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Colbert's act is not going to do anything to stop the Inevitable shift in power.
that was probably around the time W enjoyed his highest approval ratings. Doesn't apply, but thanks for playing.
Colbert's act is not going to do anything to stop the Inevitable shift in power.
Riiiiiiight. Because in 1998 the public just ate up that Republican shark-jumping overkill against Clinton and the GOP capitalized with huge election gains.
But be my guest. Y'all go ahead and pull a Lindsey Jacobellis this November.
People liked Clinton.
They liked the job he was doing, though they weren't too thrilled with him as a person.
I think I finally get where you're coming from though. You figure that Bush is sufficiently unpopular that you can spit in his face the way you've been longing to for six years, yet not stir up sufficient ire among the public that it has electoral repercussions.
So it's not, "Hooray, finally the people will see," but rather, "Hooray, it's open season on Bush."
a little of both actually.
I like Colbert (more than Stewart, even), but I agree with ES... It really wasn't that funny. Kind of reminded me of those political cartoons that are only amusing to partisan "me-too's".
But there seems to be a bit of an overreaction on both sides... It wasn't as offensive or courageous as it's being made out to be. Good pub for Colbert, though.
Sucker-punching doesn't enlighten anybody. It makes them stop listening to you.
It's a common liberal mistake. Many think that by pissing off the audience, it makes them start thinking. Instead, it makes them disregard anything the liberals have to say.
I see this mistake over and over and over again.
It did the oppsoite for Colbert, the joke guy. He's never been more famous.
I think Colbert's target was more the press that was in attendance then it was Bush. Part of the reason I saw it as funny is the pompous media types who love rubbing elbows with power didn't appreciate getting a poke in the eye.
This guy's more than famous, he's infamous.
Why Stephen Colbert didn't bomb in D.C.
By Troy Patterson
Posted Tuesday, May 2, 2006, at 6:23 PM ET
So, I'm sitting there watching the online video of Stephen Colbert's performance at Saturday night's White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Colbert looked excellent in his tux, and he was doing his usual shtick—playing a know-it-all know-nothing of the Bill O'Reilly school—with the usual aplomb. And just as Colbert is making his segue into a pre-taped skit do enting his "audition" for Tony Snow's new job—"I think I would have made a fabulous press secretary. I have nothing but contempt for these people"—there's an audience shot capturing the face of my ex-girlfriend. She's a D.C. lawyer who loves the silliness of Monty Python, who used to read The Nation in the bath, and who, I think, named her new dog after Howard Dean. In other words, she ought to have been cracking up at Colbert's absurdist satire and meaningful snark. Instead, as the comedian aimed vicious blows at the president, I mostly read nervous concern in her eyes. The air in that room must have had a weird and very rare charge.
The night's best reaction shots confirmed this. Here's a jiggling Justice Scalia giggling like a schoolgirl. Here's a military man not quite disciplined enough to stifle his grin at a crack—decent but not first-rate—on the Secretary of Defense: "See who we've got here tonight. Gen. Moseley, Air Force Chief of Staff. Gen. Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They still support Rumsfeld. Right, you guys aren't retired yet, right?" In the immediate wake of Colbert's most brutal line ("I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares."), the president of the United States wore, on his peeved lips, an expression that you usually see only in the instant before a bar fight. But half a minute later, when the topic turned to the First Marriage ("Obviously loves his wife, calls her his better half. And polls show America does, too"), the president had regained his composure and was the picture of jolliness. Not so the trio of Washington wives the camera next cut to. Their faces showed varying degrees of disgust, and it looked like all three of them were trying to hide under their shawls.
Who did they think they were getting, Mark Russell? (Actually, they may not have known who they were getting; the emcee was clueless enough, when introducing the headliner, to pronounce the final T in The Colbert Report. Square.) You hire a good political satirist, you get good political satire, which is necessarily dangerous. So, when the Washington Post's "Reliable Source" column speaks of the "consensus" that the routine "fell flat" and New York Daily News gossip—and "Reliable Source" alumnus—Lloyd Grove writes that Colbert "bombed badly," they are offering meaningless reportage. Pop Dadaist that he is, Colbert wasn't bombing so much as freaking his audience out for his own enjoyment.
Colbert deserves to be judged on his own terms: He shouldn't haven't stolen one good joke from his own show ("Next time, look it up in your gut") and another from Jon Stewart's Oscar intro ("McClellan, of course, eager to retire. Really felt like he needed to spend more time with Andrew Card's children."). The "audition tape" segment was at least 90 seconds too long, although the Colbert rapport with Helen Thomas was good enough that the two ought to be considering a sitcom. In general, though, he was brilliant—perfectly daffy and gutsy, as in the line that earned what seemed to be the crowd's biggest laugh. Colbert spoke of interviewing Jesse Jackson: "You can ask him anything, but he's going to say what he wants, at the pace that he wants. It's like boxing a glacier. Enjoy that metaphor, by the way, because your grandchildren will have no idea what a glacier is."
I didn't and I am people.
I think Oh, Gee!! meant to say that people who matter liked Bill Clinton.I didn't and I am people.
But I do matter, I pay taxes, still. And I post and without me you life would
be meanless.....
Are you saying my life would never be average and only composed of extremes?
Hmm, interesting.....
I've heard clips of his performance and I thought it was distinctly unfunny. Also, in the clips I heard, the audience was so quiet it was as if Colbert was talking to himself in the mirror! I think he thought himself much funnier and cleverer than did anyone in the audience.
He's the Andy Kaufman of our times
I saw the performance on C-SPAN and while there were moments where the crown was nervously silent, there were also many instances of the crowd really laughing and getting in to the performance. The best part of the night though, was watching Colbert ridicule the entire audience and have them laugh at it. It was brilliant.
He's like Andy Kaufman meets Jim Lehrer, only in reverse.
Thats Hilarious But You Know What?
You know what's really funny?
You discussing if some comedian was funny when he was doing stand-up.
History judges the jokes, but only comedians judge jokers.
Actually, I am all about the former, "people will see".
It is good that the rest of the country finally realizes how inept this administration really is. I had a pretty darn good glimmering right after the ground invasion of Iraq finished out and anarchy broke out.
This was the first real complex issue that this administration faced, and how it was handled that (i.e. it didn't) demonstrated how short-sighted and incompetant this administration would turn out to be.
Sadly there is only one thing the Bush presidency is GOOD at...
That's because he was ripping the press corps too. They deserved it.
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