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Whatever ego Stewart may have, it's subsumed in his show. His humor is usually self-deprecating (sometimes even too much) and what I find remarkable is that most of the time, he plays straight man to his "reporters." Above all, he's smart, well-informed and incredibly sharp -- even in unscripted moments -- and he has a brilliant staff that outresearches the best news organizations out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJPG1mWiow8
Bill gives his take on the oil leak, immigration, Charlie Crist, and Jay Leno's performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner. The extra web-only Green Room segment is also included.
Oh please. They're self-righteous smart-aleck blowhards with a soap box. That's it.
Kudos to both Maher and Stewart. I'm so glad we have them both available to us!
I would say it's more like religion, marijuana, America as empire, the lousily fought war on terror, and "democrats moving to the right and the republicans have moved into a mental hospital." Those are his biggest ones he makes a point to harp on all the time.
I most often like Stewart, he's a great check on mainstream media, but I am not clear about what kind of news media he WOULD want to see us have. He can't stand any of our news networks, I have problems with all of them too. But he will even attack MSNBC hosts from time to time, sometimes rightfully, sometimes it seems like he does it just to show that he will even go after progressives. Like that time he went after Rachel Maddow for over-analyzing USAID's role and motivation in helping out Haiti, saying it was too soon to do so (whaaa??!? sorry John but investigative reporting should not cease just because it's an emotional time) http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/rachel-maddow-responds-jon-stewarts-critic
Bill also is very brave in taking on religion which is generally not done in the US on TV. John is more middle of the road in that area. Not sure they could work together they need their own shows.
Would love to see a debate with either of them against Glenn Beck or any of the other loony hosts on fox news. If nothing else it would be funny!