So Comedy Central hosted a live Indecision '08 telecast last night with Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, and it's going around the net that this video involves Colbert breaking out of his conservative persona and tearing up a little bit after Obama is announced the winner.
Maybe? It's sort of up in the air, he could just be really tired, or trying to kill time until all the immense shrieking from the audience dies down.
Say what you will for David Letterman's tough-as-nails policy towards Senator McCain this election. The buck-toothed avenger would be sorry to see old Acorn cheeks not make it into the White House. Why?
Because like we mentioned yesterday about the Matt Drudge getting a boost from an Obamanation (ooh, that could even be his new website title!), late night talk shows make Republicans their bread and butter. During a recent survey, there were seven times more Republican jokes than Democratic ones on late night television.
Sorry, joking about our future hope for pulling the country out of the spiraling economic depression it's in is not funny. But making fun of Sarah Palin and her ridiculous lifestyle is!
But what if it's not about the specifics of who the candidates are, but rather, who the current administration is? If you're going to be an "edgy" late night host, you have to go against the popular opinion sometimes, and that means picking on the current administration. Which is bad news for some of our favorite late night programs.
Comedy Central's first attempt at black (as in African American) comedy following Dave Chappelle's untimely 2006 departure, Chocolate News, premieres tomorrow night. In the same vein as prime time heavyweights The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, Chocolate News will attempt to mock news of the day with a wry, liberal bent. From what I've seen, it's not going to work.
Stephen Colbert spoke at the New Yorker Festival this weekend, and left his Bill O'Reilly persona at home. Instead, Colbert gave a rarely seen look at his Kaufman-esque technique for becoming the liberal media's favorite angry conservative:
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Stephen Colbert's visage has been making the rounds in the Marvel Universe lately as he is running for president in that reality (wishful thinking spotted). The storyline culminates in an adventure between the famed truthiness propagator and Peter Parker in an issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. Not the first time our universe has collided with the comic's bizarro empire, but certainly the most publicized in awhile. Do you think Colbert was lambaste Spidey for his vigilantism, or crow over the web-slingers dedication to the American way?
Here's a clue: Stephen Colbert already has a spider named after him, so maybe a team-up is in the works.
So, a few thousand weeks late to the saga, Entertainment Weekly satirizes The New Yorker's controversial (or at least labeled as such) Obama fist-bump cover, with Mr. Stephen Colbert playing Michelle and Mr. Jon Stewart playing Barack. That EW opted for the very talented, but most over-exposed pair of political pundits shows exactly how relevant the cover story really is. Read: Everything has already been done. Perfect timing, then, to bring up New Yorker editor David Remnick's thoughts on what his magazine accomplished, or didn't, in running Barry Blitt's cover: CONTINUED »
A couple years back, Stephen Colbert held a contest to find his new black friend after the old one started mouthing off to the press.
Did Colbert ever find an African-American buddy?
Looks like he did. (Hint: It's not Barack Obama, those two need to keep their love a secret):
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Straight-laced trickster Stephen Colbert will make headlines for something other than being the world's most clever pretend Bill O'Reilly when the actor digitizes his DNA (what) and sends it into outer space (what) with video game designer Richard Garriott (what? No. But yes).
The Immortality Drive is part of Garriott's design to reboot the world in case of human extinction. It's going to be approximately three billion times cooler than that stupid Human Genome Project since it combines America's three favorite things: Colbert, outer space, and video games.
Where was Stephen during the first Cold War, when we could have used him to make Russia our bitch?
Remember when someone asked Stephen Colbert to speak at the 2006 White House Correspondents Association dinner? Back in those more innocent times (before $4 gas and Miley Cyrus), it was still conceivable that maybe someone who saw The Colbert Report, a spin-off of Comedy Central's Daily Show, would think it was non-ironic, and that Colbert was actually a fundamentalist right-winger. But doubt no more (if anyone was), Colbert's show definitively favors Democrats: or at least other Democrats like to think so.
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Accused: Maggie Gallagher, a former National Review editor and author of The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially
Crime: Arguing, with more conviction than a "just j/k'ing!" sort of way, that NBC News should seriously consider Stephen Colbert for the Meet The Press moderator job. And spending more than 600 words doing so. [Yahoo]
Stephen Colbert, the Comedy Central fake news anchor who will receive a Peabody Award a week from today, on his process: "Mostly I know what I'm doing today and tomorrow and have an idea about the day after that. And tomorrow might change and I'm not sure about tonight." [AP]
Delivering a commencement speech to Princeton University's graduation class, funnyman Stephen Colbert told the next generation of leaders: "You can change the world." But: "Please don't do that, okay? Some of us like the way things are going now."
It was enough to listen to Stephen Colbert's audience laugh at Bill O'Reilly's Inside Edition rampage video, because when we did it yesterday, it was just us and our keyboard guffawing, and that's … kinda sad.
But then Colbert had to go on and imitate the thing. And the audience was laughing! And so were we. Just us … and our television set. CONTINUED »
Have you heard about those fake news anchors on Comedy Central? Not only are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert great for pushing books, but they're great for pushing the political dialogue further. Two important people think that way, so it's nearly almost certainly true. CONTINUED »
ABC News' presidential debate woes continue in earnest this week, with the New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg calling the handling "something akin to a federal crime," the New York Times' David Carr arguing "it was a disgusting spectacle, a tableau that etched not the bankruptcy of politics but of the people covering it," and Times op-ed columnist Frank Rich noting, "I can't remember a debate in which the only memorable moment was the audience's heckling of a moderator." (via)
But surely somebody out there liked the debate. Somebody who didn't hear Charlie Gibson get booed. Somebody who didn't see the first hour as a round of gossiping. Somebody who lives in a fictional world. CONTINUED »
TV Week's annual popularity contest, the "10 Most Powerful," puts the industry's paycheck writers in handy listicle format, which makes it easier to know where to direct your The Man anger. Taking the No. 1 spot is NBC News president Steve Capus, whose most recent accomplishment was afflicting morning people with Kathie Lee Gifford. Obvious choices follow: Fox News chief Roger Ailes, ABC News prez David Westin, NBC's D.C. bureau chief Tim Russert, CNN Worldwide/U.S. president Jim Walton/Jon Klein, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, CBS News prez Sean McManus, and, at No. 9, television rep powerhouse N.S. Bienstock.
And taking the No. 10 spot are a trio of comedians: Amy Poehler, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart. These folks made the cut for getting the other members on the list to … START DOING THEIR JOBS.
To prepare for her appearance on The Colbert Report to plug her book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, Times reporter and Jennifer 8. Lee smartly brainstormed with friends about what Stephen Colbert's on-air character would ask her. Potential tete-a-tetes:
Colbert : "I eat apple pie every morning - with a jack and coke - and a bald eagle egg omlette."
Jenny: Well, there are exceptions - and you are clearly an exceptional American - for most would say Chinese food.
It went down almost exactly like that.
Conan O'Brien has been "quarreling" with Stephen Colbert over who made Mike Huckabee's campaign. Conan claims he brought Huckabee insides Americans' homes. Colbert refutes the assertion; it was he who gets credit. And then there's Jon Stewart, who claims he made Conan O'Brien, so it's he who, ipso facto, should get the superlative.
Last night on Conan's show, they settled the matter. With a brawl, y'all!
(Confused? The on-air explanation after the jump. But the above video has the fight. So it's clear which one you're gonna watch.) CONTINUED »
ALIENS FOR HUMANS Recent American citizen Craig Ferguson will host the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Considering his new immigration status, his speech probably won’t be as harsh as Stephen Colbert’s from two years ago. Too bad, because the resulting fall out was kind of funny. [Examiner]
Famous blogger and personal friend, Chris Beam, appeared on The Colbert Report last night. The best part is when they Photoshop Chris's beard onto John Edwards. You can't hire and compensate writers fairly for comedy like that.
Editorial Director
