Back in the '70s when Norman Lear created the sitcom "All In The Family" with "Archie Bunker" being the show's axis of contempt for his racism, his hypocrisy, his selfishness, his ignorance of history etc., Lear learned to his horror that almost half of his show's viewers didn't get it.

Here he had created the most bald-faced and obvious satire using an archtyptical character so completely reprehensible that everyone would get the joke. So he thought. But a funny thing happened.

The portion of the American public Lear was lampooning, tuned in to see Archie Bunker expressing their own twisted view of reality and they sincerely thought that Lear had written the Archie character as the true American patriot and right-thinking hero that they fancied themselves to be.

As it turns out, Lear had a long-running hit TV show with a couple of spin-offs to boot. The Liberals tuned in to see a satire of how stupid the Right Wingers were. And the Right Wingers tuned in to see Archie verbally belittle his own daughter Gloria and her idiot husband, the ultra-left wing hippie Archie called "meathead."

Something for everybody.

That's basically what happened at the Correspondents' Dinner. Satire is totally lost on true believers. The reason why so few people were willing to laugh openly at Colbert's humor, and why the press ignored it afterwards, is because the true believers didn't get it. It flew right over their heads. The things that Colbert was saying was just a reflection of themselves in a flattering, not derogatory light.

Colbert could have used his time more effectively, and economically, if he would have just walked to the podium and said, "President Bush, you son-of-a-bitch, you've lied to the American people and thousands are dead and crippled because of you. Shame on you. Fuck you. Now resign." Thank the audience and leave.

I read Bumiller's piece this morning and was truly bewildered. I had seen Colbert's performance -- which went from hilarious to (intentionally) horrifying in short order -- and, whatever one thinks of him or of Bush, needed at least to have been recognized. Perhaps Bumiller's write-up, for the reasons you suggest, encapsulates more of our times (UN-intentionally) than even she knew.

I have not seen ONE mention of Colbert in the main stream media, but plenty of noise in blogs and online news. Sometimes I feel like we are making a big deal out of nothing -- but this felt like a slap in the face of Bush a lot more than just good-natured jesting. Regardless, kudos to Colbert for doing this in the first place (and who invited him and did NOT expect this to happen?).

I watched Colbert's video clip on Sunday. It was very good, and not very funny. This administration is past being funny. There are no jokes left.

All I found on mainstream news sites were pictures of Bush's "double" (poor man - what did he ever do to deserve that?).

Colbert's speech was an incredible act of bravery. That, I suppose, was why it was ignored.

This is just an illustration of how right Colbert was when he spoke about the White House reporters going home to write a novel " ... about an intrepid reporter who boldly challenges the Administration - you know, fiction".

I probably blew the quote, but you get the idea.

The blogs go ape, but the media ignores the stories. There are all kinds of censorship. Colbert's performance and the Downing Street memos represent the "unthinkable."

I remember watching and laughing outloud, both from the humor and from the audacity of it being said.

Unfortunately, the morning after when only a few blogs were even talking about it, reminded me why I have reason to be so depressed about the state of affairs in the US at the moment.

That said, I am looking forward to see where this will be taken by say Wednesday as the issue is mulled over and discussed in the blogosphere.

-J

I think Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are funny, but I have generally been disappointed in them because they are just like the class clown who is really funny when the teacher's back is turned, but silent and well-behaved when it really matters most.

But Saturday night, Colbert was GREAT! Not only was the teacher right there, but so was the principal, the student council, and the whole damned PTA, for that matter. Great stuff, Stephen, take a bow!

What a shame that it took a Comedy Central star to stand up there and say what every journalist should have been saying and writing for years. (And what a pair of stones it took for Colbert to do it standing just a few feet away from the man he was skewering.) If the media is ignoring this story it's either because they're too damned embarrassed to admit that a comedian/satirist did what they haven't had the guts to do or because their big business bosses have forced them to become nothing more than another cog in the GOP propaganda machine.

I read comments after Colbert's performance that the press felt that he had violated tradition. In the past, they said, the host evenly skewered the president and the press, but Colbert broke the rules by only attacking the president. What I don't understand is how the press can't understand that Colbert was not simply attacking the president. Evey comment he made was a parody of the way the media portrays bush in a biased manner. Every joke was an attack on the media as much as the president. It's a bit frightening that the media, even now, seem incapable of relizing that they've been acting irresponsibly by being little more than stenographers for the administration.

What Stephen Colbert did took BALLS!!

KUDOS!! This was his finest hour and genius level comedy. It could not have been done better!

I stumbled across Colbert speaking at the dinner late Saturday night on CSPAN and watched with my mouth hanging open.

OMIGOD! This is a watershed moment in this presidency. This is going to be all over the airwaves. It will dominate the Sunday talk shows. This is history in the making!

Nope. The best thing you can do to a critic is ignore them and that's what the press corp did. He stood three feet from the president and said the emporer had no clothes. He stared down the press corp and mocked them for not admitting it. The press simply ignored him.

Since the press corp is going to ignore this, thank you for including the link so that people can see it for themselves.