After the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama in January, the Huffington Post had a short piece about how Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart would handle the transition. The general sense was that a show that capitalized on eight years of the administration of George W. Bush might have to work a little harder to find material with a significantly more articulate president. Would having a Democrat in office make it harder for them to produce their fairly liberal satire?
To answer that question, along came Jim Cramer from CNBC's show Mad Money. In case you haven't heard, there was a back-and-forth between Stewart and the financial network; Stewart highlighted how the network had seemed very optimistic in the months preceding the current series of financial storms, citing Cramer's bullishness on Bear Stearns as an example. Stewart's outrage was real, and the satire was fierce. About three episodes of The Daily Show ended up escalating the critique, culminating in Cramer himself appearing on the show and being essentially eviscerated by Stewart. The result was a massive jump in traffic to the show's website, presumably by those seeking the relevant clips.
So, while the current state of the economy is making none of us too happy, it's been a gift to The Daily Show as they transition from nonstop Bush-bashing to the present situation. The flap with Cramer brought more eyeballs to thedailyshow.com than any time in the past six months, including election day and the inauguration.
Did you catch the show? Did you watch the clips online? Weigh in in the comments and give us your take.
