Baraka_Guru

It's important to remember that John Stewart isn't just a comedian, he's a satirist. We tend to forget that he isn't merely criticizing politics with his humour, he's doing it while maintaining an elaborate parody of television news "infotainment."

I think one reason why he keeps reminding guests, critics, and viewers of this is because once we start looking at his show as a legitimate political entity—once we start taking it seriously—the satire will have failed and the show would lose its power to target television news media (and politics to a degree). Instead, it would become a part of that machine.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot