It's #CancelStewart! With a vulgar joke, Jon Stewart teases #CancelColbert

Stewart uses foul language about women to satirize his audience's sensitivities

Published April 1, 2014 3:08AM (EDT)

Jon Stewart                  (Comedy Central)
Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)

Jon Stewart has weighed in on his Comedy Central colleague Stephen Colbert's recent controversy.

Referring to the Chris Christie administration's treatment of former aide Bridget Kelly as a hysterical and incompetent woman, Stewart produced a phony report cover headlined "Bitches Be Crazy, Right?" At its bottom was a hashtag: "#CancelStewart." "How'd that get in there?" Stewart asked, his voice pitched high.

#CancelColbert, of course, was the movement that blossomed online last week after the @ColbertReport Twitter feed posted, out of context, a joke about "Orientals" that many found offensive even in context (it was meant, on the show, to satirize the Washington Redskins' owner and his attempts to reach out to Native Americans). This joke seemed designed to seem on-its-face offensive to the most sensitive among us -- what rough language, how antifeminist -- while actually being politically correct. It's mocking Christie's attitudes, not putting forth Stewart's own.

Is a joke about Christie's treatment of "bitches" that's designed to be offensive as bad as Colbert's perceived offense? Well, not much, as yet, is happening on #CancelStewart. His job is safe for now.


By Daniel D'Addario

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Jon Stewart Stephen Colbert