Wonkette
America’s writerly regal Queen Of Inkwells & Wordsmithery, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, was last night’s guest on comedy’s Daily Show. She was in top form early on and we laughed at literally every word she said. And yet, what happened here?
The way she so delicately orates to the mortals about our current epoch… that bizarre combination of Victorian couth and Renaissance humanism with an aftertaste of pothead dime-store eschatology… Noonington shall save the politicks with ten thousand thousand points of Light! Huh?
But really, this was one of the weirdest Daily Show interviews ever. Jon Stewart’s weakness has always been interrupting his guests with either a one-liner or a political rant, whichever scores more immediate applause, because it’s a comedy show, but he very nearly lost himself in this one. Which is great, because Peggy looks so frightened by this human who is for some reason shouting at her. Anyone else noticed how easily the times are turning political comedy people into RANTERS?
Daily Show: Peggy Noonan [Comedy Central]
I liked his self-editing after a while. Peggy’s virginal ears can’t take the uncouth.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I [heart] Jon.
I no [heart] Peggy.
Whenever I try watching videos on ComedyCentral it tells me “thank you for being from the godless foreign land of canada, we’re under bizarre contracts that say we can’t show you our shows off our site because you’re in a different country, please get a real country and try again”
I’m sure the exact clip is available on the site of the Canadian network that shows the Daily Show, but, somehow the hassle… ughh
Stewart was so serious. me scared!
mattbolt: Get one of those IP program things that make the ‘puters think you are a U.S. National. There ya go.
And why shouldn’t the political comedy people rant? We should all rant. “Aghh — the country’s going to hell, even Obama can’t save us! Stock up on Campbell’s Soup, we’ll need it during the Decline Of Our Empire.”
BillyClubb: Oh look, you almost understood my point!
She neatly, completely and elegantly side-stepped “The Federalist Code” question about teh geighs, brown peoples and wimmin folk being left out to hang out to dry in our US Constitution, and, added bonus, she managed to get a book plug in instead in the course of her non-answer
Considering the witches brew of the perscription drug/top shelf cocktail Peggy The Bonny Irish Lush was obviously on, that’s no mean feat.
Impressive, yes, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t hate that stupid ten billion shining city points of light on a hill bitch, because I do.
And that’s my Good Man, Best Person side of myself talking.
I enjoyed Peggy on the hot mic at the convention.
But she seemed too rigid and calculating last night. Is that her normal mode? I don’t know her well.
sorry peggy. It was a bizarre interview though. I think stewart was getting frustrated with her.
Just what do you think Peggy is on to make her so goddamn mellow. I’m thinking Paxil and Xanax with a Lorazepam chaser.
And some good medical-grade weed.
Jim Newell: What was Stewart supposed to do, just let her plug her book?
Peggy was so damned earnest with every word and gesture it would have turned the Sphinx into a ranter.
Seemed like Daily was ready to go anyway and Peggy sounded like a fifth grade civics teacher so why not kick out the jams?
how easily the times are turning political comedy people into RANTERS?
*cringes* Will you stop yelling if I say “yes”?
Jim Newell: HAHAHA! “Points”
Peggy Nooooooonan strikes me as someone who would say “Tickled Pink”, “Bass-Ackwards”, and “As-bolutely” a lot. In other words, I totes heart her.
Not that this is the place for thoughtful nuanced analysis, I would still offer that Stewart (who is the best satirist around) should have let Noonan speak a little more and then rip her for whatever bullshit came out of her mouth. He just ranted about Bush and the assholes that got us into this mess, which is sooo 2007.
When she said she had hoped that both candidates had done little to raise the discourse of the debate. Jon should have leapt on it and said, “What do you mean, we, white man?” Obama has done a hell of a job of not responding to the bullshit tossed at him by the pimply Rovian disciples in Walnuts’ campaign to keep the discussion basically about what needs to be done.
There, let’s go back to snarking.
mattbolt: just go to hulu.com
“Peggy Noonan believes this presidential campaign is narrowly partisan, and not big enough for the moment we’re in.”
And this moment would be what, Pegster? The bleeding Rapture?
Jon Stewart is saying politicians aren’t giving the American people enough credit for being smart. How the hell is he getting people to defend him for that ON FUCKING WONKETTE.
Regardless, Stewart is a tard. Did anyone see him trying to disprove Democratic Peace Theory with Tony Blair? “Britain is a democracy…Argentina is a democracy…” “So…” “You went to war” “Argentina was not a democracy at the time…”. I hate Tony Blair but that was awesome.
Noonan is a nihilist only when it is convenient for her political agenda.
Perot le fou: I felt that epic FAIL with Tony Blair was pretty standard Daily Show. How I long for Colbert, during the bad-unfunny-interview-segment.
Now excuse me, while I re-light the incense on my Jon Stewart shrine…
What are the odds that Peggy was really turned on by that interview?
nietzscheprojectile: Ha ha: cruel joke. Hulu.com is only available to the US.
mattbolt: It’s very easy to watch the Daily Show, Colbert Report and much more in Canada right here:
http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca.
Methinks some off camera chicanery, i.e. some kind of negotiation of the questions was part of teh weirdness with Her Heiny-ness. And she only comes out to play when it’s safe-safe-safe, and he scares her. What a shock not.
She should be on these kinds of show (Colbert, Maher) more often. Take a BIG hit of Jameson and go on. As she might say:”its ‘good’ for her to loosen up.”
Perot le fou: The only way that Stewart shows any balls, face to face, is when he goes on other people’s shows, like Crossfire. There’s a phrase for it…..like William & Mary soccer pussy.
Noonan works for Murdoch and should be hung by her thumbs until she repents. I imagine that appearing on Colbert’s show would be as close to hanging by thumbs as our society allows, given that Noonan’s not yet eligible for Guantanamo, but Stewart clings to vestiges of the rational that allows crooks like Noonan to slide. However, Stewart’s also a lot funnier than Colbert, who has one joke (which he tells over and over in entertaining ways).
druranium: Calling Peggy Noonan “too rigid and calculating” is like calling Michael Phelps “too aquatic.”
I think she was wearing half-breed muslin
DoctorCulturae: Mmmm, Jamesons. Rarely is centuries of sectarian strife worth it, but there you have it. Oh, and throw in a potato famine. Makes the dry heaves a bit more tolerable.
Fools rant while wise men buy shares of Campbell Soup Co. on the sly.
As to Noonan? My God, how is it that the industry shelters such a hothouse flower? Perhaps it’s fear she’ll go off the beam in a big way and splatter bystanders in the process.
What’s she doing on The Daily Show?
There wasn’t a hell of a lot Jon could do here. He was looking for candid answers right off the bat, but Noonan exists in another time and a different world. A world where vulgar language is not uttered in the presence of womenfolk, a world where the only solution to our American crises is to wistfully dream of the next Ronald “John Wayne” Regan hero-president to swoop in and sweep us off our feet.
in the tank! - that’s where I’d do her.
Peggy Noonan is irrelevent, a non-player, and so completely out-of-it, it’s pathetic. Why on earth would “The Daily Show” book her? Note to The Daily Show: Please stop booking these political morons and blowhard and idiots. No one gives a darn what the heck they say–no one. And it devalues The Daily Show. Just book some hot C-list actresses–then your ratings will go back up. Then book some politicians who are actually intelligent and have something important to say that actually adds something to political analysis. But right now, the fools you’re booking are just not cutting it, on any level.
The Noonan inter view made me want to smoke a dime-bag of eschatology, too.
Between our former mayor calling us cosmopolitans at the convention and the bailout drama which felt like US to NY: Drop Dead, we’ve been a little testy here in the Big Apple. When Stewart went on about the divisions being encouraged by the politicians, it hit home. It’s been a pretty tough 7 years, having people who hate us suddenly decide we got nicer after 911(We were always nice!), then having the government go to war against our will but in our name, now we’re the northern elite enemies of America again. I’d pray for a Canadian invasion if I wasn’t a atheist.
typo: an atheist
marioninnyc: typo “an atheist”
Anyone else noticed how easily the times are turning political comedy people into RANTERS?
I give Jon credit for every show in which his head does not actually explode.
Daily Show has gone to hell.
Norm McDonald once said that the worst thing a comedian can do is tell a joke that causes the audience to yell “Woooo!” in agreement. It’s cheap and cloying. Jokes that yield silence are funnier - and gutsier.
That’s all Stewart does now. Oh, and funny faces and voices.
Agreed. Painful interview. He should not have censored himself and he should have asked her real questions. At least the interesting ones! I had no idea what she was talking about. She was like that rich aunt who came Thanksgiving dinner, and your mom would make you sit next to her and be nice and pretend to be interested in what she had to say. And then you would tune her out and start to notice things like the lipstick on her teeth and the amazing rapidity in which she downed her Sherry.
badco/LoJ: That would annoy me if Stewart didn’t so obviously hate it every time the audience cheered at something he said.
Also, I love him, the end.
I thought he just didn’t like her. By the second half of the interview, I was certain that he was deliberately wasting her time, in her face.
Stewart’s old enough to remember her race-baiting speeches and dead-commie-nuns-had-it-coming propaganda she used to crank out as Reagan’s speechwriter– and now she’s asking everybody to play nice?
i love jon stewart, but he is a comedian. comedians are among the most miserable people i’ve ever met.
Peggy Noonan = Bay Buchanan with an enema.