16 years is plenty, and if he's tired of himself, he's not alone.
I don't think I've been able to withstand more than five minutes of him at a time. An example is below.
One of the many buzzfeed/beast websites run mostly by unpaid interns and New York Observer-columnist-wannabe's caught my eye with a MUST SEE post.
The writer screamed I just HAD TO SEE Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz stand up for women's rights with one of his hilarious, blistering editorials.
Now, I'm quite the Liberal, and a big fan of Bill Maher's "Real Time" (at least the monologue and "New Rules"). So why not check out what "Jon Stewart" was up to?
After all, he's not really any more cadaverously ugly than David Brenner was, and good jokes transcend an unpleasant face.
Except...well, look below. David Brenner didn't wreck comedy with outrageous face-making like this
The top part is the plug to go watch the YouTube clip. I added the extra faces, ALL done for that same editorial. And there were more.
Yes, the boxes show only SOME of the Lon Chaney gruesomeness that I had to look at. Stewart's jejune, obvious and ordinary comedy-rant would have been no better or worse than something from Maher, or Dennis Miller on a sane day, EXCEPT for the FACE-MAKING. That's why I've never been a fan. Jerry Lewis is less annoying.
In a minor 3 minute desk bit on differences between female and male politicians, couldn't this guy stop over-acting EVERY line? Not even the worst Central Park street mime EVER had to twist his face every five seconds to get a laugh.
Was he really so overcome and emotional that he had to go into literal contortions? Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, any other idol he or I might have...NEVER had to DO the EQUIVALENT of an ALL CAPS EDITORIAL by MAKING FACES for ALMOST every WORD.
His fans love seeing him go so ridiculously ballistic, but these aren't funny faces. They are nauseating.
Piers Morgan's opening lines:
After Morgan grumbled about how the media doesn't pay enough attention to news, and prefers gossip and celebrity info, he mentioned that Leibowitz wasn't particularly funny in slamming him the moment he took over for Larry King:
"I think they’ve made a brilliant choice by bringing in a British guy no-one’s ever heard of. When I’m thinking of floating a sinking ship, what do I want to bring on it: a guy that people are going to tune in and go, ‘Who’s that, and why is he speaking so funny?’”
While this naturally offended Piers Morgan, I think it would offend any fan of comedy, because Leibowitz has spent most of his 16 years shoveling sarcasm over actually being witty. Where was the joke in those lines? The last one, with the lame dig on a British accent?
Morgan covered his tracks by first insulting, and then licking Leibowitz:
"...he’s an annoying, whiny, smug, patronizing, pedantic little git. But I also have to admit that he’s a compellingly brilliant broadcaster, and without any doubt the sharpest, most accurate disseminator of American news in the country." He then quoted Leibowitz on Brian Williams, delighting at how he "still stuck the knife into his mate’s ‘misremembering’ with viciously sharp slashes. ‘Why, Bri lie? Sigh,’ he lamented to guffaws from the audience. ‘Were you Bri high? Cuz if they keep finding shit, you’ll be Bri-bye!’"
Yes, like Bill Maher, Leibowitz does love his cuss words. It might be his homage to Lenny Bruce or something. But again, I ask, what was so sharp or, more importantly, so laugh-out-loud funny about "Bri lie" and "Bri high" and "Bri bye?" Isn't that what Williams might've heard from some blockheaded cab driver jeering him as he left the NBC building?
One thing I'll give Leibowitz is that he's evidently as authentic a bastard as Mort Sahl. There was the case recently of an Asian woman in the audience who left the studio hurt and upset, because during the opening Q&A, she asked why he cursed so much and...he cursed her out.
This guy may not have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, or got an all silver ink pen for his bar mitzvah, but he was always annointed "The Chosen One" in the comedy world. Way back in the late 80's, he was given showcase one-man shows for the media. Yes, while a Kinison, Emo or Tenuta might barely get to fill a few tables with journalists or industry biggies in a cramped comedy club, THIS guy had an entire theater.
Not unlike Whoopi Goldberg going instantly to Broadway, this very young comic was somehow getting booked into big theaters so that hundreds upon hundreds could see him and walk away saying, "I have seen the future and it is Jon Stewart." The buzz was always that if he didn't emerge as the next David Brenner, he'd go even further: "Some day he'll replace Letterman." This morphed into those "Jon Stewart is gonna replace me" gags on "The Larry Sanders Show."
Back then, less pruney, and slightly more likable, Leibowitz did seem like he might be the young wiseguy to weasel his way behind the desk if Dave went too far. Then he became Prince of Comedy Central, with Mister One-Raised-Eyebrow joining him as another darling of the PBS and NPR crowd.
For his fairly narrow audience, who might finish watching his show by reading a book by a Sedaris to chuckle their way to sweet dreams, Leibowitz spared no face-making. Had Mister One-Raised-Eyebrow not snapped up the Letterman gig, it might well have gone to Leibowitz. After all, on a bad night, Dave has annoyed people with a lot of pointless face-making. But that's the difference. HE did it because it WAS pointless. Leibowitz did it because he had to dinosaur-take every line and hammer home every eye-rolling tongue-lolling agonized and dripping irony.
Give him credit. 16 years. He lasted a lot longer than Piers Morgan on CNN, who many would consider the ultimate in "annoying, whiny, smug, patronizing, pedantic little git." The difference is that compared to Leibowitz, visually, facially, Morgan was Buster Keaton.
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