The Jon Stewart-Jim Cramer Grudge Match Heats Up!

Feud between Daily Show host and Mad Money man keeps getting nastier in advance of Thursday's face-to-face showdown

By Josh Grossberg Mar 11, 2009 6:35 PMTags

Jon Stewart has, to borrow a phrase from former cohort Stephen Colbert, just put Jim Cramer on notice.

The burgeoning feud between the fake-news purveyor and Mad Money man was kicked up a notch yesterday after Cramer called The Daily Show a "variety show" and Stewart went back on the offensive.

The latest round kicked off when Cramer appeared on Today on Tuesday and was asked by Meredith Viera how he felt being called out by Stewart for telling CNBC viewers last year that "Bear Stearns is fine"—just before the investment bank went under.

"Oh, oh, a comedian is attacking me!" said Cramer derisively. "Wow! He runs a variety show!"

Stewart fired back in a brutal eight-minute Daily Show tirade. "You don't have to make comedians sound like a venereal disease," cracked Stewart. "And 'variety show'? What?! They make me sound like some kind of buffoon, just flapping my arms with crazy buttons and wacky sound effects!"

The video then cuts to Cramer doing exactly that, hitting his trademark buzzers and silly sound effects while hyping stock picks on his heavily watched CNBC show.

Stewart also showed Cramer being interviewed yesterday on MSNBC's Morning Joe in which anchor Joe Scarborough said, "Maybe Jon Stewart can tell us what the markets are going to do over the next 10 years."

To which Stewart retorted: That's why I don't make the claim to any authority. That's why my network doesn't have the slogan 'In Stewart We Trust.' They don't want people to think I'm God," replied Stewart, poking fun at CNBC's "In Cramer We Trust" tagline.

The feud, billed by Stewart as "Cramer vs. Not Cramer: Basic Cable Personality Skirmish '09!" could come to a head on Thursday now that Cramer has agreed to be the featured guest on The Daily Show.