Stewart Nails Beck : Dispatches from the Culture Wars

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Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media and the host of Declaring Independence, a one hour weekly political talk show on WPRR in Grand Rapids, Michigan.(static)

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Stewart Nails Beck

Posted on: November 7, 2009 9:23 AM, by Ed Brayton

If you haven't seen this spot-on Jon Stewart impersonation of Glenn Beck, you really must see it. Brilliant stuff.

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Comments

What date did it air in the US? We can watch whole episodes online in the UK a day behind the US but it's useful to know the date.

Posted by: Arkady | November 7, 2009 9:29 AM

That was freaking awesome.

Posted by: Savagemutt | November 7, 2009 9:48 AM

Oh, boy, Stewart's in trouble now. I predict that Glenn Bek will regain his diabolically damaged health and return refreshed, reinviagrated and even more full of the righteous KKKrazee than he was on 11/2 and pummel Stewart on live teevee.

Arkady:

Just a guess on my part, but I'd say it has to have been on 11/5 or 11/6--based on the 11/3 that was on the other side of the blackboard. Penn and Teller may have been involved, though; your guess is as good as mine.

Posted by: democommie | November 7, 2009 9:54 AM

If they show this to Beck while recovering, maybe he won't!

Posted by: MikeMa | November 7, 2009 10:17 AM

Videos not available in my country. Sort it out Comedy Central!

Posted by: Doug | November 7, 2009 10:19 AM

Orac posted it here http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/11/lets_go_back_to_the_days_of_the_founding.php and I was able to watch it. There's a few complaints in the comments tho, so it may not work for everyone.

Posted by: Arkady | November 7, 2009 10:24 AM

I'm not sure it's as funny as the original. Beck is one of these people so crazy -- or with such a crazy act, hard to tell -- that he is his own parody.

Posted by: Russell | November 7, 2009 10:28 AM

Perfect. Absolutely fucking perfect!

I love "purity of essence" written on the blackboard. Beck is just about that crazy.

Posted by: equisetum | November 7, 2009 10:43 AM

Ed, "brilliant" is right. Stewart didn't overplay this, the comic exaggerations were well-timed, and he kept it funny the whole way. He covered so much of Beck's persona that even some of Beck's fans, and perhaps Glenn Beck himself, could potentially find this amusing.

Posted by: Jim Babka | November 7, 2009 10:56 AM

"purity of essence" riffed from Dr. Strangelove

General Ripper: "Do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk, ice cream? Ice cream, Mandrake? Children's ice cream!...You know when fluoridation began?...1946. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with the post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, and certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works. I first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love... Yes, a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women...women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake... but I do deny them my essence.
"...God willing, we will prevail in peace and freedom from fear and in true health through the purity and essence of our natural fluids. God bless you all."
Then he hung up.

Posted by: Foggg | November 7, 2009 11:02 AM

I love "purity of essence" written on the blackboard.

Posted by: Herod the Freemason | November 7, 2009 11:08 AM

Nice call, Foggg, that's hilarious. I was wondering about it.

Posted by: Leni | November 7, 2009 11:15 AM

"the Communists who want to socialize your Nazism"

Sure sounds like Beck.

Posted by: Taz | November 7, 2009 12:00 PM

Arkady, it was aired on Thursday.

Posted by: molliebatmit | November 7, 2009 12:15 PM

I'm not sure, but I think there was a Feynman diagram under the Acorn.

For the curious:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_diagram

...Just rewatched, and yes it is certainly a Feynman diagram. Can't tell what process it represents, though.

Posted by: Flavin | November 7, 2009 12:33 PM

Also "Van Jones" scrawled on the top left (but never referenced in the rant-"I'm just saying, Van Jones") and "Hammer & SICK le" at the bottom left.

That seemed about right.

Posted by: chris | November 7, 2009 12:41 PM

That...was...hilarious.

Posted by: Mobius | November 7, 2009 1:03 PM

Who cares.. no one watches this moron Stewart do they?

Posted by: NH | November 7, 2009 2:07 PM

I watched this yesterday, and while it was reasonably enjoyable, I got the immediate impression that most of the humor in it came from it being, specifically, a Beck impression. Even the studio audience didn't seem to know how to react to most of it.

Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, but it's an eight-minute long segment. Over a third of the show. All devoted to essentially one gag, a gag that's not nearly as funny to those viewers less familiar with the source material.

On a related note, this somewhat illustrates what I consider to be a weakness in Stewart and Colbert's political commentary in the past year. Instead of mocking elected officials, they spend more time mocking other television personalities, and end up positioning themselves on the same side as those in power. It's still funny, but it has a lot less bite.

Posted by: Loren | November 7, 2009 2:11 PM

Ten bucks says that Beck himself laughed when he saw this clip, as he is fully aware of the fact that he's full of crap yet shovels it out anyway because he's made a small fortune in fecal distribution.

So why should he stop now, especially when Beck's got millions of dopes asking for more?

Posted by: CHV | November 7, 2009 2:14 PM

Arkady:

This comment from Jonathan tells you how to watch these videos in the UK.

http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2009/10/colbert_on_glenn_beck.php#comment-1994778

Posted by: Fitz | November 7, 2009 4:22 PM

On The Daily Show website it said that the episode aired on November 5th.

Posted by: Savaga | November 7, 2009 4:46 PM

NH @18:

You don't get out much, do you?

Posted by: Sean Michael | November 7, 2009 4:59 PM

I don't watch much TV (and don't get invited to many parties as a result), so I've only heard about Glen Beck through sources like this blog. Nevertheless, I found this hilarious.

Posted by: idlemind | November 7, 2009 6:14 PM

I'll have to take your word for it. I have been unable to watch anything produced by Fox News for quite some time. It induces apoplexy. So even if Beck is as funny as some here have said, I just can't take the chance of blowing an artery .

Posted by: John Swindle | November 7, 2009 6:15 PM

You can almost smell the VapoRub.

Posted by: Woof | November 7, 2009 7:56 PM

Holy crap, is this how Beck really behaves??? Wow, the only pieces of Beck's show I've seen are the ones I've seen linked from this blog.

I liked Stewart's riff too, although I thought it went on a little too long. I loved the "OR-GAN-IZE" bit...hilarious.

Posted by: Adrienne | November 7, 2009 9:38 PM

Colbert's "10/31 Project" is still the best spoof of Glenn Beck. Stewart was reasonably funny, but Colbert had me in stitches.

Posted by: tacitus | November 7, 2009 10:04 PM

I was wondering about the Feynman diagram too. Looks like it involves some kind of interactions with positrons and electrons (on the right). What that interaction means, is any one's guess. Let's ask Glenn Bek, I'm sure he can come up with some astounding connection(s) and jump to exactly the wrong conclusion.
Also loved the reminder than NAFTA =/= NA⁺Cl^-. The high-school chemistry student in me just laughed out load a that.
As to whether Mr. Colbert & Mr. Steward should mock Mr. Bek, of course they should! When the wingnuts stop taking talking points from this mentally disturbed moron, then they should stop (it would be cruel to mock a man just for being clearly mentally unbalanced), until then mock away! ;) - DJ
----------------------
PS: Glenn Bek had a hemorrhoid operation? How did they know where to start?
PPS: I notice that Mr. Bek still has not denied that Carrie (bucket 'o blood) Prejean is his "one who got away"

Posted by: DingoJack | November 7, 2009 11:48 PM

I got a good laugh out of the Feynman diagram too. There is no way Beck knows what a Feynman diagram is, but it was still pretty funny.

(Google informs me that it is Z boson creation from a proton-anti-proton collision and their subsequent decay into electron-positron pairs. Or something. There is a very good reason for why I dropped particle physics!)

Posted by: Leni | November 8, 2009 10:55 AM

Hehe. Stewart nails Beck. Gross.

Posted by: Liam | November 8, 2009 12:10 PM

DingoJack said

PS: Glenn Bek had a hemorrhoid operation? How did they know where to start?

That was the problem- every doctor told Beck that his hemorrhoid was inoperable because decapitation has proven to be 100% fatal in all instances.

Posted by: Jeremy S | November 8, 2009 12:41 PM

Jeremy S: HA!

Loren: You and I obviously aren't watching the same show, because he's been going after Obama and his admin since day 1. As to the Dem Congressmen, he's been making fun of them since the first Patriot Act debacle back in Shrub's first year.

Posted by: Julian | November 8, 2009 5:12 PM

Loren@19 wrote:

On a related note, this somewhat illustrates what I consider to be a weakness in Stewart and Colbert's political commentary in the past year. Instead of mocking elected officials, they spend more time mocking other television personalities, and end up positioning themselves on the same side as those in power. It's still funny, but it has a lot less bite.

I've been watching the Daily Show off and on for many years now, and I think that making fun of the news media was always one of their main goals.

Posted by: Vic Viper | November 9, 2009 4:36 AM