Satire is an art form — and one which, in contrast to comedy clubs, never seemed much of an American thing. Jon Stewart’s rise on Comedy Central has changed that long-held assumption.
Jon Stewart is a powerful one-man version of all the Weimar cabarets. If the underlying causes of his rise were in any way a reflection of what ailed the Weimar Republic, that would be bad news indeed — not just for the United States, but also the world as a whole.
Berlin, some 80-plus years ago, was the global center of satirical performances. Viewed from today’s perch, it seems rather unlikely that the presumably always sober- (if not somber-) minded Germans would have become the Mecca for such a hard-hitting form of humor.
