In
this episode of The Daily Show, Jon
Stewart uses satire to express his opinion of the “hands up” movement
all around America. Members of the football team,the St. Louis Rams, ran out before
a game holding their hands up in respect of the Ferguson case. The St. Louis
Police Association complained, saying that they are deeply offended and expect
an apology and punishment for the players. They stated the action to be “tasteless,
offensive, and inflammatory” (1). Jeff Roorda states, “To us, it seems like
rather than allowing wounds to heal, that they are picking at the scabs”. To
this comment, Jon Stewart states very sarcastically that the police think that
punishment and apology is the only way to get past this ‘outraging’ incident. The
players and coach refused to apologize, but according to the police and media,
they had apologized. The Rams official and players, however, denied they ever
apologized at all. The police department tweeted the definition of apology and
one of the responses from the Rams players.
“Apology: “Expression of
regret for not being able to do something”
@KDEMOFF: “I regretted
any offense their officers may have taken” “
What
the officers did not realize is that this response was merely passive-aggressive
and not at all sincere. Stewart’s satirical response to this was creating
various tweets between the St. Louis County PD and the St. Louis Rams. He also
states that the Rams released a ‘non-apology’ and that instead of rejecting
this ‘non-apology’ like a group of normal people, they accepted, making it a “he
said, she said” type of situation.