One of the bloggers I read regularly posted today a rant aimed at Jon Stewart, host of the popular Comedy Central Daily Show. Jake found annoying the hoots and the howls from the Daily Show audience. Found Stewart's attacks on the Bush administration unfunny and predictable.

Jake's dislike of Stewart reminded me of mine for Rush Limbaugh ( I'll refrain from calling him names; I'll take the advice of the gentleman from Jacksonville, Florida and try to rise above those bastards who resort to name calling ...

Oops...

I watched the clip we were linked to on Jake's blog. There was, indeed, much mindless hooting and howling from the Daily Show crowd. It was the kind of laughter anthropologists and sociologists write about. The kind of yuks and guffaws that have more to do with peer pressure than humor. One doesn't laugh in a setting like that, one is thought of as too dumb to get the joke. One is looked down upon, seen as an outsider.

Anyone who's ever watched the egregious Last Comic Standing knows what I'm saying. I've been to wakes where the center of attention is far funnier than the clowns who appear on that show. Yet there's non stop laughter heard. Lenny Bruce must be spinning in his grave.

On second thought, Lenny's probably not wasting his time watching that comedy show. His dead eyes are undoubtedly peeled on C-Span. The Comity Channel.

Jake also found unsettling Jon Stewart's constant attacks on the Bush administration. Granted, he does that. But look what Limbaugh did almost every day he was on the air during the administration of Bill Clinton.

Limbaugh seemed, at least to me, to be obsessed with Bill Clinton. I'm no psychologist, but my guess is that people who are obsessed with another person in the way that Rush was obsessed with Bill...

Are either engaging in some degree of projective identification, or they love the object of the obsession in some very strange way.

And who wouldn't love Clinton, if you're a guy who has a show every day of the week. A guy who's expected to make people laugh. A guy hungry for material. Who wouldn't love the guy who supplies what you desparately need by the truckload?

Same goes for Stewart. I was going to say " Ditto. "

But thought better of that.