Last month Eric Mar, the San Francisco Councilman behind his city's notorious Happy Meal ban, breathlessly tweeted that he was about to be interviewed on The Daily Show. Mar probably expected that the late-night mockfest, known for its urbane, liberal comedy, would be sympathetic to him.
Not so much. The report, which aired last night, hoisted Mar by his own petard and mocked food paternalism:
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
San Francisco's Happy Meal Ban
Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>
By far the best part of the piece is this exchange between Mar and correspondent Aasif Mandvi, starting at 3:01:
MANDVI: Would it be hard to pass a law to force Netflix to send [anti-fast food movie] Supersize Me to every parent in San Francisco?
MAR: You can't force Netflix, a private company, to do something like that.
MANDVI: Are you serious right now?
MAR: We have no power to force Netflix or a private company like that to change a business practice.
Hypocrisy at its finest. As one of the interviewed children said, "I think it is the worst thing the city has ever done, and if they don't start giving out the toys, goodbye!" From the mouths of babes comes better economic sense than from city politicians.
