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There's a war going on in America, people, and the stakes are nothing less than Glenn Beck's internal organs. It's all about the connections. Is Glenn Beck, who has not denied raping and killing a young girl in 1990, the only one "crazy" enough to see it?!?! Or to mention Hitler? No. No, he is not, because last night on "The Daily Show" Jon Stewart (in the most inspired television comedy monologue since the Founding Fathers, in their infinite wisdom, gave us Johnny LaRue on the Christmas Eve edition of "Street Beef") traced the connections between Glenn Beck's appendicitis and his previous hemorrhoid surgery! Conspiracy or coincidence? You decide. He's teaching the controversy, fair and balanced. Only Stewart is courageous enough to actually take us inside Beck himself, to follow thoughts as they wend their way through the contours of his brain, down his alimentary canal, into his intestines, and finally out his mouth.
"Take a look, very quickly, if you will, at what your appendix is connected to. I mean... it's all there! Your appendix is connected to your large intestine, which is connected to your small intestine, which is something that Karl Marx... had! That doesn't seem suspicious? Because what is the small intestine connected to, people? Oh, I don't know -- the stomach?!?! Which is where acorns would go if you ate them? Acorns -- where have we heard that name before? And after the intestines sucked the nutrients from the acorn it would go to the colon which goes to the rectum which goes to the anus which is the site of the hemorrhoids that nearly killed Glenn Beck! It's aallll connections!"
Freeze-frame of The Big Board (featuring Van Jones, Che, ACORN and Purity of Essence) after the jump:
Above: The Daily Show Big Board. Below: Dr. Strangelove's Big Board.
UPDATE (11/12/09): Eric Cartman does Beck:
11 Comments
I just watched this and immediately after came over here to see if you'd written about it yet...the show has been in a tiny bit of rut recently, but that was, without a doubt, the funniest and most sublime piece of satire TDS has done about Fox (and I can't recall anything on any topic that equals it). As it started, I was thinking 'is he really going there?', then sat back and basked in the glorious ray of sanity and humor.
Well done, sir. Well done.
Oh, Jim...you don't disappoint! I saw this last night and immediately thought of you and your blog. I just knew you would post something on this. When I saw Stewart use the chalkboard, and then that picture of Che, Van Jones, NATO = Nazi, et al...I nearly lost it. I ended up waking up my wife who was sound asleep. This is one of the best things Stewart and co. have parodied in recent years. I especially liked when he did his Glenn Beck impersonation where he went: "whether it's the liberal elite...(mumbles)...or the conservative right, but I don't want to make this a political thing..." I was almost in tears.
Brilliant stuff. I'm elated to see that you have it up here on the blog, and honestly, I would have been a little disappointed if it wasn't on here! (I thought about putting the clip on my Facebook page, but then I thought "what's the point? Jim will have it up on the Scanners blog."
Great stuff as always, Jim.
JE: Thanks, Kevin, but I think it's Mr. Stewart who doesn't disappoint us! I confess, I cried real tears ("Nashville" reference) watching this because it's so spot-on funny -- a virtual dissection of Beck's persona on so many levels. Genius.
I've been following the controversy surrounding Glenn Beck (or shouldn't it be G____ B___ by now?) for a little while and came across a few videos. But it's just enough to see that the precision of the satire is remarkable.
The glasses as a mean to show us that he reads and studies. The "where have we heard the name before". The weird rants that he does whenever the possibility arises that someone may point how crazy he sounds (compare the "cuckoobird" of Stewart to Beck's bizarre "big fat fatty"-rant when the NYT accused him of eating his own : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgJ8hFVFbJg). It's about as clever as impersonations can get.
Let me play devil's advocate.
Beck is an entertainer, first and foremost. But his insight can sometimes be valuable. His claims can be outlandish, but he is also the guy to go to if you want to hear stories that other venues won't cover. Who else talks about the Federal Reserve in ways that average Joe can understand? And what about the fact that his criticism of Obama's appointees, not to mention ACORN, have often proved TRUE? Van Jones, anyone?
And Beck is rarely malicious or mean, and when he is it's directed at people IN POWER. That's the source of his charm: he's always on THE PEOPLE'S side, not the establishment's. I'd take him over any of the commentators who essentially act as mouthpieces for the administration these days. It's hard to find anti-authority comedians anymore, and Beck is filling that void in a way.
The level of viciousness directed at him is unwarranted.
JE: I say: karma. What goes around comes around. The love you take is equal to the love you make. I'd like to know: What did Beck actually say about Obama's appointees (I know he spread false general information about the long tradition of presidentially appointed "czars," harping on the Russian term), ACORN (did he predict that some ACORN people would try to help a couple filmmakers posing as a pimp and prostitute avoid paying taxes?) and the Federal Reserve (I don't know how he explained that). I'm curious.
jim, i think maybe we didn't get specifics from r. sabo as to what beck has been insightful about because they're virtually non-existent. my favorite insight? let's use rosh hoshannah as a day of fasting and prayer for the teabaggers. yeah; that guy's great.
mostly, what is scary about glenn beck is that he is doing what sabo says he's doing, namely talking about things the 'average joe' can understand...although with falsities and misleading information that the 'average joe' is likely to fall for. i put that in quotes because i think the average person (on average, most people in the country don't watch glenn beck, by the way) is not completely moronic to sit there and just take whatever he says as fact.
plus, who can take him seriously AT ALL with a term like teabaggers being at the forefront of his call to action?
Sometimes I forget that Jon Stewart started out as a stand-up and put on a live show from memory.
Seeing him nail all of Glenn Beck's body language and gesticulations for minutes on end is pretty amazing. It's nice to know Jon hasn't been spoiled by working off a teleprompter all these years.
I was also in tears laughing at this. Glenn Beck and his conspiracy theories. The best comedy only uses a joke when it is special (which is why I love "The Simpsons").
What's really surprising is that this is really a great piece of acting. Stewart likes to be self-effacing about his movie career, and he's never really been cast in parts where he has to stretch, so that he caught all the fine points of Beck's insanity is remarkable.
Oh, bashing Glenn Beck again, are we? Looking forward to when you have something new to say about him.
JE: OK, here's something even newer: He lost his WIPO arbitration against the "raped and murdered a girl in 1990" web site: http://j.mp/1Su4Fz .
Thanks for the link, Mr. Emerson. Interesting but, come on, the decision was issued on October 29th, nearly two weeks ago. Surely there are other people you can target. No one on the Left suit your fancy? Now that'd be something new for you.
JE: Well, the news story I link to broke Nov. 9, not that a few weeks should matter when it comes to intelligence of such earth-shattering significance. Jon Stewart did his bit the night before I posted the clip. Besides, is there anybody on the left or right who's as funny as Glenn Beck -- except Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert?
This is just brilliant. John Stewart has always been a satirical genius. No one could have done Glen Beck better.
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