Day: March 17, 2009

When Jon Stewart tore into CNBC's business reporting last week on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, and CNBC's Mad Money man Jim Cramer sat there hopelessly acknowledging his mistakes, there was one guy who watched it go down having an insider's perspective from both sides of the conversation. As comedian Jeff Kreisler pointed out to me via email over the weekend: "My guess is I'm the only person that even remotely bridges the gap between Cramer and Stewart." Here's how: For three years, Kreisler wrote a weekly humor column and video blog, "Funny Money," for Cramer's TheStreet.com (and the person who hired Kreisler, he noted wryly, was Aaron Task — the guy shown interviewing Cramer in the video in which Cramer says how easy it is to manipulate the markets). He left that gig in 2008, and wrote last year for Comedy Central's Indecision2008 blog. Kreisler, who has been honored with the Bill Hicks Spirit Award and been received well both here in America and over in Edinburgh, acknowledged that in his time working for Cramer, he "never really had much, or any interaction with Cramer himself. I worked remotely, only popping in to occasionally record a video — yes I've been in that hideous orange studio — though I did ask him to read my book for a blurb. He refused (perhaps because I mention him as a cheater?)....