Shawn Griffithshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjzrvRKv6Ks
Jon Stewart is known for taking some of the biggest news stories in the media and making them funny, giving audiences an opportunity to hear about important things happening in the nation and world around them in an entertaining way. However, when it came to the tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina, Stewart had no jokes to write.
"I didn't do my job today," Stewart said in the beginning of his monologue. "Maybe if I wasn't nearing the end of the run or if this wasn't such a common occurrence, I could have pulled out of the spiral, but I didn't ... I honestly have nothing other than sadness."
For 5 minutes, Jon Stewart broke character to give arguably one of the most impassioned rants ever on his show. Stewart explicitly called the shooting in South Carolina a terrorist attack and expressed frustration over the fact that America will spend tens of billions chasing ISIS and Islamic terrorists around the world, but we won't do anything about these incidents of domestic terrorism.
"We still won't do jack s--t," he remarked.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Mother Jones said the segment is "probably the most important video we've seen in months."
Mother JonesFriday, June 19, 2015
Social media has been abuzz with chatter about Jon Stewart's monologue since it went viral. On Twitter, Stewart has received an overwhelmingly positive response for the most part:
https://twitter.com/TIME/status/611939458041147392
https://twitter.com/dantherriault/status/611893434660556800
https://twitter.com/d0ntcallmed0ll/status/611920781837266949
https://twitter.com/jeffcannata/status/611919226127847425
https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/611914246100811776
https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity/status/611911256405094400
https://twitter.com/rumchampion/status/611909845566910464
https://twitter.com/Nash076/status/611939930005114880
https://twitter.com/AndreWolff_/status/611956158094553088
However, while many people do not disagree with Stewart calling this a terrorist attack or that racism is still a problem in the U.S., some people were more concerned about the gun control aspect of the debate even though Stewart said from the very beginning that he didn't want to get into those political debates.
https://twitter.com/scrowder/status/611888523784884225
https://twitter.com/jtLOL/status/611878612774457344
https://twitter.com/2Lu88/status/611733605568516096
https://twitter.com/ElectionLawCtr/status/611913638933233664