Jim Cramer’s 8 Craziest On-Air Moments

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Rick Santelli isn’t the only CNBC employee who raves and rants in front of the camera. “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer shares some of that spotlight. The former hedge-fund manager and best-selling author has strong viewpoints, and he wants his voice to be heard.

Cramer also had a well-known feud with Jon Stewart, who annihilated Cramer during his guest appearance on “The Daily Show,” after accusing him of giving the public inaccurate financial advice.

1.) Jim Cramer calls Wal-Mart “shameless” when it attempted to influence votes and prevent the passage of a Maryland billthatwould require it to pay 8 percent of its payroll on healthcare benefits. “Wal-Mart lives or dies by its ability to pay next to nothing for any of its inputs,” he said. “That’s why they’re trying to make sure they don’t have to pay for their workers’ healthcare.”

2.) Like Santelli, Cramer isn’t a fan of Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke. On “Stop Trading,” he wanted Bernanke to lower interest rates and help Wall-Streeters get their jobs back. “Bernanke needs to open the discount window, that’s how bad things are out there,” Cramer loudly said in a heated discussion of the topic. Bernanke needs to focus on this…He has no idea how bad it is out there, he has no idea, he has no idea! I have talked to the heads of almost every single one of these firms in the last 72 hours and he has no idea what it’s like out there! None!”

3.) When a viewer submitted a question, asking, “Should I be worried about Bear Stearns in terms of liquidity and get my money out of there?,” Cramer grew mildly angry. “Bear Stearns is fine!” he shouted. “Don’t move your money from Bear, that’s just being silly! Don’t be silly!” Six days later, a Bear bailout was announced.

4.) Jim Cramer must be crazy to have openly admitted that he manipulated stock in his favor. In this interview with “The Street” (a clip Jon Stewart later replayed in front of Cramer as a guest) he lefts no stones left unturned. “A lot of times when I was short at my hedge fund, and I was positioned short, meaning I needed it down, I would create a level of activity beforehand that could drive the futures,” he said. He even validated the illegal act of “fomenting” (creating a false impression that the stock is down) because the SEC doesn’t understand. “What’s important when you are in that hedge fund mode is to not be doing anything that is remotely truthful, because the truth is so against your view – it is important to create a new truth to develop a fiction. You can’t take any chances.” He advised other hedge fund managers to also engage in “fomenting,” shorting stocks and manipulating the market.

5.) In this clip, Cramer is extremely happy about his ability to gauge the value of a company before it blows up or deflates. He bragged about his decision to purchase Apple stocks; after the purchase, Apple stock continued to rise 700 percent in the following three years. “Apple is a growth stock. Growth stocks tend to go higher. I call them winners. If investing were like baseball, than buying a high growth stock would be like betting on a team that’s won the World Series three years in a row. It’s a good team, they’ll probably do it again.” He claimed that Apple was becoming the de facto way of listening to music, and iTunes was the only thing for which he gave his kids his credit card number (he flashed his card to the camera). He then picked up a bat and hit a disc, followed by smashing a Zune to pieces.

6.) Cramer praises Lenny Dykstra’s stock-picking ability in this short clip, but the key scenes are those narrated bits that show just how unusual Cramer really is. “Jim Cramer is the host of ‘Mad Money’ on CNBC,” the narrator said. “And like Lenny, he’s also a little nuts. Except unlike Lenny, he went to Harvard, worked at Goldman Sachs and started his own hedge fund and made a fortune.” As the narration plays, viewers can see a mix of scenes that show Cramer throwing money out of a basket, wearing a big goofy hat, singing, and dancing on tables.

7.) Cramer called up some macho men to open up the lightning round during a show of “Mad Money” taped at Harvard. Unfortunately for Cramer, they found it quite funny to start pushing Cramer around (a Harvard alumni) after throwing some chairs across the stage. Cramer’s mic fell out, but it’s all fun and games. “Those guys are tougher guys than we’re used to,” he said. When one player asked if he was a “ladies man” during his Harvard years, Cramer shouted, “I had the time of my life!”

8.) On a visit to the Today Show, Cramer responds to questions about Jon Stewart’s tirade against him: “A comedian is attacking me,” he says. “Wow! He runs a variety show!” Stewart came crashing down on the Mad Money host for his decision to advise viewers to buy Bear Stearns, insisting everything was okay with the bank. Soon after, it went bankrupt. It seems Stewart got the better of him on this one.