Have You No Shame, Sir?

©Comedy Central/Gavin Bond ©CNBC Photo

This week, Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has been showing clips of Jim Cramer, the host of a financial entertainment show on CNBC called Mad Money. Stewart was making fun of the fact that Cramer gets it wrong sometimes and zeroed in on his recommendations on Bear Stearns. On Thursday night, these two faced off on The Daily Show.

It wasn't funny, which is a problem because The Daily Show is supposed to be funny. First of all, the premise that Cramer should be chastised for giving bad advice is absurd. No one can predict the stock market reliably, much less individual stocks. Second, Stewart was acting like Chris Matthews, that is, he was asking long questions and then turning it into a multiple choice by giving the answers himself. He was getting all serious on us. Not funny. Third, Stewart was showing clips from 2006 of Cramer talking about borderline illegal activities of hedge fund traders. These clips were a bit obscure and not funny. If Stewart has an issue with them, why didn't he bring it up two years ago. Finally, Cramer was not himself and was not funny. He sat there like a contrite little boy and said CNBC could do better. Not funny.

The show I was hoping for would have Cramer trading punches with Stewart. He could have shown clips of Stewart's lapses, you know, other times when Stewart is not funny. Times when he does impersonations, badly. Times when he is a star-struck sycophant during a celebrity interview/movie promotion. Times when he says something and the audience goes "ewwwwwwwwwww".

I can credit The Daily Show for the opening, which admitted that the whole Cramer vs. Stewart thing was about ratings. That was funny.

Fortunately for Comedy Central, The Daily Show is just a warm-up for the highly-awarded The Colbert Report and the hilarious and talented Stephen Colbert.

Update: The NYT TV Decoder's The Comedian as Media Critic provides a good summary of what happened. Alessandra Stanley's Economic Meltdown Not a Laughing Matter says "Mostly, the much-hyped Thursday night showdown between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer, the mercurial host of “Mad Money” on CNBC, felt like a Senate subcommittee hearing," which is similar to my take on it. The Huffington Post scored a big win for Stewart. The comments that follow these blogs show overwhelming support for and thanks to Stewart for revealing that CNBC may simply be PR for the companies they cover, that they help to spread rumors, and that they give bad advice. As to who really won, I like the Huffington Post's Tim Berry's call.

So who's winning the Cramer vs. Stewart battle? Cramer and Stewart. Both are smart enough to keep it going as long as they can. And, along with them, Comedy Central, and NBC, and all the news media that cover them.