Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – April 12, 2007

Hot off the presses – and blogs – of the Nation: your Zeitgeist for April 12, 2007.

Now all we need to know – How many colberts make a thatcher?
Well, there’s a new unit of measure, the colbert. From a recent TCR taping:

• Samuel Maurer’s Day Off – MIT Admissions:”Anticipating his migration over to our side of the studio audience, I raised my hand excitedly and looked RIGHT AT HIM. Luckily, I was wearing my flamboyant red corduroy jacket specifically because I thought such an occasion might arise today. Also because it’s an awesome jacket and cost only three dollars. And so we had the following discourse:

  ME: “If the colbert were a unit of measurement, what would it measure?” STEPHEN COLBERT: [pensively] “Ball.”
  ME: [pfft] ”

A Wiki project to help document BKAD
And you can help…

• New Participatory Project: Getting the Colbert Report into Congresspedia – Center for Media and Democracy: “Last summer we started a page that linked to the videos of the members of Congress that have submitted themselves to a grilling on the Colbert Report’s “Better know a district” series. While nothing said in the comedic interviews should be taken too seriously, the segments often help humanize the public servants that run our government.

  However, now the page has gotten seriously out of date and we need you to help out with updating it. We’ve created a new wikiproject project page that contains complete instructions on how to update the page – each interview takes just a few minutes to add!”

Stephen’s Impact on No Impact Man
Our own Ms Interpreted mentioned in a previous Zeitgeist that No Impact Man Beaven had wobbly knees after his appearance with Stephen earlier this week. Apparently he was hinting about nervousness well before show time.

• Oh no, here come the weirdos with the cloths – No Impact Man: “PS I found out that my appearance on the Colbert Report airs at 11:30 PM on April 9 and a bunch of times including 8:30 PM on April 10. I’ll be on Talk of the Nation on April 9. I wish someone would clearcut the butterflies in my stomach!”

New ways to watch!

• Slingbox + exercise = no more couch potato – PVRBlog.com: “It’s pretty easy to do. As you can see by the picture, I’ve got an elliptical trainer, a laptop perched on the vertical grips, and I’m running a full-screen slingplayer that’s talking to my TiVo downstairs. It helps to enable the 30 second skip, so jumping through commercials only requires 5 or 6 clicks to jump back to the program.

  I never seem to have time for late night comedy programs and I don’t like taking time out of my workday to sit on the couch watching them, but with this setup, I can get through the previous night’s Daily Show and Colbert Report shows in about 35-40 minutes together. It’s the best of both worlds: I get my exercise out of the way (sweating) and I get to watch TV (laughing) doing it. When I’m finished, I’m amused and slightly exhausted, but it feels great for the rest of the day.”

• Colbert’s Tek Jansen now on Xbox Marketplace – VIDEO – TV Squad: “If you rock the Xbox Marketplace and you’re a fan of Stephen Colbert, I have food news for you, sort of. It’s not full episodes of The Colbert Report, but it is full episodes of his Tek Jansen Adventures cartoon shorts, which is better than nothing at all, so no complaining. Oh yeah, and the first episode is free.”

Maybe she meant comedian Jon Rickles.
She wouldn’t make that mistake if Jon spelled his name properly, with an ‘h’.

• Perino quotes Daily Show host ‘Don Stewart.’ – Think Progress: “At today’s White House press briefing, spokeswoman Dana Perino said that setting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq is like sending a “save-the-date card to the Iraqis.” She added, “I stole that from Don Stewart,” referring to the host of the Daily Show, evoking laughter from the press corps. One reporter tried to correct her; another said, “I bet you just guaranteed yourself an appearance there.” “[The link has the video]

I must Imus.
Just this once, hopefully. The discussion in the blogosphere has turned to what the ‘I-mess’ means about the media, and Stephen is mentioned often – favorably.

• Imus’ Slur Meme (Sleme) – Cathleen Schine on Huffington Post: “Slemes, even Imus’s unbearably obnoxious public comments, are not a call to arms. They’re a lazy, ugly, pathetic shout out.

  South Park and Da AliG Show and the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are all masters of the sleme. They know just what they’re doing: they turn slemes upside down and inside out; they shock us and make us uncomfortable and make us reconsider the slemes we take for granted.

  But Imus? Imus is a sleme slave. He shouldn’t talk about anyone else’s hair, either. ”

• Callous sexist, racist remark by Don Imus is much too cruel – The Canton Daily Ledger: “When I need a good laugh, I listen to The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, or Countdown with Keith Olberman. When I want my ears to bleed, I listen to Sean Hannity. When I want truth turned into fiction, I listen to Geraldo Rivera. When I want my ears to hemmorage, I listen to Glen Beck. When I want to listen to an idiot, I turn on Rush Limbaugh. When I want my brain to explode, I listen to Bill O’Reilly. When I need a little sleep, I read the letters to the editor or the comments section on the Internet. When I want my news “fair and balanced,” I plug in a DVD of the Twilight Zone. And when I want my intelligence insulted, I tune in to Don Imus.”
• The Imus Affair is About Apartheid in Media – No Quarter: “America was driven to war with the bizarre and unconscionable spectacle of television’s hosts, Democrats and Republicans all reading from the same talking points in what I called at the time Putin Media.

  Stephen Colbert pointed this out at the White House Correspondents dinner, to consternation in extremis of the insider media. Now even Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), normally a brilliant guy, treats the Democrats in Congress as airheads and wimps and warns them to stay away from mean old Stephen Colbert.

  Give me a break.”

• I would like to add two links that do not mention Stephen but, I think, get at the heart of the matter. Gwen Ifill and General JC Christian (stepping out of his satirical voice) say what it really means – straight from the gut.
  • Trash Talk Radio -New York Times: “So here’s what this voice has to say for people who cannot grasp the notion of picking on people their own size: This country will only flourish once we consistently learn to applaud and encourage the young people who have to work harder just to achieve balance on the unequal playing field.”
  • Oliphant’s Children – Patriotboy: “I have two daughters. They’re now both older than the young women, many of whom are still teenagers, who play basketball for Rutgers, but I can imagine how my daughters and I would have felt had they been singled out on a popular radio and television program and called “Jew-nosed sluts.” These young women didn’t need to be degraded in that way by Imus, especially on the day following their greatest achievement thus far, taking second place in the National Woman’s College Basketball Championship.”