Arts & Culture

Stewart vs. Cramer: The Rundown

By Jennie Rivlin Roberts / March 14, 2009

Have you been hearing the buzz about the battle between these two big personalities?

Both these men are Jewish and the LA Jewish Journal, quite Jewishly, gives us a meta-take on this conflict which is worth considering and discussing:

"Last night’s encounter between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer should be replayed, studied, discussed and memorized at every single yeshiva and Jewish day school. Make the debate a mandatory part of the curriculum. Why? Because there are few more concise, dramatic and entertaining ways to engage in one of the central ongoing questions Judaism asks: How do you balance the need for money with the curse of money?"

Here is the Rundown on this conflict:

Jon Stewart on Comedy Central’s Daily Show had been taking on stock market analysts including Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money in his popular segment where he shows video clips from the news. Hindsight is 20/20 and these segments are always hilarious because they record in full-color oh-how-wrong-they-are. Embarrassing clips of Cramer speaking positively about Bear Sterns a few days before its collapse began a media war between the two. This video on YouTube is a 5 minute review of those events leading up to the appearance of Cramer on The Daily Show.

After several passive-aggressive back and forths from both sides Jon Stewart finally had Jim Cramer on his show this Thursday. Here are the full, unedited interviews complements of Comedy Central. Watch Part One and you can continue onto Part Two and Three and observe, as the LA Jewish Journal puts it: the wealthy king v. the virtuous prophet.


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  • By Herbert Kaine 3/18/09 at 12:02 p.m. UTC

    Isnt Jons Stewarts original name Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz? Did he ditch the Leibowitz to succeed in Jewishly occupied Hollywood?

  • By RW 3/15/09 at 4:14 a.m. UTC

    I have never, in my entire life, heard anything as pompous or stupid as labeling Jon Stewart a "virtuous prophet". Jon Stewart was a C list comedian tapped to replace Craig Kilborn, a mildly funny man roughly occupying Stewart’s position on the American comedy food chain. At some point during his tenure on The Daily Show, the show itself became a form of wish fulfillment for American progressives pissed off about their lack of actual political influence in America. Any sane person would generally recognize that a surplus of cheap praise from the Huffington Post crowd should be taken with a grain of salt, but Jon Stewart lacks the ordinary self-awareness that would suit a more level headed comedian hosting a fake news show.

    Jim Cramer, by means of comparison, is an actual journalist reversing the Stewart-esque migration from journalist to entertainer as a financial news pundit. As one might expect, the standards are a tad higher for Jim Cramer when it comes to accuracy and journalistic standards. Unfortunately for, Jim Cramer, his career trajectory has proved rocker than Stewart’s, as he lacks a studio audience that will blindly applaud at anything he says, and has, thus far at least, tackled stories and issues a tad more complex than the sort that can be turned into 10 second video clips followed by an outraged howl of "WHY ARE YOU HURTING AMERICA?!?"

     Jim Cramer rolled over for Jon Stewart when he should have told Stewart to go suck his balls. Oh well. Maybe next time.

  • By telavivacious 3/15/09 at 12:28 a.m. UTC

    Does anyone have any idea on how to watch these clips in Canada? I can never find them on Comedy Central’s website.

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