Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – Midterm Midtacular edition (11/8/2006)

Well, the first Live and Combined Daily Show/Colbert Report has come and gone. Here’s my list of some of the Best Of moments:

Best Guest:
Eleanor Holmes Norton, and the fact that she was NOT going to take any guff from Colbert – “I’m breaking YOU up, Colbert!”

Best Character Break:
Dan Rather getting amazingly tickled at Jon Stewart.

Best Minor Cameo by a Bit Correspondent:
Rob Riggle, as the interviewer in the Entrance Interview sketch – “You’re married? I’m outta here!” You’ll catch your wind yet, Rob!

Best Graphic:
Rick Santorum being raptured. This is obscenely funny to me because Rick Santorum is a very staunch, Tridentine-Mass attending Catholic, and Catholics don’t believe in the Rapture.

Best Food Product:
“Congratulations Terrorists” cake

Best Blooper:
Jon Stewart saying “s#!t” on live TV.

Best Monologue/ Quote:

Tomorrow you’re all going to wake up in a Brave New World, a world where the constitution gets trampled by an army of terrorist clones created in a stem cell research lab run by homosexual doctors who sterilize their instruments over burning American flags. Where Tax and Spend Democrats take all your hard-earned money and use it to buy electric cars for National Public Radio and teach evolution to illegal immigrants. Oh, and everybody’s high! Whoo! I’ve had it! You people don’t deserve a Republican majority. Screw this, I quit! – Stephen Colbert

(btw, is anyone else noticing that Stephen’s monologues are getting more frequent, and hitting their target better and better every time? Well, almost every time – that Saddam hanging on Monday thing was a touch dry. But this one made up for it.)

• Jon Stewart: Democratic Wins Means They Now Can Join in “Power and Perversion” – EditorandPublisher.com: “On a special live Comedy Central report on today’s elections, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show said of the Democratic gains, “I don’t know what it means either,” but then explained that it may lead to the Dems gaining “access to political power and sexual perversity.”"
• ‘Midtacular’ livens midterm elections – The Daily Texan (University of Texas): “The special began with a sordid (similar to the joke above), high-tech tour through the halls of Congress (“We clearly got a new computer,” Stewart pointed out) and ended with the most amazing monologue Stephen Colbert, or any politician, has given in years.”
• New faces out front as networks plow through the returns – USA Today: “And where was the man who preceded Schieffer and Couric in CBS’ anchor chair? Dan Rather was serving as “special correspondent” on Comedy Central’s Indecision 2006: Midterm Midtacular, with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert — a “who’d have thought it” guest shot that just shows how odd the TV world has become.”
• Congratulations fellow North Americans – Agoravox.com: “Of course, there is one problem. As Stephen Colbert pointed out last night, it only took the Democrats six minutes of controlling the House to get the United States into that damned unwinnable war. Hopefully Republicans aren’t smart enough to make that sort of lie stick. “
• Better Go on Colbert? – “Rocza” on LJ Community “tds_tcr_academe”: “Did they [BKAD featured politicians] win by a little? No – aside from Nebraska’s Terry (R), the lowest re-elected percentage of votes was 66% for Washington’s 2nd, who is Larsen (D). The highest? At a whopping 80%, Pennsylvania 2nd Fattah.

  Does this mean there was a Colbert effect to the voters? Well, flipping over to BKAC, the answer is a resounding… no. Of the six challengers who appeared on the show in the last 2 months, only one was elected to office – New York’s 19th elected Hall (D) by 51%. The rest lost, and lost badly.

  The verdict appears to be that going on Colbert will not hurt you-the-elected-official, but carries no appreciable bump in the polls if you’re a challenger.”

• Election coverage: A boring night with bad graphics – Austin American-Statesman: “On the national front, former anchor Dan Rather served up a few of his trademark Ratherisms last night, but this time he was on Comedy Central with news spoofer Jon Stewart.

  Rather dubbed the fight for the Senate in Virginia “ugly as a hog lagoon after a bachelor party” and assessed Sen. Hillary Clinton’s landslide victory in New York thusly: “She ran away with it like a hobo with a sweet potato pie.” Known for his stiff demeanor as much as his folksy sayings on election night, Rather seemed to be enjoying himself, which was fun to see.

  Stewart paired with Stephen Colbert for an hour of satirical silliness at 10 p.m., and it was a welcome relief from the oh-so-cautious (and industrially boring) reports on cable and network news programs. Moments into the hour, Stewart referred to Florida as the state “where Cubans go to live and Jews go to die.” That’s when I stopped flipping and settled in for a good time. It was late, I was tired, I deserved a chuckle or two.”

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