Could Stephen Colbert be the best thing that ever happened to America? At least the American press? It must have been really hard to come up with a show and persona that lives up to his "The Daily Show" predasessor. While I generally don't enjoy "The Colbert Report" as much as "The Daily Show", these videos may prove that no one, not even Stewart himself has a brass set like this man. Watch the whole thing. You'll be glad you did. And if you're not then you're unAmerican.
12 comments:
I can only wish to have the cajones this hombre has. Well done indeed!
We watched the whole thing last night and were completely floored with awe. He has earned the rank of hero to me.
I don't see the bravery and courage that many people are attributing to him. Is it because he ridiculed the President and others? People do that daily. Is he braver because he did it to people in the room with him? He came off more tacky and snarky than brave to me. I find him more annoying than amusing. Both on his show and in these clips. His character and shtick just get old real quick to me. Stewart I like. The Daily Show stays funny to me even when I disagree with the politics.
Matt,
Call him tacky, snarky, and annoying if you want, but his courage (or stupidity, if you prefer) is attributed to him because he makes the kind of comments that NO ONE makes with Dubya immediately to his right -- LITERALLY. This administration has been known for completely avoiding even mentioning its many problems, and subverting opposing voices. And here's Colbert, laying it all out and doing it in a way that highlights the stupidity of the administration. I'd be afraid of some kind of retaliation or consequences. Karl Rove alone may be fuming and planning Armageddon.
But it wasn't just the barbs at w; it was also the jokes at the expense of the media (especially Fox News). Very funny stuff.
"Chocalate city with a marshmallow center" was brilliant.
I thought Colbert's speech was hilarious. Some of the people in the crowd looked surprised he was doing the same thing he does on TV four nights a week, but I liked it.
Also, Kyle: "In the same way, if I refer to hot sauce as "salsa" (fresca or otherwise) within the context of a TexMex or authentically Mexican restaurant and some douchebag makes a federal case of it, they are being ridiculously ignorant." I thought that was hilarious, definitely made my morning.
Matt has a point. If you don't agree with what Colbert is pushing you aren't going to find him funny. While I don't find him as funny as Stewart, either, I do find him funny, but it's probably because he puts under a microscope the very real problems and corruptions with politicians and media. He cuts through the bs and gives you the truth. You know, the truth is probably too absolute. I think it's fairer and more accurate to say that Stephen show the irrationality of the people he lampoons and in doing so is offering a more reasonable viewpoint.
I don't have to agree with someone's politics to recognize and appreciate their humor. I disagree with the political slant of most of John Stewart's stuff, but still laugh. When Leno, Letterman, Conan, and others do stuff that ridicules the administration I still laugh at some of it even though I find some of it baseless and wildly inaccurate. It's Colbert's delivery that I find annoying more than his material.
If we are defining courage as ridiculing the President of the United States and others to their face as opposed to over the airways then Colbert certainly displayed courage.
Matt, I think you misunderstood me. Probably because I wasn't very clear. I simply meant that Stephen's brand of comedy is such that if you're not in agreement with what he's implying you probably won't find it funny. This is simply because he is so blatant and one-sided with his criticism, while John Stewart is pretty critical of all politicians and media, liberal or conservative. Of the two I would venture a guess that Cobert is the much stronger Democrat and while Stewart is more independent, while he probably votes Democrat. Still, I find Colbert funny just simply because his faux attitude and the things that he says aren't that far off from the real O'Reillys and Hannitys.
I think you've identified it correctly with Colbet's blatant one-sided criticism. (I think it's more accurate to say "his persona." I believe at the least it's his ideas taken to an extreme.)
I do find that closed minded one-sided blind-eye train of thought annoying more than amusing. O'Reilly is an excellent example. So is Keith Olbermann. So are the majority of instructors I have experienced in the world of academia.
Stewart is far more palatable to me because of his self-deprecating delivery and status as an equal opportunity critic.
After thinking about it, I think I like Colbert because the person he is mocking most is Bill O'Reilly, who I find completely distasteful and uninformed, as he cloaks himself in self-righteous and disingenuous patriotism. Colbert satirizes that formula perfectly. Just as his delivery annoys Matt, I think it's the same delivery that amuses me.
Okay, interesting discussion. Here's my two cents. I don't think either Stewart or Colbert would be really funny if it weren't for the politics. That is, I think Kyle's right, that you have to be on their side to find their jokes to be amusing. They make me laugh for the same reason that I think booger and dooky jokes are funny. They violate taboos, and I think indignant, arrogant, offended elitists are really funny. But take away the political angle and these guys are just another couple of comedians.
Fortunately for me, I'm pretty much on their side, so I think that within the narrow confines of their style of faux-news as political humor they're pretty brilliant--they're really good at making me imagine the respones of indignant, arrogant, offended elitists, who, as I said, make me laugh. Colbert's performance last Saturday went miles further than I've ever seen him go: he actually managed to employ real indignant, arrogant, offended elitists as part of the show. His jokes were only okay. The rip-roaring humor came from the situation he created, a nervous and indignant mass of self-important blowhards, whose collective actions have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens and thousands of American soldiers, forced to sit and listen to a nerdy guy in glasses make fun of them while simultaneously calling them out for their horrific sins. That's FUNNY!!! It's even funnier that these guys still don't seem to realize what hit them. Fools are funny.
(And just because Stewart seems independent doesn't mean he's not coming from a point of view. Blasting all politicians doesn't make one necessarily even-handed: it simply means that he thinks the entire establishment is screwed up, in some ways making him further to the left than Colbert, who usually only attacks conservatives.)
He is funny precisely because he's a parody O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, etc...
He takes the right wing pundits positions and carries them to a ridiculous extreme. His performance at the White House Correspondents dinner just pointed out how close that ridiculous extreme is to the sad truth.
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