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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Amazing and overdue. The fact that anything he said might seem outrageous to the media shows you how far they've fallen and how utterly lacking in self-awareness the media must be. Anyone and everyone who is aware of what's going on in our government and the MSM owes Colbert. Big time.
Some people are wondering whether this was comedy. It was an indictment.
This performance was priceless - it's so good to seeing someone pointing out Bush's hubris and lack of credibility. It's ultimately ironic in front a roomful of pansy-ass members of the "real" press who treat him with kid gloves. That's why I get my "news" from Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert (plus All Things Considered).
So that’s what it looks and sounds like when someone tells the emperor he has no clothes on. The stunned slack-jawed silence of the sycophants in attendance was delicious. Colbert absolutely annihilated everyone in the room (Scalia, Snow, McClellan, McCain, Pace). With Karl Rove now re-focusing on politics in stead of policy it will be interesting to see what kind of underhanded scheme the administration comes up with to seek revenge on Colbert.
My god, this is the most measured and brave act of comedy that I have ever seen. The press looked ashamed. I myself felt ashamed. How many of us could pull that off? This monologue will someday have more cultural weight than anything Bush has ever uttered.
Go Stephen!
Wow! Wow wow wow wow wowowowo. Yeah Steven Colbert. Giant Cahones.
I too think this was amazing, and the set-up: the whole media plus the whole staff of the White House all dressed up and boozed up, having to sit there and take it. He was very brave to do this, and i think this will be legendary.
Plus, I want to know what "moron" made the decision
1) to invite Colbert to the press dinner, even though he's not a real reporter or a mega-celebrity
2) allow him to have the last 8 minutes of the show.
Someone in the white house is gonna get fired over this, i think. Double-You didn't look very happy.
now there's a man with some real guts! thank you stephen colbert!
If you watch the audience from start to beginning it's quite telling. Colbert started out soft and got big laughs. It was hilarious to see the growing discomfort on everyones' face (except for Laurence Fishburne) as the jokes got more pointed. They wanted more "sometimes Bush makes up words" humor. What they got was "Bush has lied and abused the power of his office and you assholes have been complicit the whole time" kind of humor. Most comedians would have softened their act when meeting the President face to face, and I guess that's what they were thinking when they signed him up. That's what I thought he would do. I'm so glad I was wrong.
Brilliant satire, beautifully delivered, and in terms of the moment, I rank it up there with Elie Wiesel telling Reagan not to go to Bitburg. Nobody speaks truth to power in or out of this administration. Nobody dares. Except Jon Stewart and Colbert.
Mr. Colbert, we are not worthy!! A truly brilliant and brave moment in the history of American political satire. I could not believe they let Stephen continue; it was scathing, and he flamed, beautifully and accurately, every whore and john in the place. It was priceless. This exceeds the Jon Stewart performance that brought Crossfire to its knees. Considering who was there and who was watching, it almost makes one fear for Colbert's personal safety. He burned those fascists bastards to the ground with a smile and a stiletto sharp shiv in the ribs. Bravo, Colbert. Buck Fush!
Ever since Colbert got his own show, it's been clear that he's the smartest, funniest man on television. He was always the best part of the Daily Show. It's interesting that Jon Stewart pulled his punches for the Oscars, while Colbert savaged the President of the United States within several yards of him.
Also, isn't it weird that Scalia had a better sense of humor than almost anyone else there?
Personal favorite joke: "McClellan, of course, eager to retire, really felt like he needed more time to spend with Andrew Card's children." (not the most hard-hitting, but hilarious, nonetheless)
Maybe Scalia was laughing because he has Cosa Nostra on speed dial. I wouldn't trust any of those bushistas further than I can throw Rumsfailed's bloated ego.
NY Times E. Bumiller's "love letter" from Washington completely skips Colbert. Anyone reading her inane claptrap would have thought Dubya had a great time at the dinner with the newest "Bush twin." She must have been hiding under the table during Colbert's piece. What a tool!
BRAVISSIMO STEPHEN!! Thank you for that brave and brilliant work of art.
A blog was set up on Sunday to post thank you's to Stephen Colbert. I commented late that night, and there were already over 3000 posts, and two more pages in the time it took me to write out my little note. Head on over to:
http://thankyoustephencolbert.org/
Yes, Colbert is brilliant and often hilarious, but since he hasn't completely divorced himself from the Zeitgeist he mocks (check the nod to Brooks Brothers at the close of his show) he walks a fine line, which on Saturday he stumbled across a few times. You can take the man out of Dartmouth but you can't take Dartmouth out of the man.
Part Dean Martin Roast, part Don Rickles in Vegas circa '88, and part Mark Twain, Colbear (his bear satire is not unrelated to Rush Limbaugh's attack on Environmental Wackos) plays it close to the vest so that it's difficult for the uninitiated to discern who the real target of the joke is. In this regard, he is more similar to the timid Washington Press than his zingers would seem to indicate. Oh, I know, you're going to say, "But that's what makes him brilliant." Really? Hedging his comedic bet makes him safe, not sorry, amusing not satiric. At heart a true libertarian, he genuinely appreciates the Bushonian certainty, but certainly not the lack of intelligence. Indeed, if Bush had the same devilish capacity to juggle his truth with his humor that Colbert has, the comedian wouldn't have as many bones to pick with the president.
His main target is the Bushonian lack of mental dexterity, which Newt Gingrich, and for that matter, Reagan had in abundance. The funniest attack on his show, signifying his main area of concentration, has been the truthiness bit. Which is a tad ironic. The truth about Colbert is that he's given the Administration an overall pass on the war unlike Stewart whose Mess-O-Patamia skits have been satiric gold. And when he had a chance to skewer Kristol - the neocon guru - on his show, he simply outshouted the man, which made him appear banal and stiff, but not conceptually bankrupt.
If Colbear has a genius, and it'd be hard to prove in court that it's very deep, it's the ability to appear banal and stiff - not like Pee Wee Herman but in true Ivy League fashion - while also being able to riff as fast as Charlie Bird ever did. Yep, he's fast, but not often profound. Look close: it's more flash than substance, and in this way he's more like his times than he is against them. The telling act on the show is the egoistic stroll over to the guest while psyching up the audience more effectively than blinking red applause signs. By contrast, Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker were able to generate the fire inside without all the faux marching band exuberance.
He's subtle, sophisticated, but, unfortunately, brash, loud and pompous, which, he'd be the first one to tell you, he's given a license for all this simply because he uses it to mock people just like him.
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