On July 12, Japanese police arrested artist Megumi Igarashi on obscenity charges for encouraging people to print 3-D replicas of her vagina, to raise money to make a vagina-shaped kayak. (She was released almost a week later, but still faces possible jail time). On Thursday night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart puzzled through why Japan would react so harshly to yonic art — and how it justifies such a gross double standard when it comes to obscenity. "On the Japanese pervometer, the vagina boat is practically a Disney World ride," Stewart said.
Stewart finds his answer, sort of, in an annual phallus-themed parade in Kawasaki, and in the Japanese folk legend behind it. "Look, Japan, I don't want to tell you how to run your country," he said, "but just think about it this way: America has a long tradition of allowing its female artists to express their innermost thoughts — and as a result, we don't spend 51 weeks a year storing a giant steel dick in our garage." --Peter Weber
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