Jon Stewart appears on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ to present a headline-resistant and nuanced view about Dave Chappelle
Jon Stewart visited his old chum Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” ostensibly to promote Stewart’s own show, “The Problem with Jon Stewart.” But the two “Daily Show” alumni had a different late-night program on their minds: “Saturday Night Live.” During the talk, Stewart, whose Jewish identity is core to much of his comedy, ultimately came out, to a degree, in support of Dave Chappelle.
Chappelle recently gave a controversial 15-minute monologue on “SNL” in which he mocked Kanye West for his obnoxious and ignorant antisemitic comments of late, but he did so in a way that also stoked outrage. In the wake of the “SNL” broadcast last week, Chappelle was condemned for reiterating many Jew-hating tropes his jokes about West and Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving were meant to condemn.
Calling himself a “spokesjew” in a deadpan fashion familiar to those who watched him as host of “The Daily Show” for years, Stewart said the Kyrie issue was actually nice because it is rare for the phrase “The Jews” to trend on Twitter aligned with a sports topic. Stewart, a longtime friend of Chappelle’s, then joked about which puppet master power-wielding secret committees he sits on. (Oil and bagels, he said, but don’t blame him for blueberry ones.)
Getting more serious, Stewart said that those who complained that Chappelle’s monologue “normalized antisemitism” probably have their heads in the sand. “I don’t know if you’ve been on comment sections on most news articles, but it’s pretty [bleep]ing normal. It’s incredibly normal. But the one thing I will say is I don’t believe that censorship and penalties are the way to end antisemitism or to not gain understanding. I don’t believe in that. I think it’s the wrong way for us to approach it,” he said. After a beat (and with the audience seemingly wondering when they should clap) Stewart added, “Kyrie Irving … they suspended him from playing basketball. If you want to punish this man … send him to the Knicks.”
He then went on to say that he felt it was somewhat absurd that Irving, “a grown-ass man” is being forced to sit in the corner until he no longer believes that Jews control the international banking system. “We have to get past this. Look, people think this. People think Jews control the banks. And to not deal with it in a straightforward manner? We will never gain any kind of understanding.”
Colbert, who wasn’t quite so ready to fully agree with his old boss, did say that comics certainly had “the right” to say whatever they want, and they will likely find an audience, but he wondered what the correct response should be.
“Comics rely on our prejudices as a shorthand for our material,” Stewart explained, going on to say that the general vibe of the discourse, currently, is to bury stuff, not to expose things to air for a mature conversation. It got a little serious for a second! Actually more than a second—for a full few minutes. It concluded, though, with a thought. “If you really don’t want us around,” Stewart said to antisemites, “write your own [bleep]ing Broadway shows.”
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