Letters to the Editor
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Sitting in the wrong seat
Jane Fonda got a lot of flak and name calling for sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun during that war. Remember "Hanoi Jane"? Watching her sit in Colbert's lap reminded me of that older seating error. Perhaps she just has bad judgement?
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...not a prude
Colbert is an old improv actor, a legend in his own time for his ability to stay in character (whatever your politics, if you have any appreciation of acting, his performance at that DC Media Prom last year was amazing).
He met his match. The disparity between his character's politics and "Hanoi Jane" Fonda just made it that much more fun to watch, IMHO. Though sticking her tongue in his one good ear was over the line. Maybe she didn't know.
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Ageism?
I like Colbert and I like Fonda's acting skills and physical appearance. I thought it a little odd as well. Colbert clearly looked uncomfortable suggesting both shyness and perhaps a commitment to monogamy that is somewhat foreign and out of vogue today.
All I can figure is that I was looking at her thinking that she has, indeed, aged (however gracefully) and that 60 somethings playing the role of the vamp just look silly. She's still a very attractive woman, but the girlish come on just seems out of place the way it would if Warren Beatty put my pants half way down his ass crack, donned a wife beater T and a hat on backwards and went trolling for young women half his age.
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I Have No Particular Insights For You On This
But you can sit in my lap till doomsday if you want to.
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in on the joke?
I found this hard to watch as well, but my take was different... I don't think he knew this was coming, and was genuinely embarrassed. While he did continue the interview, as best he could, he certainly didn't do it in character, asking hard (but ridiculous) questions, as he typically does with other "left wing" celebrities. I don't know how he treated Fonda in her other appearance, but it certainly looked to me like he was struggling, trying to find a way to keep to the show and character while trying not to enjoy a very sexy Fonda in his lap for what seemed like a really long time.
It would be interesting to know if he knew that was coming or not...
-s
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I don't think Colbert was in on it
He set it up with his "kiss the host" shirt in an earlier segment. Probably thought he could get another smooch out of the deal.
But when Jane sat on his lap, pulled him close with two hands and gave him one passionate kiss... I honestly think he wasn't in on it, and Jane did it for effect. He was totally out of it, trying desperately to not let his hormones take control (e.g. wandering eyes). I'm surprised he didn't mention the weather or how hot it was in the studio. It wasn't a lap dance, but she sure did get a rise out of him, in a non-political sense. :-)
Plus, with his earlier commentaries about Jane, he did have it coming to him; carnal fantasies made incarnate. Now we can all say that Colbert supports Jane Fonda (as a chair).
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It seemed like harassment
I suspect Joan was instinctively uncomfortable and "muddled" about watching this interlude because it was a caricature of sexual harassment... somehow a little unfamiliar because the object was a man in a suit and tie and the perpetrator a respected woman.
Reverse the genders in your head and the situation is horribly familiar... a woman reduced to blushing embarrassment and stammering as her words are ignored and her body is pawed by a power figure she feels she can't politely turn away.
Even if Colbert was in on the joke, it was a creepy, unpleasant vibe.
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It Could Be Worse
Picture Michelle Malkin in Sean Hannity's lap.
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"Down in the basement!"
It's funny - compare this incident to the infamous Exit 57 sketch, "Down in the Basement," in which Colbert repeatedly and enthusiastically makes out with Paul Dinello (hopefully it's still up on YouTube). I bet with Fonda it was simply harder to maintain as firm a barrier between his character and himself than it was with Dinello.
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Or
Coulter in Ted Nugent's lap.
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Fonder
I didn't think Colbert knew what was coming and I thought it was hilarious
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Not a prude...
I was offended too... what Fonda did was manipulative and coercive, using a public setting to put Colbert on a spot that (it seemed clear) he was embarassed to be put in. He protested politely ("you're breaking my rules"; "my wife would object"; etc.) but none of that put her off his lap. She did not take any hints. She did not respect his feelings. She was, in short, just as rude as GWB winking at the queen. That she was doing all that in a sexualized way is, in a sense, just a distraction. Maybe she was trying to make a point, but if so I didn't get it either.
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OK, I thought it was hysterically funny
...because I had the impression Colbert was NOT expecting it, and it was fun to see the tables turned for once. His completely zany interviewing style often ties people in knots, and Jane COMPLETELY flummoxed him.
Nor do I understand other comments about Jane's age in relationship to this -- excuse me? Flirting is NOT about whether you meet someone else's standards for youth or attractiveness and, in any case, she wasn't "flirting." She was, in effect, invading and conquering.
I think, Joan, that you WERE picking up on Colbert's discomfort, but given the nature of the show and how much he dishes it out, I doubt it will kill him if once in a while he has to take it. I like watching him do it because he's not mean-spirited, and I LOVED watching Fonda do it because she wasn't mean-spirited (and because women almost never do get to do this), though she WAS ferocious. If I thought for one moment that Fonda were "serious," I would have been squicked out.
But next time they should add Eleanor Holmes Norton and make it a 3-way. *grin*
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Not fondling
I would have called it caressing.
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...and action!
Cue the comments from Gordon Wagner and the like bashing you for not devoting every megabyte of site space to hard news. Add some mudslinging over the relationship between feminism and sex, and throw in a few references to "Hanoi Jane" from some disgruntled right-wingers. There, I've just summarized the entire letters section that is bound to appear here. Might as well call it a day.