'The Daily Show' Recap - February 20, 2012
Monday, comedian Jon Stewart covered the birth control debate in congress, Aasif Mandvi looked into Linsanity, and Alan Huffman and Michael Rejebian discussed their book.
Stewart began with the congressional debate over whether or not Church affiliated institutions, or their insurers, should be required to include contraception in their government mandated health care. “So we have ourselves an old-fashioned, liberty standoff. On the one hand, the Catholic Church, they do not want to be forced into paying money for insurance plans that offer contraception for even their non-Catholic employees. Although, they do pay those employees money. So, I guess the argument could be made that, by paying these employees, Church money ends up being used for contraception, in pornographies, and dildos rolled in glitter, and entrance fees to clubs where cats have sex with dogs, 8th street and third avenue, it’s called Collarz. … On the other side are women, who would for some reason like their preventative health care costs provided by their health care insurance provider. Tough case, because choices are catholics and women, and both are infallible, am I right?” Congressman Issa reviewed a panel to settle it, but no woman actually spoke on behalf of women. Stewart pointed out that the Church already has plans that cover Viagra, and that some unmarried men were on it. He asked the audience what they thought the men were doing with their boners and put an address up on the screen, presumably that of an audience member, for everyone to mail their responses to. Stewart closed act one with a “roundtable segment” called “Jon Stewart’s eye on the ladies.” The black and white segment featured John Oliver, Jason Jones, Aasif Mandvi, and Jessica Williams. They sat around the round table, smoked, and drank. Stewart asked them each their opinion on the issue, but skipped Jessica. Jessica was completely ignored until she put on a fake mustache. She was then recognized as Donny. Jessica made her same point with the mustache and was praised for his open-mindedness.
In Monday’s edition of “Lindecision 2012,” Assif Mandvi reported: “Jeremy Lin, he’s a hero to both New Yorkers and Asians everywhere. Yet, sadly, many Chinese and Tiwanese fans are prevented from seeing Jeremy Lin play due to media sensorship.” For more, Mandvi went to Chinatown, New York. MSG was blacked out on Time Warner for multiple weeks, and the result were millions people unable to watch the Knicks. Fans gathered in local restaurants to watch games until Time Warner and MSG resolved their dispute. “The victims of this abuse will never forget the pain and indignity they’ve been forced to live through.”
Alan Huffman and Michael Rejebian came on the Show Monday night to discuss their new book, We’re With Nobody. Huffman and Rejebian are “the guys who show up at a local courthouse and say ‘we were wondering if you had any information on so-and-so.’” Stewart claimed. “Exactly,” Huffman interjected. “When we go in there, and start asking questions, usually it’s about a politician they know of, right? They know who it is; and, they’re curious who we’re with; and, they always say, ’who are you with?’ Trying to kind of stall us a little bit, get some information, we always say, ‘we’re with nobody.’ Sometimes, I’ll say ‘I’m with him,’ and that kind of throws them.” They claimed they have thugs follow them around in a rusty pickup truck as security. “Why can’t thugs beat up enough people to buy a better truck?” Stewart wondered. Huffman and Rejebian dig up dirt on both parties, but work exclusively for the Democratic Party. “Do they ever say to you, ‘bury this, make this go away?’ And, do they ever say it in this tone of voice, ‘(lower tone of voice) bury this, make this go away?’” Huffman explained, once they uncover something it’s impossible to make it disappear but confessed that they do get the request. Stewart asked them how they deal with the morality of finding a single piece of dirt on an overall decent guy, when they know what it’ll do to that persons career. “We’re still going to turn it into the campaign, but we’re going to, basically, tell them this guy looks clean overall and if you go out there with this, odds are it’s going to make you look bad, and they usually don’t want to do it anyway, because they’re always afraid of the blowback from going negative. You’d never know it to watch TV.”