It’s the final countdown… Oh, sorry. Jim Cramer appeared on The Daily Show last night to settle the war of words between The Daily Show and CNBC that had been going on since Rick “You Are All Losers” Santelli canceled. Did it get nasty? You bet your ass it did, though we were looking forward to a bout of Jello wrestling that never quite materialized.

It started out amiable enough — Jon Stewart asking questions about Rick Santelli’s rant, Jim Cramer disagreeing with Santelli…

The most lucid answer Cramer offered for the state of CNBC is that they have 17 hours of live TV to fill every day. Stewart suggested they cut back. At that point it started to turn ugly…

And by the third clip the gloves have come off…

(Following a clip showing Cramer telling people how to start rumors about Apple to manipulate the stock.)

Stewart: I understand you want to make finance entertaining, but it’s not a fucking game… and I … when I watch that… I can’t tell you how angry that makes me. Because what it says to me that “You all know.” You all know what’s going on. From those shenanigans to the stuff that was being pulled at Bear and at AIG and all this derivative market stuff — that is this weird Wall Street side bet.

Cramer: Don’t you want guys like me, who have been in it, to show the shenanigans? What else can I do?

Stewart: I want desperately for that, but I feel that that’s not what we’re getting. What we’re getting is… Listen.

You knew what the banks were doing and yet you were touting it for months and months. The entire network was. And so now to pretend that this was some sort of crazy once in a lifetime tsunami that nobody could have seen coming is disingenuous at best and criminal at worst.

Cramer: Dick Fuld who ran Lehman Brothers called me in, he called me in when the stock was $40 because I was saying I thought that the stock was wrong, I thought it was the wrong place to be… Brings me in. Lies to me. Lies to me, Lies to me. I’ve known him for twenty years.

Stewart: (sarcastic) The CEO of a company lied to you?

Cramer: (smiling) Shocker. Stop trading.

Stewart: But isn’t that financial reporting? What do you feel is the role of CNBC?

Cramer: I want kangaroo courts for these guys. I really do. I want indictments. We have not seen any indictments. Where is the indictments for AIG? I’ve told the justice department, here’s the way you…

Stewart: (interrupting) It’s very easy to get on this after the fact. The measure of the network…. CNBC could act as… in some ways… look, nobody is asking them to act as a regulatory agency… but who’s side are they on here?

It feels like they have to reconcile… is their audience the Wall Street traders who are doing this for constant profit on a day to day, the short term?

These guys at these companies were on a Sherman’s March through their companies financed by our 401ks and all the incentives of their companies were for short term profit. They burned the fucking house down with our money and walked away rich as hell and you guys knew that that was going on.

Cramer: I have a wall of shame. Why do I have banana cream pies? Because I throw them at CEOs. Do you know how many times I have pantsed CEOs on my show?

Your thoughts?

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.