Next week, Leon Wieseltier reads Rolling Stones lyrics aloud

The New Republic's Lee Siegel goes all crotchety on Jon Stewart on its Web site today. Siegel thinks Stewart is prostituting himself to the young and sacrificing his magical "wit"  for "pandering puerility" and "gross-out expedience." He's become the "Howdy-Doody Orwell," writes Siegel, and criticizes him for using the word "dude" on "The Daily Show." Siegel exhorts him, to "use the show to trot out your native wit and win for yourself a mature audience that will give you a meaningful career that will last decades, and not just until the news cycle spins beyond your reach."

Yep, he said "wit." Twice. Dude, that's so Steverino. And not early, hip Steverino either.

Here's the relevant section:

Dear Jon Stewart,

As the entire world knows, you'll be hosting the Oscars this coming Sunday for the first time. On this august occasion, please allow me to appeal to you as someone who wants to be a fan but hasn't been able to enjoy you so far. Please allow me to appeal to you as a public service. You of all people know from public service, since you are the very man who has enlisted comedy in the cause of civic clarity. I can't imagine that what I say will make a difference to you--if you even happen to read this. No matter. Like you, I have a job to do. ...

Jon, be honest. Has being Mr. Civic-Minded Serious Satirist of Our Debased Public Life merely become a successful shtick for you, based on its unexpected popularity during the 2004 presidential campaigns? Is it a trusty routine, like Jack Benny's stinginess, or Rodney Dangerfield's hilarious bad luck, both of which were a lot funnier than your current comedic hallmark? I recently tuned into your show and found you bravely trying to explain deficit spending even as you were bravely trying to make a joke about deficit spending. After informing the audience that the war in Iraq has cost the equivalent of $2,083 per taxpayer, you said:

The United States is actually taking out long-term loans from banks and foreign               governments. So don't think of it like $2,000 that you don't have. Think of it as                           $200,000 your grandchildren don't have. [Photograph of grandchildren-looking                           children appears behind you.] And, seriously: [Bleep] them. [Wild laughter.] They                           think you smell like ass. [Delirious laughter.]

I'm sorry, Jon, for me, the right kind of laughter is almost synonymous with life itself, but I think that is the very opposite of funny. And this was a typical bit. There's no fresh surprising ironic contrast, no weirdness, no original explosive reconfiguration of wearily familiar features of reality. There's just a tedious economic point made with a political edge, a point that every adult who cares enough to check into what's going on in the world has already seen elaborated in the newspaper dozens of times. The only oomph the bit has is the sudden obscenity, the spurt of adolescent anger, and then another obscenity. I notice that you often, when a joke falls flat--which seems to happen a lot on your show--refer to your balls or something. (But that's a definite style now. Whenever Wonkette ran out of nothing to say on her blog, she referred to her vagina or something. It's like insecure rappers touching their genitals as a display of power.) You know, as unappealing as he was, Tucker Carlson never told anybody that they "smelled like ass." I don't even know what that means. Is it something bad? Sometimes good, sometimes bad, depending on the context? Maybe it's a young thing.

That's really what I have to talk to you about, Jon. The "young thing." It makes me fear for your future. Because, you see, I get glimmers of authentic wit from you. You did a bit about Al Qaeda holding a convention at a hall in the Jupiter room, and then the Zimmerman bar mitzvah booking the Jupiter for 10:30 that had me going. You seemed to ad-lib at the end of that one; you're so quick that another time you made me laugh simply by explaining that the theme music at one point was so lengthy because you had to walk two feet to a different spot in the studio. ...

But who am I lecturing! You're the star of a sensationally successful comedy show. You're an international celebrity. Most of all, you are the Pied Piper of the magical 18-34 demographic, the age-group whose attention marketers in just about every market claim will enlarge all hungry enterprises. When a journalist wants to win relevance among the legions of paradigm-changing youths, all he has to do is say he likes your show, whether he actually likes it--or has even seen it--or not. You've become more a conduit than a comedian.

The problem is, this downward-plunging market is going to ruin you just as Penn and Teller made the comics they exploited look ridiculous. ... I love comedians who make humor out of current events, out of bad or stupid politics. But the best of them work the stuff into wit. You just point, taunt, make faces. You say something "sucks," and that's the joke. You say "sucks" a lot.

Jon, I think the reason you've settled into this gross-out expedience is that you think, or you've been told, that the young audiences you supposedly draw aren't up to more sophisticated bits. For one thing, I think you're selling short the number of people in the magical demographic who have fine senses of humor. For another, I don't think your audience is that focused on politics anyway. They just like to see people in authority, no matter whether they're good or bad, torn down. It doesn't matter whether the deconstruction is funny or not so long as it seems to humiliate the subject. So pretty soon, and especially when politics changes, you're going to have to rethink your role as the Howdy-Doody Orwell. More importantly, when the chickens come home to roost--yes, the deficit spending on the war--and people start to want comedy with true creative-destructive substance; when they start to crave comic maturity rather than resigning themselves to pandering puerility, you're going to be in trouble. Sometimes I think you don't even believe in this shtick yourself. Again and again, you'll start doing an accent or imitating someone, self-consciously stop yourself, hang your head and apologize for the failed joke. Maybe somewhere you have contempt for the magic demographic?...

Don't do it. Don't fall for a clueless stunt that's going to turn you into a caricature, and package you as a merchandising tool--a youth-attracting product. Your gifts will dry up and die in that narrow little cubbyhole. Instead, use the show to trot out your native wit and win for yourself a mature audience that will give you a meaningful career that will last decades, and not just until the news cycle spins beyond your reach. That's alright, you don't have to thank me. Of course, you don't have to take my advice, either. But whatever you do, stop saying "dude." You're 43 for heaven's sake.

Sincerely yours,

Lee Siegel

Comments

[DonBoy]

Last week featured a great moment, when Stewart said this to Roger Ebert -- and this was the entire sentence, mind you:

"Dude, don't _even_."

If that's what Siegel is complaining about, he's obviously not to be trusted. (Ebert was ribbing Stewart about his voice work as, apparently, a _spring_, in the animated release "Dougal".)

Sounds like he could use a bit of Robert Benchley. That, and a hearty, steaming cup of STFU.

Geezers, jeez.

[Jon]

What a [bleep].

[Louis]

Wow, where to begin?

First of all, much of Stewart's material comes from his staff of writers. Of course it has to be this way, no single person could come up with that much material on a daily basis. And the show's style of humor (50% cutting political satire, 50% cheap shots) was established before Stewart arrived, when Kilborn was host.

Stewart's audience understands that he's the 43-year-old mouthpiece for a staff of smart-alec twenty- and thirtysomethings. In fact, it's part of the fun: many of the best laughs come from Jon's own reactions to having to deliver jokes that he is obviously uncomfortable with.

Stewart's own personality and humor come across best during his interview segments with his guests. He does an amazing job of satisfying the dual goals of having an serious, ntelligent conversation and making it funny, all without being insulting or demeaning to his guests.

And what's the point of comparing Stewart to Tucker Carlson? They have two different jobs: one is a political commentator, one is a HUMORIST. I don't want or expect them to behave the same way.

[Mark Jeffries]

Besides, there are worse problems with "Doogal" than Stewart doing the voice of a spring: The French-British producers of the film turning the charming 60s stop-motion animated TV series "The Magic Roundabout" into a low-grade CGI crapfest, and on top of that Harvey Weinstein hiring the hack Butch Hartman ("The Fairly Oddparents") to give it a typical pop culture reference/flatulence jokes American cartoon feature screenplay (with celebs doing the voices instead of the people who specialize in voice acting). IMHO.

[SoonerThought]

What a twit. He doesn't get the joke.

[Ed Dravecky III]

"Smelled like ass"? Perhaps not, but Tucker Carlson quite memorably referred to one person as a "butt monkey" at least twice during an episode of the late, unlamented "Crossfire" on CNN so Tucker is not the go-to guy when you're looking for class on cable.