The Daily Show Discovers Americans Are Stupider Than Iranians
Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones taped a bunch of segments in Iran before the election called Jason Jones: Behind The Veil, and for a while last week they were kind of awkward because of all the stuff, but last night's was really funny and revealing. In a segment called "Jihad Walking," Jason tested the knowledge of Americans in Times Square versus regular Iranians, and learned exactly what you'd think he would: Iranians know more about America than Americans know about Iran (but nobody knows who the minority whip is). And at the end Jason meets an Iranian who doesn't just watch The Daily Show, he even has a Jon Stewart impression. (He's probably a ringer, but it's still funny.)
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| Jason Jones: Behind the Veil - Ayatollah You So | ||||
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"Iran? It doesn't ring a bell? The country of Iran." You would think the "People in other countries know more about America than Americans do" comedy trope would be hack by now, and yet it's still funny-sad.
Posted by Lindsay at 10:00 AM in Late Night
Tags: Iran | Jason Jones | Jon Stewart | The Daily Show
I am the Decider.
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Don't go Lindsay :)
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Wait where is Lindsay going? Is she going on a trip? Am I going on the trip too?
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http://gawker.com/5299923/its-fish-wrapper-not-weed-wrapper/
:(
:(
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That's some bullshit. I'll help to pay Lindsay's salary.
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That nerd in Time's Square was probably Canadian. NERD!!!
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Time Square would better represent it's demographics if it was plucked out of NY and plopped down somewhere in middle America. Seriously, big flashy signs are salt-licks for retarded people from places other than NY.
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I'm downvoting you so hard right now.
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I'm trying not to be cranky today, but c'mon Lindsay. Nothing this heavily edited for optimal comedic effect is allowed to qualify as a "sad" commentary on the intelligence of Americans.
But Americans are pretty stupid.
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I know nobody wants to admit it, but so far these one-note Iran segments have been pretty underwhelming, this one included.
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I had a sociology professor in college who had grown up under Soviet rule, and on a long, rambling digression she once commented on how stupid she thought these segments were.
Her opinion was that the fact that so many Americans could afford to be ignorant was a sign that it was a healthy political system with parties that were more or less the same. Someone challenged her on that point, and her retort was "well, there's obviously a difference between parties here, but it's not like you are choosing between fascism and socialism, which in many countries you are. People here like to pretend that the parties represent those choices, but they don't in any meaningful sense of those terms."
She qualified her statement to say something like "of course, everyone should be informed, and it's not a GOOD thing that so many people are uninterested, but it is only natural that if you lived in a country where the choice was military dictatorship vs. social democracy, you would probably follow politics more closely."
I think the same thing applies here -- if you were hoping for your tyrannical regime to be overthrown, I bet you'd be interested to know what the country that likes to go into your neck of the woods and stir things up is up to.
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If only people in America would vote for something other than one of the two major parties..... hmmm...
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"Go ahead, throw your vote away!"
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exactly.
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Good comment. But I hope that isn't your social security number.
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Psh, no wonder that kid didn't know what the interviewer was talking about. Every red-blooded, arm-bearing, Sarah Palin-loving American knows it's pronounced "EYE-RAN."
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Syracuse represent!
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The thing I'm learning from all this news is that Iranians are HOTTER than Americans. Yowza, all of a sudden I want a remake of 300 in which the Persians are all nubile women. Booooinnng!
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Iranians are hotter. Girl at the end was just WOW. Megan Fox my ass.
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