T Dog’s Think Tank: Chicago slammed by overrated “Daily Show” and Jon Stewart

The “most hated person in Chicago” designation is like our weather; if you wait a few minutes – it’ll change.

A few days ago it was Garry Meier for not thanking Steve Dahl in his acceptance speech at the Radio Hall Of Fame; on Thursday, it was Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.

I’m certain by Monday, it’ll be Howie Mandel. Mancow.

Chicago’s latest diss from the national media came Wednesday night when Stewart slammed the city’s deep-dish pizza after a clip aired featuring Mayor Rahm Emanuel complaining about Willis (Sears) Tower losing the World’s Tallest Building title to New York City’s new Freedom Center skyscraper, over “an antenna”.

Stewart went on an epic seven-minute rant on Chicago pizza, referring to it as “an above ground marinara swimming pool for rats.” For good measure, he also slammed the city for its high homicide rate and hot dogs.

Wow, I can’t wait for Carol Marin’s response to this!

As you recall last spring, it was another New Yorker – DePaul professor Rachel Shetir – who slammed the city, saying Chicago was on its way to becoming the next **ahem** Detroit. And much like Stewart’s ditrabe, the reaction from Chicagoans were harsh.

It just proves once again the East Coast Media elite’s hatred for Chicago. It doesn’t matter if your from the right (Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly) or the left, like Jon Stewart – it seems the national media’s hatred for Chicago is bipartisan. They always harp on us for bad weather, crime, the Cubs, and anything else you can think of. Our country may be divided right now, but nothing unites the good ol’ USA than shitting on the Windy City.

Then again, we could be Toronto right now, home of crack-smoking mayor Rob Ford (and yes, The Daily Show has been skewing him, too.)

If Stewart wanted to call out Chicago for something, it should’ve been for us exporting Jim Belushi, Jenny McCarthy, Jeff Garlin, and rapper Chief Keef to the world and for our continued obsession with Mike Ditka, Oprah Winfrey, and Steve & Garry long after they moved on.

This does seem out of character for The Daily Show – an Emmy-winning program adored by critics and a success in the adult 18-49 demo – the one advertisers care about the most and has eaten into competing late news’ ratings on local broadcast stations. In fact, yours truly and others have often pointed out more young viewers get their news from The Daily Show than they do national or local broadcasts. Wednesday night’s Chicago pizza-bashing episode earned an 0.8 rating in the 18-49 demo, only behind a rerun of Family Guy on Adult Swim. By comparison, The Arsenio Hall Show – which competes head-to-head with The Daily Show in most markets – only averaged a 0.4 rating in broadcast syndication so far this season.

Of course, I made The Daily Show Twitter account staff LOL when I tweeted this meathead reaction:

Fu*k you @TheDailyShow and Jon Stewart – I watch Arsenio Hall anyway.

— T Dog Media (@tdogmedia) November 14, 2013

Personally, yours truly isn’t a Daily Show fan – during either the Craig Kilbourn or Jon Stewart eras as I’ve watched only a few times and came away bored, as I don’t get or care for political humor. I don’t get the critical acclaim, either – Stewart comes across as a cranky, annoying, grating prick and I can’t stand him (Kilbourn was actually a better host.)

And while I do find it a bit jarring that more young people would watch this over “real” news, journalism has become a parody of itself over the years, with sensational reporting, repeated gaffes, and other nonsense – especially when it comes to the ratings-driven local newscasts and cable news networks. As a result, they have lost the next generation of viewers to Stewart and his ilk, and they have nobody to blame but themselves, no matter how much the Carol Marins or Mary Ann Aherns of the world detest it. After all, we kind of pioneered the sort of atmosphere Stewart rails against – remember WBBM-TV’s low-brow tabloid news format in the 1990’s or when trash talk-show host Jerry Springer became a WMAQ-TV commentator for two nights?

And to the humanoids who want to point out the 0.8 as a “low rating” – on cable TV and syndication, that’s considered a success. Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t know a damn thing about the television business.

As for pizzagate, Mayor Emanuel took it all in stride – he sent The Daily Show deep dish pizza with anchovies – a.k.a. dead fish:

.@RahmEmanuel sent us some Chicago deep-dish pizza. Thanks buddy! https://t.co/sHacZnWtpS

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) November 15, 2013

They fed it to the dog – and even he didn’t want it.

The same reaction if we fed them Jim Belushi.

Revenge is a dish best served cold: a deep dish, that is:

Chicagoans, if your looking for revenge against The Daily Show, our neighbors in Indiana have our backs – from 2007, that is. Here is NBC affiliate WTWO’s response to a Daily Show skewer about their local station in Terre Haute. Funnier than anything Stewart has ever said on The Daily Show.