Shame, shame on you, Jon Stewart!

Joko

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On Tonight's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", during the interview with Alison Brie, Jon asked whether or not she had played an instrument growing up. Ms Brie replied she wasn't much of a musician but played the ukulele for a while, to which Jon Stewart replied:

"I always assumed that the ukulele is not an instrument, just something people do when they're trying to be funny."

Shame, shame on you, Jon Stewart!

I feel kicked in the gut. I LOVE The Daily Show; it's the highlight of my TV viewing day. In fact, the piece they did just before the interview about Russian dashboard cameras and the meteor was the funniest thing I have seen all year! Then, it's like he used a racial epitaph or something, dismissing our beloved instrument so ignorantly. It's like all the progress our instrument has made over these last 5 to 8 years has meant nothing.

I "liked" the Daily Show on Facebook years ago. Maybe you have too. Please do what I did and post a protest on their Facebook page! Denounce Jon's ignorance firmly and soundly!

http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow

Here's what I wrote:

Jon, Shame, Shame on you for so off-handedly dismissing the ukulele tonight. I am so disappointed. Crushed. Apparently, you're not aware that this little instrument has made tremendous strides in the last 5 or 6 years in respectability, popularity and gravitas. It is and has been the fastest growing instrument in terms of popularity of this century! There are serious ukulele festivals, groups, fans and websites. We LOVE our ukes, and not just to be funny!!!
 
I feel like you can't get worked up about such things. You know it's an instrument and that's all that matters. He's hilarious, but part of his comedy is poking fun at things, sometimes at the expense of people's feelings.
 
Walk it off.
 
Jon Stewart is a comedian; he makes jokes whenever the opportunity arises. Think of him as laughing with ukulele players, not at them. Would you have been as offended if Alison Brie had played the accordion as a child, and Stewart had made the same crack about it? (Believe me, accordion players take their fair share of ridicule; ukuleles are often dismissed as toys, but accordions are treated as public nuisances incapable of making music.) It's best just to roll with the punches. Instead of being upset that Mr. Stewart gently mocked the ukulele, be happy that Ms. Brie used to play it.
 
I like the daily show. I really dont care what he said as long as it is his thought, which for the most part the interviews are his thoughts. Its not like he did a scripted peice making fun of the uke.
 
First, I don't know that I would compare uke-dissing to using a racial epitaph, that's uncomfortably trivializing the latter. Second, if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh it? Jon Steward pokes fun at everything and everyone, and the fact that he poked fun at the uke makes me like it even more. Now I can say "Heck yeah! Jon Stewart made fun of me!" Plus, if you get all up in arms and start protesting on his Facebook page, you're just putting more fodder in the cannon. Smile, laugh, move on :)
 
not to hijack the thread....



please be patient and wait for 2:35.....

*Cheers*

I frickin' love the accordion. I want to play mine now, but I can't because it's not in my apartment at the moment. I don't want to hijack the thread any more, but I can't resist this one. I shall say something more about the ukulele beneath the video...I promise:



The accordion and the ukulele have something in common: they are both instruments respected in certain cultures and dismissed in others. There are terrible accordion players; there are oodles of people who treat and/or regard ukuleles as toys. That doesn't take away from the accomplishments of those who have mastered these instruments. Jon Stewart was just doing his job as a comedian. Be cool, Sodapop.
 
As someone who plays both banjo and ukulele, I've gotten pretty used to the jokes. You have to be able to laugh about it. No sense in getting upset about it.

What do you say to a banjo player wearing a suit?







"Will the defendant please rise?"
 
Two musicians and a banjo player walk into a bar......
R
 
If you're going to play the ukulele, you need to be comfortable enough to let these things roll off you. This is coming from a viola player, so I've got a lot of practice at being the object of ridicule, but I promise you get over it. :D
 
I play recorder and we also get a lot of stick. As has been said, above you don't have to let it worry you. Water off a duck's back.

However, I draw the line at recorder players ridiculing the ukulele!! :rulez:
 
Yeah, he's a comedian. I imagine the uke is pretty foreign to most Jewish people anyway, as it is far from their culture. Unless they are hip like us! lol:nana:
 
I agree that complaining about being made fun of by Jon Stewart only encourages him. However, education is never a badthing , so I've posted the YouTube video of Jake Shimabukuro accompanying Bette Midler in "In My Life" at Bette's performance for the Queen of England a few years ago beneath your comment. Maybe if enough people post videos of master ukulele players on The Daily Show's Facebook page, Stewart will invite one of them to perform on the show.
 
I agree that complaining about being made fun of by Jon Stewart only encourages him. However, education is never a badthing , so I've posted the YouTube video of Jake Shimabukuro accompanying Bette Midler in "In My Life" at Bette's performance for the Queen of England a few years ago beneath your comment. Maybe if enough people post videos of master ukulele players on The Daily Show's Facebook page, Stewart will invite one of them to perform on the show.


Best idea I've heard all day!



Scooter
 
humor always goes both ways, the English are real masters since they possess the amount of irony towards their own self and pain tolerance of not being hurt when humor is directed at themselves, it is all too easy to laugh at other people.
 
Went to the facebook page, told John we love him and we knew what he meant, but we just wanted to be sure he knew what the Uke could do in the right hands...........

Then posted this:


Finished up by suggesting he have Jake on....

Edit: Also posted this one....nice intro for "Gently Weeps".
 
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Yeah, he's a comedian. I imagine the uke is pretty foreign to most Jewish people anyway, as it is far from their culture. Unless they are hip like us! lol:nana:

What, like Jews only play shofar?
 
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