For the Love of Lonnie
August 5, 2015Barkevious Mingo to undergo knee surgery, expected out up to a month
August 6, 2015
A most glorious Thursday to all denizens of the Blawg Pound both in- and outside Northeast Ohio. There are few summer Thursdays remaining, so make them count. I trust we’re all still sulking from the Tribe’s inability to get a W for Cookie on Tuesday night and the blown save on Wednesday. In other news, the Cavs are in the sleepiest part of their year and the lines between Cleveland and Columbus become further blurred as the Browns have a scrimmage in Ohio Stadium on Friday while the two cities swap quarterbacks up and down I-71 (Terrelle Pryor from Columbus to Cleveland, Cardale Jones from Cleveland to Columbus) for use in plays lifted from the imaginations of daydreaming high-schoolers. My head is spinning.1
Speaking of Cardale Jones and the Unholy Cleveland-Columbus Alliance, Zac Jackson (Columbus/Cleveland/Akron) wrote a profile on Ohio State (Columbus) quarterback Cardale Jones (Columbus via Cleveland) for Cleveland Scene (Cleveland). It was excellent, well-reported work. I rarely get caught up in forced narratives covering well-worn territory, but I am totally engrossed by the Cardale Jones story: his upbringing, his early marginalization at Ohio State, his meteoric rise, his good-mannered (if sometime knuckle-headed) nature, his total control of game energy on maybe the most intimidating stage in college football history, his decision to not go pro, and his seemingly complete comfort with who he is as a person.
I have more words on Cardale in the future,2 but I’ll give Jackson the wheel for a moment.
Escorted by uniformed security guards like he was headed to the ring for a prize fight, Jones emerged from an adjacent hallway to a standing ovation. He took the podium, quickly took stock of the dozen or so TV cameras, the faces of every age and color scattered across the gym, then asked for a moment to thank everyone for coming and to thank everyone who’d helped him prepare for the five weeks and three games that had changed his life. Jones then said he had an announcement to make, and that his “decision was very simple.”
He was coming back to school.
Jones talked about having time to chase his football dreams, the importance of education, how difficult it was to make such an important decision in such a short amount of time and how “it’s my life,” and it wouldn’t be affected by outside perceptions.
He was, quite frankly, the adult in the room.
The last episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart will air on Thursday night on Comedy Central, as the sixteen-year host of the mock network news program leaves what he turned into an American institution. Putting his personal political sympathies aside, Stewart has been an overwhelming force of good in American media, as he reluctantly became one of a few voices of persistent reason in a climate dominated by divisiveness and vitriol. Though nearly every episode began as a parade of clips satirizing the media that fails us on a daily basis or pulling gotcha!s that were normally worth a few laughs, I’ll largely remember Stewart’s Daily Show for his interview segments concluding the show.3
Over time, it seemed like The Daily Show became one of the few remaining places on television where two smart people could sit, have a conversation, and talk through through disagreements instead of building them into insurmountable barriers and impediments to discourse. Whether it was Bill O’Reilly or Elizabeth Warren or Marco Rubio or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the chair opposite Stewart became a safe place for witty banter over complicated questions that you couldn’t just bubble in an answer to.
But I learned two things from Stewart above all else: the worst sin you can commit against civil society is to stop having a sense of humor (especially about yourself), and that you can’t be a reasonable person without some measure of humility. There were also a lot of dick jokes.
A lot of stuff has been and will be written about Stewart this week, but I think Grantland’s Andy Greenwald already dropped the mic on Stewart months ago when he announced his retirement in February.
… Jon Stewart was a stalwart champion of reason over volume, of humor over fear. … Thanks to his wit and poise, we were able to laugh through tears, through anger, and even through hope and all the inevitable disappointments that followed. When things felt impossible, when frustration boiled over, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart was as much a tonic as an entertainment. Every night, just before bedtime, The Daily Show restored logic and silliness to a universe in desperate need of both. It was itself a moment of Zen.
The series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp began streaming last week on Netflix, which gave me an excuse to rewatch the original movie that the series serves as a prequel to. Wet Hot American Summer, released back in 2001, was an absurd and irreverent parody of the teenage sex comedy genre. It’s incredibly stupid, but smartly so — or so I tell myself. Even if you dismiss the movie as juvenile and fragmented (which you would be right to do), it’s hard to deny that Wet Hot was ahead of its time (the 2001 movie scored a 32 percent on the Tomatometer, while the series released last week sits at 93 percent), and had an amazing ensemble cast: Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Joe Lo Truglio (who you may remember from Superbad, Pineapple Express, and Role Models), H. Jon Benjamin, Janeane Garofolo, Molly Shannnon, and Judah Friedlander, among others.
The series, which I’ve only just started, added Jason Schwartzman, Jon Hamm and John Slattery (Don Draper and Roger Sterling from Mad Men), Lake Bell, Chris Pine, Michael Cera, and Jordan Peele. I probably only enjoy Wet Hot American Summer so much because my mother would have so strongly disapproved of its brand of humor.4 But I guess there are only two kinds of people out there: people who want to see a talking can of mixed vegetables with the voice of H. Jon Benjamin, and people who don’t. So, let’s all promise to meet back here in ten years and see what kind of team the Browns have blossomed into and talk about dumb movies and stuff? At 9:30? Make it your beeswax to be here … I got something at 11 and I’ve already moved it twice, so I can’t change it … .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-z2i7PijSA
Your random Calvin and Hobbes strip of the day. BROWNS! What are you doing at the quarterback position?!?
And now for your random 90s song of the day. I had been sitting on this one for a while as one of my favorite 90s pop songs, but a Mark Lisanti tweet (below) from a few weeks ago reminded me that Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” is a summery tune, so the rapidly elapsing summer made it time to put hereeee. The Browns are back in camp and fall is coming fast, so enjoy the rest of summer and enjoy this gloriously 90s record!
My inspiration has run dry
That’s what’s going on
Nothing’s right, I’m torn
22 Comments
Jon Stewart took the Daily Show to new heights, but always recognize Craig Kilborn for giving us “the moment of zen.”
At the risk of shunning, a counterpoint on Jon Stewart: I don’t think you can just put aside his personal political sympathies. Those sympathies appeared in nearly every minute of his act (at least the minutes that I watched). To simply borrow the phrase, I think the only folks that find him to be “an overwhelming force of good in American media, as he reluctantly became one of a few voices of persistent reason in a climate dominated by divisiveness and vitriol,” are those that generally share his personal political sympathies – because that’s the act that he put on for those fans. From the other perspective, he just appeared too often to be the drum major of divisiveness and vitriol, placing the final sarcastic punctuation on every punchline aimed at those with whom he disagreed, with every clownish facial expression serving as the back-bended touch of the plume on the 35-yard line before his people charged across the field. As that final sarcastic word, there was no room for disagreement, and even if someone did, he would always counter with the “I’m not a journalist!” escape clause (then conveniently putting it aside when he would get some credit from some source for real journalism).
Stewart and his fans should rejoice in a fantastic comedic career, and I certainly do give him credit for some interesting and thoughtful conversations with figures from the others side – but there was never any doubt where he was coming from in those discussions. I just can’t go any farther than that.
http://reactiongifs.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/clapping-crowd-applause.gif
Much like Family Guy or The Simpsons, you can tell this is an early C&H strip.
Re: WHAS – watched the first half of the series last night. Got a lot of laughs out of it, but it has been SO long since I saw the movie that I found myself wishing I had rewatched it first. It’s great seeing the truth behind some of the absurd things that come to be, like Jean talking to cans.
I hear that, but when voicing reason, sometimes you have to shine a light up to the buffoonery and make a contorted face. I realize that supporting the political side of the punchlines has got to sting. Or make one think twice about alliances.
Tossing out some smartass keeps it entertaining…it is after all comedy central. The fact that people call for him to have a more unbiased journalistic standard is a testament to the show’s weight. Their archival thoroughness, the writing, and Stewart’s wit has pretty much dominated and skewered the clowns for years.
Political cartoonists are the sharpest and will always be a valuable part of society–so wherever your political views lie, it’s a sad day we’re losing one.
All fine, but there is equal buffoonery on both sides – and as a comedian, I think he should be disappointed with missing out on some huge comedic opportunities that were presented by such equal opportunity buffoonery. All of the late night comedy personalities should be. I just don’t think he, in any way, can be viewed as a bridge-builder in a river of divisiveness. That’s my only point.
Talking “weight” and “unbiased journalistic standards” in the same paragraph as “Comedy Central” is just part of what contributes to the whole weirdness of Jon Stewart. What was he? A comedian, or a political heavy-weight? Was he just a cartoonist? Whatever he was, and he was great at what he did, he was not a bridge-builder. And that’s okay. His act was what it was: political satire from the left. If the right wanted to counter it, they should have made their own version (though finding a TV platform is always a difficult proposition). In many, many ways, Stewart was the left’s counter to the right’s radio dominance – just in a different, certainly more culturally dominant, format.
And like you said, political cartoons have always been a valuable part of society. The most valuable ones, in my opinion, are those that are real satiric journalists, speaking against all political excesses (“truth to power” – I hate that phrase, but it’s accurate), and not just those that swing against a single worldview (particularly when that worldview also happens to be in power!). It is indeed sad when those cartoonist go away, in the same way that it is sad when real journalism dies. It’s far less sad when a political satirical operative goes away, but I understand the sadness on the part of his fans. He’s a truly funny and clever dude.
Very well said, Garry. I thought about writing something along the same line, but you said far better than I could have imagined it.
Exactly. If you’re going to rail against, say, hypocrisy, rail against it on both sides, not just one. If you aren’t against all hypocrisy, then you aren’t against hypocrisy at all.
Fair enough. I should have.
It’s worth rewatching the movie. I didn’t realize it was a prequel until I started the show.
I like words. Sometimes I’m even able to string a few together in a cogent thought!
No worries, we just did 🙂
I agree. For sure he was left-leaning and for sure the show was driven to be a counterbalance to the Fox empire–and we have to view it through that lens. If they are honest, no one really pretends he’s impartial. His material is good, in part, because that’s what he believes.
He actually does take more general shots at government failings as a whole (as in “we” sent arms over to these people and it blew up in our face or “Congress” is doing this boneheaded thing). But yes, agreed. Not many shots across Obama’s bow or other Dems. When he does, I get a kick, but the audience doesn’t quite light up.
But I don’t know why people ever expect equal opportunity from Stewart. It’s odd. There’s no exact comedic counterpart, but you won’t see whatever flip side GOP characters like Hannity or O’Reilly or Rush or whoever taking shots at their audience’s favs. They are all performers, in one way or another, using appealing material, playing to a crowd. Some believe the stuff they say, some are more or less entertaining, but all performers.
Hard to believe it’s been 16 years but needless to say I’ll be watching. Not sure if I’ll watch the new guy but we’ll see.
I love his Arby’s stuff! That and he wasn’t afraid to take shots at himself it’s just a shame he didn’t have a couple of more days left given tonight’s what will be must see television even though it will be airing on Fox News. Must see as in horrific car wreck on the side of the highway.
http://cdn1.theodysseyonline.com/files/2015/08/02/635741381698861875-385048108_tumblr_lxy0iniWL21qbiz5t.gif
All true, and I certainly never expected Stewart to be fair, as nice as it would be; I just think he unfortunately missed the mark as a comedian when there was so much good material out there that his politics forced him to ignore! (There actually are good satirical comics on the right, and they actually do take shots at the darlings of the right. The more shots they take, the better comics and satirists they are.)
Here’s my final thought on the matter, as I’ve spent far too much intellectual energy on it this morning: The idea that Stewart brought “reason” to the political debate is a very tricky proposition. Irrespective of his preparation and writing, I think it’s necessary to understand that his “reason” is no more reasonable or rational to those that disagree with him than the “reason” of Limbaugh and Glenn Beck (the better foil, in my opinion) is reasonable and rational to those that disagree with them – and each of these guys employs impressive research and writing, too. And the response that Stewart’s fans have at the mention of Limbaugh’s and Beck’s names are the same reactions that Limbaugh’s and Beck’s fans have at the mention of Stewart’s (and Colbert’s) names. If you’re biased, “reason” is only really reasonable to those that are predisposed to think it is, especially in this age. People are, by and large, consumers of the things that they like, and we all think such consumption is rational.
By the way, it’s nice to have a reasoned and rational conversation on stuff like this. I’ll take this every day over political satire.
16 memorable moments “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”
http://news.yahoo.com/jon-stewart-daily-show-most-memorable-moments-video-clips-031638951.html
I’ll go even farther and say that Jon Stewart is a complete fraud. The gung-ho liberal who is fiercely anti-union and who held a farce of rally that mocked political action and involvement. God, how I loathe him.
Agreed that Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are equally funny, if not more hilarious. Sorry, couldn’t resist. Indeed, good discourse. We solved everything! Or nothing at all. Ah well, I think we can agree that damn lawyers are ruining this country.
I figure that since lawyers created the country, we have the right to destroy it!
[FYI, did you see how your irresistible joke proved the point?]
The Wet Hot American Summer series is hilarious. I didn’t think they could match the tone or come anywhere close to recapturing the magic of the movie, but they did. After I watched it I immediately wanted to watch it again.