Cramer vs. Not Cramer

The onscreen spat between Jim “Mad Money” Cramer and Jon “Daily Show” Stewart.

The Stewart–Cramer feud over “Mad Money” and CNBC’s coverage of the economic collapse culminated in a “Daily Show” interview billed as “Cramer vs. Not Cramer: Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish ’09!”

Alessandra Stanley judged the showdown for the NYT:

It wasn’t “Brawl Street” or a thrilla in vanilla. It wasn’t a “Daily Show” friendly feud or even much of a discussion. Mostly, the much-hyped Thursday night showdown between the comedian Jon Stewartand Jim Cramer, the mercurial host of “Mad Money” on CNBC, felt like a Senate subcommittee hearing. …

Mr. Stewart made his feelings clear. “I understand you want to make finance entertaining,” he told Mr. Cramer. “But it’s not a game,” he said, using an additional adjective that was bleeped out. “When I watch that, I can’t tell you how angry that makes me.” …

Mr. Cramer tried to be friendly and looked a little taken aback by Mr. Stewart’s prosecutorial tone – he might have been expecting a more jocular give-and-take. But mostly, he sat back and milked every last drop from a tempest-in-a-cable-box that NBC and its sister channels have been fanning ever since the “Daily Show” host began hammering CNBC for its complacent Wall Street coverage, singling out embarrassing market calls by Mr. Cramer in particular.