Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – 5/19/2007
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I really should be cleaning my house this morning, but sometimes a girl has got to have priorities. So here I am, blogging. Again. Here’s your dose of Stephen Colbert and “The Colbert Report” in the zeitgeist for Saturday, May 29, 2007.
Water Cooler Talk – or “Hey, did you see that on ‘The Colbert Report’ last night?”
- Real reporting makes a world of difference – Chicago Tribune: “Satirist Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central took this as giving new meaning to an old phrase editors tell their reporters: “I need this story filed yesterday.” (Mumbai is actually 12 1/2 hours ahead of Pasadena, but what the heck, Colbert was on a riff.) Newsweek reported that one Indian reporter would make $12,000 a year, the other $7,200.”
- Out & About – Post-Bulletin [Rochester, MN]: “It’s not all about coffee mugs, tote bags and macrame-hugging, lutefisk-eating Norwegians as Stephen Colbert claims. Next week for the first time ever, Minnesota Public Radio will host of live broadcasts and events in Rochester, featuring music, medicine and probably some lutefisk-eating Norwegians.”
- Even Stephen Colbert has to wait for a Ferrari – AutoBlog: “It appears Ferrari may be facing a growing number of disgruntled owners who are not happy having to wait in line 24 months for a new Italian Stallion. You can count Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert among the disgruntled, as he revealed on The Colbert Report this week that he’ll have to wait months to replace his ratty 550 with 4,000 miles for a brand spanking new Lime Green 599 GTB Fiorano (with a platinum Jesush fish on the bumper, of course). Ever the schemer, Stephen announced he’s willing to trade his spot on the kidney donor list to anyone at the front of the line to buy a Ferrari. Only Ferrari faithful with potential renal failure need apply. ”
- Drinking? Don’t drive – tow it instead – The Naperville Sun: “So far, the idea has gotten quite a bit of press, including a mention on The Colbert Report.
Sheppard didn’t take offense at Stephen Colbert’s remarks on his Comedy Central show last week, when the comedian singled Naperville out for being a place where, thanks to NDUIT, people can schedule their binge drinking.
“I think he hammered home the point of it, which is great,” Sheppard said, adding that he could see how people might take Colbert’s remarks as an insult. “A lot of people would think that because of the show’s nature, but it’s Comedy Central; everything has to be funny.”"
- Stephen Colbert Interviews Howard Dean – AOL News Bloggers: “Last Night Stephen Colbert Interviewed Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean. They discussed the recently held Republican debate, where the crowd infamously applauded torture.”
More on the Greatest Living American Googlebomb
- Stephen Colbert Still Sucks (I wonder if I can rank for that headline.) – Search Engine Roundtable: “In response to the recent “debombing” of Stephen Colbert as the Greatest Living American, Matt Cutts commented that this is not a live algorithm. To quote Matt, “it’s not a manual change; it’s just a fresh push of our Googlebomb data. The algorithm doesn’t run every day.”"
- Search Marketers Convene in Seattle June 4-5 for Inaugural Conference: Search Marketing Expo – SMX Advanced – PR Web: “They’ve known for awhile why Bush is a “miserable failure” in search terms – and why the White House had a hard time removing that stigma. They brought the National Pork Board to its knees when it tried to go after one of their fellow bloggers, and they elevated Stephen Colbert to the status of Greatest Living American – in just four days.”
Let the Eagle Soooooar! …. Wait, what?
- Eagle egg missing at zoo; suspect unknown – Pantagraph.com : Colbert fans are commenting all over the place in the comments – “The odds that a live eaglet will be born at Miller Park Zoo were cut in half Friday when one of two eggs laid by the zoo’s female bald eagle, Beauty, turned up missing. … ”
Wikiality
- Web watch: May 18 – Knox News Sentinal: “What’s on the site: Virtual Wikiality
Bottom line: The truthiness will set you free
What is truth? Is truth universal, something that can be objectively observed by everyone? Or is something true only if people agree that it is true?
You wouldn’t think that such a weighty topic would be one of the major themes of a popular satirical comedy show. But Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” has raised such questions on numerous occasions.
Colbert has often made fun of Wikipedia, the popular Internet encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone. On one episode of his program, Colbert asked viewers to visit the site and change an entry to say that elephant populations had tripled in the last six months. According to Colbert, this is Wikiality, the idea that if enough people agree with a notion, it becomes the truth.
It’s not surprising, then, to find that there’s an entire wiki encyclopedia dedicated to Wikiality. You’ll find it at www.wikiality.com. At Wikiality.com you’ll find thousands of articles that may or may not be factually true. But even if the articles aren’t true, they abound in truthiness.
Here the facts are hilariously what you want them to be. Want the Cubs to win a World Series? Want to win the lottery? It’s already happened, even if it hasn’t.”
Gratuitous Name Dropping
- Heatseeker Review – Vooks.net: Microsoft Wii video game review – “The briefings are so poorly done that they’re hard to take seriously. Your commander is constantly yelling at you, even though you’ve done nothing wrong. He’s also difficult to take seriously because he sounds quite a bit like Stephen Colbert as Phil from Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law.”
- Looking to the future – Corvallis Gazette-Times: Review of band named ‘Eleven Eyes’ – “Stretching from Montana to the Southern tip of California, Eleven Eyes’s nation under a groove might not be as big as Colbert Nation, but if the group decided to take a stab at Korean pop, they could undoubtedly take both Stephen and Rain down with a single glance.”
- Almost done baking, couch potatoes? – Montreal Gazette: “Frankly, it looks like the creators of 24 are just making this stuff up on the fly. Hell, we with the ever-diminishing supply of brain cells made a commitment. We don’t ask for much in the way of “truthiness” (in the words of Stephen Colbert) in plot, but we deserve better than a rehash of the same old same old.”
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