That Time Jon Stewart (Rightfully) Made Fun of Us

For more than a decade, Jon Stewart was the authority in “fake news”, and for many, an authority for real news as well. He retired in the middle of last year, but in January he made sure to tackle a topic we all care deeply about: Duval County.

In this January 13, 2015 segment, “Florida Haters”, he discusses the end of the ban on gay marriage in Florida. While he notes that it’s great that Florida now allows gay marriage, the commentary then shifts to a discussion of how poorly some Floridians were handling this news.

In the segment, which features multiple clips from First Coast News, Stewart brings up the unfortunate fact that Duval County’s Clerk of Court office had decided to stop allowing any marriages to take place within the courthouse. This was done to allow them to not have to conduct ceremonies for any gay weddings, without technically being discriminatory since they’re banning straight couples too. Stewart mocks the office’s whininess about the idea of performing a gay wedding.

The whole debacle was an embarrassment to many residents. While the controversy has luckily blown over, the office has still never made any public effort to clarify or reverse their medieval views, and the gay rights debate continues today in the form of the human rights ordinance controversy. We might want to get on fixing that, as well; Stewart may be gone, but there’s plenty of other late night hosts taking aim at stupidity across the country. Let’s not make our great city such an easy target.