I haven't seen it yet--late night at the office (promise I'll watch soon)--but it sounds like Jon Stewart wasn't entirely humorless last night. From the Times write-up:
On Tuesday, the “Today” show invited Mr. Cramer to reply to Mr. Stewart’s charges — and watch the “Daily Show” clips of his show all over again. He also appeared on “Morning Joe,” on MSNBC, and on Thursday morning, he made pie crusts with Martha Stewart, whose syndicated show is distributed by NBC, and jokingly thwacked the table with her rolling pin at the mention of Mr. Stewart’s name. Mr. Stewart used that clip in his introduction, saying with a smirk, “Mr. Cramer, don’t you destroy enough dough on your own show?”
Well that's funny...
Update: Okay, just saw it. First reaction: Wow, that was deeply uncomfortable. Second reaction: Good, it should have been. Third reaction: Stewart knows a lot more about finance than I do. Fourth reaction: Cramer and CNBC certainly have a lot to answer for. That grainy video in which Cramer explains how to manipulate the market is obviously pretty damning. But I can't get too exercised about "Mad Money" in particular. Even if you were a completely naive investor, you should probably know better than to take advice from a guy ricocheting around a set like a maniac. That strikes me as basic intution. It's the advice Cramer gives in more sober contexts that's way more problematic.
--Noam Scheiber