Your move Stewart. A few days after comedian and “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart ripped Philly a new one, City Councilman Jim Kenney fired back and even dared Stewart to film his show in the city of brotherly love.
Kenney, who admitted that he had his “tongue firmly pressed” against his cheek, introduced a resolution to the city council on Thursday, challenging Stewart to come to Philadelphia to film a week of shows to “prove how wrong he was in his May 20th tirade against Philadelphia.”
The conflict began after Stewart took issue with Philadelphia Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg’s claim that he had gotten food poisoning at a Shake Shack near Citi Field in Queens earlier this month when the Phils played the Mets.
During a segment on his show, Stewart unleashed an explicit, but satirical rant against Sandberg, Philly, and its famous cuisine.
“A great New York restaurant is being slandered by some j*&%^$f from Philadelphia,” Stewart said. “What kind of city takes the parts of the cow normal people throw away, fries it up on a hunk of bread and before serving it up, asks ‘you want me to put whiz on that?’ I’ll tell ya, a city SO F&%^NG DUMB it uses its art museum as exercise equipment. A city so famously f*&#ed that no animal would represent its baseball team forcing you to go with this f*&$ed up Jim Henson-reject-looking piece of sh#@.”
While many viewed the impassioned tirade as yet another hilarious bit from Stewart, many Philadelphians took exception to being the butt of the comedian’s latest joke, including Councilman Kenney.
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“Jon Stewart’s May 20th tirade against Philadelphia accuses us of being idiots, obese, having terrible taste in food, slanderers and a series of other expletives not safe for children,” Kenney wrote in a resolution that he presented to the council.
Kenney went on to defend the city he calls home, while throwing a few shots at NYC along the way.
“Stewart has apparently never been to Philadelphia, where a decade of development has transformed our dining and nightlife scenes into an abundant array of world class options that aren’t overrun with overpaid Wall Street j@#%offs and where you won’t need to sell your first born child to get a table,” Kenney wrote. “Jon Stewart should check himself when he starts trash talking Philadelphia; last time we checked the Mets haven’t won the World Series in nearly thirty years.”
Kenney then dared Stewart to film a week of episodes of The Daily Show in Philly so that the city could “prove just how wrong he is.”
Not only did the council pass the resolution, but they also vowed to present it to Stewart “wrapped in either a cheesesteak or cannoli as evidence of the sincere sentiments of this legislative body.”
Yet while Kenney admitted he was a fan of Stewart and the entire "conflict" was all in good fun, some took issue to the council engaging in a back and forth with a comedian in the midst of the city facing far more important issues. Kenney was quick to address the criticism on his twitter account.
@publiusPHL It's a tongue in check way to have some fun and get some national buzz about the incident. Are you that dense? — CouncilmanJimKenney (@JimFKenney) May 22, 2014
So will Stewart and the Daily Show team accept the council's challenge? Only time will tell. But hopefully no one gets food poisoning before we find out.
