Jon Stewart called out both sides of the aisle for their reactions to recent bouts of violence in the United States, including mass shootings in Michigan, North Carolina, Texas and Louisiana.
The comedian weighed in on the situation during Monday night’s episode of “The Daily Show,” where he opened the show with a reprimand for both Republicans and Democrats for the finger pointing in the aftermath of the various tragedies.
“As we mentioned, there’s a mass shooting now like, every couple of hours,” Stewart noted in his monologue. “Previously, the routine would be we express our shock. We express our sadness. We offer our thoughts and prayers. We spend a day, maybe two arguing about the appropriateness of bringing up guns at all. And then we do nothing until the next time.”
Yet, as Stewart shared with “The Daily Show” audience, politicians and the news media have since seemingly abandoned this response for a different “post-shooting pastime.”
He continued: “That new pastime is, ‘Was this one of yours?’ … It’s America’s new gender reveal tradition. ‘Boom, it’s bloom. Ha ha. I’m so happy to blame the left for the violence.’ The game is so ubiquitous, now we often play it before we even know who the perpetrator is.”
Stewart then slammed both left and right-wing media for pushing out “inconclusive arcana” in the name of blaming the other side.
“So, why has the news media become obsessed with right, left framing of violence?” Stewart went on. “Well, part of the reason is, they are following the lead of social media. Social media is doing it crazier and faster than anybody else. So, the media is trying to keep up.”
Before wrapping up his monologue, Stewart had a blunt message for those contributing to the left-right blame game.
He continued: “Who the f–k cares? These mass shootings don’t fit neatly into our left-right paradigm. Mass shootings are probably caused by complex fusion of mental health and access to weapons and attention-seeking, delusional nihilism married to an algorithmic underworld that set these horrific acts in motion. But, unfortunately, right-left paradigm is the only way our narcissistic media ecosystem sees anything anymore.”
Watch the full clip above.
“The Daily Show” airs weeknights at 11 p.m. ET/PT on Comedy Central.
