There is something remarkable here just beneath the surface, that prevous generations find difficult to grasp. The generations of viewers who "get" Colbert's satire are entirely without precident in American history (in terms of their sense of humor).

While parody has been a vital part of American humor at least as far back as Lincoln and Tyler, satire has always been regarded as a little too considered, and a little too clever for American tastes. But, parody has been under attack since that fatefull day in Dallas when something to terrible happened that it required a cover-up (The Warren Commission and the 911 Commission smell very similar). Over time it has become increasingly difficult to parody a reality that has become a parody. You cannot parody a parody; and that has been a very bad thing for comedy in the U.S.

The adaptations that Daly and Colbert have made are a savvy response to a sea shift of values, beliefs, and expectations. These generations with no memory of Vietnam or Watergate are born of parody. This life experience prepares them to embrace satire as an affirmative part of their lives, much more centrally than my generation with it's Mad magazine and National Lampoon.

For my generation satire was considered marginal and slightly naughty, but then we had Walter Cronkite on the nightly news, Howard Cossel on Monday night, and lived in a time when 2 newspaper towns were the rule. Subsequent generations had blow-dry pretty-boy announcers, former players as sportscasters, and newspapers sans reportage... all form and little substance.

The hope is that there is something fundamentally generative in this taste for satire. Much more so than the previously prevalent taste for sarcasm (Seinfeld). Fundamentally, you cannot parody Fox news, and you can't be synical about a network so bent on pushing propaganda and mind control without ending up on medication or cutting your wrists. The basic optimism of the National character is still intact, and satire represents the only path out of this valley of death, this desert of humorless nascient fascism being constructed by the pigs currently feeding at the trough of government largess.

Thank you Mr. Colbert for permitting us to laugh again, and thank you for properly "roasting" the pigs. Humor may be the only antidote to fascism left to us. No other form of dialogue can limbo under the bar of "patriotism" erected at every opportunity by the current regime.

I recall the line from George Orwell's Animal Farm, "All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others". I have a vague memory that it wasn't always so. I have a distant memory of a time when the Constitution wasn't, "just a piece of paper". And, I seem to recall something unfortunate about the Farmer. Oh yes, he was a drunk and a slackard too. He took everything for himself, he sent the old ones to the glue factory or for processing as dog food. He sold our children and the strong ones to slaughter for whiskey money (or was it oil?) and so we got together and threw him out.

Language matters. And, there is such a thing as truth. At this dark time in the history of this Republic we can only speak of the truth by cloaking it in the language of the Regime, all other language is labelled "unpatriotic" and results in censure, abuse, or the intervention of "National Security". I say, support the troops. Send them care packages chock full of satire to quench their thirst, from our political desert, to their geographical desert.

Mr. Colbert is double-plus good! I nominate him for designation as "national treasure".

Oh, Stephen, if you could loan a nut to Nancy Pelosi for a week or two, future generations would be in your debt.

I had to look up Colbert's speech on the internet, because the mainstream media never showed it---that in itself should be a clue as to how close he cut to the bone.

The straight media loved showing the Bush imitator buffooning the Buffoon In Chief, because it showed what a swell guy Bush really is, able to laugh at himself. Until, that is, someone actually lampooned him with a sharp enough scalpel.

Let Bush and the press fume, let the mindless consumers of Fox News be bewildered. Colbert has opened up an entirely new front in the culture wars. Truthiness on one side and Ironic Truth-telling on the other. That's a culture war the talking heads don't want to wax pundential on. It just too dangerous for the State for for the State-cntrolled media.

8<------------------->8

>We all know it's a fascist regime and we shake our heads and mumble to each >other like good little germans.

8<------------------->8

Well, there were a million people rather dissatisfied with their fate at the boots of this system last week, and they were in the streets participating in a movement--with a little flavor of the 60's.

It seemed to concern those in power.

One big problem is so many were waving the amerikan flag, which flies over restrictions on freedoms here for almost all, and rules over carnage and misery worldwide. It would be bad to not win as many as possible now to effective mass action to end this administration.

Check out The World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime! @

www.worldcantwait.net

Daily they feature another important reason to Drive Them Out!

Recently was news of a push by Christian Theocrats to restrict availability of Birth Control--including one already implemented.

>Is it my imagination, or did C-span mute the audio volume of the audience >laughter, giving it the effect that Colbert was roundly disapproved of and his >comments falling on deaf ears?

The one I heard on Google tonight seemed significantly louder than the one on freevideoblog or whatever.

>Reminds me of a similar microphone 'malfunction' wrt the so-called 'dean >scream'.

>Further, did anyone notice that the camera failed to show both Bush's faces

>several times after a barbed comment? This is in stark contrast to the >camerawork on celebrity roasts, where every dig warrants a quick take of the >roastee's reaction.

I saw an ABC version which showed neither Bush nor audience until the Audition bit; then it showed Bush's reaction and the audio of the audition.

>I wonder if a non-C-span version is available for comparison on both counts?