colbert roasts bush - required viewing

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Jon Stewart Defends Colbert's Dinner Speech
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002426019
By E&P Staff

Published: May 01, 2006 11:20 PM ET

NEW YORK Probably to no one's surprise, Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "Daily Show," hailed the performance of his stablemate Stephen Colbert at Saturday night's White House Correspondents dinner. Colbert's lampooning of the president and the press has generated a good deal of praise and criticism.

"It was balls-alicious," Stewart said. "Apparently he was under the impression that they'd hired him to do what he does every night on television" -- that is, make fun of conservatives, public officials, and the press in the guise of an O'Reillyesque talk show host.

"We've never been prouder of him, but HOLY ----," Stewart added.

He also described the annual dinner as "where the President and the press corps consummate their loveless marriage."

Colbert then followed Stewart, on his own show, "The Colbert Report," describing the "honor of appearing" at the big dinner. He said the room was full of "power players," so he "fit right in."

"Best of all, I got to meet my main man, President Bush," he said, and even had a chance to shake his hand. "He has very soft hands," Colbert revealed, "which was surprising. He must wear gloves when he is clearing brush."

Colbert made fun of his mixed reception at the dinner, re-running the tape of one of his jokes with the audience barely reacting. He described this as "very respectful silence," and said that actually the crowd loved him.

"They practically carried me out on their shoulders," he said, "even though I wasn't ready to go."

 

[Leo]

i like his tv show and thought he was pretty ballsy here, but it just went on for too long and got to be painful after a while. he should have done 5-7 minutes (not 25!) and cut the video.

of course, even then he still would have been too stinging for this event, which is usually more along the lines of respectful/kid-gloves humor. colbert made it into a friar's roast!

 

[DigitalDjigit]

yeah,maybe i don't get it. i've seen fox news and o'reillys slot on it though. my dads got sky.i watch it round there. i just thought the boys not cut out to be a performer. thats all. i felt embaressed for him. he was awful.

But he was delivering the performance in front of a guy who is always surrounded by guys in black sunglasses with big guns, who has millions of armed men at his disposal, a guy who authorised torture prisons where habeas corpus has been suspended and someone who is never faced with criticism. You can understand if he was feeling a bit nervous.

 

[henry s]

But he was delivering the performance in front of a guy who is always surrounded by guys in black sunglasses with big guns, who has millions of armed men at his disposal, a guy who authorised torture prisons where habeas corpus has been suspended and someone who is never faced with criticism. You can understand if he was feeling a bit nervous.

especially if he had seen V For Vendetta...I'm surprised he didn't make a joke on his show about expecting to get "bagged"...

 

[nomos]

he should have done 5-7 minutes (not 25!) and cut the video.

it was partly the painful length of it that i liked. he completely took control of those people for longer than he should have reasonably been allowed, especially given how controlling this administration has been with events. 25 minutes mocking bush from 5 feet away. it didn't have to be funny. the discomfort it provoked dug way deeper. that's why it didn't make it into the news the next day.

 

[dominic]

0.2% of the shocking greatness of this episode was accountable by Colbert's wit or delivery as a comedian. and 99.8% of what made it totally fucking awesome was his courage and audacity as a public speaker/political commentator.

my sentiments exactly

well said, confucius

 

[dominic]

it was partly the painful length of it that i liked. he completely took control of those people for longer than he should have reasonably been allowed, especially given how controlling this administration has been with events. 25 minutes mocking bush from 5 feet away. it didn't have to be funny. the discomfort it provoked dug way deeper.

precisely

 

[IdleRich]

"But he was delivering the performance in front of a guy who is always surrounded by guys in black sunglasses with big guns, who has millions of armed men at his disposal, a guy who authorised torture prisons where habeas corpus has been suspended and someone who is never faced with criticism. You can understand if he was feeling a bit nervous."

What did he think was going to happen to him? Gunned down in public on TV or taken off to Camp X-Ray? I think that he's fairly safe to be honest.

 

[Rambler]

What did he think was going to happen to him? Gunned down in public on TV or taken off to Camp X-Ray? I think that he's fairly safe to be honest.

Then why was he the only one in a room full of Washington reporters to be saying this stuff? Wasn't that the entire point - that the press corps are too cowardly to speak out properly?

And I don't care what anyone says, this stuff is funny:

"Now, I know theres some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in reality. And reality has a well-known liberal bias."

And this is funny, and ballsy:

"I mean, its like the movie Rocky. The president is Rocky and Apollo Creed is everything else in the world. Its the 10th round. Hes bloodied, his corner man, Mick, who in this case would be the Vice President, and he’s yelling ‘Cut me, Dick, cut me,’ and everytime he falls, she says stay down! Does he stay down? No. Like Rocky he gets back up and in the end he…actually loses in the first movie. Okay. It doesn’t matter. The point is the heart-warming story of a man who was repeatedly punched in the face."

 

[IdleRich]

"Then why was he the only one in a room full of Washington reporters to be saying this stuff? Wasn't that the entire point - that the press corps are too cowardly to speak out properly?"

Sure, I agree with that, I just think it's a bit hysterical to suggest that people are frightened because of the men in dark sunglasses with guns. It's more that they don't want to step out of line with the others and be accused of being Anti-American, not quite the same thing.

"And reality has a well-known liberal bias."

Agreed that (some of) it is funny. It was just the delivery that let it down, that's what I said before.

 

[Rambler]

Maybe. It wasn't flawless delivery, certainly. But I kind of liked the way that he stuck to his material even though it was starting to bomb. It developed from a comedy routine into an evisceration of the President and, more especially, the American media, and so it was never going to get huge laughs in a room full of reporters.

 

[IdleRich]

Fair points all. I admire his bloodymindedness and I do think he had balls, I'm just saying that it should be kept in perspective.

 

[corneilius]

Interesting

Funny? Kinda. Useful. I don't think so. It's a really good way to disarm people, making them laugh, but really it's no laughing matter. And he didn't say much about Depleted Uranium and it's current usage, the effects of which are unspeakable, which is undoubtedly the BIGGEST censored/untold story at present.

Now if Chomsky had been there to speak, while it might have not been as funny, it would have been so much more uncomfortable for all those in their nice shirts and glorious gowns - and that would have made me laugh deeply, cheer wildly etc,. for a long time.

We need much more than a few jokes to bring these war mongering phuckerz and their retinue to The International Criminal Court, to be tried for their crimes and complicity and in due course locked up, with the keys melted down and thrown at them!

Whats the odds that Colberts ratings will rise? Which is what TV is all about - and they will use anything to raise their ratings as it draws in advertisers and sponsors, the folks with the dosh!

And they are clever enough to refer to what is happening in such a way as to desensitise it all ....


for an example of what we should be seeing/hearing :

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0429-30.htm (or why not to enlist!)

or just google(images) births iraq uranium - one has to look at reality, and check it against ones heart, then get active .... a happy activist is the best activist, a happy persons anger is deeper, more centered and less lethal than the anger of those who carry unresolved issues, thus more likely to succeed in the long-term, and this is a long-term thing we are faced with here.

 

[craner]

And he didn't say much about Depleted Uranium and it's current usage, the effects of which are unspeakable, which is undoubtedly the BIGGEST censored/untold story at present.

Well, you try thinking up a punchline for that!

Cornelius, you're funnier than this Colbert schmuck any day of the week.

 

[corneilius]

Me funny? I don't think so!

How about this then:

"mr. president, you have started to deal with our nuclear waste problem, and for that we must thank you. By shipping it and flying it to other countries, and then aerosoling it. At this rate you'll have all of it dealt with by the time your daughters grand-daughter becomes the first US female president.... now that's what I call long term thinking"

No - it's not funny. I don't think it's possible to turn THAT into a joke - any takers?