I don't think it was meant to be funny. Those kinds of ass-kickings are usually extremely serious affairs. Take another look at Richard Pryor doing some of those classic routines. When comedy reaches this level "funny" is just one collateral option - the purpose and strategy are something else entirely, the punch-line takes on an expanded meaning.

What Colbert gave us was a historical piece of American comedy, which attained the level of the best works of Twain, Bruce, Carlin, and Pryor - and the delight (and confirmation) is that none of us were ready for it. (Apparently not even the Secret Service.)

No, this wasn't about "funny." This was about putting on a nice tux, a big smile, stepping up to the microphone and stomping a Texas-sized mudhole in somebody's ass.

As they say out in West Texas... Mission Accomplished

Stephen Colbert = Swift, Dickens, Twain, Thoreau, Bernard Shaw, Wilde, Voltaire, Huxley, Chaplin, etc..

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Bush = Nero, Caligula, Mussolini, Ceacescu, Pol Pot, Pinochet, Kim Jung Il, Idi Amin, any two-bit tinpot tyrant dictator of a failed banana republic; ...

Washington Post, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, mainstream US media = Mein Kampf, Newspeak, Pravda, ad nauseam;

Richard Cohen, ?? Lehman, Judy (?) Bumiller, most mainstream journalists = Rudyard Kipling, Nietszche, Ezra Pound, Baghdad Ali, Goebbels, Leni Riefenstahl, Larry, Moe, & Curly Joe; not to mention Jerry Springer & his ilk.

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Get it? The rest of us on this planet, do.

Yes, Colbert delivered his barbs mere feet from the president. It bears mention, however, that in numerous cases he looked Bush right in the eye while skewering him (such as the bit about the low polls.) There was no hint of wavering in his voice. THAT takes guts.

(I think adulations about Mr. Colbert's testicles is getting a bit old now, not to mention somewhat creepy.)

But let's not get too carried away thinking he'll save the world. Stephen Colbert demonstrated tremendous acting, wit, fortitude, and aplomb. Perhaps this performance will be a turning point for how some of the public views the media. But it will hardly change how the Bush administration operates, and may not even change how the MSM carries on its job. We certainly need Stephen Colbert, but we also need many more like him to turn the tide.

It seems to me that Stephen knew from the outset what he would be up against, and given the content he intended to deliver at the White House Press Dinner, that he was essentially walking into the lion's den. He exhibited immense courage in refusing to be cowed by the room's largely slack-jawed response to his searing monolog. He also showed great intelligence and awareness in realizing the uniqueness of this opportunity to speak truth to power — namely to an administration notorious for its thoroughness in filtering out dissent, to the media so complicit in that effort, and in a forum all Americans could utlimately witness.

For twenty minutes, Colbert stayed "on message" to a degree that would make Scott McClellan envious. And he did so while standing mere feet from his seething, and famously vindictive, primary target. Colbert's comedic style was brilliant as usual, but his message was anything but comical. To him, and millions more of us starved for some semblence of honesty out of this administration, he was performing his patriotic duty in "crossing the line" of politeness, in order to shine light on so many of the unsavory truths that those in the audience have for over five years failed to.

To my mind, at least, Stephen Colbert went from being a really funny political satirist to being a really important, really funny political satirist. Rock on, Stephen.

Asleep-at-the-wheel-accident humor tends to leave a bitter aftertaste.

After their work of the last few years, hardly any of the WHC dinner attendees deserved funny. They deserve pain, and they got it.

Which to me was breathtaking and liberating. And not only did it make me laugh, it made me howl.

Thank you so much, Stephen Colbert!

Funny is subjective, and it is pointless to try to pretend otherwise.

Something interesting and unusual happened at the Correspondants Dinner. Mr. Colbert made pointed, biting, jokes at the President's expense, and they obviously got to the President. Furthermore, it gave us the merest glimpse of the George W. Bush who does not deal well with criticism. He also let the media have it for playing along with the Bush administration. This is interesting; it's certainly worth a short article, and if you're writing an article about the event itself, it is easily the most newsworthy part of the event.

Mr. Colbert is a comedian; his job is to make smart, funny, jokes. That's what he did. Some people (like brother bob) are, for some reason, angry about Colbert's bit. It's not Stephen Colbert's job to fix things, or come up with viable alternatives to the failed policy that the White House has pursued.

It's pretty clear that the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the rest of the major news outlets didn't mention Colbert's monologue for the same reason they have been giving the Bush administration a pass all this time, because they know there will be consequences if they do not toe the line (it didn't help that Mr. Colbert made fun of this fact). It's amazing to me that even blogs like Gawker (God save us) didn't catch onto this; the "MSM" was being vindictive and protecting it's access. When mainstream papers finally did address Mr. Colbert's performance, they said the only thing they could say about it: it was not funny. To comment solely on it's merits as comedy sidesteps all the things the media probably would rather not discuss about the whole episode.

Let's see - Mr. Colbert obviously pissed off Bush, and he has the mainstream medias' collective undies in a bunch. I think that would be one for Colbert.

...but Colbert's performance - certainly NOT sit-com, Vegas, Dean Martin roast, safe-Leno funny - was brilliant in the centuries-long tradition of the very best satire, classically elegant in that royal jester way. I wasn't just thrilled, gob-smacked and plain stunned by his temerity but heartened, delighted and so relieved - to the point of actual tears - that that someone was finally, elegantly, saying it to George Bush.