Last night on “The Daily Show” Jon Stewart made a bet that he knew he couldn’t win. Stewart entered into a push-up contest with Paula Broadwell, who attended West Point, competes in triathlons, and worked the last year as a journalist in Afghanistan, that would see the loser donate money to the charity Team Red, White and Blue.

Needless to say, Stewart lost.

But he didn’t do as bad as you might think. Stewart did 40 push-ups in a row at the end of “The Daily Show” last night. Paula stopped at 60, but probably could have done another 100.

Paula said:

“I proposed that we both do push-ups and whoever loses has to pay $1000 to make up for the push-up gap… How much money are you willing to give up? Because I can do like a hundred.”

Stewart enrolled the help of Paula’s husband Scott, but it doesn’t look like anyone counted Scott’s push-ups.

The Military Times reports that Stewart’s weary arms managed to write a check shortly after the contest to Team Red White and Blue, which supports wounded veterans.

Here’s the video of the push-up contest on “The Daily Show.” (NSFW – Language)

Are you impressed with Jon Stewart’s push-up abilities?

Jon Stewart Loses Push-Up Contest, Gives $20,000 to Charity [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Now that Herman Cain is out of the race, he seems to be having a bit more fun with the talk show circuit.

Appearing on Bill Maher’s show Friday, Cain openly joked with the somewhat liberal-leaning Libertarian talk show host about his campaign and the lead up to election 2012. And a new commercial featuring Stephen Colbert as Herman Cain has been airing in South Carolina, as part of Colbert’s The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC promotional push. (Oh, sorry, Jon Stewart’s The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC.)

Stewart and Colbert have been having a bit of laugh with the whole Super PAC thing, giggling on the air last night as they didn’t coordinate with one another on how to move forward with the Super PAC, and then confirming with their lawyer that any fines incurred for coordinating could be paid… by funds raised through the Super PAC. And while many who benefit from the broad legislation that allows these organizations to essentially buy elections might find the satire dangerous, Herman Cain- who Colbert purports to be in the ads and urges South Carolinians to vote for Cain- thinks the whole thing is pretty funny.

Cain told Fox News:

“On Stephen Colbert’s endorsement of himself as Herman Cain, I find it very clever and humorous, as it should be… Anyone who finds what Mr. Colbert is doing offensive, should simply lighten up. To be perfectly clear, I will not be assuming Stephen Colbert’s identity. We are very different when it comes to the color of our… hair.”

The ads aren’t the only place Colbert and Cain are straight up chillaxing together- the unlikely pair will meet up again Friday for a segment of the Colbert Report. A spokeswoman for Cain says:

“Colbert’s people got in touch with us late last week and Mr. Cain will be taping a segment with Mr. Colbert on Friday in South Carolina. The endorsement of course comes as a pleasant surprise.”

On his show, Colbert explained to young voters in South Carolina that a vote for Herman Cain is a vote for Stephen Colbert, as Herman Cain. He said:

“Because Cain and I are so similar, I think that if this Saturday Herman Cain were to get a significant number of votes, that would be a sign that voters are hungry for a Stephen Colbert campaign. Anyone who shares my values can show it by voting for Herman Cain. Independents, Democrats, college kids, viewers of my show, people who attended my rally, my Twitter followers, my good friends on Reddit. Young people of the Internet, stand up and shout! Because you are legally eligible to go down to the polls and tell the world how much you love Herman Cain.”

Below is one of the many ads The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC is airing in Colbert’s home state of South Carolina. Do you think Stewart and Colbert’s actions will illustrate how corrupt these laws are to a younger audience?

Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC Ad: Herman Cain Says He’s In on the Joke is a post from: The Inquisitr

Steven Colbert’s Super Pac, which is now being run by Daily Show host Jon Stewart, has just released a new attack ad with a very simple message; Mitt Romney is a serial killer.

The new ad says that Mitt Romney believes that corporations are people. The ad also says that Romney has ripped apart several corporations. Which brings the ad to its logical conclusion. Mitt Romney is a serial killer.

Stewart writes in a press release:

“Mitt Romney claims to be pro-corporations… But would you let him date your daughter’s corporation? Americans have been clamoring for a comprehensive study of this crucial issue, so we splurged for the full sixty-second commercial. We think South Carolinians will agree – they deserve a leader who shares their state’s values, and perhaps even their state’s initials.”

The last line hints that Steven Colbert may add his name to the presidential ballot but the John Lithgow voiced ad isn’t asking voters to support Colbert yet. Instead, the ad urges voters to vote for “not Mitt Romney.”

Here’s the new ad, produced by the ”Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC.”

Do you think the new ad will sway voters from supporting Mitt Romney?

Mitt Romney is a Serial Killer? Colbert Super Pac Releases Attack Ad [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

It turns out Stephen Colbert was really serious about wanting to become the President of the United States of South Carolina. Announced during an airing of his show on Thursday the talk show host has officially handed the reins of his  ”Definitely Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert Super PAC,” over to Jon Stewart and it has begun buying political ads in South Carolina.

According to reports the Super PAC has already purchased nearly $10,000 worth of airtime in Charleston with ads set to run from Jan. 15 through Jan. 19.

Another source says the PAC is already ”negotiating a substantial media buy in the Columbia market” to air at an undisclosed time.

Now before you go thinking Stephen Colbert actually has a chance to win the state it’s important to remember that South Carolina doesn’t allow write-ins and he missed the deadline to get on the ballot.

Sure it might all be fake but the entire point of Stephen Colbert entering the South Carolina race with his fake and what we’re sure will be funny ads is that he wants to show how ridiculous politics in America have truly become.

Would you be willing to write-in Stephen Colbert if South Carolina allowed you to voice your choice with a write-in?

Stephen Colbert Super PAC Buys Up Media Space In South Carolina is a post from: The Inquisitr

If the Bloomberg piece earlier this week about the secret Fed loans and the real extent of TARP was TL;DR, this clip of Jon Stewart explaining it will make your blood boil with minimal reading.

Jon Stewart Explains the Secret Fed Loans [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Last night on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart made a couple of jokes at Herman Cain’s expense. According to Donald Trump, those jokes were racist and out of line.

Stewart’s segment focused on the sexual assault allegations against Herman Cain. Stewart started the bit with an offensive New York accent, saying:

“In Cain’s defense, there is very little in the pizza world that is not sexually suggestive… Hey, hey, you want sausage on your pie?… Hey, hey, hey, want me to stuff your crust?”

But that isn’t the part Trump has a problem with. Stewart played a segment showing Cain responding to the allegations. When asked if he had ever had to settle a sexual harassment claim, Cain said:

“At the restaurant association. Now outside the restaurant association, absolutely not.”

To which Stewart replied:

“Have you ever kidnapped a baby? Well, other than the Lindbergh boy, no.”

Here’s the clip from the Daily Show.

Do you think Jon Stewart’s remarks were racist? Was he accusing Herman Cain of kidnapping a baby 70 some years ago?

The last time Stewart was accused of racism, again, against Herman Cain, he posted this video. (A montage of all the offensive accents and jokes that frequent his show.)

Donald Trump: Jon Stewart’s Lindbergh Baby Joke Was Racist [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Pat Robertson is known for making comments which some would deem extreme. But even the Christian Evangelist preacher is offended by the far right rhetoric of the GOP candidates. On “The 700 Club,” Robertson warns the GOP candidates that if they don’t stop with their extreme right ideas, they’ll lose the election.

Roberston said, according to Christian Post:

“I believe it was Lyndon Johnson that said, ‘Don’t these people realize if they push me over to an extreme position I’ll lose the election? And I’m the one who will be supporting what they want but they’re going to make it so I can’t win.’ Those people in the Republican primary have got to lay off of this stuff. They’re forcing their leaders, the frontrunners, into positions that will mean they lose the general election… You appeal to the narrow base and they’ll applaud the daylights out of what you’re saying and then you hit the general election and they say ‘no way’ and then the Democrat, whoever it is, is going to just play these statements to the hilt. They’ve got to stop this! It’s just so counterproductive.”

So000 Robertson isn’t saying that the extreme ideas are wrong, he’s just saying that expressing those ideas is going to scare away voters. In other words, Robertson’s advice to the candidates it to keep their agenda a secret until they win the election. Then once they’re president, they can electrify all the fences, ban all the gay marriages, and criminalize all the abortions they want.

Last night on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart attacked Robertson’s advice for the GOP.

Stewart said:

“Is that Pat “gay people cause hurricanes” Robertson expressing concern for how extreme the Republican party has gotten?… Pat “liberals are akin to Nazi” Robertson believes that Republicans are staking out a position that may be to unappealingly extreme.”

Here’s a clip from the Daily Show. [The Pat Robertson part starts at about 4:10.]

Do you think the GOP’s extreme rhetoric will cost them the election?

Pat Robertson: GOP Candidates Too Extreme, Need To Tone It Down [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

During an appearance on Thursday’s episode of “The Daily Show,” Bennett told host Jon Stewart that Winehouse knew her alcohol addiction was going to kill her, when she recorded a song for his recently released record-breaking album, Duets II.

“She knew that she was in a lot of trouble, that she wasn’t going to live. It wasn’t drugs, it was alcohol, toward the end,” said Bennett, who recorded “Body and Soul” with Amy, in what would be her last recording before her death at the age of 27.

After sharing his sad story, Bennett then went on to praise Winehouse’s vocal abilities, comparing her to legendary Jazz/R&B singer, Dinah Washington.

“She was really, since Elvis Presley and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones … the only singer that really sang what I call the right way,” Bennett said of Amy. “She was really a great jazz singer, a true jazz singer.”

To see Tony Bennett’s full interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, watch the clip below:

Tony Bennett Claims Amy Winehouse Knew She Was Going to Die is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Daily Show is very entertaining, but not often “laugh out loud” funny.

Last night was a very notable exception, as Jon Stewart addressed at length leaked chat transcripts featuring his old college buddy Rep. Anthony Weiner and digi-foreplay that heavily leaned on doggy-style Daily Show viewings. Oh, yes. Watch the clip:

[Video] Jon Stewart Addresses ‘Daily Show’ Foreplay in Weinergate is a post from: The Inquisitr

[Video] Jon Stewart Schools Trump, World on NYC Pizza Customs is a post from: The Inquisitr

Parts one and two of Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly go head to head on whether Fox is making racist mountains out of molehills about rapper Common’s White House invite. Who pwned?

[Video] Jon Stewart vs. Bill O’Reilly on Common White House invite is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a recent New York Times profile, TV stock-shouter Jim Cramer admitted he still harbors a lot of resentment over Jon Stewart for pwning the hell out of him on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.

Cramer took a tremendous amount of heat after Stewart called him on the carpet to answer for a series of recommendations that seemed to back about-to-fail firms like Bear Stearns. Cramer tried to defend his original assertions, but Stewart relentlessly pummeled him. To refresh your memory, Stewart scathingly accused back in 2009:

I understand you want to make finance entertaining, but it’s not a fucking game… and I … when I watch that… I can’t tell you how angry that makes me. Because what it says to me that “You all know.” You all know what’s going on. From those shenanigans to the stuff that was being pulled at Bear and at AIG and all this derivative market stuff — that is this weird Wall Street side bet… You knew what the banks were doing and yet you were touting it for months and months. The entire network was. And so now to pretend that this was some sort of crazy once in a lifetime tsunami that nobody could have seen coming is disingenuous at best and criminal at worst.

Stewart continued:

These guys at these companies were on a Sherman’s March through their companies financed by our 401ks and all the incentives of their companies were for short term profit. They burned the fucking house down with our money and walked away rich as hell and you guys knew that that was going on.

Pretty harsh. And it turns out that Cramer hasn’t really personally recovered from the hit his reputation took on TDS that night, and feels as if he somehow became the face of the corruption and criminality that precipitated the 2008 crash. Cramer laments:

“It’s unbelievable, I know, but I never saw it coming… The night before Stewart, a bartender in Brooklyn wished me luck, and I didn’t get what he was talking about. I expected a cordial discussion. They promised they wouldn’t use any clips, and they lied…”

Cramer admits he caught on pretty quickly, though:

“As soon as he started, I realized Stewart was on a mission to make me look like a clown. I didn’t defend myself because I wasn’t prepared. What was I supposed to do, talk about how often I had been right? Praise myself? Get mad? I was mad, but I didn’t want to give the audience any blood. The national media said I got crushed, which I did, and made me into a buffoon…. Stewart was the prosecutor, and I was Exhibit A. But what was the crime? What did I do wrong? I wasn’t running Fannie or Freddie. I wasn’t in charge at Countrywide. CNBC was completely good. Better than the Department of Justice. What I did every night was call these bad actors out. I sat there with Stewart and thought: He’s never even seen my show. He doesn’t even know what I do.” He paused for a moment. “Obviously I didn’t know what he does, either.”

It’s like you could almost feel bad for him until you remember all the people that lost their pensions and stuff.

[NYT via Gawker]

Jim Cramer still smarting over ‘Daily Show’ burn is a post from: The Inquisitr

When questioned about Reddit’s role in the inception of what would become the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear,” Jon Stewart may have understated the role of the internet a bit.

Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian questioned as to Stewart to what degree internet enthusiasm inspired the rally, to which Stewart answered that it “didn’t hurt.” (Ouch.) Colbert also downplayed the importance of Reddit (where it appears the idea originated) when asked, saying that the internet “didn’t affect” rally attendance one way or the other. (Of course, upwards of 10,000 New Yorkers were bussed to the National Mall on blog-sourced buses, but…)

Today, Drew Curtis of Fark posted an angry open letter ripping into The Daily Show not only for not giving credit where credit is due in regards to the rally, but also for mining Fark and Reddit for comedy topics without ever once mentioning either site on the show. Curtis begins:

Did you hear that Reddit? All that work you put into getting the word out, organizing meetups, and convincing people to go “didn’t hurt”. All that initial support in getting the ball rolling on this rally a few months back was great, but it wasn’t a factor. Thanks for your meaningless and futile support that Comedy Central really didn’t need at the end of the day to get a surprise crowd of 250,000 people to the rally. Did you hear that Internet? You had no role in this either, it was all Comedy Central all the way.

After accusing the network of not really admitting the idea for the rally belonged to the internet, Curtis goes on to accuse Comedy Central writers of snatching yo’ memes up:

Why am I so bent about this? First and foremost, because a friend of mine got smacked down on live TV by a guy he helped, and I can’t stand by and do nothing about it without at least saying something. But also because Daily Show writers have been doing essentially the same thing to me, every single day for the past 10 years. They use Fark every day to source material, and haven’t mentioned Fark on air even one single time. It’s the same attitude toward Reddit: “sure doesn’t hurt, but not a significant contribution.” Thanks to Fark, your writers don’t have to go far to fill your shows up with material for you to use. Every writer I’ve met thanks me vociferously for Fark and tells me how much easier it makes their jobs. Sure that’s not worth a daily mention, but I would think at least one in the last 10 years. It has yet to happen. I’ve learned to live with it, but Alexis is my friend and he does not deserve this kind of treatment. Especially considering the effort Reddit put into promoting the rally.

Curtis ends his letter by suggesting to Comedy Central that if they continue to leech off the internet, the unwashed blogging masses could turn against them for their next initiative. He also says flat out that Comedy Central did do the bulk of the work in promoting the rally, just that the internet also played an invaluable role in making it what it ultimately became. (Attendance is believed to have been in the hundreds of thousands.)

Do you think Stewart and Colbert’s comments were ungrateful and out of line? Does Reddit deserve more credit for the success of the rally?

/oblig

Drew Curtis smacks down ‘Daily Show’ for stealing from Fark, Reddit is a post from: The Inquisitr

Due to massive internet demand stemming from a post on Reddit, Jon Stewart announced a rally in Washington DC to counter the many Tea Party-centric rallies that have taken place across the country.

Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been hinting at the existence of an “announcement” and an “event,” and details have been released. The “Rally To Restore Sanity” is to take place on October 30th, and Colbert will ostensibly be confirming a “Keep Fear Alive” version to occur simultaneously in the same place. (At the time of posting, The Colbert Report hadn’t aired, but the “Rally To Restore Sanity” page links to Colbert’s “March To Keep Fear Alive” page.) The two rallies seem to have been set up to counter each other, with Colbert’s a bit more in line with the satirical vibe of the original suggestion.

From Stewart’s page:

Because we’re looking for those people. We’re looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn’t be the only ones that get heard; and who believe that the only time it’s appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is actually Hitler. Or Charlie Chaplin in certain roles.

Are you one of those people? Excellent. Then we’d like you to join us in Washington, DC on October 30 — a date of no significance whatsoever — at the Daily Show’s “Rally to Restore Sanity.” Ours is a rally for the people who’ve been too busy to go to rallies, who actually have lives and families and jobs (or are looking for jobs) — not so much the Silent Majority as the Busy Majority. If we had to sum up the political view of our participants in a single sentence… we couldn’t. That’s sort of the point.

From Colbert’s page:

America, the Greatest Country God ever gave Man, was built on three bedrock principles: Freedom. Liberty. And Fear — that someone might take our Freedom and Liberty. But now, there are dark, optimistic forces trying to take away our Fear — forces with salt and pepper hair and way more Emmys than they need. They want to replace our Fear with reason. But never forget — “Reason” is just one letter away from “Treason.” Coincidence? Reasonable people would say it is, but America can’t afford to take that chance.

So, internet, do you plan to help “restore truthiness” at either event?

Stewart and Colbert announce ‘Rally To Restore Sanity’ and ‘March To Keep Fear Alive’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

Jon Stewart took a break from ragging on Goldman Sachs and Sarah Palin last night and did a lengthy bit on the recent iPhone hullabaloo that ended up with police breaking down Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s door and raiding his house while he was out at dinner. (After the phone had been returned.)

In the clip below, Stewart asks the hard hitting questions, such as why the hell we can’t get a signal when we’re cruising down the West Side Highway here in New York:

I mean, if you wanna break down someone’s door, why don’t you start with AT&T, for Godsakes? They make your amazing phone unusable as a phone! I mean, seriously! How do you drop four calls in a one-mile stretch of the West Side Highway? There are no buildings around! What, does the open space confuse AT&T’s signal?

Heh. Heh, heh heh. Appholes.

Video: Jon Stewart rags on Apple for Gizmodo kerfuffle is a post from: The Inquisitr

Last night’s The Daily Show did a great bit explaining Chatroulette in a segment featuring a Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, Keith Olbermann, TDS staffers Wyatt Cynac and Jason Jones, and most hilariously, a sheepish Brian Williams.

Stewart basically informed the six people who might not know that Chatroulette is roughly 98% penis and 2% hilarity. Clip below:

VIDEO: Jon Stewart explains Chatroulette is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Daily Show host Jon Stewart finished up a two-part series of interviews on Bill O’Reilly’s The O’Reilly Factor last night, and it made for some great, laugh-trackless watching as the two sparred over Iran, climate change, Khaled Sheik Mohammed does New York, and Sarah Palin.

O’Reilly starts off the interview under the premise that he’s vetting Stewart as a presidential running mate, opening a dialogue about climate change before the conversation turns to Iran. Stewart, thanking Fox News for “racheting up the fear” on the issue of Iran, calmly and consisely downplays fears of Iranian nuclear proliferation, and points out that overthrowing governments to stop tiny terrorist cells from attacking is a misguided strategy. As much as I love O’Reilly too, and I do- it’s really striking how Stewart knocks down all the Fox News talking points like so many straw men. O’Reilly’s gracious about the whole thing, trading barbs with Stewart in the way most New Yorkers knock each other in casual conversation, but Stewart really gets bitchy at points. He’s mostly right, though, so he gets away with it.

O’Reilly moves on to Khaled Sheik Mohammed and whether the 9/11 trials should be located in downtown Manhattan. O’Reilly cites the expense, to which Stewart replies that he’s glad O’Reilly’s “suddenly concerned about cost.” Stewart veers over towards the massive expense of the Iraq war (and ostensibly, the relatively minor worth of the invasion), and O’Reilly gamely apologizes for his earlier warmongering and the whole WMD thing. Back on KSM, Stewart dismisses concerns that the trial exposes NYC to a larger terrorist threat. The interview finishes up on the issue of Sarah Palin, and whether TDS has been unfair to Palin since her rise to notoriety. Instead of making an obvious joke, Stewart calls her out on her insistence that there are two Americas- her ‘real’ one and the rest of us, adroitly pointing out in a few words what it is that makes Palin a target for her many detractors. The video below is part two of the Stewart-O’Reilly showdown in its entirety.

On his own show last night, Stewart ragged on blogs a bit for their hyperbolic headlines in a segment called, “The Blogs Must Be Crazy.”

Video: Jon Stewart slices O’Reilly, wears skin as trophy is a post from: The Inquisitr

Jon Stewart, whose popular Daily Show usually skewers right-wing talking heads, politicians and pundits, did a pretty searing point by point critique of some comments of Keith Olbermann’s this week.

Stewart called Olbermann out for his invective about the Republican who beat out Dem Martha Coakley for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts. And it was hilarious.

Jon Stewart dresses Keith Olbermann down for partisan comments is a post from: The Inquisitr

“I’m not saying this is a plot by Hitler to steal Glenn Beck from all of us internal organ by internal organ by internal organ and then reprogram him to use as a weapon. But isn’t it fascinating that I’m the only one with the courage to ask these questions?”

(Note: Clip is long, but hilarious.)

Jon Stewart does fantastic Glenn Beck impression is a post from: The Inquisitr

The interview, which went over 3 segments, confirmed Stewart as perhaps one of the few serious interviewers of our times. The irony in that statement is rich, but you have to watch it to understand.

To Jim Cramer’s credit, he took it mostly well, given some of the dummy spits he’s had this week on other shows, including Today.

Here’s the Jon Stewart Jim Cramer interview on The Daily Show over three parts.

Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer: the full video is a post from: The Inquisitr