OH MY FUCKING GAWD-Colbert was NOT Comedy. That was Serious

[Stinky The Clown]

I know there's a brazillion Colbert threads

That performance was the most amazing television I have ever seen.

Ever.

Bar none

That was NOT comedy. That was an editorial that this country has needed to hear for the past four years (longer of some of us)

Colbert is toast. They simply can't allow him to continue. That may be both the finest hour of his career and the final hour of his career.

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[C_U_L8R]

1. That was a stake through the heart

(of Bush ...not Colbert)

[Stinky The Clown]

11. It was supposed to be comedy, but my personal reaction is not to laugh

But to cheer. I feel like I imagine I might feel if some of the alleged press corps were doing the fucking jobs they're at that fake dinner to award fake kudos to stenographers for.

edit for fast typos

[DS1]

2. If I were him

I'd be happy to die starving after pulling that off. But, I'm not him, and I hope he doesn't die starving, but instead does really really well. He pulled the wool over their eyes so hard they invited him in, they let him in, and he suicide-bombed the lot of them

[Erika]

12. and a silver bullet n/t

[speedoo]

3. Colbert is NOT toast.

He is now a national treasure, side by side with Helen Thomas. Consider the polls.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. From your keyboard to God's ears

You're so very right. He just leaped the whole fucking fake press corps with his turthful words

[cheezus]

39. Same thing as his show every nite

he just had to fill a lot more time, and it showed. The quality (jokes) is generally better on any given night.

[spooky3]

43. There's a big difference between performing for a audience

who agrees with you and came to see you vs
presenting the truth in a brilliantly funny way in the presence of the people who do NOT want to hear how badly they have betrayed the public trust.

[Epiphany4z]

4. Comedy that made

me wanna cry...Truly a bitch slapping for the history books. That boy has some guts. It was beautiful.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Political and Civic Poetry

[Sparkly]

10. I totally agree with you -- part laughing, part crying

And a moment for history.

I have NEVER seen anything even remotely like that.

I want a copy of that on DVD, and I want my daughter and my grandchildren to see it for history's sake -- it is that classic. Years from now, that will stand as a perfect encapsulation of the BushCo administration up to April, 2006.

This was HISTORICAL.

I admit I've always loved Colbert -- but this goes beyond that. He risked everything, and he hit his targets -- you could see it on the faces of Chimpy and Pickles while they made their hasty exits.

Colbert is the MAN. :loveya: I am nearly speechless.

[SanJoseGamecock]

6. That South Carolina Boy....

..wil be around for a long time to come. he hit everybody even the nazi's at Fox news. I loved it. His ratings just went up like crazy too. I loved the look on Bushy, what a total idiot. He should have laughed out loud at everything just to save some face. The wangers are really going to hate all of this!!

[Stinky The Clown]

14. He went from spin-off to big time

As Sparkly said, above, this was a truly historical event.

Comedy, elevated to high satire elevated to concise social commentary.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

8. The guy has balls of Titanium!

[Stinky The Clown]

15. I'm speechless and breathless

I'm sitting here, literally, stuttering ........

[Totally Committed]

48. It was one of the most amazing performances

I have ever seen... political, satirical, comedic... it took my breath away. I felt high. He unflinchingly stood there and delivered that scathingly hilarious attack without breaking character once. Unbelieveable!

WHile it will be interesting to see what this does to his career, if I were him, I'd stay away from small private airplanes for a while.

TC

[sandnsea]

9. That was something to see

And he was an equal opportunity critic, he gave a little bit to everybody there tonight. I have to watch it again, it took me by surprise.

[Stinky The Clown]

33. Yeah, that was so skillful and so textured and so rich a performance

it demands that you watch again .... and again.

I'm still tying to absorb it.

[Zen Democrat]

13. When he went after the Washington Press Corps ... oh my God.

They were completely stone-faced and shocked. When he said he thought they had done such a wonderful job in promoting the WMD story and failed intelligence.

I especially loved it when he said "government that governs least, governs best. And that's why the Iraq government is such a success". Wow.

[Sparkly]

16. The whole time, he was after them as well, and they knew it...

None of the chuckles about trivial issues, affectionate chiding, collegial roasting.

That was hardcore, and the most they could muster was nervous laughter. They didn't know how to react.

I only wish I'd seen split screens with reactions from Chimpy and the press corps while Colbert was speaking.

Interesting how seldom they cut to him, wasn't it??? This was not typical in any way.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. The decider decides .....

..... and the press corps types ..... then goes home ... has dinner .... makes love to their wives ..... doing a great job ....

[gristy]

18. Historic.Absolutely.Historic.

You know, often when I read threads on DU about this or that performance, I'll watch the video on line (after going to a bunch of bother to switch to my other computer - the only one with sound), and I come away disappointed, asking "what was all the fuss about?"

Well, this one is different. It was a brilliant performance. And it was done in front of 2700 members of the MSM and their guests, including dimson sitting just 10 feet from Colbert's delivery.

Only time will tell, but this may ultimately be perceived to be not the turning point of public opinion (that's already happened), but the turning point of the press's opinion. It gave them the hard squeeze to the balls that they needed. And they DO need to be on board for the knock-out punch.

[Stinky The Clown]

24. Sparkly wants a DVD copy for the kids

and the grandkids.

Historic, indeed. This is absolutely the first time this adminsitration has EVER had the cold light of truth shone so directly on them.

Pickles looked seriously angry at the end. So you just KNOW they know that we know.

Historic, indeed.

[Old and In the Way]

19. It was brutally honest.

From the crowd reaction, I think Steven dropped a turd in the punchbowl.

Personally, I don't see any humor in this administration. I don't really think Colbert does, either. Using his RW media schtick to make his points was very good, though. He nailed the whole of them. I hope the talking heads reflect on his words tomorrow.

[Stinky The Clown]

23. Brutally honest, indeed. If even half of them finally come out of their

fear induced stupor, the entire country will be the better for it.

It was an historical event.

[Stinky The Clown]

20. The job he did was doubly difficult because he was in an ICE COLD ROOM

People were either too afraid or too embarrassed to laugh.

Except Helen Thomas.

I have long wanted to have Helen Thomas' baby. Now I want Colbert's too.

[chookie]

36. Formula 401

It's a seasonal offering, but well worth getting on the waiting list.

[Sparkly]

21. What will the MSM coverage be tomorrow, I wonder??

A "scandal" about Stephen Colbert taking them on?

Or a lighthearted treatment, pretending it was all in "good fun?"

Or some combination ("all in good fun," but he "took it too far..."?)

[Stinky The Clown]

25. Or .... even more likely ...... ignore it

Cuz it hurts. Cuz the MSM was the fucking target.

[chookie]

28. Remember how they gushed over Pickles last year?

She read some lame jokes, and they praised her as a comic genius. Some said she would make a brilliant standup comic. Yeah, right -- and I'm schtupping George Clooney AND Johnny Depp.

The best satire since Jonathan Swift was laid in their lap dog laps, and they had no clue how to deal with it. To heck with them. To me, it was like that scene in Gladiator when Maximus confronts the Emperor and becomes the hero of The People.

[Sparkly]

30. So true-- and remember the lame jokes about looking for WMDs...

This was SO far from that, it's in another galaxy.

I'm telling you -- this was no small event. Colbert did something tonight nobody's ever done before.

[Crunchy Frog]

40. The articles that I've seen so far

pretty much avoid mentioning Colbert at all. They have titles like "President lampoons himself", and just mention Colbert in passing. My guess is that they will try to pretend it didn't happen by minimizing it.

[Lars39]

22. What I wrote in trof's thread:

He went for broke, risking everything he's got.
Very sobering, when you stop and think about it.
I was sweaty and shaky and all I did was listen.
Can't imagine what it was like to do what he did.

[Stinky The Clown]

26. Very true ... I started out wanting to laugh ... at the end ....

I was anything *but* laughing. I was in awe. I was angry. I was speechless. I was heartened. I was hopeful.

But I wasn't laughing.

Except for the Scalia bit. That was funny.

"Fawk yoo, Nino"

[Lars39]

27. I've never seen anything like that before.

His aim was to educate and embolden us.

Scalia did look a little squirmy. :D

[Sparkly]

29. They were ALL squirmy!!

Even the press.

Incredible.

[Lars39]

32. They had *that look* on their faces.

Utterly delightful to see.

[spooky3]

44. I was laughing out loud at certain lines though

"Chocolate City with a center of marshmallow"
"They're not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic--they're SOARING! They're rearranging deck chairs on the Hindenburg!"

etc.

[Stinky The Clown]

31. He Stood Nine Feet From The President

And he looked at him .... and then he shoved it .... right down his throat and out his ass.

I am pseechless

The lkonger i try to absorb this, the more I am in awe.

Awe. Not the cliche 'awe'. Real, dictionary-meaning awe.

[Sparkly]

35. Husby, DUers have to learn to TRUST THEIR ELDERS...

Of course, you're a decade "elder" than me, but...

It might not be apparent right away how unprecedented this was -- but having seen some decades of this (and you going back to the time when dinosaurs were there, sipping zinfandel), baby-boomers should be able to recall, and realize this was breaking the mold...

This went beyond affectionate chiding...

This was public, broadcast speaking truth-to-power on the level of any protest we knew back in the day. MEDIA is the key these days -- and Colbert took the opportunity to shock the Hell out of them.

I can't wait to see whether they try to bury this, or demonize him...

As I see it, this is the 2006 version of 1960s protests -- it's all about where the cameras are. With the media in its pocket, the administration can bury and hide anything, and they've learned to avert the cameras and downplay protests... But ONE person, in a spotlight they can't ignore (Cindy Sheehan, for example) becomes a banner for thousands of people...

On an unprecedented level -- at a black-tie event where many of the perpetrators themselves were there to make light of crimes (the way they chuckled at Chimpy looking under his desk for WMD not so long ago), someone breached the bubble and spoke for all of us. Told them off, in the guise of comedy.

I doubt we will ever see anything like that again. They will make SURE of it in the next two years.

And years from now, I think people will look back on this in ways they can't see tonight. Those of us with longer memories know, right away, that this was out of the ordinary, unprecedented, truth to power, shoving it up the government's ass -- in a way that could only happen in 2006.

Imagine if somebody could have spoken to the Nixon administration with that candor. Or the Reagan administration. Or the Bush I administration. The WORST they could say to Clinton wouldn't come close to this.

This was just amazing...

[splat@14]

34. Light in parts, maybe to make a point, but war and death are not funny.

[laheina]

37. Sometimes "comedians" can say things that others can't,

only because the audience doesn't know what to think. In that way topics can be broached that otherwise could not.

[_Wayne_]

38. I laughed

:)

[Tiggeroshii]

41. He's not toast, he's on Comedy Central!

"You know how hard it is for them to fill a 24 hour time slot?"

-Colbert

[AtomicKitten]

42. Brilliant take-no-prisoners performance!!!

Bravo!

Editor and Publisher:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002425363

[welshTerrier2]

45. great line about bush's poll ratings ...

i'm paraphrasing here ...

Mr. President, don't let your 32% approval rating get you down ... it would be a wrong to let this make you pessimistic ... it would be a mistake to see the glass as half empty; you need to see it as 2/3 empty ...

[Stinky The Clown]

46. 2/3 empty ...... and what's there is actually

backwash.

Too funny .....

[zann725]

47. THEY invited him to speak. They've seen his 'style' nightly.

If they wanted Dennis Miller, should've invited him instead.

(Although with Prez actually there, I must say it did take some courage VIRTUALLY "speaking Truth to Authority"...in person.)