Annoucing the newest site in the NoFactZone.net family, Colbert University!
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Ok, we’ve FINALLY done it! We’ve finally completed the work on Colbert University that we needed to do so that we could officially launch this puppy.
Please read below for all of the scoop on our new site, and if you like the site, please link to us in your blogroll, LJ journal, or web site. Also talk about it on your favorite message boards, e-mail your friends, send smoke signals, do whatever you need to do. I am going to do the best I can to get this word out on the usual haunts, but the more people that can get the word out to their own circle of friends, the better. Thanks so much for all of your link love!
http://colbertuniversity.nofactzone.net
Colbert University is a fan-written homage to the brilliant, creative, and hilarious writing on The Colbert Report. It is a sister site of NoFactZone.net, a Stephen Colbert-centric news blog and reference site founded on July 16, 2006. (For the press release announcing the opening of CU, visit our Press Office.)
The goal of Colbert University is to serve as a permanent, accurate resource for those wishing to know more about the characters, terms, ideas, and world of The Colbert Report, and to inspire thoughtful analysis (as well as riotous enjoyment) of this groundbreaking experiment in interactive television.
Wherever possible, we have used Comedy Central’s video clips to illustrate our courses. Only when clips are unavailable there have we resorted to other sources.
Colbert University is not a money-making enterprise and accepts no advertising (except for the occasional discreet button enabling the purchase of an official Colbert-produced item from an official Colbert-sanctioned source).
Colbert University has as its foundation an encyclopedic “Colbert Report Recurring Elements” page that once existed on Wikipedia. It contained all kinds of information about many of the running gags, catch phrases, quotes, and miscellaneous trivia in the Colbertoverse and was maintained by dedicated members of the Colbert Nation.
One day in the fall of 2006, some Wikinazis (probably still pissed over the Report’s August 2006 Wikiality segment) decided it was in the best interest of Wikipedia to delete the article.
Long story short: Wikipedia is now Dead to Us, and we have used the information formerly housed on the “Recurring Elements” page as the foundation of Colbert University. The already superstantial Wikipedia documents have been expanded and augmented by the Colbert University faculty and co-conspirators.
Colbert University’s motto, Verum adveho ex animus, non ex libri, loosely translated from the Latin, means “Truth comes from the soul (gut), not from books.” The original version was “Truth is more purely apprehended through submission to the soul’s blinding rage to feel than by crafty manipulation of a halved and yellow-coiled slow-seeping mass of copulating worms that only thinks” — but let’s face it, that’s a bit silly.
Colbert University has taken many months to assemble, and is a labor of love by an all-volunteer staff. Despite our sincere efforts, errors, omissions, and broken links may have crept in. Please help us keep our University strong by emailing your corrections, as well as any suggestions or other feedback, to ColbertUniversity (@ at sign) NoFactZone.net. Enjoy!
For Release: July 16, 2007
For more information:
DB Ferguson, db@nofactzone.net
Dallas, TX, July 16: Wondering why Stephen Colbert is afraid of bears? What happened to his original “black friend”? Who the other writers are behind his smash-hit television show The Colbert Report? What he did before the Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart? A new website launching today has all the answers: Colbert University (colbertuniversity.nofactzone.net).
“Colbert University aims to help viewers of the show catch up on what they may have missed, and learn more about Stephen—both the character and the actor who plays him,” says DB Ferguson of Dallas, Texas, the founder of the new site. Ferguson is the creator of No Fact Zone (nofactzone.net), a one-year-old website devoted to reporting breaking news about Colbert and the Report.
The core courses at CU include Introduction to “Stephen Colbert” (the character played by the actor Stephen Colbert on the show), Character Studies, and Essential Terminology. The courses are packed with information as well as abundant links to video clips, news articles, and other sources.
Colbert University’s other offerings include: • A theology course on how Colbert integrates his Catholicism into the Report • The Colbert Codex, an encyclopedia of names, terms, and phrases used on the Report, which also functions as a gateway to the rest of the site • The Audience-Questions Archive, which compiles many of the questions Stephen has been asked in the Q&A sessions he holds with the audience before the taping of each show • A course on Audience Participation and the Colbert Nation, which examines how the Report regularly incorporates audience contributions into the show • Short courses with links to video clips showcasing Colbert dancing, speaking in myriad foreign languages, and committing rare but hilarious character breaks (when he dissolves into laughter)
Students can even take a final exam on the site, which will test their knowledge about the Report and Colbert. Questions include: • What is Stephen’s nickname for Bill O’Reilly? • Where was the “Charlene” music video filmed? • Which college has granted Stephen an honorary doctorate? • When did the Report premiere? • Where was Stephen Jr. born?
The university has a fight song too, Ferguson says. “Robert Schneider and The Apples in Stereo are graciously allowing us to use ‘Stephen, Stephen,’” a song Schneider wrote for Colbert and performed on the Report last December.
In addition to its multidisciplinary curriculum, the university also boasts substantial archives of links to video clips from Colbert’s earlier work, interviews with him, and transcripts of his speeches—including, of course, his legendary address to the White House Correspondents’ Association in the spring of 2006.
CU itself plays with concepts established on the Report, with such elements as the Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA, Video Archive (Colbert’s character loves to name things after himself and flaunt his honorary doctorate of fine arts) and the Stephen & Melinda Gates Research Center (Colbert’s character created the Stephen & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has little evident purpose other than to attract contributions).
The site’s creators considered using the colors of Dartmouth, the alma mater of Colbert’s character, but in the end couldn’t resist the purple and gold of Northwestern University, Colbert’s actual alma mater.
Colbert University will grow and evolve as the Report continues. “Like the Report, the university is a process of discovery,” says Ferguson. “But I think we can already say that we are the #1 Stephen Colbert-related university on the Web.”
Colbert University is a sister site of No Fact Zone (nofactzone.net), the #1 site for news about Stephen Colbert on the Web, founded by Ferguson in July 2006. It is not officially affiliated with Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, Comedy Central, Viacom International, Melinda Gates, any actual university, or bears.
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2 Comments
July 16th, 2007 at 1:49 am
I set my alarm for 4:30 AM just to say CONGRATULATIONS!!! (I am totally kidding, even though I do love you all.) My best wishes on the opening and looking forward to many years of All Things and Every Thing Colbert In One Convenient Spot. :-)
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July 16th, 2007 at 8:39 am
Congratulations on the launch and may Colbert U sail on to become the #1, easiest to use, Colbert resource on the web.
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