For Jon Stewart, pointing out the irony of the world’s super-rich taking 1,700 private jets to Switzerland to discuss climate change was too easy.
The host began Thursday night’s episode of “The Daily Show” skewering the Davos conference, an annual meeting of the World Economic Forum where the global elite gather to pontificate on other ironic topics like inequality and regulation of the finance industry.
“I’m excited,” Stewart said, pleading to channels like CNBC, “come on financial networks! Introduce the individuals that you’re supposedly covering as journalists as though they were superstars you would do anything to fuck!”
The networks obliged, as Stewart rolled clips of the billionaires and millionaires receiving celebrity coverage in CNBC promos for the summit. “The Super Bowl of business gatherings in Davos, we’ve got some true all stars,” one clip hyped.
“It’s the Monsters Of Money!” Stewart bellowed. “With special appearances by Montgomery Burns! The ghost of John D. Rockefeller!”
“But of course, the get together is not just a celebration, but a chance for the powerful to reflect on how the world has changed since the devastating financial collapse,” he added, “that many of them caused and/or profited from.”
Watch the clip, courtesy of Comedy Central:
“…do an '08 again…”
No values. Not man’s or god’s.
It’s a fine fine world where we get to poke gentle fun at our masters.
This would not be possible without the wedge issues which get our different subsets (“race”, gender, ethnic, etc.) at each other’s throats.
The faultlines and causations of problems of these differerent subsets are well known and have been for decades.
And yet, I suppose that the joy of being “over” someone deemed subhumam makes up for being merely one of the milliions of enablers of the 0.0001%.