The torch has passed.
Jack Cafferty, the grumpy Situation Room counterpart to Wolf Blitzer on Cable News Network, no longer is Curmudgeon Laureate of America.
Neither is Andy Rooney, the grizzled pundit of Columbia Broadcasting System's 60 Minutes, and first greybeard to hold the title.
No, the new Old Fart is Lewis Black, standup comic and weekly ranter on Comedy Central's The Daily Show.
Black makes his living by going ballistic about social and political absurdities. He personifies political incorrectness.
His performances provide cathartic releases of anger and disillusionment for his audiences. He can laugh them into incontinence.
Obviously perpetually upset and easily irritated, Black brillantly expresses his insights and love/hate relationship with America in concert venues, cable shows and print.
Black, after all, is the first person to diagnose Nazi Tourette's syndrome in cable/radio conservative commentator Glenn Beck. (16 MAY 2010)
