Thank You Stephen Colbert

Thank you Stephen Colbert.

Colbert was funny last night. I also enjoyed the Hooley interview ("are you high right now?").

I didn't think he scored many laughs at the White House Correspondents dinner: it was too caustic and too dismissive to be funny. I watched it live on C-Span and found it difficult to watch. I am amazed that Colbert (apparently) failed to realize how poorly it was being received. Speaking truthiness to power is one thing; botching a keynote address during his 15 seconds of fame is entirely another.

Re: Colbert's Moment of Truth

Harangues are never "funny" for the victims. Further, given that crowd's vile and callous sense of humour, -boorishing braying at last years' Bush skit about looking for WMDs in his office, its appraisal is irrelevant. What was "funny" was the bitter irony steeped in the blood and impoverishment of the American people, of the abysmal degeneration of the Administration into war and torture and the political cowardice that enabled it. But for Colbert, it blooms and holds hostage the tongues of many who know better, in our Senate, in our media, and in our churches. Political fear is its name. Martin Luther King once quoted the Rabbi of Berlin who, in relation to the horrors of Nazi Germany during his time, said that even those terrible things paled in terms of shame and disgust to those who stood mute. "A great people which had created a great civilization had become a nation of silent onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality, and in the face of mass murder."

Nice touch: correlating the War on Terror with the Holocaust. Bush as Hitler. America media as witness (or accessories) to torture and murder. Al Qaeda suffering like the Jews.

What's wrong with this picture?

Your cowardice.

I watched Colbert skewering Bush and it was a thing of beauty. And, I don't think Colbert's point was to be the funniest person of the evening. Irony doesn't always result in ROFLMAO. He knew exactly what he was doing and took Shrub apart branch by branch. This president is the worst we've ever had - dumb, cowardly and mean. He got exactly what he's asked for - the contempt of the American people. Colbert spoke for millions of us (68%, to be exact).

I downloaded it off bittorrent, cut out the Earl part, and posted it on youtube. So illegal, but you'll watch anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucbLZDnBAms

Colbert calling Bush out reminds me of the speech Don Imus gave at a similar event for Clinton. Anybody remember that? That thing got a lot of coverage.

LMAO, I not only disagree with your review of Colbert's marvellous performance at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, I don't believe you.

I believe you are a partisan GOP hack trying to influence opinion on a pro-democracy blog like this. You must be, because Stephen Colbert was absolutely hilarious. Yes it was uncomfortable, but that's on Bush, because he refuses to acknowledge what a miserable failure he has been. We're not asking home to come clean about breaking the law, and giving Haliburton multi-billion dollar contracts to serve lunches, we're just asking him to good-naturedly admit to the truthfulness of every single issue that Colbert touched on so brilliantly.

If he had done this by now, this would have been a much less tense evening. Don't blame Bush's shortcomings, or your own weakness in the face of tryanny, on an excellent and brave -- and hilarious -- perfomance by Colbert.

Don Imus wasn't funny either. The only difference is that Imus was trying to be funny, but failed. I don't think Colbert was even trying to be funny. Rather, Colbert's speech was intended to embarrass Bush and chide the correspondents with a veneer of satire.

I honestly wondered if they were going to cut his mic, or ask him to stop.

I blame the clueless host, who apparently didn't know what the Colbert Report is all about. It would be like inviting Woody Allen and Mia Farrow to speak at a fundraising dinner for Asian adoptions: people will feel uncomfortable no matter what he says. But if Woody begins with a risque joke about asking Soon-Yi, "Who's your Daddy?" and then starts talking about the intricacies of their sex life, many people in that audience are going to respond negatively.

If your purpose is to have a few self-deprecating laughs (and let the proverbial fox and the hounds enjoy each other's company), then you invite the President to the White House Correspomdent's Association Dinner. If you simply want to embarrass the President on C-Span, do you really need to get all the reporters dressed up in formal attire? If I were the President, I think I would have a previous engagement in Australia whenever the next Correspondent's shin-dig is scheduled for (and the weekend after that)...But then, I'm just an anti-democratic member of the GOP, so no need to read what I think.

Talk amongst yourselves.