Stephen Colbert: Giant Brass Balls

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HA HA... Balls!
 
BPSCG said:
As I said, it wasn't an issue of being tough on Bush; Imus was just as nasty to Clinton (and, IIRC, Hillary's reaction was described as "icy"). It was a question of being tough only on Bush. The tradition - no, not a hard-and-fast rule - at this thing is that it's supposed to be making fun at prez and press.

Maybe Colbert didn't know about that tradition, but whoever is the featured speaker from now on will know, because if future presidents know they're in for a one-sided bashing when they show up, they'll stop coming. And then you might as well not have the party.
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Personally, I don't care much if they don't have another one.

I care much more that somebody made it as clear as possible in as public away as possible that the lies about the WMD, the incompetent/corrupt handling of the occupation and the overall sleaze that has descended on Washington is not a laughing matter.

When Bush wanted to act like all that is going on is the routine partisan criticism of a sitting president I appreciated the fact that somebody stood up and made it clear that there is more going on here than that. Bush has sold the country out at almost every step in return for partisan gains and transfers of money from the US treasury to Bushco's buddies. The fact that what was supposed to be a fun little evening with good natured ribbing turns a bit mean spirited doesn't bother me at all given that.
 
roger said:
She was probably a bad choice of a critic of democrats, since she is basically a caricature of herself. But take her comparing the profit rate of oil companies on gas (9 cents a gallon) vs the tax rates proposed by democrats (25 cents), and point out that Democrats are up in arms about recent price raises hurting the poor. I suggest a skilled comedian could do something with that material at the expense of Democrats. Maybe I just have an odd idea of what constitutes comedy :)
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Nah, your problem is that don't recognize that much of the time she is being a skilled comedian ... :D



And for something a bit different, from the Imus speech in 1996 ...
...Pat Buchanan has a certain inherent charm. However, if he gets elected President, two weeks later somebody's going to come knockin on the door at three o'clock in the morning: "Just checking. What kind of a name is Imus?" Although, all this stuff about Pat Buchanan being anti-Semitic, I don't know about that. A lot of people aren't aware that he lost a relative in the concentration camps. His uncle fell out of a guard tower.
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Ouch!
 
bjb said:
I watched the show with my wife and we thought it was amazing. I do have to agree that he could have gone after the Democrats a bit more.
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On second though, I tend to agree and retract my earlier comments. If Colbert were speaking as himself (e.g., like most stand-up comics, giving his views in a funny way), I would think it was unjustified, but he was obviously *playing a character* he often plays--that of an over-the-top ultra-conservative reporter, sort of a male Ann Coulter.

Perhaps he shouldn't have been invited in the first place, but I can't blame him for doing what he does best, on second thought.

I think I fell into the same trap as those who are outraged by "The Man Show" and don't understand that it's a spoof: the hosts are *NOT* over-the-top chauvinist piges, they are actors *playing the characters* of over-the-top chauvinist pigs.
 
Skeptic said:
but he was obviously *playing a character* he often plays--that of an over-the-top ultra-conservative reporter, sort of a male Ann Coulter.
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More like, I think, Solzhenitsyn in his disastrous appearance before the Politburo in '72.
 
roger said:
Okay, as slow as I can type ... :)

Actually I mean make it under-the-top, so to speak. She was probably a bad choice of a critic of democrats, since she is basically a caricature of herself. But take her comparing the profit rate of oil companies on gas (9 cents a gallon) vs the tax rates proposed by democrats (25 cents), and point out that Democrats are up in arms about recent price raises hurting the poor. A suggest a skilled comedian could do something with that material at the expense of Democrats. Maybe I just have an odd idea of what constitutes comedy :)
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Ahh...gotcha. And yeah, it could be funny. (But Ms. Coulter's facts should be double-checked first :))
 
Skeptic, you really should watch the speech. But anyone familiar with the Colber Report should have known what was going to happen. Some of the jokes were even recycled from his show so why was there any surprise?

My own theory is that whoever orgainzed the event planned to embarass the president. Former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, Mrs. Joseph Wilson (Valerie Plame) were invited to the event. Why would they be there if not to serve as a reminder of the president 'declassifying' Valerie Plame as a CIA agent so it could be leaked? It would have been like inviting Monica Lewinsky to one of Bill Clinton's events. Stephen Colbert is going to get the credit and blame for his speech, but I think whoever wanted him there in the first place deserves just as much credit.
 
If they wanted a "news comedian" who would more evenly make fun of the President, the Press and the Democrats, they should have asked Jon Stewart. He rails on all three on a pretty regular basis.
 
President Bush said:
More like, I think, Solzhenitsyn in his disastrous appearance before the Politburo in '72.
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Fascinating... I have an interest in Solzhenitsyn... is there somewhere I can get a background and transcript of this event?
 
President Bush said:
More like, I think, Solzhenitsyn in his disastrous appearance before the Politburo in '72.
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gnome said:
Fascinating... I have an interest in Solzhenitsyn... is there somewhere I can get a background and transcript of this event?
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Condi dug up this portion of a transcript from an old contact in Niger.


See who we've got here tonight? We’ve got Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB. Feeling Hungary, Yuri? Wow, that gives me an idea for a book title. How about The Goulash Archipelago? We've got the First Secretary for Agriculture, Mikhail Gorbachev. Mikhail Gorbachev, what a maverick! Somebody find out what he used to eat his borscht because now he's got it all over his forehead! This guy could have used a spoon! Or a used crane! Get it? There's no predicting him. By the way, Mr. Gorbachev, it's so wonderful to see you coming into the Commie fold. You know, I’ve got a summer house in Chernobyl. Look me up when you go speak with Ivan Denisovich.
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I watched both the Bush twins and Colbert ... and Bush is funnier, and gets in the worst[best] jab of all at the end when he say double did several of the debates with John Kerry. A shot at a defeated opponent ...

As for balls, well Colbert has some at least. I don't know about big brass ones. Bush may be an idiot and possibly wannabe tyrant (not sure), but even I don't think too much would happen to me if I said insulting things about the President. And I am a foreigner, and not part of a national army, so I'm elligible for Gitmo.

Walt
 
Nahhh not too much--I did keep waiting for the stage hook to yank him away though :P
 
Walter Wayne said:
As for balls, well Colbert has some at least. I don't know about big brass ones. Bush may be an idiot and possibly wannabe tyrant (not sure), but even I don't think too much would happen to me if I said insulting things about the President. And I am a foreigner, and not part of a national army, so I'm elligible for Gitmo.
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Richard Cohen, my favorite liberal columnist*, made much the same point:
Why are you wasting my time with Colbert, I hear you ask. Because he is representative of what too often passes for political courage, not to mention wit, in this country. His defenders -- and they are all over the blogosphere -- will tell you he spoke truth to power. This is a tired phrase, as we all know, but when it was fresh and meaningful it suggested repercussions, consequences -- maybe even death in some countries. When you spoke truth to power you took the distinct chance that power would smite you, toss you into a dungeon or -- if you're at work -- take away your office.

But in this country, anyone can insult the president of the United States. Colbert just did it, and he will not suffer any consequence at all. He knew that going in. He also knew that Bush would have to sit there and pretend to laugh at Colbert's lame and insulting jokes. Bush himself plays off his reputation as a dunce and his penchant for mangling English. Self-mockery can be funny. Mockery that is insulting is not. The sort of stuff that would get you punched in a bar can be said on a dais with impunity.
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* ...because sometimes he's not an ass...
 
rhoadp said:
I watched most of the thing on C-SPAN. All he did was play his Colbert Report character - the satirical, over-the-top conservative pundit. It was not even-handed, but I can't help but wonder what the people who invited him thought they were getting when they asked him to speak?
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An excellent point. Stephen Colbert is Stephen Colbert, and the organizers knew, or should have known, exactly what they were getting when they invited him. If his humor was unfunny, inappropriate for the occasion, or concentrated too much on the President and not enough on the press, the real responsibility lay with the organizers.

rhoadp said:
Bush with his double was hilarious - self-deprecating humor is his strong suit.
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I don’t like the politics of President Bush, but I will give him credit for having a great sense of humor. Watching that clip one gets the feeling that if one could get past the disagreements in politics, he’s be a great person to know.
 
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