Jon Stewart Does Battle With Clapter Monster Of His Own Creation

Over the years, "The Daily Show" has cultivated a large and loyal following for its increasingly reliably leftist brand of political humor.  The 30 minute parade of mostly banal jabs at the unhipness and/or evilness of Republicans is usually peppered with approving (if not always genuinely amused) rounds of what SNL's Seth Myers coined "clapter".

In a rare departure from the well-worn template, host Jon Stewart recently spent four minutes endeavoring, in vain, to pry laughs from his audience with a fairly tame (by Daily Show standards) razzing of Barack Obama for his recent missteps, including the Great Seal of Obama fiasco and the candidate's decision to reverse his pledge to participate in public campaign financing.

It didn't go well.  A commenter at the Hot Air thread whence I've swiped the video observes, "That’s my favorite part, the nervous, hesitant laughter. You can almost hear the audience thinking, 'Is this okay? Will people think I’m a racist?'"