On Colbert

If you've been watching or reading the mainstream media, you are probably unaware that the Comedian Colbert gave a scathing satire of the punditry and the president at the Correspondents' whatever dinner.

He was amazing. 

He was so amazing I couldn't laugh.  How do you laugh when you are watching someone get eviscerated?  He was so on target I was feeling sympathy for the President and for the spineless press corps.

The laughter in the audience - not exactly laughter - it was the embarrassed laughter you laugh when someone is says something that is about to get himself fired.  Colbert decided not to play by the rules, which include don't say anything that will make the president uncomfortable. 

Colbert hammered the anti-policy attitude of the president, and his unwillingness and inability to think through issues in favor of the simplistic phrases digested by the media.  But if the media had not been so sycophantic toward Bush, Colbert would not have been necessary.    He would have seemed merely rude.  Instead, because the MSM have been unwitting collaborators, Colbert is our prophet.

Well, not really a prophet, but perhaps a hero of a sort. 

And the next day after I saw this clip, I watched an MSNBC clip on the dinner that didn't mention him at all.  This is a "liberal" media? 

Comments

[D. C.]

I watched the whole thing on C-SPAN. Colbert was simply unfunny, embarrassingly so. Part of it was his delivery; someone saying the same lines with a lighter, happier demeanor might have pulled it off.

[John Wilkins]

HI DC - enjoyed your article on do we need priests.

[ginny]

On the other hand, I thought it not only funny, but a little exhilarating. No one else would have dared say those things, but Colbert did. He fluffed one joke, but I think the stunned silence in the room and occasional nervous giggles affected his timing.

After the "audition tape" with Helen Thomas finished and he wrapped up, she appeared to be wiping tears from her eyes as Colbert left the dais. Whether of laughter or of sorrow, I can't say. But she looked like she'd been laughing pretty hard.

[DanielR]

I'm not a big fan of Colbert, nor a big fan of the President, but when I watched it online I have to admit I thought it was pretty funny.

Perhaps in poor taste, I'm not real sure of the context and intent of the dinner, but it was definitely funny.

[Prior Aelred]

Colbert was brilliant -- & probably ought to avoid small planes

[Karen]

Yes, how DARE Colbert speak openly about the truth. All I can say is poor poor president Bush. He actually had to sit through 30 minutes of awkwardness and discomfort. Can you imagine!?

I seem to recall that several years ago at this very event Bush's schtick involved looking under couches in the Oval Office for WMD. "Nope! They're not under here!" he cried. Now THAT's what I call hilarious.