Who Deserves a Flog Today?

Today's target of The Flogging Whip is Jon Stewart! Yes, THAT Jon Stewart of The Daily Show on Comedy Central (and the Internet via clips and snippets embedded from his funnier moments on numerous websites). The seriously funny yet equally serious man off (and sometimes on) camera – one of My Main Men, no less – will take a summer "hiatus" from hosting his wonderfully educational-through-humour way of chopping down the lies, inconsistencies and hypocrisy of our most Hallowed Halls of Injustice, and almost anything or anyone else that provide, nay, BEGS for satire, to direct a film? Jon, Jon, how can ye abandon your flock to direct a serious film when your audience will need your funny faces and clever observations during the summer of 2013 when we all know we'll need comic relief from all the things that will ail us during humid, hot nights in the blight of even hotter-than-norm weather on the horizon. We might feel cranky by 11:00 and want a few sincere laughs! 

Oh Jon, how dare you leave us in a lurch, placing the clever, but not quite YOU or Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, in the Driver's Seat throughout most of the 12 weeks you'll be doing your new auteur thing. I'm shaking my head in disappointment. You're completely tossing the Crown to your friend and My Other Main Man, Colbert. He'll have to double-up on what stories his show will cover while having more snacks at his anchor desk. You must love him a lot! Gotta say, Jon, you must feel extremely secure in your place in the National Discourse to leave us for such a stretch, forcing many of us to not fall asleep before 11:30 so as to ensure a laugh or hundred with The Colbert Report! But, just as with clips from your newest shows, Jon, so we too see promoted clips from Stephen's show, so…I can still catch-up.

But today, right now, after reading THIS, my day is ruined! Awash in feelings of rejection as if a lover is going on a long vacation without me, I've had to digest what will be missing from My Summer Late Night Newzy-Entertainment. I'm considering not being faithful to the show without you there, Jon, making those cutesy smiles and faces we enjoy so much. Your time-slot may lose me to Real Life Crime Stories on ID (Investigation Discovery). Watching shows about women who "snap" and kill their husbands, boyfriends, parents (in gruesome ways), is a strong contender.

But okay, if you need to grow a beard and direct a serious film to fulfill a creative and activist need, you, as with anyone, should indeed follow your dreams. The rest of us will have to follow our remotes to discover where our finger does the clicking.

This isn't a threat, Jon. But promise us that you won't return with a beard and beret, oozing hubris and conceit.

Rant Oliver! (Typo - and it stays.)