Thursday night, during his epic pantsing of the "Mad Money" host, Jon Stewart talked about his impression that there are two wholly different versions of Jim Cramer out there. On Friday, Cramer proved Stewart right, though perhaps not in the way the "Daily Show" anchor had intended.
During his "Daily Show" appearance, Cramer was constantly deferential and apologetic, at times even catching himself when he tried to offer an excuse for past behavior. And ultimately, he promised to change his ways, which include, as Gawker noted, a history of alleged attempts to manipulate the market using his position as a financial analyst both in print and on television and his connections within the media.
At first, during the beginning of his own show on Friday, he appeared to have truly meant what he said the night before.
"Before we get started, I want to say something about, about what happened yesterday. A lot of people are talking about what happened: I want to be very clear, I want to be very clear that, although I was clearly outside of my safety zone, I have my utmost respect for this person and the work that they do no matter," Cramer said, appearing to choke up a bit before continuing, "no matter how uncomfortable it was to be on. So I want you to take a look at this clip from yesterday of Cramer vs. Stewart."
But the video that Cramer then showed his audience wasn't from the public beating he took on "The Daily Show" -- it was from the appearance he'd made on Martha Stewart's show earlier in the day on Thursday, when the two had made banana cream pies together. (The chyron that appeared as Cramer introduced the video, "Going on Stewart's show was a complete cake walk," was probably the tip-off.)
With that, and a winking question asking whether anyone minds if he still uses the buttons that provide his show's trademark sound effects, the show was off and running, back to normal.
There were a couple other references to what had happened sprinkled throughout the show, though. Before one commercial break, he stopped and said, "Oh, and memo to one of the Stewarts out there: I'm so sorry about having some fun and entertaining. Next time I promise to be more like Kenneth Clark." Later, warning viewers to hold off a little while before buying a stock he recommended, he said, "If people get too excited... I'll probably be in the cross-hairs of some cable TV show."
Cramer did, at one point, acknowledge that he came out the loser of his battle with Stewart. When a caller said he was reading one of Cramer's books, the host replied, "I beat myself up in that one, I gotta tell you something. Not as well as some others have been doing lately, but still pretty darn good."
The man himself wasn't the only one trying to minimize the "Daily Show" interview on Friday. TVNewser reports that producers at Cramer's sister network MSNBC were asked not to cover it during their own shows.
Shares