The grand jury decisions in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City not to indict police officers who killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner were the main topic this week in satire, with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert directly tackling the issues.
On Monday, Colbert compared the verdict in Ferguson to the new trailer for Star Wars: the Force Awakens, quipping, “Hey, we just gave you the Jackie Robinson of Stormtroopers. What more do you want?” He also addressed the criticism of St. Louis Rams players showing solidarity with protestors by putting their hands up when coming out of the tunnel before their game Sunday.
Also on Monday, Stewart welcomed Senior Black Correspondent and soon-to-be host of The Nightly Show Larry Wilmore to comment on the situation. He called for the public to stop making crime into a race issue.
“Can we stop calling it black on black crime?” Wilmore asked. “It’s just crime!”
As the tension reached new heights after a grand jury did not indict the officer responsible for killing Garner, an uncharacteristically serious Stewart began his show with commentary on race relations in America as a whole.
“We are not living in a post-racial society,” Stewart said. “If comedy is tragedy plus time, I need more … time. But I would settle for less … tragedy.”
It was noteworthy that while Stewart admitted there was no humor he could find in the Garner case, Colbert didn’t even address it on Wednesday, when the verdict came in. But each tackled the topic on Thursday’s shows.
Thursday, Stewart showed some love to Unbroken director Angelina Jolie.
“Imagine if we had ended up together,” Stewart said to Jolie. “We could have been a vodka brand.”
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