Jon Stewart on the Charlie Hebdo attack: 'Comedy shouldn't have to be an act of courage'

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/08/jon-stewart-charlie-hebdo-attack-comedy-courage

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Jon Stewart opened Wednesday night’s Daily Show with a moving tribute to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack, while also reflecting on the implications of the shocking violence for comedians:

Our hearts are with the staff of Charlie Hebdo and their families tonight.

I know very few people go into comedy, you know, as an act of courage. Mainly because it shouldn’t have to be that. It shouldn’t be an act of courage. It should be taken as established law.

But those guys at Hebdo had it, and they were killed for their … cartoons.

A stark reminder that for the most part, the legislators and journalists and institutions that we jab and ridicule are not, in any way, the enemy.

For however frustrating and outraged the back and forth can become, it’s still back and forth – a conversation amongst those on, let’s call it … team civilisation.

And this type of violence only clarifies that reality.

But then it was back to business as usual, with Stewart admitting the Daily Show team had spent the majority of the day “in shock and grief … but also searching for a segue, back into a programme such as this … We believe that we have found it: it’s a story that combines the difficulty of ridding society of these types of persistent, toxic ideologies … with a creature that has four stomachs”.

And so to Nazi Cows – the story of the British farmer forced to reduce the size of his herd of “super cows” descended from beasts associated with Nazi Germany because they are too aggressive.

Tina Fey, speaking at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, California (via BuzzFeed), was also asked about the Paris atrocity:

You look at [the Charlie Hebdo attack] and you look at the controversy surrounding The Interview, it makes you think about how important free speech is and how it absolutely must be defended. [We] cannot back down on free speech in any way. We all have to stand firm on the issue of free speech …

We’re Americans, and even if it’s dumb jokes in The Interview, we have the right to make them.

Conan O’Brien opened his TBS show with a heartfelt statement on the Hebdo killings:

This story really hits home for anyone who, day in and day out, mocks political, social and religious figures. In this country, we just take if for granted that it’s our right to poke fun at the untouchable, or the sacred.

But today’s tragedy in Paris reminds us, very viscerally, that it’s a right some people are inexplicably forced to die for.

So it is very important tonight that I express that everybody who works at our comedy show … All of us are terribly sad for the families of those victims, for the people of France, and for anyone in the world tonight who now has to think twice before making a joke.

It’s not the way it’s supposed to be.