Learning to Laugh Thursday, March 26, 2009 By Caleb Cole - Advertising Everyone loves a good laugh right? One of my favorite jesters of today is Comedy Central Mock News show host Jon Stewart. He always livens up my day to turn on the TV and watch him rant on and on about the political and economical mess our country has stumbled into. I will admit, a few of his political jabs fly right over my head, but I really do enjoy his sense of humor in pointing out the obvious and the obviously absurd. Recently Mr. Stewart decided to throw some witty criticism towards CNBC and their coverage of the countries financial catastrophe. He particularly targeted the popular host of "Mad Money", Jim Cramer, by saying, "I know you want to make finance entertaining but it isn't a game." Stewart criticized multiple times Cramer's tendencies to put entertainment before his journalism, accusing CNBC of being too cozy with the big companies by believing their corporate lies instead of doing their job as an investigating "powerful tool of illumination." Now, of course, since CNBC was being made fun of and criticized, they were a little put off to what Stewart had to say. I agree it stinks to have someone criticize you or your company on a national television show, but some people have gone as far as to say John Stewart's comments were vicious and completely out of line. My only thought in regards to those statements is, "Are you kidding me?"   John Stewart is a comedian, granted a special breed of comedian, but a comedian nonetheless. If he isn't criticizing someone he isn't doing his job right. He takes a situation, or in this case a group of people in the situation, and points out the absurdity of the mess all together. He did just that, and although I'm no expert in the field of comedy, I am going to bet that if you are unwilling to rock the boat and possibly offend a few people you probably aren't going to go too far down that career path. So are you really shocked and appalled at the fact he made fun of someone?   Next, he IS John Stewart. If you ask me he is one of those comedians who is generally pretty fair about hating everyone equally. He doesn't spare anyone when it comes to his comedy or criticisms, which is a large part of why I watch the show. If you are willing to laugh at one person you have to be willing to laugh at them all, including yourself. I'm sure if you were to take the before mentioned quote and change it to, "I know you want to make JOURNALISM entertaining but it isn't a game," you could apply it to "The Daily Show." This show not only makes a mockery of journalism in and of itself, but of politics, finance, world religions, world leaders and a whole slew of other national media all in one conveniently comical thirty minute time frame. I could see if someone were to point out the fact that "The Daily Show" was nothing more than poorly a constructed and highly ill-humored mockery of the journalism professional, John Stewart would laugh outloud and say, "I know, aren't I just the worst?" So thank you John Stewart for laughing at everyone.   At the end of the day, the fact Cramer acknowledged Stewart's jabs and partially agreed with them is what drives my point home the best. Cramer admitted we all could have afforded to open our eyes a little more and have seen this coming, as well as saying CNBC was probably a little too willing to just accept the information corporations had been feeding them. Can you honestly be mad at a man for pointing out the obvious truth? I know I can't. Even if you can be upset, wouldn't you rather have someone point it out with a comical tone rather than an accusing or angry one?   When it all comes down to it, John Stewart could have toned things down just a little bit, but he is a comedian and to "tone things down" isn't really his comedic style. All I know is I'm glad he chooses to try and make light of the situation as well as criticizing those involved. So CNBC and those others upset by comedians around the world, lighten up just a bit. Learn how to laugh at the mess and more importantly at yourself. After all, as American novelist Edgar Watson Howe once said, "If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you grow old".

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