Tina Fey disses Jon Stewart: Pot, meet kettle

A shocking development in the otherwise harmonious world of TV comedy: Tina Fey suggests in an interview that “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart panders to his audience:

“My friend, ‘SNL’ writer Seth Meyers,” Fey is quoted as saying, though one doubts she would employ such a stilted, journalism-friendly turn of phrase, “coined the term clapter, which is when you do a political joke and people go, ‘Woo-hoo.’ It means they sort of approve but didn't really like it that much. You hear a lot of that on [whispers] ‘The Daily Show.’”

Someone with the brass to take a poke at Jon Stewart? Stop the presses! Incredibly, the interviewer doesn’t follow up or ask her to elaborate.

But then, the questions are awfully canned and insipid: “Your humor has been described as biting. Are you a mean girl?”, “What's the difference between male and female comics?”, “Your mom was one of your comedy inspirations. Did you play to her at the dinner table?”, “What TV shows influenced you?” “You costar (in the upcoming movie ‘Baby Mama’) with former ‘SNL’ castmate and good friend Amy Poehler. Did you make each other laugh on set?” “Where did you get your drive?” and, of course, “Which of the Three Stooges do you like best?” So clearly, our intrepid journalist conducting the interview was charged by her magazine (Readers Digest, BTW) with being as drab and colorless as possible.

Still: Tina Fey is calling out Jon Stewart for kowtowing to his audience? Is this the same Tina Fey who sat behind the “Weekend Update” desk at “Saturday Night Live?” The same “Saturday Night Live” where laughs at the “Weekend Update” material often comes more from the anchors (currently Meyers and Poehler, BTW) than the studio audience?

Remember during the writers strike when Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Conan O’Brien had a mock brawl that wasn’t really all that funny, but at least killed a lot of airtime for each of them? I’m thinking a serious catfight between Stewart and Fey would be even better. Who’s with me?