"if anything, [Colbert] was playing against the room."

[johnnyrocket]

James Poniewozik gets it, in this Time magazine entry about Colbert playing over the heads of the bozos in the room.

...
Today, however, thanks to the reposting of the Colbert video online, any of you who are curious about Colbert's performance have probably already seen it. Colbert wasn't playing to the room, I suspect, but to the wide audience of people who would later watch on the Internet. If anything, he was playing against the room—part of the frisson of his performance was the discomfort he generated in the audience, akin to the cringe humor of The Ali G Show. (Cringe humor, too, is something probably lost on much of the Washington crowd at the dinner, as their pop-culture tastes tend to be on the square side.) To the audience that would watch Colbert on Comedy Central, the pained, uncomfortable, perhaps-a-little-scared-to-laugh reaction shots were not signs of failure. They were the money shots. They were the whole point.
...


http://time.blogs.com/tuned_in/2006/05/stephen_colbert.html

[ShortnFiery]

1. Thanks - the "room" be damned! We (the world) are the DECIDERS :P

Of what's funny and not funny!


BTW also covered in this GD thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2606329

[oldtime dfl_er]

4. damn right

I must say I like the way we -- DUers, bloggers, etc -- are keeping this story alive. The MSM tried to bury it days ago but it won't die hahahaaha!!


http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/1397008

[unblock]

2. whether or not he was funny is besides the point

if he had delivered a straight up, deadly serious speech criticizing the president -- or praising him for that matter -- would they have ignored it on the grounds that it wasn't funny?

[reality based]

3. Bingo!

Someone in the corporate media finally gets it. Seeing the wide eyed, hands over the mouth frozen expressions of the media whores was worth my having to look at the smirking naked little emperor.

[aquart]

5. "Money shots" indeed!

Smart fella.

[Guaranteed]

23. LOL. "Facials." *ahem*

Sorry.

[katinmn]

6. Beautiful entry. Poniewozik does "get it." too.

The room, which once would have received and filtered the ritual performance for the rest of us, is now just another subject to be dissected online. Colbert—as he might say on The Colbert Report—"gets it." So does his patron, Jon Stewart, who similarly was said to have bombed at the Oscars because he turned off the stars in the theater with a snide performance that was much funnier to the (much bigger and more relevant) audience at home.

All of this, in other words, is yet another sign of how authority is fragmented and democratized in the Internet era—the top-down authority to assess and interpret for the masses that used to be much of the raison d'etre of the room. So if the room wasn't too amused by Colbert Saturday night, you'll have to excuse them. They don't have as much to laugh about anymore.

[pnwmom]

7. "This video has been removed due to copyright infringement."

I finally got around to watching this, and it's gone. (The link to U tube.) Anyone know where I can see this?

[acmejack]

9. C-span

White House Correspondents' Dinner (4/29/2006)

[katinmn]

11. it's up at www.thankyoustephencolbert.org

[pnwmom]

17. thanks!

[acmejack]

8. Exactly!

That is indeed the best part, watching the frozen expressions in the audience. They were stunned and it was priceless indeed! He skillfully used them as props and OMG was it ever sweet.

[KarenS]

10. It was the opposite of "preaching to the choir"

AND I still chuckle when I think of those stunned faces.

:)

[madrchsod]

12. it was brought up yesterday that the bit

was very andy kaufman like comedy bit..remember "tony clifton"?...colbert didn`t mean his bit to be funny. funny no one mentions the funny video...i guess they are jealous of the little old lady that asked the question.

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. To be fair, not EVERYONE was looking pained.

Wilson and Plame looked like they were having a ball.

[Karenina]

19. I LOVED the shot of Helen

wiping away the tears of laughter!

[Cha]

14. FINALLY! Lots of

"Money Shots"!

[peacetalksforall]

15. It was a war of truth and Colbert won. nt

[ShortnFiery]

16. And the room can rehash all those sour grapes - I love it!

They (the insulted elitist Corporate Press) are breathing new life in this story each and every day so far with some *snub* ... oh I love it when they sabotage their own evil agendas. ;)

[Jai4WKC08]

18. Poniewozik lets the audience off too easy

I don't think that, "Cringe humor, too, is something probably lost on much of the Washington crowd at the dinner."

This was the WH Correspondents Dinner. A fairly sophisticated audience, imo. The people who sat and sweated in silence are the fawning media whores Colbert parodies, and they were the direct target of many of his barbs that nite. That's why they didn't laugh -- not that they didn't get the joke because they are "on the square side," but because he was pounding them, hard, right where they live. Some of them even know he was right.

[VOX]

21. Excellent point, Jai4WKC08.

I thought this, too -- that the humor was **way** too close to home for much of this crowd.

[k j]

20. Colbert's aim

was dead-on perfect. I just don't have anything else to say but Bravo, over and over again.

[C_U_L8R]

22. more like he was "playing the room"

the press are just a prop
in his Presidential skewering.

genius. and funny too.

[ChiciB1]

24. Good Post... I Still Don't Understand KO On This Though...

No, I'm NOT going "negative" on Keith, it's just that he usually calls it like he sees it. Do you think he feels Colbert was over the line?

That's the impression I'm getting, but I could be wrong. At any rate, we need to keep this "talked up" because I think MSM might just be thinking they have EGG all over their face! And they do!!

Anyone who is daring enough to actually piss in the wine glass and still be standing does nothing but show them up for the ass-holes they've been. Complete bought and paid for SHILLS!!

Never forget Colbert! I don't know HOW he did it. I mean when you stop and think about the magnitude of it, The Idiot himself sitting there, Colbert had to KNOW how much he was getting under his skin. I just wonder what ElSmirk said when he got "home alone!"