Mark Twain Prize Honors Propagandist Jon Stewart, Ignores Cancel Culture

Imagine the comedy world’s biggest stars gathered together and omitting any existential threats to artistic freedom.

To celebrate Jon Stewart’s latest honours, the Mark Twain Award Prize organizers organized a similar effort on Sunday. Stewart was the force behind The Daily ShowThe prestigious award was given to the Obama administration for giving birth during the Obama years. Full frontal, The Late Show, Last Week TonightOther late-night propaganda outlets

Some legacy.

According to reports from the D.C.-based gala, none of the participants had the nerve to challenge Cancel Culture. This is partly because it was Mark Twain’s first event since COVID-19 had paralyzed much of the world and the nation.

There is no better time than now to defeat the cultural dragon that affects every aspect of comedy.

Except the guest of honor is on record saying Cancel Culture doesn’t exist…days before defending his good chum Dave Chappelle from a Cancel Culture attack.

Even worse.

Stewart’s speech praised comedy for being a critical defense against authoritarians. That’s wonderful … on paper.

“When society is under threat, comedians are the ones who get sent away first. It’s just a reminder to people that democracy is under threat. Authoritarians are the threat to comedy, to music, to thought, to poetry.”

Or, in the case of vaccine mandates which proved far less effective than advertised, people’s livelihoods.

Stewart made fun of Cancel Culture in the middle of his speech.

“It ain’t the pronoun police — it’s the secret police. It always has and it always will be,” he said.

It’s so embarrassing.

That quip ignores people losing their jobs for using the “wrong” pronouns. Also, it diminishes comedians’ responsibilities in this waking age.

For starters, self-censorship.

Even liberal black comics like Showtime standouts Desus & Mero admit to just that. Others shape their acts around social justice, praying any problematic jokes from their past won’t be “resurfaced” at the worst possible time.

Amy Schumer, one of three recent Oscar hosts, noted she prepared the targets of her barbs in advance so she wouldn’t get burned.

Amazing and courageous.

And then there’s the fact that most modern comedians are either giving Team Biden a comedy hall pass or cheering him on. Millions of people are experiencing shockingly high gas prices, ballooning inflation and other Biden-era diseases.

Our comic jesters can’t spare a crack about it, though. There will be some truthtellers.

Kimmels Colberts, Noahs, and other Stewart descendants would choose to pick Fox News Cable host over the leader of free society.

Oh, and they won’t touch this powerful leader, either.

There are many cowards. Frauds. Jokesters. But not in the most healthy sense.

Irony is the greatest?

Chappelle was invited to join the festivity by the event planners. Was he told, “ix-nay on the ancel-kay ulture-kay?” Or did he charitably focus on the honoree, knowing he’s done plenty to address, and battle, Cancel Culture as it is?

It wasn’t Chappelle’s place to bring up the elephant in the comedy room. That Stewart, of all people, couldn’t do the heavy lifting when the spotlight turned his way makes a mockery of the coveted Twain bust he now calls his own.

[Cross-posted from Hollywood in Toto]