Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist (9/16/2006)

Here’s some quick bites of the Zeitgeist for Saturday, September 16th, 2006.

• Cheers, Jeers and Tears – Evansville Courier Press: “Cheers for good sport Will Koch, general manager of Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, for agreeing to a guest appearance on “The Colbert Report” on cable’s Comedy Central. During the interview, Colbert played up a rivalry between Santa Claus and Abraham Lincoln, two Spencer County icons.”
• Video Web Sites Become Instrumental In Politics – NBC4.com: “Excerpts from political satire shows like the Colbert Report are also featured. Campaigns have even begun steering supporters and journalists to the mocking portrayals of their opponent.”
• Stargazing, Sept. 16 – Kansas City Star: “Stephen Colbert won an Internet vote campaign to have a bridge named after him in Hungary, kind of. The ambassador from that country read the honor to him on Thursday’s show but informed him honorees have to speak Hungarian … and be dead.”
• The week (September 15th): Nobody asked me, but – Blogger News Network: “SENATOR GEORGE ALLEN of Virginia, stung by questions about his racial sensitivities, held what his campaign called an “Ethnic Community Campaign Rally.” A bit awkward…to say the least.(Stephen Colbert pounced on this contrived event with glee, his eviseration of Allen can be found here).”
• Mr. Sorkin Goes to Hollywood – The College Hill Independent (Brown University): “Hollywood seems like an interesting choice, right? It’s the seat of the deeply inconsequential, and better yet, money-hungry executives who only require the broadest of humor to mock. Except it seems that we’ve only taken this flight to Burbank to hear more political fictions. As a nation we are strangely comfortable accepting our news from sources that are openly joking, given our insistence on a cursory illusion of truth (witness the furor over James Frey and JT Leroy). More Americans get their news from The Daily Show than ever before and Stephen Colbert’s neologism “truthiness” is the American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year. And long before the Michael Jackson jokes, Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” was easily the most powerful engine of American political humor on television, and possibly in all media. The future of mediapolitik lies in the variety show, and the Valley of the Dolls has eclipsed Capitol Hill.”
• President Bush Still Primary Target of Political Humor – Buzzle.com: “An article from FOXNews.com recently addressed the issue of the lack of humor that surrounds the mid-term elections. Eventually, the article gets around to looking at some of the political satire shows that are currently popular, specifically, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert. The article takes a broad look and cites a study noting that shows such as these can have a negative impact on the way that Americans – especially young Americans – view politicians and politics in general. This report was published some time ago, but it’s still worth discussing to a degree. “
• Television Without Pity (TWOP.com): There’s an ongoing thread about The Colbert Report on that board, and here’s an interesting exchange that involves an article in Hungarian which made me laugh (I too had some fun trying to translate Hungarian during this whole bridge escapade) –
  

  Femvamp

  I was bored and looked up “Stephen Colbert” and “bridge” and came upon a site for the Hungarian News Source at http://origo.hu/nagyvilag/20060822amerikai.html. Its in Hungarion so I can’t read it but I can kinda make out the title of the article and it looks like the paper wrote a story on Stephen Colbert and the whole naming bridge thing. I think thats kinda cool.

  Now if I could only read it

  sheepofdoom

  Ruinning it through a handy online Hungarian translator, I believe this article is unhappy with Colbert and considers him to be a quilt.

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