“What would Jon Stewart say?” has been a common reaction to the past five nightmarish and surreal years of American politics, and for understandable reasons. From 1999 to 2015, Stewart’s tenure on The Daily Show made him a voice of morality, chewing out the post-9/11 electorate and media culture for legions of domestic and foreign policy failures. He articulated so much of what was wrong and absurd while media outlets infuriatingly took the absurdity at face value. In theory, Stewart’s second feature film, Irresistible, should be able to make heads and tails of what led us all of to… well here.

Unfortunately, while Irresistible’s satire comes from a place of passion, its execution feels both ham-fisted and rather soft. Stewart’s message is all text and no subtext, eschewing Trump’s overwhelming presence in red-state America in favor of mocking the political system that made him possible. Individual jokes get a laugh, but collectively the movie sidesteps the modern corrosivity one party has displayed toward the rule of law in favor of a “bothsidesism” structure Stewart ironically, and famously, bashed on Crossfire.

Inspired by the excessive $50 million spent on the 2017 Georgia special election, the movie follows Democratic political strategist Gary Zimmer (Steve Carell), who needs a big comeback to make up for the disastrous 2016 election. His golden goose: a video from the fictional town of Deerlaken, Wisconsin, where retired Marine Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper) lambasts his city council for a xenophobic budget proposal, demonstrating progressive views in a rural Republican territory. “He’s a Democrat, he just doesn’t know it yet,” Zimmer exclaims, believing this military widower has the faith-based appeal needed to beat Deerlaken’s incumbent, Mayor Braun (Brent Sexton). But more importantly, he can prove that Democrats are still capable of winning back the Rust Belt.

Zimmer’s a quasi-friendly but bluntly manipulative, East Coast-type whose attempts to fit in with this rural township are haphazard at best (i.e. a stereotypical Democrat). “Guys like me don’t know how to talk to guys like you” is literally his explanation for taking interest in Hastings, who accepts to run provided that Zimmer runs his campaign. Aided by the colonel’s daughter, Diana (Mackenzie Davis), Zimmer aims to provoke Republicans to call his bet. Sure enough, Zimmer’s Republican mirror, Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne)—an icy Machiavellian willing to lie and blame liberal elitists for everything (i.e., a stereotypical Republican)—arrives to support Braun. From there, the two duke it out with enormous war chests of cash, turning this simple mayoral race into a ratings bonanza.

There are some laughs to be had, mainly from visual gags about Stewart’s distain for partisan media culture that feel indistinguishable from reality. One funny faux-campaign ad sees Jack do nothing but fire a machine gun for 20 seconds in an appeal to pro-gun voters, and aggressive talking-head segments on CNN and Fox News might as well be actual cable news discussions. But they’re sparse moments, mostly taking a backseat to the hyper-realized game of shame vs. fear between Zimmer and Brewster. These caricature-level roles give Carell and Byrne little room to develop beyond a joke of how little DC insiders value swing states beyond their four-year voting migration patterns.

I get what Stewart is trying to do, but his critiques of the beltway don’t seem go beyond “assholes who’ll do anything to win.” Yet so much of the film is devoted to this idea that, ironically enough, we don’t learn much about Deerlaken’s internal politics. Jack and Diana’s Rust Belt quasi-liberalism aside, there’s no discussion of local government, and no one ever addresses how many voters are enamored with Trump’s nativist rhetoric, who, I assume, won in the district. Everyone just sort of exists to be pushed around by the Washington outsiders until the next big revelation, with only the final twist really having some bite. I won’t lie. It was pretty clever in execution.

A part of me had fun watching Irresistible, but another part was reminded of an old Bill Maher video critiquing Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Maher warned Stewart “not to pretend the insanity is equally distributed,” and while his money in politics angle is worthy of satire, a lot has changed since 2010 and especially 2015. Reality is now so absurd even South Park can’t match it. To put things in Daily Show speak: I hoped Jon Stewart would at least address the rise in Bullshit Mountain’s height, but he pulls few punches.