Jon Stewart dives into Harrison Butker’s controversial speech, the subsequent Fox News outrage that he’s being canceled, and how the real purveyor of cancel culture is Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, who censor and silence any Republican who dare criticize their boy King.
Published on May 21, 2024
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Welcome to The Daily Show. My name is Jon Stewart. We got a great show for you tonight. There is so much going on in the world right now. The President of Iran died in a helicopter crash. The international criminal court is moving towards arrest warrants for Bibi Netanyahu. And Michael Cohen admitted on the stand today he stole money from the Trump organization. Only in a Donald Trump trial would the star witness be the one who ends up going to jail.
[LAUGHTER]
How lucky is Donald Trump? Donald Trump is like a corruption Mr. Magoo. He’s just stumbling around, quid pro quoing, metal beams falling all around him, gets out completely unscathed. But forget about all that, because there is one story still with so many unanswered questions. It made its way all the way to the White House press corps.
Can we still assume that the Kansas City Chiefs will be visiting the White House this year in celebration of their Super Bowl victory? Can you confirm is the Chiefs’ kicker, Harrison Butker, welcome at this White House?
Butker! Apparently the Kansas City Chiefs field goal kicker gave a conservative Catholic commencement speech at a conservative Catholic college. It seems expected. Although we did have a shout out to the ladies.
Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.
Ha ha. Hey.
[BOOING]
Apparently, enjoy the PTA, bitches. Not the advice you want to hear when you’re $100,000 in debt, earning a degree in electrical engineering. But I imagine that the cancelation of one Harrison Butker was swift and unforgiving at the White House.
Ha, ha. You wokerati at the communist– wait, I’m sorry. What was that? What did you– he can still go to the White House and be on his football team, and all that’s really happened is some people roasted him on TikTok? So I guess this is just kind of a passing distraction. Or if you happen to tune into more conservative media–
Major scandal rocking the NFL. Players in big trouble. Not for doing drugs, betting, or beating women, but because he’s Christian.
The left seeks to destroy an outspoken NFL Catholic.
He’s been doxed. He’s been slammed. He’s– they’re calling for him to be canceled.
The left hates Christian values.
They will try to denigrate you, isolate you, cancel you, and ultimately, silence you completely. But be not afraid.
[LAUGHTER]
How can I be not afraid when what you have proffered is so afradiable? By the way, and you’re hitting us with that King James sentence structure. Be not afraid. People only say that when there’s shit to be afraid of, let’s say three to four horsemen. But my question to the right, I guess, is, have you never been on the internet before? Because that’s all it is. It’s just people giving each other shit all the time. I mean, my god, you’re all so thin-skinned. Look, Jerry Seinfeld took more shit over the past two weeks promoting a Pop Tart movie than Harrison Butker did for his entire speech. And I ask you people, what is the deal with that? No, I’m not doing an impression.
[LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE]
I– I legitimately would like to know why he’s taking so much shit about everything from everybody. And who are these people? It’s so hard not to do the voice.
(IMITATING SEINFELD) And who are these people?
All right. Now it’s– it’s– it’s–
[APPLAUSE]
The Jerry Seinfeld impression is the first thing a Jew learns in kindergarten, It’s not–
[LAUGHTER]
Of course, nothing about the right-wing reaction is surprising. Because the idea that there is an all-pervasive, all-powerful threat to free speech called cancel culture has become a central tenet of modern conservatism. They celebrate their being silenced at conferences. They celebrate their being silenced on podcasts and streaming outlets. They celebrate their being silenced with over 700 book titles about being canceled. Why are there so many of these f*cking books? Unless you don’t know, nobody reads anymore. And by the way, if you already read A War On Woke and Woke Inc, you’re really not going to learn anything from Woke Warriors. Conservatives have an entire industry devoted to complaining about not being allowed to say the things they say all the time. Their victimhood is the entire brand.
You can no longer say somebody is homeless. You have to say they are unhoused. Free phones, food, and clothing sounds like a great deal. A homeless woman in a Democratic run city.
Pretty soon we won’t be allowed to say illegal aliens because it’ll be hate speech and therefore illegal. Illegal aliens streaming across our border.
Trans agenda is a religion now. Convert or be canceled.
Big trans has a real knack for making everything about themselves.
Dare to speak your mind about issues like pro-life? Well, your life could be ruined forever. You could be canceled. I’m never going to apologize for being pro-life.
How did we get to the point where we can’t say all lives matter? As a matter of fact, all lives matter.
All of you still speak. How? Doesn’t the woke mob have cable? But this is their identity now. Constant victimization. They say what they want, and if you get upset about it, you don’t believe in freedom.
I just believe in freedom. Why do– why are liberals so afraid of freedom and freedom of speech? I don’t get outraged. If you don’t like what somebody’s saying, you can turn off the TV, turn off a radio dial, turn off a podcast, walk out of a commencement.
Or you could buy a different beer than Bud Light without going into your back swamp and assassinating sit back. You’re so unbelievable. They’re so full of shit that Sean Hannity can say with a square head, I’m not the kind of guy who gets outraged. Sean Hannity. He’s basically just a meat bag support system for a forehead vein.
Tonight, every American has a right to be angry and ticked off.
We have a story that will make your blood boil.
Now the left is hell bent on banning Dr. Seuss. Pepé Le Pew, Dumbo, Peter Pan are on the chopping block.
Sanctimonious, self-righteous, frankly, overpaid, lazy, agenda-driven liars.
What a pompous jackass.
Do you even know what my job is?
What part of this can’t you get through your thick head?
My message tonight to these snowflakes is very simple. You people disgust me.
But every snowflake is different. We can’t all disgust you.
[LAUGHTER]
Look, it is absolutely true that in our modern, social media driven society, our interactions are incentivized and monetized for outrage, and it is f*cking exhausting for everyone. But contrary to your conservative book industry, the outrage isn’t just coming from the left, it’s coming from the left, the right, for the right, for the left, and the Swifties, and YA readers, and anybody who dares to lift their head up to say f*cking anything. We are not censored or silenced. We are surrounded by and inundated with more speech than has ever existed in the history of communication. And it is all weaponized by professional outrage hunters of all stripes, scouring the globe for graduation speech snippets, offhand comments during promotional tours, out of context comedy bits, lame marketing ideas, or any words and phrases they believe they can latch onto to generate monetized clicks. Outrage is the engine of our modern media economy. And sometimes someone loses a job or something else happens like that that should never f*cking happen. But–
[CHEERING, APPLAUSE]
I leaned over so far, I may never get back up again.
[LAUGHTER]
But contrary to conservatives victimization complex, there is no organized cancel culture conspiracy where even the slightest misstep can 100% get someone on the right canceled. Actually, there is. There is one.
Congresswoman Liz Cheney gets kicked out of Wyoming’s Republican Party for opposing Trump.
Yeah. As irony would have it, it turns out that when it comes to cancel culture, the ones who smelt it, dealt it. There is someone canceling people on the right, but the only one canceling people on the right is Donald Trump, and anyone who dares speak out against him. Refuse to buy into Trump’s stolen election claims and you’ll lose your job like Liz Cheney or countless others. In fact, everything the right says cancel culture does to them is actually being done by MAGA. For example.
They will shout you down and try to shut you down as opposed to discuss with you.
Yes, the woke mob shouts you down. And what happens when you’re a Republican and dare criticize the boy King?
That is a failure of leadership. [BOOING] And I– you can boo all you want. But here’s the thing.
Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison. And if we elect– [BOOING] I know, I know. I know.
Now you know me as a person who says what he thinks, and I don’t hide the fact that I wasn’t a fan of our last president’s character issues. And also of the fact–
Show some damn respect!
Show some damn respect, Romney, you piece of shit, mother-f*cker. It’s called class. Like I was telling your mother last night. Hickory dickory door man. Your mom was f*cking a mole man. You like that? What’s– what’s another, hey, they like the poetry. By the way, what’s another thing that the right hates about woke cancel culture?
Many Americans feel forced to stay silent for fear of upsetting the cancel culture mob.
Yeah center cancel culture, you can only speak your truth in private while denying them in public. For instance, this poor, young fella [Tucker Carlson], who privately wrote of Trump, “he’s a demonic force, a destroyer. I hate him passionately,” he wrote in private. But of course, in public, fearing the cancel mob, he’s forced to stand next to his tormentor with what can only be described as the fakest of overlaugh faces. Grab them by the pussy, that’s hilarious– haha. But that’s cancel culture. It won’t let you speak your truth. In fact, it makes you do something even worse.
The left is married to censorship and has nothing else. That’s how you get people to believe in an alternate reality.
Yeah, the woke mob is so pernicious, it forces you to deny reality. Like, imagine if Trump ever gave a speech about January 6th, where he clearly confuses Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi.
Nikki Haley, you know– did you know, they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, because of lots of things. Like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people.
Now, in a healthy discourse, you would just go, hey, man, you know, everybody brain farts sometimes, you know, whatever it is. But under the MAGA cancel culture mob, people like Congresswoman Stefanik have to pretend this was all part of a grand strategy.
That isn’t a mix up. The reality is Nikki Haley– He wasn’t speaker. Nikki Haley is relying on Democrats just like Nancy Pelosi, to try to have a desperate showing in New York, in New Hampshire. But he was talking about January 6th. President Trump has not lost a step. He is a stronger candidate– stronger than he is today than he was in 2016 and he was in 2020.
“He is reverse aging. He is stronger. He is Benjamin Button. He will be our wisest baby president.” And by the way, denying reality still won’t save you. There is no level of loyalty deep enough to be free of Trump cancel culture. Ronna McDaniel literally dropped Romney from her name to keep Trump happy, and he still fired her. And that Romney name had gotten her into all the hottest clubs in Salt Lake City. Yeah, the ones with lattes.
[LAUGHTER]
Truth is, Trump is the real cancel culture, emphasis on cult. Because on the right, you can say whatever the f*ck you want about gay people and trans people, from TikTok to Patreon. You can decry DEI from podcasts to, I don’t know, the governor’s office of Florida. And chances are, not only will you be fine, you’ll get a raise. But if you ever dare speak out one iota against Donald Trump, be, yes, afraid.
