Comedy Central’s The Daily Show served up a segment last night offering correspondent John Hodgman’s take on the Supreme Court, Schwarzenegger vs. EMA and banning the sale of violent games to minors in California.
Hodgman, when asked by host Jon Stewart if the Supreme Court should ban violent videogames for children, responded, “No, that’s absurd John.”
He continued, tongue firmly in cheek, “Videogames are a form of expression. They are the novels of the next-generation."
"To ban them would be like banning Moby Dick just because Captain Ahab tears the whale’s head off, pees down its neck and then sets it on fire. Which happened… at least according to the videogame of Moby Dick that I played.”
Hodgman then goes on to offer a variety of suggestions for solving the violent videogame problem and making games more relevant to the Supreme Court Justices.
Hilarious. Thanks Joystiq!
Comments
Re: Daily Show Offers Take on Violent Game Debate
Not being able to watch that clip because I'm in the UK isn't what's annoying.
What is annoying is that the broadcaster responsible for The Daily Show in the UK, Channel 4, is probably the best of all the domestic broadcasters for making their content- including that acquired from the US- online. You'd think they'd have thrashed out some sort of agreement for selling ads on The Daily Show's website by now.
/b
Re: Daily Show Offers Take on Violent Game Debate
There are assault rifles on WalMart on sale in the U.S.? It is true?
------------------------------------------------------------ My DeviantArt Page (aka DeviantCensorship): http://www.darkknightstrikes.deviantart.com
Re: Daily Show Offers Take on Violent Game Debate
Closest I've seen are Nerf, Buzz Bee, various other toy guns, and Airsoft. Nothing real.
Re: Daily Show Offers Take on Violent Game Debate
http://i.walmartimages.com/i/if/hmp/fusion/SpecialOrderGunCatalog.pdf
Found that in about 3 clicks from the front page of walmart.com. Yes, they sell guns, just not in certain states and locations.
Re: Daily Show Offers Take on Violent Game Debate
That depends on what you mean by "assault rifle". Fully automatic weapons of any kind, no; there's a LOT of paperwork involved in simply owning those, let alone buying or selling. Semi-automatic rifles, probably; most likely they're meant for hunting or target shooting. Doubt they're of any decent quality, but it's not like Wal-Mart is known for quality anything.
Re: Daily Show Offers Take on Violent Game Debate
The Daily Show always make me chuckle when they satire politics like this.
http://www.magicinkgaming.com/
Re: Daily Show Offers Take on Violent Game Debate
Amusing, but it's obvious they only have a cursory understanding of the issue and the SCOTUS case (or just just went for the funny over the substance). Doesn't even mention the California law in question, or the fact that many of the Justices (especially Scalia) were very critical of it.
Oh, and since I don't know where else to put this, here's a comic from Virtual Shackles about the case:
http://www.virtualshackles.com/-160
Re: Daily Show Offers Take on Violent Game Debate
If you've ever seen Jon Stewart during appearances on other news programs or during the interview segment on the Daily Show, you'd see he usually has a very clear understanding of the issues of the day. This is for entertainment and isn't meant to be a primary news source. I'm sure if they did try to mention the law and how critical the Justices are over it, they'd just bore the audience.
Re: Daily Show Offers Take on Violent Game Debate
(or just just went for the funny over the substance)
You are aware that "The Daily Show" is on Comedy Central, right? I'm pretty sure they were going for the funny.
Hodgman is terrific, too.
Re: Daily Show Offers Take on Violent Game Debate
About the concept that killing a vulcano is OK for California´s law, the law also looks to avoid children to play games with sexual violence.
So, it is also OK a game in which you can rape vulcans? Maybe elf girls are OK too?
------------------------------------------------------------ My DeviantArt Page (aka DeviantCensorship): http://www.darkknightstrikes.deviantart.com
Re: Daily Show Offers Take on Violent Game Debate
Well its just satire. I'm sure most of Stewart's audience are gamers anyway. Good chance for the gaming industry to learn to have a sense of humor about these issues.