Jon Stewart Reminded Us in 2022 That They Come for the Comedians First
Jon Stewart warned everybody that this was coming — and he did it while there was a Democrat in the White House.
When Stewart received the Mark Twain Award for American Humor in 2022, he delivered an acceptance speech that wasn’t entirely a barrel of laughs. Comedy was at a crossroads, he cautioned, pointing to one of the guests in attendance, Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef, as an example of “the true threats to comedy.”
In 2013, an Egyptian prosecutor initiated an investigation into Youssef for allegedly maligning President Mohamed Morsi. Youssef’s show, Al Bernameg — think an Egyptian version of The Daily Show — was accused of “circulating false news likely to disturb public peace and public security and affect the administration.” He was ultimately arrested and released on bail. Sound familiar?
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Stewart wasn’t worried about the woke police coming after him, or even Will Smith rushing the stage, ready to slap if a punchline went sideways. “It’s not the fragility of audiences,” Stewart said. “It’s the fragility of leaders.”
Audiences don’t owe comedians anything, he said. “That’s just the game we’re in. We talk shit for a living, you talk shit back, and we just gotta be better than you. And we’ve gotta find a way to entertain you.”
Then Stewart issued words to the wise that seem eerily prescient in a year in which both Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have been banished for joke-crimes against the state. “Comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s a bellwether,” he explained. “We’re the banana peel in the coal mine. When a society is under threat, comedians are the ones who get sent away first.”
Don’t worry about the pronoun police, Stewart said, and watch out for the secret police. “Democracy is under threat. Authoritarians are the threat to comedy, to art, to music, to thought, to poetry, to progress, to all those things.”
Remember Mark Twain and what he stood for, Stewart said, “a reminder to all of us that what we have is fragile and precious. And the way to guard against it isn’t to change how audiences think. It’s to change how leaders lead.”
Can comedy survive in a moment when the FCC is on the hunt for political satirists, when an administration is focused on taking down its no-talent, low-ratings comedians?
“I’ve got news for you,” Stewart concluded. “Comedy survives every moment.”